. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF COMMODORE BYRON MCCANDLESS v ; Thccaas Lawrenc -ct |.\- ]', .\Vi-.~i. II.A.V'.iijjravcd by G.B. Ellis 1t T.Ke PHILADELPHIA. EUBUSHKD BY- M CARTY K DAVIS. 1832. THE HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN, FROM THE DEATH OF GEORGE H. TO THE CORONATION OF GEORGE IV. DESIGNED AS A CONTINUATION OF HUME AND SMOLLETT. BY J. R. MILLER. PHILADELPHIA : PUBLISHED BY M'CARTY & DAVIS 171 MARKET STREET. STEREOTYPED BY J. HOWE. 18&5. CONTENTS TO MILLER. CHAP. I. GEORGE m. Effects of the late King's partiality to his native Do- minions Circumstances attending the Accession of the new Sovereign His Majesty's first Speech to both houses of Parliament Addresses of the Lords and Commons Supply voted Establishment of the Civil List Sums granted for the Support of the German Confederacy Subsidy to Prussia Vote of Compensation to the Provinces in North America for their strenuous Efforts Ballot for Milivia productive of a dreadful Riot at Hexham Loan of twelve millions Violent outcry against the New Duty on Beer Bad consequences of the opposition to the Compulsive Clause in the new Act of Insolvency King's Speech for making the Judges independent of the demise of the Crown- Ready Concurrence of both Houses in so patriotic a Proposal Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons for thirty-three years, retires Two remarkable points in his Majesty's Farewell Speech to the Parliament Advantageous Position of the French in their Winter Cantonments Prince Fer- dinand's extensive Plan of Attack Fritzlar and several Magazines taken General Sporken's rapid Progress on the side of Saxony First Check in this extraordinary career of Success Steps taken by Marshal Broglio to drive the Allies out of Hesse- Defeat of the Troops under the Hereditary Prince The King's Sentiments on the proper use of Con- quests Page 11 CHAP. II. Circumstances which led to the proposal of a Con- gress at Augsburg Plausible Reasons for previ- ously setting on foot a distinct Negotiation at Lon- don and Paris Mr. Pitt unfavorable to a Peace Secret intrigues of the French Ministry at the Court of Madrid Difficulties about the mutual re- taining of Possessions Survey of hostile opera- tions during the Suspension of the Treaty Expe- dition against Belleisle the Negotiation resumed Remarks on the two main Points of Dispute In- flexibility of the English Secretary Some account of the Family Compact Candid Inquiries on which side the chief blame lay The Treaty finally bro- ken off 18 CHAP. III. Proofs of the King's Exemption from personal or po- litical Prejudices His Majesty's Choice of a Con- sort, the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburgh Em- bassy sent to make the Demand of her most Serene Highness; with an Account of her Voyage Her Journey to London, her Reception and Nuptials- Preparations made for the Coronation of their Ma- jesties Entertainment given to the Royal Family at Guildhall Some rising Clouds in the political Hemisphere The Spanish Ambassador's Explana- tion not deemed satisfactory Orders sent to the Earl of Bristol at Madrid His Excellency's Dis- patches in Reply Warm Debates in the Cabinet on Mr. Pitt's Proposal to attack Spain without farther Delay His Resolution, with the President's An- swer His Interview with the King, on resigning the Seals of his office Lord Temple's Resignation Violent Conflict between the Admirers and the Censurers of Mr. Pitt's Conduct sanctioned by the Abbe Raynal Farther Instructions sent by the new Secretary of State to the British Ambassador at Madrid Steps taken by the Ministry Meeting of the New Parliament His Majesty's Speech Message to the Queen ; and the Dowry granted her in case she should survive his Majesty Repeal of the compelling Clause in the Insolvent Act Alac- rity of the Commons in providing for the service of the ensuing Year Debate on the Expediency of the German War Severe Remarks on the Alli- ances entered into with some of the continental Powers Ingenious Defence set up by the Advo- cates for the German War Result of this political Controversy Effect of the English Ambassador's Remonstrances at the Court of Madrid His Con- jectures on the Causes of a sudden Revolution in the Spanish Councils Propriety of his Conduct in so delicate a Conjuncture A clear and categorical Explanation at length insisted upon General Wall's Letter Manifesto delivered by the Count de Fuentes, and Lord Egremont's Refutation of it 39 CHAP. IV. War declared against Spain Debate in the Lords- Protest on a Motion for withdrawing the Troops from Germany Popularity of this Protest Duty on Beer and Ale causes a Tumult in London Amendments of the Militia Laws An Act for Registering of Parish Children Bill for the Exten- sion of the Duke of Bridgewater's Canals Account of Harrison's time-piece and Irwin's Marine-chair Addition to the former Grants of the Commons His Majesty's Message on the imminent Danger of Portugal The Session closed with a Speech from the Throne Extraordinary Change in the King of Prussia's Situation, occasioned by the Death of the Empress of Russia Steps immedi- ately taken by her Successor, Peter III. Deposition and Death of Peter III. Prudent Policy of the Empress Catherine II. Sketch of the Prussian Operations during the remainder of the Campaign Victory obtained by the Allies at Graebenstein This Action a Prelude to Enterprises in which Gottingen and Cassel were recovered, and the French almost totally driven out of Hesse State of Portugal when threatened by the Bourbon Con- federacyMemorial presented to the Court of Lis- bon by the Ministers of France and Spain Reply, followed by a declaration of War Immediate and effectual Assistance afforded by Great Britain Lord Tyrawley dissatisfied with the Portuguese Ministry, and recalled Plan of the Campaign- Progress of the Spanish Army under the Marquis de Sarria Almeida taken, and a considerable part of the Province of Beira overrun by Spanish Troops Good Consequences of the Count de la Lippe's Arrival in Portugal Surprise of Valencia d' Alcantara by General Burgoyne Another more decisive blow struck by the same General and Colo- nel Lee at Villa Velha The Spaniards forced to retreat to their own Frontiers Triumphs of Great Britain at Sea Descent on the Island of Martinico Surrender of the Island Submission of the Grenades, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and other depend- ent Isles Armament destined against the Havan- nah, its Harbor described Siege of the Moro The Moro stormed and ctrried by assault Opera- tions against the Town, and its Surrender Im- portance of this Conquest Capture of the Her- mipne, a Spanish Register-ship Invasion of the Philippines designed Celerity of the Prepara- tions made for it at Madras Arrival of the Squad- ron at Manilla Tfte Town taken by Storm, but saved from a justly merited Pillage The Galleon from Manilla to Atapulco taken The only excep- tion to the Universal Success of the British Arms, the Failure of a private Expedition against Buenos Ayres Summary of the Disasters sustained by Spain during her short Concern in the War France involved in the like Calamities Attempt to burn the British Squadron in the Bay of Basque Newfoundland taken and retaken A Negotia- tion the only resource of the House of Bourbon 39 CHAP. V. Causes and Effects of the sincere dispositions of all Parties towards Peace Motives of National Policy IV CONTENTS TO MILLER. for encouraging Pacific Proposal* Want of perfect Harmony in tho Cabinet Change* in Administra- tion Duke* of Bedford and NivernoU employed in the Negotiation Difference between thi and the Treaty in 1761 Conduct of the Courts witb Re- spect to their German Allies Change in the Be- havior of the British Ministry towards the King of Prussia justified France guided by the same alter- ation of Circumstances ; and the Peace of Germany restored The Article relating to Portugal very easily settled Circumstance which facilitated the Adjustment of Great Britain's direct Concerns- Extent of her Acquisitions in North America by this treaty Terms annexed to the Surrender of St. Pierre and Miquelon Spain's Renunciation of her Pretensions to the Fishery Arrangement respecting the French West India Islands The Havannab re- stored on very moderate Terms Cession and Ex- change of the other Conquests in Africa, the East Indies, and Europe Sacrifice made by France to the honor of Great Britain, in suppressing the old Claim oo Account of Prizes before the Declaration of War Preliminaries signed by the British and French Ministers at Fontainbleau Disputes con- cerning the articles of the Peace Coalition be- tween the Duke of Newcastle's and Mr. Pitt's Ad- herents Meeting of Parliament Conflict in the House of Commons The Security of our Colonies Majority in Favor of the Address Arrival of three Cherokee Chiefs in England 58 CHAP. VI. Philosophical Survey of Europe at the Close of the War State of Russia Of Denmark Of Sweden The King of Prussia and the Empress Internal Distractiors of France Situation of Spain ; and Security of Great Britain Multiplied Concerns of the English Government Plan of Economy pur- sued by the Ministers Scheme of the Supplies- Proposed Syitem of Finance censured by the Oppo- sitionInstructions and Petitions of the city of London against the Cider Tax Earl of Bute's Resignation His Majesty's Speech at the Close of the Session Some Account of Mr. Wilkes, and of the Libel entitled the "North Briton " Wilkes's Commitment to the Tower Writ of Habeas Corpus for bringing Wilkes before the Court of Common Pleas He is remanded to the Tower His second Speech at the Bar of the Court Mr. Wilkes's Case considered under three heads by Lord Chief-Justice Pratt Commitment not illegal The Specification of Passaget in the Libel not necessary in the War- rant Validity of the Plea of Privilege allowed in Cases of Libels Attempts to bring about a Coali- tion of Parties Promotions occasioned by Lord Ejrremont's Death King's Speech at the Meeting of Parliament Message about Wilkes to the House of Commons The North Briton voted a Libel Wilkes's Complaint of a Breach of Privilege De- bate on the adjourned consideration of his Ma- jesty's Message Pitt's Speech on the Surrender of Privilege Other Arguments in support of Parlia- mentary Privilege The Resolution, "That Privi- lege does not extend to Libels," carried in the Com- mons, and concurred in by the Lords Concurrence of the Lords in other Resolutions of the Lower House concerning tile Libel The Sheriffs obstruct- ed in burning the North Briton Duel between Martin and Wilkes The King's Message on the Marriage of the Princets Augusta to the Hereditary Prince (now Duke) of Brunswick Verdict obtained by Wilkes in the Court of Common Pleas Lord Chief Justice's Opinion on the Illegality of General Warrants Proceedings of the Commons to ascer- tain the State of Wilkes'i Health His Letter from Paris deemed nugatory and he himself found guilty of a Contempt of the Authority of Parlia- mentConvicted of being tie Author of the con- demncd Libel, and expelled His " Essay on Wo- men" laid before the House of Lords, who proceed against him for a Breach of Privilege, while he. is indicted in the Courts below for Blasphemy The Minintry very hard pushed in the Debate on Gene- ral Warrants New Plan of National Supplies- Resolutions concerning the American Trade Bill for restraining Abuses and Frauds in the Practice of Franking Observations on General Conway's 87 CHAP. VII. Inquiry into the Causes of the Renewal of Hostili- ties with the Savage Tribes of America Extent of the Governments of Quebec, of East and West Florida Incitements to War on the Part of the Indians Military operations against the Indians, and Peace with them Impolitic Suppression of the commercial Intercourse between the British and Spanish Plantations, and between the Ameri- can Colonies and the French IslandsColonists refuse Compensation for the Stamp Duties State of the British Logwood-cutters in the Bay of Hon- duras French atone for outrage at Turks Island Progress of American Stamp Act through both Houses Prevention of Smuggling Purchase of the Sovereignty of the Isle of Man A Regency Bill recommended by his Majesty New Adminis- tration formed by the Duke of Cumberland 83 CHAP. VIII. Mir Cossim's Endeavors to shake off the India Com- pany's yoke Military Operations which effected the entire Conquest of Bengal Appointment and departure of a select Committee for Bengal Treaty concluded by Lord Clive with the Nabob of Oude Violent Proceedings against the Stamp Act in North America Debates and Proceedings in Eng- land as to the right of Taxing the Colonies Causes of a sudden Change in the Ministry 92 CHAP. IX. Alarming Scarcity of Provisions Dispute between the Proprietors and the Directors of the East India Company Substance of the King's Speech at the Meeting of Parliament Bill of Indemnity Reduc- tion of the Land-tax carried against the Minister The India Company's Right to Territorial Ac- quisitions debated Proposals of the Company ac- ceptedBill for regulating India Dividends Duties laid on certain Imports from Great Britain tu America ; and measures taken to restrain the tur- bulent Spirit of the Assembly of New- York Some Changes in the Great Offices of the State The Ministry strongly opposed on the Nullum Tempos Bill Corporation of Oxford reprimanded for Venality Popularity in Ireland of the Octennial Bill 105 CHAP. X. General Election View of Wilkes's Conduct and Adventures since his Flight from Justice Violent Opposition to the Port-duties in America Acts of the Convention Debate Wilkes's Petition to the Commons; and bis Appeal to the Lords on a Writ of Error Institution of the Royal Academy De- bate on the American Affairs Civil-List Debt Hearing of Wilkes's alleged Grievances Suc- cessive Expulsions of Mr. Wilkes War with Hyder Ally in the East Indies Non-importation Agreement, and other Proceedings in America Desertions from Ministry Changes that followed Endeavors of the Opposition to aggravate Dis- content London Remonstrance, and his Majesty's Answer Grenville's Bill for regulating the Pro- ceedings on controverted Elections Partial Re- peal of the American Port-duties Affray between the Townsmen of Boston and the Troops 113 CHAP. XI. Another Remonstrance from the City of London ; with the King's Answer, and Beckford's Reply- View of Wilkes's political Career Dispute with Spain relative to Falkland Islands Proceedings of the Commons against Printers ; and Commit- ment of the Lord Mayor, and of Alderman Oliver, to the Tower Bill for disfranchising the Members of the Christian Club at New Sboreham More Remonstrances to the Throne from the City of Lon- don Unsuccessful Attempts to enlarge religious Liberty Act for restraining the future Marriages of the Royal Family Carolina Matilda falls a Victim to the intrigues of the Queen Dowager of Denmark Changes in the British Ministry ^Com- mittee of Secrecy The Embarrassments of the East India Company Charges brought against Lord Clive; bis Acquittal; and Suicide Bill for Management of the East India Company's Affairs CONTENTS TO MILLER. Summary of other proceedings of the Sessions Expedition against the Caribbs in St. Vincent Alarming Events in America Measures adopted by Parliament for maintaining the Authority of Great Britain over the Colonies Proceedings of the General Congress at Philadelphia The Sense of the Nation taken, by dissolving the Parliament at this Juncture Dr. Franklin's Conciliatory Plan Petition of the City of London State of Affairs in America Battle of iiexington Battle of Bun- ker's Hill Meeting and Proceedings of Congress General Washington appointed Commander-in- chief HisCharacter Expedition to Canada Forts taken Quebec besieged General Montgomery de- feated and killed 130 CHAP. XII. Fatal Effects of the War Meeting of Parliament- Defection of the Duke of Grafton and General Con- way from the Ministry Introduction of foreign Troops Prohibitory Bill Changes in the Ministry Affairs of Ireland Debates on foreign Troops Conclusion of the Session Boston Evacuated by the British Siege of Quebec raised Americans defeated on the Lakes Unsuccessful Attempt upon Charlestown Preparations against New- York Declaration of Independence Americans defeated at Long- Island New- York taken Americans re- treat to the Jerseys and over the Delaware Rhode- Island reduced General Lee made Prisoner Hes- sians cut off at Trenton British defeated at Prince- ton 159 CHAP. XIII. State of Great Britain in the Summer of 1776 Meeting of Parliament Debate on the Proclama- tion of the American Commissioners Secession of the Minority Habeas-Corpus Act suspended Fire in Portsmouth Dock- Yard Shameful Profusion of Ministers Debates on the Augmentation of the Civil-List Address of the Speaker, Sir F.Norton, to the King Censured by Ministry Dispute with Holland Campaign in America Action on the Brandywine Philadelphia taken Battle of Ger- man Town American Forts taken Progress of General Burgoyne Ticonderoga evacuated Brit- ish repulsed at Fort Schuyler Defeat of Colonel Baum Actions at Stillwater, &c. Surrender of Burgoyne Conclusion of the Campaign 185 CHAP. XIV. Meeting of the British Parliament Debates on the Address News arrives of Burgoyne's Defeat De- bates on that Subject Lord North's conciliatory Bills Alliance between France and America- Debates on the French War Ways and Means- Address for a War with France Death and Char- acter of Lord Chatham Relief of the Trade of Ireland To the Roman Catholics Toulon squad- ron sails for America Termination of the Session Transactions of the Royal Commissioners in America Arrival of D'Estaing Philadelphia evac- uatedAmbassador from France to America At- tempt on Rhode-Island Expedition against East Florida Savannah taken by the British Naval preparations Engagement between Keppel and D'Orvilliers Trial of Keppel Trial of Sir H. Pal- lier 209 CHAP. XV. Meeting of Parliament Debates on the Manifesto of the Commissioners Affairs of Ireland Votes of Censure moved on Lord Sandwich Return of the Howes Debates thereon Spaniards declare War Regulation of Militia War in East Indies In America Descent on Virginia Capture of Stony Point British Attack South Carolina Re- pulsed at Charlestown Operations of French Fleet Siege of Savannah by the French and Americans Siege raised Capture of the British Settlements on the Coast of Africa by the French 229 CHAP. XVI. Alarm from the appearance of the combined Fleet off the Coast Irish Volunteers Proceedings of the Irish Parliament Depredations of Paul Jones Takes the Serapis Engagement between the Quebec and Surveillante Secret Enmity between the States-General and the English Cabinet Meet- ing of Parliament Debates on the Address De- 1* bates on Irish Affairs On Expenses of the War- Associations and Petitions from York, &c. Mr. Burke's Plan of Economical Regulation Progress of Mr. Burke's Bill Celebrated Vote on the In- fluence of the Crown Riots in London Siege of Gibraltar Admiral Langra defeated by Rodney Charlestown taken Impolitic proceedings of the English in Carolina Americans rally Gates de- featedDistresses of Americans Arrival of Ro- chambeau Defection of General Arnold Andre executed as a Spy 242 CHAP. XVII. Causes which produced a Rupture with Holland- Armed Neutrality Count Byland's Squadron taken Capture of Mr. Laurens Declaration of War- Affairs of East Indies Mr. Cornwall chosen Speak- er Dutch War India Affairs Burke's Reform Bill Petition of Delegates from Counties Bill to re- peal the Marriage Act Motion on American War Session concluded Attack upon Jersey Siege of Gibraltar Capture of St. Eustatia Campaign in America Revolt of Pennsylvania Line Ar- nold's Expedition to Virginia General Greene ap- pointed to the command in Carolina Tarleton de- feated by Morgan Masterly Retreat of the Amer- icans Battle of Guildford Lord Cornwallis pro- ceeds to Virginia Operations in Virginia Cap- ture of Lord Cornwallis Expedition of Commo- dore Jobnstone Operations in the West Indies- Tobago taken St. Eustatia Convoy taken East Indies Hyder Ally defeated Cheyt Sing Engage- ment with the Dutch Combined Fleets in the Channel 269 CHAP. XVIII. Decline of Lord North's influence Session of Parlia- ment King's Speech Motion against offensive War with America Petitions against the War Misconduct of Admiralty General Conway's Mo- tion against the War Dissolution of the Ministry New Ministry Popular Measures Affairs of Ireland Reform Bills Minorca taken French Fleet in the West Indies defeated by Rodney Mis- fortunes of the West India Fleet Bahamas taken by the Spaniards Defeat of Spaniards at Gibraltar New Administration 293 CHAP. XIX. Motives for a general Peace Preliminaries Signed with America With France, Spain, &c. Meeting of Parliament Debates on the Peace Resolutions carried against Ministry Lord Shelburne resigns Coalition Ministry Bill preventing appeals from Ireland India Affairs Pitt's Motion on the Sub- ject of a Parliamentary Reform The Quakers pe- tition the House of Commons against the Slave Trade Fox introduces his India Bill A second Bill for the internal Government of the British Do- minions in India The Bill lost in the House of Peers Contest between the Crown and Commons The Conduct of the High-Bailiff of Westminster in refusing to return Fox brought before the House of Commons Pitt's India Bill The Commutation Tax Bill for the Restoration of the Estates for- feited in Scotland in 1715 and 1745, passed 304 CHAP. XX. Meeting of Parliament Westminster Scrutiny re- sumed by the Commons Parliamentary Reform The Shop Tax The Hawkers' and Pedlars' Tax- both unjust and oppressive The Irish Commercial Propositions passed the Commons carried to the Lords amended by the Lords returned to the Commons finally passed Reflections on the sys- tem of Commercial Intercourse held out by the Irish Propositions Plan of Fortifications submitted to the House of Commons Proposal of a Sinking- Fund Bill passed The Civil-List in Arrears Burke commences his Charges against Warren Hastings Attempt to assassinate the King by Margaret Nicholson Treaty of Commerce with France signed A Convention with Spain respect- ing the British Settlements on the Mosquito Shore, and the Coast of Honduras Consideration of the French Commercial Treaty Embarrassed Circum- stances of the Prince of" Wales Hastings' Im- peachment resumed by the Commons Interference of the Courts of London and Berlin in the Affairs of Holland Meeting of Parliament The East In- i ax repeated I rsi anu v^orporaiioii /\<-is .-\iriran Slave Trade Prorogation of Parliament 318 CONTENTS TO MILLER. CHAP. XXI. Meeting of Parliament Burke's first Philippic against Prance The Sentiment* of Fox and Sheridan nn the same Subject Opposition to the Motion for Repeal of the Test and Corporation Arts A Re- form in Parliament moved by Mr. Flood and with drawn State of Settlements in India Royal Mes ape announces a Rupture with Spain The Dis- pute settled, and a Convention signed War com- menced in India To defray the Expenses of the Spanish Armament the Minister proposes seizing the unclaimed Dividends in the Bank Violently opposed Compromised Question whether Im peachments abate or not by a Dissolution of Par liament Bill in favor of the Catholics passed Bill for settling the Rights of Juries in cases of Libel The Slave Trade The Establishment of the Sierra Leona Company Bill for the better Government of Canada Burke's Invective against the French Revolution Answered by Fox Ter- minates in a Breach of Friendship Rupture with Russia Grounds of the Quarrel The French Rev- olution divides the Nation into Parties Birming- ham thrown into a Ferment by an inflammatory and seditious Hand-bill Dr. Priestley's House, &c. destroyed 336 CHAP. XXII. Meeting of Parliament Flattering Picture of the Finances of the Country Marriage of the Duke of York Motion for Abolition of Slave Trade- Gradual Abolition carried in the House of Com mons Opposed and delayed in the House of Lords Westminster Police Bill passes New Forest Bill, introduced by the Ministry, rejected Mr. Rose, charged with Mai-practices in Office, acquitted Libel Bill passes Bill in favor of the Scottish Episcopalians, passes The London Corresponding Society, and the Society of the Friends of the People, instituted, to obtain a Parliamentary Re- formNotice of a Motion for a Reform in the Re presentation, alarms Ministers Royal Proclama lion against Seditious Writings Statement of the Revenues of India Indian War against Tippoo Sai b Sues for Peace Granted Terms 349 CHAP. XXIII. Dr. Price's Sermon on the Love of our Country, be- fore the Revolution Society Address of Congratu- lation to the National Assembly of France from the Society Burke's celebrated Pamphlet well re- ceived by tbe Tory Faction Answered by Thomas Paine Effects produced hy the publication of the Rights of Man Official Complaint by the French Ambassador The King of the French solicits the friendly Offices of his Britannic Majesty to preserve the Peace of Europe Declined by the British Cabi- net Manifestoes against France Deposition of the King of the Frencli The British Ambassador leaves Paris Multitudes of French Priests arrive in England National Convention of France con- stituted Dr. Priestley and Thomas Paine chosen Members Address of English Society at Paris to the National Convention The Convention pass the famous Decree of Fraternization The English Government offers Assistance to Holland Refused Artifices used to inflame the Passions of the People against the French Proclamations for calling out the Militia, and for assembling Parlia- ment 359 CHAP. XXIV. Meeting of Parliament Fox in opposition to the Address Burke for it Opposition reduced by De- sertion Motions for adjusting Differences with France by Negotiation, and for sending a Minister to Paris The French Ambassador's Memorial on the relative Situation of France and England An- swered by Ixird Orenville Memorial of the Ex- ecutive Council of France Lord Grenville's Reply French Ambaraador ordered to leave the King- dom-Message from his Majesty to the Commons on French Affairs Pitt's Speech on moving the Address Opposed by Lord Wycombe by Whit bread and by Fox The French declare War against England and Holland 367 CHAP. XXV. Motion to ascertain the precise grounds of War- Motion for Peace Barracks Motion for an In quiry respecting Sedition Message on German Auxiliaries Ways and Means Traitorous Corre- spondence Bill The French propose to treat for Peace, but receive no reply Subsidy to Sardinia- Numerous Bankruptcies, and Aid given for relief of Commerce Motions of Censure on Lord Auck land Proceedings of British Parliament Hast ings' Trial Parliament prorogued Proceedings of Irish Parliament Military Transactions on the Continent Capture of Pondicherry and -Tobago Insurrection of the Royalists in Brittany and Poitou The French Convention declares War against Spain Proceedings of tbe two leading Parties in France Death of Marat :W CHAP. XXVI. Reform Societies in Great Britain Edinburgh Con vention Transportation of the Secretary and two Delegates French Affairs Trial and Execution of Queen Marie Antoinette The Port and Fleet of Toulon surrender to the English Evacuation of Toulon French Calendar Extraordinary El' forts to Recruit the French Armies Operations on the Frontiers of France Meeting of Parliament Augmentation .of the Army and Navy Motion against the War Message respecting Democratic Societies, and Suspension of the Habeas-Corpus State Trials Foreign Troops landed in the Isle of Wight Augmentation of the Forces Voluntary Contributions in aid of the War Enlistment of French Emigrants Supply M. la Fayette Sul> sidy to Prns-i ;i Prorogation of Parliament Changes in the Ministry Military Operations on the Continent Corsica annexed to tbe British Crown Lord Howe's Victory Other Naval Achievements Capture of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe Loss of the latter Acquisitions in St. Domingo 3U1 CHAP. XXVII. State of. the French Government Sanguinary Pro ceedings Progress of the French in Holland Es cape or the Stadtholder Embassy to China Swe- den and Denmark Disputes with America Meet ing of Parliament Proceedings Earl Fitzwilliam. Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, recalled, and subse- quent discontents of the Catholics Marriage of the Prince of Wales Arrangement respecting his Debts Acquittal of Warren Hastings Proroga tion of Parliament Naval Affairs Occurrences in the West Indies The French Government con- cludes Peace with Prussia, Spain, Hanover, Hesse, ' Parliament New Election New Military Plan Bill respecting Ireland Reversions Prorogation Expedition against Copenhagen Capture of the Danish Fleet War with Denmark With Russia Restrictions on Commerce Action betveen a British and American frigate Capture f the Danish West India Islands The French enter Portugal The Royal Family embark for Bra'.il Affairs of Spain Buonaparte's efforts to pla-i- his Brother on the throne Expedition to PorUgal Convention ol Cintra Advance of the Britith Forces into Spain, under Sir John Moore His Rtreat Battle of Co- runna, and death of Sir John Moore 524 CHAP XXXVUI. Parliamentary Proceedings Expedition against Den- mark Droits of Admiralty - Enlistment Local Militia Finance Criminal Law Administration of Justice Distilleries Spanish Cause Proroga- tionAustria declares against England Efforts of the Swedes against Russia aid Denmark Affairs of Italy Militia Conventior. of Cintra Charges against the Duke of York Traffic in East India Appointments Corrupt practices respecting seats in Parliament, and Bill for their Prevention- Budget Dutch Commissioneri Rupture between Austria and France Campaign in Germany Over- throw of Auitrians Treaty of Peace Efforts of Tyrolese Annexation of Rome to France Divorce of Buonaparte and Josephine Affairs of Sweden Expedition to Walcheren Attack on a French Fleet French Convoy destroyed Martinique, Cayenne, and Bourbon taken Differences with America Ministerial Disputes and Changes Ju- bilee -Campaign in Spain Battle of Talavera Siege of Cadiz Attempt to rescue Ferdinand- Operations in Portugal 535 CHAP. XXXIX. Parliament convened Inquiry as to Walcheren Ex- pedition Breach of Privilege Sir Francis Bur- di-it's Motion and Conduct thereon, and his com- mittal to the Tower Bullion Question, and other Proceedings Capture of Aroboyna Islands, of Bour- bon, France, Guadaloupe, and Santa Maura Mar- riage of Buonaparte Annexation of Holland to France Other Annexations Burning Decrees of Buonaparte Attempt on Sicily War with Russia Differences with the United States State of Spanish America The King's Mental Malady Regency Opening of Parliament Proceedings as to commercial Distress, and other Affaire Ameri- can Disputes Capture of Java Naval Actions Farther Measures against British Commerce .552 CHAP. XL. Surrender of Tortosa and Olivenca Battles of Ba- roasa and Albuera, and various Operations of the contending Armies Loss of Tarragona and Valen- cia Capture of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz Lord Wellington enters Spain Battle of Salamanca- Capture of Madrid Retreat of Allies to Portu- guese Frontier Parliament assembled The King and the Regent Overtures to Lords Grey and Gren- viUe Assassination of Perceval Ministerial Ne- gotiations Riots in Manufacturing Districts Re- peal of Orders in Council War by Americans Proceedings in Parliament Invasion of Russia by Buonaparte Battles of Siuolensko and Borodino Destruction of Moscow Disastrous retreat of the French Invasion of Canada Actions at Sea Meeting of Parliament Charges against Princess of Wales Appointment of Vice-Chancellor De- claration on the American War Treaty with Sweden Proceedings and Prorogation of Parlia- ment 562 CHAP. XLI. Prussia declares against France Battle of Lutzen Armistice Renewal of Hostilities Austria joins the Grand Alliance Battle before Dresden Battle of Dennevitz Bavaria joins the Allies Rout of Buonaparte at Leipzic Revolution in Holland and Successes in Spain Battle of Vittoria Capture of St. Sebastian Lord Wellington enters France Failure of Sir John Murray before Tarragona- Campaign in America Naval Engagements Meeting of Parliament Proceedings Peace with Denmark Transfer of Norway to Sweden Mural joins the Allies Lord Wellington crosses the Adour Battle of Orthes Soult retreats to Tou- louseThe Allies cross the Rhine, and enter France Treaty of Chaumont Battle of Craone Occu- pation of Paris by Capitulation Abdication of Buonaparte Battle of Toulouse Convention of Paris Entrance of Louis XVIII. Treaty of Peace Royal Visitors to England Restoration of the Pope Return of Ferdinand to Spain South Amer- ican Affairs Parliamentary Proceedings Honors conferred on Duke of Wellington Princess of Wales State of Ireland Treaty with Holland- Congress of Vienna 576 CHAP. XLII. Negotiations with America Campaign in Canada Failure at Plattsburg Expedition to Washington Attacks on Alexandria and Baltimore Naval Actions Failure against New-Orleans Capture of Fort Bowyer Peace with America Capture of President frigate Meeting and Proceedings of Par- liament Return of Buonaparte from Elba, his march to Paris Measures of Allied Powers State of Paris Movements of French and Allied Forces Buonaparte attacks the Prussians Battle of Waterloo Buonaparte's Return to Paris His Ab- dicationAdvance of Allies Capitulation of Paris Return of Louis XVIII. Buonaparte surrenders to the English, is sent to St. Helena Murat at- tempts Naples, and loses his Life Parliament re- assembled Corn Laws, and other Measures Terms imposed upon France Continental Affairs Hostilities in India 593 CHAP. LXIII. Parliament called Holy Alliance Marriage of Prin cess Charlotte to Prince Leopold Distressed State of the Country Riots and Tumults Expedition against Algiers East India Affairs Meeting of Parliament The Prince-Regent attacked by the Populace Message as to Illegal Meetings Relin- quishment of Income by Prince-Regent and Minis tere Meeting in Spa-Fields, and Palace- Yard Commitments to the TbVer Loan of Exchequer- Bills for Public Works Catholic Claims rejected- Lord Sidmouth's Circular Messages from the CONTENTS TO MILLER. IX Prince-RegentDisturbances at Manchester State Trials Death of Princess Charlotte Foreign Af- faireMeeting and Proceedings of Parliament- Royal Marriages Education of the Poor, and Charitable Institutions Army of Occupation with- drawn from France Disturbances at Manchester, fcc. Death of Queen Charlotte 605 CHAP. XLIV. Parliament convoked Royal Speech Criminal Code Measures for return to Cash Payments National Income and Expenditure State of the Nation; Catholic Question Foreign Enlistment Bill, and other Proceedings Emigration to the Cape of Good Hope Radical Reformers Popular Meetings Arrests for Sedition Violent dispersion of a Meet- ing at Manchester Hunt and his Associates found Guilty Earl Fitzwilliam dismissed from Lord- Lieutenancy of the West Riding Address of Cor- poration of London Meeting of Parliament Documents on state of the Country Bill to Pre- vent Traversing of Informations or Indictments Other Restraining Bills Cession of Parga Res- toration of Java Change in the King's Health Death of the Duke of Kent Death of George the Third Concluding Remarks 630 CHAP. I. GEORGE IV. Accession of King George IV. The King's declara- tion to bis Council Proclamation of his Majesty King's Illnrps and Recovery Detailed Ceremo- nial of the late King's lying in State and Royal Funeral Parliament Dissolved by Commission Discovery of Cato-Street Conspiracy Detection, Trial, and Execution of Thistlewood and others Tumultuous Proceedings in the North Attack oil the Soldiery at Bonnymuir Defeat of those con- cerned therein Trial of Disaffected Persons Con- duct of Ministry General Election New Parlia- ment King's first Speech Proceedings in Parlia- ment Lord John Russet's Motion on Elective Fran- chise Allusion to Queen's Arrival Revision and Amendment of Criminal Code -Education of the Poor Stats of Agriculture Afflicting Position of Public Affairs Petition of London Merchants Ways and Means for 1320 Delicate Situation of their Majesties Commission of Inquiry Mr. Brougham's Proposition to Government Proposed Compromise with the Queen Offer of fifty thou- sand pounds a-year to the Queen Queen's Narra- tive Her Majesty's Progress Mission of Lord Hutchinson Sudden Departure of her Majesty from St. Omers Landing of Queen Caroline in Eng- landThe King's Message to Parliament The Queen's Communication to House of Commons Proceedings in the Commons Statement of Min- isters Proceedings in the House of Lords Bill of Pains and Penalties Account of Trial Speeches therein Bill abandoned by Ministers Parliament prorogued State of Continental Affairs 636 CHAP. II. Opening of Parliament His Majesty's Speech De- bates on the Conduct of Ministers relative to the Queen Country Petitions to restore Queen's Name to Liturgy Queen's Message to the House of Com- mons Provision for her Majesty Discussion on the Question of emancipating the Catholics Bill for Relief of Catholics introduced and passed through the House of Commons Rejected in the House of Lords Borough of Gr arn pound disfran- chisedThe Franchise transferred to the County of York Committee to inquire into Cause of Ag- ricultural Distress Report of Committee Bank of England resumption of Cash payments Ways and Means for the current Year Parliament pro- rogued Death of Napoleon, ex-Emperor of France, in Captivity at Saint Helena Situation of the Queen Her Conduct, and Correspondence with Officers of State Coronation of George IV. . . .694 THE HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN, FROM THE DEATH OF GEORGE II. TO THE CORONATION OF GEORGE IV. CHAPTER I. Effects of the late King's partiality to his native Dominions Circumstances attending the Accession of the new Sovereign His Majesty's first Speech to both Houses of Parliament Addresses of the Lords and Commons Supply voted Establishment of the Civil List Sums granted for the Support of the German Confederacy Sub- sidy to Prussia Vota of Compensation to the Provinces in North America for their strenuous Efforts Ballot for Militia productive of a dreadful Riot at Hexham Loan of twelve Millions Violent outcry against the New Duty on Beer Bad Con- sequence of the opposition to the Compulsive Clause in the new Act of Insolvency King's Speech for making the Judges independent of the Demise of the Crown Ready Concurrence of both Houses in so patriotic a Proposal Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons for thirty-three years, retires Two remarkable Points in his Majesty's Farewell Speech to the Parliament Advantageous Position of the French in their Winter Cantonments Prince Ferdinand's extensive Plan of Attack Fritzlar and several Magazines taken General Sporken's rapid Progress on the Side of Saxony First Check in this extraordinary career of Success Steps taken by Marshal Broglio to drive the Allies out of Hesse Defeat of the Troops under the Hereditary Prince The King's Sentiments on the proper Use of Con- quests.* THE LATE KING'S PARTIALITY TO HIS NATIVE DOMINIONS. FEW princes ever died at a moment more favorable to their popularity than George H All the spots and blemishes in his character seemed to vanish in the bkze of glory which had been reflected on it by the late successes of his fleets and armies in every quarter of the globe. But these borrowed splendors could not long conceal the fatal effects of his partiality to his native dominions, a par- tiality, to which not only the blood and trea- sure, but the valor, the virtue and public spirit of the British nation had been repeat- edly sacrificed. The aggrandizement of his darling electorate, and the support of all his schemes for preserving an imaginary balance between the continental powers, whatever might be the expense to England, were the only conditions, on which any ministry could obtain his favor, or secure their own contin- uance in office. As none were admitted into his confidence but on these terms, so none were dismissed but from their inability to fulfil such engagements. Every change of j his servants was therefore a fresh wound in-i flicted on the real interests of his country. The frequent shifting of power through such a variety of hands, and from motives so in- consistent with liberal policy, was productive of another evil: it scattered the seeds of disunion, jealousy, and hatred among all the great families of the kingdom ; and pre- pared for the succeeding prince a series of struggles with the intrigues of party, and the turbulence of domestic factions, a thou- sand times more vexatious than any combi- nation of foreign enemies. ACCESSION OF GEORGE III. THE death of the late king having been notified in form to the heir apparent, who was then at Kew, he immediately repaired to Carleton House, to meet the privy-coun- cil, on the twenty-second of October. As soon as the members had taken the custom- ary oaths of fidelity to their new sovereign, he expressed his deep sense of the loss sus- tained by the nation, and of his own insuf- ficiency to support, as he wished, the load which fell upon him at so critical and unex- pected a juncture : " But," said he, " ani- mated by the tenderest affection for my na- tive country, and depending upon the advice, experience, and abilities of your lordships, on the support of every honest man, I enter with cheerfulness into this arduous situation, and shall make it the business of my life to promote in everything the glory and happi- ness of these kingdoms, to preserve and strengthen the constitution in both church 12 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. and state ; and, as I mount the throne in the midst of an expensive, but just and necessa- ry war, I shall endeavor to prosecute it in the manner the most likely to bring on an honorable and lasting peace, in concert with my allies." This declaration was ordered to be made public, at the request of all the members present They also witnessed two instruments of an oath relating to the secu- rity of the church of Scotland, which was taken and subscribed by his majesty on this occasion, as the law required. Next morning his majesty was proclaimed with the usual solemnities ; and, the follow- ing day, having added the duke of York, and the earl of Bute, to his privy-council, he ordered the parliament to be prorogued to the eighteenth of November. During this interval, the chief objects that engaged the public attention were the equipment of a large squadron of men-of-war and trans- ports at Portsmouth, with the embarkation of a formidable train of artillery, all an- nouncing some important enterprise; and the preparations making for the funeral ob- sequies of the late king, which were per- formed on the ninth, tenth, and eleventh of November with becoming magnificence. The testimonies of joy for the accession of his grandson, in which all ranks of men vied with each other, certainly expressed the sen- timents of their hearts. The great body of the people could not but be delighted to see the throne at length filled by a prince who was born and bred among them ; who was acquainted with their language and manners, with their laws and constitution ; whose pre- judices, if he had any, must be in favor of his native land, and must of course exclude all idea of that fatal predilection for Germa- ny, which, in the two preceding reigns, had proved so injurious to the peace and pros- perity of Britain. HIS MAJESTY'S FIRST SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, On the day, to which the meeting of par- liament had been prorogued, the king went to the house of peers and opened the sessions with a speech, in which, besides the obvious and usual topics, his majesty thus expressed his personal sentiments at his accession, and announced the principles of his future gov- ernment " Born and educated in this country, I glyry in the name of Briton ; and the pecu- ar happiness of my life will ever consist in promoting the welfare of a people, whose loyalty and warm affection to me, I consider as the greatest and most permanent security of my throne ; and I doubt not, but their steadiness in those principles will equal the firmness of my invariable resolution to ad- here to, and strengthen this excellent con- stitution in church and state ; and to main- tain the toleration inviolable. The civil and religious rights of my loving subjects are equally dear to me with the most valuable prerogatives of my crown ; and, as the surest foundation of the whole, and the best means to draw down the divine favor on my reign, it is my fixed purpose to countenance and encourage the practice of true religion and virtue. " Happier still should I have been, had I found my kingdoms, whose true interest I have entirely at heart, in full peace : but since the ambition, injurious encroachments, and dangerous designs of my enemies, ren- dered the war both just and necessary, and the generous overture, made last winter, to- wards a congress for a pacification has not yet produced any suitable return, I am de- termined, with your cheerful and powerful assistance, to prosecute this war with vigor, in order to that desirable object, a safe and honorable peace. For this purpose, it is ab- solutely incumbent upon us to be early pre- pared ; and I rely upon your zeal and hearty concurrence to support the king of Prussia, and the rest of my allies, and to make am- ple provision for carrying on the war, as the only means to bring our enemies to equita- ble terms of accommodation." This speech, which his majesty delivered with energy, grace and dignity, could not fail of confirming all the former preposses- sions of the people in his favor. Every noble, patriotic, and endearing sentiment, that it contained, produced a corresponding emotion in the breasts of his hearers ; and the moment it was published, the whole na- tion read it with eagerness and rapture. The addresses of the lords and commons were dictated by the same spirit, and were most heartily concurred in by every true lover of his country, by every man of sense and virtue in the kingdom. ADDRESS OF THE LORDS AND COMMONS. As soon as the king retired, after the de- livery of a speech so well calculated to give general satisfaction, the members of both houses proceeded to take the oaths and to comply with the forms prescribed by law at the first session of a new reign. The speech being then reported to the lords by the keep- er of the great seal, and to the commons by their speaker, addresses were drawn up and unanimously agreed to, breathing, as before intimated, the warmest spirit of duty and affection ; and replete with unequivocal tes- timonies of the most hearty concurrence in all his majesty's sentiments and wishes. " Animated by that duty," said the lords, " which we owe to your majesty, and by our /.eal for the honor and interest of these king- doms, we give your majesty the strongest assurances, that we will cheerfully support you in prosecuting the war ; assist the king GEORGE III. 17601820. 13 of Prussia, and the rest of your allies ; and heartily concur in all such measures as shall be necessary for the defence of your majes- ty and your dominions, and for the other na- tional and important ends which you have so fully laid before us." The members of the lower house were still more explicit on the subject of effectual support. '" We as- sure your majesty," said they, " that your faithful commons, thoroughly sensible of this important crisis, and desirous, with the di- vine assistance, to render your majesty's reign successful and glorious in war, happy and honorable in peace (the natural return of a grateful people to a gracious and affec- tionate sovereign) will concur in such mea- sures as shall be requisite for the vigorous and effectual prosecution of the war ; and that we will cheerfully and speedily grant such supplies as shall be found necessary for that purpose, and for the support of the king of Prussia, and the rest of your majesty's allies ; and that we will make such an ade- quate provision for your majesty's civil gov- ernment, as may be sufficient to maintain the honor and dignity of your crown with all proper and becoming lustre." SUPPLY VOTED. SUCH manifestations of love and attach- ment were answered by the king in terms of the liveliest sensibility ; and his reply to the commons in particular made such an im- pression on them, that, suspending the usual orders and regulations at the beginning of every session, they agreed to a second ad- dress of thanks for the gracious manner in which the first had been received. The best proofs of their sincerity were the libe- rality and dispatch with which they pro- vided for all the possible exigencies of the state. The commons, in a committee of sup- ply, voted for the services of the ensuing year, nineteen millions, six hundred and six- teen thousand one hundred and nineteen pounds, nineteen shillings and nine-pence three farthings. A detail of all the different purposes, for which the several sums were specifically granted, would be tedious. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CIVIL LIST. ON the twenty-fifth of November, the chancellor of the exchequer, by his majesty's command, acquainted the house, " that his majesty, ever desirous of giving the most substantial proofs of his tender regard to the welfare of his people, was pleased to signify his consent, that whenever the house should enter upon the consideration of making pro- vision for the support of his household, and the honor and dignity of his crown, such disposition might be made of his majesty's interest in the hereditary revenues of the crown, as might best conduce to the utility and satisfaction of the public." In conse- quence of this message the house came to a VOL. IV. 2 resolution on the next day, that the said hereditary revenues be carried to, and made part of the aggregate fund; and that, in lieu thereof, there should be granted to his ma- jesty such a revenue as should amount to the clear yearly sum of eight hundred thousand pounds, to commence from the demise of his late majesty, and to be charged upon, and made payable out of the said aggregate fund. This resolution, or bargain, was equally beneficial to the crown and satisfactory to the public ; for though the funds appropriat- ed to the payment of the civil list revenue, which had been settled on the two preceding sovereigns, ought to have produced a great deal more than eight hundred thousand pounds a-year, yet it appeared by the ac- counts laid before the house, that the re- ceipts of his late majesty, during the thirty- three years of his reign, had constantly fallen short of that sum (1). The burthen, there- fore, lay heavy on the subject, while the pro- posed supplies were in reality withheld, or diminished by the frauds of the collectors. But by the above plan the income of the crown became certain ; and the former reve- nues being all carried to the aggregate fund, the people were relieved from the most grievous of all taxes, that of embezzlement. SUPPLIES GRANTED FOR THE GERMAN CONFEDERACY. AFTER providing by various grants for the maintenance of the British forces and seamen employed at home and abroad, the commons proceeded, according to their promise, to enable his majesty to give the most effectual support to his German allies, by voting various sums for defraying the charges of the troops of Hanover, Wolfen- buttle, Saxe-Gotha, and count of Bucke- burgh, actually employed against the com- mon enemy, in concert with the king of Prussia, for one year, to be issued in advance every two months ; the troops to be mustered by an English commissary, and the effective state thereof to be ascertained by the signa- ture of the commander-in-chief of the said forces ; and for defraying the charge of the troops of the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel in the pay of Great Britain, for one year ; in- cluding the annual subsidy, pursuant to treaty ; and for defraying the charge of the troops of the reigning duke of Brunswick in the pay of Great Britain, for the service of the next campaign, together with the annual subsidy, pursuant to treaty; and for the charge of five battalions serving with his majesty's army in Germany, with a corps of artillery ; also one million, upon account, to- wards defraying the charges of forage, bread- wagons, train of artillery, provisions, wood, straw, and other extraordinary expenses and contingencies of his majesty's combined army, under the command of prince Ferdi- 14 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. nand. If to these sums we add the king of Prussia's annual subsidy of six hundred and seventy thousand pounds; and two millions, upon a very moderate calculation, for keep- ing up an army of five and twenty thousand British troops in Westphalia, including the transport service, and other incidental charges, with various deficiencies and extra- ordinary expenses which the commons were afterwards obliged to make good ; we shall find that the generosity of Great Britain to her continental allies cost her at least five millions annually. No part of this contribution was voted with more cheerfulness than the subsidy to Prussia. The news of the battle of Torgau had reached England just before the meet- ing of parliament; and the circumstantial account and confirmation of that splendid victory, with which baron Coceii, the king of Prussia's aid-de-camp, arrived a few days after, did not fail to operate very powerfully in his master's favor. He was received by his majesty at St James's in a most gra- cious manner. This single blow counter- balanced all the losses he had sustained during the campaign: it made him master of all Saxony except Dresden. Laudohn abruptly raised the siege of Cossel, and evacuated Silesia; the Russians abandoned the siege of Colberg, and fell back into Po- land, while the Swedes were driven with great loss out of Western Pomerania. The annual treaty or convention between the courts of Great Britain and of Prussia was renewed on the twelfth of December ; and on the twenty-third of the same month the commons agreed to the resolution of the committee of supply, to enable his majesty to make good his engagements with the king of Prussia. The popularity of these pro- ceedings, however, did not shield them from the censure of. some very able political wri- ters at that time. COMPENSATION TO NORTH AMERICANS. 1761. THE grant of three hundred thou- sand pounds, voted by the commons on the twentieth of January, to enable hia majesty to give a proper compensation to the respec- tive provinces in North America for the ex- penses incurred by them in the levying, clothing, and pay of their troops, though not more popular than the king of Prussia's subsidy, was certainly more unexceptiona- ble. The states had acted with the utmost vigor and dispatch in the raising and equip- ment of those troops ; and the troops them- selves, particularly the Virginians, had dis- played uncommon firmness and courage in several perilous situations ; and had, upon every occasion that offered, co-operated with the forces of the mother country, in the most hearty and effectual manner. BALLOT FOR MILITIA PRODUCTIVE OF A RIOT AT HEXHAM. THE militia in the northern counties had already served the term of three years, prescribed by law: it become requisite to ballot for a succession of men ; and the de- puty-lieutenant and justices of the peace for the county of Northumberland accord- ingly met at Hexham on the ninth of March for that purpose. The common people be- ing determined to oppose the measure, which they looked upon as an insupportable grievance, assembled to the number of five thousand, of both sexes, and of all ages, some of them armed with bludgeons, and others with pikes and firelocks. The jus- tices had procured a battalion of the York- shire militia for their guard, and these were drawn up in the market-place. The mob, being reinforced by a large body of pitmen from the collieries, ridiculed the menace, assaulted the troop, and shot an ensign dead, and two of the private men. The militia, thus exasperated, poured in upon them a regular discharge, by which forty-five of the populace were killed upon the spot, and three hundred miserably wounded. One of the ringleaders was taken up, tried, and execut- ed for an example. One of the articles, fixed upon by the committee of ways and means for raising the before mentioned supplies, seemed to threaten a more dangerous commotion in the capital than that which the renewal of the militia had excited in a different county. LOAN pF TWELVE MILLIONS. THE principal expedient was a loan of twelve millions, the interest of which was to be paid by an additional duty of three shillings per barrel on all strong beer, or ale, the sinking fund being a collateral security. This tax, in addition to the former duties of excise on beer, excited a great outcry among the lower classes of people. NEW ACT OF INSOLVENCY. PETITIONS in favor of confined debtors had of late been presented to the house with the fullest confidence in its kind and com- passionate regard. The hopes of the appli- cants were greatly encouraged by the ac- cession and character of the new sovereign. They had also, at this juncture, other strong claims to the consideration of the legisla- ture : all the prisons in the kingdom were crowded, and many thousands of valuable subjects lost to society, at a time when the people were thinned by a consuming war, and when several manufactures were stand- ing still or totally abandoned for want of workmen. The commons were not inatten- tive to remonstrances so well supported by humanity and policy. A bill was brought in, and soon passed into an act for the re- GEORGE III. 17601820. 15 lief of such unfortunate captives, and con- taining a clause framed with a view to per- petual, but well-regulated indulgence. By it, any creditor might compel a prisoner, charg- ed in execution, to appear at the quarter ses- sions with the copy of his detainer, and to de- liver, upon oath, a just schedule of his estate. After producing and subscribing the schedule, he was to be discharged ; but, if he refused to do so, or concealed to the value of twenty pounds, he was to suffer as a felon. This clause seemed likely to be productive of the best effects : it was designed to operate as a penal check on persons of a different de- scription, who might be inclined to continue in prison and to spend their substance there, rather than give up their property for the satisfaction of their creditors. But the laud- able intentions of the legislature were de- feated, and its clemency abused by fraud and collusion. Great numbers of people in all stations of life seized this opportunity of disencumbering themselves of then* debts. The alarm, in consequence, was so great, and personal credit received such a shock, that the common council of London instruct- ed their representatives in the new parlia- ment to use their best endeavors to procure the repeal of the compulsive clause, as a manifest grievance to the public. INDEPENDENCY OF THE JUDGES. IN the beginning of March the king pro- posed a step for securing the independency of the judges, which was justly admired as an eminent proof of his majesty's candor, moderation, and public spirit Having gone to the house of lords to give his assent to some bills then ready, he commanded the at- tendance of the commons, and explained his purpose in the following manner : " My Lords and Gentlemen, " Upon granting new commissions to the judges, the present state of their offices fell naturally under consideration. " In consequence of the act passed in the reign of my late glorious predecessor king William III. for settling the succession of the crown in my family, their commissions have been made during their good behavior ; but, notwithstanding that wise provision, their offices have determined upon the de- mise of the crown, or at the expiration of six months afterwards, in every instance of that nature which has happened. " I look upon the independency and up- rightness of the judges of the land, as essen- tial to the impartial administration of jus- tice; as one of the best securities to the rights and liberties of my loving subjects ; and as most conducive to the honor of the crown : and I come now to recommend this interesting object to the consideration of parliament, in order that such farther pro- vision may be made for securing the judges in the enjoyment of their offices, during their good behavior, notwithstanding any such demise, as shall be most expedient " Gentlemen of the House of Commons, " I must desire of you, in particular, that I may be enabled to grant, and establish upon the judges such salaries as I shall think proper, so as to be absolutely secured to them, during the continuance of their com- missions." This speech was received with the ap- plause due to such a declaration. The com- mons, to whom he had more particularly ad- dressed himself on the occasion, acknow- ledged their most grateful sense of his ma- jesty's attention to an object so interesting to his people : they assured him, that his faithful commons saw with joy and venera- tion the warm regard and concern, which animated his royal breast, for the security of the religion, laws, liberties, and properties of his subjects ; that the house would imme- diately proceed upon the important work, recommended by his majesty with such ten- der care of his people ; and would enable him to establish the salaries of the judges in such a permanent manner, that they might be enjoyed during the continuance of their commissions. These assurances were converted into so many resolutions of the house on the fifth of March, and became the kisis of a law, by which the independency of the bench was better secured. THE SPEAKER RETIRES. THE commons concluded their proceed- ings with some very flattering testimonies of their regard for Mr. Onslow, the speaker, who had signified his intention to resign the chair, which he had filled during the course of above thirty-three years, in five successive parliaments. The king closed the scene on the nine- teenth of March with a speech to both houses in which his majesty touched upon the fur- ther progress of the war in Germany, where, as his majesty observed, the superior ability and indefatigable activity of prince Ferdi- nand, and the spirit and ardor of the other officers and troops, had been surprisingly ex- erted, notwithstanding all the difficulties arising from the season. ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION OF THE FRENCH. AT the close of the last campaign, the French continued masters of the whole ter- ritory of Hesse, where they had amassed large stores, and strengthened all the tena- ble places with additional works. On their left, they had driven the allies from the lower Rhine, and kept so considerable a body of troops there as to check any hostile effort in that quarter. On their right, hav- ing forced prince Ferdinand to raise the siege of Gottingen, they remained in quiet 16 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. possession of that important fortress, while the electorate of Hanover lay quite open to their enterprises. Thus their cantonments presented the appearance of an immense crescent, the two advanced points of which were at Gottingen and Wesel, and the body extended in Hesse : so that being perfectly well provided with magazines, and unob- structed in all their communications neces- sary for their current subsistence, with strong places in their rear, and in both their flanks, they seemed to have nothing more to do, next campaign, than to advance their several posts in a manner to inclose the allied army, which, without some signal success, would find itself absolutely incapa- ble of making any stand against them. PRINCE FERDINAND'S PLAN OF ATTACK. PRINCE FERDINAND was sensible of the inconveniencies of his own situation, and of the advantages the enemy had over him. He therefore resolved to strike the first blow ; and having, on the ninth of February, as- sembled his forces at three different places of rendezvous with all possible secrecy, he communicated his designs to his generals next day, and immediately began to carry them into execution. The centre of the army was led on by his serene highness in person : it marched directly into Hesse, and made its way to- wards Cassel. The right and left wings, or rather detachments, were each at a consid- erable distance from the main body, but so disposed that their separate effects might fully concur in the general plan of opera- tions. The hereditary prince commanded on the right; he pushed forward with the utmost expedition into the heart of the French quarters, leaving the country of Hesse a little to the east General Sporken, at the head of the third division of the forces on the left, had orders to penetrate into Thuringia, and to endeavor, by a rapid and judicious movement, to break the commu- nication of the French and Imperialists, to open one for the allies with the Prussians, and to cut off all intercourse between the grand army of the enemy and their garrison at Gottingen. FRITZLAR AND SEVERAL MAGAZINES TAKEN. BY this sudden, extensive, and vigorous attack, the French wore thrown into the ut- most consternation. They retreated, or ra- ther fled on every side. But, happily for them, they had very sufficient means of securing their retreat, and such a number of garrisons as the allies could not leave be- hind them in their career, without being ex- posed to the most imminent danger. Fritz- Jar was the first place, on which the hered- itary prince made an attack, with only a few battalions and musketry, having been informed that he might easily surprise it But he was deceived in his intelligence : he found the garrison prepared and resolute: after an assault, therefore, conducted with his usual spirit, he was obliged to draw off with no inconsiderable loss. Cannon and mortars, which the hereditary prince had before neglected, were brought before Fritz- lar, and soon obliged it to surrender. A large magazine was found there. Some forts and castles in the neighborhood were also reduced by the marquis of Granby. The victorious troops then continued their progress, and as they advanced, the French gradually retired, abandoning post after post, till they were nearly driven to the banks of the Maine. In their retreat, they set fire to their magazines ; but the allies pursu- ed with so much rapidity, that they saved five capital stores, one of which contained eighty thousand sacks of meal, fifty thousand sacks of oats, and a million rations of hay, a very small part of which had been de- stroyed. These acquisitions were of the utmost advantage : as it was almost impossi- ble that the troops could otherwise have been supplied with subsistence, and the horse with provender, in such a season, and at so great a distance from their original quarters. Notwithstanding the success of the allies in front, it was not there the grand object of their operations lay. Cassel, Gottingen, Marpurg, Ziegenhayn, and several smaller posts were still unreduced at their backs, and might cut off their retreat, in case of any reverse of fortune. As soon therefore as the army, under the command of marshal Broglio, had been driven quite out of Hesse, and had retreated towards Frankfort on the Maine, prince Ferdinand ceased to advance, and made the best dispositions for the ac- complishment of the other objects. The marquis of Granby, with a large body of troops, was ordered to Marpurg, which the French abandoned at his approach. An- other detachment was sent off to the block- ade of Ziegenhayn : but this fortress held out with great obstinacy. The siege of Cassel was committed to the count of Lippe Schamburgh, a sovereign prince of the em- pire, who was reputed to be one of the ablest engineers in Europe, and whose for- mer management of the artillery at Thorn- hausen had been a principal cause in the acquisition of that great victory. Prince Ferdinand himself formed the part of the army which remained with him, into a chain of cantonments, so as to watch all the steps of marshal Broglio's army, and to cover the progress of the before mentioned operations. The siege of Cassel in particular attracted his notice, and required his utmost vigilance. Trenches were opened on the first of March ; GEORGE HI. 1760. 1820. 17 and every effort of vigor and judgment called forth in an enterprise, on the success of which the whole fortune of the campaign depended. VICISSITUDES OF THE CAMPAIGN. IN the mean time, general Sporken and the troops under his command, who had taken their route to the left, on the side of Saxony, advanced with an intrepidity equal to the rest of the allied forces. Having been joined by a corps of Prussians, they attacked the Saxons in one of their strongest posts on the Unstrut, and totally defeated them. A great number were killed in the action: five entire battalions were made prisoners, and several pieces of cannon were taken, besides a large magazine, which the routed enemy had not time to destroy. This blow was well followed : one body of the combined army pushed on to Eisemach and Gotha, whilst another by forced marches got forward to Fulda : the French gave way on their right, and the army of the empire on the left, abandoning a very large tract of country to their pursuers. Such was the flattering posture of affairs, as detailed in the last advices from Germa- ny, when the king was about to put an end to the sessions of parliament It was there- fore very natural for him to speak of it to both houses with some degree of exultation. But this extraordinary course of prosperity was not of long continuance. The allies were obliged to undertake too many enter- prises at the same time, and these too ardu- ous for the number of which their army consisted. In proportion as general Spor- ken's victorious troops were carried forward by their activity and success, they left the countries on their rear more and more ex- posed to the powerful garrison of Gottingen. The count de Vaux, who commanded there, no sooner perceived that the allies were wholly intent upon pushing the advantages they had acquired, than he marched out with a strong detachment; attacked and routed a Hanoverian convoy ; fell upon the town of Duderstadt with great violence ; and after some checks, made himself master of that post and of the most considerable places near it. He thus prevented genera] Sporken's corps from returning by the way they had advanced, and even put it out of their power to act separately from their main army, to which their junction soon after became necessary on another account. Marshal Broglio, toward the close of the last campaign, had been obliged, by the bold projects of the hereditary prince, to detach from his army in Hesse a large body to the lower Rhine. He now found it equally proper to recall this body, together with further reinforcements, in order to maintain his ground in the country northward of the Maine, where he was closely pressed by the allies, and which he must be compelled shamefully to relinquish, if Cassel was not relieved in time. DEFEAT OF THE HEREDITARY PRINCE. HE advanced without delay. The troops under the hereditary prince were, from their situation, exposed to the first attack. This was made by the dragoons of the enemy, whose charge was so impetuous as instantly to break the whole foot, consisting of nine regiments, Hanoverians, Hessians, and Brunswickers. Two thousand prisoners, and several trophies of victory fell into the hands of the French ; though very few were killed or wounded on either side. The blow was decisive. The allies could no longer think of maintaining their ground. They broke up the blockade of Ziegenhayn : raised the siege of Cassel, after twenty-seven days open trenches; and evacuated the whole country of Hesse, retiring behind the Dy- mel, and falling back nearly to the quarters they possessed before this undertaking. But, notwithstanding the faLUire of their expedi- tion in other respects, they accomplished one very great and important purpose in the destruction or seizure of so many of the principal magazines of the enemy. Such stores could not be quickly replaced ; and the French, for want of them, were disabled from taking the field till the end of June. PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED. As it was in the moment of the most as- tonishing success that the king took notice of the operations of the allied army, he showed great wisdom and temper in adding, " that the only use he proposed to make of such victories, and of the important acquisi- tions gained in various parts of the world, was to secure and promote the welfare of his kingdoms, and to procure to them the blessings of peace on safe and honorable conditions." With such sentiments, the king took his farewell of the parliament, which was im- mediately dissolved ; and writs were issued for the election of new membere. 1 The civil list revenues for those thirty-three years, and the sums granted at different times to NOTE TO CHAPTER I. make good deficiencies, amount- ed only to 26,182,98U which was 217,019?. short of the ex- pected contribution. 18 HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER II. Circumstances which led to the Proposed of a Congress at Augsburg Plausible Rea- sons for previously setting on foot a distinct Negotiation at London and Paris Mr. Pitt unfavorable to a Peace Secret intrigues of the French Ministry at the Court of Madrid Difficulties about the mutual retaining of Possessions Survey of hostile operations during the Suspension of the Treaty Expedition against Belleisle The Negotiation resumed Remarks on the two main Points of Dispute Inflexibility of the English Secretary Some Account of the Family Compact Candid Inquiries on which side the chief blame lay The Treaty finally broken off. PROPOSAL OF A CONGRESS AT AUGS- BURG. THE liberal supplies granted by parliament for the ensuing campaign on the continent, and for the vigorous prosecution of the war in general, astonished all Europe, and made the courts of Vienna and Versailles sensible of the necessity of proposing terms of peace. They had slighted some overtures made by the kings of England and Prussia in the close of the year 1759 ; but the posture of affairs at that time rendered it very evident that those offers were dictated by a wish to keep up the show of moderation in the height of prosperity, and to reconcile the subjects of the former sovereign to what must then appear a necessary continuance of the war, rather than by a hope that the adverse par- ties would pay any serious regard to such proposals. As the advantages were almost wholly on the side of Great Britain, France could not then expect very favorable terms for herself or her allies. She therefore looked forward to the issue of another cam- paign in Germany, to counterbalance her losses elsewhere, and to place her, at least, on a footing of honorable equality. In this, however, she met with some disappointment The success of the war proved so fluctuating, even where all her hopes lay, and where her utmost strength was exerted, that she at length began to relent, and apparently to desire peace in earnest The other members of the grand alliance could not decently, or safely oppose these dispositions on the part of France, as she was not only the prime mover, but the chief supporter of their hos- tile confederacy. The court of Sweden, in particular, was given to understand, that the diminished resources of France put it out of her power to furnish any longer the stipulat- ed subsidies, or to comply with the exact letter of her engagements. In consequence of these, and other hints on the uncertainty of being at any future period in a better con- dition to treat than at present, the five par- ties to the war on that side made as many pacific declarations, which were signed at Paris on the twenty-sixth of March, and de- livered at London on the thirty-first of the same month. The counter-declaration of Great Britain and Prussia, expressing their cheerful acceptance of the offer, appeared on the third of April ; and Augsburg, an independent city in the circle of Suabia, was fixed upon as the most convenient place for the proposed congress. Lord Egremont, lord Stormont, at that time ambassador in Poland, and general Yorke, who acted in the same capacity at the Hague, were nominated as the English plenipotentiaries : the count de Choiseul was appointed on the part of France. Augsburg now became the centre of attention to all Europe ; and each court prepared everything towards this important meeting which it could furnish of splendor for the display of its dignity, and of ability for the support of its interest The thoughts and conversation of men were for a while diverted from scenes of horror, bloodshed, and pillage ; and every mind was more agree- ably employed on the public shows of mag- nificence, and the private game of policy, in which so many contending powers were brought into the closest and most eager com- petition. REASON FOR A NEGOTIATION. IN order to lessen the intricacy of their future proceedings, it was unanimously agreed, in the first place, that none should be admitted to the congress but the parties principally concerned, and their allies. But although this exclusion of the neutral states tended greatly to disembarrass and simplify the treaty, yet such was the variety of sepa- rate and independent matters which still re- mained to be discussed, that it became ad- visable to make a farther separation, with a view to an easier and more speedy adjust- ment of their respective concerns. For this purpose it was necessary to reduce the causes of the different quarrels in so compli- cated a war to their first principles; and to disengage the several interests which origin- ally, and in their own nature, had no con- nexion, from that mass, in which mutual in- juries and a common animosity had blended and confounded them. The court of France GEORGE IIL 17601820. 19 therefore proposed to settle the American dispute by a distinct negotiation at London and Paris, previously to the discussion of the German affairs at Augsburg. Nothing could afford a stronger proof of the sincerity of her intentions ; for it was very certain that, if matters could be satisfactorily accommodated between her and Great Britain, and if they both should carry to the general congress the same candor and good faith, their influ- ence must necessarily tend to inspire senti- ments of moderation into the rest, and must contribute largely to accelerate the great work of pacification. MR. PITT UNFAVORABLE TO A PEACE. MINISTERS were mutually sent from both courts : Mr. Stanley on the part of England ; and Mr. Bussy on that of France. The for- mer embarked for Calais on the twenty- fourth of May; and the latter arrived in London on the thirty-first of the same month. But unfortunately the plan and disposition of the treaty were much more easily adjusted than the matter and the substance of it ; and it is also very probable that the secret in- trigues, or private views of both parties, did not perfectly correspond with their public professions. Mr. Pitt, one of the British secretaries of state, whose talents and popularity had en- abled him, for the last three years, to give the law in the council, felt that his influence there was likely to expire with the war. Notwithstanding the greatness of his mind, and the dignity of his sentiments in many other respects, he was too much actuated by contempt and hatred of the French. But, as he could not absolutely reject their fair pro- posal of a treaty, his aim was to obstruct its progress, and to renew the quarrel on such grounds as might flatter the pride of his countrymen, and reconcile them to the prose- cution of expensive measures, against which they now began to revolt The posture of affairs was singularly favorable to his wishes. England had been everywhere victorious, except in Germany ; and he knew that the people, elated by a series of conquests, would not approve of much condescension to an enemy, whom they detested, and whom they considered as lying at then- mercy. But it was evident that, without a sacrifice of some of the objects on which they had set their hearts, it would be impossible to procure any satisfactory terms for their allies, whose af- fairs were only not ruined in the struggle, and who had on that account a stronger claim to the generous attachment of Great Britain. Here, therefore, Mr. Pitt foresaw that he could fix the bar of honor, which was to impede and finally break off the treaty, if no other pretence occurred in the course of the negotiation. DUPLICITY OF THE FRENCH MINISTRY. FRANCE, on her part, was equally sensible, that she could not expect a peace, without some mortifying concessions. The moment her particular concerns came to be separated from the general cause, she had every dis- advantage in the treaty, because she had suffered almost every disaster in the war. The landgraviate of Hesse, the county of Hannau, and the town of Gottingen, were the only acquisitions which she had to bal- lance her immense losses throughout the rest of the globe. She had reason to sup- pose, that the Spaniards could not behold with indifference the principal branch of the house of Bourbon humbled and stripped of its American possessions ; because such an event would in a manner leave their own colonies at the mercy of England. The late king of Spain, Ferdinand VI. had, indeed, refused to interfere in those disputes; but his successor, Charles ILL was more likely to take the alarm at the farther progress of the English ; and it was also probable, that every sacrifice or cession of American ter- ritory, which might be exacted from France in the course of the treaty, would prove a fresh incentive to the suspicions and jealous- ies of the Spanish monarch. Thus the cabi- net of Versailles had a double game to play, in supporting at London the appearance of the most earnest desire of peace, and exert- ing at Madrid all the secret springs of po- litical intrigue to continue and spread still wider the calamities of war. DIFFICULTIES' ABOUT THE RETAINING OF POSSESSIONS. SUCH was the mixture of hostile and pa- cific sentiments, of seeming candor and dark design, with which both parties entered upon the negotiation. The first proposal of the French minister was, " that the two crowns shall remain in possession of what they have conquered one from the other:" and as France had assuredly been the greatest loser, so unexpected an offer on her part ap- peared to every dispassionate and unpreju- diced member of the British cabinet, an in- stance of singular moderation, if not hu- mility. But Mr. Pitt, who directed all things, did not treat it with that attention which its apparent fairness deserved. He barely ac- quiesced in the general principle, while he took care to render that acquiescence nuga- tory by his opposition to another article with which it was necessarily connected. As the war still continued, and might therefore make a daily alteration in the fortune of the contracting powers, the French minister had proposed, " That the situation, in which they shall stand at certain periods, shall be the position to serve as a basis for the treaty that is to be concluded between them." He HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. named, for this purpose, the first of May in Europe, the first of July in Africa and the West Indies, and the first of September in the Kust Indies; observing, at the same time, that as those periods might seem too near or too distant for the interests of Great Britain, the court of Versailles was extremely will- ing to enter into an explanation on that sub- ject Pitt's answer was, "that his Britannic majesty would admit of no other epoch, but that of the signing of the peace." To this blunt declaration the court of Versailles re- plied, with that coolness and temper which ought to govern all such transactions, " That if not those, already named, at least some fixed periods, during the war, ought to be agreed upon ; as the uti possidetis, or mu- tual retaining of possessions, could not rea- sonably have reference only to the time of signing the treaty of peace : that if these difficulties occurred in the simplicity of a possessory article, they must be increased tenfold upon every other, and would come to such a height, as to preclude all possi- bility of negotiation on things of so intricate a nature as exchanges and equivalents." SURVEY OF HOSTILE OPERATIONS. THIS dispute occasioned some delay, and afforded the French ministry, if they had been so disposed, a decent pretext for break- ing off the negotiation. In the mean time hostilities were everywhere carried on, as if no such negotiation subsisted. But the campaign was distinguished by few memo- rable events. In the East Indies very little remained to be achieved, after the reduction of Pondi- cherry and some other advantages which were gained about the same time. The day before colonel Coote took possession of that fortress, the Mogul army was defeated by major Carnac in the neighborhood of Guya. The hopes of the French in Bengal were completely blasted ; nor was fortune more favorable to them on the coast of Malabar. They still had a garrison at Mihie, which, though of little consequence as a trading port, they had fortified at a vast expense, and mounted the works with above two hun- dred pieces of cannon. But it did not long hold out against the well-directed efforts of a body of forces sent from Bombay under Hector Monro, to whom Louet, the com- mander of the fort, surrendered it, with all its dependencies, in the beginning of Feb- ruary. Count d'Estaigne was the only French adventurer in the east, who had ef- fected anything which might be placed in the opposite scale to those successes of the English. He began his career towards the close of the year 1759 ; and with only two ordinary friirntcs under his command, he destroyed the fort of Bender-Abassi on the Persian gulf, and took two frigates of almost equal force to his own, besides three other vessels belonging to the company. Early in the succeeding year, the fort of Natal sur- rendered to him without any terms, and he found two ships in the road. He then struck over to the island of Sumatra, where he soon reduced Bencoolen, Tappanopoli, and fort Marlborough ; which last, though in a good state of defence, was ingloriously given up by the garrison, after they themselves had burned a rich company's ship that lay in the harbor. The count, however, did not gain so much reputation by these exploits, as he incurred disgrace from having engaged in them, contrary to the most sacred laws of arms ; for he was at the very time a pris- oner upon parole. On the coast of Africa there were still fewer objects to excite any particular vigi- lance, or exertion. England had become mistress of all the French forts and factories on the river Senegal, and had also taken the island of Goree, valuable on account of its harbor, and its convenient situation, be- ing within cannon-shot of Cape Verd. She, therefore, had nothing more to do in that quarter than to preserve her former acquisi- tions. In America and the West Indies, ever since the taking of Guadeloupe, and the re- duction of Canada, nothing had been at- tempted by land, except the quelling of the Cherokees, a very numerous and powerful Indian nation, who, alike regardless of past treaties and of past chastisement, had begun to renew their barbarous ravages on the fron- tiers of South Carolina. The Jamaica and Leeward island squad- rons did not remain idle : rear-admiral Holmes, who had the command on the for- mer station, planned some cruises with judg- ment and success. The squadron off the Leeward Islands, under the direction of commodore Sir James Douglas, was not less alert in scouring those seas of the Martinico privateers ; and had also the merit of as- sisting in the conquest of Dominica, one of the islands called neutral, but which the French had fortified and settled. Those successes were, indeed, highly honorable to the small parties by whom they were obtained; but they fell far short of what might have been reasonably expected from the employment of a greater force in that part of the world where the enemy was most vulnerable. It has been before observed, that although the great purpose of the early and strenu- ous effort made by prince Ferdinand was not fully answered, it nevertheless produced a very considerable and useful effect The destruction of the French magazines re- tarded their operations in such a manner, GEORGE m. 17601820. that the greatest part of the month of June was spent, before their armies found them- selves in a condition to act But as soon as they had taken proper measures for their sub- sistence, marshal Broglio assembled his forces at Cassel, and moved towards the Dymel, in order to effect a junction with another French army under the prince of Soubise, who was advancing on the side of Munster. The first blow was struck by marshal Broglio. He surprised a body of troops commanded by general Sporken, and very advantage- ously posted on the Dymel, in front of the allied army. The French took, upon this occasion, eight hundred prisoners, nineteen pieces of cannon, four hundred horses, and upwards of a hundred and seventy wagons. The same day, which was the twenty-ninth of June, they passed the Dymel; and while prince Ferdinand, as if discouraged by so sudden a check, fell back to the Lippe, they made themselves masters of Warburg, Drin- gleburg, and Paderborn. The allies, how- ever, soon recovered their spirit ; and seve- ral parties, conducted by general Luckner and other able officers, undertook some bold and very distant enterprises, attacked the enemy where they were least upon their guard, routed their convoys, destroyed a great many of their magazines, and carried off their prey, even from the gates of Cas- sel. These irritating skirmishes hastened the union of the French forces, and made them resolve on a general action. The moment Prince Ferdinand was ap- prized of the intention of the enemy, he called in all his detacliments, and made the most admirable disposition of his army. The whole centre and the right wing were cov- ered in front by the Saltzbach, a small, but very deep river, while the flank was well defended by rugged, bushy, and almost im- practicable ground. The other wing was posted on an isthmus between two rivers, the left extremity leaning to the Lippe, by which it was perfectly secured, as the right was supported by the village of Kirch-Den- kern, situated immediately on the Aest The marquis of Granby had the command of this wing ; and as it protected a high road which formed the only communication with the ad- jacent country, and was also the most ex- posed in front, so that it would probably be the object of the enemy's most considerable efforts, the strength and flower of the army, with the greater part of the artillery, were placed there. But before all these precau- tions could be taken, or the necessary ar- rangements made, the enemy, by a rapid motion in the evening of the fifteenth of July, came up to the marquis of Granby's posts, and attacked them with great fury. The British troops, though then unsupported, withstood for some hours the whole torrent of that impetuosity which distinguishes the onsets of the French. At last, general Wut- genau, according to the plan originally pro- jected, got round with a large reinforcement to lord Granby's left, and attacking the ene- my in flank, obliged them, after an obstinate struggle which continued till it was quite dark, to take shelter in the woods behind them. By the next morning, prince Ferdi- nand's disposition of his forces was perfect- ed ; and it was evident that the French, iar from being dismayed by repulse, were pre- pared for a more general, and still better sustained attack than the former. Marshal Broglio led on their right wing against the left of the allied army, which, as on the evening before, was the principal object of the enemy : their centre and their left wing were commanded by the prince of Soubise, who had directed, but failed in the assault of the preceding day. The engagement began at three in the morning, and a severe fire was continued for upwards of five hours before the least effect could be perceived on either side. The weight of the conflict this day lay on general Wutgenau's corps, who supported it with a degree of bravery that rivalled the firm and intrepid stand which had been lately made by the British forces. About nine o'clock, prince Ferdinand receiv- ing intimation that the enemy were prepar- ing to erect batteries on an eminence in the front of the marquis of Granby's camp, im- mediately ordered a body of troops to defeat their purpose. This service was performed with so much vigor, that the enemy fell into confusion, and precipitately quitted the field. Then- centre and left, which had not been able to pass the Saltzbach, after a long and ineffectual cannonade, retired with the rest, and covered their retreat; so that favored by this circumstance, and by the closeness of the country which was full of hedges, they marched off in tolerable order, and were pursued but a little way. Their loss, how- ever, amounted to near five thousand men, including the regiment of Rouge, which consisted of four battalions, and was entirely taken with its cannon and colors by the sin- gle battalion of Maxwell. The allies had no more than three hundred killed, a thou- sand wounded, and about two hundred miss- ing. In other respects, the victory would have been attended with little advantage, had the enemy continued to act in concert, and to avail themselves of their great supe- riority in point of number. But their gen- erals were said to be influenced by motives of personal pique, and to have mutually thwarted each other's schemes. It is at least certain, that, after the action of Kirch- Denkern, their armies were disunited dur- ing the rest of the campaign. The party under the prince of Soubise passed the Lippe, 22 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. and made dispositions for the siege of Mun- ster ; whilst marshal Broglio's forces turned off on the other side, crossed the Weser, and threatened to fall upon Hanover. Prince Ferdinand had not troops sufficient to form two distinct armies; but he chose a central position for his main body, and con- tented himself with sending out such de- tachments as he could spore to the relief of any places that might be attacked. The wisdom and vigor of his measures prevent- ed the enemy from making any important conquests, but could not guard so wide a seat of war against their destructive ravages. A successful attack upon the French garrison at Dorsten, where ovens and other prepara- tions had been made for the siege of Mun- ster, put an effectual stop to their project, and compelled the prince of Soubise to re- tire from the Uppe. But as his formidable opponent, the hereditary prince, was soon after called off to another quarter, the French commander spread his army all over Lower Westphalia, pillaging sonie towns and sub- jecting others to ruinous contributions. Mar- shal Broglio was also obliged to relinquish his designs upon Hanover, in order to protect Hesse, where his chief subsistence lay, and where some of the smaller magazines had been destroyed by the incursions of the alli- ed army. His brother the count de Broglio, and prince Xavier of Saxony, having made a forced march with a strong body of troops, took possession of Wolfenbuttle on the tenth of October, and then invested Brunswick ; but at the approach of the hereditary prince, joined by general Luckner, they abandoned their enterprise and evacuated Wolfenbuttle with such precipitation as to leave some of their cannon behind, and above five hundred men who were made prisoners. The sea- son being now far advanced, nothing more was attempted by any part of the marshal's forces, except hi the way of depredation, which was severely felt by the wretched in- habitants of the country to the eastward of the Weser. The marshal himself remained strongly encamped at Eimbeck till the begin- ning of November, when prince Ferdinand, by a variety of bold and skilful manoeuvres, reduced him to the alternative of retreating, or coming to an engagement on equal terms. He chose the former, and marched with more booty than laurels into winter-quarters in the neighborhood of CasseL The forces of Soubise were distributed at Dusseldorp and along the Lower Rhine. The allies fixed their cantonments at Hildersheim, Munster, Hamelen, and Eimbeck. The British cavalry wintered in East Friesland, and the infantry in the bishopric of Osna- burtrh. Though the issue of the campaign in Westphalia, where the utmost efforts of the allies could barely support a system of par- tial defence, afforded very little cause of triumph to the advocates for a German war; they must have been still more mortified at the disappointment of all their hopes in the king of Prussia's enterprising genius. That impetuous hero, as if fatigued by indecisive victories, seemed now to adopt the caution and slowness which had been so long oppos- ed to his vivacity. This change of conduct on his part was, indeed, rendered almost un- avoidable by circumstances. Count Daun with a powerful army lay upon the watch at Dresden, ready to seize the first favorable opportunity of recovering Saxony. It was therefore necessary that prince Henry, the king's brother, should remain in his intrench- ments under Leipsic, to counteract the de- signs of so vigilant an enemy. The king himself was obliged to adopt a similar plan of defensive measures by the alarming pro- gress of the Russians and Austrians in other parts of his dominions. The Russian army was divided into two strong bodies; one of which, commanded by general Romanzow, penetrated through Pomerania, and laid siege to Colberg ; the other, under general Butterlin, marched into upper Silesia, where the king was strongly posted ; and advanced towards Breslau. Laudohn entered the same province on the opposite side, with a view of joining the Russians, in order to attack the king, or to take Breslau or Schweidnitz in his presence. A remarkable drought hi the beginning of the season, which had greatly lowered the Oder, facilitated the proposed junction. The Russians spread themselves over all the open country of Si- lesia, and exacted heavy contributions. A considerable party of them appeared before Breslau, on the first of August, and began to cannonade the town from seven batteries. Laudohn exerted the whole of his skill to draw the king from his strong hold, and to engage him in a disadvantageous action : sometimes he advanced, as if he meant to join the Russians: sometimes his motions indicated a design on Schweidnitz: these attempts failing, he turned off, and made a feint, as if he proposed to fall upon lower Silesia, in hopes that he might at least oblige the king to divide his forces: but all his stratagems proved for some time ineffectual. The sagacious Frederic continued immova- ble in his post, which protected Schweid- nitz : and with regard to the lower parts of Silesia, he had already filled the fortresses there with such garrisons as put them out of the reach of any sudden insult. The king of Prussia was not equally free from alarm at the danger of Colberg, the key of his northern possessions ; and though he had full employment for all his forces nearer home, he resolved to send a large de- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 23 tachment under general Platen, to the re- lief of that valuable city. The fertility of his genius proposed two ends from this sin- Sle expedient He ordered Platen to direct is inarch through Poland, and to destroy the Russian magazines, which had been amassed on the frontiers of that kingdom, and from which their army in Silesia drew their whole subsistence. This service might, he hoped, be performed without any consid- erable interruption to the progress of the detachment towards Colberg. The event was so far answerable to his wishes. Gene- ral Platen ruined three principal magazines of the enemy, attacked a great convoy of their wagons, five hundred of which he de- stroyed, and having killed or made prison- ers the greater part of four thousand men who defended them, he pursued his march with the utmost diligence into Pomerania. The news of this blow struck the Russians in Silesia with consternation : they imme- diately relinquished all the objects of their junction with the Austrians : their main body repassed the Oder, and hurried back into Poland, lest some more of their maga- zines should share the same fate with the three above mentioned, and their future subsistence be thereby rendered wholly pre- carious. Notwithstanding this gleam of good for- tune, the king of Prussia's difficulties were so multiplied, that his wisest schemes and happiest successes could hardly answer any other end than to vary the scene of his dis- tress. The storm which had been diverted from Silesia by general Platen's expedition, was only removed thence to be discharged with irresistible fury on Colberg. The Rus- sian army which had retreated into Poland, no sooner established its convoys, than it di- rected its course towards Pomerania, in or- der to co-operate with the other forces un- der general Romanzow, and to wipe away, by a conquest of much greater importance, the disgrace of having failed at Breslau. As Butterlin was also master of Landsberg, he sent out several parties from thence, that cruelly wasted all the adjoining marche of Brandenburgh, without diverting himself, by these ravages, from his grand object It was impossible for the king to spare such a number of troops as could contend with the enemy in the field ; but he ordered general Knoblock to make the most rapid advances with another detachment, and hoped that by the union of these several corps, and by fheir intercepting, or at least retarding the Russian convoys of provision, the place might be enabled to hold out, until the se- vere setting in of winter should render the operations of a siege impracticable. But while the king's attention was thus wholly taken up in studying new methods for the relief of Colberg, an event happened just by him, and, as it were, under his eye, almost as distressing as the loss of that place, and so much the more distressing as it was entirely unsuspected. After the re- treat of the Russians out of Silesia, the king feeling some inconvenience with respect to provisions in his camp near Schweidnitz, and concluding that there was nothing to be dreaded from the Austrians, now almost de- serted by their powerful auxiliaries, ap- proached nearer to the Oder, for the sake of procuring supplies more easily. He was so little in fear of any hostile annoyance, that, on making this movement, he drafted four thousand men from the garrison of Schweidnitz : he thought that the prepara- tions necessary to a siege would give him sufficient notice and sufficient leisure to pro- vide for the safety of that place, from which, after all, he had removed but to a very small distance. Laudohn, who watched the king with a steady and penetrating eye, did not let slip this single instant of opportunity. He formed a plan of sudden attack on the uncovered fortress, and accomplished his purpose with a facility that far exceeded his most sanguine hopes. On the first of Octo- ber, at three in the morning, the troops se- lected for this service made their approach with so much precaution, under the favor of a thick fog, that they fixed their ecaling- ladders to all the four outworks of the forti- fications, before they were perceived by the garrison, who scarce had time to fire a few cannon at the assailants. A short contest was, however, maintained with small-arms, until a powder magazine in one of the out- works blew up, which killed very near three hundred on each side. The Austrians, taking advantage of the confusion occasion- ed by this accident, rushed forward, and bursting open the gates, made themselves masters of the town before daybreak, with only the loss of about six hundred men, in- cluding those who perished in the explosion. Lieutenant-general Zastrow, the governor, and his whole garrison amounting to three thousand men, were made prisoners ; be- sides a quantity of artillery and a large magazine of meal, which added to the value of this important capture. The king of Prus- sia felt the blow to the quick. In the first agitations of his mind, he was disposed to attribute the misfortune to treachery; but recovering his temper, he sent the following lines to the unfortunate governor : " We may now say, what Francis the first of France said to his mother, after the battle of Pavia, We have lost all except our honor. As I cannot comprehend what hath happen- ed to you, I shall suspend my judgment : the affair is very extraordinary." Schweidnitz was lost suddenly ; but Col- 24 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. berg made a long and noble defence. The Swedish and Russian fleets blocked it up by sea, for several inontlis, till the boisterous season forced them to retire, and afforded the garrison an opportunity of receiving a large supply of provisions from Stetin. In the mean tune the siege by land was push- ed on with incredible perseverance ; and Romanzow having reduced a fort that com- manded the harbor, any repetition of the former succors was totally cut off Still, however, the garrison and its brave com- mander, Heyde, seemed determined to hold out to the last extremity. Their efforts were well seconded by the prince of Wur- temburg, who was strongly intrenched with six or seven thousand men, under the can- non of the town, and by general Platen who found means to join him in that post. But as there was soon a necessity for revictual- ling the garrison, at every risk, Platen quit- ted the intrenchments in order to hasten and protect the arrival of some convoys, which the numerous scouting parties of the Russians had hitherto kept at a distance. His spirited enterprise did not succeed : he had the misfortune to be met by an infinite- ly superior body of the enemy ; was beaten, and escaped with some loss and great diffi- culty, to Stetin. General Knoblock, whom the king had also sent to the relief of Col- berg with a second detachment, proved still more unsuccessful. Having established him- self at Treptow, which was to serve as a resting-place to the convoys, he was attack- ed there, soon after Platen's defeat, by a force to which his numbers were so unequal, that with the utmost skill and intrepidity he could only protract for five days the ulti- mate necessity of a surrender. After these disasters the prince of Wurtemburg became apprehensive lest his troops, by delaying any longer under the walls of the town, would only share its fate, or be driven by famine into humiliating terms. He therefore re- solved, whilst his men retained their vigor, to break through a part of the Russian army, and leave a place, which he could no longer defend, to make the best capitulation its cir- cumstances would admit He effected his purpose with inconsiderable loss; but the garrison, now hopeless of relief, exhausted by fatigue, their provision low, and the for- tifications in many places battered to pieces, surrendered to the Russians on the sixteenth of December, after a peculiarly distressing siege of near six months. The loss of two such places as Schweid- nitz and Colberg, at the two extremities of his dominions, were decisive against the king of Prussia. The Austrian* took up their winter-quarters in the former and its neighborhood ; and the king was fully sen- sible, that, whilst they held that place, lie could make no motion for the relief of any other part of his dominions, without expos- ing Breslau and the whole of upper Silesia to certain and irrecoverable conquest The Russians, on the other hand, by possessing Colberg, possessed almost everything. They were masters of the Baltic ; and they now acquired a port, by which their armies could be well provided, without the necessity of tedious, uncertain, and expensive convoys from Poland. The eastern parts of Pome- rania afforded them good winter-canton- ments; and nothing but the advanced sea- son could save Stetin from their immediate grasp, or obstruct their progress into the very heart of Brandenburg. Thus, after having suffered and inflicted so many dread- ful calamities in the course of five years, Frederic had no prospect before him but to perish in a flame of his own kindling ; and all that he could reasonably expect was to give it brilliancy by some act of heroism, as his absolute salvation seemed far beyond the reach of any human endeavors. Such events were also very ill suited to the haughty tone of the English minister in his negotiation with France. But several ac- tions happened at sea, between single ships and small squadrons, greatly to the honor of the British flag ; and a naval armament, which had excited the highest hopes while its destinatian remained a secret, was pre- pared early in the spring, and crowned with success. The armament fitted out for this enter- prise consisted of ten ships of the line under commodore Keppel, and near ten thousand land forces commanded by major-general Hodgson. They sailed from Spithead on the twenty-ninth of March, and came to anchor in the great road of Belleisle, on the seventh of April. A descent was imme- diately attempted at three different places. Major Purcel and captain Osborne, at the head of a party of grenadiers, got on shore, and advanced for some time with great in- trepidity. But the enemy, who had intrench- ed themselves on the heights, appeared sud- denly above them, and poured in such a se- vere fire as threw them into confusion, and intimidated the rest of the troops from land- ing. The major and captain were both killed : and all their brave followers shared the same fate, or were made prisoners. The flat-bottomed boats, and two large ships that convoyed them to the landing-place, were obliged, in spite of their most vigorous ef- forts, to retire, with the loss of five hundred men. Some tempestuous weather, which immediately followed this first failure, pre- vented a second trial for several days. At length the wind having abated, and the whole coast having been diligently examin- ed, proper dispositions for landing were GEORGE IIL 17601820. 25 again made on the twenty-second of April, and succeeded. The troops were rowed to various parts of the island, as if they in- tended to disembark in different places, so as to distract the attention and divide the forces of the enemy, whilst the men-of-war directed their fire with great judgment and effect on the hills. These manoeuvres gave brigadier-general Lambert, with a small de- tachment of grenadiers and marines, an opportunity of climbing up a very steep rock without molestation. Here they directly formed themselves in good order ; and though attacked by superior numbers, they main- tained their ground, till the whole corps, which had now ascended in the same man- ner, arrived to their assistance, and repulsed the enemy. The landing of all the forces was made good in a short time after. In one or two places the enemy seemed dispos- ed to make a stand ; but a body of light horse, which was embarked in this expedi- tion, soon drove them into Palais, the capi- tal of the island. The siege of Palais was commenced with vigor ; and the garrison, commanded by the chevalier de St. Croix, a brave and experienced officer, threatened a long and obstinate defence. This was a place of extraordinary strength, having been built by the famous Vauban, who supplied by art what nature had left undone, to make it almost impregnable ; and it was now de- fended by St Croix with a show of the most desperate resolution. Parallels were finish- ed, barricadoes made, and batteries con- structed ; and a continual fire from mortars and artillery was kept up on both sides, by night and by day, from the thirteenth of May to the twenty-fifth, when that of the enemy began to abate. By the end of the month a breach was made in the citadel; and notwithstanding the indefatigable indus- try of the garrison and the governor in re- pairing the damage, the fire of the besieg- ers increased to such a degree, that a great part of the defences was ruined, and the breach rendered practicable on the seventh of June. Then St Croix, having no pros- pect of relief, and being apprehensive of a general assault, thought it prudent to capit- ulate. NEGOTIATIONS RESUMED. THE taking of Belleisle, which was cele- brated with bonfires, illuminations, and every expression of tumultuous joy, contributed greatly to elate the pride of the English populace, and was no small mortification to France. But the expedition having failed in its ultimate aim, which was to oblige the French to weaken their army in Westpha- lia, in order to defend their own coast, and by that means to enable prince Ferdinand to strike some decisive blow; Pitt conde- scended to name certain periods, to which VOL. IV. 3 the reciprocal holding of possession should refer ; and the negotiation with France was resumed. The epochs named by the British minister were, the first of August for Europe, the first of September for Africa and America, and the first of November for the East In- dies. To these epochs France agreed, though reluctantly, on account of the nearness, as at this juncture she wished and hoped to make some acquisitions in Westphalia be- fore the close of the campaign, which might at least counterbalance the loss of Belleisle. She also agreed, that everything settled between the two crowns, relative to their particular disputes, should be finally conclu- sive and obligatory, independent of the pro- ceedings of the congress to be held at Augs- burg : and she farther agreed, that the de- finitive treaty of peace between the two kingdoms, or preliminary articles to that purpose, should be signed and ratified before the first of August France even gave up the point of honor, and frankly made an offer of what places she was willing to cede and exchange. Her first proposals came through the medium of Stanley ; and after some difficulties had been removed, and a few claims relinquished, Bussy delivered, on the twenty-third of July, a memorial in form, containing a regular digest of the sacrifices acquiesced in, and the compensa- tions required by the French ministry. The following were the chief articles of their conciliating plan. They proposed to cede and guaranty all Canada to England, and to ascertain the boundaries of that province and Louisiana in such a manner as to pre- clude all possibility of any future dispute on the subject They only stipulated that the free and public exercise of the Roman Catholic religion should be permitted there, and that such qf the old French colonists as chose to retire might have leave to take away or dispose of their effects, and might be supplied by the English government with the means of conveyance on the most rea- sonable terms. In return for this, they re- quired a confirmation of their former privi- lege of fishing on the coast of Newfound- land, with the restitution of Cape Breton, as some harbor was necessary for carrying on that fishery to advantage ; but excluding themselves from erecting any kind of forti- fication. They offered to exchange Minor- ca for Guadaloupe and Marigalante ; and that, with respect to the neutral islands in the West Indies, two of them, namely Do- minica and St Vincent, were to be held by the native inhabitants the Caribbees, while France occupied St Lucia, and England took possession of Tobago. In the East Indies they had no equivalent to offer for the recovery of the English acquisitions 26 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. there ; but they proposed the treaty of one thousand seven hundred and fifty-five, be- tween the Sieur Godeheu and governor Saunders, as a basis for the re-establishment of peace in Asia. On the side of Africa, they required the settlements at Senegal, or the isle of Goree to be given up by Eng- land ; for which, together with the restora- tion of Belleisle, they consented to evacu- ate Gottingen, Hesse, and Hanau ; but these evacuations were to be preceded by a cessa- tion of hostilities between the two crowns, and a positive engagement that their armies in Germany should observe an exact neutral- ity, not affording the least assistance, nor giving the least offence to the allies of either party. MAIN POINTS OF DISPUTE. So far the advances of the French minis- try had a very plausible and even captivating appearance : but they strictly adhered in their memorial to two points, which had been already the cause of much dispute with the negotiators at both courts. The one was an absolute refusal on the part of France to give up Wesel and Gueldres, which she had conquered from the king of Prussia, in the name of the empress-queen, whose consent to a separate peace between France and England had been obtained only under two conditions, first, that the empress should keep possession of the countries belonging to the king of Prussia, and secondly, that England should not afford him any succor (1). The other article was a demand very strongly urged for having all the captures restored, which had been made by England, previous to the declaration of war. The ar- guments for and against this claim may be summed up in a few words., It was said, on the one hand, that the practice of declaring war had been established by the law of na- tions, to make subjects acquainted with the quarrels of their sovereigns, and to give them a fair warning to take care of their persons and effects; that, in the late in- stance, the merchants of France reposing themselves on the faith of treaties, and ig- norant of the facts or circumstances which led to a rupture between the two kingdoms, had been plundered without the least regard to equity or honor ; and that even supposing any improper encroachments to have been made on the back of the English colonies in America, the aggression ought first to be complained of, and a reparation of the in- jury peremptorily insisted upon, as nothing but an absolute denial of redress, and a pub- lic appeal to the sword could justify the com- mencement of hostilities. To this it was replied, that when a nation is insidiously robbed of her right, she has a natural claim to instant retaliation ; that a faithless assas- sin is not entitled by any law to the formali- ties of a challenge ; and that the alarming steps taken by the French in America to gain ground on the English colonies, and the preparations making at home to send out vast bodies of troops to support and extend such encroachments, amidst the most solemn assurances of amicable intention, neither de- served a return of candor, nor allowed time for a scrupulous regard to the usual punc- tilios. INFLEXIBILITY OF THE ENGLISH MINISTER ON whatever side the scale of reason and justice may be thought to incline in this controversy, the British minister seemed in- flexible in his refusal to restore the disputed captures, while he was no less absolute in demanding the evacuation of Wesel and Gueldres. He was also averse from the pro- posed ground of pacification in the East In- dies, as well as from the giving up of the island of Cape Breton in America, and of Senegal or Goree on the coast of Africa ; nor would he, astonishing as it may appear, agree to a neutrality in regard to Germany. He treated such an intimation with disdain, as an insult on the honor of his country ; though it would certainly have been more easy and no less honorable for Great Britain to mediate, or even purchase a peace for the king of Prussia, in the congress at Augs- burg, than to enable him to continue any longer a very unequal and ruinous struggle. But, besides these contentious points which were not likely to be soon, or easily adjusted, a new circumstance occurred, against which Pitt's opposition was directed with still more unqualified vehemence. At the time of presenting the above me- morial to the court of London, Bussy deliv- ered a private paper, signifying the desire of his most Christian majesty, that, in order to establish the peace upon solid foundations, not to be shaken by the contested interests of a third power, the king of Spain might be invited to guaranty the treaty between the two crowns; and farther proposing, with the consent and communication of his Cath- olic majesty, that three subjects of dispute which subsisted between England and Spain, and which might produce a new war in Eu- rope and America, should be finally settled in this negotiation ; namely, the restoration of some ships taken in the course of the present war, under Spanish colors ; the lib- erty claimed by the Spanish nation to fish on the banks of Newfoundland ; and the de- molition of certain settlements made, con- trary to treaty, by the English logwood-cut- ters in the bay of Honduras. From what has been already hinted of Pitt's sentiments, with respect to the treaty, it may be easily imagined in what manner he received this private memorial. He expressed his sur- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 27 prise and indignation at an humbled enemy's undertaking to settle differences between de- clared friends : he called upon the Spanish ambassador to disavow the step which had been said to be taken with the knowledge of his court : he returned as wholly inadmissi- ble the offensive paper, declaring that it would be looked upon as an affront to the dignity of his master, and incompatible with the sincerity of the negotiation on the part of France, to make any farther mention of such a circumstance ; and he prepared with- out delay a very unaccommodating reply to the other porposals of the French ministry. In this answer, bearing date the twenty- ninth of July, all the before-recited objec- tions were urged with little temper or deli- cacy ; and the secretary took care to embit- ter his assent to the most unexceptionable articles, either by some new and mortifying condition, or by the imperious style in which it was given. THE FAMILY COMPACT. THE views of the different parties began now gradually to unfold themselves ; but the haughtiness and impetuosity of Pitt's char- acter gave the French ministry a considera- ble advantage over him. They seemed to- tally unaffected by his tone of arrogance, though bordering upon insult : they digested every mortification in silence: they made an apology for having proposed a discussion of the points in dispute with Spain : and, in reply to the English secretary's last dictates, as well as in the private instructions senl with it to Bussy in the beginning of August, they appeared willing to make farther sacri- fices for the re-establishment of peace. Whether they really hoped to accomplish that object, or not, by these new concessions their conduct was equally moderate and po- litic. At least, it insured the success of their intrigues at the court of Madrid, where the domineering language of the British minis- ter could not fail to give disgust, while the increasing humiliations of the French mon archy excited alarm. The famous family compact was the consequence. By this treaty, which was signed on the fifteenth oi August, the several branches of the house of Bourbon were entwined in the closes union ; and France derived from her misfor tunes and disgrace an advantage which sh could not have expected from the most sue cessful issue of the war. Spain now en gaged to assist her with as much zeal anc vigor as if the two kingdoms had been in corporated ; and to admit her subjects to al the privileges of natives. The two Sicilies and the dutchy of Parma were united in th same bonds of mutual guarantee of domin ions and community of interests. Strong motives of policy, chiefly arising from the danger to which Spain would hav )een at that moment exposed by an imme- "iate rupture with England, made the con- racting parties use every endeavor for some ime to keep their late alliance a profound secret. The negotiation between the courts of London and Versailles was therefore still carried on with seeming sincerity ; but the real eagerness of the latter to terminate the war must have been greatly abated by an assurance of support from a power untouched n its resources of men, money, and stores. it may also be fairly presumed, that Pitt's aversion to a peace was not lessened, but greatly increased by his well-founded sus- picions of the private correspondence be- ;ween France and Spain. He did not wish, lowever, to put an end to the treaty, till he ;ould furnish himself with sufficient proofs of the engagements which the two branches of the house of Bourbon had entered into against Great Britain, as he thought such proofs would be the best justification of his own conduct. Thus, while the forms of pa- cific discussion were preserved, on both sides, all that cordiality vanished which is so ne- cessary towards smoothing and clearing a road, which a long hostility had broken up, and so many intricate topics had contributed to embarrass. RESULTS OF THE NEGOTIATION. IN order to judge which party was most blamable for the failure of the negotiation, nothing more is necessary than to examine, without prejudice, the ostensible grounds on which the treaty was broke off, after it had been protracted considerably beyond the term fixed for signing it. The last papers inter- changed by the ministers of both courts are the proper documents to be appealed to in this case. The final resolutions of the Brit- ish cabinet were transmitted to Versailles in the latter end of August ; and the reply of the French ministry was delivered to Pitt on the thirteenth of September. From these papers it appears, that the most interesting objects of concern were settled, or in a fan- way of adjustment ; and that mere points of honor were made the specious pretext for keeping Europe involved in the calamities of war. The cession of Canada was agreed to in the most extensive form ; and though some difficulty remained concerning the bounds of Louisiana, it was too trifling to ob- struct the progress or conclusion of the treaty. The African contest seemed to have been attended with still less difficulty. The French consented to give up both Senegal and Goree, provided Anamaboo and Acra were guarantied to them ; and they very plausibly urged their compliance in this re- spect as a demonstration of their readiness to embrace every temperament tending to reconcile the two nations. The momentous question of the fishery was likewise deter- 28 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. mined. The French relinquished their claim to Cape Breton and St. John's; and were satisfied to receive the little islands of St. Peter and Miquelon, even under the restric- tion of not keeping any military establish- ment there. The privileges of fishing on the eoast of Newfoundland, as enjoyed by the French before the war, under the thir- teenth article of the treaty of Utrecht, were Mimed to them; but in return for such privilt'L'f.s unrifle<1 in a separate note, which Mr. Pitt returned with another paper relative to Spain, declaring both to be totally inadmissible. GEORGE III. 17601820. 29 CHAPTER III. Proofs of the King's Exemption from personal or political Prejudices. His Majesty's Choice of a Consort, the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburgh Embassy sent to make the Demand of her Most Serene Highness ; with an Account of her Voyage Her journey to London, her Reception and Nuptials Preparations made for the Coronation of their Majesties Entertainment given to the Royal Family at Guild- hall Some rising Clouds in the political Hemisphere The Spanish Ambassador's Explanation not deemed satisfactory Orders sent to the Earl of Bristol at Madrid His Excellency's Dispatches in Reply Warm Debates in the Cabinet on Mr. Pitt's Proposal to attack Spain without further Delay His Resolution, wit h the President's Answer His Interview with the King, on resigning the Seals of his Office Lord Temple's Resignation Violent Conflict between the Admirers and the Censurers of Mr. Pitt's Conflict sanctioned by the Abbe Raynal Farther Instructions sent by the new Secretary of State to the British Ambassador at Madrid Steps taken by the Ministry Meeting of the new Parliament His Majesty's Speech Message to the Queen ; and the Dowry granted her in Case she should survive his Majesty Repeal of the compelling Clause in the Insolvent Act Alacrity of the Commons in providing for the Service of the ensuing Year Debate on the Expediency of the German War Severe Remarks on the Alliances entered into with some of the continental Powers Ingenious Defence set up by the Advocates for the German War Result of this political Controversy Effect of the English Ambassador's Remonstrances at the Court of Madrid His Conjectures on the Causes of a sudden Revolution in the Spanish Councils Propriety of his Conduct in so delicate a Conjuncture A clear and categorical Explanation at length insisted upon General Wall's Letter Man- ifesto delivered by the Count de Fuentes, and Lord Egremont's Refutation of it. KING'S FREEDOM FROM POLITICAL PREJUDICES. AFTER so long continued a view of ope- rations in the field and of intrigues in the cabinet, it will be some relief to the mind to contemplate a few events of a more tranquil and domestic nature, which happened during the same period. It was very pleasing to the whole nation to see their young king ascend the throne with so little partiality or prejudice, either of a personal or political nature, that for almost twelve months no change was made in any of the great offices of state, which could excite the least clamor. Lord Henley, afterwards created Earl of Northington, who had distinguished himself at the bar by his talents and integrity, and had for some time acted as keeper of the great seal, was continued in the same im- portant trust, but with the higher title of lord chancellor. The earl of Holdernesse, secretary of state for the northern depart- ment, having retired from business, was suc- ceeded by the earl of Bute, who had spent some years on terms of very friendly inter- course with lord Temple and Mr. Pitt, and all the leading members of the opposition during the lifetime of the late prince of Wales. The earl of Halifax was removed from the board of trade to be lord-lieutenant of Ireland ; and some other removals or pro- motions from one department of administra- tion to another took place, but not a single 3* dismission, except that of Mr. Legge, in whose room lord Barrington was appointed chancellor of the exchequer. KING'S CHOICE OF A CONSORT. His majesty's conduct in another affair of very great moment afforded still fuller cause of general satisfaction. This was his choice of a consort, whose endearments might sweeten the cares of royalty, and whose vir- tues should make his private happiness coin- cide with the happiness of his people. The first circumstance, it is said, that directed his attention to the princess Charlotte of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, was a letter which her serene highness had written to the king of Prussia on his entering her cousin's ter- ritories, and which that monarch had sent over to George II. as a miracle of good sense and patriotism in so young a princess. The king had privately employed some persons in whom he could confide, to ascer- tain the correctness of the report of her ami- able qualifications; and having received the fullest satisfaction on that head, he resolved to make a formal demand of her in mar- riage. On the eighth of July, he made a declaration of his sentiments at a very full meeting of the members of the privy-council. AN EMBASSY, &c. THIS declaration was so agreeable to the council, that they unanimously requested it might be made public. Proper steps were then taken for the accomplishment of his 90 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. majesty's wishes. The earl of Harcourt was fixed upon to go out as ambassador plenipo- tentiary, to make the demand of her serene highness; the dutchesses of Ancaster and Hamilton, and the countess of Effingham were appointed ladies of the bed-chamber to take care of her person ; and the Carolina it, being new named the Charlotte, was got iu readiness to convey her to England, under convoy of a squadron commanded by lord Anson. The fleet put to sea the eighth of August ; and on the fourteenth, lord Har- court and the other lords and ladies sent on this embassy, arrived at Strelitz. Next morn- ing the ceremony of asking her highness in marriage for the king of England was per- formed, and the contract was signed. The ambassador and his suite were magnificent- ly entertained ; and the event was celebrated with the most splendid rejoicings. She em- barked in the yacht at Cuxhaven, where she was saluted by the whole squadron destined for her convoy. After a voyage often days, the yacht arrived at Harwich on the sixth of September. On the eighth of September her highness arrived at St. James's palace, and in the gar- den she was met by the king himself, who in a very affectionate manner raised her up by the hand, which he kissed, as she was going to pay her obeisance, and then led her up stairs into the palace, where she dined with his majesty, the princess dowager, and the rest of the royal family. In the evening the nuptial ceremony was performed by the archbishop of Canterbury in the royal chapel. The cities of London and Westminster were illuminated in honor of the auspicious event, and addresses of felicitation poured in from all parts of the British dominions. THE CORONATION. A PROCLAMATION had been issued in July, appointing the twenty-second of September for the king's coronation ; and a similar no- tice was now published in the gazette, de- claring it to be his majesty's intention that the queen should be crowned at the same time. A commission had also passed the great seal, constituting a court to decide the pretensions of such persons as laid claim to different offices and privileges upon that oc- casion (1). Westminster-hall was prepared for the coronation banquet CITY FEAST TO THEIR MAJESTIES. THE city endeavored to rival the court in Ihe brilliancy of public shows, and in testi- monies of the most affectionate regard for the young king and his amiable consort CONFERENCES WITH SPAIN. THESE bright effusions of national joy, to which the king's marriage and coronation had given so full a scope, were now for a little time checked and obscured by some rising clouds in the political hemisphere, of the progress and effects of which it will be necessary to give a very particular account. Pitt's views in the course of the treaty with France, and his indignant rejection of the memorial concerning Spain, have been al- ready noticed. It was farther observed, that then called upon the Spanish ambassador to disavow that irregular procedure. His excellency at first explained himself verbally on the subject, and was soon after author- ized by his court to deliver to the English secretary a written answer. This explanation, though written with a great show of candor and spirit, did not pro- duce the desired effect : it neither softened Pitt's prejudices, nor did it remove his sus- picions. It appeared to him, that Spain, as a kind of party, had been made acquainted with every step taken in the negotiation between France and England ; that her au- thority was called in aid to force the accept- ance of the terms offered by the former, which he considered little short of a decla- ration of war in reversion ; in a word, that there was a perfect union of affections, in- terests and councils between the courts of Versailles and Madrid. In the mean tune, orders had been sent to the earl of Bristol, the British ambassador at Madrid, to remonstrate with energy and firmness on the unexampled and offensive irregularity of the late proceeding, and to demand an eclaircissement of the actual measures and designs of that court ; to ad- here to the negative put upon the Spanish pretensions to fish upon the banks of New- foundland ; to rest on the justice of the Eng- lish tribunals the claim concerning the res- titution of prizes made against the flag of Spain, or supposed to have been taken in violation of the territory of that kingdom ; to continue the former professions of the court of London, indicating a desire of an amicable adjustment of the logwood dispute, and the willingness of his Britannic ma- jesty to cause the settlements on the coast of Honduras to be evacuated, as soon as his Catholic majesty should suggest another method by which the British subjects could enjoy that traffic, to which they had a right by treaty, and which the court of Madrid had farther confirmed to them by repeated promises. The secretary's letter which con- veyed these orders to the earl of Bristol, concluded thus: "Although in the course of this instruction to your excellency, I could not, with such an insolent memorial before me, but proceed on the supposition, that insidious as that court if, she could not dare to commit in such a manner the name of his Catholic majesty, without being au- thorized thereto ; I must not, however, con- ceal from your excellency, that it is though! possible here, tliat the court of France, GEORGE IIL 17601820. 31 though not wholly unauthorized, may, with her usual artifice in negotiation, have put much exaggeration into this matter ; and in case, upon entering into remonstrances on this affair, you shall perceive a disposition in Mr. Wall [the Spanish secretary of state] to explain away and disavow the authoriza- tion of Spain to this offensive transaction of France, and to come to categorical and sat- isfactory declarations relatively to the final intentions of Spain, your excellency will, with readiness and your usual address, adapt yourself to so desirable a circumstance, and will open to the court of Madrid as hand- some a retreat as may be, in case you per- ceive from the Spanish minister, that they sincerely wish to find one, and to remove, by an effectual satisfaction, the unfavorable impressions which the memorial of the court of France has justly and unavoidably made on the mind of his majesty." By the earl of Bristol's reply to Mr. Pitt, dated the thirty-first of August, and receiv- ed the eleventh of September, it appears that the Spanish minister applauded the magnanimity of the king of Great Britain in declaring, that he would never add facili- ties towards accommodating differences with another sovereign, in consideration of any intimation from a power at war, or the threatenings of ,an enemy. Wall farther affirmed, that the assent given by his court to the king of France's offer of endeavoring to adjust the disputes between England and Spain was totally void of any design to re- tard the peace, and absolutely free from the le^st intention of giving offence to his Brit- annic majesty. The Catholic king, he said, did not think England would look upon the French ministers as a tribunal to which the court of London would make an appeal, nor did he mean it as such, when the statement of grievances was conveyed through thai channel. His excellency assured the ear' of Bristol, that the Catholic king, both be- fore and then, esteemed as well as valued the frequent professions of friendship made by the British court, and of its desire to set- tle all differences amicably: and asked whether it was possible to be imagined in England, that the Catholic king was seeking to provoke Great Britain in her most flour- ishing and exalted condition, occasioned by the greatest series of prosperities that ani single nation had ever met with? But he refused to give up any of the three points in dispute, and owned that the most perfec harmony subsisted between the courts ol France and Spain ; that, in consequence ol that harmony, the most Christian king hat offered to assist his Catholic majesty, in case the discussions between Great Britain am Spain should terminate in a rupture; an hat this offer was considered in a friendly ight DEBATES IN THE CABINET ON MR. PITT'S PROPOSAL OF WAR WITH SPAIN. ON receiving these dispatches, Pitt was f opinion, that the intentions of Spain were >y no means equivocal, and that her only motive for delaying a more open avowal of ler hostile designs was in order to strike the blow at her own time and with the greater effect He accordingly declared in council, that we ought to consider the eva- sions of that court as a refusal of satisfac- :ion, and that refusal as a declaration of war; that we ought from prudence as well as spirit to secure to ourselves the first blow ; that no new armament would be necessary ; that, if any war could provide its own re- sources, it must be a war with Spain ; that ler flota, or American plate fleet, on which she had great dependence, was not yet ar- rived ; and that the taking of it would at once strengthen our hands and disable hers. Such a spirited measure, he added, would 3e a lesson to his Catholic majesty, and to all Europe, how dangerous it was to pre- sume to dictate in the affairs of Great Brit- ain. After the fullest discussion of the sub- ject at three different meetings of the cabi- net ministers, Pitt was unable to bring over any of them to his way of thinking, except ord Temple, his brother-in-law. The proposal was looked upon by all the other members as equally precipitate and base, as equally repugnant to the dictates of sound policy, and to the laws of honor and justice. They owned that Spain had concurred in a very extraordinary step ; yet it was not impossi- ble but some farther remonstrances might persuade that court to recall a proposition, into which it had been, perhaps, unwarily seduced by the artifices of France. They also admitted, that we ought not to be frightened from asserting our reasonable de- mands, by the menaces of any power ; but they affirmed, at the same time, that this de- sire of adding war to war, and enemy to enemy, whilst the springs of government were already very much strained, was ill suited to our national strength ; that to shun war upon a just occasion was cowardice, but to provoke or court it madness ; and that to hasten a rupture with Spam in particular, if it could be by any means avoided, was giving a wanton blow to the commercial in- terest of both countries. Besides, said they, if we plunge into such measures, in the man- ner proposed, and upon no better grounds, we shall alarm all Europe : nor can we de- rive any advantage from this violent con- duct, which shall not be more than counter- balanced by the jealousy and terror it must excite in every nation round us. Before we 32 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. draw the sword, let the world be convinced of the perfidious designs of those whom we attack : let us not endeavor to surpass them in treachery; and let not the lion debase himself to act the part of a fox. As to the seizure of the flota, added they, the thing it- self may be impracticable : perhaps that fleet is now safe in harbor; which conjecture proved to have been well founded, as the flota had entered Cadiz almost on the very day that Pitt had urged the expediency of intercepting it But were we even sure of success, would not such a step be regarded as an arbitrary act of piracy, as an unwar- rantable invasion of the property of others, without expostulation or warning ? If Spain, blind to her true interests, and misled by French counsels, should enter more deci- sively into the views of that hostile court, it will be then the true time to declare war, when all the neighboring and impartial powers are convinced that we act with as much temper as resolution, and when every thinking man in the kingdom must be satis- fied, that he is not hurried into the hazards and expenses of war, from an idea of chi- merical heroism, but from inevitable neces- sity, and must therefore cheerfully contribute to the support of an administration, which, however firm, and confident of the resources of the state, yet dreads to waste them wan- tonly, or to employ them unjustly. Pitt, unaccustomed to such vigorous op- position, and probably stung, though not con- vinced by the arguments of the majority, gave full scope to his pride, and declared, that this was the moment for humbling the whole house of Bourbon ; that if so glorious an opportunity were let slip, it might never be recovered ; and if he could not prevail in the present instance, he was resolved this should be the last time of his sitting in that council " I was called to the administra- tion of public affairs," said he, " by the voice of the people : to them I have always con- sidered myself as accountable for my con- duct ; and therefore cannot remain in a situ- ation which makes me responsible for mea- sures I am no longer allowed to guide." To this declaration lord Granville, the president of the council, very coolly replied : " The gentleman, I find, is determined to leave us, and I cannot say I am sorry for it, as he would otherwise have certainly compelled us to leave him ; for, if he is determined to assume solely the right of advising his ma- jesty, and directing the operations of the war, to what purpose are we here assem- bled 7 He may possibly have convinced him- self of his infallibility : still it remains, that we should be equally convinced, before we can resign our understandings to his direc- tion, or join with him in the measure he proposes." PITT'S RESIGNATION AND INTERVIEW WITH THE KING. IN conformity to the resolution then ta- ken by Pitt and lord Temple, they both re- signed their employments. When Pitt car- ried the seals to the king, his majesty re- ceived them with ease and firmness : he ex- pressed his regret for the loss of so able a servant ; but he did not solicit him to resume his office : he candidly declared, that he was not only satisfied with the opinion of the majority of his council, but that he would have found himself under the greatest diffi- culty how to have acted, had that council concurred as fully in supporting the measure proposed by Pitt, as they had done in reject- ing it In order, at the same time, to show his high opinion of Pitt's merit, his majesty made nim a most gracious offer of any re- wards in the power of the crown to bestow. Pitt was sensibly touched with the candor, the dignity, and condescension of this pro- ceeding. " I confess, sir," said he, " I had but too much reason to expect your majes- ty's displeasure. I did not come prepared for this exceeding goodness. Pardon me, sir, it overpowers it oppresses me." He burst into tears. He declined the distinction of nobility for himself, but accepted of other marks of royal favor. His majesty was gra- ciously pleased to direct, that a warrant be prepared for granting to the lady Hester Pitt, his wife, a barony of Great Britain, by the name, style, and title of baroness cf Chatham to herself, and of baron of Chat- ham to her heirs male ; and also to confer upon the said William Pitt, esq. an annuity of three thousand pounds sterling, during his own life, and that of lady Hester Pitt, and their son John Pitt, esq. The duke of Bedford, the late lord-lieutenant of Ireland, was appointed keeper of the privy-eeal, upon the resignation of lord Temple. ON MR. PITT'S CONDUCT. IT cannot be a matter of surprise, that the resignation of so popular a minister as Pitt should have spread a momentary alarm, and excited the most violent conflict between the admirers and the censurers of his con- duct The splendor of his talents, and the general success of his measures, afforded the former ample subjects of encomium ; while the latter found equal room for- censure in the inconsistency of his opinions respecting the war on the continent, in his frequent misapplication of the national strength, but particularly in the overbearing haughtiness of his temper, which had obstructed the work of peace, had multiplied enemies abroad, and destroyed at home that happy union of counsels, and combination of abili- ties, which were of *he highest importance at so dangerous a crisis. The only remark, which can be fairly made on Pitt's avowed GEORGE IE. 17601820. 33 motive for resigning, " because he would no longer be responsible for the measures he did not guide," is, that he showed himself more strongly attached to his own personal glory than to the interests of his country. This opinion of the moderate part of the na- tion at that time, has since received the sanction of the abbe Raynal, one of the most enlightened and impartial of modern histo- rians. INSTRUCTIONS TO THE AMBASSADOR AT MADRID. THOUGH the majority of the council had opposed the late secretary's proposal for an immediate attack upon Spain, they were far from being perfectly satisfied with the an- swers of that court, or with its professions of amicable intention towards Great Britain. The French agents at foreign courts had also been very busy in circulating reports of the family compact between the different branches of the house of Bourbon, in ex- pectation, no doubt, of frightening the new ministry of George ILL after Pitt's seces- sion, into a treaty of peace on their own terms. But they were unacquainted with the characters of the men whom they hoped to intimidate. The earl of Egremont, who had succeeded to the office of secretary for the southern department, wrote to the Brit- ish ambassador at Madrid, to desire him to make use of the most pressing instances to obtain an explicit account of that secret, though so much vaunted convention be- tween France and Spain, as absolutely ne- cessary before any farther negotiation could be entered into on the former points of dis- pute. "And hi order," says he, " to prevent any perverse impressions, which Mr. Pitt's retiring from public business might occa- sion, it is proper that I should assure your excellency, that the measures of govern- ment will suffer no relaxation on that ac- count ; the spirit of the war will not subside with him : and the example of the spirit of the late measures will be a spur to his ma- jesty's servants to persevere, and to stretch every nerve of this country, in forcing the enemy to come into a safe, honorable, and, above all, a lasting peace. STEPS TAKEN BY THE MINISTRY. THE British ministry soon convinced their countrymen, and all Europe, that the spirit of the nation, and the wisdom of its coun- cils, were not confined to a single man. They prepared for a rupture, hi case it could not be honorably avoided, with the utmost vigor and judgment. A squadron of men- of-war, having under convoy a number of transports with four battalions from Belle- isle, sailed from England, the latter end of October, and was to be joined in the West Indies by such an accession of naval and military forces as would render the whole armament the most formidable that had been ever before seen in that part of the world. The immediate object of this expe- dition was the conquest of Martinico, and of the remaining French islands ; after which a part of the armament was to co-op- erate with another fleet from England, in an attack on the Havanna, as soon as the refu- sal of proper satisfaction should render the commencement of hostilities justifiable. A third enterprise, to be directed against the Philippine islands, those great connecting links of the Spanish commerce in Asia and America, was also resolved upon, in con- formity to a plan of operations presented by colonel Draper to the first lord of the admi- ralty and to the new secretary of state. A NEW PARLIAMENT. DURING the suspension of those projects which were to make Spain repent of her baseness, presumption, and temerity, the new parliament met on the third of Novem- ber. The choice of a speaker unanimously fell on Sir John Gust, the member for Grant- ham : he was presented to his majesty on the sixth, when the king, after signifying his approbation, made a speech to both houses ; in which, after noticing his marriage, his majesty vindicated himself from the failure of the late negotiation with France for peace, and stated the recent successes at Belleisle arid Dominica, and the reduction of Pondicherry which had annihilated the French power in the East Indies. But the part of his speech, with which both houses seemed most affected, was his patriotic de- claration, that nothing should ever make him depart from the true interests of his king- doms. Warmed by so endearing a senti- ment, they begged his majesty to accept their most affectionate assurances, that they would dutifully and zealously correspond to the confidence he reposed in them, and con- cur with firmness and unanimity in what- ever might contribute to the public welfare, might tend to defeat the views and expect- ations of his enemies, and convince the world that there were no difficulties which his majesty's wisdom and perseverance, with the assistance of his parliament, could not surmount JOINTURE GRANTED TO THE QUEEN. THE commons, besides the usual address in answer to his majesty's speech, farther resolved to send a message to the queen to congratulate her also on her nuptials. On the nineteenth of November, two days after the delivery of the message, the commons gave her majesty a proof of the sincerity of their professions. They resolved, that in case she should survive his majesty, she should enjoy a provision of one hundred thousand pounds per annum during her life, together with the palace of Somerset-house, 34 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. and the lodge and lands at Richmond Park ; and that the annuity should be charged upon all or any part of those revenues of the crown, which, by an act made in the last session, were consolidated with the aggre- gate fund. A bill formed on these resolu- tions passed both houses without opposition, and received the royal assent on the second of December, when the queen, who was pres- ent, and placed in a chair of state on the king's right hand, rose up, and made her obeisance. She had also the pleasure to hear the speaker renew, upon presenting the bill, the former assurances of the duty and affection of the commons, blended with the most respectful and delicate compliments to her majesty. REPEAL OF THE COMPELLING CLAUSE IN THE INSOLVENT ACT. MUCH clamor and discontent having been excited by the abuse of the compelling clause in the act, passed during the last session, for the relief of insolvent debtors, a motion for its repeal was the first legislative measure which engaged the attention of the new parliament The majority being per- haps influenced by the violent outcry raised against the clause in the city of London and in some other mercantile towns, leave was given to bring in a bill for its repeal, which soon passed through the necessary stages, and received the sanction of royal authority. PROVISION FOR THE SERVICE OF THE ENSUING YEAR WITHIN a month after the first estimates had been laid before the house, they adjusted the whole business of supplies, and of ways and means, for the service of the ensuing year. They voted seventy thousand sea- men: they agreed to maintain the land forces, to the number of sixty-seven thousand six hundred and seventy-six effective men, over and above the militia in England, the two regiments of fencibles in North Britain, the provincial troops in America, and sixty- seven thousand one hundred and sixty-seven German auxiliaries to support the war in Westphalia. In proportioning the supply, they likewise made good the foreign subsi- dies, as well as the deficiencies in the grants of the last session : a loan of twelve millions was found necessary, which, of course, ren- dered some new taxes unavoidable. These were a farther tax upon windows, and addi- tional duties on spirituous liquors. The va- rious sums voted by the commons, from the twenty-first of November till the twenty- second of December, amounted to very near sixteen millions; to which were added, a few months after, above two millions more, for the defence of Portugal and various other purposes ; so that the sum total of the sup- plies for the year 1762 exceeded eighteen millions. DEBATE ON THE GERMAN WAR. THE only debate, to which such liberal grants of the public money gave rise at the present juncture, was on the expediency of the German war. This question had often before been agitated in parliament; and it seemed rather too late now to resume the discussion of measures in which Great Brit- ain was so far engaged that she could not recede with honor. The opponents of the continental system had another year's expe- rience to bring in support of their former assertions, that no adequate advantage could result from the most vigorous efforts in that quarter. They had also on their side the great body of the people, who, being no longer dazzled by brilliant exploits, had fallen into an almost general dislike of the plan of operations for the last two years, and who expected that their representatives would not silently acquiesce in the applica- tion of almost half the new loan to the sup- port of a useless and consuming war in Ger- many. The speakers against the German system represented it as a system of all others the most absurd, in which defeats were attended with their usual fatal effects, and victory itself would rob her of the fruits of her naval successes, and drain her exchequer to such a degree as would force her to buy peace by the restitution of all her conquests ; " that we never can, consistently with com- mon prudence, engage in a continental war against Prance, without a concurrence in our favor of the other powers on the conti- nent This was the maxim of the great king William, and this the foundation of the grand alliance which he projected, and at the head of which, in defence of the lib- erties of Europe, he made the most august appearance of which human nature is capa- ble. It was on this principle, that, in con- junction with half Europe, we carried on the war with so much honor and success against France, under the duke of Marlbo- rough. But to engage in a continental war with that power, not only unassisted but opposed by the greater part of those states with whom we were then combined, is an attempt never to be justified by any compar- ative calculation of the populousness, the revenues, or the general strength of the two nations. It is a desperate struggle, which must finally end in our ruin." In addition to these arguments against continuing such destructive operations on the continent, they anticipated a reply which they knew would be made by their adversa- ries, namely, that the war in Germany had proved a moat fortunate diversion in favor GEORGE HI. 1760-1820. 35 of the English, by drawing off the forces and revenues, as well as the attention of France from her navy, from the defence of her colonies, and from any formidable en- terprises against Great Britain. All this they positively contradicted. " In the be- ginning of the war," they urged, "while there was any possibility of supporting their marine, the French attended to this object with the most assiduous care ; and while they saw any likelihood of invading Eng- land with success, they had not the least idea of marching into Germany. The elec- torate of Hanover was so far from being thought in danger, that a body of troops was brought over thence to defend this country. But afterwards when France perceived that we were guarded against insult; that her own navy was destroyed, and her colonies exposed; she then bethought herself of Germany ; and it was she, in reality, that diverted or transferred the war to the only place where she was capable of acting, and where she knew Great Britain must be ex- hausted, even by a succession of victories. The German war was not, on the part of England, a war of diversion, but a war of defence, in favor of a barren electorate, which, if put up to sale, would not fetch half the money that is yearly expended in its behalf; for the protection of a country, whose in- habitants are rendered miserable by the as- sistance they receive ; and for the support of an ally, from whom no mutual service can be expected. If a third part of the money thus squandered away on the conti- nent had been employed in giving addi- tional vigor to the naval armaments of Great Britain, France, by this time, woulc not have one settlement left in the West Indies ; all the profits of her external com- merce must have ceased ; and she must have been absolutely obliged to accept such terms of peace as England should think proper to prescribe." ON CONTINENTAL ALLIANCES. AFTER having thus commented upon the infatuation of Great Britain in renouncing the advantages of her naval superiority, anc in leaving her enemies the choice of a fielc where defeat could do them little harm, anc where she herself must be exhausted even by a succession of her own victories, the patriotic speakers made some very severe remarks on the particular engagements we had entered into with some of the continen- tal powers. "We had," as they asserted, " officiously meddled with the internal broils of the empire, and taken a part in disputes which would have been much better adjust- ed without our interference. We had not only sent off from more useful service, the flower of our armies to defend the territories of some petty German princes, but we con- tacted enormous debts to pay those princes ibr assisting us in guarding their rights, and in fighting then- battles. Was such an ab- surdity in politics," they asked, " ever before heard of] Is England to be the knight-er- rant of Europe, and to neglect her own im- mediate concerns and her solid interests in the pursuit of foreign phantoms'? Are we to waste all our resources upon Hanoverians, Hessians, Brunswickers ; allies, who, if they merit that name, serve only to protract the feeble efforts of a system, in which no- thing could so effectually contribute to our safety as an early and total defeat? But even these connexions," they said, " though bur- densome and unavailing, did not half so much expose the ignorance of our negotiators, as the treaty made with the king of Prussia, to whom we annually paid a sum exceeding the whole amount of the subsidies granted in queen Anne's war to all her German allies put together ; and who was so far from being able to afford any relief to our armies, that he was scarcely in a condition to support himself. We look upon him, it is true, as the protector of the Protestant religion : but how lightly he thinks of all religion, his writings testify ; and what mischiefs he has done the Protestant cause in particular, this war will be a lasting memorial. He invad- ed and cruelly oppressed Saxony, a Protest- ant country, where he found the people se- cured from any molestation on account of their religious opinions. Even among the Roman Catholics, persecution had lost much of its edge, when he revived its memory ; and, by forcing the popish powers into a strict union, brought more calamities upon the di- vided Protestants than they had ever expe- rienced during the utmost rancor of a holy war." Those, however, who embraced the oppo- site side of the question, made a very inge- nious defence. They ridiculed the idea of going back half a century to the reign of king William or queen Anne, to examine the principles of a continental war, or to compare the policy and resources of the two contending nations. "The present time," said they, "is the only just criterion by which we can judge; and here we have manifestly the advantage. The success which our arms, alone and unassisted, have had in this contest with France, is a suf- ficient proof that we are an overmatch for all her power." In answer to what had been urged against the folly of waging war on the continent, they ascribed to this very scheme the happy issue of all our other operations. The at- tention of our rival was thereby distracted between the different enterprises at sea and land : eagerly grasping at two grand objects, she had missed both ; and the only fruits of 36 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. her mighty exertions were the ruin of her trade, the destruction of her marine, the loss of her colonies, and the impending terrors of a national bankruptcy. " Was it not," they added, "by involving France in the German war, that we diverted her from the vigorous defence of her distant possessions, and that we have become masters of some of the most considerable of them? Was it not in consequence of her embarking so heartily in that war, that she afforded us an opportunity of giving such a blow to her na- val power as she may never, perhaps, be able to recover ? And has she made any pro- gress in Germany to counterbalance her dis- appointments elsewhere ] Far from it At this instant she is less advanced than she was the first year she entered that country, after having spent immense sums of money, and lost by the sword, by disease, and deser- tion, at least one hundred thousand of her people. Even on the continent, where our enemies have made the most desperate push, have they not been frequently defeated] Has not Hanover been recovered and pro- tected 1 Has not the king of Prussia been preserved, so long at least, from the rage of his enemies ? And have not the liberties of Germany in general been hitherto secured? Had we lain by, and tamely beheld that vast empire in part possessed, and the rest com- pelled to receive laws from France, the war there would soon have been brought to an end ; and France, strengthened by victory, conquest, and alliance, would have the whole force and the whole revenue of her monar- chy to act against us alone." They argued farther, "that if the support of the Protestant religion be any part of our care, that religion must suffer eminently by the ruin of the king of Prussia; for though the writings attributed to his Prussian ma- jesty be such as, if really his, reflect, on ac- count of their impiety, great disgrace on his character as a man ; yet as a king, in his public and political capacity, he is the nat- ural protector of the Protestant religion in Germany ; and it will always be his interest to defend it." Whatever might have been the senti- ments of the new ministry respecting the original policy of the German war, they saw very well that it could not now be honora- bly or consistently relinquished. The faith of parliament was also pledged to assist the allies; and the best judges were of opinion, that vigorous efforts for one campaign more would terminate the contest, and bring the French to reasonable terma The opposi- tion therefore to continental measures, how- ever well supported by argument, was over- ruled by numbers, and expired in the warmth of debate. Yet it was not wholly unpro- ductive of good effects. It showed govern- ment very clearly what the sense of the na- tion was on the subject; and it prevented the renewal of the annual convention with the king of Prussia, though assurances were at the same time given him of pecuniary aid, as before. THE FAMILY COMPACT AVOWED. TUB parliament adjourned to the nine- teenth of January. During that recess the public attention was roused to an incident of national importance. Before the earl of Egremont's dispatches concerning the fam- ily compact could reach Madrid, the English ambassador there had himself received in- telligence of the treaty, and of the hopes which the French made no secret of deriv- ing from it He therefore thought it his duty to desire some satisfaction on that head from Wall, the Spanish secretary of state. But though he expressed his uneasiness in consequence of such rumors with equal force and delicacy, Wall, evading a direct reply to the main point of inquiry, entered into a long and bitter complaint, not only of the treatment which Spain had received from the British court, but of the haughti- ness of its late proceedings with France. " He told me," says the earl of Bristol in his letter of the second of November, " we were intoxicated with all our successes, and a continued series of victories had elated us so far, as to induce us to contemn the rea- sonable concessions France had consented to make ; but that it was evident, by this re- fusal, all we aimed at was, first to ruin the French power, in order more easily to crush Spain, to drive all the subjects of the Chris- tian king not only from their island colonies in the new world, but also to destroy their several forts and settlements upon the con- tinent of North America, to have an easier task in seizing upon all the Spanish domin- ions in those parts, thereby to satisfy the utmost of our ambition, and to gratify our unbounded thirst of conquest." Wall add- ed, with uncommon warmth, " that he would himself be the man to advise the king of Spain, since his dominions were to be over- whelmed, at least to have them seized with arms in his subjects' hands, and not to con- tinue the passive victim he had hitherto appeared to be in the eyes of the world." Such a sudden change of sentiments and discourse, such an abrupt and unprovoked transition, in the Spanish secretary of state, from the most cordial and conciliatory tone of friendly profession and amicable adjust- ment, to the most peremptory and haughty style of menace and hostility, could not hut astonish and perplex the earl of Bristol. He was naturally led into various conjectures, to account for this incoherency of behavior. At first, he imagined that the late arrival at Cadiz of two ships with extraordinary rich GEORGE in.' 17601820. 37 cargoes, containing the remainder of the wealth that was expected from Spanish America, had raised the language of the court of Madrid, added to the progress, which, it was reported, the French army was making in the king of England's electoral dominions, and the success attending the Austrian operations in Silesia. He ascribed the former soothing declarations of the Span- ish ministers to the consciousness of their naval inferiority ; and he supposed that those fears were now removed, or greatly abated by the safe arrival of the above ships, and by the continual flatteries of the French, who, whilst they inflamed the jealousy of Spain at the British conquests, and solicited a junc- tion of forces to put a stop to them, never ceased assuring the Spaniards, that even the signing of an alliance between the two great branches of the house of Bourbon would in- timidate England, not only upon account of its being exhausted by the present long and expensive war, but by its having felt the fa- tal consequences of an interruption of the Spanish trade, during the last war. But, though all these circumstances very proba- bly co-operated in producing so great a revo- lution in the Spanish councils ; yet the earl of Bristol was afterwards convinced, that its immediate cause was the intelligence then received at Madrid of Pitt's violent proposal in the cabinet, before he went out of office. His excellency's sentiments on this point are thus expressed in a subsequent letter to the earl of Egremont, dated Madrid, De- cember the seventh. " What occasioned the great fermentation at this court, the effects of which I felt from general Wall's animated discourse at the Escurial, was notice having reached the Catholic king, that the change which had happened in the English administration was relative to measures proposed to be taken against this country. Hence arose that sud- dep wrath and passion, which, for a short time, affected the Spanish court : as it was thought most extraordinary here, that the declaring war against the Catholic king should ever have been moved in his majes- ty's councils, since the Spaniards have al- ways looked upon themselves as the aggriev- ed party ; and, of course, never could im- agine that the English would be the first to begin a war with them." But whatever impression Pitt's proposal may have made on the minds of the Span- iards, the justest praise was certainly due to the earl of Bristol's conduct in this delicate conjuncture. Though totally unprepared for a conference that differed so widely from all former conversations on the same subject, he replied with coolness to the invectives, and with firmness to the menaces of the Span- ish minister. After refutinor in the best man- VOL. IV. 4 ner what Wall had urged, he returned to his first demand, an explanation concerning the treaty. As often as a direct answer was evaded, the same question was again put; and at length the only reply, that could with difficulty be extorted, was, " That his Catho- lic majesty had judged it expedient to re- new his family compacts with the most Christian king." Then Wall, aa if he had gone beyond what he intended, suddenly broke oif the discourse ; and no further sat- isfaction could be obtained. AMBASSADOR AT MADRID RECALLED. ON the receipt of these advices from the earl of Bristol, the ministry did not hesitate a moment, respecting the line they were to pursue. They saw evidently that there was little reason to hope for any good effects from farther patience and forbearance ; that the continuance of their former moderation might be attributed to timidity ; and that the language of Spain would no longer permit any doubt of her hostile intentions. Not a moment was therefore lost in sending back orders to the English ambassador, directing him to renew his former instances relative to the treaty with France, and to demand a clear and categorical declaration from the court of Madrid, whether they meaned to depart in any manner from their professed neutrality, and to join in hostilities against Great Britain. These points he was to urge with energy, but without the mixture of any thing which might irritate ; and he was far- ther authorized to signify, that a peremptory refusal to communicate the treaty, or to dis- avow an intention to take part with the de- clared and inveterate enemies of Great Britain, could not be looked upon by the king of England in any light, but as an ag- gression on the part of Spain, and as an ab- solute declaration of war. The earl of Bris- tol acted in strict conformity to such decisive, yet temperate instructions. He gradually unfolded the purport and extent of them in two conferences with Wall, on the sixth and the eighth of December ; and, in two days after, he received a letter from that minis- ter, stating that " the spirit of haughtiness and of discord, which, for the misfortune of mankind, still reigns so much in the British government, is what made, in the same in- stant, the declaration of war, and attacked the king's dignity. Your excellency may think of retiring when, and in what man- ner, it is convenient to you ; which is the only answer that, without detaining you, his majesty has ordered me to give you.'' SPANISH AMBASSADOR'S MANIFESTO. THE earl of Bristol left Madrid the sev- enteenth of December ; and on the twenty- fifth of the same month the Spanish ambas- sador in London received letters of recall from his court. The note, which he deliv- 38 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ered on that occasion to the secretary of state, was somewhat in the nature of a (Mani- festo, charging the war on the pride and im- measurable ambition of the late secretary, and on the little respect shown to his Catho- lic majesty, both during that minister's con- tinuance in office, and since his resignation. Lord Egremont's memorial in reply, dated the thirty-first of December, did not stoop to personal invectives, but proved by an ex- act and faithful detail of what had passed between the two courts, that Spain alone was to be blamed for all the misfortunes in- separable from a rupture. The facts already related will best show what degree of stress should be laid on the assertions of either party. NOTE TO CHAPTER III. 1 These were not mere matters of ceremony, as the tenures of sundry manors, and the enjoyment of cer- tain rights and inheritances depended on the performance of particular services at the coronation. GEORGE m. 1760. 1820. CHAPTER IV. War declared against Spain Debate in the Lords Protest on a Motion for withdraw- ing the Troops from Germany Popularity of this Protest Duty on Beer and Ale causes a tumult in London Amendments of the Militia Laws An Act for Regis- tering of Parish Children Bill for the Extension of the Duke of Bridgewater's Canals Account of Harrison's Time-piece and Irwin's Marine-chair Addition to the former Grants of the Commons His Majesty's Message on the imminent Dan- ger of Portugal The Session closed with a Speech from the Throne Extraordi- nary Change in the King of Prussia's Situation, occasioned by the Death of the Empress of Russia Steps immediately taken by her Successor, Peter III. Depo- sition and Death of Peter HI. Prudent Policy of the Empress Catherine II. Sketch of the Prussian Operations during the Remainder of the Campaign Vic- tory obtained by the Allies at Graebenstein This Action a Prelude to Enterprises, in which Gottingen and Cassel were recovered, and the French almost totally driven out of Hesse State of Portugal when threatened by the Bourbon Confederacy Memorial presented to the Court of Lisbon by the Ministers of France and Spain Reply followed by a Declaration of War Immediate and effectual Assistance af- forded by Great Britain Lord Tyrawley dissatisfied with the Portuguese Ministry, and recalled Plan of the Campaign Progress of the Spanish Army under the Marquis de Sarria Almeida taken, and a considerable part of the Province of Bei- ra overrun by Spanish Troops Good Consequences of the Count de la Lippe's Ar- rival in Portugal Surprise of Valencia d 1 Alcantara by General Burgoyne An- other more decisive blow struck by the same General and Colonel Lee at Villa Velha The Spaniards forced to retreat to their own Frontiers Triumphs of Great Brit- ain at Sea Descent on the Island of Martinico Surrender of the Island Submis- sion of the Grenades, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and other dependent Isles Armament destined against the Havannah Its Harbor described Siege of the Moro The Moro stormed, and carried by assault Operations against the Toion, and its Sur- render Importance of this Conquest Capture of the Hermione, a Spanish Regis- ter-ship Invasion of the Philippines designed Celerity of the Preparations made for it at Madras Arrival of the Squadron at Manilla The Town taken by Storm, but saved from a justly merited Pillage The Galleon from Manilla to Acapulco taken The only Exception to the universal Success of the British Arms, the Fail- ure of a private Expedition against Buenos Ay res Summary of the Disasters sus- tained by Spain during her short Concern in the War France involved in the like Calamities Attempt to burn the British Squadron in the Bay of Basque New- foundland taken and retaken A Negotiation the only Resource of the House of Bourbon. WAR DECLARED AGAINST SPAIN. IT would not be very easy to point out any period of the history of England, in which the character of the nation was better sup- ported by its government than at the opening of the year 1762. Calm, yet resolute ; threatened by an extraordinary combination of enemies, yet prepared to resist their per- fidious efforts ; the British ministry discov- ered no precipitation or alarm at Spain's having finally thrown off the mask, but took the most effectual measures to revenge so daring an abuse of their candor and forbear- ance. A clear account of the endeavors which had been used to accommodate the disputes with Spain in an amicable manner, and of the circumstances which now ren- dered a rupture unavoidable, was given at full length in his majesty's declaration of the eecond of January : war against that country was formally proclaimed on the fourth ; and, on the nineteenth, being the day to which both houses of parliament had adjourned, the king informed them of the steps, which he was obliged to take since their recess. PROTEST AGAINST THE WAR IN GER- MANY. THE commons were unanimous in their approbation of his majesty's conduct respect- ing Spain, and in their assurances of steady and vigorous support to prosecute this just and necessary war. The lords agreed to an address expressive of the same sentiments ; but the consideration of the speech gave rise to a debate on the most effectual means of carrying on the war, in which they discov- ered great difference of opinion. No com- plete report of this debate has been pre- served ; but the spirit of it may be collected from a protest, which was then entered on 40 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the journals. By this it appears, that on Friday the fifth of February, when the lords, according to order, proceeded to take the speech into consideration, a motion was made for declaring it to be the opinion of the house. " that the war then carried on in Germany was necessarily attended with a great and enormous expense, and that, notwithstanding all the efforts that could possibly be made, there seemed no probability the army there, in the pay of Great Britain, so much inferior to that of France, could be put into such a situation as to effectuate any good purpose whatsoever ; and that the bringing the Brit- ish troops home from Germany would ena- ble his majesty more effectually to carry on with vigor the war against the united forces of France and Spain, give strength and secu- rity to Great Britain and Ireland, support the public credit, and, by easing the nation of a load of expense, be the likeliest means, un- der the blessing of God, to procure a safe and honorable peace ;" which motion was strong- ly objected to, and the previous question car- ried by a majority of one hundred and five against sixteen. Seven, however, of the latter, including the duke of Bedford, one of the principal members of administration, signed a protest, expressive of their dissent from such proceedings for the following rea- sons: " 1st Because the main question being so true in every particular, which was assented to by most of the lords who spoke in this de- bate, and no argument being alleged that it was unconstitutional, the previous question should not, in the present case, have been insisted on, as thereby the lords were de- barred from laying before the throne their sense on a matter of this importance. "2dly. Because in the debate there was no shadow of argument used, to show the impropriety of this question being brought before the house at this time, or that it was prematurely undertaken by the lord who moved it : on the contrary, it was proved by irrefragable arguments, that if the matter was right to be done, no time should be lost in bringing the British forces home during their winter-quarters, which was the only season when it could be done with safety, and without any possible impediment from the enemy. " 3dly. The present situation of the war, by the additional weight of the crown of Spain being thrown into the scales against us, doth undoubtedly require, at this very critical time, the utmost frugality towards easing the nation from any unnecessary ex- pense, and, as the present war in Germany is indisputably carried on at a great and enormous expense, and, in the general con- ception of mankind, without any possibility of any good being reaped from it, it seems the undoubted right of every lord of this house to submit to parliament his opinion against a longer continuance of such mea- sures, as have already proved so detrimental to the public, by involving this nation in an additional debt of near six millions yearly, without serving any one British purpose, or even supporting with efficacy those coun- tries for whose preservation it has been pre- tended these immense supplies have been granted. " 4thly. A continental war carried on in Germany without allies, and at the sole ex- pense of Great Britain, whilst this nation is involved in a war with the two most coi.- siderable maritime powers of Europe, car. - not be esteemed a system of true policy ; as France, let the success against her arms be ever so great, is not vulnerable from that quarter ; and Spain, on account of her dis- tance, would, doubtless, not be intimidated by the success of the British arms in Ger- many. "5thly. The expedience of the present continental war cannot be justified, either on the principles of its being a war for the diversion of the forces of France from the invading his majesty's dominions, or the suc- coring their own colonies, both of which they are incapacitated from doing, by the rum of their naval force ; neither can it be alleged as a measure calculated to support the king of Prussia, who is not at war with France, nor in danger, though the British troops should be withdrawn, of being crush- ed by that power, whose interest will un- doubtedly restrain her from taking a step, which could only tend to the aggrandize- ment of the house of Austria, the ancient and natural rival of the house of Bourbon. " 6thly. The present great scarcity of spe- cie, and the low state of the public funds, render it the indispensable duty of this house to suggest to the throne every means of preventing an unnecessary profusion of the public treasure, more especially when the payments that must be daily made, and which must be done by the exportation of bullion, must unavoidably cause such a stag- nation of trade and industry as may be of the most fatal consequence to this country, which can in no degree be compensated for on the ill-grounded notion that the expenses of the enemy are equally great and burden- some to them, which is not only denied, as it can never be proved, but is moreover ex- ploded by this undeniable truth, that France, by withdrawing her troops, can put an end to it whenever she pleases, and without any danger to herself of being attacked by an inferior number on her own frontiers on that side, and which, as she has not yet done, is a sufficient proof of the truth of this propo- sition. GEORGE IE. 17601820. 41 "7thly. The agreeing to the resolution proposed, could be in no degree construed as a breach of faith to our allies, or a stain to the honor of the nation, as we are bound by no treaties to keep an army in Germany, and the war on that continent seems to have been entered into voluntarily by us, without being called upon by any other powers, and most precipitately taken up again, when it had been so happily extinguished by the convention of Closter-Seven." This protest, which contained a summary of the most forcible arguments that had been urged against the prosecution of the German war, was highly and almost univer- sally applauded by the people ; and though it produced no immediate change in the measures of government, it strengthened the impression made by the former debate of the commons on the same subject; and it showed very evidently, that, if the ensuing campaign should not put an end to the con- tinental struggle, any farther supplies for its continuance would be obtained with ex- treme difficulty. TUMULT OCCASIONED BY THE DUTY ON BEER. THE other transactions in this sessions of parliament make so little show, when com- pared with the occurrences of the same pe- riod on the theatre of war, as to admit of only a few concise remarks. The operation of the act for laying a further duty on beer and ale, being now felt in its fullest extent, the streets of London and Westminster were filled with tumult, vowed revenge against the brewers for exacting a higher price than usual from the publicans, and threatened to pull down the houses of any of the latter who should continue to charge an additional halfpenny for every quart of porter. The intimidated parties, under the terror of such menaces, petitioned the house of commons ; a bill was passed in favor of their request, which had the desired effect : it not only re- strained the mob from committing any acts of outrage, but tended greatly to abate their clamor. AMENDMENTS OF THE MILITIA AND OTHER LAWS. A GREAT deal of confusion was also pre- vented by some wise and wholesome amend- ments of the militia laws. An exact line was drawn between those who were liable to serve, and such as were exempted from any compulsion. The former were to be chosen by ballot, as before ; or otherwise the parish officers, with the consent of the inhabitants, were authorized to provide vol- unteers, by a rate on the parish, in propor- tion to that for the relief of their poor. Thus every man was obliged to pay his quota ; and all parishes had it in their power to keep their useful hands at home, and to em- 4* ploy the idle and dissolute in the service of their country. As a check upon the cruelties, which were strongly suspected to be exercised by the nurses of parish children, a law was enacted for keeping an annual register of those infants in every parish, under the age of four, that it might always be known in what parishes the greatest mortality pre- vailed among these children. In this session, a bill readily passed through both houses, for enabling the duke of Bridgewater to extend his canal, from Longford Bridge to the river Mersey, so as to open a communication with Liverpool. The branches of this inland navigation have since been extended to all the manufacturing towns of the adjoining counties ; and the duke lived to complete an undertaking of greater magnitude, and of more national utility; than had ever before been attempted by any individual. REWARDS FOR METHODS OF ASCER- TAINING THE LONGITUDE. REWARDS for the discovery of the longi- tude had long been the object of an express law ; but it was now deemed necessary to render that act more effectual, by extending the benefit of it to persons who should make any satisfactory progress towards so desira- ble an end, though then- experiments might fall short of its full accomplishment Har- rison, a clock-maker, of London, had con- trived a curious time-piece, which, under the direction of his son, was tried in a voy- age to the West Indies, and found to suc- ceed infinitely beyond anything hitherto in- vented for the same purpose. He and his son were immediately rewarded with a grant of fifteen hundred pounds : and, the year after, he obtained from parliament five thou- sand pounds more, for discovering the prin- ciples on which his instrument was con- structed. Irwin, a native of Ireland, had also contrived a marine-chair, by means of Which the immersions and emersions of Ju- piter's satellites might be accurately observ- ed, in the roughest weather at sea, and th ; longitude, of course, ascertained. After some satisfactory trials of this machine, fivo hundred pounds were bestowed on the in- ventor, as the recompense of his ingenuity. VOTE FOR THE RELIEF OF PORTUGAL BESIDES the other supplies voted for tha service of the year, the house of common?, after a short debate, concurred in granting his majesty one million upon account, for the purposes specified in the following mes- sage, which was laid before the house on the eleventh of May, and taken into consid- eration on the thirteenth : " His majesty relying on the known zeal and affection of his faithful commons, and considering that in this conjuncture, emer- 42 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. gencies may arise, which may be of the ut- most importance, and be attended with the most pernicious consequences, if proper means should not be immediately applied to prevent or defeat them ; and his majesty also taking into his most serious consideration the imminent danger with which the king- dom of Portugal, an ancient and natural ally of his crown, is threatened by the powers now in open war with his majesty, and of what importance the preservation of that kingdom is to the commercial interests of this country, is desirous that this house will enable him to defray any extraordinary ex- penses of the war incurred, or to be incurred for the service of the year 1762; and to take all such measures as may be necessary to disappoint, or defeat any enterprises, or designs of his enemies against his majesty, or his allies, and as the exigency of affairs may require." In the debate, to which this message gave rise, Pitt supported, with becoming consist- ency, the resolution of the committee of supply. SESSION CLOSES. BOTH houses sat a few days longer to com- plete the business then before them; and, on the second of June, his majesty put an end to the session with a speech, in which he expressed the highest approbation of the zeal, unanimity and dispatch, so signally manifested in the course of their proceed- ings. He said, that his own sentiments re- specting war and peace continued invariably the same, and that it gave him great satis- faction to find them confirmed by the voice of his parliament. He took notice of a late change in the government of Russia, and of its probable consequences: he mentioned the rupture with Spain, and the danger that threatened Portugal, as proofs of the wisdom and necessity of the vigorous measures which had been resolved upon : he pointed out some of the happy effects already pro- duced by these measures, in the conquest of Martinico, and the acquisition of many other valuable settlements in the West In- dies. DEATH OF THE EMPRESS OF RUSSIA, AND SUCCESSION OF PETER III. THE hopeless situation of the king of Prussia at the close of the last campaign has been already described. The loss of Col- berg, on one side, and of Schweidnitz, on the other, left his dominions almost without a barrier ; and his army was too much reduc- ed to face any of the invaders in the open field. No resource of policy, no effort of skill or heroism, could any longer be tried with the least probability of success. At this alarming crisis, the storm just ready to burst upon his head, was happily dissipated by one of those unexpected events which give a sudden turn to the fortune of na- tions, after all the means of human fore- sight and exertion have failed. His most dangerous and inveterate enemy, the em- press of Russia, died on the second of Jan- uary, and was succeeded by her nephew, the duke of Holstein, a prince of very dif- ferent sentiments. As none, however, but those who were most ultimately acquainted with his character and disposition, could pretend to determine whether he would abandon or pursue the system of his prede- cessor, the eyes of all Europe were anxious- ly turned towards the court of Petersburgh, in order to observe the direction of his early councils. The new czar, who ascended the throne by the name of Peter III. began his reign with some very laudable and popular regu- lations. His foreign politics, in which Eu- rope was principally concerned, seemed to be governed by the same mild spirit. He ordered a memorial to be delivered, on the twenty-third of February, to the ministers of his allies, in which he declared, That, in order to procure the re^establishment of peace, as he preferred to every other con- sideration the first law which God prescrib- ed to sovereigns, the preservation of the people intrusted to them, he was ready to sacrifice all the conquests made by the arms of Russia during the war, in hopes that the allied courts would, on their part, equally prefer the restoration of peace and tranquil- lity to the advantages which they might ex- pect from the war, but which they could ob- tain only by a continuance of the effusion of human blood. He ordered a cessation of arms, the sixteenth of March, on receiv- ing an unsatisfactory answer to his memo- rial, from the courts of Vienna and Ver- sailles ; and, in about six weeks after, he entered into an alliance with his favorite monarch, without paying the least regard to the interests of his former confederates. He even joined part of his forces to those of his new ally, in order to drive the Austrians out of Silesia, while he commanded another army to march towards Holstein. Sweden soon followed the example, or rather acted under the direction of Russia, in concluding a peace with the court of Berlin. SUCCESSES OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA. THE king of Prussia lost no time to profit by this great, and almost miraculous revolu- tion in his favor. The load which had so long oppressed him, and against which he had borne up with astonishing fortitude, be- ing now much lightened, he was again en- abled to exert the full powers of his genius against his remaining enemies. His first object was the recovery of Schweidnitz, the next the expulsion of the Austrians out of Silesia ; and in the attainment of these im- GEORGE IIL 17601820. 43 portant ends he was greatly assisted by the valor and military skill of his brother, who gained a signal victory, on the twelfth of May, over the Austrians and imperialists, near Freyberg in Saxony. By this blow prince Henry became so fully master of that electorate, that the Austrians found it ne- cessary to withdraw a considerable body of troops from the war in Silesia, to prevent, if possible, his making irruptions into the heart of Bohemia, Marshal Daun, however, with a large army, still occupied some em- inences in the neighborhood of Schweid- nitz, by which he was enabled to protect that city. But the king of Prussia, being joined by the Russian troops, in the latter end of June, undertook to dislodge the Aus- trian general from those advantageous posts, and finally succeeded. As a direct attack was found to be impracticable, the king had recourse to a variety of masterly move- ments, which made his adversary apprehen- sive for the safety of his principal maga- zine, and even that his communication with Bohemia might be cut off The cautious Daun accordingly fell back to the frontiers of Silesia, and left Schweidnitz exposed. His Prussian majesty immediately prepared for the siege ; whilst different detachments of his troops, some on the side of Saxony, others on that of Silesia, penetrated deep into Bohemia, laid many parts of the coun- try under contribution, and spread universal alarm. A body of Russian irregulars also made an irruption into the same kingdom, and there retaliated on the Austrians those cruel ravages, which, at the instigation of the court of Vienna, the same barbarous en- emy had formerly committed on the Prus- sian dominions. Whilst the indefatigable Frederic was thus conducting, with equal spirit and abili- ty, that bold plan of operations which unex- pected circumstances had enabled him to form, he was threatened with a sudden re- verse of fortune, in consequence of another revolution in Russia. Peter III. in his rage for reform, made more new regulations, in a few weeks, than a prudent prince would have hazarded, in a long reign. His first measures, as before observed, seemed well calculated to procure him the affections of his people ; but, being of a rash and irregu- lar turn of mind, he in many instances shocked their prejudices, even while he consulted their interests. DEPOSITION AND DEATH OF PETER III. AND SUCCESSION OF CATHERINE II. WHILST he was taking these steps to alienate the minds of the people in general, and especially of those bodies whose attach- ment it was his great interest to secure, he had not the good fortune to live in union with his own family. He had long slighted his consort, the present empress, a woman of a masculine understanding, by whose counsels he might have profited ; and lived hi a very public manner with the countess of Woronzoff. The dissatisfied part of the nobility, clergy, and chief officers of the army, encouraged by this domestic dissen- sion, assembled in the capital during the czar's absence at one of his country-seats, deposed him formally, and invested his wife with the imperial ensigns. She put herself at the head of the malcontents, and marched without delay in quest of her husband. He was indulging himself in indolent amuse- ments at a house of pleasure near the sea- shore, when the terrible news reached him. As soon as he recovered from the first shock, he attempted to escape to Holstein, but was seized and thrown into prison, after having been induced by the vain hope of life to sign a paper, in which he declared his conviction of his inability to govern the empire, and his sense of the distress it must be involved in were he to continue at the head of affairs. This cowardly sacrifice of his character did not preserve his life : he expired a few days after, on the sixth of July ; and his sudden death excited neither surprise nor specula- tion, as dethroned princes have seldom been allowed to languish long hi the glooms of a dungeon. Catherine II. who now assumed the reins of empire, pursued a line of conduct almost diametrically opposite to that of her infatu- ated husband. It was even supposed, that she would disclaim and annul the treaty con- cluded between the late czar and the king of Prussia, which was a very unpopular measure at Petersburgh. But fortunately for Frederic, the new empress did not think her situation sufficiently secure to engage in foreign hostilities. It is also said, that upon searching among her husband's papers for the Prussian monarch's correspondence, she found that his majesty had disapproved of all Peter's violent measures, and had counselled him to be tender of his consort, to desist from his pretensions to Sleswick, and not to attempt any changes hi the re- ligion, or the fundamental laws of his coun- try. Letters of this kind must have tended very much to confirm her in her pacific dis- position. She accordingly declared to the Prussian minister at .her court, " that she was resolved to observe inviolably, in all points, the perpetual peace concluded under the preceding reign ; but that she had thought proper, nevertheless, to order back to Rus- sia, by the nearest roads, all her troops in Silesia, Prussia, and Pomerania." And al- though this change from a strict alliance to a mere neutrality, made no small difference in the state of the king of Prussia's affairs ; yet it must be regarded, all things consid- 44 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ered, as an escape scarcely lees wonderful than the former, especially as all the impor- tant places, which the Russians had with so much bloodshed acquired, were faithfully re- stored to that monarch. PRUSSIAN OPERATIONS. His Prussian majesty, instead of being discouraged by the order sent for the return of the Russians, only acted with the more vigor. He attacked marshal Daun the day after its arrival, but before the news had reached the Austrian camp, and drove him, by terror, no less than force of arms, from the heights of Buckersdorf, with considera- ble loss. He next invested Schweidnitz in person; and obliged that much-contested town, though defended by a garrison of nine thousand men, to surrender, after a siege of two months, in spite of the utmost efforts of Laudohn and Daun to obstruct his opera- tions. The moment he found himself mas- ter of this city, and eventually of all Sile- sia, he began to turn his eye towards Saxony. He reinforced his brother's army in that electorate, and took some other steps which seemed to indicate a design upon Dresden. These preparations, and another victory ob- tained by prince Henry near Freyberg, far more decisive than the former, induced the court of Vienna to conclude a cessation of hostilities with his Prussian majesty for Saxony and Silesia. In consequence of this impolitic and partial truce, which provided neither for the safety of the dominions of the house of Austria, nor of those members of the empire that were attached to its in- terests, one body of the Prussian army broke into Bohemia, advanced nearly to the gates of Prague, and destroyed a valuable maga- zine ; while another fell upon the same country in a different quarter, and laid the greater part of the town of Egra in ashes, by a shower of bombs and red-hot bullets. Some parties penetrated into the heart of Franconia, and even as far as Suabia, laying waste the country, exacting heavy contribu- tions, and spreading ruin and dismay on every side. The money levied in these pre- datory expeditions is supposed to have amounted to a million sterling, two hundred thousand pounds of which were paid by the industrious and free city of Nuremberg. Many of the princes and states found them- selves obliged to sign a neutrality, in order to save their territories from farther rav- ages ; and most others were so disabled by the late defeat in Saxony, or exhausted by the subsequent incursions, that no prospect remained of their being able to furnish, for the next campaign, any army under the im- perial name and authority. OPERATIONS OF THE ALLIES IN GER- MANY. THE other part of the German war, which rested wholly on the support of Great Brit- ain, was pushed with a degree of spirit and perseverance by no means inferior to those signal exertions of the Prussian arms. The forces under prince Ferdinand being amply provided with all necessaries, and recruited to the number of one hundred thousand ef- fective men, were the first to take the field ; and soon found an opportunity of striking a blow, the consequences of which were not recovered by the enemy, during the remain- der of the campaign. This did the allies the greater honor, because the French ar- mies had also been augmented, so as still to preserve their former superiority of num- bers ; but their generals were changed. Marshal Broglio was recalled, and the com- mand of the army on the Weser was given to his rival, the prince of Soubise, assisted by marshal d'Etrees; while the army on the Lower Rhine was committed to the di- rection of the prince of Conde. The hered- itary prince was posted with a strong de- tachment in the bishopric of Munster, to check the progress of the latter; and prince Ferdinand in person, with the main body of his forces, lay behind the Dymel, to make head against the former, and, if possible, to strip them of their conquests in Hesse. Their numbers and the strength of their po- sition seemed equally discouraging to such an attempt Their infantry consisted of one hundred battalions: that of the allies was composed but of sixty. The ground, on which the French were encamped near the village of Graebenstein, in the frontiers of Hesse, had been very judiciously chosen, both for command of the country, and the difficulty of approaching them. Their centre occupied an advantageous eminence : their left wing was almost inaccessible, owing to several deep ravines; and their right was covered by the adjoining village, by several rivulets, and a large detachment under one of their best officers, Monsieur Castries. In such a situation, they imagined they had nothing to fear, particularly as a considera- ble corps of the allied army under general Luckner was employed at some distance in watching the motions of prince Xavier of Saxony ; so that they thought it impossible for troops thus separated to unite in any sud- den attack on their camp. Prince Ferdinand availed himself of their security. He sent proper instructions to Luckner, who, leaving a party of Hessian hussars behind him to amuse the prince of Saxony, and marching full speed in the night with the rest, crossed the Weser, turned the right of the French army, and, without being discovered, placed himself upon their rear. General Sporken had orders to advance in another direction, and to charge the same wing in flank. Prince Ferdinand was to fall upon the cen- GEORGE EL 17601820. 45 tre , while the honor and danger of attack- ing their left wing were consigned to the marquis of Granby. All the necessary pre- parations were made with so much judg- ment, celerity, and good order, that the French had no intimation of the design be- fore they found themselves attacked with the utmost impetuosity in front, flank, and rear. The right whig, under Castries, re- tired without much loss, and in tolerable or- der ; but the rest of the army must have been totally routed, if Monsieur Stainville, who commanded on the left, had not thrown himself with the flower of the French in- fantry into a wood, which enabled him for some time to stop the career of the victors. His brave corps was a devoted sacrifice. All but two battalions were taken or cut to pieces. The other bodies, covered by this resolute manreuvre, precipitately escaped to the other side of the Fulda, or took shelter under the cannon of Cassel. About three thousand were made prisoners, and, among them, almost two hundred officers. The loss of the allies was inconsiderable. The English, who were most engaged, had only a few men killed, and no officer of rank but lieutenant-colonel Townshend, who fell with great honor to himself, and to the regret of the whole army. This action, which took place on the twenty-fourth of June, was a prelude to a series of bold, masterly, and well-connected enterprises. Whilst the French, under ihe hurry and confusion of then- late disaster, were unable to provide against sudden acci- dents, the marquis of Granby and lord Fred- eric Cavendish, at the head of a large body of British and Hanoverian troops, appeared thirty miles behind them, with an intention to cut off their communication with Frank- fort, whence they drew all their subsistence. In this emergency, Rochambeau collected some brigades at ,Homburg to oppose the de- sign of the English commanders; but his party, after a vigorous resistance, was dis- persed ; and almost all the important posts in the south of Hesse fell into the hands of the allies. To the north they were equally successful. They obliged prince Xavier, with his Saxon troops, to abandon his ad- vanced situation in the territories of Hano- ver, and to leave the French garrison at Gottingen without support The forces there, despairing of then- ability to defend it, soon evacuated the place, happy in being able to effect their escape, though with great man- agement and difficulty. Some other advan- tages were gained near Munden, where eleven hundred of the enemy were made prisoners, the intrenchments of their left wing were seized, and all the works de- stroyed. Thus harassed on every side, they had no resource but to call the army of the Lower Rhine to then- assistance. Being re- solved not to hazard an engagement before its arrival, they quitted the heights of Mul- singen, though a post of the utmost strensrth and consequence; fell back a considerable distance behind the Fulda ; and left Cassel uncovered, but not defenceless, as, in their retreat, they threw into it a garrison of ten thousand men, to resist any immediate at- tempts that might be made by prince Ferdi- nand. He began the siege, however, with- out loss of time ; nor did he relinquish that object, notwithstanding the defeat of the hereditary prince by the prince of Conde at Johannisberg, in which the former lost above three thousand men, and was himself dan- gerously wounded. After a variety of sub- sequent efforts, on the part of the united French armies, to relieve Cassel, they were at length forced to abandon it to its fate ; and the garrison surrendered on the first of November to the victorious arms of the al- lies, who closed with this exploit the career of their military operations. CONDUCT OF FRANCE AND SPAIN TO PORTUGAL. THE events of this campaign in Germa- ny, though distinguished for their brilliancy and magnitude, were not of so much real importance to Great Britain as those which took place at the same time on a narrower and less splendid theatre in the south of Eu- rope. One of the first schemes projected by the courts of Versailles and Madrid, after their avowed junction, was an attack upon the kingdom of Portugal. The ministers of France and Spain presented to the court of Lisbon a joint memorial, in order to per- suade his most faithful majesty to enter into the alliance of the two crowns, and to co- operate in their scheme for the humiliation of Great Britain. In that memorial, they insisted largely on the tyranny exercised by England over all other powers, especially in maritime affairs; and which the kings of Spam and Portugal were equally command- ed by the ties of blood and their common in- terests to oppose. They concluded with de- claring, that as soon as his most faithful majesty had taken his resolution, which they doubted not would prove favorable, their troops were ready to enter Portugal and garrison the fortresses of that kingcom, in order to avert the danger to which "it might otherwise be exposed from the naval force of Great Britain. To this extraordinary memorial the two ministers added, that they were ordered by their courts to demand a categorical answer in four days, and that any farther deliberation would be considered as a negative. The king of Portugal's situation was now truly critical, but his firmness, on so trying an occasion, is worthy of applause. In an- 46 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. swer to the insulting proposition of the house of Bourbon he observed, with judg- ment and temper, that his alliance with England was ancient, and consequently could give no reasonable offence at the pres- ent crisis : that it was purely defensive, anc therefore innocent in all respects. The Bourbon courts denied that this alliance was purely defensive, or entirely innocent ; anc for this astonishing reason, that the defen- sive alliance is converted into an offensive one, " from the situation of the Portuguese dominions, and the nature of the English power." The English fleets, said they, can- not keep the sea in all seasons, nor cruise on the coasts best calculated for cutting off the French and Spanish navigation, without the harbors and the friendly assistance of Portugal : " nor," added they, " could these haughty islanders insult all the maritime powers of Europe, if the riches of Portugal did not pass into their hands." They also endeavored to awaken the jealousy of his most faithful majesty, by representing his kingdom as under the yoke of England ; and told him, that he ought to be thankful for " the necessity wh.ich they had laid upon him to make use of his reason, in order to take the road of his glory, and embrace the common interest." THEY DECLARE WAR. ALTHOUGH the king of Portugal was sen- sible, that the necessity here alluded to was the immediate march of the Spanish army to take possession of his dominions, he was not intimidated from his honorable resolu- tion. The treaties of league and commerce, subsisting between Great Britain and Por- tugal, were such, he maintained, as the laws of God, the laws of nature, and the laws of nations have always deemed inno- cent. He entreated their most Christian and Catholic majesties to open their eyes to the crying injustice of turning upon Portu- gal the hostilities kindled against Great Britain: to consider, that they were giving an example which would lead to the utter destruction of mankind ; that there was an end of public safety, if neutral powers were to be attacked, because they have entered into defensive alliances with the powers at war ; that if their troops should invade his dominions, he would, therefore, in vindica- tion of his neutrality, endeavor to repel them with all his forces and those of his allies. In consequence of this magnani- mous declaration, the ministers of France and Spain immediately left Lisbon ; and their departure was soon followed by a joint de- nunciation of war against Portugal, in the name of then- most Christian and Catholic majesties. BRITAIN ASSISTS PORTUGAL. THE grand reliance of his most faithful majesty was on the support of England, for whose sake and hi whose quarrel he had been drawn into the unequal contest His ambassador at London explained to the min- istry his master's alarming situation, and urged with great propriety and force the justice of his claims to the most immediate and effectual relief. Besides a formal de- mand of the succors stipulated by subsisting treaties, he expressed a desire that his mas- ter should be supplied with a number of able officers to command, train, and conduct the forces of Portugal, which had been long disused to war ; and that his Britannic ma- jesty would continue to favor him with such farther help as his pressing necessities might require. The ready and liberal vote of par- liament when this matter was laid before them, and the dispatch used by the ministry in forwarding the desired assistance, will do the nation immortal honor. The greater the weakness of Portugal was, the more conspicuous were the magnanimity and re- sources of Great Britain, who alone seemed to balance all Europe, and was able, in the close of an expensive war, to prop up by her generous support the tottering fortune of so feeble an ally. She sent to Portugal officers, troops, artillery, arms, military stores, provisions, money, everything which could enable the Portuguese to exert their natural strength, and everything which could supply that strength where it was de- ficient Before the actual commencement of hos- tilities, lord Tyrawley, a nobleman of great military talents and experience, and who had formerly resided as ambassador at Lis- bon, was sent thither as plenipotentiary, with instructions to examine the state of the Portuguese forces, and to assist the min- istry of that kingdom with his best advice in forming their army, and in making prop- er dispositions for the defence of their fron- iers. He was also to have the command of the British auxiliaries, consisting of about eight thousand troops, partly drawn Tom Belleisle, and partly from Ireland, where two regiments of Roman Catholics lad been raised fdr this service. But his ordship, though in other respects very high- y accomplished both as a general and statesman, was rather proud and impetuous. Ele took offence at the conduct of the king of Portugal's ministers, at the want of vigor in their councils, and at their unwillingness o adopt any of his spirited suggestions. In he dispatches he sent home, his lordship complained, that they had misrepresented he state of their forces to the court of Great Britain ; that they had not taken any proper steps to secure their frontier places ; that .hey amused him with general promises, and evasive answers, and started frivolous objec- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 47 tions to the execution of those measures which he proposed for the operations of the war. He even charged them with want of sincerity, and made no scruple of hinting a suspicion that the rupture between Portugal and Spain was a mere collusion, to make a diversion of the British troops and treasure in favor of the latter. As these suspicions were evidently the effect of disgust and ca- price, his lordship was recalled, very early in the campaign, from a situation where he could be no longer useful. CAMPAIGN OPENS. WHEN the Bourbon courts made war against Portugal, the declared object was to cut off Great Britain from the use of the ports of that kingdom. As they did not think it possible to attain this object by naval ope- rations, they attempted it by military ones, and aimed then- principal endeavors at the two great ports to which the English prin- cipally resort, Oporto and Lisbon. With this view three inroads were proposed to be made, one to the north, another more to the south, and the third in the middle provinces, to preserve a communication between the two former. PARTIAL SUCCESSES OF THE SPAN- IARDS. THE first army that entered upon the exe- cution of this plan, was commanded by the marquis de Sarria. It penetrated into the north-east angle of Portugal, and advanced towards Miranda. This town, though not in a good state of defence, might have held out for some time : but a powder-magazine hav- ing blown up by accident, the fortifications were ruined ; and the Spaniards, before they had raised their first battery, marched into the town by the breaches in the wall. They met with still less opposition at Braganza, a considerable city, from which the royal family of Portugal derives its ducal titles. The garrison retired with precipitation at their approach, and the magistrates present- ed the keys of the town to the Spanish commander. The town of Moncorvo surren- dered in the same manner to one of their detachments; and everything was cleared before them to the banks of the Douro. A party under count O'Reilly made a forced march of fourteen leagues, in two days, to the city of Chaves, which was immediately evacuated. By these successes they became masters of almost the whole of the exten- sive province of Tralos Montes, and their progress spread a general alarm. Oporto was almost given up as lost : and the admi- ralty of England prepared transports to carry off the effects of the British factory. How- ever, the body which had traversed this province without resistance, was repulsed in attempting to cross the river Douro. The in- habitants of the country, animated and guid- d by some English officers, with a rein- forcement of regular troops, seized a diffi- cult pass, and drove the enemy back to Torre de Montcorvo. In ravaging the open coun- try, the Spanish soldiers committed some barbarities on the peasants, which were afterwards severely retaliated. The common people, on both sides, naturally ferocious, had not been sufficiently inured to war, to moderate its fury, and reduce it under laws : an inveterate enmity subsisted between them ; and, in every encounter, the victori- ous party attended only to the dictates of rancor and revenge. Another corps of Spanish troops, which took the central route, in order, as before intimated, to keep up an easy communica- tion between the forces employed in the northern and southern expeditions, entered the province of Beira, at the villages called Val de la Mula and Val de Coelha. They were joined by strong detachments, amount- ing to almost the whole army in Tralos Montes, and immediately laid siege to Al- meida, the strongest and best provided place on the frontiers of Portugal. Besides, it was of the greatest importance from its middle situation, as the possession of it would greatly facilitate the operations upon every side, and would especially tend to forward an attempt upon Lisbon, the grand object, towards which, at this time, all the endeavors of the Spaniards seem to have been directed. The trenches were opened on the twenty-fifth of July : next day the besiegers were reinforced by eight thousand French auxiliaries ; and on the twenty-fifth of August the garrison capitulated, after having made a much longer and more reso- lute defence than was at first expected. This conquest left all the adjoining country at the mercy of the invaders. They spread themselves over the whole territory of Castel Branco, a principal district of the province of Beira, making their way to the south- ward, until they approached the banks of the Tagus. PORTUGUESE RECOVER THEMSELVES. THIS rapid career of the Spaniards, was not, however, of long continuance. Lord Tyrawley's disputes with the Portuguese ministry had hitherto prevented the allies from acting in perfect harmony and concert against the enemy. But after his recall, and the arrival from Germany of a very celebrated officer, who was appointed com- mander-in-chief of all the forces, the affairs of the country began quickly to assume a different appearance. This officer was the count de la Lippe Buckeburor, who had commanded the artillery of the British army in Westphalia during the whole course of the war, and who had given the most une- quivocal proofs of his valor and capacity. He 48 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. was accompanied by one of the princes of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, brother to the queen of Great Britain, who resolved to make this campaign in Portugal. He also found at the head of the British troops some generals well qualified to assist him both in council and in the field. Lord Tyrawley had left behind him his second in command, the earl of Loudon, a man of great experience and sagacity. The next post was filled by lieu- tenant-general Townshend, who had served with very high reputation in America; and the subordinates were lord George Lenox, with the brigadier-generals Crawford and Burgoyne, all of them officers of approved merit. As the Count de la Lippe was an entire stranger to all the subjects of debate, which had existed between the late British commander and the court of Lisbon, more unanimity was now likely to prevail: the spirits or the whole nation began to revive ; and the hopes then formed of more success- ful exertions were fully justified by the event GENERAL BURGOYNE PENETRATES INTO SPAIN. THE third body of Spanish troops, destin- ed for the southern inroad into Portugal, as- sembled on the frontiers of Estremadura, with an intention of penetrating into the province of Alentejo. Had this third corps been joined to the others already in Portugal, it would probably have formed such an army as might, in spite of any obstruction, have forced its way to Lisbon ; had it acted sepa- rately, it might have greatly distracted the defence, so as to enable some other corps to penetrate to that city. It was necessary to prevent, if possible, their entrance into Por- tugal ; since their mere entrance would have been almost equal to a victory on their side. The count de la Lippe, therefore, formed a design of attacking an advanced party of them in a town on the frontiers, called Va- lencia d' Alcantara, where he heard they had amassed considerable magazines. The con- duct of this enterprise was committed to brigadier-general Burgoyne. This active and judicious officer, though at a distance of five days' march, and in spite of all the dis- appointments and obstructions to which ser- vices of this kind are so liable, when they cannot be executed immediately, effected a complete surprise of the enemy on the morn- ing of the twenty-seventh of August He hoped to have reached the place the night before, and had made the disposition for at- tack accordingly. But finding himself over- taken by daylight, he altered his plan, and advancing with his own dragoons and a small party of irregular cavalry in full gallop, he entered the town of Valencia sword in hand; dispersed the guards that were in the great square; and secured the entrances into it with very little difficulty. The rest of his forces, consisting of all the British grena- diers, and eleven companies of Portuguese grenadiers, with some infantry and a few- armed peasants, soon came up to support their gallant leader. The Spanish general who was to have commanded in the intend- ed invasion, and a great quantity of arms and ammunition, fell into the hands of the victor, who brought away hostages for the care of the wounded, and the payment of the king's revenue for one year, which he exacted as a consideration for having spared the town and convents. This important ser- vice was performed with very little loss on the part of the British troops. The enemy had to lament the total destruction of one of the best regiments in the Spanish service. Although the information which the count de la Lippe had received about the maga- zines proved to be groundless, the other ad- vantages resulting from the enterprise made ample amends for that disappointment. The taking of the Spanish general disconcerted the plan wltich he was then on the point of carrying into execution : for, at the very moment of his being made prisoner, he was actually employed in reconnoitring the en- trance into the province of Alentejo, where he proposed to march in a few days. This seemed to have been for some tune the des- tination not only of the troops under the captured general's command, but also the great object of the Spanish army which had hitherto acted in Beira. The former of these provinces is a plain, open, fertile coun- try, where their cavalry, which constituted their chief force, might have acted decisive- ly : whereas the latter was a rough, moun- tainous region, in which the horse were sub- sisted with difficulty, and could be of little service. To prevent therefore the entry of the Bourbon army from any quarter into Alentejo, was to the allies an object of the highest moment General Burgoyne, by this expedition into the Spanish territories, had already prevented it in one part ; and the vigilance and activity of the same officer had no small share in preventing it also on the other. That part of the Bourbon army, which acted in the territory of Castel Branco, had made themselves masters of several import- ant passes, which they obliged some bodies of the Portuguese to abandon. They at- tacked the rear of the combined army, which was passing the river Alveito, with the ap- pearance of a retreat; but, in reality, with a view to draw them insensibly into the mountainous tracts. Here they were re- pulsed with loss; but still they continued masters of the country; and nothing re- mained but the passage of the Tagus, to enable them to take up their quarters in GEORGE IIL 17601820. 49 Alenteio. General Burgoyne, who was post- ed with an intention to obstruct them in their passage, lay in the neighborhood, and within view of a detached camp, composed of a considerable body of their cavalry, near a village called Villa Velha. As he observ- ed that the enemy kept no very soldierly guard in this poet, and were uncovered in their rear and their flanks, he conceived a design of falling on them by surprise. He confided the execution of this design to colonel Lee, who turned their camp, fell upon their rear in the night of the sixth of October, made a considerable slaughter, dis- persed the whole party, destroyed their mag- azines, and returned with scarce any lose. Burgoyne, in the mean tune, supported him by a feint attack in another quarter, which prevented the enemy's being relieved from the adjacent posts. SPANIARDS RETREAT. THIS advantage, being obtained in a criti- cal moment, was attended with important consequences. The season was now far ad- vanced ; and the roads became impassable through the heavy rains which fell : so that the enemies, destitute of strong posts, and of magazines for the subsistence of their horse, retreated to the frontiers of their own country, where their supplies were at hand, and where they were not liable to be har- assed by the efforts of the combined army. Thus was Portugal saved by the wise con- duct of the count de la Lippe, and the dis- tinguished valor of the English commanders and soldiery ; and thus did the insolent men- aces of the Bourbon confederacy terminate in their own disappointment and. confusion. There never was probably so heavy a storm of national calamity, ready to fall upon an unprovided people, so happily averted, or so speedily blown over. TRIUMPH OF GREAT BRITAIN AT SEA. BUT it was at sea, the favorite element of Britain, that the success of her arms was most conspicuous. In vain had her enemies endeavored to draw off her attention from maritime enterprises, and to employ her chief strength in continental wars: she found means to baffle their most vigorous efforts both in Germany and Portugal; her glorious exertions by land in the defence of her friends and allies, did not divert her from giving the fullest scope to her naval power in the enlargement of her commerce and her conquests. The French West In- dia islands were the first objects of attack ; and the failure of the armament sent out against Martinico in the year 1759, under Mr. Pitt's administration, did not discourage his successors in office from making another attempt. The plan they laid down for this purpose, and the preparations made to give it effect and to extend its advantages, VOL. IV. 5 have been already expkined. Every part of it was executed with a degree of pre- cision and spirit which corresponded well with the boldness and wisdom of the con- ception. CAPTURE OF MARTINICO, AND OTHER WEST INDIA ISLANDS. THE squadron designed for this purpose, which had sailed from England in October with four battalions drafted from the garri- son of Belleisle, having been reinforced at Barbadoes by eleven battalions from New- York and some regiments from the Leeward islands, proceeded with the fleet already on that station towards Martinico, on the fifth of January. The whole armament con- sisted of about ten thousand land forces, commanded by general Moncktou, and eigh- teen ships of the line, besides frigates, fire- ships, and bomb-ketches, under the direction of rear-admiral Rodney. They came within sight of Martinico on the seventh of Janua- ry ; and the troops landed at a creek called Cas Navire, without the loss of a man, the ships having been disposed so properly, and having directed theif fire with such effect, that the enemy was obliged in a short tune to abandon the batteries which they had erected to defend this inlet. The whole island, which is mountainous and unequal, is intersected with deep gullies hollowed out by rapid torrents, so as greatly to impede the prepress of an army, particu- larly with regard to its artillery. Theee obstructions were nowhere greater than in the neighborhood of Fort-Royal, against which the first regular attack was proposed. This town is commanded by two considera- ble eminences, called Morne Tortenson and Morne Gamier, the natural strength of which was improved by every contrivance of art. The former was first to be reduced. A body of regulars and marines, supported by a thousand sailors in flat-bottomed boats, advanced on the right along the seashore, in order to force the redoubts which lay in the lower grounds. On the left, towards the country, a detachment of light infantry, with a proper reserve behind them, was to turn the enemy's flank ; whilst the attack in the centre was made by the British gren- adiers and the remainder of the army, under the fire of batteries erected with great labor on the opposite heights. They drove the French from poet to post, till, after a sharp struggle, the British banners were fixed on the top of the hill Some of the fugitives were pursued to the very gates of the town: others saved themselves on Morne Gamier, which being much higher than Morne Tortenson, left the victorious troope still exposed to great annoyance from the enemy. Three days elapsed, before proper ar- 50 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. rangements could be made for dislodging the French from their second eminence. In the midst of these preparations, their whole force descended from the hill, sallied out of the town, and made a furious assault on the advanced posts ; but they were immediately repulsed by the British troops, who, hurried on by their ardor, improved a defensive ad- vantage into an attack, passed the gullies, mingled with the enemy, scaled the hill, seized the batteries, dispersed the militia, and drove the regulars into the town. All the positions which overlooked and com- manded Fort-Royal being now secured, the batteries against it were no sooner com- pleted, than it surrendered on the fourth of February ; and in three days after, Pidgeon- island, which was deemed one of the best defences of the harbor, followed the example of the citadel. Fourteen French privateers were found there ; and a much greater num- ber, from other ports in the island, were afterwards delivered up to admiral Rodney, in consequence of the favorable terms grant- ed to the inhabitants. Still, however, St. Pierre, the capital, re- mained to be reduced ; and it was appre- hended that the resistance there might be considerable, if the spirit and perseverance of the garrison corresponded with the strength of the fortifications, and with the natural advantages of the country. But the reduction of Fort^Royal had greatly abated the enemy's confidence. The militia, in particular, despaired of making any effec- tual defence. Influenced by these motives, and disheartened by the train of misfortunes which had everywhere attended the French arms, they resolved to hold out no longer; and on the twelfth of February, just as gen- eral Monckton was ready to embark for the reduction of St Pierre, he was prevented by the arrival of two deputies, who came to capitulate for the surrender of that place and of the whole island. The conquest of Martinico, which was the seat of the superior government, the principal mart of trade, and the centre of the French force in the Caribbees, naturally drew after it the submission of all the de- pendent islands. Grenada, though, from the nature of its situation, it might have made a vigorous defence, surrendered without op- position. The British troops found as little difficulty in taking possession of St Lucia, Tobago, and St Vincent, the right to which had so long been an object 01 dispute be- tween the two nations. The Grenadillas and the other little isles, which are scatter- ed up and down in the same seas, were in- capable of making any resistance ; and it is also probable, that if they had been places of much greater strength, the prosperity of Guadeloupe under the British government would have been a strong temptation to their easy and general surrender. St Domingo was the only spot which the French still retained in the Archipelago of America; and the loss of that did not appear to be far distant. An object of more consequence diverted the storm to one of the most valu- able possessions of the Spaniards in the West Indies. ARMAMENT DISPATCHED AGAINST THE HAVANNAH. BEFORE the success of the expedition against Martinico was known in England, the ministry, confident that it could not have failed, had given orders for a considerable part of the forces employed there to re- imbark, and to sail in a westerly direction to a certain rendezvous, where, in case of a rupture with Spain, they were to be joined by another armament, in order to make a descent upon the island of Cuba. The latter squadron left Portsmouth the fifth of March, and very happily met the proposed division of the former fleet, under Sir James Douglas, at Cape Nichola, the north-west point of Hispaniola, on the twenty-seventh of May. After this junction, their force amounted to nineteen ships of the line, eighteen small vessels of war, and near one hundred and fifty transports, with about ten thousand troops on board. A supply of four thousand more was also expected from north America, Lord Albemarle, the friend and disciple of the duke of Cumberland, had the command of the land forces: the marine was under admiral Pococke, who having contributed by his valor towards that sove- reignty which his country had obtained in the East Indies, was now chosen to extend its empire in the West As the hurricane season was more to be dreaded than the resistance of the enemy, the utmost expedition was necessary. The admiral, therefore, instead of keeping to the south of Cuba, which though very safe, would prove by far the most tedious way, resolved to run along the northern shore of that island, pursuing his career from east to west through the old straits of Bahama, a much shorter, but more dangerous passage, beino- very narrow, and bounded on the right and left by sands and shoals, which render the navigation so hazardous, that it has usually been avoided by single and small vessels. There was no pilot in the fleet whose expe- rience could be depended on to conduct them safely through it. The admiral, however, being provided with a good chart of lord Anson's, was determined to make the experi- ment, and to trust to his own sagacity, con- duct, and vigilance. So bold an attempt had never been made ; but every precaution was taken to guard this boldness from the imputation of temerity. A vessel was sent GEORGE IE. 17601820. 51 to reconnoitre the passage, and, when re- turned, was ordered to take the lead : some frigates followed: sloops and boats were stationed on the shallows to the right and left, with well-adapted signals both for the day and the night : the fleet moved in seven divisions ; and being favored with pleasant weather, and secured by the admirable dis- positions which were made, they, without the smallest loss, or interruption, got clear through this perilous passage, seven hundred miles in length, on the fifth of June, having entered it the twenty-seventh of May. The Havannah, the object of their long voyage, and of so many anxious hopes and fears, was now before them. This place is not denominated the capital of Cuba : St. Jago, situated at the south-east part of the island, has that title: but the Havannah, though the second in rank, is the first in wealth, size, and importance. The harbor, which is perhaps the best in the world, is entered by a narrow passage about half a mile long, and expanding itself afterwards into a capacious basin, sufficient to contain a thousand sail of the largest ships, having almost throughout six fathom water, and being perfectly covered from every wind. Here the rich fleets from the several parts of the Spanish settlements rendezvous, be- fore they finally set out on their voyage to Europe ; a circumstance which has ren- dered the Havannah one of the most opulent, flourishing, and populous cities in the west- era world. Suitable to its importance was the care with which the narrow entrance into the bay was fortified. On a projecting point of land, to the east of the channel, stood the Moro, a very strong fort, having two bastions towards the sea, and two more on the land-side, with a wide and deep ditch cut out of a rock. The opposite point to the westward was secured by another fort called the Puntal, which was also surround- ed by a ditch cut in the same manner, and was every way well calculated for co-opera- ting with the Moro in the defence of the harbor. It had likewise some batteries that opened upon the country, and flanked part of the town wall. But this wall and the fortifications of the city itself were not in very good condition. The wall and the bastions wanted repair : the ditch was dry and of no considerable width ; and the cov- ered-way was almost in ruins, but it was utterly impracticable to attack it by sea, the entrance of the harbor being not only de- fended by the forts, but by fourteen Spanish ships of the line, three of which were after- wards sunk in the channel, and a boom laid across it. SIEGE OF THE MORO. LORD ALBEMARLE resolved to begin with the siege of the Moro. He knew that the reduction of that fort must infallibly be fol- lowed by the surrender of the city ; whereas, if he had attacked the town first, his army might have been so much weakened as to be unable to surmount the vigorous resist- ance of the fort, defended by the garrison, and by the flower of the inhabitants, zealous to save their own and the public treasure. All was confusion and alarm, at the first sight of a hostile armament Common pru- dence would have suggested the propriety of keeping their fleet ready for action ; and as they were not far from an equality, and could be of very little service in the port, they should have put out to sea, and hazard- ed the issue of an engagement. A battle maintained with spirit, though finally unsuc- cessful, might have so far disabled their opponents as to unfit them for any farther attempts, after a dear-bought naval victory. The loss of the whole Spanish fleet in this way might have saved the city ; but the city once taken, nothing could possibly save the fleet. Either through extreme cowardice or infatuation, the only use they made of their shipping was to sink three of them behind a strong boom at the mouth of the harbor. When the British commanders had got everything in readiness for landing, the admiral, with a great part of the fleet, bore away to the westward, and made a feint of disembarking the troops; while a detach- ment, protected by commodore Keppel and captain Harvey, approached the shore to the eastward, and landed there without opposi- tion, a small fort which might give some disturbance, having been previously silenced. On this side, the principal army was des- tined to act. It was divided into two bodies ; the one being immediately occupied in the attack on Fort Moro, and the other in cov- ering the siege, and in protecting the parties employed in procuring water and provisions. The former corps was commanded by major- general Keppel, and the latter by lieutenant- general Elliot A detachment under colo- nel Howe was encamped near the west side of the town, to cut off its communication with the country, and to keep the enemy's attention divided. The hardships, which the troops sustained in carrying on the siege, are almost incredi- ble. The earth was everywhere so thin, that it was with great difficulty they could cover themselves in their approaches. The want of water was also very distressing. They were obliged to fetch it from a great distance, as there was not any spring or river near them ; and so scanty and precarious was the supply, procured with much labor, that they often found it necessary to have recourse to what the ships could aflbrd. Roads of communication were to be cut through thick woods ; and the artillery was 52 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. to be dragged, for a vast way, over a rough rocky shore. In these painful efforts, under a burning sun, many of the men dropped down dead with heat, thirst, and fatigue. Every obstacle was at length surmounted by the most astonishing perseverance ; and bat- teries, erected along a ridge on a level with the fort, were opened with great effect. The ships in the harbor were driven farther back ; so as not to be able to molest the besiegers ; and a sally made by the garrison was re- pulsed with great slaughter. Whilst these works were vigorously pushed on shore, the navy, not contented with the great assistance which they had be- fore lent to every part of the land service, resolved to make an attempt which was more directly within their province. Ac- cordingly, on the first of July, the very day that the batteries were opened, three of the largest ships, under captain Harvey, laid their broadsides against the fort, and began a terrible fire, which lasted seven hours with- out intermission. The Moro returned it with great constancy, and being situated on a very high and steep rock, was proof against all efforts. Besides, the guns from the op- posite fort of Puntal, and from the town, galled them extremely; insomuch, that in order to save the ships from absolute destruc- tion, they were obliged at length, and un- willingly, to bring them off. Even this re- treat was not effected without difficulty, as they were very much shattered in so long and unequal a contest But, though no im- pression was made on the works which the ships attacked, the attempt was nevertheless of considerable service. The attention of the defendants was so much engaged that they neglected the other side of the fort, and allowed the fire of the English batteries to become superior. As soon, however, as the Spaniards were released from the ships of war, they re- turned to their duty on the land-side, and re- vived their defence with great spirit An unremitted cannonade was kept up by both parties for several days with a fierce emula- tion : and the military skill and spirit of the assailants were put to the severest trial. In the midst of this sharp and doubtful conten- tion, the capital battery against the fort took fire, and being chiefly constructed of timber and fascines dried by intense heat, the flames soon became too powerful for opposition. The battery was almost wholly consumed. The labor of six hundred men for seventeen days was destroyed in a few hours, and all was to begin anew. This stroke was the more severely felt, as it happened at a time when the other hardships of the siege were become almost intolerable. The diseases of the climate, increased by rigorous duty, had reduced the army to half its number. Five thousand soldiers were at one time unfit for service, through various distempers ; and three thousand sailors were in the same miserable condition. The want of necessa- ries and refreshments aggravated their suffer- ings, and retarded their recovery. The pro- visions were bad ; and the necessity of bring- ing, from a distance, a scanty supply of water, exhausted all their force. Besides, as the season advanced, the prospect of succeeding grew fainter. The hearts of the most san- guine sunk within them, when they beheld this gallant army wasting away ; and con- sidered that the noble fleet, which had rode so long on an open shore, must be exposed to inevitable ruin, if the hurricane season should come on before the reduction of the place. A thousand languishing and impa- tient looks were cast out for the reinforce- ment, which was expected from North Ame- rica : but none appeared ; and the few, who still preserved some remains of strength, were obliged to bear up under the load of double duty, and of afflicting accidents. An- other battery took fire, before the former could be repaired ; and the toil of the be- siegers unfortunately increased, in proportion as their strength was diminished. Many fell into despair and died, overcome with fa- tigue, anguish, and disappointment. But however great the distresses, however small the numbers of those that were left, they made efforts which would not have dis- graced the largest and the best appointed army. The rich prize which lay before them, the shame of returning home baffled, and even the strenuous resistance of the enemy, engaged their interest, their honor, their pride ; and roused them to the exertion of every nerve. The batteries were re- placed : their fire became equal, and soon superior to that of the fort : they silenced its guns ; they dismantled its upper works ; and, on the twentieth of July, they made a lodg- ment in the covered-way. Not many days after, they received a considerable part of the reinforcement from America. Four of the transports had been wrecked in the straits of Bahama ; but the men were saved on the adjacent islands, and were happily brought off by five sloops, which the admi- ral had immediately detached on this service. Five other transports, having about five hun- dred soldiers on board, had been taken by a French squadron. All the rest of the troops arrived in perfect health. These favorable events gave fresh vigor to the operations of the siege : but a sudden difficulty appeared, just at the seeming ac- complishment of the work. An immense ditch, cut in the solid rock, eighty feet deep, and forty wide, yawned before them and stopped their progress. To fill it up by any means appeared impossible. Difficult as the GEORGE HI. 17601820. 53 work of mining was in those circumstances, it was the only expedient It might have proved impracticable, had not a thin ridge of rock been fortunately left, to cover the ditch towards the sea. On this narrow ridge, the miners, though quite exposed, passed the gulf with very little loss, and buried them- selves in the walL It now became visible to the governor of the Havannah, that the Moro must be speedi- ly reduced, if left to its own strength. He therefore resolved to attempt something for its relief Accordingly, on the twenty- second of July, before break of day, a body of twelve hundred men, mostly composed of the country militia, mulattoes and negroes, were transported across the harbor, climbed the hills, and made three different attacks on the English posts. The ordinary guards, though surprised, defended themselves so resolutely, that the Spaniards made little impression, and were not able to ruin any part of the approaches. The attacked posts were speedily reinforced ; and the enemy, who were little better than a disorderly rab- ble, and not conducted by proper officers, fell into terror and confusion. They were driven precipitately down the hill with great slaugh- ter : some gained their boats ; others were drowned ; and they lost in this well imagined, but ill executed sally, upwards of four hun- dred men. This was the last effort for the relief of the Moro; which, abandoned as it was by the city, and while an enemy was under- mining its walls, held out with a sullen reso- lution, and made no sort of proposal to ca- pitulate. The mines at length did their business. On the thirtieth of July, a part of the wall was blown up, and fell into the ditch, leaving a breach, which, though very narrow and difficult, was judged practicable by the general and engineer. The troops, ordered on this most dangerous of all ser- vices, rejoiced that they had so near a pros- pect of terminating their .dreadful toils. They cheerfully prepared for the assault, and mounting the breach, under the com- mand of lieutenant Forbes, supported by lieutenant-colonel Stuart, they entered the fort with so much order and intrepidity, as entirely disconcerted the garrison. Four hundred of the Spaniards were cut in pieces, or perished in attempting to make their es- cape by water to the city. The rest threw down their arms, and received quarter. The marquis de Gonzalez, the second in command, was killed in making brave but ineffectual efforts to stop the flight of his countrymen ; and don Lewis de Velasco, the governor, having collected a small body of resolute soldiers, in an intrenchment round the flag- staff, gloriously fell in defending his colors, which nothing could induce him to strike. 5* The English had but two lieutenants and twelve men killed ; and one lieutenant, with four Serjeants, and twenty-four privates wounded. SURRENDER OF THE MORO, AND THE ISLAND. No sooner did the Spaniards in the town and in Fort Puntal see the besiegers in pos- session of the Moro, than they directed all their fire against that place. Meanwhile the British troops, encouraged by their suc- cess, were vigorously employed in remount- ing the guns of the captured fort, and in erecting batteries upon an eminence that commanded the city. These batteries being completed, and sixty pieces of cannon ready to play upon the Havannah, lord Albemarle, willing to prevent an unnecessary carnage, sent his aid-de-camp, on the tenth of August, with a flag of truce, to summon the governor to surrender, and make him sensible of the unavoidable destruction that was ready to fall upon the place. The governor replied, that he was under no uneasy apprehensions, and would hold out to the last extremity. But he was soon brought to reason. The very next morning, the batteries were open- ed against him with such effect, that in six hours all his guns were silenced : flags of truce were hung out in every quarter of the town ; and a deputy was sent to the camp of the besiegers, in order to settle the terms of capitulation. A cessation of hostilities immediately took place ; and, as soon as the terms were adjusted, the city of Havannah, and a district of one hundred and eighty miles to the westward included in its gov- ernment, the Puntal castle, and the ships in the harbor, were surrendered to his Britan- nic majesty. The Spaniards struggled a long time to save the men-of-war, and to have the harbor declared neutral ; but after two days' altercation, they were obliged to give up those capital points as wholly inad- missible. The garrison were allowed the honors of war, and were to be conveyed to Spain. Private property was secured to the inhabitants, with the enjoyment of their for- mer laws and religion. Without violating this last article, which rendered the proper- ty of individuals sacred, the conquerors, who took possession of the city on the fourteenth of August, found a booty there, computed at near three millions sterling, in silver and valuable merchandise belonging to the Cath- olic king, besides an immense quantity of arms, artillery, and military stores. This was the most considerable, and in its consequences the most decisive blow which had been struck since the beginning of the war. It united in itself all the honors and advantages that can be acquired in hostile enterprises. It was a military triumph, that reflected the brightest lustre on the courage, 54 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. steadiness, and perseverance of the British troops. Its effect on the enemy's marine made it equal to the greatest naval victory. Nine ships of the line and four frigates were taken : three of the former description had been sunk by the Spaniards, as already men- tioned, at the beginning of the siege, to stop up the entrance into the port ; and two more, that were in forwardness on the stocks, were destroyed by the conquerors. The harbor itself was of still greater value than the fleet. It absolutely commanded the only passage by which the Spanish shi&s could sail from the bay of Mexico to Europe ; so that the court of Madrid could no longer receive any sup- plies from the West Indies, except by such routes as were equally tedious and uncertain. The reduction of the Havannah, therefore, not only distressed the enemy by stopping the sources of their wealth, but likewise opened to the English an easy avenue to the centre of their American treasures. The plunder found at this place should also be taken into the account: it impoverished Spain, and enriched the captors ; and though it contributed nothing directly to the public service, it might be said to increase the stock of the British nation, and to supply those prodigious drains of specie, foreign subsidies and foreign armies. CAPTURE OF THE HERMIONE. THE capture of the Spanish register-ship, the Hermione, which happened in the latter end of May, just as she was on the point of entering one of the ports of old Spain, must be added to these resources. She was load- ed with treasure and valuable effects, esti- mated at one million sterling, which was considerably more than had ever before been taken in any one bottom. The prize was brought from Gibraltar to England : and the gold and silver, being conveyed in covered wagons to London, was carried to the Tower with great parade. The wagons entered St James's street in the morning of the twelfth of August, just after her majesty had been safely delivered of her first son, the prince of Wales ; and the king, with many of the nobility, who were present, went to the windows over the palace gate, to see the procession, and joined their accla- mations to those of the populace on two such joyful occasions. INVASION OF THE PHILIPPINES. Bcr these losses, though immense, were not the only ones, in which Spain was in- volved by her treacherous and precipitate junction with France. She soon received another dangerous wound in a very remote quarter, where she little expected so sudden an attack. The plan for invading the Phi- lippine islands, which colonel Draper had laid before ministry upon the first rumor of a war with Spain, was now carried into ex- ecution. Nothing was demanded but a light frigate to carry colonel Draper to Madras, where he arrived in the latter end of June, with orders to employ such of the troops and squadrons then in India as could be spared, to execute his important project. This plan seemed the more feasible, as no great force was thought necessary to be kept in the peninsula after the total expulsion of the French and the humiliation of the Dutch in that quarter. The whole force for the land operations amounted to two thousand three hundred men, commanded by brigadier general Draper, who had been promoted to that rank on his arrival: the naval force consisted of nine men-of-war and frigates, besides some store-ships, under the direction of rear-admiral Cornish. In three weeks the preparations for forming this body, and getting ready all the stores, were begun, completed, and the whole shipped through a raging and perpetual surf! A ship of force was dispatched before the fleet through the straits of Malacca, in or- der to watch the entrance of the Chinese sea, and to intercept whatever vessels might be bound to Manilla, or sent from the neigh- boring settlements, to give the Spaniards notice of the design. The East India com- pany were to have a third of the booty or ransom : the government of the conquered country was also to be vested in them : and the land and sea forces were, by mutual con- sent, to share between , them the several captures according to the rules established in the navy. The fleet sailed from Madras the first of August Proper dispositions were made for landing to the south of the town, on the twenty-fourth of September. The garrison consisted of eight hundred regular troops ; and as the place was too extensive to be en- tirely surrounded by the English army, its communication was open with the country, which poured in to its assistance ten thou- sand natives, a fierce and daring race, as remarkable for their hardiness and contempt of death, as most of the other Indians are for their cowardice and effeminacy. Had it been the interest of the Spaniards to have taught them the use of arms, Manilla would have been impregnable. The governor, who was also the archbishop of the Philip- pine islands, united in his own person, by a policy not wholly without precedent in the Spanish colonies, the civil power, the com- mand of the forces, and the ecclesiastical dignity. But however unqualified by his priestly character for the defence of a city attacked, he seemed not unfit for it by his intrepidity and resolution. In less than two days all the defences of the Spaniards were completely destroyed; and they had no resource left but in vigorous sallies. GEORGE m. 17601820. 55 MANILLA AND THE PHILIPPINES TAKEN. GENERAL DEAPEK therefore took the most effectual means for carrying the place by assault The governor retired into the cita- del ; but as that place was not tenable, he soon surrendered at discretion. The hu- manity and generosity of the British com- manders saved the town from a general and justly-merited pillage. A ransom of four millions of dollars was promised for this re- laxation of the laws of war. It was stipu- lated, at the same time, that all the other fortified places in the island, and in all the islands dependent on its government, should also be surrendered to his Britannic majesty. The whole range of the Philippines fell with the city of Manilla. A valuable addition was made to this con- quest, and a fresh wound was given to the enemy by a small part of the victorious fleet During the siege, admiral Cornish received intelligence by the capture of an advice- ship, that the galleon from Acapulco was arrived at the straits which form the en- trance into the archipelago of the Philip- pines. Two ships of the squadron, the Pan- ther man-of-war and the Argo frigate, were immediately dispatched in quest of her. They were out six and twenty days, when the Argo, in the evening of the thirtieth of October, discovered a sail, which they did not doubt to be the same they looked for. Just as the two ships in company were ap- proaching their object, the Panther was driven by the rapidity of a counter-current among shallows, and obliged to cast anchor. The Argo escaped the danger, overtook the galleon, and began a hot engagement with her, which continued for two hours. But the frigate was so unequally matched, and so roughly received by the Spaniard, that she was obliged to desist, and to bring-to in order to repair her damage. In this pause of action, the current slackened; and the Panther, by strenuous exertion, and judi- cious management, got under sail with the galleon in sight, and about nine the next morning got up to her. It was not until she was battered for two hours, within half-mus- ket-shot, that she struck. So obstinate a re- sistance, with very little activity of opposi- tion, surprised the English. In her first en- gagement with the Argo, this galleon mounted only six guns, though she was pierced for sixty. She had but thirteen in her engagement with the Panther. But she was a huge vessel lying like a mountain in the water; and the Spaniards trusted en- tirely to the excessive thickness of her sides, not altogether without reason, for the shot made no impression upon any part, except her upper works. Another subject of sur- prise occurred after she struck. Instead of the American galleon, as was expected, re- turning with the treasures of Mexico to the Philippines, she proved to be that from Ma- nilla, bound to Acapulco. She had proceeded a considerable way on her voyage, but meet- ing with a hard gale of wind in the great South Sea, she was dismasted, and obliged to put back to refit Though the captors were disappointed in their hopes of a ship- full of silver, their prize was of immense value, her cargo in rich merchandise being worth more than half a million. FAILURE OF AN EXPEDITION AGAINST BUENOS AYRES. NOTHING could reflect greater honor on the wisdom and vigor of the administration, under whose auspices so many important enterprises were carried into effect in dif- ferent quarters of the globe, than the signal success which almost everywhere attended them. Only one expedition, of inferior mo- ment, failed during the whole campaign; and that failure was not owing to the te- merity of the attempt, but to an unfortunate accident which could not have been guarded against by any stretch of human foresight. The circumstances attending it were equally melancholy and unexpected. It was deemed expedient to encourage some private adventurers to add to the other operations against so extensive a sphere of commerce, an attack upon the colony of Buenos Ayres in South America. The con- quest of this place was doubly desirable, aa it would afford great security to the Portu- guese settlements, and prove, at the same time, an excellent station for farther enter- prises against the dominions of Spain upon the South Seas. The Portuguese, therefore, being no less interested than the English in the issue of this undertaking, readily con- curred to promote its success. The em- barkation was made from the Tagus, on the thirtieth of August, and the force consisted of three stout frigates, and some small arm- ed vessels and store-ships, with five hundred troops on board. They had for their com- mander captain Macnamara, an officer of courage and experience. Their voyage to the mouth of the Plata was expeditious and favorable. They arrived there on the sec- ond of November ; but no sooner had they entered that vast river, than they were at- tacked by a violent storm attended with thunder and lightning. The river itself ia shoaiy, and its navigation dangerous. The Spaniards were also found better armed and better prepared for resistance than was ex- pected, having even acted on the offensive with success, and taken, some time before^ the Portuguese settlement of Nova Colonia, in which they found a very great booty, and a large quantity of military stores. On this view of things, the adventurers consulted together, and, after deliberation, judged it 56 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. necessary to begin with the recovery of Nova Colonia, before they made any attack upon Buenos Ayres. An English pilot, who knew the place and river, undertook to carry the commodore's vessel into the harbor, and within pistol-shot of the enemy's principal battery. They advanced to the attack with the fullest confidence of victory, and began a fierce fire, which was quickly returned, and supported, on both sides, for four hours with uncommon resolution. The Spanish batte- ries were almost silenced, when, just as their success seemed certain, the ship by some unknown accident took fire. The same mo- ment discovered the flames, and the impos- sibility of extinguishing them. The scene of horror and confusion that followed is un- describable. The commodore was drowned ; and of three hundred and forty souls, only seventy-eight in all escaped. The other vessels of the squadron, far from being able to yield any assistance to the sufferers, were obliged to get off as expeditiously as they could, lest they should have been involved in the same fate. As they had also received some damage in the action, it was with great difficulty that they made good their retreat to the Portuguese settlement at Rio de Ja- neiro. DISASTERS SUSTAINED BY SPAIN AND FRANCE. As this was the only check which Great Britain met with in the career of conquest, so it was the only little triumph that Spain enjoyed after a continual series of defeats and disastera In the course of one year, she saw herself stripped of the most valua- ble of her distant possessions : her ships of war, her merchant-men, her treasures, had everywhere become the prey of a watchful, active, and irresistible enemy: the inter- course between the mother country and her remaining colonies was almost totally cut off. Such were the fruits of her treachery to Great Britain, such the consequences of her yielding to the artful and self-interested suggestions of France. France had as little reason to exult in the success of her intrigues at the court of Mad- rid. The Bourbon confederacy served only to involve both powers in the same distresses. The attempts in Germany and Portugal, where their fondest hopes lay, ended in the most mortifying disappointment The loss of Martinico and its dependencies was a se- vere blow to France. So far from being able to make any attempts to regain those islands, she had it not in her power to send out a sufficient force to secure the only set- tlements that still remained to her from sharing the same fate. Her navy was so much reduced, that she could only spare very small squadrons for any undertaking ; and she was frequently obliged to trust to single frigates and transports for the con- veyance of reinforcements to St. Domingo and Louisiana. These seldom escaped the vigilance of the British cruisers. Her mer- chant-ships were, for the same reason, left equally exposed. A detail of all the single captures made upon her trade would be end- less. She lost, at one time, a fleet of twenty- five sail, richly laden with sugar, coffee, and indigo, which had taken their departure from Cape Francois for Europe, under convoy of four frigates. Five of the merchant-men were surprised and taken in the night by some privateers of New- York and Jamaica. Next day commodore Keppel fell in with the remainder, and having captured them and then- convoy, sent the whole into Port- Royal harbor. ATTEMPT TO BURN A BRITISH SQUADRON. IF France was thus incapable of defend- ing herself at sea, it was not likely that her offensive operations on the same element could be very vigorous or formidable. She made some attempts, however, which proved ultimately fruitless. Two of them de- serve notice. The object of the first was to burn the British ships of war at anchor in Basque-road, where they were stationed to watch the coast of Brittany, and Brest har- bor in particular. The enemy prepared three fire vessels, which, being chained together, were towed out of the port, and set on fire, with a strong breeze that wafted them di- rectly towards the English squadron. Through hurry, mistake, or accident, two of them blew up with a terrible explosion ; and every person on board perished. The wind, also, suddenly shifting, drove them clear of the ships which they were intended to destroy. Had they been managed with the coolness and intrepidity so requisite upon such occa- sions, they might have done some execu- tion. NEWFOUNDLAND TAKEN BY THE FRENCH, BUT RETAKEN. THE next offensive effort of any moment, which France made upon the ocean, was directed against Newfoundland. Monsieur de Ternay, with a squadron of four men-of- war, and a proportionable number of land forces under the command of Monsieur de Hausonville, having at first eluded observa- tion in their departure from Brest, and af- terwards baffled pursuit in their voyage across the Atlantic, entered the Bay of Bulls on the 24th of June, and landed some troops without opposition. Having taken posses- sion of an inconsiderable settlement in that bay, they advanced to the town of St John's, which being in no condition of defence, readily capitulated. One company of sol- diers, of. which the garrison of the fort con- sisted, were made prisoners of war. This GEORGE IH. 17601820. exercise of their power was of very short duration. As soon as the news reached England, a force was immediately fitted out to retake those places. But the vigilance and activity of general Amherst, who had the chief command in North America, su- perseded the necessity of this armament He detached colonel Amherst with a body of forces, and lord Colville with a small, but sufficient squadron, to recover the island. The land forces attacked some detachments of the French advantageously posted in the neighborhood of St. John's ; and prepared to attack St. John's itself with so much vigor and activity, that Monsieur de Hausonville, who had remained there as governor, thought proper to deliver up that place on the eigh- teenth of September, and to surrender him- self and garrison prisoners of war, before lord Colville could arrive from the place where the troops had been landed, to co- operate with them. Monsieur de Ternay escaped with the fleet, partly by having gain- ed a considerable distance, by means of a thick fog ; and partly because lord Colville, after their having been discovered, did not apprehend that they really were the ships of the enemy. OVERTURES FOR PEACE. THUS did all the operations, both naval and military, of tLe year 1762 remarkably concur to humble the pride, and to dash the hopes of the Bourbon confederacy. France was convinced by woful experience, that the present at least was not the favorable time for drawing from the family compact all the advantages with which she had vainly flat- tered herself. Disconcerted in her views of giving the law to Great Britain, she now felt in good earnest those moderate and pa- cific sentiments, which she had formerly professed, but the sincerity of which was at that time rather questionable. Spain, in like manner, having suffered beyond exam- ple, during her short engagement in the contest, and laboring under the most dread- ful apprehensions of future misfortunes, keenly repented of the steps she had taken, and wished to recede. As every day brought intelligence to both of some mortifying- stroke, they did not wait for the issue of all the enterprises before related, but endeavor- ed, in the beginning of September, to put a stop by eartynegotiation to calamities, which they foresaw the improbability of averting- by war. Happily for them, as well as for the general tranquillity, they found the court of London favorably disposed to listen to their peaceful overtures. 58 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER V. Causes and Effectt of the sincere Dispositions of all Parties towards Peace Motives of national Policy for encouraging Pacific Proposals Want of Perfect Harmony in the Cabinet Changes in Administration Dukes of Bedford and Nivernois em- ployed in the Negotiation Difference between this and the Treaty in 1761 Con- duct of the Courts with Respect to their German Allies Change in the Behavior of the British Ministry towards the King of Prussia justified France guided by the same Alteration of Circumstances; and the Peace of Germany restored The Ar- ticle relating to Portugal very easily settled Circumstance which facilitated the Adjustment of Great Britain's direct Concerns Extent of her Acquisitions in North America by this Treaty Terms annexed to the Surrender of St. Pierre and Mi- quelon Spain's Renunciation of her Pretensions to the Fishery Arrangement respecting the French West India Islands The Havannah restored, on very mode- rate Terms Cession and Exchange of the other Conquests in Africa, the East In- dies, and Europe Sacrifice made by France to the Honor of Great Britain, in sup- pressing the old Claim on Account of Prizes before the Declaration of War Pre- liminaries signed by the British and French Ministers at Fontainbleau Disputes concerning the Articles of the Peace Coalition between the Duke of Newcastle's and Mr. Pitt's Adherents Meeting of Parliament Conflict in the House of Com- mons The Security of our Colonies Majority in Favor of the Address Arrival of three Cherokee Chiefs in England. SITUATION OF THE BELLIGERENTS. THE delays that frequently took place in the course of the former negotiation, and the pretexts finally made use of to break it ofij form a striking contrast when opposed to the dispatch with which concerns of still greater importance were afterwards adjust- ed, as soon as the intentions of all parties towards peace became cordial and sincere. France and Spain had, indeed, no other re- source ; and Great Britain herself was not so intoxicated with success, as to prefer the continuance of expensive and hazardous efforts to a satisfactory termination of hos- tilities. The sentiments of the sovereign, the temper of the people at the time, the state of the nation as well as of parties, and many other motives of humanity, policy, and patriotism, concurred to render the ministry very earnest in their advances to the accom- plishment of so desirable an object In all the king's speeches to parliament, he had constantly expressed an anxious wish to see the tranquillity of his kingdoms re- stored; and had declared, as before taken notice of, that the only use he proposed to make of the advantages gained over the enemy in war, was to procure for his sub- jects the blessings of peace, on safe and honorable conditions. The happy moment was now arrived, when the offers made by the humbled house of Bourbon enabled his majesty to demonstrate to the world, that those were not studied or delusive profes- sions, but that he had really spoken the lan- guage of his heart. There is no doubt but that the country, in the midst of all her successes, had the most urgent occasion for peace. Though her trade had been greatly augmented, a circum- stance without example favorable; and though many of her conquests were not less valuable than glorious ; yet her supplies of money, great as they were, did not keep pace with her expenses. The supply of men too, which was necessary to furnish the waste of so extensive a war, became sensibly diminished; and the troops were not recruited but with some difficulty, and at a heavy charge. Besides, every end that could be rationally proposed in carrying on the war, was answered : the designs of the enemy were frustrated in all parts of the globe : their daring encroachments had been repressed, and such conquests made upon them, as put it out of their power to insist upon any terms but those which might be dictated by the moderation and generosity of Great Britain. These strong motives of public polity, for encouraging pacific pro- posals, were farther enforced by other con- siderations. A change in the system of the British ministry had begun this war: an- other change made it expedient to put an end to it It has been already observed, that the Whole council, except lord Temple, were unanimous in their opposition to Pitt's scheme for precipitating the rupture with Spain. But their unanimity upon that oc- casion did not imply a perfect coincidence of opinion, or harmony of sentiment in other respects. He was not long removed from office, before it appeared that the remaining GEORGE m. 1760 1S20. 59 part of the system was framed upon princi- ples so very discordant, that it was by no means likely to stand. The liberal ideas of the new king's friends, and the exclusive spirit of the old king's ministers, when brought up as it were into immediate colli- sion, kindled a flame, the violence of which was not to be easily to be subdued by any efforts of human sagacity. Pitt had originally associated himself with the tory patriots, and first acquired distinction by opposing the corrupt mea- sures of Sir Robert Walpole, the declared head of the whigs. After the latter was driven from the seat of power, Pitt occa- sionally temporized, being sometimes reput- ed a whig, sometimes a tory, till he got the chief direction of public affairs, when he indiscriminately employed persons of all parties, with equal honor to himself and ad- vantage to the state. Struck with such an example, that justified in practice the wis- dom, as well as the liberality of the king's views, his majesty would have gladly avail- ed himself of Pitt's assistance to complete so noble a design ; to do away all local and party distinctions; and to establish a plan of administration, which would afford the most impartial encouragement to every man of virtue and abilities throughout the whole empire. But his majesty's hopes of Pitt's concur- rence were unhappily disappointed. This minister was, indeed, of no party; but it was rather owing to a defect, than to any excellence in his character. An imperious and unaccommodating disposition rendered him incapable of acting any otherwise than alone. Placing too great a confidence in the superiority of his own genius, he treated the opinions of others with too little delicacy. The want of more conciliating manners was a bar to any permanent union between him and his colleagues in office. Thus the state was prevented from enjoying the joint fruit of the wisdom of many able men, who might mutually have tempered, and mutually forwarded each other : and Pitt's extraor- dinary talents became not merely useless, but, upon some occasions, injurious to his country. Soon after the resignation of Pitt, the duke of Newcastle, first commissioner of the trea- sury, grew extremely jealous of the earl of Bute's influence in the cabinet This noble- man enjoyed a very distinguished share of His sovereign's esteem and confidence. His conduct was irreproachable ; but he was said to be a tory. On this ground, therefore, the duke, who had long been considered as the head of the whigs, hoped he could ruin the credit of his rival, by reviving those factious distinctions, on which his own merit princi- pally rested. A loud clamor was therefore raised by the dnke's hirelings against the tory favorite. But their malignant efforts served only to rivet the king's attachment to the object of their unmerited obliquity ; and the duke found his own weight in adminis- tration daily decline. He accordingly thought himself obliged to resign in the latter end of May ; and the earl of Bute was immedi- ately placed at the head of the treasury. Mr. George Grenville, brother to earl Tem- le, became secretary of state in the room of is lordship ; and the place of first commis- sioner of the admiralty being vacated by the death of lord Anson, that office was bestow- ed on the earl of Halifax, now returned from Ireland. CHANGES IN ADMINISTRATION. THE two last appointments were well cal- culated to lessen the unpopularity of the earl of Bute's promotion. Grenville's character for integrity and patriotism stood as high hi public estimation as that of his brother, lord Temple ; and, in point of application and abilities, he was certainly his superior. Any unfavorable impression, therefore, which might be made by the resignation of the one, ought naturally to have been effaced or coun- teracted by the other's acceptance of an of- fice under the new minister. The earl of Halifax had acquitted himself in a variety of public employments with great applause. Such were the men, whom the earl of Bute was desirous of having associated with him in office ; and it is not, perhaps, the least of his praise, that all the vacancies which hap- pened in the higher departments of the state, during his administration, were uniformly filled by men of reputation and abilities. The earl of Bute also thought it sound policy, in conformity with the system of libe- ral comprehension already explained, to at- tempt a coalition with the great body of the tories, or country gentlemen of ancient fami- lies, who were able to yield him effectual support. They readily came into his mea- sures ; and as they had long been excluded from any share in the management of the state, they were now doubly zealous to show themselves worthy of the confidence of their king and country. Their efforts, however, were as vigorously opposed by the discon- tented party. Whilst the nation was thus distracted by violent cabals, the conduct of a war became difficult ; its continuance unsafe ; and its supplies uncertain. If the administration failed, then- failure would be imputed to in- capacity : if they succeeded, their success would be converted into an argument for such terms of peace, as it would be impossi- ble for them to procure. Above all, the an- cient and known connexion between the chiefs of the moneyed interest and the prin- cipal persons in the opposition, must have 60 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. been a subject of great anxiety to the minis- try. These motives co-operated to render them most heartily inclined to peace. The Bourbon courts and that of England thus concurring in the same point, all diffi- culties were speedily smoothed. Accord- ingly, on the fifth of September, the duke of Bedford set off for Paris, with the charac- ter of ambassador and plenipotentiary from the court of England, to negotiate a peace ; and on the twelfth of the same month, the duke of Nivernois arrived in London, with the like commission from the French court NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. VERY little tune was spent in adjusting the outlines of the treaty, or explaining the principles on which it was to proceed. The negotiators seemed, in some measures, to as- sume as a basis those points which were nearest to a settlement in the treaty of 1761 ; and to commence where that transaction concluded. The spirit of the two negotia- tions, so far as regarded the peculiar interest of Great Britain, was almost perfectly simi- lar. There was scarcely any other differ- ence than that Great Britain, in consequence of her successes since that time, acquired more than she then demanded. With regard, indeed, to some of her allies, the principle of the two treaties was greatly varied ; but this change was sufficiently justified by the alteration which happened in the affairs of Germany, during the interval between both. Those, who conducted the negotiation in 1761, were steady in rejecting every propo- sition, in which they were not left at liberty to aid the king of Prussia with the whole force of Great Britain : those, who concluded the peace in 1762, paid less attention to the ambitious or interested views of that mon- arch, though they did not neglect his safety. At the beginning of the year, and before they had entered into this negotiation, they refused to renew that article of the annual treaty, by which his Britannic majesty would have been engaged to conclude no peace without the king of Prussia ; though, at the same time, they declared themselves willing to assist him with the usual subsidy. He, ny, would be sure to feed a perpetual war in that country. When the former negotiation was on foot, the affairs of the king of Prussia were at the lowest ebb : he was overpowered by the whole weight of Austria, of Sweden, of the empire, and of Russia, as determined as ever in her enmity, and then successful ; to say nothing of France. It would have been un- generous, on the part of Great Britain, to have deserted him in that situation. But, at the time of making the last treaty, the con- dition of his affairs was absolutely reversed. He had got rid of the most powerful, and one of the most implacable of his enemies. He had also concluded a peace with Sweden. The treaty itself freed him from all appre- hensions of France. He had, then, none to contend with, but a nominal army of the empire, and one of Austria, which, though something more than nominal, was wholly unable to oppose his progress. His situation, from being pitiable, was become formidable. It was, perhaps, good policy to prevent the balance of Germany from being overturned to his prejudice: it would have been the worst in the world to overturn it in his favor. These principles sufficiently explain and jus- tify the British ministy for so remarkable a change in their behavior towards the king of Prussia. The conduct of France on both those oc- casions may be accounted for, nearly in the same manner. She had very justly excepted to the demand of the evacuation of Wesel, Cleves, and Gueldres, when made by Pitt in the first negotiation ; because he refused to put an end to the German war. In this last treaty, the French assented, without hesita- tion or difficulty, to the very same demand ; because we agreed, in common with them, to be neutral in the disputes of the empire ; the other contending powers, being left to themselves, soon terminated their differences. As the Bourbon confederacy had no pre- text for the quarrel with Portugal, but the advantages which Great Britain derived from her friendly intercourse with that coun- try during the war, the article relating to his most faithful majesty did not admit of the on his part, refused the subsidy unconnected least altercation. Any of his territories or with that article ; and a coolness was sup- posed to take place between both courts for some time after. The adjustment of affairs in the empire possessions in Europe, or in any other part of the globe, which had fallen into the hands of the French and Spaniards, were to be evacuated by their troops, and restored in the did not form any material obstruction to the | same condition they were in when conquered, progress of the treaty. Both parties readily After the concerns of the allies were pro- agreed to withdraw themselves totally from vided for, the most important part of the the German war. They thought, and right- treaty still remained, which was to adjust !y, that nothing could tend so much to give everything that related to the settlements peace to their respective allies, as mutually to withdraw their assistance from them ; and to stop that current of English and French money, which, as long as it ran into Germa- and commerce of Great Britain and of the Bourbon courts. The circumstance, which so much impeded this adjustment in the pre- ceding negotiation, was the intervention of GEORGE m. 17601820. 61 the claims of Spain. The attempt of the Bourbon powers to intermix and confound their affairs at that juncture, had a share in making the war more general :,on this occa- sion it had a contrary effect. As the whole In this respect they followed the plan of the former negotiation, except that some im- provements were added. In the first place, that article of the trea- ty of Utrecht was established, by which the was now negotiated together, it facilitated ! French were admitted to fish, and to dry the peace, by affording easier methods of ' regulating the system of compensation, and furnishing more largely to the general fund of equivalents. The great object, and the original cause of the war, had been, the establishment of precise boundaries' in America. This was therefore the very first point to be now at- tended to ; and it must be observed, that it their fish on the north-east and north-west parts of Newfoundland, from Cape Bona- vista to Point Biche ; and were excluded from the rest of the island. They were also permitted to fish within the Gulf of St. Laurence ; but with this limitation, that they should not approach within three leagues of any of the coasts belonging to England. Sn as \Vilkt>s was conducted to the liar of the, court, he made a formal speech, jyrent before whom the happiness to stand . and I in tho replete with virulent expressions against the memorahle case of the impri.-xmo.l ministry, affected compliments to the king, I that an independent jury >f treo-horM I'ne and labored encomiums upon himself as a lislnucn \\ill persist to determine uiy dauntless champion and persecuted sntlcivi as m conscience hound, ii|>on count iliitionnl in the cause- of liberty. IMeadinjjs followed principles. h\ a verdict of guilty, or Mot on botli sides ; and the prisoner was remand- guilty . t Ili ed to the Tower, till Friday tlu> sixtli .May. that tho judo's nu-iht h consider the ea>e. and lo form luit, in tlie internu\iiati % tun and lawyers \\ere to have fre ponoo. to subjoin a copy. "My lords," said the prson from me to regret that 1 hav more days in ea|)tivity,as it will hi yon an opjhirtiinity of d flectton and repeated oxamina.tion, t si(rual justice to my country. of all peel's and jjent.h'mcn, and \\ li it tou me more sensibly, that, of nil th my Biich importance as to delermin whether English liberty hi shadow. Your own froo-l>orn feel with indignation Mild COPT lo:id uf oppression under which I lonir lahoro'l. rinse imprisonment, the . lie. i of premeditated malice, all access for mure than two days denied to me, my house ran- sacked and plundered, my mont private and secret concerns divulged, every vile and ' insinuation, even uf high ' lave leisure 10; i ne sentence 01 me their opinion ; comnient on this pO*ch Ollll I'- III. \\huli. though e, his friends secmiujjlv addressed to tli judjpw, WM in access to his reality an appeal lo the \Wf leir of the ninl titndc. Mi;;ht to \Vest- Lord chief jn-.liert Pmtt, m deluerilltf th nd speech, of opinion > ty ol ma\ he proper \\ ilkes's commitment ; M'I ondU. Ilie ncei n ^peciliealioti of lhoi.e paiti, u!.,. icr. "tar he it passa"'iv- m Ihr loit\ tilll mimlicr nf the assed so many North Union, \\luch had 1 n doomed a Ihaveall'ordeil lihel ; and thirdly, \\ like : pi l\ lle.'e ir a ion mature re uiemlicr of parliament. lion, the more In re..;ard lo the llrwt, IIIH lord: hip renuirl The liherly ed, that lie \\onld confide I n -.ecielai \ of 1 \\ hat Ion. 'lie-, slate's \\ .n rani, lliron.'h lli \\ hole alliii'r, DM the middlmji- iinllini" npei lor to the uai raul ol a common ho stand most |ll: lice of the ponce , Mild I ml no mn.'iMnilo ease tliis day had, in realiU , a n-'lil, , .1 II//I. in. til :i|.|.i< 1 iple: 1 Illll III' hend any person, yvilhont : aim" (he pal h. nine nl. once, ular crime of \\ In, h In- \\ IIM III III' I'll , 1 III. i reality or a a! the am., lime lie .>|i , I'Veil, there \\eie u heart:; will main prei edenl:* u here a 111, e i oml. iiinlii.ii ..i i. MI a 1! llml nl en . nnr Ian. . Iron., n MI, -pi i no less indimtriotiHly than fiilsely cir- culated by my crnol and implacable nnomioH, together with all the vanoiiH inwlenci- n\' office, form but a part of my unexampled ill-troattnf!tit Such inhuman principles of 't;ir-c|i;imhor tyranny will, I triiHt, by Uiin court, upon this Holemn occasion, bo (innlly extirpated; mid henceforth every inno< < n! man, however poor and hope to sleep in peace and xccurity in o-.vn houw:, nnviolated by king'H rnoiwengnrN ; n'l the arlntrary mandated of an overbear- ing secretary of Btate. " I will no longer delay your justice. Tin- nation is impatient to bear, nor can be Hftfe <>r happy till that i obtained. If tbe Mime persecution IK, after all, to carry me before VOL. IV. 7 111,1 l IOHH, wilhdiit .1 H//IC/II, lie U II H, lley I'l Hie ill Hie commilllielll, even any iiarlicidnr lion for tho foundut ion of IIIH clmryo. Tin- word rlmrt't; IIIH lordship I. ...I imii. , yynn in trenernl much inmuiiderHlfMKl, nud did n.,i mean llie aeen alion hro(H(hl H" pernoli lalteu lip, hut hi;- cummilmenl liy (he ma" r hale liell.re V. In >m he in I" III In !.i<,u; luivn IM-I-/I iuw-rleil m ih<- body of tin- wiirrant, liw lordship did not (limit nny uch upecificatkm iwtf.mut.ry ; for even up- ixwing UK; wlwle of th uhtuixiniw \wt\-r \n nave been copied irruni, yi ii 1 7 74 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. no means came under the cognizance of the court at that time. The matter then in con- sideration was not the nature of the offence, but the legality of the commitment; the nature of the offence not resting in the bosom of a judge without the assistance of a jury, and not being a proper subject of in- quiry, till regularly brought on to be tried in the usual way of proceeding. With respect to the third head, which was the plea of privilege, his lordship re- marked, that there were but three cases which could possibly affect the privileges of a member of parliament, and these were treason, felony, and the peace. The peace, as it is written in the institutes of the law, his lordship explained to signify a breach of the peace. He said that the commitment of the seven bishops for endeavoring to dis- turb the peace happened in an arbitrary reign, when there was but one honest judge, out of four in the court of king's bench, and he had declined giving any opinion. "If then," continued his lordship, "the privilege of parliament is to be held sacred and in- violable, except in the three particular cases wherein it is forfeited, it only remains to examine how far Wilkes's privilege is en- dangered in the present instance. He stands accused of writing a libel. A libel, in the sense of the law, is a high misdemeanor, but does not come within the description of trea- son, felony, or breach of the peace. At most, it has but a tendency to disturb the peace, and consequently cannot be sufficient to de- stroy the privilege of a member of parlia- ment" WILKES DISCHARGED. THE court then discharged Wilkes, who returned the judges his thanks in the name of the public, of flie whole English nation, and of all the subjects of the English crown, for his liberty ; though it is very evident, that he obtained it only under the circumstance of his being a member of par- liament In the morning after Wilkes's release from the Tower, he wrote a letter to the two secretaries of state, complaining, that, during his confinement, his house had been robbed : and that, being informed the stolen goods were in the possession of their lord- ships, he insisted upon restitution. Next day he repaired to a justice of peace, and de- manded a warrant to search the houses of the two secretaries ; which was refused by the magistrate. Though nothing could be more impotent and extravagant than such proceedings, yet the secretaries of state thought proper to return, under their own hands, a serious answer to his absurd charge. They took notice of the indecency and scur- rility of his language ; but they very can- didly explained the legal motives for the seizure of his papers, informing him, that such of them as did not lead to a proof of his guilt should be restored, but that the rest would be delivered over to those whose office it was to collect the evidence, and to manage the prosecution against him. Another circumstance happened about the same time, which Wilkes laid before the public. One of the secretaries of state had written to earl Temple, who was lord-lieu- tenant of the county of Buckingham, sig- nifying to him his majesty's pleasure, that Wilkes should be dismissed from being colonel of the militia for that county. This order was communicated to Wilkes with much seeming concern by his lordship, who was himself soon after removed from the lieutenancy of the county, to make way for lord Despenser, late Sir Francis Dashwood. The letters that passed on this cccasion were printed and industriously circulated, as a farther proof of the cruel persecution Wilkes suffered. The rabble, whose pity he thus endeavored to secure, were incapable of re- flecting, that the libeller of the king and government of any country is a very im- proper person to be intrusted with the chief means of its internal security and defence. The reappearance of the North Briton, with all his farther efforts to increase the number of his seditious adherents, was so far from intimidating ministry, that an in- formation was filed against him in the court of king's bench, at his majesty's suit as the author of the aforesaid libel. The printers, and some other persons, who, as well as Mr. Wilkes, had been taken up by general warrants, sought redress at law ; and such was the temper of the times, which, by being diffused among the people, was supposed to have influenced the juries, that they obtained damages greatly beyond their real sufferings, and, possibly, beyond their own most sanguine hopes. These ac- tions were prosecuted in such a manner, that the public attention to them was kept constantly alive. It seemed as if freedom had every day a new conflict to undergo, and obtained every day a new victory. Ad- ministration, on the other hand, opposed them by all the advantages, which the law allows to those who act on the defensive ; and sometimes by the interposal of privilege kept this matter still longer in agitation ; insomuch that until the meeting of parlia- ment scarcely anything else could enter into the thoughts or conversation of the people. On this point therefore, it was ex- pected the great trial of strength and skill in the ensuing session would be made. CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY. WHILE both parties were vigorously pre- paring for the intended struggle, an event took place, which for a few days diverted GEORGE IIL 17601820. 75 their attention to another object, and seemed at first likely to occasion a change in the ministry. This was the earl of Egremont's sudden death, of a fit of the apoplexy, on the twenty-first of August His majesty, upon this event, gave way to some overtures for a coalition of interests. The proposal, which was first made to Pitt by the earl of Bute, was readily embraced by the former, and he appeared at court with great alacri- ty. Grenville offered, for the tranquillity of his majesty's government, to resign his place of first commissioner of the treasury, and to accept of any post that was not utterly in- consistent with his rank in life. The v ac- commodation appeared the more practicable, as none of the great leaders testified the smallest unwillingness to be again associat- ed in office with the earl of Bute. But when Pitt, at a second interview with the king, came to propose the particular arrange- ments, it appeared that he wished to engross for himself and his friends all the important offices of the state, and that none but sub- ordinate situations were to be left for those to whom the king thought himself bound by the strongest ties of honor and justice. The treaty, therefore, proved ineffectual ; but hjs majesty's firmness made up for all incon- veniencies, and the administration soon re- turned to its natural channel There were at this time two very impor- tant vacancies, that of secretary of state occasioned by lord Egremont's death, and that of president of the council, which had not been filled since the decease of lord Granville. The seals of the former office were given to lord Sandwich, who had been named to go ambassador to Spain ; and the duke of Bedford succeeded to the president's chair. Some other promotions took place on the same occasion, the most remarkable of which were the removal of lord Egmont from the post-office to the admiralty, the duke of Marlborough's acceptance of the privy-seal, and the appointment of the earl of Hillsborough to be first lord of trade and plantations, in the room of lord Shelburne. The earl of Bute's continuance in retire- ment, and several other circumstances which appeared while the late treaty was on foot, made it evident to the world, that the sub- sisting administration did not, from the be- ginning, by any means act under the in- fluence, nor altogether in concurrence with the opinion of that minister, whose resigna- tion had raised them to the direction of af- fairs. Pitt, the duke of Newcastle, and their respective friends, had looked upon the pro- posals made to them as an acknowledgment, that the persons then in office could not go on without the accession of their strength ; and this mistaken idea had occasioned the unreasonable demands of the popular lead- ers, which amounted little short of a pro- scription of the king's most faithful servants. But as soon as the negotiation was broken off, and when they saw the helm of state, which they had just fancied to be within their grasp, intrusted to other hands, they determined to rally all their forces ; to re- new their attacks on the infirmities of the peace (1) ; to destroy the credit of the ma- gistracy, by representing every step taken to preserve good order as so many strides to- wards the establishment of despotism ; and to render the late exercise of the royal prerogative odious. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. AT the meeting of parliament on the fif- teenth of November, the king made a speech to both houses, stating, amongst the usual matters, as follows : " To ease my people of some share of those burdens, I have directed, as I promised at the end of last session of parliament, that the money arising from the sales of the prizes vested in the crown should be applied to the public service. It is my in- tention to reserve for the same use, whatever sums shall be produced by the sale of any of the lands belonging to me in the islands in the West Indies, which were ceded to us by the late treaty." PROCEEDINGS RESPECTING WILKES. THE instant the commons were returned to their own house from the lords, and be- fore the king's speech was reported to them, according to the usual form, the chancellor of the exchequer acquainted the house, by his majesty's command, " that his majesty having received information, that John Wilkes, a member of. that house, was the author of a most seditious and dangerous libel, published since the last session of par- liament, he had caused the said John Wilkes to be apprehended and secured, in order to his being tried for the same, by due course of law ; and Wilkes, having been discharg- ed out of custody, by the court of common pleas, upon account of his privilege as a member of that house; and having, when called upon by the legal process of the court of king's bench, stood out, and declined to appear and answer to an information, which was exhibited against him, by his majesty's attorney-general, for the same offence; in this situation his majesty, being desirous to show all possible attention to the privileges of the house of commons, in every instance wherein they can be supposed to be con- cerned ; and, at the same time, thinking it of the utmost importance not to suffer the public justice of the kingdom to be eluded, had chosen to direct the said libel, and also copies of the examination upon which Wilkes was apprehended and secured, to be laid be- fore that house for their consideration." 76 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Grenville concluded this message with lay- ing the papers on the table ; and with mov- ing a resolution, to which the house unan- imously assented, viz. " that an humble ad- dress be presented to his majesty, to re- turn him the thanks of the house for his most gracious message, and for the tender regard therein expressed for the privileges of the house, and to assure his majesty that the house would forthwith take into their most serious consideration the very important matter communicated by his majesty's mes- Phen the house proceeded to examine the papers, which were copies of the North Briton, No. XLV., and of the examinations of Richard Balfe, the printer, and of George Kearsley, the publisher; by which it ap- peared, that government had been well founded in the proceedings against Wilkes, as the author of that production. A very long and warm debate ensued. It was strongly urged by the opposition, that no greater liberties had been taken by the au- thor of the obnoxious paper, with regard to his majesty's speech, than what had been common upon former occasions of the same kind ; and that the speech of the king had never been considered in any other light than that of the minister, and had always been treated with equal freedom. But these arguments were easily refuted by a refer- ence to the words of the libel itself, which far surpassed, in the vulgarity of its abuse, and the grossness of its scurrilous reflections on the king's probity as well as his person, the most daring invectives that had ever been uttered against government It was therefore resolved by a majority of two hundred and seventy-three, against one hundred and eleven, " that the paper, en- titled the North Briton, No. XLV., is a false, scandalous, and seditious libel, containing expressions of the most unexampled inso- lence and contumely towards his majesty, the grossest aspersions upon both houses of parliament, and the most audacious defiance of the authority of the whole legislature ; and most manifestly tending to alienate the affections of the people from his majesty, to withdraw them from their obedience to the laws of the realm, and to excite them to traitorous insurrections." In consequence of this resolution, an or- der was agreed to by the house, that the said paper should be burnt by the hands of the common hangman. Wilkes, who had several times stood up, being now admitted to speak, complained to the house of breach of privilege, by the imprisonment of his per- son, the plundering of his house, the seiz- ure of his papers, and the serving him with a subpoena upon an information in the court of king's bench. As no legal conviction yet lay against Wilkes, of his being the author of the paper, his complaint was perfectly regular. A more particular hearing of it, and the farther consideration of the king's mes- sage, were adjourned to the twenty-third of November. The commons met on the sixteenth. The address contained nothing remarkable, ex- cept the congratulations of the house on the auspicious birth of another prince, and on the queen's happy recovery. PRIVILEGES OF PARLIAMENT. ON the twenty-third of November, the commons resumed the adjourned considera- tion of his majesty's message of the fifteenth ; and a motion was made, " That privilege of parliament does not extend to the case of writing and publishing seditious libels, nor ought to be allowed to obstruct the ordinary course of the laws, in the speedy and effec- tual prosecution of so heinous and dangerous an offence." As this resolution tended to confine within narrower limits the supposed privileges of every member of the legisla- ture, and was also diametrically opposite to the late determination of the court of com- mon pleas, the ministry were deserted by a few of their usual supporters, and the oppo- sition made a vigorous, though finally inef- fectual stand against it. Pitt exerted him- self with extraordinary ardor in this debate ; and as the extent of his conceptions, the acuteness of his remarks, and the powers of his eloquence, left very little to be said by any other person, on the same side of the ques- tion, his speech, which has been faithfully preserved, precludes every vain attempt to give a more impressive form to the chief ar- guments that were urged against the sur- render of privilege. He represented such a surrender " as highly dangerous to the freedom of parlia- ment, and an infringement on the rights of the people. No man," he said, " could con- demn the paper or libel more than he did ; but he would come at the author fairly, not by an open breach of the constitution, and a contempt of all restraint This proposed sacrifice of privilege was putting every mem- ber of parliament, who did not vote with the minister, under a perpetual terror of impris- onment. To talk of an abuse of privilege, was to talk against the constitution, against the very being and life of parliament It was an arraignment of the justice and honor of parliament, to suppose that they would protect any criminal whatever. Whenever a complaint was made against any member, the house could give him up. This privilege had never been abused : it had been reposed in parliament for ages. But take away this privilege, and the whole parliament is laid at the mercy of the crown. Why," contin- ued he, " is a privilege, which has never GEORGE IK. 17601820. 77 been abused, to be voted away 1 Parliament has no right to vote away its privileges. They are the inherent right of the succeed- ing members of this house, as well as of the present members; and I very much doubt whether a sacrifice made by this house is valid and conclusive against the claim of a future parliament." With respect to the paper itself, or the libel which had given pretence for this re- quest to surrender the privileges of parlia- ment, he observed that the house had alrea- dy voted it a libel he joined in that vote. He condemned the whole series of North Britons : he called them illiberal, unmanly, and detestable. He abhorred all national re- flections. "The king's subjects," he said, " were one people. Whoever divided them was guilty of sedition. His majesty's com- plaint was well founded : it was just : it was necessary. The author did not deserve to be ranked among the human species he was the blasphemer of his God (3) and the libeller of his king. He had no connexion with him: he had no connexion with any such writer : he neither associated nor com- municated with any such. It was true that he had friendships, and warm ones : he had obligations, and great ones : but no friend- ships, no obligations could induce him to ap- prove what he firmly condemned. It might be supposed, that he alluded to his noble re- lation [lord Temple]. He was proud to call him his relation : he was his friend, his bo- som friend, whose fidelity was as unshaken as his virtue. They went into office together, and they came out together : they had lived together, and would die together. He knew nothing of any connexion with the writer of the libel. If there subsisted any, he was to- tally unacquainted with it. The dignity, the honor of parliament had been called upon to support and protect the purity of his majes- ty's character ; and this they had done by a strong and decisive condemnation of the libel which his majesty had submitted to the consideration of the house. But having done this, it was neither consistent with the honor and safety of parliament, nor with the rights and interests of the people, to go one step farther. The rest belonged to the courts below." The other arguments made use of by the opposers of the resolution were little more than repetitions of the doctrine so lately con- firmed by the court of king's bench ; that the privilege of parliament extended to all cases, except treason, felony, and those of- fences in which sureties of the peace might be demanded ; that libels were breaches of the peace only by inference, and by construc- tion, not actually, and in their own nature ; that this doctrine was supported by the high- est law authorities, by the records of parlia- 7* ment, and particularly by two plain resolu- tions of the house of peers, so far as the question concerned their privilege ; and that to relax the rule of privilege, case by case, would be attended with the greatest incon- venience, by rendering the rule itself pre- carious, in consequence of which the judges would neither know how to decide with cer- tainty, nor the subject to proceed with safety in this doubtful and perilous business. With whatever plausibility and eloquence Pitt and his party endeavored to support these opinions, the advocates for the motion very fully demonstrated then- fallacy, and established the contrary doctrine on every ground of popularity, liberty, law, precedent, and reason. They first took a view of the nature of the offence, and showed that a libel was not only productive of consequences injurious to the peace of individuals, but in many cases, pregnant with danger to the safety, and to the very being of the common- wealth. They asserted, that the distinction between actual and constructive breaches of the peace was trifling and sophistical : that the question was concerning the nature and weight of the offence, and not the name by which it was called : that it would be ridiculous to allow a seditious libeller advan- tages which were denied to an ordinary breaker of the peace, when sedition was a crime of much greater guilt and importance than a menacing gesture, or even an actual assault : that the privilege of parliament was a privilege of a civil nature, instituted to preserve the member from being distract- ed in his attention to the business of the na- tion, by litigations concerning his private property, but by no means to prove a protec- tion for crimes. " If," said they, " this dis- tinction of breaches of the peace were to hold, members of parliament might not only libel public and private persons with impu- nity, but might, with the same impunity, commit many other misdemeanors and of- fences of the grossest nature, and the most destructive to morality and order ; because they, as well as libels, are breaches of the peace, but by construction, and in their con- sequence. If privilege were of this nature, the freedom of the members would be the slavery of the subject, and the danger of the state. " Privilege of parliament," they added, " being defined solely by the discretion of either house for itself, was a matter of the most delicate nature : it was therefore to be used with the utmost moderation. If it should be so exercised as to appear incompatible with the public peace or order, or even, per- haps, with the safety and quiet of individu- als, the people might come to think that they lived under a constitution, injudicious- ly, and even absurdly framed, in which the 78 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. personal liberty of the representatives of a free people might become inconsistent with their own. That the house, instead of en- larging its immunities beyond their original intention and spirit, instead of claiming an invidious and no very honorable privilege, ought to stand forward in giving a noble ex- ample of its moderation and its regard to justice. By agreeing to the resolution, it would give this practical lesson, and, at the same time, this comfortable security to the people, that no situation was a sanctuary for those who presumed to violate the law in any of its parts." Such were some of the chief points in- sisted on by those who justified the proposed resolution ; and the debate being adjourned till next day, the question was carried by a majority of one hundred and twenty-five. One of the members was then nominated to go up to the house of lords, to desire a con- ference for obtaining the concurrence of their lordships; which was accordingly granted ; and their lordships, in a few days after, agreed to the resolution, though not without a more obstinate and violent strug- gle than even that which had taken place in the commons. The protest, signed by sev- enteen of them, affords a proof of what has been already remarked, that Mr. Pitt left very little room for the display of novelty or of originality on that side of the question. Bat the speech of lord Lyttleton in support of the resolution and published by himself, though less ardent than Pitt's, has been gen- erally deemed more convincing and unan- swerable. NORTH BRITON BURNED BY THE COM- MON HANGMAN. THE majority of the lords concurred in the resolution of the commons on the ques- tion of privilege, and in other resolutions of the lower house relative to the libel; in the order for its being burned by the com- mon hangman ; and in the propriety of ad- dressing the king to testify their indignation at such unparalleled insolence. But though both houses of parliament, ac- tuated by the strongest motives of loyalty and of true patriotism, had resolved that no plea of privilege should obstruct the regular course of justice in matters of such high concern to the public, and had also ordered the North Briton, No. XLV. to be burned by the common hangman; yet, when this order was on the point of being executed at the Royal Exchange, under the immediate direction of the city sheriffs, Harley and Blunt, the mob became so riotous as to rescue the paper from the executioner before it was consumed, and to fling a billet snatched from the fire at Harley's chariot, in consequence of which he was slightly wounded. This riot being reported to the lords and com- mons, they took up the matter with becom- ing seriousness ; and resolved, after the lords had examined Harley, " that the rioters were perturbators of the public peace, dan- gerous to the liberties of this country, and obstructers of the national justice." The sheriffs, at the same time, had the thanks of parliament for their spirited conduct on the occasion; and- both houses unanimously joined in an address to his majesty, that he would give directions for the discovery of the rioters. DUEL BETWEEN MARTIN AND WILKES. AFTER these steps, taken by the whole legislative body, to brand the libel itself with the strongest marks of their abhorrence, the commons proceeded in the complaint against Wilkes as the author of it But their earn- estness in the prosecution was for some time checked by an accident, which, though per- ilous to Wilkes, proved very useful to his party, by keeping the hopes and spirit of the mob alive, which would probably have ex- pired under an early and final decision of the house against him. In the course of the first day's debate on the king's message re- specting the libel, Samuel Martin, member of parliament for Camelford, and late first secretary of the treasury, whose character had been virulently attacked in some of the early numbers of the North Briton, took an opportunity of remarking, " that the author of these papers was a malignant and infa- mous coward." When the house was up, Wilkes sent a note to Martin, acknowledg- ing himself to be the author. A duel with pistols ensued, in which Wilkes was so dan- gerously wounded, that he could not appear in the house of commons, when the matter of his complaint was to be heard. In con- sequence, therefore, of a letter from Wilkes to the speaker, requesting that the farther consideration of his case might be deferred until he was able to attend, the commons put off the hearing of evidence on the charge against him as the author of the li- t>el ; but decided the other questions respect- ing the plea of privilege, and the criminality of the paper, as has been already related. MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS AUGUSTA. DURING this delay of the direct proceed- ings of the commons against Wilkes, they received another message from the king, to inform them that his majesty, having re- eived proposals for a marriage between the wincess Augusta and the hereditary prince )f Brunswick, had agreed to the same ; and as he could not doubt but that such an alli- ance would be to the general satisfaction of all his subjects, he promised himself the as- sistance of that house, to enable him to give iis eldest sister a portion suitable to the lonor and dignity of the crown. The com- mons, therefore, as well as the lords, to GEORGE III. 17601820. 79 whom the like information was communi cated, unanimously resolved to address the king to declare their entire satisfaction a the prospect of an alliance with so illustri ous a Protestant family, which had so sig- nally distinguished itself in the defence ol the liberties of 'Europe. The address was presented by the whole house; and they voted eighty thousand pounds as a dowry to her royal highness. The prince arrived in England the twelfth of January following the nuptials were celebrated on the evening of the sixteenth, in the most splendid man- ner. GENERAL WARRANTS DECLARED IL- LEGAL. MR. WILKES, though confined by his wound, and almost deserted by his party in both houses of parliament, made an effort ol another kind, which was crowned with tem- porary success. Encouraged by the verdicts which had been given in favor of severa" persons taken up, like himself, on genera! warrants, he commenced an action in the court of common pleas, against Robert Wood, Esq. the late under-secretary of state, for seizing his papers ; and on the sixth of December, after a hearing- of near fifteen hours, before lord chief-justice Pratt, and a special jury, he obtained a verdict with 1000Z. damages, and costs of suit In the charge given on this occasion by the judge to the jury, his lordship pronounced the warrant, under which Wilkes had been apprehended, unconstitutional, illegal, and absolutely void ; but he also declared, that he was far from wishing a matter of such consequence should rest solely on his opinion, as he was only one of the twelve judges, and as there was also a still higher court, before which the question might be canvassed. " If," said he, "these higher jurisdictions should de- clare my opinion erroneous, I submit, as will become me, and kiss the rod : but I must say, I shall always consider it as a rod of iron for the chastisement of the people of Great Britain." It is but justice to so truly respectable a character to observe, in direct contradiction to the insinuations at that time thrown out by some of the intemperate friends of the ministry, that this opinion was not tinctured with party spirit, nor influ- enced by party attachments. It was the re- sult of the most profound knowledge, and of the fullest conviction (4). It was the very opinion, which this great lawyer, when at- torney-general, had stated, with equal can- dor and firmness, to Pitt, who was at that time secretary of state, and who, notwith- standing his learned friend's declaration against the legality of general warrants, thought himself justified by the practice of office, and by the exigency of the occasion, in having recourse to such extraordinary acts of power. So solemn a decision was con- sidered by the opposition as a matter of great triumph. WILKES AVOIDS THE HOUSE OF COM- MONS. ON the sixteenth of December, the house of commons, being tired out by repeated de- lays of Wilkes's appearance on account of his wound, and suspecting that there might be some collusion between him and such of the faculty as attended him, made an order that doctor Heberden and Mr. Hawkins, the former a physician and the latter a surgeon, should observe the progress of his cure, and report their opinion to the house. Wilkes declined to admit them, though he had be- fore received then- visits at the request of Martin. But in justification of the charac- ters of his own medical attendants, and of the reports they had made from time to time of the state of his health, he sent for doctor Duncan, one of his majesty's surgeons in ordinary, and Middleton, one of his majes- ty's serjeant surgeons, observing, in his usual strain of sarcastic humor, " that, as he found the house of commons thought it proper he should be watched, he himself thought two Scotchmen most proper for his spies." It seems, however, that the superior powers of Scotch surgery, or the kind care and concern of the house of commons for Wilkes's speedy recovery, had the happiest effect : for the house having, on the twen- tieth of December, adjourned during the Christmas holidays, Wilkes found himself well enough, on the twenty-fourth, to set out for France, in order to visit his daugh- ter, who, he said, was then dangerously ill at Paris. The truth is, that Wilkes, very justly intimidated by the decision of all the preliminary questions relative to his case, md by the sentence passed on his seditious libel, seized the present opportunity afforded him by the adjournment of the commons, to make his escape. During the recess, it was very confidently asserted by several of Wilkes's friends, that ic would attend the house on the nineteenth of January, which was the last day fixed for lis appearance. But, when that day arrived, the speaker produced a letter he had receiv- ed by the post from Wilkes at Paris, stating ;he impossibility of his attending his duty n parliament at the time required, with a wiper inclosed, purporting to be a certificate of one of the French king's physicians, and of a surgeon of the French army, relating the state of Wilkes's health, but not au- thenticated before a notary public, nor the signature thereof verified in any manner. Those papers being read, some medical gen- lemen, who attended according to order, were called in and interrogated at the bar. t appeared by their testimony, that Wilkes HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. had refused to admit surgeons appointed by that house to examine into tin* state of his wounds ; and his retreat into France rather indicating a distrust of his cause, than any- thing amiss in his constitution, the house re- solved, that in so doing, he was guilty of a contempt of their authority, and that they would therefore proceed to hear the evidence in support of the charge against him. They considered the letter and the apology he had sent for his non-appearance, together with the certificate that accompanied it, as quite nugatory. If his wound had been in the con- dition in which he represented it, a journey to Paris was a strange measure; and the consequences arose from his own voluntary act W1LKES EXPELLED. AFTKR the examination of the witnesses against Wilkes had been entered upon "by the house, repeated efforts were made by a few of his friends to interrupt, or to procure an adjournment of the farther hearing of evi- dence : but, to no purpose. The witnesses were all successively called in ; and their information appearing satisfactory as to the author of the libel, on the atrocious crimi- nality of which the house had already passed sentence, the expulsion of Wilkes was voted by a very considerable majority ; and a new writ was ordered for electing another mem- ber for Aylesbury in his room. To complete the degradation of this late idol of the populace, a book, entitled " An Essay on Woman," which he had privately printed and dispersed among his friends, was presented by one of the secretaries of state to the house of lords. This book, full of the most indecent and profane ribaldry, reflected on the character of a right reverend member of that house (5), whose vast extent of eru- dition and genius added dignity and lustre to his high station. The peers proceeded against the author for a breach of privilege, while he was indicted in the courts below for blasphemy. The warmest of his former advocates were now ashamed to utter a word in his favor ; and even the mob, though they did not disrelish faction, could not digest profaneness: they could forgive party-malice, but were shocked at offences against morali- ty, religion, and common decency. Wilkes was soon run to an outlawry for not appear- ing to the indictments against him ; and the suits, which he had carried on against the secretaries of state, fell of course to the ground. GENERAL WARRANTS. So far the triumph of the ministry was complete. Sentence was passed on the cause, as well as on the person of their most ma- lignant slanderer. But the secretaries of state were soon attacked on a point, which could hardly be defended by the utmost ex- ertions of their strength and influence. On the fourteenth of February, a motion was made in the house of commons, " that a gen- eral warrant for apprehending and seizing the authors, printers, and publishers of a se- ditious libel, together with their papers, was not warranted by law." The friends of ad- ministration were far from vindicating the practice of general warrants; but they thought that the abuse of them could not be effectually prevented by a resolution of one branch of the legislature on a single case, and that the remedy should be provided by an act of parliament, distinguishing cases, and specifying those discretionary powers, which the contingent exigencies of govern- ment might require to be vested in a secre- tary of state. They also insisted very strong- ly on the impropriety of deciding in the house of commons a question then depending in a court of judicature. It was thus they en- deavored to ward off the intended blow ; and having, though by a small majority, procured an adjournment of the question till the seven- teenth, one of their friends moved, that after the words, " That a general warrant for ap- prehending and seizing the authors, printers, and publishers of a seditious and treasonable libel, together with their papers is not war- ranted by law ;" might be added, " although such warrant had been issued according to the usage of office, and hath been frequently produced to, and, so far as appears to this house, the validity thereof hath never been debated in the court of king's bench, but the parties thereupon have been frequently bailed by the said court" This state of the ques- tion subjected it to new and insurmountable difficulties, because a- resolution of the com- mons, so worded, would imply no less than an imputation of perjury on the court of king's bench, tor admitting to bail persons committed upon such illegal warrants, in- stead of giving them a free discharge. It was likewise thought a little extraordinary, that the word " treasonable," contained in the earl of Halifax's general warrant, was omitted in the original motion. After a very long and warm debate, it was carried, that the farther consideration of the question should be adjourned for four months, which was, in the usual phrase, civilly dismissing it The minority, however, on this point, was so very considerable, being two hundred and twenty against two hundred and thirty- four, that the ministry may rather be said to have escaped than conquered. The whole fabric of their power seemed to be shaken by this contest ; but the progress of the ses- sion showed that the formidable numbers of their opponents were mustered only on this single occasion. On all others there was no great difficulty ; and the whole scheme of the supplies in particular met with the most GEORGE EL 17601820. 81 perfect acquiescence. A short account of the plan, on which they were raised, will show how far they were deserving of gene- ral approbation. NEW PLAN OF SUPPLIES. IN contriving this new scheme, the minis- try found means to cut off one of the prin- cipal sources of popular clamor. Agreeably to the principles which they had laid down in the former session, in which they declared for the most sparing use of taxation, and from the experience concerning the taxes they had then ventured to propose, they now resolved neither to open a loan, nor to have recourse to a lottery ; though it is well known, that, in some respects, these loans and lotteries afford no unpleasing opportuni- ties to a minister of obliging his friends, and strengthening his connexions. The objects, to which they confined their attention, were first, the settlement of exchequer-bills to the amount of one million eight hundred thou- sand pounds, which had been issued by vir- tue of an act passed in the preceding year, and then made chargeable on the first aids to be granted in the present session ; second- ly, the discharge of two millions of a debt contracted on account of the war, and which still remained to be satisfied ; and, thirdly, the ways and means for the service of the ensuing year. As the bank contract was to be renewed, the treasury availed itself very prudently of so favorable a conjuncture, and stipulated that this body should take a mil- lion of the exchequer-bills for two years, at an interest reduced by one-fourth, and should also pay a fine, on the renewal, of one hun- dred and ten thousand pounds. This was certainly the most beneficial contract ever before made with that corporation, whose vast money trade is supported by the credit of government For the rest of the ex- chequer-bills, they struck new ones. They brought to the service of the nation about seven hundred and twenty-three thousand pounds, the produce of the French prizes taken before the declaration of war, and which the king generously bestowed upon the public. They also brought to account what had been long neglected, to the detri- ment of the service, and the reproach of former administrations, the saving on the non-effective men ; and this saving amount- ed to one hundred and forty thousand pounds. With these resources, with the land-tax now grown into a settled and permanent revenue of four shillings in the pound, with the duty upon malt, with two millions taken from the sinking fund, being the overplus of that fund, joined to some other savings, they paid off the before-mentioned debt, and provided for the current service in all its establishments and contingencies. They justified their em- ployment of the overplus of the sinking fund by former precedents, by the propriety and wisdom of the measure itself but principal- ly on the credit of having augmented it by near four hundred thousand pounds in the single article of tea, an immense quantity of which had been brought to pay duty by the prudent measures taken for the preven- tion of smuggling, and the vigilant collec- tion of the revenue. Nothing could more evidently demonstrate the malignant purpose of those writers than their total silence. The points which did the ministry indisputable honor, were the application of the French prize-money by the favor of the crown, at a time when there were, perhaps, other calls, plausible and pressing enough, to divert it another way ; the beneficial contract with the bank, by which one hundred and ten thousand pounds were brought to the service of the year, be- sides the transfer and delayed payment at reduced interest of a million of exchequer- bills; and the saving on the non-effective men, which amounted to so large a sum ; were matters of such striking merit and im- portance, that none but the devoted tools of a party could pass them over unnoticed. Among the ways and means of this session were some regulations of the American trade, and some duties imposed on various articles of import and export in that exten- sive sphere of commerce, which, though they occasioned but little debate at the tune, proved very soon afterwards a source of the most violent contests, and gradually led to all the horrors and calamities of a civil war. The fourteenth resolution of the commit- tee of ways and means, which stated, " that towards farther defraying the said expenses, it might be proper to charge certain stamp duties in the said colonies and plantations,'* was thrown out, or rather postponed to the next session, in order to give the colonies an opportunity of petitioning against it, should they deem it exceptionable, and of offering some equivalent for the supposed produce of such a tax. But a bill was passed for restraining the increase of paper money in the colonies, by declaring that any such paper, which might be in future issued there, should not be con- sidered as a legal tender in payment. It is remarkable, that all those measures, many of which were extremely delicate and haz- ardous, were proposed, acquiesced in, and passed into laws, without the least animad- version, as if the leaders of party, who had been so clamarous about trifles, anticipated with silent joy the fatal issue of such experi- ments, and looked upon them as the probable means of introducing themselves into power, even through the distresses and convulsions of the whole empire. 82 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Among the bills prepared for the royal assent at the close of the session on the eighteenth of April, was one which had for its object the increase of the revenue of the post-office, by correcting and restraining abuses and frauds in the practice of frank- ing. Upon the whole, it was estimated that the loss to the revenue, in consequence of franking amounted to one hundred and sev- enty thousand pounds annually. It there- fore became necessary for a government, which valued itself upon economy, to check those abuses, and to regulate the privilege. It was made felony and transportation for seven years to forge a frank. GENERAL CONWAY DISMISSED. IT is unnecessary to make any remarks on the speech, with which his majesty closed this session, as it contained only the usual return of thanks to both houses for their wise and public-spirited exertions ; a renewal of the assurances which his majesty contin- ued to receive of the pacific sentiments of foreign powers ; and an exhortation to em- ploy this season of tranquillity in considering of the most effectual means for perfecting the works of peace, so happily begun. Thus ended the parliamentary campaign for this season ; and the ministry, to whose duration a very short date had been assigned by their adversaries, not only weathered the storms of the session, but seemed to gather new strength to contend with future tempests. In the moment of triumph, and of indigna- tion also at those who had deserted them in the hour of greatest danger, they showed their power and resentment, perhaps too in- discreetly, by dismissing some persons of high military rank from the service, and, among the rest, lieutenant-general Conway, an officer of distinguished merit and abili- ties. So harsh a step admitted, however, of some little excuse. In the debate on general warrants, the division in the com- mons ran so near, as before observed, that the ministry carried the question only by a majority of fourteen. Had the question been decided in favor of the opposition, the monument was to have been illuminated in the same manner as in the year 1732, when the famous excise scheme was defeated; and the greatest testimonies of joy were to have been displayed. Preparations for those purposes having been openly made, were considered as so many insults upon govern- ment; and however the zeal of the citizens or of the uninformed populace might influ- ence them, it was thought indecent in any of the king's servants to countenance such proceedings. The general officer already mentioned was represented as being an im- portant acquisition to the minority, and was charged with not only voting against the court in the debate on general warrants, but with speaking in the most disrespectful terms of the minister's person and capacity for business. The general and his friends very properly insisted upon his being as in- dependent as any other gentleman in the house of commons, and that he ought to be as free in giving his vote. The ministry were far from disputing that principle ; but they said, that the king ought to have an equal freedom in employing whom he pleas- ed in the departments that were in his dis- posal (6). NOTES TO CHAPTER VI. 1 All Mr. Pitt's former harsh and outrageous censures of the peace were softened into tbi courtly phrase, in his conversation with the king. 2 The present duke of York. 3 The orator here alluded to Mr. Wilkes's famous, or rather in- famous " Essay on Woman." 4 His lordship acquired great pop- ularity by hi* judicial decisions on the illegality of general war- rants. The corporation of Dub- lin took the lead in voting him the freedom of their city in a gold box, accompanied with the thanks of the sheriffs and com- mon council for his just and spirited conduct in the late tri- als. The lord-mayor, alder- men, and common council of London improved upon the ex ample by a vote, that the free- dom of the city should be pre- sented to his lordship, and that he should also be requested to sit for bis picture, to be placed in Guildhall, as a lasting me- morial of their gratitude. Sim- ilar compliments were trans- mitted to him from some other communities in England and Ireland ; and the seal of royal approbation wag soon after af- fixed to those testimonies of popular esteem, by creating him a peer of the realm. 5 Dr. Warburton, bishop of Clou cester, whose name was most scurrilouRly inserted in the title page as the author of the notes. The complaint could not other wise have been properly brought before the house of lords. 6 In little more than a year after, the general had ample amends made him for the unpleasant ness of this dismission, by be ing appointed one of the secre- taries of state. GEORGE m. 17601820. 83 CHAPTER VII. Inquiry into the Causes of the Renewal of Hostilities with the Savage Tribes in Amer- ica Extent of the Governments of Quebec, of East and West Florida Incitements to War on the Part of the Indians Military Operations against the Indians, and Peace with them Impolitic Suppression of the commercial Intercourse between the British and Spanish Plantations, and between the American Colonies and the French Islands Colonists refuse Compensation for the Stamp Duties State of the British Logwood-cutters in the Bay of Honduras French atone for outrage at Turk's Island Progress of American Stamp Act through both Houses Prevention of Smuggling Purchase of the Sovereignty of the Isle of Man A Regency Bill re- commended by his Majesty New Administration formed by the Duke of Cumberland. CAUSES OF DISTURBANCES WITH THE INDIANS. 1763. THE renewal of hostilities on the part of the savages in America was barely noticed, early in the last chapter, among the important concerns of the British ministry ; but any farther details on that head were then postponed, on account of the more im- mediate and more interesting pressure of domestic occurrences. In order now to lead the reader to a proper idea of the events of that savage war, it will be necessary to trace out the causes which probably gave rise to it ; and to explain the measures, which were cautiously though at first unsuccessfully de- signed to prevent any such disturbances. By the fourth and seventh articles of the treaty of peace, Canada was ceded to Great Britain in its utmost extent This stretched the northern part of her possessions on the continent of America from one ocean to the other. The cession of Louisiana to the Mis- sissippi, and of the Spanish Florida on both seas, made her American empire complete. No frontiers could be more distinctly defin- ed, nor more perfectly secured. The only care which seemed left for Great Britain, was to render these acquisitions as beneficial in traffic, as they were extensive in terri- tory. In order to come at an exact know- ledge of everything necessary for this pur- pose, it was judged expedient to divide the new acquisitions on the continent into three separate and independent governments. The first and most northerly of these di- visions was called the government of Quebec, the limitation of which within narrower boundaries than those formerly assigned by the French to Canada, excited some surprise and no inconsiderable clamor at home. The southern divisions were more easily adjusted, as the two provinces of East and West Flor- ida were regularly parted by the river Apa- lachicola. The coast of Labrador from the river St John to Hudson's Straits, and all the neighboring islands in the gulf of St Laurence, were subject to the authority and inspection of the governor of Newfoundland, their value depending wholly on the fishery. The islands of St. John and Cape Breton were annexed, as their situation required, to Nova Scotia. This distribution of the newly-acquired territories was announced to the public, in a royal proclamation of the seventh of Octo- ber, 1763. Most people were, indeed, as- tonished to find, that the environs of the great lakes, the fine countries on the whole course of the Ohio and Ouabache, and al- most all that tract of Louisiana which lies on the hither branch of the Mississippi, were left out, and, as it were, disregarded in this boasted plan of territorial regulation. But the ministry had many reasons for such an apparent omission. A consideration of the Indians carried with it no small weight, be- cause it might have given a sensible alarm to that people, if they had seen their whole country formally cantoned out into regular establishments. It was in this idea that the proclamation strictly forbade any purchases or settlements beyond the limits of the three before-mentioned governments, or any ex- tension of the old colonies beyond the heads of the rivers which fall from the westward into the Atlantic ocean ; reserving expressly all the territories behind, as a hunting- ground for the Indians. Another reason, probably, why no disposition had been made of the inland country, was, that the charters of many of the old colonies gave them no other bounds to the westward but the South Sea ; and consequently comprehended almost all the conquered districts. But where the western boundary ought to be settled, was a matter which admitted of great dispute ; and, to all appearance, could only be finally ad- justed by the interposition of parliament That the ministry were not guilty of any blamable neglect is evident from their earn- est attention to the improvement of those parts which they could perfectly command. In order to invite soldiers and seamen, who had served in the American war, to settle in 84 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the country they had conquered, lots of lane were offered to them as the rewards of their services, and in proportion to the rank they held in the army or navy. Every field-officer was to have five thousand acres, every cap- tain three thousand, every subaltern two thousand, every non-commissioned officer two hundred, and every private soldier or seaman fifty. But as no encouragement un- connected with the idea of liberty could be flattering to Englishmen, a civil establish- ment, comprehending a popular representa- tive, agreeably to the plan of the royal governments in the other colonies, was di- rected as soon as the circumstances of these countries would admit of it; and in the mean time, such regulations were provided as held out to every individual the full en- joyment and benefit of the laws of England. And, lastly, that nothing might be wanting for the security of new settlers, and for awing as well as protecting the Indian na- tions, a regular military establishment also was formed there, consisting of ten thousand men, divided into twenty battalions, part of whom were to be employed in the defence of the West India islands. THE INDIANS COMMENCE HOSTILITIES. Bur though the most prudent steps were thus taken, to avoid giving offence to the Indians on the one hand, and to intimidate their ferocity on the other, they suddenly fell upon the frontiers of the most valuable settlements, and upon all the outlying forts, with such a unanimity in the design, and b-uch persevering fury in the attack, as had not been experienced even in the hottest times of any former war. Various causes concurred to urge them on to this very un- expected violence. The English had treat- ed the savages at all times with too much indifference, but more especially since the close of the French war. The usual pres- ents were omitted. Contrary to the inten- tions of government, settlements were at- tempted beyond the just limits. Purchases, indeed, were made of the lands, and some- times fair ones. But the Indians, conscious of the weakness and facility of their own character in all dealings, have often consid- ered a purchase and an invasion as nearly the same thing. They expect, that the rea- son of enlightened nations will rather aid, than take advantage of their imbecility, and will not suffer them, even when they are willing, to do those things which must end in their ruin when done. They were also alarmed at seeing all the places of strength in the possession of the British troops, and a chain of forts drawn round the best hunting country they had left, which was an object of the more serious concern to them, as such ground became every day more scarce, not only from the gradual extending of the British settlements, but from their own bad economy of this single resource of savage life. It was therefore very natural for them to look upon every garrison as the first ad- vances of an encroaching colony; and, in the midst of all these fears, a report having been spread amongst them, that a scheme was formed for their entire extirpation, they did not hesitate a moment longer to take up the hatchet The Delawares and Shawanese, who, as the cultivation of Pennsylvania advanced, had retired, and settled upon the Ohio, took the lead in this renewal of hostilities. They had even the address to engage the Seneca?, one of the five nations to whom they therr- selves had been formerly tributaries, to es- pouse their quarrel, and to join in the pro- posed attack on the British forts and colonies. General Amherst, the commander-in-chief, sensible of the danger to which all the Brit- sh conquests were exposed by the sudden jreaking out of this war, sent off detach- ments as early as possible to strengthen the hief posts. Detroit was the first, where one of the detachments arrived on the twenty- ninth of July, and where a plan was immedi- ately formed by captain Dalyel, who had the command of these troops, for surprising the savages in their camp, which was about ,hree miles from the fort The captain set out at the head of two hundred and forty- ive men, between two and three o'clock m he morning, with all the precautions possi- ile. He was also attended by two armed >oats, to co-operate with the land forces, ivhose march lay along the bank of the lake, T to cover, if necessary, their retreat They ivere not far from the Indian quarters, when hey received a brisk fire in their front In- stantly after it began upon their rear. They were attacked on all sides, and their com- mander fell early in the action. The dark- ness of the night hindered their seeing the enemy; and the whole party was on the int of falling into irremediable confusion. The Indians had been apprized of their de- ign, and had, with their usual subtlety, wsted themselves in such a manner behind ledges, and in huts on each side of the road, as gave them a considerable advantage over he exposed assailants. In this emergency, captain Grant, on whom the command of the Jritish troops devolved, saw that nothing ivas left but a retreat He also saw that ven this could be effected only by first making a spirited attack on the enemy's xjsts, which was done with great order and esolution. The Indians were driven from he road, and at length repulsed everywhere. Captain Grant then made good his retreat to he boats, which carried off the wounded ; and the rest of the detachment regained the "ort, though with great difficulty, and con- GEORGE III. 17601820. 85 siderable loss, as very near a third of their number fell in the action. At the very time when one party of them was thus foil- ed in their stratagems near Detroit, another more numerous and formidable body invest- ed Fort Pitt, at the distance of more than two hundred miles from the former place. In the mean time general Amherst, fully persuaded, from the importance and situa- tion of Fort Pitt, that it would become one of the principal objects of savage fury, or- dered colonel Bouquet to march to its relief, with a large quantity of provisions and stores under a strong escort. The Indians, who had their scouts all over the country, were no sooner informed of the march of the Eng- lish troops, than they abandoned the blockade of the fort, in order to seize the first favor- able opportunity of cutting off the intended reinforcement. Colonel Bouquet having ad- vanced as far as Ligonier, on the extreme verge of the British settlements, without receiving any intelligence of the position or motions of the enemy, very prudently re- solved to disencumber himself there of the wagons and of a considerable part of the ammunition and provisions; while he pro- ceeded with the troops, and about three hun- dred and forty horses loaded with flour and such other supplies as were absolutely neces- sary. Being thus disburdened, the English army entered a rough and mountainous country. Before them lay a dangerous de- file, called Turtle Creek, several miles in length, commanded the whole way by high and craggy hills. It was therefore deemed most advisable not to attempt passing this defile but by night, in order, if possible, to elude the vigilance of their alert enemies. While the colonel and his party were making the necessary arrangements to re- fresh themselves, after a fatiguing march of seventeen miles, the Indians made a sudden attack on his advanced guard, which, being speedily and firmly supported, the enemy was beat off, and even pursued to a conside- rable distance. As soon as the savages were driven from one eminence, they immediately occupied another ; till by constant reinforce- ments, they were able to surround the whole detachment, and to attack the convoy in the rear, which forced the main body to rail back for its protection. The action now became general; and though the savages poured down on every side in considerable numbers, and fought with unusual regularity and spirit, the superior skill and steady courage of the British troops at length prevailed. Above sixty of the English were killed or wounded ; and as the ground, on which they stood, was not ill adapted to an encampment, the convoy and the wounded were placed in the centre ; and the troops, forming a circle, encompassed the whole. In this manner, VOL. IV. 8 and with little repose, they passed an anxious night, obliged to the strictest vigi- lance by a daring enemy, who, notwithstand- ing this first check, seemed to wait only for the morning to complete their destruction. Those who have only experienced the se- verities and dangers of a campaign in Eu- rope, can scarcely form an idea of what is to be done and endured in an American war. To act in a country cultivated and inhabited, where roads are made, magazines are estab- lished, and hospitals provided ; where there are strong towns to afford refuge in case of misfortune; or, at the worst, a generous enemy to yield to, from whom no consola- tion, but the honor of victory, can be want- ing ; this may be considered as the exercise of an active and adventurous mind, rather than a rigid contest for mutual destruction ; and as a dispute between rivals for glory, rather than a struggle between sanguinary enemies. But in an American campaign, every object is terrible: the face of the country, the climate, the enemy. There is no refreshment for the healthy, no relief for the sick or wounded. A vast inhospitable desert, unsafe and treacherous, extends on every side. Victories are not decisive, but defeats are ruinous ; and simple death is the least misfortune that can befall a soldier. This forms a service truly critical, in which all the firmness of the body and mind is put to the severest trial ; and all the exertions of courage, perseverance, and address are called forth by the unceasing perils of every moment. Some remarks of this kind seem- ed necessary, to place in a proper light the dreadful situation and unparalleled efforts of the brave detachment under colonel Bou- quet. At the first dawn of light, in the morning of the sixth of August, the savages, at the distance of about five hundred yards, emit- ted the most horrid shouts and yells, in order to intimidate by an ostentation of their num- bers and their ferocity. After this alarming preparative, they rushed on with the utmost fury, and, under the favor of an incessant fire, made several bold efforts to penetrate into the camp. They were repulsed in every attempt, but by no means discouraged from new ones. The British troops, continually victorious, were continually in danger. Colonel Bouquet, seeing that all depend- ed on bringing the savages to a close en- gagement, and that, when pressed, they always flew off in order to rally with the greater effect, formed a plan for giving new strength to their audacity by making dispo- sitions for an apparent retreat The savages gave entirely into the snare : imagining that those movements were sure indications of an attempt to escape, they rushed from the woods which had hitherto covered them, 86 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. and hurrying on headlong with the utmost intrepidity, galled the English with their heavy fire. But at the very instant, when they thought the victory certain, and the camp taken, the two first companies made a sudden turn, and sallying out from a part of the hill which was not observed, fell furi- ously upon their right flank. The barbarians made for a little time a desperate stand, re- turning the first fire with great resolution ; but they fled at the second volley. As they turned their backs, two other companies presented themselves in their front, and to- tally routed them with great slaughter. The victorious army, notwithstanding this advan- tage, had suffered so much, and had lost so many horses, that, before they could move, they were obliged to destroy the greatest part of their flour and provisions, and conse- quently to give up one of the principal ob- jects of their expedition. About two miles farther on at a place called Bushy Run, the savages made another attack upon them, but less vigorously than before ; after which they suffered little molestation during the rest of their march, but arrived safe at Fort Pitt, in four days from the action. The loss sustained by the English in these engage- ments was fifty killed, and about sixty wounded : that of the savages was not much greater, owing to their manner of fighting ; but their tribes being very thin, they thought it an almost irreparable havoc, particularly as some of their bravest leaders had fallen upon the occasion. Though the two forts of Detroit and Pitt were thus secured by timely reinforcements, the Indians in other parts of the country were not discouraged from farther attempts. Ni- agara was a place equally worthy of their regard ; and they endavored to distress it by every method, which the meanness of their skill in attacking fortified places would per- mit They chiefly directed their attention to the convoys, hoping to starve what they could not otherwise reduce. The vast dis- tance of the forts from each other, and all of them from the settled countries, favored their design. Near the carrying-place of Niagara, a body of five hundred of them surrounded an escort consisting of two com- panies of English soldiers, on the fourteenth of September, and killed seventy-two of the privates, besides officers and Serjeants. On the lake Erie, with a crowd of canoes, they attacked a schooner, which was conveying provisions to Fort Detroit: but here they were not so successful. Though in this sav- age navy they had employed near four hun- dred men, and had but a single vessel to en- gage, they were repulsed, after a hot en- gagement, with great loss. The schooner was to them as a fortification on the water ; and they knew not how to make their ap- proaches, or onsets, with the same advantage as upon the convoys by land. TREATY WITH THE INDIANS. WHILE the war was thus raging in the remoter parts of the colony, Sir William Johnson applied himself with indefatigable zeal to secure the attachment of such of the Indians as had not yet commenced hos- tilities. For this purpose he opened con- ferences at the German Flats, in the begin- ning of September, with the Six Nations and some others, who appeared desirous of continuing in quiet dependence upon Eng- land. They could not, however, prevent the Senecas and their allies from continuing their depredations and massacres. Vigorous measures were therefore adopted to reduce these refractory savages to reason ; and it was not till they severely felt the scourge of powerful vengeance, that the Senecas were induced to solicit peace. In the treaty concluded between them and Sir William Johnson, all occasions of future dispute were removed; their boundaries were precisely ascertained ; their past transgressions were forgiven ; and in consequence of their sol- emn engagements never more to make war upon the English, nor to Buffer any of their people to commit any acts of violence on the persons or properties of any of his Bri- tannic majesty's subjects, they were not only admitted once more into the covenant chain of friendship, but were to be indulged with a free, fair, and open trade. This treaty took place in April 1764 ; and one of the most considerable succors being thereby withdrawn from the other hostile tribes, it was not likely that they would hold out much longer. Colonel Bradetreet was ordered to advance with a large body of men from Niagara to the countries of those savages ; and colonel Bouquet set out with another body for the same purpose from Canada, intending to carry the war through their most remote habitations, if they did not submit in time. Such appearances of determined resolution produced the proper effects : for when colonel Bradstreet arrived at Presque Isle in August, deputies from the several nations waited upon him, and en- gaged by solemn treaty to deliver up all the prisoners in their hands, and to renounce all claim to the posts and forts possessed in their country by the English, who should be at liberty to erect as many more as might be thought necessary for the security of their trade, with as much land to each fort, for raising provisions, as a cannon-shot can fly over. Some other conditions were added, tending to inspire the barbarians with a sense of humanity and justice, and to give them some idea of the English government. Colonel Bouquet was equally successful, though the savages, against whom he GEORGE HI. 17601820. 87 marched, were by for the most perfidious and intractable. He penetrated into the very heart of their country about the latter end of October ; and when they found that he was neither to be checked by any show of resistance, nor amused by delusive promises, they agreed to treat in good earnest, faith- fully giving up all their prisoners, even the children bora of white women, admitting de- tachments of his army into their towns, giving some of their chiefs as hostages, and appointing deputies finally to settle the terms of peace with Sir William Johnson. These wise and resolute measures restored security to the interior colonists, or back settlers in North America. DISSATISFACTION pF THE COLONISTS. BUT while the British government was thus taking the most effectual steps to se- cure the peaceable submission of the Ameri- can savages, a spirit of much more danger- ous resistance began to appear among its civilized subjects on the same continent. This was first excited by some attempts made to break off all kind of commercial in- tercourse between the British colonies and the French and Spanish settlements. The trade was certainly illicit ; but as many parts of 'it were highly beneficial to those who carried it on, and ultimately to the mother countries in Europe, every restraint ought to have been imposed with the utmost delicacy and caution. The first branch of commerce which felt the weight of the blow was that which had been for a long time carried on between the British and Spanish plantations, to the great advantage of both, but especially the former, the chief materials of it being, on the side of the British colonies, British manufactures, or such of their own produce as enabled them to purchase those manufactures ; and, on the part of the Spaniards, gold and silver in bullion and in coin, cochineal, and medi- cinal drugs, besides live stock and mules, with which the West India islands used to be supplied by the same channel, and which were still more necessary than the precious metals. Though this trade did not clash with the spirit of any of the prohibitory acts, yet it was found to vary from the letter of them sufficiently to afford the revenue offi- cers a plea for doing that from duty, which they had strong temptations to do from mo- tives of interest. Accordingly they seized, indiscriminately, all British as well as foreign ships engaged in that traffic. The same mistake attended the trade car- ried on by the American colonies with the French West India islands, and which was no less lucrative than the former. It de- pended on a mutual exchange of articles which would have otherwise remained use- less encumbrances on the hands of the pos- sessors, so that it united all the advantages which liberal minds include in the idea of a well regulated commerce. It had been interrupted during the war, but was soon likely to flourish again, had not the clamor of some selfish West Indians prevailed upon jovernment to issue orders for its suppres- sion, as not being strictly conformable to law. Sound policy would rather have con- nived at such a resource, which not only prevented the North American colonies from being drained of their current cash by the calls of the mother country upon them, but afforded supplies of specie for the purposes of internal circulation. This was of the greater importance, as their domestic trade necessarily increased from day to day, in proportion to the remarkable increase of mankind in that part of the world, where the cheapness of land determines the great- er part of the inhabitants to the exercise of the rural arts, so favorable to population. In consequence of these prohibitions, which were for some time enforced by the naval officers with the utmost severity, not only all the contraband, but the fair and lawful trade of the Americans was threatened with irre- vocable ruin. It is not, therefore, to be won- dered at, that the inhabitants of many of the colonies, being no longer able to make the usual remittances to the mother country for the usual supplies, began to turn their thoughts to retrenchment and industry ; and renouncing all finery, came to a resolution not to buy any clothes, or other articles which they could possibly do without, that were not of their own manufacturing. Though the English ministry, on the first intimation of those grievances, immediately softened the rigor of their former orders, and pre- pared those regulations of the American commerce, mentioned in the preceding chap- ter, which were passed into laws before the close of the session in April ; yet all these expedients were not attended with the de- sired effect. The Americans still complained, that the mode of restriction was only changed, and that the show of indulgence was rather an aggravation of their distresses. They did not deny that their intercourse with the other European colonies was now rendered in some respects legal ; but they said, that the best part of it was loaded with duties so far above its strength to bear, as became in reality prohibitions to all intents and pur- poses. They were equally dissatisfied with being obliged to pay those duties, in specie, into the English exchequer, though it was expressly stated in the act, that the money arising from them was to be reserved for de- fraying the charges of protecting the colonies on which it was levied. They laid but little stress on the laws made at the same time for the encouragement and increase of their 88 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. commercial intercourse with the mother country ; because, as they alleged, the bene- fits to be derived from that farther intercourse were, at best, very remote, if not uncertain, whereas the effects of the laws for restrain- ing their foreign trade and cramping domes- tic industry by the want of specie and the destruction of paper currency, were certain and instantaneous. THE ASSEMBLIES REFUSE COMPENSA- TION FOR THE STAMP- ACT. Bur the object, against which the colonists raised the loudest clamor, was the postponed intention of charging them with stamp du- ties. That measure had, as before intimated, been delayed by the minister, till the sense of their several assemblies could be taken, how far they were willing to make a com- pensation in any other form, for the revenue that such a tax might produce. This was so uncommon an instance of condescension, that the agents for the colonies residing in London thought it their duty to wait upon him, and to return him thanks in the name of their constituents. He took that oppor- tunity to inform them, that it was then in the power of the colonies, by agreeing to that tax, to establish a precedent for their being consulted for the future, before any tax was imposed upon them by the British parliament The candor and generosity of this proceed- ing did not make a suitable impression on the minds of the Americans, prejudiced and irritated, as they were, by the late commer- cial restrictions. So far from complying, they resolved to remonstrate : and some of their assemblies sent over petitions, to be presented to the king, lords, and commons, positively and directly questioning the au- thority and jurisdiction of parliament over their propertiea Even those provinces, that were most moderate in their remonstrances, did not instruct their agents either to agree to the tax in question, or to offer any com- pensation to be exempted from it Two of the agents, indeed, answered for the colonies they served, bearing their proportion of the stamp duty by methods of their own ; but they did not venture, when questioned, to say, that they were authorized to agree for any particular sum. All imaginable methods were taken, though to little purpose, to con- vince the colonists of their mistake, before the matter came under a parliamentary con- sideration. 1765. After a much longer relief from public duty than the parliament had for some years experienced, it met on the tenth of January, when his majesty opened the session with a speech, informing both houses among other usual topics that his majesty had agreetl with his good brother the king of Denmark, to cement the union which had long subsist- ed between the two crowns, by the marriage of the prince royal of Denmark with his sis- ter the princess Caroline Matilda, which would be solemnized as soon as their re- spective ages would permit PETTY DISTURBANCES FROM SPAIN AND FRANCE APOLOGIZED FOR. BY accounts received from the West In- dies in the month of June, it appeared that, in consequence of an order from Don Re- mires, the Spanish governor of Jucatan, the English logwood-cutters had been not only disturbed in their business, contrary to the last treaty, but ordered to remove suddenly from their usual places of settlement, on pre- tence of their having nothing to prove their being subjects to his Britannic majesty ; and granting they were, they had roved too freely about the country, gathering the fruits of it, as if it belonged to them. The sufferers joined in a petition to the governor of Ja- maica, under whose protection they were, re- presenting the distresses to which they were reduced by such captious and arbitrary pro- ceedings. Governor Lyttleton having satis- fied himself of the truth of the complaint, sent off dispatches to England, in cbnse- quence of which the earl of Rochford, then ambassador at the court of Madrid, was ordered to make serious remonstrances to that court on the subject The reply of the Spanish ministry was, that they had not re- ceived any advice from the governor of Juca- tan relative to this affair ; but that the Cath- olic king had certainly given him positive orders to abide by and observe the seven- teenth Article of the definitive treaty ; and that his majesty would not approve of the conduct of any of his governors, ministers, or subjects, who acted in contravention to it But this answer not being deemed sufficient- ly explicit or satisfactory by some of the English ministry, the ambassador was direct- ed to renew the remonstrances ; upon which orders were dispatched by his Catholic ma- jesty to Remires, censuring his behavior to- wards the logwood-cutters ; expressing a desire of giving the king of England the greatest proofs of friendship, and of preserv- ing peace with the British nation ; and com- manding Remires to re-establish the logwood- cutters in the several places from which he had obliged them to retire, and to let them know that they might return to their occu- pation, without being disquieted under any pretence whatsoever. In another instance, which occurred about the same time, the Spanish government showed an equal readiness to remove any just cause of complaint on the part of Great Britain. The commodore of some Spanish xebeques, that were cruising against the Al- eerines in the Mediterranean, attacked an English merchant-ship, commanded by one captain Sybrand, who immediately hoisted GEORGE m. 17601820. English colors, but having no guns on board, cried out for mercy. This, however, had no effect on the Spaniards, who continued their fire, till the English ship was rendered almost a wreck ; many of the crew were wounded ; one of the passengers lost his arm ; and the ship was carried into Cartha- gena. On the discovery of the mistake, into which the very unpardonable precipitancy of the Spanish commodore had hurried him, the damages done to the English ship were immediately repaired out of the arsenal at Carthagena; and in consequence of the strong representations made on that head by lord Rochford to the Catholic king, his ma- jesty defrayed the expense of curing the wounded English ; indemnified their cap- tain for the interruption of his voyage ; and gave the passenger a gratification for the un- fortunate loss of his arm. Some proceedings of the French in the West Indies afforded fresh matter for in- creasing the apprehensions of a war. At no great distance from the coast of Hispani- ola are several small islands, the most con- siderable, or rather the least insignificant of which is called Turk's island, and gives its name to the rest Though it is an uncom- fortable barren spot, with very little fresh water, without any vegetables except low shrubs, or any animals except lizards, and land-crabs ; yet the coast abounds with fish, turtle, and sea-fowls ; and the soil itself pro- duces salt As it was impossible for any settlement to subsist upon the island, the property of it remained undetermined ; but the Bermudians and other British subjects used to resort thither annually in March for the benefit of gathering salt in the dry sea- son. Their manner of living was the most wretched that can well be conceived : they dwelt in huts covered with leaves : a kettle and a knife were their only utensils : salt pork, and now and then a turtle' or a lizard, was their food ; and their dress consisted of a straw hat, a check shirt, and a pair of coarse linen trowsers. Their chief custom- ers were the people of New-England, who purchased the salt for their fisheries, at the rate of from four-pence to six-pence a bushel, and paid a small part in money, and the rest in bad rum, and worse provisions. Here was nothing to invite invasion, or rapine. Yet, on the first of June, the crews of a French seventy-four gun ship, and of two or three small vessels in company, landed on the island ; plundered and burnt all the cabins that were erected there ; and carried off the inhabitants, about two hundred in number, with nine English vessels which they found off the coast, to cape Francois, where they released them next day, with orders not to return to Turk's island. Governor Lyttleton, on beincr informed of those unaccountable 8* hostilities, lost no time in communicating his intelligence to the ministry, nor they in transmitting it to the earl of Hertford, the English ambassador at the court of France. The gazette of the eleventh of September, informed the nation, that the court of France, in answer to the earl of Hertford's demand of immediate satisfaction and reparation for those acts of violence, had disavowed the whole proceedings; had disclaimed all in- tention or desire of acquiring or conquering the Turk's islands ; and had given orders to the count d'Estaigne, governor of St Do- mingo, to cause the said islands to be im- mediately abandoned on the part of the French, to restore everything therein to the condition in which it was on the first of June last, and to make reparation of the damages which any of his Britannic majesty's sub- jects should be found to have sustained, in consequence of the said proceedings, accord- ing to an estimation to be forthwith settled by the said governor, with the governor of Jamaica. To these proofs of the sincere intentions of France to preserve the peace, and to fulfil her engagements, another very strong and unequivocal one was lately added, in the proposals submitted to his majesty by the French ambassador for the discharge of the balance due for the subsistence of French prisoners in the British dominions during the last war. His excellency was authorized by his court to offer six hundred and seventy thousand pounds in acquittal of the whole demand, one hundred and thirty thousand pounds to be paid immediately, and the re- mainder at the rate of forty thousand pounds a quarter. THE AMERICAN STAMP-ACT PASSED. BUT the attention of parliament was soon called to a subject of much greater impor- tance, the propriety of laying nearly the same stamp duties upon the British colonies in America as were payable in England. No less than fifty-five resolutions of the commit- tee of ways and means, relative to that branch of the revenue, were agreed to by the house on the seventh of February ; and were afterwards formed into a bill, which met with fewer checks or delays in its pro- gress through both houses, than the most trifling measures which had been hitherto proposed by government. Petitions, indeed, as before intimated, had been sent over by several of the provincial assemblies, directly questioning the jurisdiction of the British parliament: but they were not suffered to be read in the house of commons ; nor did any member at that time stand forward to defend such pretensions. Grenville, at the head of f the treasury, felt the impossibility of Great Britain's supporting such an estab- lishment as her former successes had made 90 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. indispensable, and at the same time of giv- ing any sensible relief to foreign trade, and to the weight of the public debt He thought it equitable that those parts of the empire which had benefited most by the expenses of the war, should contribute something to the expenses of the peace ; and he had no doubt of the constitutional right vested in parliament to raise the contribution. But unfortunately for this country, Pitt and lord Camden were to be the patrons of America, because they were in opposition. Their declaration gave spirit and argument to the colonies ; and while perhaps they meant no more than the rum of a minister, they in effect divided one half of the empire from the other. MEASURES FOR PREVENTING SMUG- GLING, &c. GRENVILLE'S plans, for the increase of the revenue at home, and for the prevention of smuggling on the British coasts, were at- tended with much greater facility and suc- cess. The Isle of Man, which was not sub- ject to the custom-house laws, as not only the property but the sovereignty of it be- longed to the duke of Athol, lay so con- veniently for the purpose of smuggling, that it defeated the utmost vigilance of govern- ment Grenville presented to the house of commons, " a bill for more effectually pre- venting the mischiefs arising to the revenue and commerce of Great Britain and Ireland, from the illicit and clandestine trade to and from the Isle of Man." It was obvious that no effectual remedy could be applied, but by vesting the sovereignty of the island in the crown of Great Britain. Before the second reading of the bill, the duke and dutchess of Athol presented a petition for liberty to be heard by counsel against it. The object was to obtain a proper compensation' or equivalent for the surrender of their heredi- tary rights and title. An abstract of the clear revenue of the island for the last ten years, and the proposals of the duke and dutchess in their correspondence with the commissioners of the treasury on the subject, were also laid before the house ; and the re- Bult of all was, that on the sixth of March, two resolutions were agreed to, and after- wards passed into a law, for vesting in the crown all rights, jurisdictions, and interests, in and over the said island and its depen- dencies, excepting what related to the landed property; and for allowing the proprietors seventy thousand pounds as a full compen- sation for those rights. The liberality of government went still farther, and in addi- tion to the former sum, granted a pension of two thousand pounds a-year to the late duke, and to the dutchess his wife, during their lives, by way of douceur for their relin- quishment of titular royalty. REGENCY ACT. BEFORE the bills, founded on the above proceedings and resolutions of the commons, could go through all the necessary stages, another matter of great national concern en- gaged the attention of the public at large, as well as of parliament. Towards the spring of the year, his majesty was attacked with an illness, which excited the greater alarm, as nothing could be gathered from the newspapers, but that the state of his health was precarious. The first day that his health would permit him to appear abroad, which was on the twenty-fourth of April, he repaired to parliament, where, after giving his assent to the bills that were ready, he made a speech to both houses, in which he told them, that the tender concern he felt for his faithful subjects, made him anxious to provide for every possible event, which might affect their happiness, and security : that his late indisposition, though not attend- ed with danger, had led him to consider the situation in which his kingdoms and his family might be left, if it should please God to put a period to his life whilst his successor was of tender years : and as his health, by the blessing of God, was now restored, he took the earliest opportunity of meeting them, and of recommending to their most serious deliberation the making such pro- vision as would be necessary, in case any of his children should succeed to his throne be- fore they should respectively attain the age of eighteen years. To this end his majesty proposed to their consideration, whether, un- der the present circumstances, it would not be expedient to vest in him the power of appointing, from time to time, by instrument in writing, under his sign-manual, either the queen, or any other person of his royal family usually residing in Great Britain, to be the guardian of the person of such suc- cessor, and the regent of these kingdoms, until such successor should attain the age of eighteen years, subject to the like restric- tions and regulations, as were specified in the act made on occasion of his father's death ; the regent so appointed to be assisted by a council, composed of the several per- sons, who, by reason of their dignities and offices, were constituted members of the council established by that act, together with those whom they might think proper to leave to his nomination. This affecting and gracious speech having been answered, as soon as forms would ad- mit, by a joint address from both houses, well adapted to express those sentiments which it deserved, and those emotions which the occasion of it had so justly excited, the lords ordered a bill to be brought in, con- formable to his majesty's recommendation ; and when passed their house, sent it to the GEORGE HI. 17601820. 91 commons. But when the bill came down to them for their concurrence, it gave rise to very long debates, the clauses of it being so worded as to exclude the princess dowager of Wales from any share in the guardian- ship or regency, though, next to the queen, it was most natural for his majesty to wish his own mother invested with such trusts. An amendment was therefore moved, and carried by a majority of a hundred and sixty- seven against thirty-seven, for inserting the name of the princess dowager of Wales, next after that of the queen, as one of the persons whom his majesty might appoint to the guardianship of his successors under age, and to the regency of his realms. The bill, so amended, was returned to the house of lords ; and, that amendment being approved by then* lordships, received the royal assent on the fifteenth of May. NEW ADMINISTRATION. SINCE the earl of Bute's retirement from public business, the agents of faction had been indefatigable in their endeavors to make the multitude believe, that no import- ant measure was determined upon by gov- ernment without his private advice ; and that his successors in office were but nomi- nal substitutes, or rather mere puppets ex- hibited on the stage, while he stood behind the curtain managing the wires that regu- lated all their motions. The great popular speakers in both houses of parliament took care to countenance, and as far as they were able, to strengthen those reports, by frequent insinuations of a secret influence. Such re- proaches, however groundless and absurd, could not be very agreeable to any of the ministers ; but they were particularly sting- ing to the duke of Bedford, a man almost as proud, as irritable, and as jealous of his in- dependency as Mr. Pitt himself. From too violent a desire to wipe off the aspersion, and to afford the most unquestionable proofs of disregard for the earl of Bute, his grace contrived to have that nobleman's brother turned out of a very honorable and lucrative employment, enjoyed by him in his own country, and in the discharge of which he had not given the least room for complaint. It was impossible this step should not be con- sidered by the king as an affront put upon himself. But the duke and his colleagues went still farther; and dismissed lord Hol- land and the earl of Northumberland, for no other reason but because they were supposed to be the earl of Bute's friends. About the time these changes took place, parliament was prorogued with the usual acknowledg- ments from the throne. The ministry did not long enjoy those gratifications. Offers were made to the principal members of the opposition, and though declined by Mr. Pitt and lord Tem- ple, were accepted by the duke of Newcas- tle, the marquis of Rockingham, and their friends. General Conway, who at the close of the last session had been deprived of all his employments, and the duke of Grafton, were made secretaries of state. Lord Wey- mouth's late appointment to the lord-lieuten- ancy of Ireland was superseded by that of the earl of Hertford, general Conway's bro- ther. The president's chair, lately filled by the duke of Bedford, was given to the earl of Winchelsea ; and the places, which Gren- ville had united in his own person, were now divided, the marquis of Rockingham becom- ing first lord of the treasury, and Mr. Dow- deswell chancellor of the exchequer. Most of the other great offices of state were also filled with new men, except that lord Eg- mont was continued at the head of the ad- miralty, and the duke of Newcastle chose to be lord privy-seal, a place of ease well suited to his years, and yet of honor and con- fidence, the things of which his grace had ever appeared most ambitious. It was upon the same occasion that the very popular chief justice of the common pleas obtained a peerage. This arrangement, or alteration of the ministry, was entirely the work of the duke of Cumberland, who continued for some time to assist them with his advice, but did not live long enough to see the consequences of the most important of their deliberations. On the evening of the thirty-first of Octo- ber, as his royal highness was preparing to assist at a council on affairs of state, which was to be held at his own house in Upper Grosvenor-street, he was seized with a dis- order, of which he had some symptoms the night before, and in a fit of shivering, sunk senseless, almost instantaneously, in the arms of the earl of Albemarle. In less than two months after, the royal family sustained another loss in the death of prince Frede- rick William, his majesty's youngest brother. This event, following the former at so short an interval, thickened the glooms of melan- choly round the court, and damped the joy which had been lately felt there, as well as throughout the kingdom, in consequence of the queen's happy delivery of a third eon, prince William Henry, since created duke of Clarence. HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER VIII. Mir CossinikS Endeavors to shake off" the India Company's yoke Military operations which effected the entire Conquest of Bengal Appointment and Departure of a se- lect Committee for Bengal Treaty concluded by Lord Clive with the Nabob of Oude -Violent Proceedings against the Stamp- Act in North America Debates and Pro- ceedings in England as to the Right of taxing the Colonies Causes of a sudden Change in the Ministry. DURING the painful suspense which the people of England must have felt with re- gard to the effects of the stamp-act in Ame- rica, and while the most enlightened pa- triots saw with concern some heavy clouds collecting over the western hemisphere, a brighter prospect presented itself in the east, where the affairs of the India company were said to go on in a brilliant career of success. MIR COSSIM'S ATTEMPT AGAINST THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. IN some former remarks on the occur- rences of the year 1761, it was observed that Mir Cossim, the subah of Bengal, who had been enabled by the assistance of the English to check Sha Zaddah's progress, was influenced by private motives to treat the conquered prince with extraordinary respect Mir Cossim, though indebted to the English for the acquisition of the subah- ship in the first instance (1), and for the secure possession of it afterwards, conceived the design of freeing himself from what he thought the chains of ruinous and dishonora- ble dependence. Instead, therefore, of im- posing hard terms on the Mogul prince, he strove to secure his friendship, of which he foresaw the value as soon as he should be prepared to avow his intentions. But these he artfully concealed for some time, and even continued to avail himself of the pow- er of the English, whilst he found it ser- viceable to him. By their means he cleared his government of invaders, and strengthen- ed his frontiers: he reduced the rajahs or independent Indian chiefs, who had rebelled during the feeble administration of his pre- decessor; and by compelling them to pay the usual tribute, repaired his exhausted finances, and thus secured the discipline and fidelity of his troops. Peace and order be- ing restored to his province, his next step was to remove his court from Murshudabad, the vicinity of which to Calcutta gave the factory an opportunity of watching nis con- duct too narrowly, and of crushing all his efforts on the first suspicion. He moved two hundred miles higher up the Ganges, and fixed his residence at Mongheer, which he fortified as strongly and expeditiously as he could. Here he began to form his army on a new model. He drew together all the Persians, Tartars, Armenians, and other soldiers of fortune, whose military spirit he wished to infuse into his Indian forces, and whose example might, he hoped, teach them to overcome their natural timidity. Sensible of the superiority of European discipline, he neglected nothing to acquire it Every wandering Frenchman, every Seapoy who had been dismissed from the English service, he carefully picked up, and distributed amongst his troops, in order to train them to the most perfect exercise. He changed the fashion of the Indian muskets from matchlocks to firelocks ; and because his cannon was nearly as defective as his small- arms, he procured from the English a pat- tern of one, on which he formed an excel- lent train of artillery. Attentive to his army, he was not forgetful of his court, the treachery and factious dissensions of which had hitherto been more fatal to the Indian princes than the feebleness of their arms. He, therefore, cut off without remorse, or threw into prison, every considerable person in his dominions, who had shown any attach- ment to the English. Thus strengthen- ed by every measure, which a subtle and enterprising man, unchecked by conscience, could take, he began to exert that authority, which he thought so firmly and so justly established. His revenue, though on a much better footing than that of his predecessor, still fell very short of its ancient limits. The free trade, which his own and his fa- ther-in-law's necessities had extorted in fa- vor of the company's servants, threatened to annihilate his customs, as it diverted all the domestic and foreign commerce of Bengal into a channel from which he could derive no benefit To remedy this evil, he sub- jected all the English private traders to the regular and equal payment of duties through- out his dominions; and issued an order, that their disputes, if they happened in his territories, should be decided by his magis- trates. The English factory took the alarm. Mr. Vansittart, the governor, went, in the latter end of the year 1762, to Mongheer, in or- GEORGE IIL 17601820. 93 der to expostulate with the subah, who an- swered his remonstrances with a command of temper equal to the force of his reason- ing. "If," said he, "the servants of the company were permitted, as they now de- sire, to trade custom-free in all ports, and in all commodities, they must of course draw all trade into their own hands; and my customs would be of so little value, that it would be more for my interest to lay trade entirely open, and to collect no duties upon any kind of merchandise. This would invite numbers of merchants into the coun- try, and increase my revenues by encour- aging the cultivation and manufacture of goods for sale, at the same time that it would cut off the principal source of our quarrels, an object, which I have more than any other at heart." The truth of these remarks could not be controverted ; but Mir Cossim's conduct was still a direct violation of the treaty or bargain he made with the company's servants on his obtaining the su- bahship, by which they were entitled to the privileges in question. The matter, how- ever, was evidently in his power, unless a war prevented him. The governor, though long accustomed to dictate on such occa- sions, submitted to certain regulations, which, if not unreasonable, were very unpleasing. These were instantly put in execution ; and the Indian magistrates began to exercise their power with a proper spirit, as they said, but, as the English traders complained, with partiality and rigor. As soon as the effect of the negotiation was made known at Calcutta, it threw the factory into a flame. They were filled with indignation and astonishment, at finding, that an Asiatic prince, created by them- selves, had dared to assert his independency. They began to repent of their late change, and to wish that they had left the timid and indolent Mir Jafner to slumber quietly on his throne. The council disavowed the pro- ceedings of the governor ; sent orders to all the factories, forbidding them to submit to any of the proposed restrictions ; and solicited Cossim to enter into a new agreement. But now grown confident of his strength, he charged them with inconstancy and inso- lence, and refused to negotiate with their deputies. The English factory, yielding in nothing to his spirit, prepared to draw their army into the field, and once more proclaim- ed Mir Jaffier subah of Bengal. In this war, the first blow was struck by the English. At Patna, a great commercial city, three hundred miles up the Ganges, they had a fortified factory, and some Euro- pean as well as Indian soldiers. These suddenly attacked the town on the twenty- fifth of June 1763, and made themselves masters of it without much difficulty, not- withstanding its fortifications had been newly repaired, and that it was defended by a strong- garrison. The Indian governor and his troops fled at the first assault into the coun- try ; but being reinforced, he returned in a few hours to Patna, and surprised the Eng- lish, who had neglected every precaution, and were widely dispersed on every side, wasting and plundering that opulent and feeble city. Many of them were cut to pieces, the rest took refuge in the fort But even this they soon abandoned, so spiritless did they become hi consequence of the un- expected turn of their affairs. Crossing the Ganges, they marched for three days with- out interruption ; but were at length over- taken by a superior force. In the first engagement fortune proved favorable; in the second they were entirely routed, and shared that fate which might naturally be expected from so rash and precipitate a resolution. At a distance from all succor, and in the heart of the enemy's country, they had no safety to hope for, but from the defence of their factory, where they might have maintained themselves for a long time, the Indians being very inexpert in the art of reducing fortified places. Though the deputies, sent to Mongheer, had the nabob's pass, and ought to have been by the law of nations sacred, they were at- tacked in their return, and miserably slaugh- tered with their attendants. This act of barbarity hastened the march of the army under major Adams, who, at first, had only one royal regiment, a few of the company's forces, two troops of European cavalry, ten companies of Seapoys, and twelve pieces of cannon. With these he proved victorious in several brisk skirmishes, and cleared the country as far as the Cossimbuzar, a branch of the Ganges, which it was necessary to pass, before any attempt could be made on Murshudabad, the capital of the province. The enemy did not oppose his passage ; but had drawn out their army, consisting of ten thousand men, in an advantageous post at a place called Ballasara, between the river and the city. By a judicious movement, he obliged them to begin the action, which they did with great spirit, and bore the cannon- ade very firmly; but, at the distance of fifty yards, they received such a storm of musket- ry, as made them retreat in the utmost con- fusion and precipitancy. Adams, with that rapidity which is always useful in war, but was here indispensable, as the periodical rains began to fall, marched forward; but found the enemy again in his way, defended by an intrenchment fifteen feet high, and by a numerous artillery. /It would have been an unjustifiable boldness to think of forcing so strong a post ; he had recourse to a strat- agem, which succeeded. He made a feint 94 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of attacking them where their principal strength lay, while the body of his army marched in the night to the opposite quarter of their line, and mastered it at daybreak, with little difficulty. Astonished at this stroke, the Indians fled, and abandoned the camp, and the city which it covered, to the conqueror. So considerable an advantage, which the English gained on the twenty-third of July 1763, did not slacken, but increased their diligence and exertions. They penetrated into the inmost recesses of the province, and crossing the numerous and wide branches of the Ganges, sought out the subah through marshes and forests. He was not remiss in his own defence. Knowing the inferiority of his troops, and the slight attachment of Indian subjects to their prince, he never ventured the final decision of the war on a single battle, nor hazarded his person in any engagement The faithlessness of his gran- dees, who might by treason erect their own fortune on his ruin, deterred him from the latter ; and the former could never be deem- ed advisable by a man, whom the experience of others had taught that an immense mul- titude of undisciplined troops only confounds veterans, and contributes to the greatness of a defeat In short, his whole conduct was formed upon wise principles; but his troops had not time to be completed in their new exercise. The English were also in the career of victory, and nothing could stand before them. Yet they found a sensi- ble difference in the opposition they now met with, though it was not able fully to obstruct their progress. Ten days after their late victory, they found twenty thou- sand horse, and eight thousand foot, excel- lently posted on the banks of the Nuncas Nullas, well defended by a formidable train of artillery, divided into regular brigades, armed and clothed like Europeans, and in every respect displaying the same order and spirit as themselves. What was never be- fore observed in India, the enemy did not discharge a cannon, till the English began the attack. A constant fire was kept up on both aides for the space of four hours, during which time the Indian cavalry charged the European regulars, at the distance of twenty yards, with uncommon resolution. But in spite of all the efforts of their improved dis- cipline and courage, they were at length compelled to fly, with the loss of all their artillery. After this decisive proof of the superiority of the English forces, the Indians never at- tempted a regular engagement in the open field during the remainder of the campaign. But they showed neither want of spirit nor skill in defending their towns and fortresses. At Auda Nulla particularly, they held out with wonderful art and perseverance, baf- fling every operation against them, from the twenty-first of August till the fourth of September, when, being overpowered by one of major Adams's well-concerted strata- gems, they suffered an incredible slaughter. The carrying of this strong-hold laid open the whole country to the victorious arms of the English as far as the gates of Mongheer, which surrendered to them after only nine days' open trenches. Nothing now remained to complete the reduction of the whole province, but the taking of Patna. This was the last hope of Mir Cossim, who had accordingly taken every possible precaution to strengthen and secure it He placed in the city a garrison of ten thousand men, and hovered at some distance with several large bodies of horse to annoy the besiegers. But this barbarian merited by his cruelties the ill success which constantly attended all his measures, how- ever well chosen. Irritated at the progress of Adams, and unable to avenge himself in the field, he issued orders for massacring about two hundred Englishmen, who had been made prisoners at Patna, in the begin- ning of the troubles. One Someraw, a Ger- man, who had deserted from the company's service, was chosen for the perpetration of this horrid villany. On the day intended for butchering these unfortunate persons, he invited forty of the most considerable to sup- per at his house ; and, in the midst of con- vivial mirth, when they thought themselves protected by the laws of hospitality as well as of war, the ruffian ordered the Indians under his command to cut their throats. These barbarous soldiers revolted at the savage order : they refused at first to obey, desiring that arms might be -given to the English, and that they would then engage them. Someraw, fixed in his purpose, com- pelled them by threats and blows to the ac- complishment of that odious service. The unfortunate victims, though suddenly attack- ed and wholly unarmed, made a long and brave defence, killing some of the assailants with their plates and bottles. In the end they were all murdered ; and the rest of the prisoners met with the same fate. This enormous crime was -not long unre- venged. Adams soon laid siege to Patna ; and notwithstanding the strength of the gar- rison, and the unusual intrepidity and suc- cess of some of their sallies, he took the place by storm in eight days, and forced the perfidious Cossim to seek an asylum in the territories of Sujah Doula, a neighboring subah, who voted as vizir to the great Mogul. No campaign had ever been conducted with more ability; no plan better laid, or more systematically followed ; no operations more rapid. In less than four months major GEORGE IE. 17601820. 95 Adams completed, the first of any European, the entire conquest of Bengal. He gained in that time four capital victories, forced the strongest intrenchments, stormed two forti- fied cities, took five hundred pieces of can- non, and drove into exile the most artful, resolute and implacable enemy the English had ever before encountered in India. Mir Cossim's expulsion was not, however, attended with any lasting security to the company's affairs in the east: it removed rather than extinguished the fire. The In- dian princes sensible that, against European invaders, the cause of one was the cause of all, were alarmed for their own independ- ence, and at the instigation of the fugitive subah, took up arms against the English. The death of Adams, whose name was so terrible to them, contributed very much to this resolution. The Shah Zaddah, and the nabob Sujah Doula united their forces, and threatened to restore the exiled Cossim, at the head of an army of fifty thousand men, with a suitable train of artillery. Major Munro, who succeeded Adams, showed him- self by no means unworthy of such an ap- pointment He marched directly in quest of the enemy, and came up with them on the twenty-second of October 1764, at a place called Buxar, on the banks of the Camnassary, about one hundred miles above Patna, where they were encamped with all the advantages nature and art could bestow. Before them lay a morass judiciously lined with cannon, which could neither be passed nor doubled without extreme danger. At the only end by which they seemed accessi- ble, stood a wood occupied by a large body of Indians, who were destined to gall the English in their approach. The first appear- ance of such a situation was alone sufficient to make major Munro defer an attack, till it could be properly explored. On the day, therefore, of his arrival in sight of the ene- my, he pitched his tents just out of the reach of their cannon, and disposed his men so as to be ready to form on any emergency. This precaution was far from being superfluous; for, going 1 out next morning at daybreak to reconnoitre the enemy, he found them al- ready under arms. Upon this, returning to his camp, he called in all his advanced posts, and, in consequence of the wise dispositions made the day before, saw his line of battle completely formed in less than twenty min- utes. The Indians began to cannonade the English at nine o'clock; and hi half an hour after the action became general. For above two hours it was impossible to press forward against the regular and galling fire of the enemy in front ; till Munro, by a variety of manoeuvres directed with judgment and ex- ecuted with intrepidity, having cleared the left wing of the morass, the small-arms be- gan, and the whole Indian army was soon put to flight, leaving six thousand men on the spot, with a hundred and thirty pieces of cannon, a proportionable quantity of mil- itary stores, and all their tents ready pitch- ed. This advantage cost the victors, in killed and wounded, but one hundred and nine Europeans, and seven hundred Indiana The indefatigable Munro followed the blow by an attempt on the only fort which was still left to Sujah Doula on the same side of the river Camnassary. This fort, called Chanda Geer, was a place of very great strength, from its elevated and almost inaccessible situation on a craggy rock ; and, as it appeared afterwards, was still stronger by the courage and fidelity of the Indian of- ficer who commanded there. A practica- ble breach in the walls being effected by ar- tillery, a party of the English forces was sent to storm it in the night-time ; but while they were vainly endeavoring to clamber up the steep ascent, the Indians with equal vigi- lance and activity, poured down upon them such torrents of stones, as forced them to desist, after many were buried under the rubbish made by their own cannon. Shame, and a sense of honor, tempted them to re- new the attack on the ensuing night, but they met with no better success. Munro, therefore, finding it to be a place which no art was requisite to defend, though a great deal to take it, drew off his troops, resolving to reserve their courage and conduct for some better occasion ; and encamped in the neighborhood of Benares, an almost open and opulent city, which it was of importance to protect against the incursions of a plunder- ing enemy. Affairs were thus circumstanced in the beginning of the year 1765, when major Munro being recalled home, the temporary command of the army devolved on Sir Rob- ert Fletcher ; who, emulous of the glory gained by his predecessors, resolved to do something to signalize himself, before gene- ral Carnac, named by the governor and council of Bengal, could arrive to preclude him. With this view, he broke up his camp near Benares at midnight of the fourteenth of January, and marched in quest of the enemy, whom he chased before him. He next turned his thoughts to the reduction of the fort, the siege of which Munro had found it so imprudent to continue. As he attacked it in the same manner, he would probably have found it equally impregnable : but great discontents now prevailed among the gam- son, in consequence of their having received no pay for six months, so that they no lon- ger thought it worth their while to expose themselves to any more trouble or danger in such unprofitable service. Three breaches i>eing made in the walls, the governor came, HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. in sight of his troops, to Sir Robert, and' de- livered up the keys, with tears in his eyes, and a speech, which, at the same time that it contained the highest compliment to his enemy, argued the greatest nobleness of mind in himself. " I have," said he, " en- deavored to act like a soldier ; but deserted by my prince, and threatened by a mutinous garrison, what could I do? God and you (here he laid hia hand on the koran, and pointed to his soldiers) are witnesses that I yield through necessity, and that to the faith of the English I now trust my life and for- tune." The surrender of this fort was quickly followed by a much greater, though not a more difficult conquest Sir Robert met with little resistance in making himself mas- ter of the enemy's capital, called Eliabad, a large and strong city about seventy miles higher up the Ganges, and of such import- ance as seemingly to complete the ruin of Sujah Doula. Soon after the taking of Eliabad, general Carnac assumed the command of the army, and made the best dispositions for securing the new conquests, as well as for restoring order and government to the country. No- thing occurred for some time to give him the least molestation. Sujah Doula was not in a condition immediately to oppose him. The battle of Buxar had given a terrible blow to the nabob's credit and power : Shah Zadda, the mogul, had then deserted him, and gone over to the English : his forces had also gradually crumbled away by frequent and bloody defeats : still finding a resource in his own steadiness and courage, he re- solved not to fall in a weak and inglorious manner. He gathered together, with great assiduity, the remains of his routed armies, and as he knew that they alone could not prop his falling fortune, he applied for as- sistance to the Marattas, the inhabitants of the mountainous country to the south-west of Oude, his province. They are an original tribe of Indians, who were never perfectly subdued by the Mogul Tartars. Their prin- cipal strength consisted in their horse, with which they overran, and rendered tributary several provinces, spreading terror and de- vastation around them. But their fame in arms ceased, when they encountered the English. Meeting Carnac at Calpi on the twentieth of May, they were totally routed, and obliged to seek for shelter in their own mountains. Foiled in all his military attempts, Sujah Doula took a resolution altogether worthy of the spirit and policy of his character. Thinking it better to throw his life and for- tune upon the generosity of a brave enemy, than to wander a forlorn exile, dependent on the uncertain hospitality of neighbors, who might purchase their own safety by his ruin, he determined to anticipate his fate, and to surrender himself. Having, with a spirit of fidelity unusual in that country, allowed Cossim and the assassin Someraw to escape, he appeared three days after the action at Calpi, in general Carnac's camp, nothing being previously stipulated in his favor, but that he should await lord Clive's determina- tion. A SELECT COMMITTEE APPOINTED FOR BENGAL. ON the first intelligence received by the India company that this war had broken out, they were struck with the utmost conster- nation. Under the influence of such a panic, nothing seemed to them capable of re-estab- lishing their affairs, but the name and for- tune of lord Clive, to whom former success had given the character of invincible among the superstitious Indians. The company for- got, that other officers had gained equal honor, though not equal fortunes, in that part of the world. As if the enemies were at their gates, they created a dictator : they invested him and four other gentlemen with unlim- ited authority to examine and determine everything, independently of the council, as long as Bengal remained in a state of war or confusioa These extraordinary powers were not granted without a vigorous oppo- sition. Two considerable proprietors, who entered a strong protest against them, repre- sented the commission as illegal and inex- pedient : but the general fear overruled their objections ; and the select committee, as it was called, sailed for Bengal. Before the committee's arrival there, Mir Jaffier, who had experienced such a variety of fortunes, died, and nominated his son, Naijem Doula, his successor. The council of Calcutta, after some deliberation, confirm- ed his choice, even to the exclusion of the male issue of a deceased elder son, because it was conformable to the Mussulman cus- tom, which permits the latter to leave the succession to any of his own surviving eons, in preference to his grandson in the elder branch ; and because, from the favorite son's personal character, he seemed likely to be contented with a moderate share of power. But previous to his receiving this honor, the terms were prescribed, on which he was to be admitted to it He objected to several of the regulations that were proposed, in regard to the collec- tion of the revenues ; and insisted on the sole and uncontrolled nomination of his own officers. But the force of his remonstrances on any of those points was of little service to him ; and his attempts to soften the depu- ties, who had been sent to negotiate the treaty, proved equally fruitless. Not the smallest relaxation was to be obtained ; and disagreeable as the terms were, he found it GEORGE HI. 17601820. 97 necessary to sign them, or to relinquish all his fondest hoges and pretensions. Large presents were also bestowed, according to constant practice, on the English negotia- tors, who, though inflexible with respect to the articles, were ready to accept of any other acknowledgments from the subah, as the price of his elevation. Being in a coun- try distinguished for riches and venality, a country where the feeble protection of the laws, and the precariousness of private property have always rendered sumptuous presents customary, they did not think themselves obliged to give the natives an example of self-denial or disinterestedness. Among various abuses, which had lately engaged the attention of the company, this very practice of receiving presents, however beneficial to private persons, was deemed most injurious to the general interest. Cov- enants were therefore sent out from Eng- land to be signed by all the company's ser- vants, not to accept of any such presents for the future. These instruments, though they had arrived, were not signed before the date of the treaty with Naijem Doula ; and, as particular mention was made that they should affect no previous- acts, the negotia- tors did not imagine that their late conduct could be called in question. Matters appear- ed in a different light to the secret com- mittee. They began a rigorous inquiry into the whole proceedings, and passed several resolutions severely reflecting on the coun- cil and its deputies. Their pretence was, that luxury, corruption, and the avidity of amassing large fortunes in a little time, had so universally infected the company's ser- vants, that nothing less than a total reform, a perfect eradication of these vices, could preserve the settlement from immediate ruin. "Fortunes of a hundred thousand pounds," said lord Clive, " have been acquir- ed in the space of two years ; and individu- als, very young in the service, are returning home with a million and a half." The charge was retorted by the accused party with no inconsiderable force. " Such objections," said they, " come with a very bad grace from men who are much more culpable. Have not you, who arraign us, amassed princely fortunes by the very same means 1 Yet you cannot boast superior merit The danger, which was removed by the battle of Plassey, was not greater than what threatened us be- fore the battle of Buxar. Why should you monopolize rewards 7 The happy situation of affairs is owing to our conduct, spirit, and industry. We cannot be bound by covenants which we did not sign. The presents, which we received, were conformable to the cus- tom of the country, and to the practice of the company's servants in all former peri- ods ; and they were accepted with great VOL. IV. 9 honor, as all the proposed articles were pre- viously settled, without giving up a single point, though large offers had been made for that purpose." TREATY WITH THE NABOB OF OUDE. IN the mean time, lord Clive repaired to the army at Eliabad ; full powers being vested in him and general Carnac by the select committee to conclude a peace with Sujah Doula, whom the council, on account of his obstinacy and implacability, had deprived of his dominions. The Shah Zadda, who had now succeeded his father as mogul, and had remained with the English since the battle of Buxar, was to take possession of the de- posed nabob's territories, as he had discover- ed an attachment to the English, and engaged in the war against his inclination. These arrangements were entirely disapproved of by lord Clive : he restored his province to Sujali Doula, and disappointed the sanguine hopes of the mogul. He said, that the com- pany's affairs were likely to be involved in an inextricable labyrinth ; that the success of their arms promised nothing but a suc- cession of future wars ; and that to ruin Su- jah Doula was to break down the strongest barrier which the Bengal provinces could have against the invasions of the Marattas, Afghans, and other powers, who had so long desolated the northern districts. The advantages accruing to the company from this treaty were said to be immense. According to the noble lord, who concluded it, they would receive a clear yearly income of one million, seven hundred thousand pounds, exempt from all charges, expenses, and deductions. By such a large accession of treasure, they would be enabled to make proper investments from Bengal to China, without draining England of its silver, for the payment of the great balance in trade, which is constantly due to that country. The security and permanence, which the company were likely to acquire in conse- quence of the treaty, tended greatly to en- force the policy of such a measure. But the discontented party at Calcutta represented the treaty in a very different light, as equal- ly inconsistent with the honor and interest of the company. Major Munro might long before have obtained as advantageous terms ; but, as a previous condition, he insisted that Cossim, the author of the war, and Someraw, the murderer of seventy-two English gen- tlemen, should be delivered up. Have not then the honor and justice of the nation been again betrayed, in departing from those requisitions 1 The shameful connivance at Someraw's escape from justice will excite particular indignation in the breast of the English reader : his astonishment, however, will cease, when he reflects that the negotiation 98 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. was chiefly, if not wholly directed by Clive, who was himself said to be deeply stained with innocent blood. But whatever horror many parts of dive's conduct must excite, he certainly introduced at that time several judicious regulations into the army. He put the troops in the country on a new footing : he ordered barracks to be built for them in proper places: he also divided them into three parts, each of which was to consist of one regiment of European infantry, one com- pany of artillery, and seven battalions of Seapoys, each battalion to consist of seven hundred rank and file. One of these divi- sions was stationed at Eliabad, a second at Patna, and the third in the neighborhood of Calcutta. These arrangements were well calculated to preserve the tranquillity of the empire, and to secure to the company the fruits of their late acquisitions. What steps were afterwards taken by the English ministry to render the prosperity of the com- pany subservient to the welfare of the na- tion at large, will be a subject of future consideration. Their thoughts were at that time unfortunately, though unavoidably, en- gaged by objects of keener and more imme- diate concern. DISTURBANCES IN NORTH AMERICA. ALMOST every day brought alarming in- telligence of the violent proceedings of the populace against the stamp-act in North America. When the report of its having received the royal assent first reached Bos- ton, the ships in the harbor hung out their colors half-mast high, in token of deep mourning: the bells being mufHed rang a dumb peal : the act itself was printed with a death's head impressed upon it, in the place where it is usual to fix the stamp; and was publicly cried about the streets by the name of the " folly of England and ruin of America :" essays, denying not only the ex- pediency, but the equity and legality of the measure, appeared in various newspapers: to these were added caricatures, pasquinades, puns, criticisms, and such vulgar sayings fitted to the occasion, as, on account of their brevity, were easily circulated and retained, and from their inflammatory tendency could not fail of preparing the minds of the rabble to take fire the moment any attempt should be made to carry the act into execution. The ferment gradually spread to the mid- dling and to the higher ranks of the people ; and when authentic copies of the act from the king's printing-house appeared amongst them, it was treated with all the contempt and indignation, which could be expressed by public authority against the most offen- sive libel. It was burned in various places with the effigies of the men supposed to be most active in getting it passed: and the wannest gratitude and respect were testified towards those who had made the most stren- uous opposition to it in the English house of commons. But the general assemblies went still farther. Instead of barely conniving at the tumultuous acts of the people in sup- port of what was termed independence, they proceeded to justify them by arguments ; and though they resolved to petition the le- gislature of Great Britain against the stamp- act, it was in such terms as served rather to express their weakness than their submis- sion. Committees of correspondence were es- tablished in the different colonies, and select persons were deputed from them to a con- gress at New- York, where they met in Octo- ber, and signed one general declaration of their pretended rights, and one general peti- tion expressive of their alleged grievances. The merchants also entered intb solemn en- gagements not to order any more goods from Great Britain ; to recall the orders already given, if not executed by the first of Janua- ry 1766 ; and even not to dispose of any British goods sent them on commission after that time, unless not only the stamp-act, but the sugar and paper-money acts, were re- pealed. The people of Philadelphia resolv- ed, though not unanimously, that, till such repeal, no remittances should be made to England for debts already contracted, nor any lawyers be suffered to commence a suit against a resident in America, in behalf of British claimants. Societies in like manner were formed for the encouragement of do- mestic manufactures, and plans adopted for shaking off all dependence on the mother country for any of the necessaries or con- veniencies of life, But by whatever motives the majority of the American malcontents were actuated, the effects of their disaffection and resist- ance were quickly and severely felt by the mother country. Her manufactures were at a stand ; the principal sources of her com- merce were cut oft': a numerous populace was thrown out of employment ; while pro- visions became extravagantly dear ; and pub- lic credit received a dreadful shock by the total stoppage of remittances from the colo- nies. The situation of the ministry was at this juncture peculiarly critical. Surround- ed with difficulties, many of them young in office, and without having had sufficient time to secure the confidence of either the sove- reign or the people, they had to decide upon a question of the utmost delicacy and mag- nitude; and they foresaw, that whatever line they might resolve to pursue, they should meet with a formidable opposition. They knew that the framers and supporters of the stamp-act, who certainly formed a very numerous party, would embark warmly in the vindication of their own measures, and would insist on the policy and necessity GEORGE HI. 17601820. 99 of quelling at the very outset the daring re- sistance of the colonists to the legislative authority of Great Britain. They were also aware, that Pitt and his adherents would carry the contrary doctrine to a pitch of enthusiastic extravagance, and would con- tend for the absolute surrender or disavowal of the right of taxing the Americans. Be- tween these opposite extremes, they thought it safest to choose a middle course, and nei- ther to precipitate aifairs with the colonists by the rashness of their councils, nor to sac- rifice the dignity of the crown or nation by irresolution or weakness. Their dispatches to the American governors were written with spirit, yet with temper, so as not to engage the executive power too deeply, but to leave it still at the option of the supreme legislature to advise pacific measures. The only strong objection which could be urged against such a mode of proceeding was, that when the authority of any government is openly despised, ridiculed and trampled upon, moderation may cease to be the dictate of either wisdom or virtue. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. IN this situation were affairs when the parliament met on the seventeenth of De- cember. Particular notice was taken from the throne of the importance of the matters which had occurred in North America, and which were given as a reason for assem- bling the two houses sooner than was intend- ed, that they might have an opportunity to issue the necessary writs on the many va- cancies that had happened since the last ssssion ; and proceed immediately after the recess to the consideration of the weighty matters that should then be laid before them, for which purpose the fullest accounts of the American affairs should be prepared for then- inspection. The house then issued the neces- sary writs, and adjourned for the holidays. 1766. When both houses met on the fourteenth of January, according to their adjournment, a second speech from the throne, pointed out to them the American affairs as the principal object of their de- liberations. The address was agreed to without a division, but not without a warm debate. Pitt seized this opportunity of de- claring his own sentiments on the subject. He condemned in the gross all the capital measures of the late ministry. He said he was ill in bed, when the resolution was taken in the house to tax America, or he should have borne his testimony against it As, from the nature of his infirmities, he could not depend upon health for any future day, he begged leave to say a few words at present on one point, which he thought was not generally understood the point of right It was his opinion that Great Britain had no right to tax the colonies. At the same time he asserted the authority of the mother country over the colonies to be sovereign and supreme, in every circumstance of gov- ernment and legislation whatsoever; but he pretended, that taxation was no part of the governing or legislative power. In sup- port of this paradox, he had recourse to some ingenious argumente. " This king- dom," said he, " as the supreme governing and legislative power, has always bound the colonies by her laws, by her regulations, and restrictions in trade, in navigation, in manufactures in everything, except that of taking then- money out of their pockets without their consent." But as the duties imposed for 'the regulation of trade certain- ly took money out of their pockets, he en- deavored to get clear of the palpable absurd- ity of admitting that right in one instance, and positively denying it in another, by a subtle distinction between internal and ex- ternal taxes, the former being levied for the purposes of raising a revenue, while the lat- ter were laid on for the accommodation of the subject, though some revenue might in- cidentally arise from them. As all these remarks were directly pointed at George Grenville's favorite measure, that gentleman made a very spirited reply. He censured the new ministry severely for de- laying to give earlier notice to parliament of the disturbances in America, " They began," said he, " in July ; and now we are in the middle of January : lately they were only occurrences; they are now grown to disturbances, to tumults and riots. I doubt they border on open rebellion ; and if the doctrine I have heard this day be confirmed, I fear they will lose that name to take that of. revolution. The government over them being dissolved, a revolution will take place in America. I cannot understand the dif- ference between external and internal taxes. They are the same in effect, and only differ in name. That this kingdom has the sove- reign, the supreme legislative power over America, is granted. It cannot be denied ; and taxation is a part of that sovereign pow- er. It is one branch of the legislation. It is it has been exercised over those who are not, who were never represented." Here Grenville pointed out several instances in support of his assertion, and added, " When I proposed to tax America, I asked the house, if any gentleman would object to the right 7 I repeatedly asked it; and no man would attempt to deny it Protec- tion and obedience are reciprocal. Great Britain protects America : America is bound to yield obedience." He then observed how ready the Americans had always been to ask protection, and how constantly it had been afforded them by the mother country : but when she called upon them to contribute a 100 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. small share towards the public expense, an expense arising from themselves, they re- nounced her authority, insulted her officers, and broke out into open rebellion. The cause was very obvious. "The seditious spirit of the colonies," said he, " owes its birth to the factions in this house. Gentle- men are careless of the consequences of what they say, provided it answers the pur- poses of opposition. We were told we trod on tender ground : we were bid to expect disobedience. What was this but telling the Americans to stand out against the law to encourage their obstinacy with the ex- pectation of support from hence? Let us only hold out a little, they would say, our friends will soon be in power." He con- cluded with some observations on the in- gratitude of the Americans, after so much had been done in their favor ; and with a short vindication of his own character from the unjust charge of having been an enemy to their trade. The impression, which such a speech must have made on every unpre- judiced mind, could not be effaced by all the powers of Pitt's oratory. He made a second harangue of considerable length to justify the resistance of the Americans, and to apologize for the silence of his own party, when the question of right had been re- peatedly submitted to the consideration of the house. While the attention of the commons was very earnestly engaged in examining the papers relative to the American troubles, which were laid before the house by his ma- jesty's order, petitions were received from most of the commercial and manufacturing towns in the kingdom, setting forth the great decay of their trade in consequence of the new laws and regulations made for America; and earnestly soliciting the im- mediate interposition of parliament There were also petitions received from the agents for Virginia and Georgia, representing their inability to pay the stamp duty; and one from the agent for the island of Jamaica, explaining the bad effects of a similar tax which had been kid on in that island by the assembly, but was soon suffered to expire, on being found unequal and burdensome; and suggesting the probability, that the like experiment in the colonies would be attend- ed with still greater inconveniencies. Though the urgency of the matter occa- sioned the house to attend to it with un- wearied application, and till a very late hour every night; yet the nature of the inquiries, the number of petitions received, and the multitude of papers and witnesses to be ex- amined, were attended with long and un- avoidable delaya In the mean time there were continued debates; and all the par- tisans of the late administration made the most strenuous efforts for enforcing the stamp-act, and for preventing the repeal. Those who contended for the repeal, were divided in opinion as to the right of taxa- tion: the more numerous body, of whom were the new ministry, insisted that the legislature of Great Britain had an undoubt- ed right to tax the colonies ; but relied on the expediency of the tax in question, as ill adapted to the condition of the colonies, and built upon principles ruinous to the trade of Great Britain : those, who denied the right of taxation, were not so numerous ; but they consisted of some very popular char- acters. The advocates for the right of taxation took occasion to show how futile Pitt's dis- tinction was between internal and external taxes. " Such a distinction," said they, " is as false and groundless as any other that has been made. It is granted that restric- tions upon trade, and duties upon the ports are legal, at the same time that the right of the parliament of Great Britain to lay in- ternal taxes upon the colonies is denied. What real difference can there be in this pretended distinction] A tax laid in any place is like a pebble dropt into a hike, and making circle after circle, till the whole surface from the centre to the circumference is agitated: for nothing can be more evi- dent than that a tax laid upon tobacco either in the ports of England or Virginia, is as much a duty laid on the inland plantations of the latter, as if it were collected a hun- dred miles up the country, on the spot where the tobacco grows. The truth is illustrated by this case. The postage was an internal tax on paper folded like letters, the stamp- act on paper unfolded. Wherein lay the difference 1 To allow the authority of the supreme legislature in the one, and to deny it in the other, must be the effect of wilful perverseness and flagrant inconsistency." In summing up these different arguments, their collective force was irresistibly felt. The most satisfactory demonstrations seem- ed to have been given, that protection was the only true ground on which the right of taxation could be founded : that the obliga- tion between the colonies and the mother country, was natural and reciprocal, consist- ing of defence on the one side, and obedi- ence on the other: that they must be de- pendent in all points on the parent state, or else not belong to it at all : that the distinc- tion between internal and external taxes was not more repugnant to common sense, than to facts, and to the frequent and unopposed exercise of the parliamentary authority of Great Britain in the one case, as well as in the other : and that the far greater part of the people of England, who were non-elec- tors, might with as much reason object to GEORGE III. 17601820. 101 taxes, on the ground of being only virtually represented, as the inhabitants of the colo- nies. Upon the question being put, the power of the legislature of Great Britain over her colouie?, in all cases whatsoever, and without any distinction in regard to tax- ation, was confirmed and ascertained, with- out a division in either house. The grand committee, who had passed the resolutions on which the foregoing ques- tion was debated, had also passed another for the total repeal of the stamp-act ; and two bills were accordingly brought in to an- swer these purposes. By the resolutions, on which the former was founded, it was de- clared that tumults and insurrections of the most dangerous nature had been raised and carried on hi several of the colonies, in open defiance of government, and in manifest violation of the laws and legislative authority of the mother country ; and that these tu- mults and insurrections had been encourag- ed and inflamed by several votes and resolu- tions, which had been passed in the assem- blies of the said colonies, derogatory to the honor of government, and destructive to their legal and constitutional dependency on the crown and parliament of Great Britain. By the bill itself, all these votes, resolutions and orders of the American assemblies were annulled and reprobated ; and the ministry having thereby secured, as they imagined, the dependence of the colonies, and provided for the honor and dignity of Great Britain, and its constitutional superiority over them, contended for the expediency of repealing an act, which they said was injudicious, op- presssive, and incapable of being enforced but by fire and sword. The late ministry and their friends, who supported the new administration in the debate on the question of right, opposed the repeal with considerable strength both of argument and numbers. But in spite of all their efforts, it passed upon a division by a majority of 275 to 167, and was carried up to the lords by above two hundred members of the house of com- mons. The eclat, however, with which it v/as introduced into the upper house, did not prevent its meeting with a strong oppo- sition there also. Thirty-three lords enter- ed a protest against it at the second read- ing ; as twenty-eight did at the third. The following is the substance of the chief rea- sons they assigned for their dissent, and which are the more memorable as they con- tain some political predictions, that have since been too fully verified by events : "Because we are of opinion, that the total repealing of the stamp-act, while such an outrageous resistance is continued by the colonies, will make the authority of Great Britain contemptible hereafter; and that such a submission of the supreme legisla- 9* ture, under such circumstances, would be in effect a surrender of their ancient un- alienable rights to subordinate provincial as- semblies established only by prerogative, which in itself had no such powers to be- stow. ' Because it appears to us, that a most es- sential branch of that authority, the power of taxation, cannot be equitably or impar- tially exercised, if it does not extend itself to all the members of the state* in propor- tion to their respective abilities, but suffers a part to be exempt from a due share of those burdens which the public exigencies require to be imposed upon the whole: a partiality, directly repugnant to the trust reposed by the people in every legislature, and destructive of that confidence on which all government is founded. "Because the ability of our North Ameri- can colonies to bear, without inconvenience, the proportion laid on them by the stamp- act, appears unquestionable. Its estimated produce of sixty thousand pounds per an- num, if divided amongst twelve hundred thousand people, being little more than one- half the subjects of the crown in North America, would be only one shilling per head a-year. " Because not only the right, but the ex- pediency and necessity of the supreme legis- lature's exerting its authority to lay a gene- ral tax on the colonies, whenever the wants of the public make it fitting and reasonable that all the provinces should contribute in a proper proportion to the defence of the whole, appear undeniable. Such a general tax could not be regularly imposed by their own separate provincial assemblies. " Because the reasons assigned in the pub- lic resolutions of the provincial assemblies, in the North American colonies, for their disobeying the stamp-act, viz. ' That they are not represented in the parliament of Great Britain,' extends to all other laws of what nature soever, which that parliament has enacted, or shall enact; and may, by the same reasoning, be extended to all per- sons in this island, who do not actually vote for members of parliament: nor can we help apprehending, that the opinion of some countenance being given to such notions by the legislature itself, in consenting to this bill for the repeal of the stamp-act, may greatly promote the contagion of a most dangerous doctrine, destructive to all gov- ernment, which has spread itself over all our North American colonies, that the obe- dience of the subject is not due to the laws and legislature of the realm, farther than he, in his private judgment, shall think it conformable to the ideas he has formed of a free constitution. " Because we think it no effectual guard 102 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. against this danger, that the parliament has declare I in a bill, that such notions are ill- founded ; as men will look always more to deeds than words, and may therefore incline to believe that the insurrections in the colo- nies, excited by those notions, having attained the very point at which they aimed, without any previous submission on their part, the legislature has, in fact, submitted to them, and has only more grievously injured its own dignity and authority, by verbally asserting that right which it substantially yields up to their opposition ; and this at a time when the strength of our colonies, as well as their desire of a total independence on the legis- lature and government of their mother coun- try, may be greatly augmented ; and when the circumstances and dispositions of the other powers of Europe may render the con- test far more dangerous and formidable to this kingdom." In the second protest, many of the same objections were farther enforced, and some now ones added. The dissenting lords looked upon the declaratory bill as a delusive and micatory affirmance of the legislative right of Great Britain, whilst the enacting part merely annulled proceedings that were ab- solutely criminal. STAMP-ACT REPEALED. ON the eighteenth of March, two days after the date of this second protest, the bill for repealing the stamp-act, as well as that which proposed to secure the dependency of the colonies on the British crown, received the royal assent The ministry were still more successful in other steps which they took to gain popularity. They had a bill passed for the repeal of the cider-act, and for substituting in its place a new duty en- tirely different in the mode of collection. General warrants, and the seizure of papers, except in cases provided for by act of parlia- ment, were declared to be illegal, and to be a breach of privilege, if executed against any member; but a bill founded on these resolutions of the commons was thrown out by the lords, as unnecessary and frivolous. The old duties upon houses and windows were abolished ; and the rates were settled with much more equity and ease to the lower and middling ranks of the people. Two bills were also passed at the close of the session on the sixth of Juno, for which the friends of the ministry thought they deserved some , at least from the mercantile part of the community : the one was for opening free port?, under certain restrictions, in dif- ferent parts of the West Indies; and the other was a law indemnifying those who had incurred any penalties, in consequence of the stamp-act, and requiring compensation to be made by the American assemblies to such persons as had suffered in their prop- erty by the late riots. In this detail of the merits of the marquis of Rockingham's ad- ministration, it must not be forgotten that ho removed some restraints which were con- sidered as heavy clogs on the colonial trade ; tliat he settled to the satisfaction of the own- ers the long-contested affair of the Canada bills ; and that he concluded with Russia a commercial treaty, which procured him the unanimous thanks of the Russia company. CHANGES IN THE CABINET. BUT all these smaller claims to esteem could not supply the want of experience, de- cision, and firmness in the more important concerns of the state. The duke of Graf- ton, one of the secretaries, feeling the insta- bility of his colleagues, or unwilling, as he pretended, to act without Pitt, resigned in the beginning of May ; and though his place was immediately filled by the duke of Rich- mond, yet his retreat at that juncture was generally looked upon as a strong symptom of the probable dismission of his late asso- ciates. They did not maintain their ground long after parliament was prorogued. Their fall is said to have been accelerated by die following circumstance. After the repeal of the stamp-act, which the marquis and his friends looked upon as the only method of conciliating the affections of the refractory colonies, they took into consideration the state of Canada, for which province no com- plete system of government had yet been formed. They conceived it necessary to supply this defect; and having drawn the outlines of a plan, preparatory to a bill for that purpose, they submitted their sketch to lord Northington the chancellor. He had never been very cordially their friend, and was now, perhaps, glad of a favorable oppor- tunity of expressing his dislike. He con- demned the whole measure in the most un- qualified terms of disapprobation : he even went to the king, and complained to his ma- jesty of the unfitness of his ministers, add- ing that they could not go on, and that Pitt must be sent for. In consequence of these very plain assertions, the chancellor was commissioned to confer with Pitt on the sub- ject of a new arrangement As Pitt's refusal of former offers had solely arisen from their not allowing him to fill all the departments of the state with whom he pleased, that objection was now removed by the chancellor's assuring him, that the king had no terms to propose ; and the same assurance was afterwards confirmed to him by the king himself, to whom he was intro- duced at Richmond, on the twelfth of July. Ix>rd Temple, who was then at Stowc, being sent for by his majesty's order, came to town with all possible dispatch, and paid his respects to the kinjr. On the morning after lord Temple had GEORGE III. 17601820. 103 seen the king, he "received a very affec- tionate letter from Pitt, then at North End, Hampstead, desiring to see his lordship there, as his health would not permit him to come to town. His lordship went; and Pitt acquainted him, that his majesty had been graciously pleased to send for him, to form an administration ; and as he thought his lordship indispensable, he desired his majesty to send for him, and put him at the head of the treasury ; and that he himself would take the post of privy -seal. Pitt then produced a list of several persons, which he said he had fixed upon to go in with his lordship, and which, he added, was not to be altered. Lord Temple said, that he had had the honor of a conference with his ma- jesty at Richmond the evening before, and that he did not understand, from what pass- ed between them, that Pitt was to be abso- lute master, and to form every part of the administration: if he had, he should not have given himself the trouble of coming to Pitt upon that subject, being determined to come in upon an equality with Pitt, in case he was to occupy the most responsible place under government: and as Pitt had chosen only a side-place, without any re- sponsibility annexed to it, he should insist upon some of his friends being in the cabi- net-offices with him, and in whom he could confide : which he thought Pitt could have no objection to, as he must be sensible he could not come in with honor, unless he had such nomination ; nor did he desire, but that Pitt should have his share of the nomination of his friends. And his lordship added, that he made a sacrifice of his brother, George Grenville, who, notwithstanding his being entirely out of place, and excluded from all connexion with the intended system, would nevertheless give him (lord Temple) all the assistance and support in his power : that it was an idea to conciliate all parties, which was the ground that had made Pitt's former administration so respectable and glorious, and to form upon the solid basis of union, an able and responsible administration, to brace the relaxed sinews of government, -retrieve the honor of the crown, and pursue the per- manent interest of the public : but that if Pitt insisted upon a superior dictation, and did not choose to join in a plan designed for the restoration of that union, which at no time was ever so necessary, he desired the conference might be broke off, and that Pitt would give himself no farther trouble about him, for that he would not submit to the pro- posed conditions. " Pitt, however, insisted upon continuing the conference ; and asked, who those per- sons were whom his lordship intended for some of the cabinet employments] His lordship answered, that one in particular was a noble lord of approved character, and mown abilities, who had last year refused he very office now offered to him (lord Tem- >le) though pressed to it in the strongest manner by the duke of Cumberland and the duke of Newcastle ; and who being their common friend, he did not doubt Pitt himself lad in contemplation. This worthy and re- spectable person was lord Lyttleton. At the conclusion of this sentence, Pitt said, how can you compare him to the duke of Graf- ton, lord Shelburne, and Conway ] besides, continued he, I have taken the privy-seal, and he cannot have that Lord Temple then mentioned the post of lord president : upon which Pitt said, that could not be, for he had sngaged the presidency : but, says he, lord Lyttleton may have a pension. To which lord Temple immediately answered, that would never do ; nor would he stain the bud of his administration with an accumulation of pensions. It is true, Pitt vouchsafed to permit lord Temple to nominate his own board ; but at the same time insisted, that if two persons of that board (T. Townshend and G. Onslow) were turned out, they should have a compensation. " Pitt next asked, what person his lordship had in his thoughts for secretary of state ! His lordship answered, lord Gower, a man of great abilities, and whom he knew to be equal to any Pitt had named, and of much greater alliance ; and in whom he meant and hoped to unite and conciliate a great and powerful party, in order to widen and strengthen the bottom of his administration, and to vacate even the idea of opposition ; thereby to restore unanimity in parliament, and confine every good man's attention to the real objects of his country's welfare. And his lordship added, that he had never imparted his design to lord Gower, nor did he know whether that noble lord would ac- cept of it, but mentioned it now, only as a comprehensive measure, to attain the great end he wished, of restoring unanimity by a reconciliation of parties ; that the business of the nation might go on without interrup- tion, and become the only business of par- liament. But Pitt rejected this proposal, evidently healing as it appeared, by saying, that he had determined Conway should stay in his present office, and that he had lord Shelburne to propose for the other office, then held by the duke of Richmond ; so that there remained no room for lord Gower. This; lord Temple said, was coming to his first proposition of being sole and absolute dictator, to which no consideration should ever induce him to submit And therefore he insisted on ending the conference ; which .he did with saying, ' that if he had been first called upon by the king, he should have con- sulted Pitt's honor, with regard to the ar- 104 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. rangement of ministers, and have given him an equal share in the nomination ; and that he thought himself ill-treated by Pitt in his not observing the like conduct' It is unnecessary to make any remarks on Pitt's behavior at this conference. He ap- pears there divested of that dazzling lustre which his genius spread around him on all public occasions. Availing himself of the carte blanche which had been given him by the king, he spurned at every idea of equali- S' , of union, and of healing proposals, onor, friendship, and even the welfare of his country, had very little weight, when they came in competition with his vanity. But the short-lived triumph of his pride was followed by long and stinging mortifications. He fancied that his name alone would estab- lish a ministry, and that the first men in the kingdom would be ready at a call to enlist under his banner, and to take whatever post he might think proper to assign them. A few experiments convinced him of his mis- take. He made various offers to different persons of great weight and consideration, with a view of detaching them from their friends. He tampered with the duke of Portland, late lord chamberlain ; with Dow- deswell, the late chancellor of the exche- quer ; and even with lord Gower, to whom he proposed the office of secretary of state, though he had set his face against the very same appointment, when suggested by lord Temple. All his offers were rejected. He then went to the marquis of Rockingham's ; but the marquis refused to see him. Ren- dered desperate by these rebuffs, he formed that chequered and speckled administration, of which it is impossible to give a juster, or more striking picture than in the following words of Burke : " He put together a piece of joinery, so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed ; a cabinet so variously inlaid ; such a piece of diversified Mosaic ; such a tesselated pavement, without cement; here a bit of black stone, and there a bit of white ; patri- ots and courtiers ; king's friends and repub- licans ; whigs and tories ; treacherous friends and open enemies ; that it was indeed a very curious show ; but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to stand on. When he had ac- complished his scheme of administration, he was no longer a minister." The sceptre of absolute control, which he was so fond of wielding, fell from his infirm grasp ; and he was confined in reality to that side-place, as lord Temple called it, whence he hoped to have directed the operations of those who stood in the foremost ranks of power and re- sponsibility (2). NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII. 1 Mir Jaffier, whom lord Clive had raised to that tottering dig- nity in 1757, wag compelled in about three years after to resign the government to his son-in- law Mir Cossim, who had en- tered into a secret treaty for that purpose with the council o"f Calcutta. 2 The new arrangement took place on the thirtieth of July. Pitt, being then created vis- count Pynsent and earl of Chat- ham, received the privy-seal, lately held by the duke of New- castle ; the duke of Grafton was placed at the head of the trea sury, in the room of the mar- quis of Rockingham ; and Charles Townshend succeeded Dowdeswell as chancellor of the exchequer ; general Conway was continued in the office of secretary of state ; but bad for his colleague the earl of Shel- burne, instead of the duke of Richmond : lord Cambden was made lord chancellor in the room of lord Northington, who exchanged the wool-sack fur the president's chair. Many other changes were made at the same time, and soon after in all the different departments of administration ; and none, per- haps, excited more surprise, than the restoration of the privy -seal of Scotland to Stuart Mackenzie. GEORGE HI. 17601820. 105 CHAPTER IX. Alarming Scarcity of Provisions Dispute between the Proprietors and the Directors of the East India Company Substance of the King's Speech at the Meeting of Parliament Bill of Indemnity Reduction of the Land-tax carried against the Minister The India Company's Right to territorial acquisitions debated Proposals of the Company accepted Bill for regulating India Dividends Duties laid on cer- tain Imports from Great Britain to America ; and measures taken to restrain the turbulent Spirit of the Assembly of New- York Some Changes in the Great Offices of the State The Ministry strongly opposed on the Nullum Tempus BUI Corpo- ration of Oxford reprimanded for Venality Popularity in Ireland of the Octennial Bill. GREAT SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS. THOUGH the general tranquillity of Eu- rope still remained undisturbed by the spirit of intrigue, or by the rage of conquest, some of its finest countries were severely afflicted by calamities of another kind. The irregu- larity and inclemency of the seasons for a few years past had occasioned an uncertain- ty and great deficiency in the crops of differ- ent districts ; and were it not for that happy effect of navigation and commerce, by which the wants of one nation are supplied from the superabundance of another, famine would have thinned the race of mankind in many places. Italy in particular had suffered ex- tremely ; and even England, which usually supplied its neighbors with immense quanti- ties of grain, and allowed a considerable bounty on the exportation of it, was now threatened with an alarming scarcity. So wet a summer as that of the present year had not been remembered in this country. From the month of March to the month of August, there were not tw r o days of dry weather in succession. The corn harvest, of course, was very much injured ; and the distresses of the poor from the high prices of that and of every other article of subsist- ence became uncommonly urgent. The language of complaint was soon followed by riots and tumults, which the populace are too apt to look upon as the only means of alleviating every evil, or redressing every grievance. At first, they only undertook to lower and regulate the markets, and to pun- ish certain individuals, who, they imagined, had contributed to their calamities by engross- ing, and other practices for enhancing the price of provisions beyond their just rate. But they did not long confine themselves to these objects. Heated by mutual commo- tion, they proceeded to the most enormous excesses: much mischief was done, and many lives were lost in various parts of the kingdom. The magistrates being at length obliged to call in the military to the aid of the civil power, the rioters were dispersed, and the jails were filled with prisoners. Judges were in consequence dispatched with a special commission to try the delinquents, several of whom were condemned to die. A few of the ringleaders suffered as examples; but the sentence of the majority was miti- gated to transportation, and many received a free pardon. The conduct of the new ministry on this occasion was far from being politic or judi- cious. On the eleventh of September, the privy-couneil issued a proclamation for en- forcing the laws against forestallers, regra- tors, and engrossers of corn ; a measure that countenanced the absurd ideas of the mob, by declaring that scarcity to be artificial, which was but too natural. Besides, the laws in question were so dark in their con- struction, and so difficult in the execution, that little effect could be expected from this step but that of banishing dealers from the markets, and increasing the evil which it was intended to remedy. This truth was so well understood, that very little regard was paid to the proclamation ; and the friv- olous expedient fell to the ground. The price of corn still increasing, another proc- lamation was issued on the twenty-sixth of the same month, laying an embargo on the exportation of wheat and flour, and prohib- iting the use of that grain in the distilleries. This proclamation was certainly much better adapted to its end than the former, but much more doubtful in point of law. Wheat had not yet reached the price, under which it might be legally exported. No authority, therefore, but that of the whole legislature, could in this case lay a constitutional em- bargo on it. By way of excuse for dispens- ing with a positive law, it was stated in the proclamation, that his majesty had not an opportunity of taking the advice of his par- liament speedily enough upon such an emer- gency to stop the progress of the mischief But the privy-council had destroyed the validity of this plea, by proroguing the par- liament, which was to have met on the six- 106 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. teenth of September, till the eleventh of November. As they had received the fullest information on the subject of a probable scarcity, in the beginning of August, there was sufficient time to give the members of both houses the usual notice, commanding their attendance in September, and a short session would have prevented every appear- ance of necessity for the ministers to commit an illegal action. DEBATES ON EAST INDIA STOCK. SOME other events took place before the meeting of parliament, which, as well as the former, engaged in a greater or less de- gree the attention of both houses. The most important of these were the debates and resolutions of the proprietors of East India stock. They had long expected, in conse- quence of the flourishing state of taieir affairs abroad, that a larger dividend would be de- clared by the directors; and that all the members of the company should enjoy a share of those sweets which were the con- sequence of their foreign success, and which they saw hitherto entirely engrossed by their servants. This seemed to them the more reasonable, as the dividend then stood at six per cent, the lowest point to which it had ever been reduced at the most critical period of the war. In their opinion, such a small dividend agreed but ill with a great revenue and its promised stability, and tended to create an artificial fall in the price of stock, to the great loss of the present possessors, and to the advantage of future adventurers. These inclinations of the proprietors did not by any means coincide with the sentiments of the directors. While the greatest part' of the former considered only the successes of the company, the directors saw nothing but its debts. Two factions arose upon this subject, the one for increasing the dividend, the other for keeping it at the same standard. It was intended by the former, that, if the directors did not voluntarily declare an in- crease of dividend at the midsummer court, to put it to the question, and have it decided by the majority of the proprietors present. As this intention was publicly known, its success was sufficiently guarded against and prevented. At the opening of the court, a friend of the directors made a motion for in- creasing the dividend to eight per cent, which being disapproved, he immediately withdrew it, and thereby put it out of the power of the proprietors to bring on the sub- ject again at that meeting, such a procedure being contrary to the established forms of the court The address that was shown in this transaction did not protect it from cen- sure: the conduct of the directors was scru- tinized with great severity: the supposed motives to it were laid open ; and the public papers being made the instruments of attack and defence, the contest was for some time carried on with great animosity, each party accusing the other of the most corrupt de- signs, and of misrepresenting, for private purposes, the real state of the company's affairs. This course of altercation was pro- ductive of consequences which were then but little foreseen. Everything relative to the company was now laid before the public : the exact state of then- immense property became known to all persons: their most private secrets were unveiled : their char- ters, their rights, their possessions, their opulence as a distinct body, and their utility to the state, were become matters of general speculation and inquiry. As the Michaelmas quarterly meeting approached, at which there could be no doubt but the great object of dispute between the contending parties would come again upon the carpet, it was previously reported about by the friends of one of them, that government intended to interfere, and had absolutely forbidden any increase of dividend, denouncing threats against the company which struck at its ex- istence. A report of this sort excited a va- riety of conjectures; but most people looked upon it as a trick to answer the purposes of the directors. All doubt was removed at the opening of the general court on the twenty-fourth of September. A message in writing from the first lord of the treasury and some other of the ministers was read, setting forth, "That as the affairs of the East India company had been mentioned in parliament last session, it was very probable they might be taken into consideration again : therefore, ftom the regard they had for the welfare of the company, and that they might have time to prepare their papers for that occasion, they informed them, that the par- liament would meet in November." Letters were at the same time read from lord Clive, and from the secret committee at Bengal, which not only confirmed, but exceeded the accounts that had been formerly received of the great wealth of the company, the extension of its trade, and the firm basis on which, as far as human foresight could judge, its security was now established. The di- rectors still opposed an increase of dividend ; and, upon a motion being made for advanc- ing it to ten per cent, from the ensuing Christmas, they insisted upon a ballot, by which the decision was evaded for a day or two, but was at length carried against them by a considerable majority. Some of the proprietors, however, thought their success in this contest was purchased at too dear a rate, by having drawn upon themselves the eyes of the ministry. A few months more gave them an earnest of what they so justly apprehended. The air of seriousness, which a variety GEORGE HI. 17601820. 107 of weighty concerns had lately diffused over the nation, was for a little time enlivened by some pleasing occurrences at court, the birth of a princess royal, and the" nuptials of the princess Carolina Matilda. The cere- mony of the princess Carolina Matilda's marriage to the king of Denmark was per- formed on the first of October by the arch- bishop of Canterbury, the duke of York be- ing proxy for his Danish majesty. Next morning, the young queen, accompanied by the duke of Gloucester and a numerous train of attendants, set out from Carlton- house for Harwich, there to embark on board the yacht designed to convey her to Hol- land. She did not reach Denmark till the beginning of November, on the eighth of which she made her public entry into Co- penhagen, when the nuptial ceremony was renewed with extraordinary splendor and magnificence. The satisfaction expressed at the time by the subjects of both crowns, from an idea that the alliance between them would be greatly strengthened by an addi- tional tie of so agreeable a nature, was soon converted into the most painful disap- pointment In little more than five years after, the amiable Carolina Matilda fell a victim to the malice of a party, and to the wicked intrigues of the queen dowager, who imposed upon her unsuspecting inno- cence, and artfully led her into measures which were made the grounds of the most infamous reproach and crimination. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. AT the meeting of parliament on the eleventh of November, the king, in his speech to both houses, observed that the high price of wheat, and the extraordinary de- mands for it from abroad, had determined him to call them together so early ; he took notice of the urgent necessity that occasion- ed an exertion of the royal authority, for the preservation of the public safety, by laying an embargo on wheat and flour ; and he re- commended the due consideration of farther expedients to their wisdom: he expressed his concern at the late daring insurrections ; and added, that no vigilance and vigor on his part should be wanting to bring the of- fenders to justice, and to restore obedience to law and government. His majesty con- cluded with a very few concise remarks on the late commercial treaty with Russia, on the marriage of his sister to the king of Denmark, on the supplies for the current service, and on the continuance of the for- mer pacific posture of affairs in Europe. The usual motion for an address being made in both houses, various amendments were proposed, reflecting on the late conduct of the privy-council ; but were rejected. BILL OF INDEMNITY. THIS, however, did not supersede the necessity of bringing a bill into parliament to indemnify all persons who had acted in obedience to the order of council for laying on the embargo. Nobody denied the expe- diency of such a restraint at the time : it was the mode of the transaction which de- served censure, as by it the crown seemed to assume and exercise a power of dispens- ing with the laws, one of the grievances so expressly provided against at the revolu- tion. The first form of the bill was found to be defective : it provided for the indem- nity of the inferior officers who had acted under the proclamation, while it passed by the council who advised it ; and it had not a preamble fully expressive of the illegality of the measure. In these respects the bill was amended and made perfect. But this produced much altercation, especially in the house of lords, where, to the astonishment of most people, the newly-created earl of Chatham, and lord Cambden, the chancellor, opposed the bill, and vindicated the late ex- ertion of prerogative, not pnly from the pe- culiar circumstances that seemed to influence it, but as a matter of right, asserting that a dispensing power, in cases of state neces- sity, was one of the prerogatives inherent in the crown. This desertion from the side of liberty, to principles so directly opposite, gave a mortal stab to the popularity of those occasional patriots. The fallacy of their pretexts, as well as of their reasonings, was exposed, and the cause of freedom and of the constitution was ably supported by lord Mansfield, lord Temple, and lord Lyttleton. The real motives for the late exertion of power were first inquired into; and then the doctrine of a dispensing power in such cases was very forcibly attacked. " So early as the month of August, you received au- thentic intelligence of the state of the har- vest, the quantity of corn in the kingdom, and of the increase of its price. You then must have had as clear an idea of all the probable consequences as at any time after that period. Why then did you not issue a proclamation for parliament to meet on the sixteenth of September, the day to which it was prorogued ? You had it in your power to give the members above thirty days notice ; and the calamities which threatened the poor might have been averted, without a breach of the constitution. Instead of this, when their distresses were risen to the high- est pitch, you issued, on the tenth of Sep- tember, a proclamation against forestalling, which could not give them the smallest re- lief; and, on the same day, you prorogued the parliament for two months longer, thus precluding the king from availing himself of their advice or assistance in any emer- gency. Yet you. assign the impossibility of convening the parliament as the motive for 108 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. issuing, in sixteen days after 90 extraordinary a prorogation, an illegal and unconstitutional order for an embargo. Is it not plain then, that you yourselves are the authors of all those evils, which you say could not be remedied but by the exercise of the dis- pensing power J You go farther, and you attempt to justify such censurable conduct on the principle of necessity, that odious and long exploded principle, by which all the evil practices in the reigns of the Stuarts were defended. If the plea of necessity is admitted, and the crown allowed to be the sole judge of that necessity, the power would be unlimited ; because the discretion of the prince and his council might apply it in any instance. So the wisdom of the legislature, said the advocates for the bill, has deprived the crown of all discretionary power over positive laws, and has emancipated acts of parliament from the royal prerogative. The power of suspension, which is but another word for a temporary repeal, resides only in the legislature, the supreme authority of the realm. The recess of parliament, or the inconvenience of assembling it, are distinc- tions unknown to the constitution. The parliament is always in being: its acts never sleep : they are not to be evaded by flying into a sanctuary no, not even that of necessity : they are of equal force at all times, in all places, and to all persons. The law is above the king ; and he, as well as the subject, is as much bound by it during the recess, as during the session of parlia- ment If the crown has a right to suspend or break through any one law, it must have an equal right to break through them all. No true distinction can be made between the suspending power and the crown's rais- ing money without the consent of parlia- ment They are precisely alike, and stand upon the very same ground. They were born twins, lived together, and together it was hoped they were buried at the revolu- tion, past all power of resurrection. Were the doctrine of suspension, under the pre- tence of necessity, once admitted as consti- tutional, the revolution could be called no- thing but a successful rebellion, or a lawless and wicked invasion of the rights of the crown ; the bill of rights would become a false and scandalous libel, an infamous im- position both on prince and people ; and James II. could not be said to have abdicated or forfeited, but to have been robbed of his crown." By such arguments, and others of the like spirit and tendency, did lord Mansfield in particular combat the ill-advis- ed stretch of the prerogative, and reduce the apologists for the measure, however great their ingenuity and eloquence, to the impossibility of a reply. The bill was pass- ed, highly to the satisfaction of the public ; and a new proof was given to the admirers of the British constitution, that nothing less than a law could protect from due punish- ment the framers, advisers, or executors of an illegal act While the parliament discovered so much vigilance in guarding the constitution against any encroachment, even under the most popular pretence, they were not less atten- tive to the national distress, on account of which the laws had been dispensed with. On the first day of the session, an address was presented to the king to continue the embargo ; and a bill was on the same day brought in for prohibiting the exportation of corn, malt, meal, flour, bread, biscuit, and starch ; and also the extraction of low wines and spirits from wheat and wheat flour. Four other bills, having for their object the reduction of the high prices of provisions, by encouraging the importation of salted meat and butter from Ireland, of wheat and flour, not only from America, but from any part of Europe, and of oats and oat-meal, rye and rye-meal, from any quarter, all duty free, received the royal assent by commis- sion on the sixteenth of December, when both houses adjourned till January. LAND-TAX REDUCED. 1767. AMONG the affairs which came be- fore parliament after the recess, there was one article of the supplies, in the debate on which the chancellor of the exchequer was left in a minority. It had been hitherto usual to take off, on the return of peace, any addition that happened to be made to the land-tax for carrying on the war. But as the enormous expenses incurred in the late contest with so many powers were already a heavy burden on the manufacturing part of the nation, it was thought more prudent to continue the land-ta$ at four shillings in the pound, than to increase the distresses of the poor by taxing the necessaries of life. Hence the whole land-tax began to be con- sidered as a part of the settled revenue that was to answer the current services of the year. It was then to the great surprise of the ministers, that a resolution passed the house, supported by a considerable majority, which reduced the land-tax to three shil- lings in the pound. This was the more no- ticed as being the first money-bill, in which any minister had been disappointed since the revolution. It considerably damped the warm hopes that had been formed, in the beginning, of the strength and consistence of the new administration, which, it was supposed, would prove irresistible, as acting under the auspices of the earl of Chatham. But this noble lord had lost much of his popularity without doors, and of his influ- ence within, by many parts of his late con- duet He had disgusted by his overbearing GEORGE HI. 17601820. 109 manner the most respectable and powerful men of every party ; and he had sunk great- ly in the public estimation by his acceptance of a peerage, and by his having first advised, and afterwards defended, upon constitutional grounds, the exercise of the dispensing pre- rogative. Feeling, though too late, the want of additional support, he made several at- tempts in the course of the winter, by offers and concessions not much to his honor, to gain over, or to divide the Bedford or the Newcastle interest But the most that he could obtain from the former was a temporary neutrality. Soon after his lordship fell into so bad a state of health, that he was obliged to relinquish all attention to business. SCRUTINY OF THE EAST INDIA COM- PANY'S AFFAIRS. THE want of harmony and decision in the cabinet was still more evident, when the East India affairs were brought forward for the consideration of parliament. A commit- tee of the house of commons had been ap- pointed in November to look into the state and condition of the company. Copies of their charters, their treaties, and then* cor- respondence, as well as exact accounts of their revenue and of the expenses incurred by government in their behalf, were called for, and became the subjects of a rigorous scrutiny. In the course of this business, violent debates frequently arose, in which the principal servants of the crown did not appear to act upon any regular or settled plan. An order was at length made for printing the East India papers ; but it was afterwards countermanded, at the instance of the directors. The next question, which was agitated with increasing violence and diversity of sentiment, was the company's right to their territorial acquisitions. Some contended, that they had no right by their charters to any conquest ; that such posses- sions in the hands of a trading corporation were improper and dangerous ; and that, if it were even legally and politically right that they should hold these territories, yet the vast expenditure of government in pro- tecting them gave it a fair and equitable title to the revenues arising from the conquests. Those, who maintained the rights of the company, denied that any reserve of con- quests had been made in their charters ; and as these were fairly purchased from the na- tion, and confirmed by act of parliament, they said, that a violation of such a bargain would be a dangerous infringement on prop- erty and the public faith. They added, that if government had any claim to the con- quests in India, the courts were open for the trial of that claim ; but the house of com- mons was not, by the constitution, the inter- preter of law, or the decider of legal rights. Though the subject was often resumed, and VOL. IV. 10 debated with great warmth on both sides, yet the house seemed unwilling to determine a question of so much importance ; and even a few of the ministerial speakers declared against coming to any final resolutions on this head, but strenuously recommended an amicable agreement with the company. PROPOSALS OF THE COMPANY ACCEPTED. IN the mean tune, the proprietors of East India stock had several meetings. At one of their general courts in the beginning of May, the dividend for the ensuing half year was raised from five to six and a quarter per cent, and, about the same time, a scheme of proposals for an accommodation with govern- ment was agreed to. These were laid be- fore the ministry, who now were publicly known to have unfortunately fallen into a state of such distraction, that they had no opinions in common. Accordingly, they shifted the proposals from one to another, without coming to any determination ; so that the company were obliged to state their offers in a petition to parliament. Two sets of proposals for an agreement to last for three years were laid before the house : by the first, the company offered, after deduct- ing four hundred thousand pounds a-year in lieu of their former commercial profits, to divide equally with government the net produce of all their remaining revenues and trade : by the second, they engaged to pay the specific sum of four hundred thousand pounds a-year during the above agreement ; but, in either case, stipulating for some par- ticular indulgence in their trade and in the recruiting service. These latter proposals were accepted by the house, with this differ- ence only, that the agreement was limited to two, instead of three years ; and a bill was drawn up and passed accordingly. THE COMPANY RESTRAINED FROM IN- CREASING THEIR DIVIDEND. BUT whatever satisfaction the proprietors of East India stock derived from the parlia- mentary acceptance of their offer, it was, in no small degree, abated by some other pro- ceedings which took place soon after. A message from the ministry had been read at the general court which declared the last increase of dividend, recommending to the company to make no augmentation of it, till their affairs were farther considered. That message not having produced the designed effect, two bills were brought into the house, one for determining the qualifications of voters in trading companies, and the other for farther regulating the making of divi- dends by the East India company. Their late act was rescinded by the last of these bills ; and they were tied down from raising their dividends above ten per cent till the next meeting of parliament The company, in order to ward off a blow which struck so 110 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. immediately at their privileges, not only pe- titioned against this bill, but offered, in case it was withdrawn, to bind themselves from any farther increase of dividend during the temporary agreement Their petition and their proposal were equally ineffectual. The bill was carried through, in spite of a pow- erful opposition, one of the secretaries of state and the chancellor of the exchequer being in the minority in the lower house, and a strong protest signed by nineteen lords being entered against it in the upper house. ACT TO RESTRAIN THE ASSEMBLY OF NEW-YORK. AMONG the different expedients for rais- ing the necessary supplies this year, which amounted to about eight millions and a half, some duties were laid upon glass, tea, paper, and painters' colors imported from Great Britain into America. These duties were equally impolitic and unproductive ; but the conduct of the legislature towards one of the colonial assemblies, in another respect, was mHch more defensible. The factious, turbulent spirit, which the stamp-act had ex- cited there, was far from being mollified by the repeal. Not content with many private acts of outrage, and repeated marks of dis- respect to government, the assembly of New- York came to a resolution of paying no regard to an act of last session for pro- viding the troops with necessaries in their quarters ; but regulated the provisions ac- cording to their own fancy. This was a clear proof, that they meaned to persist in disa- vowing the jurisdiction of the mother coun- try. When the matter was laid before par- liament, it occasioned warm debates ; and some rigorous measures were proposed. The general opinion, however, was to bring them to temper and to a sense of their duty, by a firm, yet moderate procedure. On this prin- ciple a bill was passed, by which the gov- ernor, council, and assembly of New-York were prohibited from passing any act till they had in every respect complied with the requisition of parliament : a step, which, though confined to one colony, was a lesson to them all, and showed their comparative inferiority when brought in question with the supreme legislative power. As soon as this bill and some others of less importance received the royal assent on the second of July, the parliament was prorogued. In the speech, with which his majesty closed the session, besides thanking the com- mons for the supplies they had so cheerfully granted for the public service, he said, that his particular acknowledgments were due to them for the provision they had enabled him to make for the more honorable support of his family. He did not here particularly al- lude to the marriage portion of the queen of Denmark, because, in granting this, the com- mons only fulfilled their former engage- ments ; but to three annuities of eight thou- sand pounds each, which were settled on his brothers the dukes of York, Gloucester, and Cumberland, in addition to what they before received out of the civil list It is remark- able that, on the second reading of the bill for this purpose, in the house of lords, a pro- test was entered against it, signed by lord Temple only. The duke of York did not live long to en- joy the liberality of parliament : he expired on the seventeenth of September ; and on the second of November, her majesty was safely delivered of her fourth son, prince Edward. DEATH OF THE CHANCELLOR OF EX- CHEQUER. DURING the recess of parliament, another death prematurely and unexpectedly hap- pened on the fourth of September, which, it was supposed, would have proved fatal to a weak and disunited ministry. Charles Townshend, then chancellor of the exche- quer, who seemed likely by his eloquence and abilities to supply the earl of Chatham's place in the house of commons, was cut off by a putrid fever, at the very moment that the increase of his influence and the critical posture of affairs began to allow the fullest scope for the perfect development of his talents and character. Burke, in one of his speeches, made a beautiful allusion to the rising effulgence of Townshend's genius and power, while those of the earl of Chatham appeared to be rapidly declining. " Before this splendid orb," said the orator, " was en- tirely set, and while the western horizon was in a blaze with his descending glory, on the opposite quarter of the heavens arose another luminary, and, for his hour, became lord of the ascendant." At the meeting of parliament on the twenty-fourth of November, when the prin- cipal point recommended to their attention from the throne, was the relief of the peo- ple from the distresses occasioned by the high price of provisions, Conway, one of the secretaries of state, concluded his speech in support of the usual motion for an address of thanks, with a very high panegyric on the late Mr. Townshend's abilities, on the fertility of his resources, and the soundness of his judgment He said that his much lamented friend had engaged to prepare a plan for the effectual relief of the poor in the article of provisions; and he had no doubt, if that great man had lived, he would have been able to perform his promise : un- fortunately for the public, his plan was lost with him : it was easy to find a successor to his place, but impossible to find a successor to his abilities, or one equal to the execu- tion of his designs. GEORGE EL 17601820. Ill Besides expedients for lowering the high price of provisions, very little business of any particular importance was transacted by parliament before the holidays. The land- tax bill, the bill for continuing the former duties on malt, mum, cider, and perry, the mutiny-bill, and some others of a private as well as public nature, received the royal assent on the twenty-first of December. The house of lords adjourned to the twentieth, and the commons to the fourteenth of Jan- uary. CHANGES IN THE CABINET. Tras recess afforded leisure for complet- ing several changes that were already be- gun, or resolved upon, in the great offices -of state, without any general disarrange- ment of the ministry, which seemed likely to increase their stability and influence. The Bedford party, to whom some overtures had been made by lord Chatham, but without any decisive effect, were at length gained over ; in consequence of which lord Grower was induced to accept the president's chair, now cheerfully resigned by the earl of Northington, whose age, infirmities, and long services gave him just claims to retirement I/)rd North had been promoted, some days before, to the late Charles Townshend's place as chancellor of the exchequer ; and Thomas Townshend, junior, succeeded lord North in the office of joint paymaster of the forces. Lord Weymouth was soon after nominated secretary of state for the north- ern department, in the room of general Con- way, who was raised to a higher rank in the military line ; and the earl of Hilsborough was appointed to the new office of secretary of state for the colonies. Of the other pro- motions none was sufficiently important to deserve particular notice, except that of Charles Jenkinson, who was made a lord of the treasury in the room of Thomas Towns- hend, and who has since been so eminently distinguished not only by his wisdom in coun- cil, and his eloquence in debate, but by his having exerted his uncommon talents on ob- jects of the most lasting benefit to his coun- try, the improvement, extension, and se- curity of its commerce. RESTRICTION ON EAST INDIA DIVIDENDS CONTINUED NULLUM TEMPUS ACT. THE act restraining the dividends of the East India company being now expired, a bill was brought in to continue the same re- striction for the ensuing year ; and though it was violently opposed in both houses, it was carried the second time by a very great majority. But the ministry were more closely pushed on another point, which was intro- duced into the commone, under the title of nullum tempos bill (1), for quieting the pos- sessions of the subject, and securing them from all obsolete claims, particularly those of the crown, against which it was held to be a maxim of law, that no prescription could be pleaded. The bill originated in a litigation between the Bentinck and the Lowther families, in which the revival of the dormant prerogative of resumption by the crown appeared so alarming, because "a vast number of estates might, from the loss of authentic deeds, be liable to similar claims, that it was with great difficulty, and by a majority of twenty voices only, that the ministry could obtain a postponement of the bill till the ensuing session. MAGISTRATES OF OXFORD SENT TO NEWGATE. AN T OTHER circumstance occurs in the pro- ceedings of the house of commons at this period, which may be thought worthy of no- tice, as it affords an instance of plain deal- ing on the part of a venal body of electors, which has been seldom paralleled. The mayor, bailiffs, and principal members of the corporation of Oxford had written to their representatives, proposing to return them at the next election, upon condition that they should advance a certain sum, for paying off an encumbrance which lay heavy on the city. The letter, containing this extraordi- nary and barefaced offer of prostitution, hav- ing been laid before the house, the magis- trates, who signed it, were ordered to ap- pear at the bar, and then committed to New- gate. But, a few days after, a petition was presented from the offending parties, ac- knowledging their guilt, expressing the sincerest sorrow for it, and begging to be released from confinement In consequence of this petition, they were again brought to the bar of the house, and discharged, after receiving on their knees a proper reprimand from the speaker. PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED. As the time limited by law for the expi- ration of parliament drew near, and all the public business was satisfactorily dispatched, the king, on the tenth of March, having given his assent to some private bills then ready, informed both houses of his intention forthwith to dissolve the parliament, and to call a new one. As soon as his majesty had ended, the chancellor, by his command, pro- rogued the parliament; and, in two days after, it was dissolved by proclamation, and writs were issued for electing a new one, returnable the tenth of May. IRISH PARLIAMENTS MADE OCTENNIAL. A vmY popular bill was passed in Ireland this winter, and received the sanction of the crown, for confining to eight years the du- ration of parliaments in that kingdom, which before were determined only by the king's death. Nothing could have given higher pleasure to the great body of electors than this assurance of a more regular and fre- 112 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. quent exercise of one of their most inesti- mable privileges. Lord Townshend, who was then lord-lieutenant, and who had very much endeared himself to the people by the conciliating manners that adorned his pri- vate character, became, in consequence of the octennial act, almost the idol of the na- tion. The language of the commons of Ire- land was glowing and emphatical. " Happy," said they, " in having devoted our own ex- istence to the liberties of our country, we find ourselves under an indispensable obli- gation, at our approaching dissolution, to ex- press the warmest acknowledgments to a chief governor, in whose administration, and with whose assistance, we have been grati- fied with the noble opportunity of distin- guishing ourselves from our predecessors, by leaving to posterity a monument of our dis- interested love for the people we have the honor to represent; and an example, that the happiness of our constituents has in our own breasts taken place of every other con- sideration." NOTE TO CHAPTER IX. 1 The object of the bill was to make siity years' possession of any estate an effectual bar against all dor- mant claims and pretences whatsoever. GEORGE in. 17601820. 113 CHAPTER X. General Election View of Wilkes's Conduct and Adventures since his flight from Jus- tice Violent Opposition to the Port-duties in America Acts of the Convention Debate Withes' s Petition to the Commons ; and his Appeal to the Lords on a Writ of Error Institution of the Royal Academy Debate on the American Affairs Civil List Debt Hearing of Wilkes's alleged grievances Successive Expulsions of Mr. Wilkes War with Hyder Ally in the East Indies Non-importation Agree- ment and other Proceedings in America Desertions from Ministry Changes that followed Endeavors of the Opposition to aggravate Discontent London Remon- strance, and his Majesty's Answer Grenville's BUI for regulating the Proceedings on controverted Elections Partial Repeal of the American Port -duties Affray be- tween the Townsmen of Boston and the Troops. As soon as the British parliament was dissolved, the thoughts and business of the whole nation appeared to be confined to one object, the choice of representatives; and never, perhaps, was any general election carried on with greater heat and violence in most parts of the kingdom. But one of the elections was attended with such extraordi- nary circumstances as to deserve particular notice. WILKES ELECTED MEMBER FOR MID- DLESEX. IT may here be necessary to remind the reader of what has been related in a former part of this work concerning Wilkes, who by his flight from public justice had pro- voked the severest sentence of the house of commons, and had suffered the indictments laid against him in the court of king's-bench to run to an outlawry. In this situation, an exile from his country, distressed in his cir- cumstances, and abandoned by his party, he seemed not only totally ruined, but nearly forgotten. He determined to make a bold attempt, sensible that if it failed of success, the consequences could not place him in a worse state than that in which he was alrea- dy. In pursuance of this resolution, he suddenly appeared in London on the eve of the general election ; and though he still lay under the sentence of outlawry, declared himself a candidate to represent the city in parliament. He was received by the mob with loud acclamations, and a great majori- ty of hands appeared in his favor ; but on the poll he was contemptuously rejected. He had no reason, however, to abandon him- self to despair in consequence of this first defeat. He was fully consoled for his fail- ure in the city by a subscription which had been opened for the payment of his debts, and by the earnest he had received of the attachment of the populace. He set up im- mediately for Middlesex ; and the electors in that county consisting chiefly of freeholders of the lowest class, he obtained a signal 10* triumph over one of the old members. The rabble, who had been very tumultuous during the contest, broke out into the most extrava- gant and lawless expressions of joy at the event. The conduct of the ministry during these transactions was unaccountably remiss and impolitic. They had in fact no alternative left them as a plea for indecision or sus- pense. After Wilkes's return to England, in open defiance of the laws and of govern- ment, a pardon from the crown would have been considered rather as an act of weak- ness than of benignity. It was therefore the attorney-general's duty to have him im- mediately taken up as an outlaw ; a step that could neither have excited murmur nor surprise, as being strictly conformable to the ordinary course of justice. When confined, he could have no chance for succeeding in his election ; nor is it likely that he would have made the attempt. The popularity, which he acquired or revived by appearing in public, would have been prevented ; and he might have probably continued as igno- rant of his influence with the people, as they would in general of the strength of their attachment to him. By neglecting at first so easy and rational a mode of proceed- ing, the ministry were afterwards unavoida- bly driven into the dangerous extremes of harshness and violence. An alarm unhap- pily went forth, that the constitution was wounded by the blows struck at one of the most worthless members of society: and many, who would otherwise have shrunk from the disgrace of espousing his cause as an individual, were glad of a specious pre- tence for making it the cause of the public. On the first day of Easter term, Wilkes appeared in the court of king's-bench, to submit himself, as he pretended, to the laws of his country ; but, in reality, to make an inflammatory speech against the " cruelties of ministerial vengeance," and to charge the chief-justice with -having caused the re- HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. cords to be materially altered, without which, he said, neither of the two verdicts, found against him, could have been obtained. As he was not brought legally before the court, no proceedings could then be had upon his case ; but lord Mansfield took that opportu- nity of justifying his own conduct in having granted an order for an amendment in the information, by which the word tenor was sub- stituted for purport, an amendment, which his lordship declared he thought himself bound in duty to grant, and which he could not have refused consistently with the uni- form practice of all the judges. Wilkes, on leaving the court, was received by the sur- rounding multitude with loud huzzas ; but such effectual steps had been taken by the magistrates in Westminster and in the city to intimidate the disorderly, that no farther disturbance happened. DISTURBANCES ON ACCpUNT OF WILKES. A FEW days after, Wilkes having been introduced into court in a legal manner, his counsel moved that he might be admitted to bail. The judges were of opinion, that nei- ther he nor any person was bailable after conviction ; and therefore ordered him to be taken into custody and committed to prison. But as he was going thither, attended by two tipstaffs, the mob stopped the coach on Westminster-bridge, and taking out the horses, drew it along the Strand and through the city to Spital-square, where they dis- missed the tipstaffs, and carried their favor- ite in triumph to a tavern. He took an op- portunity, at a late hour, to withdraw in a private manner ; and surrendered himself to the marshal of the king's-bench. Wilkes was not inactive, though in a prison. He took care to feed the flame he had kindled with fresh supplies of combusti- ble matter. His address to the freeholders of Middlesex, a week after his commitment, is a curious specimen of the incendiary style. It was published on the fifth of May, just two days before a hearing was to come on at Westminster-hall, respecting the er- rors of Wilkes's outlawry, and five days be- fore the meeting of the new parliament. The populace behaved with tolerable de- cency at the trial, as their hopes were flat- tered by the appointment of a farther hear- ing the beginning of the next term ; but their infatuation and violence on the other occasion, were attended with melancholy consequences. They assembled in vast mul- titudes round the king's-bench, in the fore- noon of the tenth of May, under the idea of seeing Wilkes go to the house of com- mons. Having waited a long time in vain, they demanded him at the prison with loud clamors, and grew very insolent and tumult- uous. Some justices of the peace thought it necessary, after enduring much outrage and personal injury, to read the riot-act ; on which, the mob, highly exasperated, inter- rupted them with showers of stones and brickbats. The tumult increased : the se- rious warnings of the law made no impres- sion: the magistrates, and the soldiers on guard were not only set at defiance, but as- saulted ; till, being at length driven to the last extremity, self-defence, as well as public duty, compelled the troops to fire. Four or five persons were killed, and more than twice as many were wounded. PARLIAMENT MEETS. THE first session of the new parliament was opened by commissioners, who informed both houses that his majesty had not called them together at that unusual season to en- ter upon any matter of general business, but merely to dispatch certain parliamentary proceedings, which were necessary for the welfare and security of his subjects. The matters here alluded to, were the renewal of several of the provision-bills, which were near expiring ; which, having received the royal assent on the twenty-first of May, an end was put to the session, first by adjourn- ments, from a proper regard to the temper of the times, and then by prorogation. The only notice taken of the imprisoned member, during this short session, was a motion made on the eighteenth, that the proper officer of the crown should inform the house, why the laws were not immedi- ately put in force against John Wilkes, Esq. an outlaw, when he returned to the king- dom in February. But the house not ap- pearing disposed to take cognizance of the matter, the question to adjourn was put, and carried without a division. The attorney- general thereby escaped just censure for his remissness ; but he was not equally success- ful at the second hearing, on the errors of Wilkes's outlawry, in the court of' king's- bench, about three weeks after. All the judges, though they differed as to their rea- sons, concurred in the reversal of the out- lawry, and the irregularity of the proceed- ings. The verdicts, however, which had been given against Wilkes on the former trials, for publishing the North Briton, and the Essay on Woman, were affirmed, the court being of opinion that the arguments urged by the prisoner and his counsel, in ar- rest of judgment, were inconclusive and frivolous. Wilkes was therefore sentenced to pay a fine of five hundred pounds, and to be imprisoned ten calendar months, for the republication of the North Briton ; and for publishing the Essay on Woman, to pay like- wise a fine of five hundred pounds, and be imprisoned twelve calendar months, to be computed from the expiration of the former term. He was afterwards to find security for his good behavior during the space of GEORGE HI. 17601820. 115 seven years. Though this sentence was certainly as mild as the malignant nature and dangerous tendency of those two pub- lications could well admit of, it furnished Wilkes with a new subject of declamation on " the harshness, the cruelty, and illegali- ties of the whole proceeding." The minis- try were even charged with secretly foment- ing disturbances not only in England, but in America, in order to have a pretence for ex- tending beyond the Atlantic the iron hand of despotism ; and their unwillingness to in- volve the kingdom in a war with France for the relief of Corsica, was ascribed to their detestation of all freemen, as well as to their pusillanimity and impotence. DISAFFECTION IN AMERICA. SOME notice has been already taken of the acts passed in 1767, for laying certain duties on paper, glass, colors, teas, &c. im- ported from Great Britain into America. Those acts, however impolitic and ill-timed, before the former ill-humors had completely subsided, were strictly conformable to the distinction admitted by the colonists them- selves between raising money as the mere incidental produce of regulating duties, and for the direct purpose of revenue. But as soon as the doctrine was reduced to prac- tice, and custom-houses were established in their ports for collecting those duties, they disavowed their former professions, and ar- gued in a very different strain. " If," said they, " the parliament of Great Britain has no right to tax us internally, it has none to tax us externally ; and if it has no right to tax us without our consent, it can have none to govern, or to legislate for us without our consent." This was foreseen and pointed out by the strenuous opposers of the repeal of the stamp-act ; and the conduct of the Americans fully verified their predictions. The people of Boston took the lead, as usual, in plans of resistance. They began by en- tering into a variety of combinations highly prejudicial to the commerce of the mother country ; and among other schemes for les- sening and restraining the use of British manufactures, they resolved to reduce dress to its primitive simplicity, to retrench the expenses of funerals, to bring nothing from abroad which could by any means be ob- tained at home, and to give particular en- couragement to the making of paper, glass, and the other commodities that were liable to the payment of the new duties, upon im- portation. These resolutions were adopted, or similar ones*, entered into by all the old colonies on the continent ; and, in the be- ginning of the year 1768, the assembly of Massachusets Bay sent a circular letter to the other provinces, proposing a common union to prevent the effect, and to obtain a repeal of the late acts, which they repre- sented as unconstitutional, and subversive of their natural and positive rights. The same assembly discovered still stronger marks of disaffection and revolt, on hearing a letter read from lord Shelburne, one of the principal secretaries of state, to Sir Francis Bernard, the governor of the colony, which contained some very severe but just animad- versions on their conduct Advices of all those proceedings having been transmitted to England, lord Hillsbo- rough, the new secretary of state for the American department, wrote a circular let- ter to the governors of all the colonies; in which his majesty's dislike to the letter of the Massachusets assembly was expressed hi the strongest terms. It was declared, that he considered it as of the most danger- ous and factious tendency ; calculated to in- flame the minds of the people ; to promote an unwarrantable combination ; to excite an open opposition to, and denial of, the au- thority of parliament; and to subvert the true principles of the constitution : and that his majesty expected, from the known affec- tion of the respective assemblies, that they would " defeat this flagitious attempt to dis- turb the public peace, and treat it with the contempt it deserved, by taking no notice of it." The assemblies acted in direct con- tradiction to the wishes and wholesome ad- vice of their sovereign. They expressed their approbation of the conduct of Mas- sachusets, and passed several votes and re- solves, according with the spirit of the let- ter received from Boston. Some of them returned addresses to the secretary of state, boldly justifying such conduct, and animad- verting on several passages, as well as on the request contained in his letter. The assembly of New- York went even so far as to appoint a committee of correspondence to consult with the other colonies on the measures to be pursued in the present crisis : upon which that assembly was immediately dissolved. Another letter of the same date (April 22) was written by lord Hillsborough to gov- ernor Bernard, in which, besides the former exceptions to the circular letter of the as- sembly at Boston, it was very delicately in- timated, that his majesty thought some un- fair means must have been employed to carry such a measure, either by surprise or through a thin house of representatives, as it de- parted so widely from the spirit of prudence and respect to the constitution, that seemed to have influenced a majority of the mem- bers, in a full house, and at the beginning of the session. The governor was also di- rected to require, in his majesty's name, that tlie new assembly would rescind the resolu- tion which gave birth to the offensive letter, and declare their disapprobation of, and dis- HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. sent to, so rash and hasty a proceeding : but in case of their refusal to comply with his majesty's reasonable expectation, the gov- ernor had orders to dissolve 'them immedi- ately, and to transmit a copy of their pro- ceedings, to be laid before parliament These instructions having been communicated to the assembly in the latter end of June, and the question put for rescinding the resolu- tion of the last house, it was negatived by a majority of ninety-two to seventeen. A letter was then resolved on to lord Hillsbo- rough, containing several strictures on the requisition made to them, which they alleged to be unconstitutional and without prece- dent ; and intermixing some affected profes- sions of loyalty with the strongest remon- strances against the late laws. They were also preparing a petition to the king for the removal of their governor, when they were suddenly dissolved. Previous to the dissolution of the assem- bly, the popular ferment was greatly increas- ed by another occurrence which took place on the tenth of June. A sloop called the Liberty, laden with wine from Madeira, was seized under the authority of the board of customs for a false entry; and being cut from her moorings, was conveyed, by the order of the commissioners, under the guns of the Romney, a ship of war then lying in Boston harbor. A violent riot ensued, in which the mob burned the collector's boat before the door of John Hancock, the owner of the sloop ; and compelled the commis- sioners, for the security of their lives, to take refuge at first on board the Romney, and af- terwards at Castle William, a fortress on a small island contiguous to the town. The temper and conduct of the people became every day more licentious. Town-meetings were held, and a remonstrance was present- ed to the governor insolently requiring him to issue an order for the immediate departure of the Romney. The natural effects of such conduct being justly apprehended, two regi- ments were ordered from Ireland to support the civil government, and several detach- ments from different parts of the continent met at. Halifax for the same purpose. Upon the first intimations of this measure, an alarm was insidiously spread amongst the inhabitants of Boston and of the whole prov- ince, that their property, their liberties, and their lives would soon lie at the mercy of the bayonet ; and that no alternative would be held out to them by the invaders, but ser- vile submission or death. Under these im- pressions, a great multitude of people of all ranks crowded together at Faneuil-hall, the leading incendiaries having issued a sum- mons for such a meeting. Finding that the governor would not, at their desire, and without his majesty's instructions, convene a general assembly, they drew up a long catalogue of their pretended grievances; protested against keeping an army in the province without their consent ; ordered the select-men of Boston to write to the select- men of the several towns within the prov- ince, recommending the speedy choice of committees (another name for representa- tives) to form a convention ; appointed Messrs. Otis, Gushing, Hancock, and Adams, their late members, to act for them in that capacity; and concluded their proceedings with a vote for a day of public prayer and fasting, and with a requisition to the people, under the pretence of an approaching war with France, to prepare arms, ammunition, and every other accoutrement necessary in cases of sudden danger. A better comment cannot be made on these transactions than in the words of the inhabitants of Hatfield, in their spirited and judicious reply to the circular letter of the select-men of Boston. After showing the precipitancy of the steps already taken, and the inconsistency, frivo- lousness, and insincerity of the pretences for calling a convention, " suffer us," say they, " to observe, that, in our opinion, the mea- sures the town of Boston is pursuing, and proposing to us and the people of this prov- ince to unite in, are unconstitutional, ille- gal, and wholly unjustifiable, and what will give the enemies of our constitution the greatest joy, subversive of government, de- structive of that peace and good order which is the cement of society, and have a direct tendency to rivet our chains, and deprive us of our rights and privileges, which we, the inhabitants of this town, desire may be se- cured to us, and perpetuated to our latest posterity." A CONVENTION. THE temper and good sense, which influ- enced the conduct of the people of Hatfield, seemed, at that moment of infatuation and turbulence, to be confined to themselves. About a hundred towns and districts in the same province agreed to the proposal of a convention, and immediately appointed com- mittee-men, a great number of whom met at Boston on the twenty-second of September. Their first act was a message to the gover- nor, in which they disclaimed all pretence to any authority whatever ; but said they were chosen by the several towns, and came free- ly, at the earnest desire of the people, to consult and advise the most effectual mea- sures for promoting peace and good order, as far as they lawfully might, under the very dark and threatening aspect of public af- fairs : they then reiterated the detail of their grievances, and urged the absolute neces- sity of his convening without delay a gen- eral assembly, which they looked upon to be the only means of preventing the most un- GEORGE IIL 17601820. 117 happy consequences to the parent country and to the colonies. The governor refused to receive any message from an assembly, the legality of which he could not allow, but admonished them by letter, as a friend to the province, and a well-wisher to the individu- als of it, to break up their meeting instantly, and to separate before they did any business. He said, he was willing to believe that the gentlemen who had issued the summons for this meeting were not aware of the high nature of the offence they were commit- ting : and that those who had obeyed them did not consider the penalties they should incur, if they persisted in continuing their session : at present, ignorance of law might excuse what was past ; a step farther would take away that plea. He asserted, that a meeting of the deputies of the towns was an assembly of the representatives of the people to all intents and purposes ; and that the calling it a committee of convention could not alter the nature of the thing. At the conclusion of his letter, he informed them, that, if they paid no regard to this friendly admonition, he must, as governor, assert the prerogative of the crown in a more public manner. This remonstrance produced another message, in which they attempted to justify their meeting ; begged the governor to be sparing of his frowns to their proceedings ; and desired explanations of the criminality with which they were charged. The governor repeated his former refusal to receive any message from an ille- gal assembly; upon which they appointed nine of then- number to draw up a report on the causes and express objects of their meet- ing. This report being made on the twenty- sixth of the same month, a letter with a representation of their transactions and grievances, in which was inclosed a petition to his majesty to be delivered in person, was forwarded to their agent in London; and on the twenty-ninth the convention dispersed. The very day the convention broke up, the fleet from Halifax, consisting of several frigates and transports with two regiments and a detachment of artillery on board, ar- rived in the harbor. Quarters were procured for the troops by contract with private per- sons; and the council, upon that footing, allowed them barrack provisions. General Gage arrived soon after, as did the two re- giments from Ireland. The factious and disorderly were by these means for some time intimidated ; the soldiers behaved with the utmost discretion ; and a tolerable har- mony seemed to subsist between them and the inhabitants. While things remained in this state rather of sullen repose than of assured tranquillity abroad, administration at home received a new shock from the clash of those discordant principles, on which it had been framed by the earl of Chatham. The duke of Grafton and lord Shelburne, though introduced into then- respective offices as his friends and by his desire, were never cordially united. The latter had lately taken particular offence at the disregard of his recommendation of lord Tankervflle to succeed George Pitt as am,- bassador at Turin. A marked preference was shown to the duke of Bedford's applica- tion in favor of Sir William Lynch. Lord Shelburne, upon this, retiring in disgust, his place was supplied by lord Weymouth, from the northern department; and the earl of Rochford, late ambassador at Paris, was ap- pointed successor to lord Weymouth. In a few days after, lord Chatham, who had long been prevented by bodily infirmities from attending to public business, resigned the privy-seal, which was immediately delivered to his friend, the earl of Bristol. Parliament met on the eighth of Novem- ber ; and one of the first objects that were pressed upon their notice in the speech from the throne, was to resume the consideration of those great commercial interests which had been entered upon before, but which the shortness of the last session of the late par- liament had prevented from being brought to a final conclusion. The unhappy disor- ders in the colonies were in the next place very affectingly described. " At the close of the last parliament," said his majesty, " I ex- pressed my satisfaction at the appearance which then induced me to believe, that such of my subjects as had been misled in some parts of my dominions were returning to a just sense of their duty ; but it is with equal concern that I have since seen that spirit of faction, which I had hoped was well-nigh extinguished, breaking out afresh in some of my colonies in North America ; and, in one of them, proceeding even to acts of vio- lence, and of resistance to the execution of the law ; the capital town of which colony appears by late advices to be in a state of disobedience to all law and government; and has proceeded to measures subversive of the constitution, and attended with cir- cumstances that manifest a disposition to throw off their dependence on Great Brit- ain. On my part I have pursued every measure that appeared to be necessary for supporting the constitution, and inducing a due obedience to the authority of the legis- lature." Addresses, in perfect unison with the sentiments expressed in the speech, were agreed to by both houses. They were particularly explicit on the subject of Amer- ica, and declared, that though they should be ever ready to redress the just complaints of the colonies, they were nevertheless de- termined to maintain the supreme authority 118 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of the British legislature over every part of the British empire. Thanks were then given for the measures already taken to support the laws in the colonies, and strong assurances of their ready concurrence in every regulation that appeared likely to es- tablish the constitutional dependence of the Americans. WILKES PETITIONS THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. ON the fourteenth of November, a peti- tion was delivered from Wilkes containing a recapitulation of all the proceedings against him, from the time of his having been apprehended by a general warrant till his late commitment to prison. This produc- ed an order for the proper officers to lay be- fore the house a copy of the records of the proceedings in the court of king's-bench. The journals and resolutions of the house in 1763, relative to the same subject, were also examined; and a day was appointed for hearing the matter of the petition, of which notice was ordered to be given to Wilkes, and to a great number of persons who were concerned as actors, or witnesses, in those transactions. In the mean time, Webb, late secretary to the treasury, against whom a very heavy charge was laid of suborning and bribing with the public money one of Wilkes's servants, having petitioned for an opportunity to vindicate himself at the bar of the house, and application being also made by Wilkes for leave to attend in order to support the allegations of his petition, the requests of both were complied with, and liberty of counsel was allowed them for their respective purposes. After these prepara- tory steps, the hearing of the petition, which at first had been ordered to take place on the second of December, was put off to the twelfth of the same month, and then finally adjourned to the twenty-seventh of January following. This delay could not be avoided, as the merits of the disputed elections, many of which were violently contested, took up so much time, that although parliament con- tinued sitting almost to the eve of the holi- days, they had not leisure to attend even to any of the objects recommended to them from the throne, except the renewal of the provision-bills, to prevent a return of the scarcity from which the people had been providentially relieved. A committee of the whole house of commons had, indeed, been formed early in the session, for the purpose of an inquiry into American affairs; but this subject though of far greater importance than Wilkes's petition, was necessarily de- ferred from the same cause, want of time. That gentleman's appeal on a writ of error to the house of lords, admitting of a very short and easy decision, was heard on the twenty-first of December, when the judg- ment of the court of king's-bench was affirmed in both sentences; and next day the parliament adjourned to the nineteenth of January. As lord Chatham still remained confined by illness, he had not been able since his resignation to give any public proofs of his hostility to the ministry whom he had de- serted ; but there could be no doubt of his intending upon the recovery of his health to join the standard of opposition. That standard was now upheld by the marquis of Rockingham, who became leader of what was called the old whig party, in conse- quence of the duke of Newcastle's death about the middle of November. THE ROYAL ACADEMY INSTITUTED. Bur the most memorable event that dis- tinguished the close of the year 1768, was the institution of the Royal Academy, under the king's immediate patronage, and sub- ject to the direction of forty artists of the first rank in their several professions. The great object of this institution, which will reflect immortal honor on the taste and mu- nificence of its illustrious founder, was the establishment of well-regulated schools of design, where students in the arts might find proper instruction and the best helps as well as incentives to aspiring genius, with- out going in search of them to foreign coun- tries. Here the pupils had the finest living models, and choice casts of the most cele- brated antiques to copy after. Nine acade- micians elected annually from amongst the forty were to attend the schools by rotation, to set the figures, to examine the perform- ances of the students, to promote their im- provement, and to turn their attention to- wards that branch of the arts in which they appeared most likely to excel. Professors of painting, of architecture, of perspective, and of anatomy, were also appointed, with liberal salaries, to read annually a certain number of public lectures in the schools; and the admission to these and all the other advantages of the institution was made free to every person properly qualified to benefit by the studies there cultivated. That no- thing might be wanting to rouse and en- courage emulation, prizes were held out to those who made the nearest approaches to excellence ; and the discourses delivered at the annual distribution of them by the presi- dent, Sir Joshua Reynolds, were well calcu- lated to fan the flame of youthful ardor, to unfold the true principles and laws of com- position, to strengthen the judgment, refine the taste, and impress upon the fancy the strongest images of that ideal perfection, which, as he himself said, it is the lot of genius always to contemplate, and never to attain. Under such a master, whose pre- cepts were so happily illustrated by his own GEORGE EL 17601820. 119 practice, it is no wonder that the English school soon rose to celebrity and exhibited models of beauty and grandeur which may be fairly put in competition with the most admired productions of any age or any coun- try. It is with unwillingness that history turns away from such delightful objects, to record the harsh wrangles of party, which were renewed at the meeting of parliament after the Christmas recess. DISCUSSIONS ON AMERICAN AFFAIRS. 1769. THE grand debate on American afiairs began the twenty-sixth of January. An infinite number of papers relating to the troubles in the colonies had been read the day before; and some resolutions and an address were now produced as sent down from the lords, in order to their being con- curred in by the commons. By these resolu- tions it was declared, that the acts of the late assembly of Massachusets Bay, which tended to call in question the authority of the supreme legislature, were illegal, un- constitutional, and derogatory of the rights of the crown and parliament of Great Brit- ain : that the circular letters written by the same assembly to those of the other colonies on the subject of the late import duties, stating them to be infringements of the rights of the people, and proposing combi- nations and other modes of pretended re- dress, were of a most unwarrantable, dan- gerous, and inflammatory nature: that the town of Boston had been for some time in a state of great disorder and confusion, during which the officers of the revenue had been obstructed by violence in the discharge of their duty, and their lives endangered ; and that neither the council of the province, nor the ordinary civil magistrates having exerted their authority for suppressing such tumults, the preservation of the peace, and the due execution of the laws became im- practicable without the aid of a military force : that all the proceedings in the town- meetings at Boston on the fourteenth of June and twelfth of September were calcu- lated to promote sedition ; and that the ap- pointment of a convention, the elections of deputies by the several towns and districts for that purpose, and their meeting, were daring insults offered to his majesty's au- thority, and audacious usurpations of the powers of government. In the address, the greatest satisfaction was expressed hi the measures already pursued for supporting the constitution, and inducing a due obedience to the legislature; and the strongest as- surances were given of effectual concurrence in such farther measures as might be found necessary to maintain the civil magistrates in a proper execution of the laws, within the province of Massachusets Bay. It was given as matter of opinion, that nothing could be more immediately necessary, either for the maintenance of royal authority hi the said province, or for guarding his ma- jesty's subjects there from being farther de- luded by wicked and designing men, than to bring the authors of the late disorders to condign punishment; and for this purpose, it was earnestly requested, that governor Bernard might be directed to transmit the fullest information he could obtain of all trea- sons committed within his government since the thirtieth of December, 1767, together with the names of the persons most active in the perpetration of such offences, hi order that his majesty might issue a special com- mission for trying the offenders within this realm, pursuant to the statute of the thirty- fifth of Henry VTIL in case his majesty should, upon receiving the said information, see sufficient ground for such a proceeding. As soon as both houses concurred in the proposed avowal of these sentiments, it was resolved in the cabinet that a circular letter should be sent by lord Hillsborough to the governors of the different provinces, contain- ing an engagement, as far as the ministers of the crown could engage, to procure a re- peal, on the principles of commercial expe- diency, of the taxes on glass, paper, and co- lors. They were in hopes, that a well-timed show of vigor in the first instance, and of lenity and condescension afterwards, would bring the colonists to a sense of their duty, and make them desist from their seditious practices. Unfortunately the event did not correspond, in any degree, with these ex- pectations. DEBATES ON THE CIVIL LIST. THOUGH the parliamentary strength of the ministry was fully demonstrated in carrying the resolutions and address by a majority of almost three to one, they were opposed with much greater vehemence on a point, where they thought themselves more secure, an ar- ticle of the supplies. A message from the king was delivered to the house of commons on the last day of February, acquainting them that the arrears of the civil list amount- ed to five hundred and thirteen thousand pounds, and expressing his majesty's reli- ance on their known zeal and affection, to enable him to discharge that encumbrance. This message gave rise to a contest, which was kept up with uncommon warmth for three days successively. Several motions, diversified by all the manoeuvres of political dexterity, were made for papers which might lead to a discovery of any mismanagement or profusion in the conduct of the revenue, and of the royal expenses. A review was taken of the state of the civil list, and pri- vate revenues of the' crown: comparisons were drawn between the income of the present and of former reigns : and it was 120 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. asserted in very plain terms, that unless the most scrupulous inquiry was always made into the particulars for which such debts were contracted, an arbitrary and unlimited revenue would be gradually established at the will of the prince, and for the purpose of promoting the most pernicious measures. The chancellor of the exchequer expressed the greatest readiness to lay all the accounts and papers that were desired before the house ; but said that the length of time which was requisite to prepare them, and the lateness of the session made it necessary to be deferred to the next meeting, while decency to the king required an immediate relief of his wants. Lord North farther ob- served, that it would be ungenerous, by any act, to show the smallest suspicion of a prince, whose first care upon his accession to the throne, was to strengthen the freedom of the subject, by establishing the indepen- dency of the judges : that his majesty, who had, in his private share of the captures made during the late war, given up seven hundred and thirty thousand pounds to the nation, was certainly entitled to some regard in his present exigencies : and that the grati- tude, not to say the justice of the kingdom was called upon in the loudest manner, to comply readily and gracefully with his re- quest In one of the debates on this subject, the division was, for the ministry, one hun- dred and sixty-four, against eighty-nine, and in another, two hundred and forty-eight against one hundred and thirty-five. No objections could have been urged with any great degree of plausibility or force to the other parts of the supplies, or to the ways and means for the servic.6 of the cur- rent year. The supplies amounted to little more than six millions and a half, including the arrears of the civil list, and four hundred thousand pounds of the navy debts which were to be paid off. The ways and means consisted of the land and malt taxes ; ex- chequer-bills to the amount of one million eight hundred thousand pounds ; anticipa- tions of the sinking fund for the like sum ; a lottery ; money due for the ceded islands and for French prizes; small sums in the exchequer, which were a sort of scrapings from the moneys issued in the war, and bal- ances of different treasurers' accounts ; ex- pected produce of American taxes, estimated at thirty thousand pounds ; and the annual contribution of four hundred thousand pounds from the East India company, whose charter was prolonged for the farther term of five years, on conditions in some respects similar to the last agreement: but the company were now allowed to increase their dividend to twelve and a half per cent during this term, provided they did not in any one yaar raise it above one per cent : on the other hand, should the dividend be reduced below the present standard of ten per cent the stipulated payment of four hundred thousand pounds should be proportionally diminished ; and if the dividend should sink to six per cent the payment to the nation was to be wholly discontinued (1). Such easy and ju- dicious provisions for {he public service af- forded very little room for cavilling or debate. But the spirit of altercation found sufficient exercise in the proceedings concerning Wilkes. VIOLENT DEBATES RESPECTING WILKES. ON the twenty-seventh of January, the day to which the hearing of that gentleman's pretended grievances had been deferred, a motion was made by the chancellor of the exchequer, and carried by a very considera- ble majority, that Wilkes's counsel should confine themselves to the alteration of the records, and to the charge against Webb, as the other parts of the petition had either been decided upon already, or were now un- der consideration of the courts below. Four days after, Wilkes proceeded with his evi- dence ; but he was totally unable to make good his accusation against Webb, which plainly appeared to have been a most auda- cious falsehood. There was no difficulty in proving the alteration of the record, which had been acknowledged and fully justified by lord Mansfield in the court of king's- bench, where the practice was confirmed on the opinion of all the judges. But Wilkes having disingenuously and malignantly left out so material a circumstance in his com- plaint, the house agreed to a vote of censure on that part of the petition, as tending to as- perse lord Mansfield's character, and to pre- judice the people against the administration of public justice. This, however, was not the only step Wilkes had lately taken to provoke the rigor of parliament, and to en- dear himself more strongly to the infatuated populace. Some little time previous to the riot in St. George's Fields, a letter had been written by lord Weymouth, one of the secretaries of state, to the chairman of the quarter-sessions at Lambeth, recommending an early and ef- fectual use of the military, if the civil power was trifled with or insulted ; as a military force could never be employed to a more constitutional purpose, than in supporting the authority and dignity of the magistracy. Such instructions seemed particularly neces- sary at that crisis, when some of the most active magistrates had been found unable to put the laws in execution ; when constables, instead of attempting to preserve the peace, were known to join the mob in every act of outrage ; when a convict was openly res- cued from the officers of justice, and carried in triumph almost within sight of the very GEORGE HI. 1760-1820. 121 court that ordered his commitment ; when, in short, the audacity of the rabble increased with their crimes, and no hope remained of bringing them to a sense of their duty but by the exertion of superior force. Wilkes, having by some means procured a copy of lord Weymouth's letter on that occasion, had it published at full length in a newspaper, with a preface of his own, in which the affair of St George's Fields was termed a horrid massacre, and the consequence of a hellish project, deliberately planned and determined upon. The secretary of state laid so flagrant a breach of privilege before the lords, and the publishers of the newspapers having ac- knowledged that they received the copy from Wilkes, a complaint was made to the com- mons of the conduct of their member ; and the matter being agitated during the inquiry into the merits of Wilkes's petition, he not only declared himself to be the author of the prefatory remarks, but said he gloried in hav- ing brought to light that bloody scroll, and was only sorry he had not expressed his in- dignation at it in stronger terms. He even added, that he ought to have the thanks of the house for his meritorious conduct in the business. Instead of thanks, however, the house voted his introduction to the secretary of state's letter to be an insolent, scandalous, and seditious libel, tending to inflame and stir up the minds of his majesty's subjects to a total subversion of all good order and legal government. Next day [Feb. 3.] a very long debate took place on the following motion, made by lord Barrington, the secretary at war : " That John Wilkes, Esq. a member of this house, who hath at the bar of this house confessed himself to be the author and pub- lisher of what this house has resolved to be an insolent, scandalous, and seditious libel, and who has been convicted in the court of king's-bench, of having printed and publish- ed a seditious libel, and three obscene and impious libels, and by the judgment of the said court has been sentenced to undergo twenty-two months' imprisonment, and is now in execution under the said judgment, be expelled this house." This motion was opposed by the united strength of the Rockingham and Grenville parties, Edmund Burke the adherent of the one, and George Grenville the leader of the other, being the principal speakers. Though these gentlemen differed very widely on some great political principles, yet from a casual coincidence of dislike to many of the late measures of government, they often act- ed as if they belonged to the same phalanx. But on whatever side of the question they spoke, their style and manner always afford- ed a very remarkable and amusing contrast Burke's eloquence was splendid, copious, VOL. IV. 11 and animated, sometimes addressing itself to the passions, much oftener to the fancy, but seldom or never to the understanding ; it seemed fitter for show than debate, for the school than the senate, and was calculated rather to excite applause than to produce conviction : Grenville's was plain, yet cor- rect, manly, argumentative, trusting more to genuine candor, to the energy of reason, and the well-displayed evidence of truth, than to the rainbow colors of fine imagery, or the blaze of artificial declamation. The one appeared always dressed in a rich ward- robe of words, to dazzle the beholders : the other made use of language, as a modest man does of clothes, for the purposes of con- venience and decency. The former could enliven the dullest debate by the sallies of his wit ; but he was too fond of exerting that talent on every occasion, and frequent- ly debased it by an intermixture of low ridi- cule ; the latter, full of the importance of his subject, and attentive to the becoming gravity as well as dignity of the senatorial character, never let himself down, nor at- tempted anything like vulgar jests, or unsea- sonable pleasantry. Burke, naturally ardent, impetuous, and irascible, took fire at the smallest collision ; and the sudden bursts of his anger or his vehemence, when all around him was calm, could only be compared to the rant of intoxication in 'the presence of a sober and dispassionate company : Grenville, even when attacked with the utmost asperi- ty, showed a perfect command of temper, and neither betrayed any symptoms of alarm himself, nor hurled the thunders of wrathful oratory at his adversaries. This dissimili- tude of genius and character between both was strongly marked in the debate on lord Barrington's motion. Burke poured forth a torrent of invectives against the folly and wickedness of the min- isters of the crown ; he enlarged on the dan- gerous consequences of the assumption and abuse of a discretionary power in the com- mons ; and called the proposed vote of ex- pulsion the fifth act of a tragi-comedy ; per- formed by his majesty's servants, at the de- sire of several persons of quality, for the benefit of Wilkes, and s at the expense of the constitution. Grenville confined himself to two decisive points, the injustice and impru- dence of the measure. He said it was un- fair to blend all Wilkes's offences, as it were, in one indictment, and then to decide on a complicated and accumulated charge ; as, in consequence of such a mode of trial, it was possible for that gentleman to be expelled even by a minority (2). After viewing the whole together, he proceeded to unravel the web, and to examine the different parts of it separately and distinctly. He observed, that the proper step to be taken by the house 122 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of lords, with respect to the gross and im- pudent libel on lord Weymouth, was to ad- dress the king to have it prosecuted by the attorney-general, instead of transmitting it to the commons to be punished by an extra- ordinary extension of their judicature. For the North Briton, Wilkes was now under- going the sentence of the law, and had been expelled from parliament ; and there was no rule more sacred in English jurisprudence, than that a man once acquitted or condemn- ed should not be tried or punished again by the same judicature for the same offence. The law had also passed sentence on him for the Essay on Woman ; and as the last house of commons had not thought it right for them to interfere in that matter, it would certainly be deemed a hardship to let it pass unnoticed at the time, and five years after to transfer it to another parliament, and to reserve it for a fresh censure. As to Wilkes's imprisonment, though it implied an inability in him to attend, and in the house to reclaim him, yet Grenville did not think that tempo- rary disabilities ought to be regarded as proper grounds for an expulsion. He there- fore begged that the prejudices or just re- sentments of the house against the conduct and character of the man might not prevail upon them to establish a precedent, which, though perhaps begun in the first instance against the odious or the guilty, might be easily applied and made use of against the meritorious and the innocent From those remarks Grenville made an easy and natural transition to the second part of the subject, in which he took a view of the propriety and wisdom of the measure. He considered Wilkes as having become, however unde- servedly, a favorite with the public : he said it could not be denied, that the temper of the people had shown itself on several occa- sions to be licentious and disorderly ; that their respect for the parliament and confi- dence in their representatives were visibly diminished ; and he then asked, whether, under these circumstances, it was not more advisable to conciliate the heated minds of men by mildness and discretion, than to in- flame them by adding fresh fuel to discon- tent 1 He hoped the ministry would consult the best guide to all human wisdom, the ex- perience of past times ; and he quoted one instance of impolitic rigor, which was equal- ly pertinent and forcible. "The reverend incendiary Dr. Sacheverell," said he, " was unwisely prosecuted by this house. He be- came by that means the favorite and idol of the people throughout England, as much, nay more than Wilkes is now. The queen herself was stopped and insulted in her chair, during the trial, with ' God save Dr. Sacheverell. 1 I heartily wish that no similar insult may have been offered to our present sovereign. The prosecution went on and the ferment increased. The event verified a famous expression in those days, ' That the whigs had wished to roast a parson, and that they had done it at so fierce a fire, that they had burnt themselves ;' for the minis- ters were dismissed, and the parliament dis- solved. The mob idol, when he ceased to be a martyr, soon sunk into his original in- significancy, from which that martyrdom alone had raised him. Wilkes, apprehensive of the same fate, and thoroughly sensible that the continuance of his popularity will depend upon your conduct, uses every means in his power to provoke you to some instance of unusual severity. Suppose that you could otherwise have doubted of it, yet his beha- vior here at your bar, when called upon to justify himself j is fully sufficient to prove the truth of what I have asserted. If he had intended to deprecate your resentment, and to stop your proceedings against him, he is not so void of parts and understanding, as to have told you in the words he used at the bar, (when charged with writing the li- bel against lord Weymouth), ' that he was only sorry he had not expressed himself upon that subject in stronger terms ; and that he certainly would do so whenever a similar occasion should present itself;' nor would he have asked, ' whether the precedents quoted by lord Mansfield were not all taken from the star chamber?' If he had wished to prevent this expulsion, he would have em- ployed other methods to accomplish his pur- pose ; but his object is not to retain his seat in this house, but to stand forth to the delud- ed people as the victim of your resentment, of your violence and injustice. This is the advantage which he manifestly seeks to de- rive from you ; and will you be weak enough to give it to him, and to fall into so obvious a snare ? What benefit will you gain, or what will he lose, if this motion for his ex- pulsion shall take effect 1 Whatever talents he has to captivate or to inflame the people without doors, he has none to render him formidable within these walls. He has hold- en forth high, sounding, and magnificent promises of the signal services which he will perform to his country in parliament ; and there are many who are ignorant and credulous enough to believe them. When- ever he comes here, I will venture to prophe- sy that they will be grievously disappointed. That disappointment will be followed by dis- gust and anger at their having been so grossly deceived, and will probably turn the tide of popular prejudice. But as soon as he shall be excluded from this house, they will give credit to him for more than he has even promised. They will be persuaded that every real and imaginary grievance would have been redressed by his patriotic GEORGE IE. 17601820. 123 care and influence." Grenville here took occasion to point out some other bad conse- quences of the proposed measure. He said there could be no doubt, in the present tem- per of the freeholders of Middlesex, but that Wilkes would be re-elected after his expul- sion. The house would probably think il necessary to expel him again, and he would as certainly be again elected. What steps could the house then take to put an end to a disgraceful contest, in which their justice would be arraigned, and their authority and dignity essentially compromised 1 By the rules of the house, the vote for excluding Wilkes could not be rescinded in the same session in which it had passed. No alter- native would therefore remain, but either to refuse issuing a new writ, and by thai means to deprive the county of the right of choosing any other representative ; or bring- ing into the house, as the knight of the shire for Middlesex, a man chosen by a few voters only, in contradiction to the declared sense of a great majority on the face of the poll. "Are these then," continued Grenville, "the proper expedients to check and to restrain the spirit of faction and of disorder 1 Can we seriously think they will have that salu- tary effect 1 Surely it is time to look for- wards, and to try other measures." He con- cluded with recommending a cool and tem- perate conduct, unmixed with passion, or with prejudice ; and deprecated the exer- cise of a discretionary power, the extent of which no man knew, and the extent of the mischiefs arising from which no man could tell . WILKES EXPELLED, BUT RE-ELECTED. BUT neither the candor of Grenville's ad- vice, nor the force of his prophetic warnings could subdue the indignation which the house felt at the unparalleled insolence as well as criminality of Wilkes's behavior. The vote of expulsion was carried by a ma- jority of 219 to 136 ; and a new writ was issued for the election of a member in the room of Wilkes. The train of events pre- dicted by Grenville now followed in rapid succession. Wilkes's popularity increased with what was termed his persecution. His bold defence of the prefatory remarks on lord Weymouth's letter, at the very bar of the house of commons that expelled him, was captivating to many persons, and raised him friends and admirers in every quarter. The freeholders of Middlesex confirmed their former choice of him as their repre- sentative, and had, at a previous meeting, agreed to support his election at their own expense. The return being made to the house of commons, it was resolved by a ma- jority of 225 to 89, " that Wilkes, having been once expelled, was incapable of sitting in the same parliament, and that the elec- tion was therefore void." But before the sense of the county was taken again, a month was suffered to elapse, in hopes that the popular ferment might be somewhat abated in that time. The delay had a contrary ef- fect It afforded Wilkes's partisans an op- portunity of spreading the flame wider, and seizing the moment of general frenzy to levy contributions for the relief, as they said, of the persecuted assertor of the Bill of Rights. At the first meeting called together for this purpose at the London tavern, above three thousand pounds were immediately subscribed, and a committee was appointed to circulate proposals of the like kind through the kingdom, the following claim being urg- ed in Wilkes's favor, " that as he had suf- fered very greatly in his private fortune, from the severe and repeated prosecutions he had undergone ; it seemed reasonable that those who suffered for the public good should be supported by the public." This scheme was in the true spirit of Wilkes's old maxim, and his expectations of its success were not disappointed. When the election came on again at Brentford, Wilkes was chosen for the third time with the former unanimity. This election being also declared void, and a new writ ordered, colonel Luttrell, a mem- ber of the house of commons, had the cour- age to vacate his seat by the acceptance of a nominal place, in order to try his strength in a contest for Middlesex. Whitaker, a serjeant-at-law, ventured also to enter the lists ; and another gentleman had been nom- inated, but did not choose to take the oath necessary on that occasion. At the close of the poll, the numbers were for Wilkes 1143, for Luttrell 296, and for Whitaker only 5 ; upon which the return was made in favor of Wilkes, but was, of course, annulled by the house of commons ; and in two days af- ter, a resolution was carried by a majority of 221 to 139, to amend the return by razing out the name of Wilkes, and inserting that of colonel Luttrell in its place. Fourteen days having been allowed for a petition against this decision, one was accordingly presented, signed by several freeholders; which again brought the matter into warm and serious debate on the eighth of May, when the former resolution was confirmed by a still greater majority. If the minds of the people had not been totally blinded by the mists of prejudice and passion, or by the illusion of factious artifice, they must have perceived the necessity, as well as regularity of the steps taken by the house of commons after the expulsion of Wilkes, however impolitic that measure might be deemed in the first instance. It was evident, that the right of expelling de- linquents and of deciding on the validity of elections, which the commons derived from the first principles of the constitution, and 124 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. had always exercised, would be a nominal or frivolous authority, if it was not supported by the farther power of excluding such persons as had been declared to be ineli- gible or improper. " That the right claimed by the greater part of the freeholders of Middlesex was no other than the right of doing wrong, the right of sending inadmis- sible representatives to parliament ; that, if the house was obliged by the constitution to receive all persons duly qualified, who were returned by a majority of the electors, the latter were equally bound riot to return dis- qualified persons." It had been asked by the gentlemen of the opposition, with a sort of insulting confidence, under what head of legal disability Wilkes's exclusion was to be found ; or how the electors were to know itl The reply, however, was easy: the records of parliament would inform them. " How," said the ministerial party, " have the electors learned, that judges of the su- perior courts cannot be chosen representa- tives of the people 1 How are aliens, how are clergymen disqualified 1 The house has pronounced them incapable, as the several questions arose. It is exactly the same with regard to Wilkes. He incurred the like sen- tence. Were the decisions of the house, hi this or in any other instance, found to be arbitrary or unjust, the united branches of the legislature, in their supreme and collec- tive capacity, might interpose, and, by pass- ing a law, regulate such decisions for the future ; but nothing less can restrict the ju- dicial power of the commons in all cases of election." PARLIAMENT PRpROGUED. THE prorogation of parliament took place the day after the final decision on the Mid- dlesex election. In the speech from the throne, the proceedings of both houses, through the whole course of the session, were highly approved, but more especially their attention to the great objects, which, at its opening, had been recommended to their immediate consideration : just acknow- ledgments were also made of their readi- ness as well in granting the supplies for the service of the current year, as in enabling his majesty to discharge the debt incurred on account of the civil government : he ex- horted them with peculiar earnestness to use their utmost efforts in their several counties for the maintenance of peace and good or- der at home ; and, with regard to the state of affairs abroad, he trusted that the calami- ties of war would not extend to any other part of Europe, however unsuccessful his attempts had proved for preventing the un- fortunate rupture between Russia and the Porte. Some very unpleasant advices having been received from the East Indies ; in the first moments of alarm, the company's stock fell sixty per cent. The immediate cause of so great a shock to their credit, was the con- tinuance of an expensive and disastrous war, which the rapacity and ambition of their servants in India had prompted them to engage in about the middle of the year 1767, and which was now said to threaten the ruin of their trade, and the loss of their principal settlements. The danger was, in- deed, greatly exaggerated in these repre- sentations ; but it plainly appeared from facts, that the company had been wantonly plunged into a contest with the most formidable ene- my they had ever encountered in that part of the world. This was the famous Hyder Ally, who, by daring treachery, and one of those amazing revolutions so frequent in In- dia, had risen from a common Seapoy to the sovereignty of an extensive country on the coast of Malabar. Though his ambition in- creased with his power and success, yet it was always under the restraints of the sound- est policy ; and while he neglected no means of securing his empire, and improving the discipline of his armies, he cautiously avoid- ed giving any offence to the company, which could provoke or justify a war. On the con- trary, it is asserted, thai their ships were permitted to trade in his ports without mo- lestation, and their servants had a free in- tercourse with his dominions, till the very moment of the rupture. He was not, how- ever, unprepared for such an event. In ad- dition to his own resources, he had the ad- dress to gam over to his side the nizam of the Decan, a potentate of high rank in In- dia, and whose territories bordered upon those of the company. But notwithstanding the number of their united forces, and the extraordinary effects of the discipline intro- duced by Hyder, they were defeated with great loss, by colonel Smith, near Trincomal- lee, on the twenty-sixth of September, 1767 ; after which the nizam made a separate peace with the English, yielding up to them a considerable territory, called the Balagat Carnatic. Hyder, though deserted by his late ally, and though in the month of Feb- ruary following, he received another very severe blow in the loss of his whole navy at Mangalore, was far from betraying any symptoms of dejection or dismay ; but trans- ferred the war to a mountainous part of the country, where his enemies were prevented from doing anything decisive, and where he could avail himself of all the advantages, which the celerity of his own army, com- posed chiefly of horse, gave him in such circumstances. At length, by a series of rapid movements, in which the company's troops were greatly harassed, and their sup- plies often intercepted, he wheeled round them, and rushed with desolating fury into GEORGE IIL 17601820. 125 the Carnatic. This manoeuvre had all the effect he could wish. They were immedi- ately obliged to evacuate his territories, and to retire in haste to the defence of their own and of then* allies. Thus he recovered, without fighting, some forts and strong posts which they had taken ; and, instead of a fu- gitive retreating before his enemies, and un- able to defend his own dominions, he came as a vindictive and haughty victor to pour destruction into theirs. His cavalry, being now let loose into its proper sphere, spread far and wide its destructive ravages ; while Hyder, with his usual sagacity, avoided a general engagement, and contented himself with attacking detached parties of the Eng- lish army, cutting off their convoys, and wearying them out by then- own fruitless endeavors to bring him to action. Other adventurers, allured by the prospect of plun- der, joined him in great numbers : some of the Maratta princes were on the point of entering into alliances with him ; and no- thing less than the expulsion of the English seemed to be the object of such powerful confederacies. It was at this stage of the war, towards the close of the year 1768, that the accounts were brought away from India, which occasioned so much consternation among the company at home. Even those, who knew that Hyder Ally's whole force was unable to make any impression on the English settlements, were justly apprehen- sive of his incursions into the open prov- inces, which he laid waste, and thereby de- stroyed the company's principal resources for carrying on the war. Their trade, their revenue might be materially injured, though the enemy's success was not such as to en- danger their security. The progress and final issue of the war exactly corresponded with these ideas. Hyder's devastations in the Carnatic were attended with very dis- tressing effects. The Nabob of Arcot, a staunch friend and faithful ally of the com- pany, was nearly ruined. The income of the establishment at Madras being inade- quate to its present exigencies, large remit- tances from Bengal became necessary ; and as these were unavoidably made in a base kind of gold coin, the loss in the difference of exchange only was said to amount to forty thousand pounds. A stop was also put to the usual investments from Madras to China, no silver being now stirring in the country, and the manufactures at a stand from the fear of the enemy. But the most provoking circumstance of all was the ever- watchful sagacity with which Hyder baffled every effort of the company's forces either to check his career, or to bring him to close action. The first defeat, which he had sus- tained from colonel Smith in the year 1767, made him extremely cautious : and though 11* he was tempted in October 1768, at the head of fourteen thousand horse and six bat- talions of Seapoys, to attack a detachment of four hundred and sixty Europeans, and two thousand three hundred Seapoys, com- manded by colonel Wood, the necessity of retreating, after an obstinate contest of six hours, afforded him another mortifying proof of the superiority of his adversaries, which no numbers, discipline, or exertions on his part were able to counterbalance. He there- fore adhered to his predatory plan, and as he had totally laid aside the heavy, unwieldy cannon before used by the Indian princes, and taken care to prevent his troops from being encumbered with baggage, nothing could equal the celerity of his motions. In the month of March 1769, having evaded the English army in the Carnatic, he sud- denly appeared in force at the gates of Mad- ras. The presidency now thought proper to enter into a negotiation for peace, pro- posing a truce of fifty days for that purpose : but Hyder would grant a cessation of arms for seven days only, in which time articles of accommodation were signed, [April 3d] and the conquests on both sides reciprocally restored. Previous to the knowledge of this event in England, the proprietors of East India stock, alarmed at its continual depres- sion, and struck with the necessity of taking strong measures for the correction of abuses and mismanagement abroad, had determined to send out a committee of supervision to Bengal, with full authority to examine into and rectify the concerns of every depart- ment, and vested with an absolute power of control over all the servants of the company in India. Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Scrafton, and colonel Ford, were nominated supervisors, and sailed from England, in the Aurora frigate, the latter end of September ; but by some unknown and fatal mischance, this ship never arrived at the place of her desti- nation. The very great embarrassments in which the company were afterwards in- volved, and the steps taken by government for their relief and future regulation, will be described in the next chapter. AMERICAN AFFAIRS. THE accounts brought over from America in the course of the year, though not so im- mediately alarming as those from the East Indies, afforded but little prospect of future tranquillity in that quarter. As soon as the joint address of both houses of parliament on the subject of the disorders at Boston was published in the colonies, the assembly of Virginia came to several resolutions, as- serting, in very plain terms, the sole right of taxing themselves, the privilege of petition- ing the sovereign for redress of grievances, the lawfulness of engaging other provinces to concur in such applications to the throne, 126 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. and the injustice of having accused persons sent to be tried beyond the seas, which, they said, was highly derogatory to the rights of British subjects. They ordered their speaker to transmit copies of these resolutions to the different assemblies throughout the conti- nent, and to request their concurrence. Next day, May the seventeenth, on being dissolved by the governor, lord Bottetourt, who could not connive at such proceedings, they voted themselves into a convention, and then sign- ed an act of association against importing not only the taxed commodities, but wines and several other articles. The province of Maryland followed the example, in re- spect to the non-importation agreement ; and the North Carolina assembly, adopting, by an express vote, all the other resolutions, were dissolved by governor Tryon. The very first step taken by the general court of Massachusets .Bay, when called together in the summer according to their charter, was to present an address to governor Bernard for the removal of the naval and military force stationed in the town and harbor of Boston. He told them, he had no such au- thority ; and as they refused to proceed to business, while surrounded with an armed force, he adjourned the court to the town of Cambridge; soon after which they passed resolutions similar to those of Virginia, and a vote " that the sending an armed force into the colony, under the pretence of assisting the civil power, was highly dangerous to the people, unprecedented, and unconstitu- tional." Being called upon by the governor to declare, whether they would or would not make provision for the troops agreeably to the injunctions of the act of parliament, they answered, that it was inconsistent with their honor, their interest, and their duty, to provide funds for any such purpose. Upon this the governor prorogued them to the tenth of January following, in order to give time for the abatement of their violence, and for the operation of lord Hillsborough's letter on the intended repeal of some obnoxious taxes. The motives, by which the ministry were influenced in resolving upon such a measure, have been already explained ; and as they wished to be enabled to speak with some confidence of its probable effects, be- fore they submitted it to the consideration of the legislature, the parliament, which was to have met in November, was farther pro- rogued to January. CHANGES IN THE CABINET. 1770. AT the opening of the session on the ninth of January, the opposition availed themselves of the opportunity afforded by the usual motion for an address, to introduce their favorite subject: and proposed an amendment, "to assure his majesty that they would immediately inquire into the causes of tho discontents that prevailed in every part of his dominions." This produced long debates, which were carried on with great acrimony, but with no other effect than that of discovering a few remarkable deser- tions from the ministry in both houses. The marquis of Granby, commander-in-chief of the forces, voted for tKe amendment in the commons, and recanted his former opinions in favor of colonel Luttrell, which, he said, arose from his not having duly considered the nice distinction between expulsion and incapacitation. The ministry felt the loss of lord Cambden much more severely. He joined his friend the earl of Chatham, who moved the amendment in the house of lords, where, however, it was negatived by a great majority. Charles Yorke, attorney-general, son of the late lord chancellor Hardwicke, a man of the highest professional ability, accepted the great seal at his majesty's re- quest ; and a patent was immediately ordered for his elevation to the peerage, by the title of lord Morden. But in consequence of his death, which suddenly happened three days after, the seal was put into commission till the beginning of the next year, when it was given to judge Bathurst, lord Mansfield, in the mean time, officiating as speaker of the lords. A vacancy of the latter kind having been occasioned in the commons, at the very same juncture, by Sir John Gust's illness, which soon terminated in his death, two candidates were put in nomination, Sir Fletcher Norton by lord North, and the right honorable Thomas Townshend by lord John Cavendish. In this trial of parliament- ary strength, the minister's friend was cho- sen by a majority of 237 to 121. Before the end of the month the duke of Grafton re- signed, but not in disgust On the contrary, he declared that he would still continue to support the measures of administration ; and he kept his word. Lord North took his place at the head of the treasury, without relin- quishing his former office of chancellor of the exchequer. These changes were fol- lowed by some others. The earl of Bristol choosing the tranquil post of first lord of the bed-chamber, vacated by the earl of Hun- tingdon, the privy-seal was delivered to the earl of Halifax: Mr. Dunning, the solicitor- general, resigned that employment to Mr. Thurlow, a barrister then rising into conse- quence ; and one of the vacant seats at the admiralty board was filled by Charles Fox, who had just begun to attract public notice by an early display of his astonishing talents. EFFpRTS OF THE OPPOSITION. THE failure of the proposed amendment did not discourage the leaders of opposition from renewing again and again their loud complaints of national grievances, and par- ticularly of the invaded freedom of election. GEORGE ELL The various motions on this head, which they made in both houses, however diversi- fied hi form, were substantially the same ; and as parliament had frequently considered and rejected such motions, it was plain that the giving them a new shape must have been with a view of harassing ministry, and of not only keeping alive the spirit, but aggravating the fury of discontent among the people. In one of the debates, lord Chatham, after affirming that the constitu- tion was violated, expressed a wish, if the breach was not repaired, " that discord might prevail for ever. He even went so far as to justify resistance in express terms, and said, " that old as he was, he hoped he should see the question brought to issue, and fairly tried between the people and the govern- ment." It was not long before he was gratified by some advances of that kind on the part of the corporation of London. CITY OF LONDON'S REMONSTRANCE TO THE KING. ON the fourteenth of March, Mr. Beck- ford, then a second time lord-mayor, attend- ed by the sheriffs, a few of the aldermen, and a great body of the common council, with a prodigious mob, went to St James's, and there presented to the king what was called " the humble address, remonstrance, and petition of the city of London," though written in a strain of the most daring and unparalleled insolence. It stated that the complaints made hi a former petition re- mained unanswered, and that the injuries were confirmed : that the only judge remova- ble at the pleasure of the crown had been dismissed from his high office for defending in parliament the laws and the constitution : that under the same secret and malign influ- ence, which through each successive admin- istration had defeated every good, and sug- gested every bad intention, the majority of the house of commons had deprived the people of their dearest rights : that the deci- sion on the Middlesex election was a deed more ruinous in its consequences than the levying of ship-money by Charles the first, or the dispensing power by James the sec- ond, a deed that must vitiate all the future proceedings of the parliament, as the acts of the legislature could no more be valid without a legal house of commons, than without the legal prince on the throne : that representatives of the people were essential to the making of laws: that the present house of commons did not represent the people ; and that its sitting was continued for no other reason but because it was cor- ruptly subservient to the designs of his ma- jesty's ministers. The " humble" petition- ers concluded with reminding his majesty of his coronation-oath, and with assuring themselves that he would dissolve the par- 17601820. 127 iament, and remove those evil ministers for ever from his council. His majesty replied with great temper and dignity : " I shall always be ready to receive the requests, and to listen to the complaints of my subjects : but it gives me great concern to find that any of them should have been so far misled, as to offer me an address and remonstrance, the contents of which I cannot but consider as disrespectful to me, injurious to my par- liament, and irreconcilable to the principles of the constitution. I have ever made the law of the land the rule of my conduct, esteeming it my chief glory to reign over a free people. With this view I have always been careful, as well to execute faithfully the trust reposed in me, as to avoid even the appearance of invading any of those powers which the constitution has placed in other hands. It is only by persevering in such a conduct, that I can either discharge my own duty, or secure to my subjects the free en- joyment of those rights which my family were called to defend : and while I act upon these principles, I shall have a right to ex- pect, and I am confident I shall continue to receive, the steady and affectionate support of my people." A motion was made in the house of com- mons, on the following day, for a copy of the remonstrance, as well as of his majesty's answer. This motion was carried by a ma- jority of almost three to one, after a warm debate, in which the lord-mayor, alderman Trecothick, one of the city members, and both the sheriffs Townshend and Sawbridge, insultingly gloried in the part they had taken in that transaction. The papers having been afterwards laid before the house, and the journals and other records examined, fresh debates arose on a motion for an address to his majesty, and another for the concurrence of the lords, to testify the extreme concern and indignation which both houses felt at the language of the remonstrance, so little cor- responding with the grateful and affectionate respect justly due to his majesty from all his subjects, and at the same time aspersing and calumniating one of the branches of the legislature, and expressly denying the le- gality of the present parliament, and the va- lidity of its proceedings. The value and importance of the right of British subjects to petition were enlarged upon with rapture ; but it was afflicting to see the exercise of that right so grossly perverted, by being ap- plied to the purpose, not of preserving, but of overturning the constitution, and of propa- gating doctrines, which, if generally adopted, must be fatal to the peace of the kingdom, and tended to the subversion of all lawful authority. The opposition to this address was equally outrageous and impotent : the loyalty and good sense of a considerable ma- 128 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. jority of both houses prevailed : the king re- ceived their grateful acknowledgment of his tender regard for the rights of his subjects with great satisfaction. GRENVILLE'S BILL FOR DETERMINING DISPUTED ELECTIONS. IN the midst of this season of heat and discussion, which in a greater or less degree was extended to every comer of the king- dom, George Grenville brought in his famous bill for regulating the proceedings of the house of commons on controverted elections. He stated with his usual candor the abuses which had crept in, and the nature of the plan he proposed for their correction. Former- ly, he observed, the trials of contested elec- tions had been always by a select committee, chiefly composed of the most learned and experienced of the house ; and whilst that custom continued, the litigant parties and the nation at large were generally well satis- fied with the decisions. But, by degrees, the committees of elections having been en- larged, and all who came having voices, a shameful partiality prevailed : so that by way of remedy, while Mr. Onslow was speaker, the admirable order, with which he conduct- ed himself, made such as wished for a fair trial of their cause, desire it might be heard at the bar of the house. This method, how- ever, was found to be very defective and in- convenient The number of the judges, which exceeded that of any other judicature in the world, and their being under no tie of oaths or honor to prevent any secret bias from operating on their minds, left full scope for the influence of friendship, importunity, and party connexion. Custom and example gave a sort of sanction to injustice ; and where so many were concerned, they not only kept one another in countenance, but every individual thought his share in the general guilt or reproach of partiality too in- considerable to give him the least uneasiness. The trying of such questions at the bar was also an insuperable obstruction to all other public business ; and especially in the first session of a new parliament, they took up BO much time, that it was almost a matter of surprise how the house could attend to any- thing else. Grenville's bill for remedying these evils was exactly founded on the con- stitutional idea of trials by jury. He pro- posed that when a petition complaining of undue election was presented, and a day ap- pointed for hearing its merits, against which the parties were to have their witnesses ready, the house on that day should be count- ed ; and if one hundred members were not present, no other business should be gone into until that number assembled, at which time the names of the members in the house were to be put into six urns, from each of which the clerk should alternately draw a name, to the number of forty-nine : the sit- ting members and petitioners might also nominate one each. Lists of the forty-nine were then to be given to the sitting member, the petitioners, their counsel, or agents, who, with the clerk, were to withdraw, and to strike off one alternately, beginning^ on the part of the petitioners, till the number was reduced to thirteen. These, with the two nominees, were to be sworn a select com- mittee, empowered to send for persons, pa- pers, and records; to .examine witnesses; and finally to determine the matter in dis- pute. Such were the principal outlines of this excellent bill, which, though opposed by some of the ministry, was carried through both houses with irresistible vigor, and re- ceived the royal assent on the twelfth of April. At first the bill was made temporary, that in case the experiment did not succeed, it might expire of itself. But its good ef- fects, when reduced to practice, became so evident, that in four years after, an act was passed for rendering it perpetual. Some improvements have since been made in seve- ral of its clauses, but the principle is un- alterably good ; and it remains a lasting monument of the sound sense, integrity, and patriotism of its author. As his parliament- ary exertions ended with his life soon after the passing of this bill, it may be properly called his last legacy to the British nation. DEBATES RELATIVE TO AMERICA. VERY few of the persons who were joined with Grenville in opposition to the ministry at that time, seemed desirous, like him, of sacrificing party considerations to public duty. Their efforts, during the whole ses- sion, had no other tendency than to create confusion, to embarrass government, and so fully to occupy the time and attention of both houses in useless and violent discus- sions, as to leave very little opportunity for introducing matters of the greatest moment. Even the affairs of the colonies, however pressing and important, were unavoidably postponed from the same cause, the constant succession of debates on the most inflamma- tory and incongruous propositions. It was not till the beginning of March, when any longer delay would have been extremely in- jurious to the usual spring exportations for the American market, that lord North moved the repeal of the obnoxious port duties of 1767, excepting the duty of three-pence per pound on tea, with the continuance of which be thought the Americans could not be justly dissatisfied, as when that was laid on, an- other was taken off by a drawback of twen- ty-five per cent from the English duties al- lowed to the exporter. But his lordship's most plausible argument for retaining any part of an act, which he admitted to be in- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 129 consistent with the true spirit of commercial policy, was, that a total repeal would be as- cribed by the colonists, not to the goodness, but to the fears of government ; and would encourage them to make fresh demands, to rise in their turbulence, instead of return- ing to their duty, " and that a total repeal could not be thought of till America was prostrate at our feet" Governor Pownall's speech in reply, in which he endeavored to demonstrate the inefficacy of a partial repeal, and to enforce the necessity of extending it to the whole act, made such impression on the house, that an amendment conformable to this idea was negatived by a majority of only sixty-two in a division of three hundred and forty-six members. About a month after, alderman Trecothick gave the object of the amendment a new form, by moving for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the American duty on tea. But the question to go into the other orders of the day was carried by the minis- try, on this ground, that the motion exactly aimed at doing in a bill what had before been attempted in an amendment ; and that it was contradictory to a well-known rule of the house, to bring on again, in the same sessions, anything which had already received a formal negative. RIOT AT BOSTON, the anti-ministerialists soon BUT found means to renew with much greater asperity the debates on the subject of America, in consequence of some advices of a riot which of March. It has been already intimated, the departure of two of the regiments for Halifax, the spirit of turbulence and faction broke out upon several occasions. It was not, however, till the beginning of the year 1770, that any serious quarrel took place be- tween the military and the inhabitants of Boston. In a few days after the report of these transactions reached England, alderman Tre- cothick moved for copies of all narratives of any disputes or disturbances between the troops stationed in North America and the inhabitants of the colonies, to be laid before the house, with copies also of the instruc- tions sent out by administration relative to such disturbances. These papers, with a reserve of names and other particulars of material secrecy, being obtained, and read on the ninth of May, Burke took occasion thence to draw, or rather to smear over with the blackest colors of personal and political enmity, a frightful picture of the conduct of his majesty's ministers since the repeal of the stamp-act He concluded a very long and violent declamation with proposing sev- eral resolutions of censure on the late mea- sures of government with regard to the colonies. But the first of his resolutions was negatived by a majority of one hundred and ninety-seven to seventy-nine; and the rest were consigned to the like fate, without any division. A debate on the same subject in the house of lords had nearly a similar issue, the question for adjournment being had taken place at Boston in the beginning carried by sixty against twenty-six. Next day, May nineteenth, the business of the sup- that the arrival in that town of some troops, 'plies and some other matters of immediate towards the latter end of the year 1768, put! exigency being satisfactorily settled, the par- a stop to the disorders which then pre vailed .liament was prorogued with the usual corn- there, and established what might be called Aliments from the throne, and with particu- a sullen and treacherous repose, rather thanlar thanks to the commons for having jodi- a perfect tranquillity. The malcontents were'ciously provided for discharging a considera- for some time awed by superior force; butjble part of the national debt, without laying' this force being afterwards diminished by [any farther burden on his majesty's subjects. 1 The object of the bill was to make sixty years possession of any estate an effectual bar against all dormant claims and pretences whatsoever. 2 The company were also bound to lend the overplus of their revenues to government at two per ceut. NOTES TO CHAPTER X. 3 For instance, fifty members might think he ought to be ex- pelled for the North Briton ; fifty more might think so for the Essay on Woman ; and fifty more for the libellous strictures on lord Wey mouth's letter; though each of these might ac- quit him of the other accusa- tions ; whilst a hundred might entirely acquit him; and yet the three fifties joining together would expel him. 130 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XI. Another Remonstrance from the City of London ; with the King's Answer, and . ford's Reply View of Wilkes's political Career Dispute with Spain relative to Falkland Islands Proceedings of the Commons against Printers ; and Commit- ment of the Lord-Mayor, and of Alderman Oliver to the Tower BUI for disfran- chising the Members of the Christian Club at New Shoreham More Remonstrances to the Throne from the City of London Unsuccessful Attempt to enlarge Religious Liberty Act for restraining the future Marriages of the Royal FamUy Carolina Matilda falls a Victim to the Intrigues of the Queen Dowager of Denmark Changes in the British Ministry Committee of Secrecy The Embarrassments of the East India Company Charges brought against Lord Clive ; his Acquittal ; and Sui- cide Bill for Management of the East India Company's Affairs Summary of other Proceedings of the Sessions Expedition against the Caribbs in St. Vincent Alarming Events in America Measures adopted by Parliament for maintaining the Authority of Great Britain over the Colonies Proceedings of the General Con- gress at Philadelphia The Sense of the Nation taken, by dissolving the Parliament at this Juncture Dr. Franklin's conciliatory plan Petition of the City of London State of AJfairs in America Battle of Lexington Battle of Bunker's Hill Meeting and Proceedings of Congress General Washington appointed commander- in-chief- His character Expedition to Canada Forts taken Quebec besieged General Montgomery defeated and killed. CITY OF LONDON'S SECOND REMON- STRANCE, AND LORD-MAYOR BECK- FORD'S REPLY TO THE KING. AFTER having weathered so severe and stormy a season with unremitted exertions, it was natural for the ministry to expect some little interval of calmness and repose. But if they amused themselves with these fond hopes, they were very much disappoint- ed. In four days after the rising of parlia- ment, the throne was assailed with another remonstrance from the city of London, still more reprehensible than the former, con- verting an humble request into an imperi- ous dictate, and urging the dissolution of parliament and the removal of his majesty's ministers as the only means of reparation that were left for the injured electors of Great Britain. As it also contained some very disrespectful strictures on the king's answer to the late address, his majesty was again reduced to the painful necessity of declaring, that he should have been wanting to the public, as well as to himself, if he had not expressed his dissatisfaction at such an address ; and that he should ill deserve to be considered as the father of his people, if he could suffer himself to be prevailed upon to make any use of his prerogative, which he thought inconsistent with the in- terest, and dangerous to the constitution of the kingdom. Beckford, who presented the remonstrance, and who might easily foresee the manner in which it would be received, begged leave to answer the king. The re- quest, though unprecedented, was complied with, as it could not be imagined that the lord-mayor would abuse such an instance of the gracious condescension of his sove- reign. But the opportunity was too flatter- ing to Beckford's democratic pride : he re- peated the heads of the remonstrance, be- ginning, as that did, in a strain of affected humility, and concluding with this bold as- sertion, " that whoever had already dared, or should hereafter endeavor, by false insin- uations and suggestions, to alienate his ma- jesty's affections from his loyal subjects in general, and from the city of London in particular, was an enemy to his majesty's person and family, a violator of the public peace, and a betrayer of our happy con- stitution, as it was established at the glo- rious and necessary revolution." The dig- nity of the throne was well sustained by a total disregard of such presumptuous lan- guage. WTLKES DISCHARGED FROM PRISON. A LITTLE before this event, Wilkes was discharged from the king's-bench prison, the term of his confinement having expired, and securities being given for his future good behavior. The committee of " the support- ers of the bill of rights," as they called themselves, who had received subscriptions for his relief from different parts of the kingdom, and even from America (1), com- promised all his debts, which amounted to very near twenty thousand pounds, besides supplying him with a thousand pounds for his maintenance, paying off his two fines of five hundred pounds each, and defraying the expenses of his three last elections for Middlesex, which did not fall much short of GEORGE HI. 17601820. 131 two thousand pounds. But these were not the only fruits which Wilkes reaped from his audacity and impostures, as well as from the prevalence of faction, the inconceivable folly of the multitude, and the ill-timed, though highly provoked severity of govern- ment A single glance at his farther pro- gress will be sufficient to illustrate this re- mark. The week after his release from prison, he was admitted alderman of Far- rington-Without : he then rose, at very short intervals, to the honors of sheriff in 1771, and of lord-mayor in 1775 : his next care was to secure for himself the more lucra- tive and permanent office of chamberlain : in the year 1774, he and his friend serjeant Glynn were returned for Middlesex without any opposition : in 1780, he was rechosen for the same county ; and hi 1783, upon a total change of ministry, he succeeded in a motion for having all the declarations, or- ders, and resolutions of the house of com- mons respecting his former incapacity and the decision in favor of colonel Luttrell, ex- punged from the journals. The close of his political career did not prove quite so flat- tering to his vanity. When he ceased to be a supposed object of persecution, he quickly sunk, as Grenville had justly predicted, into his original insignificance. At the general election in 1790, he met with the most scorn- ful and humiliating rebuff from that very county, and those very people of whom he had been so long the idol. DISPUTES WITH SPAIN RESPECTING THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. AT this time the attention both of the public and of government was called off to the probability of a rupture with Spain. A frigate from the southern ocean, which ar- rived at Plymouth on the third of June, brought advices of a formal warning given by the Spaniards to the English to quit a settlement lately made at Falkland islands, though sanctioned by the double right of discovery and possession. These islands which are situated at a small distance from the southern extremity of America, were first observed by captain Davies in the year 1692, but did not receive their present name till the reign of William HI. They were afterwards visited by some ships belonging to St Maloes, whence they were called the Malouines by the French, rather from an impulse of national vanity, than from any conviction of the validity of their title. The rigor of the climate, the sterility of the soil, and the exposure of all the islands on that coast to almost perpetual storms even in the summer months, were such discouraging circumstances, that above a century and a half elapsed before any European nation attempted to make a settlement there. It was first remarked by lord Anson, on his return from his famous voyage round the globe in 1744, that the possession of a port to the southward of the Brazils would be of signal service to future navigators for refit- ting their ships, and providing them with necessaries, previous to their passage through the Straits of Magellan, or the doubling Cape Horn ; and among other places eligi- ble for this purpose, he specified Falkland islands. About ten years after, on his lord- ship's advancement to the head of the admi- ralty, a plan in conformity to his ideas was on the point of being carried into execution ; but strong remonstrances against it being made by the king of Spain under the old pretence of his exclusive right to all the Magellanic regions, the project, though not expressly given up, was suffered to lie dor- mant It was revived in the year 1764, under the auspices of lord Egmont,, who then presided at the admiralty board, and by whose advice commodore Anson being sent out to take possession of those islands, executed the order with the usual formali- ties; made a settlement; and erected a small fort in the vicinity of a commodious harbor, to which the name of Port Egmont was given. It happened that about the same time a settlement had also been made, and a fortress erected by the celebrated French navigator M. de Bougainville on another of those islands to the eastward of the Eng- lish settlements, under the name of St Lew- is. But in consequence of the representa- tions of the court of Madrid to the court of Versailles, this was yielded up in 1766 to the Spaniards, who changed its name to that of Port Solidad. Towards the close of the year 1769, captain Hunt of the Tamer frig- ate, cruising off the islands, fell in with a Spanish schooner belonging to Port Solidad, and, agreeably to what he conceived to be his duty, charged the commander .of the schooner to depart from that coast, as it was the property of his Britannic majesty. The schooner obeyed ; but soon returned with an officer on board, bringing with him a letter from the governor of Buenos Ayres, ad- dressed to captain Hunt, in which the gov- ernor in his turn warned the captain to de- part from a coast belonging to the king of Spain ; but on the supposition that captain Hunt's touching at these islands was merely accidental, the governor expressed his earn- est desire to show him all possible civilities. Captain Hunt in reply again asserted his sovereign's right with some warmth, and threatened to fire into the Spanish schooner, upon her attempting to enter the harbor. This produced a long altercation by letters between the captain and governor, during which two Spanish frigates, with troops on board for their settlement, arrived at Port Egmont, under pretence of wanting water. 13* The commander-in-chief wrote to captain Hunt, expressing great surprise at seeing the usual appearances of an English settle- ment there, charging him with a violation of the last peace, and protesting against the act in all its parts, at the same time declar- ing that he would abstain from any other proceeding, till he had acquainted his Cath- olic majesty with this disagreeable transac- tion. Captain Hunt repeated his former arguments on the question of right: but as soon as the Spanish frigates, after re- ceiving a supply of water, proceeded on their course, he set sail for England, in or- der to inform government of what had taken place, not thinking it advisable to run any farther risk on his own authority. Two small sloops, the Favorite, captain Maltby, and the Swift, captain Farmer, formed the whole force that remained upon the station. When Captain Hunt's advices were laid before the public, they excited no small alarm; for though the Spaniards had not made use of any hostile menaces in direct terms, yet their warning him to quit that coast was generally considered as prepa- ratory to a formal declaration of war. This opinion was farther strengthened by a va- riety of other circumstances. Spain had been for some time very attentive to put l;er West India possessions in the best pos- ture of defence, and a formidable armament was known to be fitting out at the Havan- nah. Vigorous preparations were making in the French and Spanish ports at home ; and though these might have been more im- mediately occasioned by the jealousy arising from the progress of the Russians in the Levant, they did not appear to indicate a very friendly disposition towards Great Brit- ain. A fire also which broke out at this juncture in Portsmouth dock-yard, and which in its consequences might have greatly obstructed any sudden maritime ef- forts, was looked upon as part of 'a settled plan for the ruin of the British navy. Many persons fancied they could trace in it the deep-laid design of an insidious and invete- rate enemy, whose ambition had ever been boundless, and had in general been but little restrained either by the laws of honor or of nations, when they interfered with the gratification of it In the midst of these fears and suspicions, the British government acted with great discretion, neither neglect- ing the proper means of asserting its right, nor precipitately plunging the nation into any vast or unnecessary expenses. It was resolved in the cabinet that firm, yet tempe- rate representations on the subject should be made to the court of Madrid ; and orders were in the mean time issued for the man- ning and equipment of sixteen sail of the line. HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. While things were going on in this train, the Favorite, one of the sloops which had been left at Port Egmont, arrived off the Mother-bank near Portsmouth, on the twen- ty-second of September, and brought intel- ligence, that soon after captain Hunt's de- parture, five Spanish frigates and some smaller vessels, with all the apparatus neces- sary for a regular siege, appeared before Port Egmont Captain Farmer, the com- mandant, made some preparations at first to defend the place, but finding it utterly un- tenable, submitted, after a few shots were fired, to a capitulation, by which he and the garrison were allowed to evacuate the set- tlement, and to carry with them what stores they could, the governor of Solidad being made answerable for the remainder. The Spanish commodore, not choosing however that very early intelligence of this outrage should be conveyed to England, enjoined the two captains Farmer and Maltby not to sail without his permission ; and in order to insure compliance, caused the rudder of the Favorite to be taken off and kept on shore for twenty days, when it was restored, and the sloop permitted to depart It is astonishing with what indignation the whole kingdom seemed to be inflamed at this insult on the British flag. The speech from the throne at the meeting of parlia- ment on the thirteenth of November, in- formed the nation that satisfaction for the injury had been demanded from the court of Spain; that, in case of refusal, neces- sary preparations were making to enforce the demand; and that they would not be discontinued till proper reparation was ob- tained, as well as unequivocal proof that other powers were equally sincere with his majesty in the resolution to preserve the general tranquillity of Europe. The ad- dresses of both houses on this occasion, in spite of all the efforts of faction and malev- olence, contained the most hearty approba- tion of the steps which had been taken by his majesty, with assurances of effectual support in the progress of such an import- ant affair. Supplies for the augmentation of the army and navy were cheerfully voted ; and the increase of the land-tax from three to four shillings in the pound met with no great opposition. 1771. Though the language of the Span- ish ministry, on the very first remonstrance, was condescending and pacific, yet unex- pected obstacles arose in the course of the negotiation, which rendered their sincerity somewhat questionable. As the doubts of the English cabinet on this head had greatly increased before Christmas, it was deemed advisable to adjourn parliament till the latter end of January, to allow time for de- termining the grandl question of peace or GEORGE IIL 17601820. 133 war, and that the minister might then be enabled to announce decisively on the al- ternative. Lord Weymouth having resign- ed the office of secretary of state for the southern department, the correspondence with Spain was now carried on by his suc- cessor, the earl of Rochford, whose place in the northern department was filled by lord Sandwich. But the latter being soon after removed to the head of the admiralty, in the room of Sir Edward Hawke, the sec- retaryship for the north was conferred on lord Halifax, who gave up the privy-seal to the earl of Suffolk. The great seal was taken out of commission, and given to judge Bathurst ; and de Grey was appointed chief justice of the common pleas. Some other changes took place about the same time; and several of the late Mr. Grenville's friends were introduced into office; by which the ministry gamed no inconsiderable accession of talents, as well as of numbers. But lord North was enabled to face par- liament with still more confidence, having accomplished the grand object for which the recess had been protracted to a greater length than usual. The very day the com- mons met after their adjournment, (January 22,) he informed them, that the Spanish ambassador had that morning signed a de- claration, with which his majesty was satis- fied, and which should be laid before the house. The like information was commu- nicated to the lords by the earl of Rochford. After the papers relative to this affair hac been submitted to the inspection of both houses, warm debates arose on the terms of the Spanish declaration, which the members of the opposition asserted to be inadequate and insecure, because though it contained an explicit disavowal of the violence used at Port Egmont, and an engagement to re- store everything there precisely to the state in which it was before the tenth of June 1770, it still left room for future disputes, by adding " that his Catholic majesty did not consider this restitution as anywise af- fecting the question concerning the prior right of sovereignty of the islands." But addresses of thanks and approbation were concurred in by a majority of almost three to one in the lords, and of nearly two to one in the commons. They affirmed that the atonement made for the aggression was as ample as could justly be required ; and that ministers would have been in the highest degree reprehensible, had they involved the nation in a war for the sake of so insignifi- cant an object as the reserved pretensions of Spain to one or two barren spots under a stormy sky, in a distant quarter of the globe. The possibility of a similar dispute was precluded by the total evacuation of that settlement about three years after. VOL. IV. 12 The other proceedings of parliament du- ring this session, which ended the eighth of May, afford very few subjects of inter- esting detail. The debates did not lead to any one important measure. Endeavors were used to bring the courts of law into contempt, and to spread abroad a dangerous opinion that the constitutional essence of trials was destroyed by the corruption or servility of the judges, and that the right of juries in particular to examine into the innocence or criminality of pretended libels had been restrained by illegal dictates from the bench. Public curiosity was greatly excited by an altercation on this subject, be- tween lord Cambden and lord Mansfield, in the house of peers; but after the boldest challenge given on one side, and as reso- lutely defied on the other, both parties seem- ed disposed to bury the matter in eternal silence. CONTEST BETWEEN SOME PRINTERS AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. FORMAL complaints having been made in the house of commons against two printers of public papers, Wheble and Thompson, for breach of privilege by misrepresenting the debates; they were summoned to ap- pear at the bar of the house to answer the charge. As the printers took no notice of this summons, a second order was issued and declared to be final. No more regard being paid to the second order than to the first, a motion was made and agreed to, that they should be taken into the custody of the serjeant-at-arms. But the parties having absconded, a proclamation appeared, offer- ing a reward of fifty pounds for apprehend- ing them. In the mean time, six other print- ers were, for similar offences, summoned to the bar of the house, five of whom, obeying- the summons, were reprimanded and dis- charged ; and the remaining delinquent, Millar, was ordered to be taken into custody for contempt of the notice given him. Wheble being apprehended in consequence of the proclamation, and carried before Wilkes, the sitting alderman at Guildhall, was discharged, and bound over to prose- cute the person who apprehended him. Thompson also was apprehended, and dis- charged in the same manner by alderman Oliver. Millar, being taken into custody by the messenger of the house of commons at his own dwelling, was carried before the lord-mayor (Brass Crosby) and the aldermen Wilkes and Oliver at the Mansion-house. The deputy serjeant-at-arms attending to demand the prisoner, the legality of the warrant was denied, and the printer not only discharged, but the messenger of the touse, on pretence of a false arrest, ordered to be committed to prison, in default of bail, which was at first refused, but at length re- 134 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. luctantly given. The thanks of the corpo- ration of London were voted to the three magistrates; but two of them, the lord- mayor and alderman Oliver, being members of the house of commons, incurred its se- verest censure for such a daring opposition to its authority. Every part of their pro- ceedings was voted to be a breach of privi- lege : the lord-mayor's clerk, having attend- ed with the minute-book, was obliged to erase the recognisance of Whittam, the messenger ; and, after several hearings on the subject, the two magistrates, instead of concession or apology, resolutely persisting in the justice of their conduct, they were committed prisoners to the Tower. Wilkes had also been ordered to appear at the bar of the house ; but in a letter which he ad- dressed to the speaker, he said he could at- tend only in his place as member for Mid- dlesex. The house, unwilling to give him fresh consequence by a renewal of former severities, ordered another summons for the eighth of April, and at the same time ap- pointed the ninth as the first day of meet- ing after the Easter recess. The lord- mayor and Oliver remained in the Tower till the rising of parliament, when their lib- eration was celebrated by the tumultuous rejoicings of the populace. Among the bills that received the royal assent on the last day of the session, there were two which particularly engaged the attention of the public. One was a bill for disfranchising several electors of New Shore- ham in Sussex, and for extending the right of voting to the contiguous hundreds. It appeared in evidence before the select com- mittee, appointed under the Grenville act to try the merits of the late election for this borough, that a great number of the free- men had formed themselves into a society, under the name of ' the Christian Club.' This Christian club, notwithstanding its pious appellation, was no better than a mart of venality. A junto was appointed to dis- pose of the borough to the highest bidder. These agents of corruption did not vote themselves, but gave the necessary orders to the rest of the society ; and after the election was decided, the profits were sharec equally amongst the whole. The spiritua and constitutional tendency of the bill for incapacitating all the members of such an infamous club were highly and deservedly applauded. CITY OF LONDON'S THIRD AND FOURTH REMONSTRANCES TO THE KING. AT that period, the freemen of London seemed to have suspended all exercise of their own will, as well as of their own rea- son; and while they flattered themselves with the idea of setting an example of pub- lic spirit to the whole kingdom, they were n fact the abject, senseless tools of a few actious demagogues. After Mr. Beckford'e leath,Crosby,Sawbridge,Townsend,Wilkes, and Oliver succeeded to the ostensible di- rection of all the city proceedings. In the irst month of Crosby's mayoralty, another remonstrance in the usual strain, and the third of the kind delivered the same year, was agreed to, chiefly through alderman Sawbridge's persuasions. It was little more than the renewal of the former complaints and the former requests, accompanied with a very humble hint, " that the good effects of his majesty's innate goodness had been ntercepted by a fatal conspiracy of malevo- ent influence round the throne." His ma- jesty, however, told the remonstrants, " that ic could not comply with the prayer of their petition, as he had no reason to alter the opinion expressed in his answer to their last addresses on the subject." The beginning of Crosby's mayoralty was distinguished by another strong proof of disaffection to gov- ernment Though the manning of the navy, on the eve of an expected rupture with Spain, was the first and most important con- cern of the state, he refused to back the press-warrants issued for that purpose ; and sought to screen himself from the indigna- tion of all real friends to their country, by alleging that the ready concurrence of his official predecessors in the like measures did not remove his doubts of the legality of the practice, and that the city-bounty for the encouragement of seamen was intended to prevent such violences. Alderman Wilkes had just before discharged an impressed man ; and this at a time when " the rotten condition of the navy, the defenceless state of the British dominions, and the inevitable necessity of going to war," under all these disadvantages, were the constant themes of seditious declaimers. The affair of the printers afforded the lord-mayor a fresh op- portunity of holding himself out as the champion of the city charters. During the debates in parliament on his and Oliver's conduct, all the avenues to the house were frequently crowded with turbulent mobs, and the lives of several of the ministry were endangered. After the commitment of the two delinquents to the Tower, writs of ha- beas corpus were obtained for them, merely to flatter their vanity by triumphal or rather riotous processions to and from Westminster hall, not with any hope of their being dis- charged by the judges, as it was well known that no court of law could interfere with the constitutional authority of the house of com- mons over its own members. Their release from the Tower, at the close of the session, was celebrated, as before observed, by acts of outrage; and at the Midsummer elec- tion of sheriffs, the ductile citizens were GEORGE IIL 17601820. 135 easily induced to give their assent to a fourth remonstrance, recapitulating the old griev- ances ; charging the house of commons with some new acts of " enormous wicked- ness and injustice," particularly the impris- onment of the two city magistrates, the erasure of Whittam's recognisance, and the embankment at Durham Yard ; and praying for the speedy dissolution of parliament, and for the removal of his majesty's "wicked and despotic ministers." The framers of this remonstrance wished to provoke, if pos- sible, some singular asperity of reply from the throne ; and it was intended that all the livery should go along with the lord-mayor to deliver it. But neither of these schemes succeeded. On the ninth of July, the day before his lordship was to proceed at the head of the livery to St. James's, he receiv- ed notice from the lord-chamberlain, that it being unprecedented as well as impractica- ble to introduce so numerous a body, no per- son beyond the number allowed by law could be admitted ; and when his lordship, with the usual attendants, presented the re- monstrance next day, they were totally dis- concerted by the cool and dignified firmness of his majesty's answer. " I shall ever be ready," said he, " to exert my prerogative, as far as I can constitutionally, in redressing any real grievances of my subjects ; and the city of London will always find me disposed to listen to any of their well-founded com- plaints ; it is therefore with concern that I see a part of my subjects still so far misled and deluded, as to renew, in such reprehen- sible terms, a request, with which, I have repeatedly declared, I cannot comply." All those desperate efforts of designing men served only to increase the harmony and to cement the union of the members of administration. No change took place in any of the public departments except those that proceeded from the death of the earl of Halifax, and of lord Strange, both of which happened nearly at the same time, and not long after the rising of parliament. In con- sequence of the former of these events, the earl of Suffolk was appointed secretary of state for the northern department, in the room of the earl of Halifax ; and the duke of Grafton, returning into office, accepted of the privy-seal. Lord Hyde succeeded lord Strange as chancellor of the dutchy of Lan- caster. Everything seemed now to promise ministry both tranquillity and permanence. The storm of faction had in a great measure spent its rage ; and though some petty at- tempts were made by Wilkes and his asso- ciates to blow up once more the spirit of discontent, it soon subsided in a profound calm. A favorable harvest ; the flourishing state of arts and commerce ; an exemption from the calamities of war, pestilence and famine, which then laid waste many other parts of Europe ; in short, the union of plen- ty, peace, security, and true liberty, could not but reconcile the people of England to a government under which they enjoyed so many blessings. The only allay of this na- tional happiness was towards the end of the year, in consequence of very heavy rains which fell in November, and which occa- sioned, particularly in the northern counties, a more terrible inundation than had been experienced there within the memory of man. A detail of its ravages would serve only to excite the most painful emotions. It is enough to say that Northumberland, Cum- berland, and Westmoreland exhibited for a few days nothing but scenes of distress and horror. The usual characteristic humanity of the British nation was exerted in afford- ing relief to the sufferers. 1772. As there was no urgent business which required an early attendance, the prorogation of parliament was extended to the twenty-first of January, when they were informed, in a speech from the throne, that the king of Spain's performance of his en- gagement in restoring Port Egmont and Falkland island, and the assurances receiv- ed of the pacific disposition of that court, as well as of other powers, afforded such a prospect of the continuance of a peace, that both houses would be "at liberty to give their whole attention to the establishment of wise and useful regulations of law, and to the extension of our commercial advan- tages." The propriety of maintaining a re- spectable establishment of naval forces was at the same tune suggested ; but great plea- sure was expressed at finding, that there would be no necessity to ask any extraordi- nary aid for that purpose. Though the ad- dresses in both houses were carried unani- mously ; yet, when a motion was made in the commons, that twenty-five thousand sea- men should be voted for the service of the current year, it was opposed under the pre- tence of inconsistency on the part of the ministers, who accompanied a speech, which breathed nothing but effusions of peace, with all the actual preparations for a war. But after a short debate, the house agreed to the motion without a division. Parliament was not inattentive to the other objects which the king had pointed out in general terms. They also entered upon the consideration of the East India af- fairs ; and as these were of the utmost in- tricacy and magnitude, it was deemed ad- visable to appoint a select committee of thir- ty-one members, chosen by ballot, to inquire into, and make a faithful report of the late alarming mismanagement and actual state of the company's concerns, to present to parliament a comprehensive view of the ex- 136 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. istence and extent of the evils, and thereby to enable them in their deliberate wisdom to apply an effectual remedy. The sittings of the committee were continued during the summer. PKTITION AGAINST THE 39 ARTICLES. SOME attempts were made in the course of the session to enlarge the sphere of reli- gious liberty ; but upon such vague and con- tradictory principles as defeated the possi- bility of their success. The first was a pe- tition from certain clergymen of the estab- lished church, and certain members of the professions of civil law and physic, who prayed to be relieved from subscription to the thirty-nine articles. The former laid bold claims to the inherent right, which, they said, they held from God alone, to make a full and free use of their private judg- ment in the interpretation of the scriptures ; and they farther asserted, that the necessity imposed on them of acknowledging particu- lar confessions of faith and doctrine, drawn up by fallible men, was an infringement of that right, and a deviation from the liberal and original principles of the church of England : the latter stated, with more mod- esty, the hardship of being obliged, for the purpose of obtaining degrees in their re- spective faculties, to declare their solemn assent to theological tenets, which the course of their studies had not led them to exam- ine, and upon which their private opinions could be of no consequence to society. The petition was rejected by a majority of 217 against 71 ; and for the plainest reasons. The clergy could not complain, as not being obliged to accept of bom-tins contrary to their conscience ; and if scrdples arose af- terwards, they had it always in their power to relinquish their preferments. Every man was at liberty to interpret the scripture for his own private use ; but his being author- ized to do so for others was a matter of a very different nature. All governments had a right to establish such a system of public instruction as should approve itself most conducive to the general good ; and it was rKvp-'s-iry th.-it those, who were to become teachers of the people, should be subjected to some test of their conformity and union. The danger of innovations was also suggest- ed, and that, as civil disputes had lately run hinrh, it would be very impolitic to give any opportunity of increasing them by lighting up the flames of religious controversy. It seemed, however, to be the general wish, that the universities would grant relief to the professors of law and physic, in the mat- ters they complained of; though parliament did not think proper to interfere. Several favorable sentiments were also thrown out in the debate with regard to the dissenting ministers, and some concern was expressed for the hardships they suffered, in being obliged, under severe penalties, to subscribe the articles of a church to which they did not belong, and from which they sought neither promotion nor emolument. So in- viting an opportunity was not neglected by the friends of the dissenters. Leave having been obtained to bring in a bill for their re- lief, it was carried through the house of commons without a division, the number of those who spoke against it by no means corresponding with their zeal. But it was thrown out, on the second reading in the house of lords, by a majority of almost four to one, who considered the thirty-nine ar- ticles as the grand palladium on which the civil as well as ecclesiastical government of the kingdom depended. ROYAL MARRIAGE ACT. AMONG the acts passed this session there was one which made a great deal of noise, from the circumstances that gave rise to it, and from its being strenuously opposed in every stage of its progress through both houses. This was the act for regulating the future marriages of the royal family. It had its origin in the marriage contracted but a few months before by the duke of Cumber- land with Mrs. Horton, relict of colonel Horton and daughter of lord Irnham. A private, though long-suspected marriage of the duke of Gloucester to the countess dowager of Waldegrave, might also have operated on the king's mind, to recommend, by a particular message, the consideration of this subject to parliament. The dishonor reflected on the crown by unsuitable al- liances, and former experience of the great evils arising from them, rendered the pro- priety of some restraints very evident ; but it was alleged that they were carried too far in the new act, by being extended to all the descendants of George II. who might in time comprehend a very numerous description of people. According to the provisions of this act, the marriages contracted by the royal family, from the time of its having passed, are declared null and void, unless the pre- vious approbation of his majesty be obtained ; but in case the parties shall have attained the age of twenty-five years, and give no- tice to the privy-council of their intention of marriage, such marriage shall be held good in law, unless the parliament shall within the space of twelve months declare its disapprobation of the same. DEATH OF THE KING'S MOTHER AND SISTER. WHATEVER uneasiness the king felt at the disrespectful behavior of both his brothers in marrying without his consent, some other events of a family nature soon after took place, which were to him a source of much keener concern and reflection. His amiable GEORGE IIL 17601820. 137 mother, the princess dowager of Wales, died on the eighth of February ; and his sis- ter, the queen of Denmark, had a few days before fallen a victim to the intrigues and boundless ambition of her husband's mother- in-law. This artful woman, eagerly bent on securing, if possible, the succession for her own son, the king's half-brother, left no means untried to alienate the affections of the royal pair from each other. But these attempts not answering her purpose, she en- tered into more desperate schemes, in con- cert with some discarded placemen ; and at length, by the combined efforts of fraud and force, she brought about a revolution at the court of Copenhagen on the sixteenth of January. Under the sanction of a warrant, compulsorily obtained from the king, counts Struensee and Brandt, his chief ministers, were thrown into a dungeon; and the young queen was committed close prisoner to the castle of Cronenburgh. They were charged with a conspiracy to force the king to sign an act of renunciation, and to establish a re- gency, by which the government was to be lodged in the hands of the young queen and the two favorites. The latter suffered on a scaffold about three months after ; but the queen was allowed, through the powerful interposition of England, to retire from the Danish dominions. She and her attendants were conveyed to Germany by a small squad- ron of frigates under the command of cap- tain M'Bride ; and she took up her residence at Zell in the electorate of Hanover, where she died of a malignant fever on the tenth of May 1775, not having then completed the twenty-fourth year of her age. Her enemies, though so far successful, did not accomplish their ultimate object They had propagated scandalous reports of her amours with Struensee ; yet were afraid to question the legitimacy of her issue. In the year 1784, they were all dismissed from office ; and a new council was formed under the auspices of the prince royal, who was now grown up to assert his own rights, and to vindicate his injured mother's honor. While the political system of Europe seemed to be convulsed by the dismember- ment of Poland, no changes took place in the British administration which could either affect its internal strength, or outward con- duct Lord Hillsborough, indeed, resigned his office of secretary of state for the Ameri- can department in August, together with his seat at the head of the board of trade, both of which were bestowed on the earl of Dart- mouth. The resignation was not, however, the effect of any difference with the court, the former nobleman having quitted his places in great good-humor, and being im- mediately after promoted to an English earl- dom. Lord Stormont, the earl of Mansfield's 12* nephew, was appointed ambassador extraor- dinary at the court of Versailles, in the room of the earl of Harcourt, who succeeded lord Townshend in the government of Ireland ; and the services of the latter were rewarded with the master generalship of the ordnance. The death of the earl of Albemarle afforded an opportunity for promoting general Con- way to the government of the island of Jer- sey ; and Sir Jeffrey Amherst, who succeed- ed him as lieutenant-general of the ordnance, was soon afterwards called to the privy- council. A few promotions were also oc- casioned by the death of the earl of Litch- field. Lord North was soon elected chan- cellor of the university of Oxford ; Mr. Jenkinson succeeded to the joint vice-trea- surership of Ireland, and thereby made a vacancy at the treasury board in England for Fox. It is almost unnecessary to add, that no part of this arrangement indicated the least prevalence of -disunion or intrigue in the cabinet EAST INDIA COMPANY'S AFFAIRS. 1773. BOTH houses of parliament, which had been prorogued the tenth of June, met again on the twenty-sixth of November, to resume, at the king's very earnest desire, the consideration of the East India company's affairs, by the revival, or rather continuance of the select committee ; the appointment of another committee of thirteen members, under the name of the committee of secre- cy, for the purpose of more accurately in- vestigating the various sources of the com- pany's misfortunes, without any unnecessary exposure of them to the world ; and an act to restrain the company for a limited time from sending out supervisors, a measure which then appeared to be equally expen- sive and useless. The objects of inquiry were so various and of so great an extent, that a complete body of information could not be laid before the house till the month of April. But the exigencies of the com- pany requiring immediate relief, and a peti- tion for that purpose being presented to par- liament in the beginning of March, lord North brought forward several resolutions in the course of the month, which were successively agreed to. A loan of one mil- lion four hundred thousand pounds was voted to the company, to save them from a situa- tion little short of absolute bankruptcy ; and, in order to prevent the like disasters from befalling them in future, certain terms were annexed to the loan, on this plain principle, that every creditor, who parts with his money to any applicant, has an undoubted right to insist upon particular conditions, previous to his acquiescence in the request. According to these ideas, it was resolved, that the company's dividend should be re- stricted to six per cent, until the repayment 138 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of the sum advanced, and that the company be allowed to divide no more than seven per cent until the reduction of their bond debt to a million and a hal A few days after, it was moved and carried by the minister, that it was the opinion of the house, it would be more beneficial to the public and to the East India company to let the territorial ac- quisitions remain in the possession of the company for a limited time, not to exceed the term of six years, their charter expiring about that period ; that no participation of the profits should take place between the public and the company before the above stipulated repayment of the loan, and reduc- tion of the bond debt; that after these points were settled, three-fourths of the net surplus profits of the company above the sum of eight per cent, upon their capital stock, should be paid into the exchequer for the use of the public, the other fourth being set apart either for farther reducing the com- pany's bond debt, or by way of provision for future contingencies ; and that, as the com- pany had in their warehouse a stock of teas, amounting to about seventeen millions of pounds, which it would be greatly to their ad- vantage to convert into money, they should be allowed to export any quantities of it duty free. The company remonstrated against the hardship of some of these stipu- lations, particularly the limitation of their dividend after the discharge of the loan, the future disposal of their net profits, and, above all, the implied decision against then- right to terrritorial acquisitions. But their remonstrances had no weight with parlia- ment: the loan bill passed without the smallest change in any one article; and such was the indignation of the public at the enormous oppressions committed under the name, if not by the express authority of the company, that little compassion or sympathy was excited by the loudness of their exclamations and complaints in this day of their humiliation and distress. As it may appear inconceivable how the company could be precipitated, in the short period which elapsed since the year 1765, from the height of prosperity to a state of em- barrassment bordering upon ruin, a transient review of the principalteauses will be neces- sary to explain the paradox. Soon after the treaty concluded by lord Clive at Eliabad, pernicious monopolies were established by the company's servants in all the newly- acquired provinces ; and as if the exclusive purchase and sale of every article of gene- ral consumption in India was not sufficient to satisfy their avarice, the presidency of Calcutta devised another scheme of legal plunder, which was to declare void at once all the leases held under the government on very low terms by the zemidars and polygars, who constitute the great landed interest of the country. The pretext for this was, that many of these leases had been collusively obtained ; and it was said, that impartiality required they should be now relet without distinction to the high- est bidder. By these means the natives were impoverished ; immense fortunes were made by their oppressors ; but the aggregate receipts of the company's treasury alarm- ingly decreased. As the opulence of Ben- gal, however great, depended solely upon the labor and industry of the people, upon commerce, manufactures, and agriculture, it is evident that these could not long flourish under the baneful influence of ra- pacity. The governing rule of trade pursued by the company's servants was to reduce to the lowest extreme of depression the price in the purchase, and to enhance it in the same extravagant degree in the sale. This discouraged the artisan and manufacturer from going to work, and others from buying anything but what was of absolute necessity. The situation of the farmers and husband- men was still more hopeless : they planted in doubt, and reaped in uncertainty. A large proportion of the land was of course left un- tilled ; and this co-operating with a drought in the year 1769, occasioned a general scarcity of provisions, particularly of rice, the great staple of Indian sustenance. It was also said, that some of the monopolists had exerted their power and their foresight in collecting the scanty supplies into stores ; so that the poor Gentoos had no alternative left them but to part with the small remains of their property or to perish with hunger. It is certain that a dreadful famine, and the plague, its usual concomitant, carried off in the year 1770 very nearly a fourth part of the entire population of Bengal, or about three millions of unfortunate victims. To these calamities were added the distressing effects of the war with Hyder Ally, wan- tonly entered into and shamefully conduct- ed, to gratify the interested views of indi- viduals. In such circumstances, it cannot be deemed wonderful, especially when the great increase of the civil and military es- tablishments in India, and the annual con- tribution to the public expenditure at home, are taken into the account, that the dis- bursements of the company should far ex- ceed the amount of their revenues, and bring them, in a few years, to the verge of bankruptcy. RKPORT OF A COMMITTEE. IN the reports of the select committee, many other scenes of shocking cruelty were unfolded to public view. The detail would be endless ; but a general idea of their na- ture may be formed from the words of the chairman, who declared, " that, through the GEORGE m. 17601820. 139 whole investigation, he could not find a single sound spot whereon to lay his finger, it being all equally one mass of the most unheard-of villanies, and the most notorious corruption." Heavy charges were brought against several of the company's servants, and particularly against lord Clive, who, it was affirmed, had acquired a princely for- tune by rapine, extortion, treachery, and murder. But when a vote of censure on his conduct was moved in the house of com- mons, it was negatived by a large majority, in opposition to the minister; and an end was put to the inquiry. A deep impression was nevertheless made upon the mind of the accused nobleman by the notoriety of some of the facts, and by the odium which from that time attached itself to his char- acter. After a few years passed in a state of wretchedness and despondency, he put a voluntary period to his life, by this melan- choly catastrophe demonstrating to mankind the vanity of human pursuits and wishes, and the infinite superiority of conscious vir- tue to all the gifts of fame and fortune. BILL FOR BETTER MANAGEMENT OF INDIA AFFAIRS. THE minister, though left in a minority when he supported a motion which led to the impeachment of individuals, found both houses ready to concur in any general plan of reform which might happily prevent the repetition of the like crimes, and the return of similar calamities. With this view a bill was brought hi for the better manage- ment of the company's affairs as well in In- dia as in Europe ; of which the chief pro- visions were, "that the court of directors should in future be chosen for the term of four years, instead of being elected annually, six members vacating their seats each year ; that the qualification for voting should be raised from five hundred to one thousand pounds capital stock, and the time of previ- ous possession be extended from six months to twelve ; that the jurisdiction of the mayor's court at Calcutta be confined to mercantile causes, and a new supreme court of judicature be established in India, con- sisting of a chief-justice and three puisne judges appointed by the king ; and lastly, that a superiority over the other presiden- cies be given to the presidency of Bengal, the blanks for the names of the members, including the governor and council, being filled up at the time by parliament, and the removal of those officers, as well as a nega- tive on the future nomination of the com- pany, being vested in the crown." It was strongly urged by the minister, in support of those material changes of the old system, that the annual election of directors made them too dependent on their constituents to form any connected plans, or to adopt any resolute measures: that the term of six months was too short for a qualification to vote, as it did not preclude temporary pur- chases of stock, merely for that purpose, and that so small a share as five hundred pounds was .not a sufficient interest in the company, to entitle the holder to a privilege, the abuse of which might be fatal to the whole body : that the contraction of powers in the mayor's court at Calcutta was only reducing its jurisdiction within the circle to which it had been originally confined; and that it was a court of merchants rnd traders, and therefore incompetent to the trial of the many great, momentous, and complicated matters arising from the vast extent of territorial acquisitions; that for these reasons, the erection of a new judi- cature was absolutely necessary, and that the appointment of the judges by the crown, emphatically called the fountain of justice, was not only proper, but indispensable, to give a due weight and consequence to their decisions : that the proposed superiority of one presidency over the rest was not to interfere with their peculiar or internal regulations, but related only to those great objects of general concern, war, peace, and alliances, in deciding on which the exercise of equal and separate powers had frequently been productive of much disorder and con- fusion ; and that the most effectual check on the abuse of the civil and military au- thority which was thus centered in the presidency of Bengal, would be to make the nomination as well as removal of the mem- bers dependent on the will of the legislature. Petitions against this bill were presented from the city of London, from the East In- dia company, and from the proprietors of five hundred pounds stock'; but without effect. After long and frequently renewed debates, it was carried through the house of commons by a majority of six to one ; and in the house of lords, on the final division, the numbers were 74 to 17. PROCEEDINGS OF THE HOUSE OF COM- MONS. THE other proceedings of this session make but little figure, when compared with the magnitude and importance of the East India business. A few of them, however, deserve some notice. The harvest of the year 1772 not having been so productive as to lower the high price of corn in England, and a dreadful scarcity still continuing in other parts of Europe, the attention of par- liament was directed to the distresses of the poor by the speech from the throne ; and the renewal of the provision bills was among the first measures that received the sanction of the legislature. The fraudulent diminu- tion of the gold coin, an enormity which had been carried to the most dangerous ex- 140 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. cess, for which parliament at this time en- deavored to provide a remedy ; and though the act for calling in light gold, and regu- lating its value by its weight, was loudly exclaimed against, especially by bankers, who were obliged to hold money for others, and had received it at its nominal value, yet the loss fell where it could best be borne, upon those who had been gainers by the situation which occasioned it, and who had always profited by the public money. A tax on the nation to make good the deficiency would have opened a door for very gross impositions. Attempts for obtaining an en- largement of the toleration act, and the abolition of all tests at the time of being matriculated or admitted a member of either of the universities, were renewed, but with no better success than in the last session : parliament declined interfering in the regu- lations, which the universities were fully empowered to make for the government of their own body ; and the plan of more liberal indulgence to the dissenters, though it again passed the house of commons by a great majority, was again rejected by the lords. It was almost impossible that any new argu- ments could be urged on so trite a subject ; but the suggestions of former speakers and writers were enforced with all the variety of illustration which judgment and genius could superadd to them. Some very ani- mated and eloquent debates were also occa- sioned by a late expedition against the Caribbs in the island of St. Vincent. A few of these were descended from the original possessors; but the greater part were the offspring of some African negroes who had been shipwrecked on the coast about a cen- tury before. These two tribes of savages were scattered in huts over the most fertile and valuable part of the country, of which they had only cleared a few little spots, suf- fering the rest to lie covered with wood, uncultivated and unoccupied, without any benefit to others, or to themselves. Soon after the cession of the island to Great Brit- ain, in consequence of the peace hi 1763, repeated applications were made to govern- ment by the English settlers, to obtain from those people the lands, of which they were in fact but the nominal owners, in exchange for another quarter of the island, less sus- ceptible of culture, but as comfortable for their habitation, and as convenient for the support of savage life, as that which they now possessed. Proper instructions for this purpose were accordingly issued by the board of treasury in the year 1768 ; but the Caribbs obstinately refused to part with their lands, to admit of any exchange, or even to ac- knowledge submission to the government that held out to them offers of full compen- sation and security. After every effort of entreaty and persuasion had been tried in vain, it was at length deemed necessary, in the summer of 1772, to order two regi- ments from North America to join an equal number of troops at St. Vincent's, and to co- operate with the fleet on that station in reducing the refractory savages to obedience. At this period an inquiry was instituted in the house of commons respecting the whole business ; and motions were made conveying the severest censure on the ministry for adopting measures, which were said to be " equally repugnant to the humanity of his majesty's temper, disgraceful to his arms, and derogatory to the character of the British nation." These charges were answered with ability : the motions were negatived ; and, about the same time, [Feb. 17th] the expedition, which gave birth to the inquiry, was also terminated. The Caribbs, after some fierce encounters, agreed to acknow- ledge his majesty's sovereignty without re- serve ; to take an oath of fidelity and alle- giance ; to submit to the laws of the island in all transactions with the white inhabit- ants, while they were allowed to adhere to their own customs and usages in their inter- course with each other ; and to cede a large tract of very valuable land to the crown, the districts which they still retained being secured in perpetuity to them and to their posterity. Both houses of parliament continued their deliberations till the first of July, when an end was put to the session by a speech from the throne, expressing the utmost satisfac- tion at their zeal, assiduity, and perseverance. His majesty had, the preceding week, afford- ed the highest gratification to a considerable number of his subjects by a review of the navy at Portsmouth. The resort of company there during the royal visit was unparal- leled ; and his majesty left behind him lasting impressions of his benignity and munifi- cence. The remainder of the year rolled away without any remarkable domestic oc- currences ; but the events of the same period in America were very alarming. INCREASING DISCONTENT IN AMERICA. THE repeal of the other port duties, while that on tea was continued, had not produced all the good effects which were expected from such a concession. The provincial assemblies persisted in disavowing his ma- jesty's right to keep commissioners of the customs, or to establish any revenue in North America. A lately-adopted measure of ap- pointing the governors and judges of the colonies to be paid by the crown was another source of much discontent. Still, however, the ill-humor of the people seemed to vent itself in angry complaints ; and no act of outrage had taken place for the last three years, except the burning of an armed GEORGE HI. 17601820. 141 schooner at Rhode Island in June 1772. Even this was not occasioned hy any popular tumult : it was the momentary impulse of revenge inflicted by a party of smugglers on the commander of that vessel, who had made himself obnoxious by his zeal and vigilance in the execution of the revenue laws. But, in the summer of the current year, an extraordinary accident served to blow into a flame the unsmothered embers of sedition in Massachusete Bay. Dr. Franklin, the agent for that province, had by some unknown means got possession of certain confidential letters written by the governor and the lieutenant-governor to then* friends in England, containing an unfavorable repre- sentation of the temper of the people, and the views of the leaders, and tending to show the necessity of more vigorous mea- sures in order to secure the obedience of the colony. These letters were immediately transmitted by the doctor to the assembly then sitting at Boston, who came to several violent resolutions, which they followed up by a petition and remonstrance to the king, charging Hutchinson the governor, and Oli- ver his deputy, with being betrayers of their trusts and of the people they governed, and praying for justice against them and for their speedy removal (2). Fresh fuel was soon after thrown into the blaze of animosity excited by the publication of the letters. The East India company having, in pursu- ance of the act for permitting the exporta- tion of teas duty free, consigned large quantities to their agents in the principal ports of America, the factious leaders there easily persuaded the people, that this was a scheme calculated merely to circumvent them into a compliance with the revenue law, and thereby open the door to an unlim- ited taxation. Meetings were held, first at Philadelphia, and afterwards in several other towns, where resolutions were passed de- claring " this new ministerial plan of import- ation to be a violent attack upon the liberties of America," and pronouncing it to be " the duty of every American to oppose this at- tempt ; and that whoever should directly or indirectly countenance it was an enemy to his country." The consignees were obliged in most places to relinquish their appoint- ments ; and among other inflammatory pa- pers then circulated throughout the colonies, a warning was given to the pilots on the river Delaware " not to conduct any of the tea ships into their harbor, as they were sent only for the purpose of enslaving and poison- ing all the Americans." In a similar publi- cation at New- York, those ships were said to be " freighted with fetters forged in Great Britain ;" and every vengeance was denounc- ed against all persons, " who should dare in any manner to contribute to the introduction of such chains." The landing of the tea was everywhere violently resisted ; and sev- eral of the ships returned to England with- out breaking bulk. At Charlestown, after much opposition and tumult, a cargo was permitted to be unloaded, but was immedi- ately lodged in damp unventilated cellars, where it long remained, and finally perished. Some was also landed at New-York under the cannon of a man-of-war; but the govern- ment there were forced to consent to its being locked up from use. But at Boston the riots, even before the arrival of the ships, rose to a height which made the excesses committed elsewhere appear trivial. The populace surrounded the houses of the con- signees and demanded their resignation, which not being complied with, their doors and windows were broken, and they them- selves narrowly escaped the fury of the mob by flying from the town and taking shelter in Fort William. In vain did the governor issue a proclamation commanding the civil magistrates to suppress the riots : the sheriff was insulted for attempting to read it at one of the illegal meetings in the town-hall. As soon as the ships arrived, the inhabitants met again, and with loud acclamations testified their concurrence in a vote, " that the tea should not be landed, and that it should be sent back in the same bottoms." But clear- ances from the custom-house, and a pass from the governor, being refused, an immense crowd repaired to the quay in the evening of the eighteenth of December, and a num- ber of the most resolute, in the disguise of Mohawk Indians, boarded the vessels, and discharged then" cargoes into the sea. 1774. The ministry not being in posses- sion of these facts at the meeting of the par- liament on the thirteenth of January, no mention was made of American affairs in the speech from the throne ; but on the sev- enth of March, a message was delivered from his majesty to both houses, informing- them, " that, in consequence of the unwar- rantable practices carried on in North Ame- rica, and particularly of the violent and outrageous proceedings at Boston, with a view of obstructing the commerce of this kingdom, and upon grounds and pretences immediately subversive of its constitution, it was thought fit to lay the whole matter before parliament" recommending to their serious consideration ". what farther regula- tions or permanent provisions might be ne- cessary to be established." This message was accompanied by a great number of pa- pers, which sufficiently showed the daring and seditions spirit that now prevailed all over the continent In the address of thanks [or these communications, the house assured his majesty, "that they would not fail to exert every means in their power of effectu- 142 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ally providing for the due execution of the laws, and securing the just dependence of the colonies on the crown and parliament of Great Britain." The first step taken to accomplish so desirable an end was the in- troduction of a bill, which was rapidly and almost unanimously carried through both houses, for shutting up the port of Boston, and prohibiting the lading or unlading of all goods or merchandise at any place within its precincts, from and after the first of June, until it should appear to his majesty that peace and obedience to the laws were so far restored in the town of Boston that trade might again be safely carried on, and his majesty's customs be duly collected ; in which case his majesty might by proclama- tion open the harbor ; but not till it should also sufficiently appear, that full compensa- tion had been made to the East India com- pany for the destruction of their tea, and to all others who had suffered by the kte riots. The board of customs was, in the mean time, to be removed to the town of Salem. But as the prevention of future enormities was an object of still greater importance than the punishment of those which were past, and as the latter seemed greatly owing to the weakness of the civil power in the colony of Massachusets Bay and to other radical defects in the frame of their govern- ment, it _was now proposed to assimilate their constitution more nearly to that of the royal governments in America, and to their prototype the government of Great Britain. For this purpose an act was passed to de- prive the lower house of assembly of the privilege of electing the members of the council, and to vest that privilege in the crown ; to authorize the king, or his substi- tute the governor, to appoint judges, magis- trates, and sheriffs ; to empower the sheriffs to summon and return juries ; and to pro- hibit town meetings from being called by the select-men, unless with the consent of the governor. Such a restraint was deemed necessary, not only to suppress the spirit of faction in the province itself but to prevent the rest of the colonies from being tainted by its seditious example. The next expe- dient was a bill for the impartial adminis- tration of justice in Massachusets Bay, em- powering the governor, with the advice of the council, in case any person was indict- ed in that province for murder or any other capital offence, and it should appear by in- formation on oath that the fact had been committed in the exercise or aid of magis- tracy in suppressing riots, and that a fair trial could not be had in the province, to send the person so indicted into any other colony, or to Great Britain, to be tried ; the act to continue in force four years. The opposition made to these bills, in their pro- gress through both houses, was equally im- potent and unpopular ; but another act that followed them, for making more effectual provision for the government of the province of Quebec, was violently opposed within doors, and excited much clamor without. The objects of this act were, to secure to the inhabitants of that province the free exercise of their religion, and to the Roman Catholic clergy their rights, agreeably to the articles of capitulation at the time of the surrender of the province ; to confirm the English laws, and a trial by jury in criminal cases, but, in civil cases, to restore the an- cient French laws and a trial without jury, as being more acceptable to the Canadians ; to establish a council, holding their com- missions from and at the pleasure of the king, who were to exercise all the powers of legislation, except that of imposing taxes ; and lastly to extend the limits of the province, which, reaching far to the south- ward behind the other settlements, might be made to serve as a check upon them if ne- cessary. A GENERAL CONGRESS CALLED AT PHILADELPHIA. SUCH were the principal measures adopted this session by the British parliament for maintaining the authority of the mother country over the colonies. Four ships of the line had also been fitted out for Boston ; and as a military force might in like man- ner be necessary to reduce its disorderly inhabitants to obedience, an act was passed to provide commodious quarters for officers and soldiers on that service; and general Gage, commander-in-chief in America, was appointed governor of Massachusets Bay, in the room of Mr. Hutchinson, who had de- sired leave to come to England. The gen- eral was farther invested with full powers to grant pardons for treasons and all other crimes, and to remit all fines and forfeitures to such offenders as should appear to be fit objects of mercy. But the people of Bos- ton did not seem disposed to court his lenity or indulgence. Having just received intel- ligence of the bill for shutting up their port, they were all convened to take it into con- sideration, the very day after the new gov- ernor's arrival. At this meeting, resolutions were passed, and ordered to be transmitted to the other colonies, inviting them to enter into an agreement to stop all imports and exports to and from Great Britain, Ireland, and every part of the West Indies, as the only means, they said, that were left for the salvation of North America and her liber- ties. Copies of the act were also multiplied with the utmost dispatch, and sent to every part of the continent, where they produced the same effects as poets ascribe to the Fu- ry's torch, setting all the countries through GEORGE HI. 17601820. 143 which they passed in a flame. Addresses from most of the provinces arrived in a short time at Boston, exhorting the inhabitants to persevere in their opposition to such an at- tack on their civil rights, and declaring that all British America considered themselves as sufferers in the common cause. A gene- ral congress was also determined upon ; and Philadelphia being judged commodiously situated for the purpose, the first meeting of delegates from the several colonies was appointed to take place there in the begin- ning of September ; and, in the mean time, engagements, under the title of ' a solemn league and covenant,' were universally en- tered into for the purpose of suspending all commercial intercourse with Great Britain, and renouncing all communication with those who should r jfuse to sign this cove- nant, notwithstanding a proclamation from general Gage, styling such agreement an unlawful, hostile, and traitorous combination. He was even obliged to dissolve the pro- vincial assembly, having found every other method ineffectual to put a stop to their vio- lent proceedings. But those of the general congress were of a still more alarming ten- dency. The delegates met on the day ap- pointed at Philadelphia : they were fifty-one in number, chosen in such proportions from the different colonies as corresponded with their varied extent and population, though each colony had but one distinct and sepa- rate vote : they sat with the doors locked, no person but a member being permitted to be present at their deliberations, and all their proceedings, except what they thought fit to make known, being kept profoundly secret Among their first resolves was a vote which passed unanimously, expressing their deep sense of the sufferings of their countrymen in the province of Massachusets Bay, under the late unjust, cruel, and op- pressive acts of the British parliament ; tho- roughly approving the wisdom and fortitude of the opposition made to those measures ; and asserting it to be the duty of all Ameri- ca not only to contribute to the relief of the sufferers, but to assist in repelling any force which might be employed to carry such acts into execution. The congress also drew up up and published a declaration of rights, little short of absolute independency, with the copy of a formal instrument in writing, signed by the members, and recommended to their constituents, renouncing all inter- course with the mother country, till redress should be obtained for the alleged violation of those rights ; a petition to the king, enu- merating the several grievances, and blend- ing professions of loyalty with a firm de- mand of the abolition of the obnoxious stat- utes, as the only means of restoring harmo- ny between Great Britain and the colonies ; an apology to the people of England for the suspension of commerce, which, they said, necessity alone and a regard to self- preservation obliged them to adopt ; a me- morial to the inhabitants of the colonies, designed to explain to them in what man- ner they were all interested in the state of the people of Boston; urging them to a compliance with the non-importation, non- consumption, and non-exportation agree- ment ; and advising them to extend their views to the most unhappy events, and to be in all respects prepared for every contin- gency ; and, lastly, an address to the Cana- dians, the object of which was to render them discontented and uneasy under their new form of government, to sow the seeds of discord between them and the mother country, and to induce them to join in the general confederacy. After these public acts, which the congress completed in a session of fifty-two days, it dissolved itself, having previously recommended that an- other congress should be held the tenth of May following. The effects of its decrees were quickly seen throughout the provinces : a spirit of resistance to the British govern- ment discovered itself almost everywhere, but particularly in Massachusets Bay, which was considered as the grand focus of Amer- ican rebellion. The courts of judicature were totally suspended : all persons accept- ing offices under the late laws were de- clared enemies to their country : every step taken by general Gage for the accommoda- tion and security of the troops under his command was obstructed as much as possi- ble : his recall of writs which he had issued for convening the general court of repre- sentatives in October, was disregarded : they met in direct contempt of the authori- ty which forbade them; voted themselves into a provincial congress, with Hancock at their head ; appointed a committee to pre- sent a remonstrance to the governor in a very daring strain ; and on his refusing to recognize them as a lawful assembly, they proceeded to exercise all the functions not only of the legislative, but of the executive power. At one of their subsequent meet- ings, a plan was drawn up for the immediate defence of the province ; magazines of am- munition and stores were provided for twelve thousand militia; and an enrolment was made of "minute-men, so called from their engaging to turn out with their arms at a minute's warning. General Gage clearly foresaw the inevitable issue of such pro- ceedings ; but he still confined himself to the. mildest measures that were consistent with prudence and necessary caution, being" resolved, that, if the sword must be at last unsheathed, it should not appear owing to any precipitancy on his part. He admon- 144 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ished the people, though in vain, not to be ensnared by the provincial congress, nor led by their influence to incur the penalties of sedition, treason, and rebellion : besides for- tifying a narrow isthmus, called Boston Neck, that connects the town with the con- tinent, by means of which the inhabitants of that place became in some sort hostages for the behavior of the rest of their coun- trymen, he took care to secure such maga- zines as were within his reach, and to spike the cannon of some batteries, so as to pre- vent their being serviceable to an enemy. The activity of the Americans sometimes defeated his utmost circumspection. An armed body of them made themselves mas- ters of the fort at Portsmouth, in New- Hampshire, and sent off the powder it con- tained to a place of safety. They also sur- prised another small fort in the same prov- ince, called William and Mary, which was garrisoned by only one officer and five men, to whom they did no personal injury, but took possession of the ammunition and ord- nance. A proclamation, which had been issued in England, prohibiting the exporta- tion of military stores, operated as a strong incitement to the eagerness of the colonists to procure such supplies. Mills for making gunpowder, and manufactories for arms, were set up in several places ; and the ad- vice of congress, " to prepare for every con- tingency," was implicitly followed by all the provinces. A NEW PARLIAMENT. WHILE everything bore the most rebel- lious aspect in America, the British cabinet at home thought it highly necessary, before a blow was struck, to take the sense of the nation on a subject which involved the dear- est interests of the whole empire. A dis- solution of parliament was therefore resolv- ed upon, to give the people an opportunity of manifesting their sentiments in the choice of representatives, and to free the latter from any restraint with regard to a change of system, if it should be deemed advisable. The same house of commons, which had so recently as well as repeatedly given its sanction to vigorous measures, could not, with a good grace, rescind its own most deliberate acts ; but another body of representatives would not be tied down to an involuntary perseverance in support of the resolutions of their predecessors. The proclamation for dissolving the parliament, was issued on the thirtieth of September ; and the writs for calling a new one were made returnable on the twenty-ninth of No- vember following. On the first day of the meeting of parliament, no competitor for the chair was started against Sir Fletcher Norton ; as the address of thanks to his majesty for his speech from the throne, of which the disobedience of the colonies con- stituted the chief topic, implied a general approbation of the steps taken by his ma- jesty to carry into execution the late laws, and to restore peace and good order in Mas- sachusets Bay, an amendment was proposed on the side of opposition, and supported by all the powers of then- oratory, and all the strength of their numbers. The latter, however, amounted only to 73 against 264, who voted for the original address. No- thing else of a remarkable nature occurred in parliament before the holidays, except that the estimates, as stated to the commons, were entirely formed upon a peace estab- lishment; and that nine out of thirteen peers in the minority signed a protest against the address, being the first of the kind which had ever appeared on the jour- nals of the upper house. 1775. After the recess, a variety of de- bates took place on different systems of co- ercion and lenity with regard to the Ameri- cans, in which much eloquence and party spirit were displayed. The result of all was the passing of two acts ; by the first of which the New-England provinces, as having set the example of renouncing all intercourse with the parent state, were prohibited from trading to any other country, and from fish- ing on the banks of Newfoundland; and by the second, the same restraints were extended to the colonies of East and West Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, and to the countries on the Delaware, which were found to have concurred in the commercial combinations of the people of New-England. But in or- der to leave it still in the power of the colo- nies to avert the calamities impending over them in consequence of these prohibitory acts, a resolution was moved by the minis- ter, and carried in the house of commons, as the basis of a future agreement, " that when any of the colonies should propose, according to their abilities, to raise their due proportion towards the common defence, such proportion to be raised under the au- thority of the assembly of such province, and to be disposable by parliament ; and when such colony should also engage to pro- vide for the support of the civil govern- ment, and the administration of justice within such province ; it would be proper, if such proposal should be approved by his majesty in parliament, to forbear, in respect of such colony, to levy any duties or taxes, or to impose any further duties or taxes, ex- cept such as should be necessary for the regulation of trade." FRANKLIN'S EFFORT AT CONCILIATION. AMONG the conciliatory attempts which were made at that period, the most specific and remarkable was a plan digested in pri- GEORGE m. 1760-1820. 145 vate by Dr. Franklin on the part of the Americans, and Dr. Fothergill and David Barclay on behalf of the British ministry. At one of their conferences, held at the house of Dr. Fothergill, on the 4th of De- cember, 1774, before the proceedings of con- gress had reached England, a paper, drawn up by Dr. Franklin, at the request of the two other gentlemen, was submitted to their joint consideration ; which, with a few ad- ditions proposed and agreed to by common consent, was as follows : Hints for Conversation upon the Subject of Terms that might probably produce a durable Union between Britain and the Colonies. 1st The tea destroyed to be paid for. 2d. The tea-duty act to be repealed, and all the duties that have been received upon it to be repaid into the treasuries of the several provinces from which they have been collected. 3d. The acts of navigation to be all re- enacted in the colonies. 4th. A naval officer to be appointed by the crown to see that these acts are ob- served. 5th. All the acts restraining manufacto- ries in the colonies to be reconsidered. 6th. All duties arising on the acts for regulating trade with the colonies, to be for the public use of the respective colonies, and paid into their treasuries. The collectors and custom-house officers to be appointed by each governor, and not sent from England. 7th. In consideration of the Americans maintaining their own peace-establishment, and the monopoly Britain is to have of their commerce, no requisition is to be made from them in time of peace. 8th. No troops to enter and quarter in any colony, but with the consent of its legis- lature. 9th. In time of war, on requisition by the king, with consent of parliament, every colony shall raise money by the following rules in proportion, viz. If Britain, on ac- count of the war, raises three shillings in the pound, to its land-tax, then the colonies to add to their last general provincial peace- tax, a sum equal to one-fourth part thereof; and if Britain, on the same account, pay four shillings in the pound, then the colo- nies to add to their last peace-tax, a sum equal to the half thereof; Which additional tax is to be granted to his majesty, and to be employed in raising and paying men for land or sea service, and furnishing provis- ions, transports, or for such other purposes as the king shall require and direct; and though no colony may contribute less, each VOL. IV. 13 may add as much by voluntary grant as it shall think proper. 10th. Castle William to be restored to the province of Massachusets Bay, and no fortress to be built by the crown in any province, but with the consent of its legis- lature. llth. The late Massachusets and Quebec acts to be repealed, and a free government granted to Canada. 12th. All judges to be appointed during good behavior, with equally permanent sala- ries to be paid out of the provincial revenues by appointment of the assemblies ; or if the judges are to be appointed during the plea- sure of the crown, let the salaries be during the pleasure of the assemblies, as hereto- fore. 13th. Governors to be supported by the assemblies of each province. 14th. If Britain will give up her monopoly of the American commerce, then the aid above mentioned to be given in time of peace, as well as in time of war. 15th. The extension of the act of Henry VIII. concerning treasons to the colonies, to be formally disowned by parliament 16th. The American admiralty-courts to be reduced to the same powers they have in England, and the acts establishing them to be re-enacted in America. 17th. All power of internal legislation in the colonies to be disclaimed by parliament On reading this paper a second time, Dr. Franklin gave his reasons at length for each article. The fourteenth article was expunged on the representation of Dr. Fothergill and David Barclay, that the monopoly of the American commerce would never be given up, and that the proposing of it would only give offence, without answering any good purpose. This paper of hints was communicated to lord Dartmouth by Dr. Fothergill, who also stated the arguments which in conver- sation had been offered in support of them. When objections were made to them, as be- ing humiliating to Great Britain, Dr. Fother- gill replied, " that she had been unjust, and ought to bear the consequences, and alter her conduct that sooner or later, these or similar measures must be followed, or the empire would be divided and ruined." These hints were handed about among ministers, and conferences were held on them. The result was, on the 4th of Feb- ruary, 1775, communicated to Dr. Franklin, in the presence of Dr. Fothergill and David Barclay, which, as far as concerned the lead- ing articles, was as follows : 1. The first article was approved. 146 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 2. The second agreed to so far as related to the tea-act ; but repayment of the duties that had been collected was refused. 3. The third not approved, as it implied a deficiency of power in the parliament that made the acts. 4. The fourth approved. 5. The fifth agreed to, but with a reserve that no change prejudicial to Britain was to be expected. 6. The sixth agreed to, so far as related to the appropriation of the duties ; but the appointment of the officers and their salaries to remain as at present 7. The seventh, relating to aids in time of war, agreed to. 8. The eighth, relating to troops, was in- admissible. 9. The ninth could be agreed to with this difference, that no proportion should be ob- served with regard to preceding taxes, but each colony should give at pleasure. 10. The tenth agreed to as to the resti- tution of Castle William ; but the restric- tion on the crown in building fortresses re- fused. 11. The eleventh refused absolutely, ex- cept as to the Boston port-bill, which would be repealed, and the Quebec act might be so far amended, as to reduce that province to its ancient limits. The other "Massa- chusets acts being real amendments of their constitution, must for that reason be con- tinued, as well as to be a standing example of the power of parliament" 12. The twelfth agreed to, that the judges should be appointed during good behavior, on the assemblies providing permanent sala- ries, such as the crown should approve of. 13. The thirteenth agreed to, provided the assemblies make provision, as in the preced- ing article. 15. The fifteenth agreed to. 16. The sixteenth agreed to, supposing the duties paid to the colonies' treasuries. 17. The seventeenth inadmissible. At this interview the conversation was shortened by Dr. Franklin's observing, that while the parliament claimed and exercised a power of internal legislation for the colo- nies, and of altering American constitutions at pleasure, there could be no agreement, as that would render the Americans unsafe in every privilege they enjoyed, and would leave them nothing in which they could be secure. On the 16th of February 1775, the three gentlemen again met, when a paper was produced by David Barclay, entitled, "A plan which it is believed would produce a permanent union between Great Britain anc her colonies." This, in the first article, pro- posed a repeal of the tea-act, on payment being made for the tea destroyed. Dr iVanklin agreed to the first part, but con- ended that all the other Massachussets acts should also be repealed ; but this was deem- ed inadmissible. Dr. Franklin declared, that the people of Massachusets would suffer all the hazards and mischiefs of war, rather than admit the alteration of their charters and laws by parliament He was or securing the unity of the empire, by recognizing the sanctity of charters, and )y leaving the provinces to govern them- selves in their internal concerns; but the British ministry could not brook the idea of relinquishing their claim to internal legisla- tion for the colonies, and especially to alter and amend their charters. The first was for communicating the vital principles of liberty to the provinces, but the latter, though dis- x>sed to redress a few of their existing grievances, would by no means consent to a repeal of the late act of parliament for al- tering the chartered government of Massa- chusets, and least of all to renounce all laim to future amendments of charters, or of internal legislation for the colonies. Dr. Franklin labored hard to prevent the areach from becoming irreparable, and stated the outlines of a compact which he supposed would procure a durable union of the two countries; but his well-meant en- deavors proved abortive. Finding the minis- try bent on war, unless the colonists would consent to hold their rights, liberties, and charters, at the discretion of a British parliament, and well knowing that his coun- trymen would hazard everything, rather than consent to terms so degrading as well as inconsistent with the spirit of the British constitution, he quitted Great Britain in March 1775, and returned to Philadelphia. Dr. Fothergill wrote to him on the evening before he left London, " That whatever spe- cious pretences were offered, they were all hollow, and that to get a larger field on which to fatten a herd of worthless parasites, was all that was intended." CITY OF LONDON PETITIONS IN FAVOR OF THE AMERICANS. THE city of London ventured again to breathe a fruitless request. This petition (presented in April) justified the resistance to which the Americans had been driven, upon those same principles of the constitu- tion, which actuated our ancestors when they transferred the Imperial crown of these realms to the house of Brunswick. They moreover beseeched his majesty, to dismiss immediately, and for ever, from his councils, those ministers who had advised the ob- noxious acts, as the first step towards a re- dress of those grievances which alarmed and afflicted the whole people. His majesty answered the petition in the following words : " It is with the utmost astonishment that I GEORGE HI. 17601820. 147 find any of ray subjects capable of encour- aging the rebellious disposition which un- happily exists in some of my colonies in North America. Having entire confidence in the wisdom of my parliament, the great council of the nation, I will steadily pursue those measures which they have recom- mended for the support of the constitutional rights of Great Britain, and the protection of the commercial interests of my king- doms." It was now time for the minister to pro- pose some advantages, in lieu of those of which he had deprived the nation by the abolition of the American fisheries. With this view he moved for a committee of the whole house, to consider of the encourage- ment proper to be given to the fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland. The grievances of Ireland demanded a particular attention, as that country had suffered them with a patience unexampled and unexpected. By including trade and commerce in this mo- tion, some members wished to institute an inquiry into the state of Ireland at large, but in this they were opposed by lord North, who was of opinion, that the field of in- quiry, which would, by this alteration, be opened, would prove too large for the pres- ent opportunity. That his lordship, however, might not appear averse to the interests of Ireland, he procured two motions to be pass- ed, by the one of which it was declared lawful to export from Ireland clothes and accoutrements for such regiments on the Irish establishment as were employed abroad: by the other, a bounty of five shillings per barrel was allowed on all flax-seed imported into Ireland. The principal objections to these motions were, that they effected too little. In the progress of this committee, bounties were granted to the ships of Great Britain and Ireland, for their encouragement in prosecuting the Newfoundland fishery, and for encouraging the whale fishery in those seas that were to the southward of Greenland and Davis's Straits fisheries ; the several duties upon the importation of oil, blubber, and bone, from Newfoundland, and on the importation of seal-skins, were at the same tune taken off. The remainder of this session was em- ployed in the rejection of a variety of pe- titions from the colonists, or those who had their interest most at heart ; a remonstrance and representation of the general assembly of the colony of New- York to the parliament, was introduced by Burke, who moved that it should be brought up. He said, the decent and respectful language in which they con- veyed their sentiments, carried with it some claim on parliamentary attention. Every opinion contained in the paper he granted might not be incontrovertible ; but such was the manner in which their complaints were urged, that he could not help looking on this as a very favorable opportunity for amicably ending our differences with America. The rejection of this motion was followed by that of another, owing to similar circum- stances, in the house of lords, and that, by a petition from the British inhabitants of the province of Quebec, presented by lord Camden. The extension of the limits of Quebec, the establishment of popery, and the common complaints of despotism, form- ed the material part of this latter petition. The debates on it were long and violent ; but, on the side of opposition, very ineffec- tual, the numbers being 88 who opposed it, to 28 lords only who supported it. Among the minority were their royal highnesses of Cumberland and Gloucester. Thus ended the session, in which every step towards the favorite system of coercion seemed to receive an almost universal ap- probation ; and in the speech, his majesty expressed the most perfect satisfaction in their conduct. They had maintained, with a firm and steady resolution, the inseparable rights of the crown and the authority of par- liament; they had projected and promoted the commercial interest of these kingdoms, and had given convincing proofs of their readiness (as far as the constitution would allow them) to gratify the wishes, and re- move the apprehensions of the subjects in America; and a persuasion was entertained, that the most salutary effects must, in the end, result from measures formed and con- ducted on such principles. His majesty ex- pressed much concern, that the unhappy dis- turbances in some of the colonies had oc- casioned an augmentation of the land forces, and prevented the intended reduction of the naval establishment from being completed ; thanks were returned for the cheerfulness and public spirit with which they had grant- ed the supplies. A favorable representation was made of the pacific disposition of other powers, and the usual assurance given of endeavoring to secure the public tranquillity. The speech concluded with a recommenda- tion, to preserve and cultivate in their several counties the same regard for public order, and the same discernment of their true interests, which had in these times dis- tinguished the character of his majesty's faithful and beloved people; and the con- tinuance of which could not fail to render them happy at home, and respected abroad. STATE OF AFFAIRS IN AMERICA. WHILE such were the impolitic proceed- ings of the British ministry, the hostile as- pect of affairs in America became equally alarming, and seemed to accelerate that crisis which all good men deprecated and deplored. The colonists had indulged them- 148 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. selves in an expectation that the people of Great Britain, from a consideration of the dangers and difficulties of a war with the colonies, would have preferred peace and a reconciliation ; but when they were con- vinced of the fallacy of these hopes, they turned their attention to the means of self- defence. It had been the resolution of many never to submit to the operation of the late acts of parliament Their number daily in- creased, and in the same proportion that Great Britain determined to enforce, did they determine to oppose. Whatever might be the designs of parlia- ment, their acts had a natural tendency to enlarge the demands of the Americans, and to cement their confederacy, by firm princi- ples of union. At first they only claimed exemption from internal taxation, but by the combination of the East India company and the British ministry, an external tax was made to answer all the purposes of a direct internal tax. They therefore, in consistence with their own principles, were constrained to deny the right of taxing in any form for a supply. But they still admitted the pow- er of parliament to bind their trade. This was conceded by congress but a few months before an act passed that they should have no foreign trade, nor be allowed to fish on their own coasts. The British ministry, by their successive acts, impelled the colonists to believe, that while the mother-country re- tained any authority over them, that author- ity would in some shape or other be exerted so as to answer all the purposes of a power to tax. Prudence, policy, and reciprocal interest, urged the expediency of concession ; but pride, false honor, and misconceived dignity, drew in an opposite direction. Undecided claims and doubtful rights, which under the influence of wisdom and humility might have been easily compromised, impercepti- bly widened into an irreconcilable breach. Hatred at length took the place of kind af- fections, and the calamities of war were substituted in lieu of the benefits of com- merce. In civil wars or revolutions, it is a matter of much consequence who strikes the first blow. The compassion of the world is in favor of the attacked, and the displeasure of good men falls on those who are the first to imbrue their hands in human blood. For the space of nine months after the arrival of general Gage, the people of Boston con- ducted their opposition with exquisite ad- dress. They avoided every kind of outrage and violence, preserved peace and good or- der among themselves, successfully engaged the other colonies to make a common cause with them, and counteracted general Gage so effectually as to prevent his doing any- thing for his royal master, while by patience and moderation they screened themselves from censure. Though resolved to bear as long as prudence and policy dictated, they were all the time preparing for the last ex- tremity. They were furnishing themselves with arms and ammunition, and training their militia. BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. PROVISIONS were also collected and stored in different places, particularly at Concord, about twenty miles from Boston. General Gage, though zealous for his master's inter- est, discovered a prevailing desire for a peaceable accommodation. He wished to prevent hostilities, by depriving the inhabit- ants of the means necessary for carrying them on. With this view he determined to destroy the stores which he knew were col- lected for the support of a provincial army. Wishing to accomplish this without blood- shed, he took every precaution to effect it by surprise, and without alarming the coun- try. At eleven o'clock at night on the eighteenth of April, eight hundred grena- diers and light infantry, the flower of the royal army, embarked at the Common, land- ed at Phipps's Farm, and marched for Con- cord, under the command of lieutenant-colo- nel Smith. About two in the morning, one hundred and thirty of the Lexington militia had assembled to oppose them ; between four and five o'clock in the morning the British regulars made their appearance. Major Pitcairn, who led the advanced corps, rode up to them, and called out, " Disperse, you rebels ; throw down your arms and dis- perse." They still continued in a body, on which he advanced nearer, discharged his pistol, and ordered his soldiers to fire. This was done with a huzza. A dispersion of the militia was the consequence, but the firing of the regulars was nevertheless continued. Individuals, finding they were fired upon, though dispersing, returned the fire. Three or four of the militia were killed on the green ; a few more were shot after they had begun to disperse. The royal detachment proceeded on to Concord, and executed their commission. They disabled two twenty- four-pounders, threw 5001b. of ball into riv- ers and wells, and broke in pieces about six- ty barrels of flour. The king's troops hav- ing done their business, began their retreat towards Boston. This was conducted with expedition, for the adjacent inhabitants had assembled in arms, and began to attack them in every direction. In their return to Lexington they were exceedingly annoyed, both by those who pressed on their rear, and others, who, pouring in on all sides, fired from behind stone walls, and similar coverts, which supplied the place of lines and re- doubts. At Lexington the regulars were GEORGE m. 17601820. 149 joined by a detachment of nine hundred men, under lord Piercy, which had been sent out by general Gage to support lieuten- ant-colonel Smith. This reinforcement hav- ing two pieces of cannon, awed the provin- cials, and kept them at a greater distance, but they continued a constant, though irreg- ular and scattering fire, which did great ex- ecution. The close firing from behind the walls, by good marksmen, put the regular troops in no small confusion, but they never- theless kept up a brisk retreating fire on the militia and minute-men. A little after sun- set the regulars reached Bunker's Hill, worn down with excessive fatigue, having march- ed that day between thirty and forty miles. On the next day they crossed Charlestown ferry, and returned to Boston. The provincial congress of Massachusets, which was in session at the time of the Lex- ington battle, dispatched an account of it to Great Britain, accompanied with many de- positions, to prove that the British troops were the aggressors. They also made an address to the inhabitants of Great Britain, in which, after complaining of their suffer- ings, they say, " These have not yet detach- ed us from our royal sovereign ; we profess to be his loyal and dutiful subjects ; and though hardly dealt with, as we have been, are still ready, with our lives and fortunes, to defend his person, crown, and dignity; nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his evil ministry, we will not tamely sub- mit. Appealing to heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free." From the commencement of hostilities, the dispute between Great Britain and the colo- nies took a new direction. Intelligence that the British troops had marched out of Boston into the country, on some hostile purpose, being forwarded by expresses from one committee to another, great bodies of the militia, not only from Massachusets, but the adjacent colonies, grasped their arms, and marched to oppose them. Hitherto the Americans had no regu- lar army. From principles of policy they cautiously avoided that measure, lest they might subject themselves to the charge of being aggressors. All their military regu- lations were carried on by their militia, and under the old established laws of the land. For the defence of the colonies, the inhab- itants had been, from their early years, en- rolled in companies, and taught the use of arms. The laws for this purpose had never been better observed than for some months previous to the Lexington battle. These military arrangements, which had been pre- viously adopted for defending the colonies from hostile French and Indians, were on this occasion turned against the troops of the parent state. Forts, magazines, and 13* arsenals, by the constitution of the country, were in the keeping of his majesty. Imme- diately after the Lexington battle, these were for the most part taken possession of throughout the colonies, by parties of the provincial militia. Ticonderoga, in which was a small royal garrison, was surprised and taken by adventurers from different states. Public money which had been col- lected in consequence of previous grants, was also seized for common services. The provincial congress of Massachusets voted that " an army of thirty thousand men be immediately raised, that thirteen thousand six hundred be of their own province, and that a letter and delegate be sent to the sev- eral colonies of New-Hampshire, Connecti- cut, and Rhode-Island." In consequence of this vote, the business of recruiting was be- gun, and in a short time a provincial army was paraded in the vicinity of Boston, which, though far below what had been voted by the provincial congress, was much superior in numbers to the royal army. The com- mand of this force was given to general Ward. Resistance therefore being resolved upon by the Americans, the pulpit, the press, the bench, and the bar, severally labored to unite and encourage them. The clergy of New- England were a numerous, learned, and re- spectable body, who had a great ascendency over the minds of their hearers. They con- nected religion and patriotism, and in their sermons and prayers represented the cause of America as the cause of heaven. The synod of New- York and Philadelphia also sent forth a pastoral letter, which was pub- licly read in then" churches. This earnestly recommended such sentiments and conduct as were suitable to their situation. Writers and printers followed hi the rear of the preachers, and next to them had the great- est hand in animating their countrymen. Gentlemen of the bench and of the bar de- nied the charge of rebellion, and justified the resistance of the colonists. A distinction founded on law between the king and his ministry was introduced. The former, it was contended, could do no wrong. The crime of treason was charged on the latter, for using the royal name to varnish then- own unconstitutional measures. The phrase of a ministerial war became common, and was used as a medium for reconciling re- sistance with allegiance. BATTLE OF BUNKER'S HILL. ABOUT the latter end of May a great part of the reinforcements ordered from Great Britain, arrived at Boston. Three British generals, Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton, whose behavior in the preceding war had gained them great reputation, also arrived on the twenty-fifth of May. General Gage, 150 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. thus reinforced, prepared for acting with more decision ; but before he proceeded to extremities he conceived it due to ancient forms to issue a proclamation, holding forth to the inhabitants the alternative of peace or war. He, therefore, (June 12th,) offered pardon in the king's name to all who should forthwith lay down their arms and return to their respective occupations and peaceable duties, excepting only from the benefit of that pardon Samuel Adams and John Han- cock, whose offences were said to be of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other con- sideration than that of condign punishment He also proclaimed thai not only the persons above named and excepted, but also all their adherents, associates, and correspondents, should be deemed guilty of treason and re- bellion, and treated accordingly. By. this proclamation it was also declared, " that as the courts of judicature were shut, martial law should take place, till a due course of justice should be re-established." It was supposed that this proclamation was a pre- lude to hostilities, and preparations were ac- cordingly made by the Americans. A con- siderable height, by the name of Bunker's Hill, just at the entrance of the peninsula of Charlestown, was so situated as to make the possession of it a matter of great conse- quence to either of the contending parties. Orders were therefore issued on the 16th of June, by the provincial commanders, that a detachment f a thousand men should in- trench upon this height By some mistake, Breed's Hill, high and large, like the other, but situated near Boston, was marked out for the intrenchments, instead of Bunker's Hill. The provincials proceeded to Breed's Hill, and worked with so much diligence, that between midnight and the dawn of the morning they had thrown up a small redoubt about eight rods square. They kept such a profound silence, that they were not heard by the British, on board their vessels, though very near. These having derived their first information of what was going on from the sight of the work near completion, began an incessant firing upon them. The provincials bore this with firmness, and though they were only young soldiers, continued to labor till they had thrown up a small breastwork, extending from the east side of the redoubt to the bottom of the hill As this eminence overlooked Boston, general Gage thought it necessary to drive the provincials from it About noon therefore of the 7th, he detached major-general Howe, and brigadier-general Pigot, with the flower of the army, consist- in? of four battalions, ten companies of the grenadiers, and tpn of light infantry, with a proportion of field artillery, to effect this business. These troops landed at Moreton's Point, and formed after landing, but remained in that position till they were reinforced by a second detachment of light infantry and grenadier companies, a battalion of land forces, and a battalion of marines, making in the whole near 3000 men. While the troops who first landed were waiting for this reinforcement, the provincials, for their far- ther security, pulled up some adjoining post and rail fences, and set them down in two parallel lines at a small distance from each other, and filled the space between with hay, which having been lately mowed, remained on the adjacent ground. The king's troops formed in two lines, and advanced slowly, to give their artillery time to demolish the American works. While the British were advancing to the at- tack, they received orders to burn Charles- town. Thousands, both within and without Bos- ton, were anxious spectators of the bloody scene. The honor of British troops beat high in the breasts of many, while others, with a keener sensibility, felt for the liber- ties of a great and growing country. The British moved on but slowly, which gave the provincials a better opportunity for taking aim. The latter, in general reserved them- selves till their adversaries were within ten or twelve rods, but then began a furious dis- charge of small-arms. The stream of the American fire was so incessant, and did so great execution, that the king's troops re- treated in disorder and precipitation. Their officers rallied them. The Americans again reserved their fire till their adversaries were near, and then put them a second time to flight. General Howe and the officers re- doubled their exertions, and were at last successful. By this time the powder of the Americans began so far to fail, that they were not able to keep up the same brisk fire as before. The British also brought some cannon to bear, which raked the inside of the breastwork from end to end. The fire from the ships, batteries, and field artillery, was redoubled. The redoubt was attacked on three sides at once. Under these cir- cumstances a retreat from it was ordered. While these operations were going on at the breastwork and redoubt, the British light infantry were attempting to force the left point of the former, that they might take the American line in flank. Though they exhibited the most undaunted courage, they met with an opposition which called for its greatest exertions. The provincials here, in like manner, reserved their fire till their adversaries were near, and then poured it upon the light infantry, with such an inces- sant stream, and in so true a direction, as mowed down their ranks. The engagement was kept up on both sides with great resolu- tion. The persevering exertions of the king's GEORGE III. 17601820. 151 troops could not compel the Americans to re- treat, till they observed that their main body had left the hill This, when begun, ex- posed them to new danger, for it could not be effected but by marching over Charles- town Neck, every part of which was raked by the shot of the Glasgow man-of-war, and of two floating batteries. The number of Americans engaged amounted only to 1500. It was apprehended that the conquerors would push the advanta- ges they had gained, and march immediately to the American head-quarters at Cambridge, but they advanced no farther than Bunker's Hill ; there they threw up works for their own security. The provincials did the same on Prospect Hill in front of them. Both were guarded against an attack, and both were in a bad condition to receive one. The loss of the peninsula depressed the spirits of the Americans, and their great loss of men produced the same effect on the British. The unexpected resistance of the Americans was such as wiped away the reproaches of cowardice, which had been cast on them by their enemies in Britain. The spirited con- duct of the British officers merited and ob- tained great applause. The provincials were justly entitled to a large portion of fame, for having made the utmost exertions of their adversaries necessary to dislodge them from lines, which were the work only of a single night. SECOND CONGRESS MEETS. IT has already been mentioned, that con- gress, previous to its dissolution, on the twenty-sixth of October 1774, recommended to the colonies to choose members for an- other to meet on the tenth of May 1775, unless the redress of their grievances was previously obtained. On their meeting they chose Peyton Ran- dolph for their president, and Charles Thomp- son for their secretary. On the next day Mr. Hancock laid before them a variety of depo- sitions, proving that the king's troops were the aggressors in the late battle at Lexing- ton, together with other papers relative to the great events which had lately taken place in Massachusets : whereupon congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole, to take into consideration the state of Amer- ica. They proceeded in the same line of moderation and firmness, which marked the acts of their predecessors in the past year. The city and county of New- York having applied to congress for advice, how they should conduct themselves with regard to the troops expected to land there, they were advised " to act on the defensive so long as might be consistent with their safety; to permit the troops to remain in the barracks so long as they behaved peaceably, but not to suffer fortifications to be erected, or any steps to be taken for cutting off the commu nication between the town and country." Congress also, on the seventeenth of May, resolved, " That exportation to all parts of British America, which had not adopted their association, should immediately cease ;" and that " no provision of any kind, or other ne- cessaries, be furnished to the British fisheries on the American coast" And " that no bill of exchange, draft, or order of any officer in the British army or navy, their agents or contractors, be received or negotiated, or any money supplied them by any person in America that no provisions or necessaries of any kind be furnished or supplied to or for the use of the British army or navy, hi the colony of Massachusets Bay that no vessel employed in transporting British troops to America, or from one part of North America to another, or warlike stores or provisions for the said troops, be freighted or furnished with provisions or any necessaries." These resolutions may be considered as the counterpart of the British acts for restrain- ing the commerce, and prohibiting the fish- eries of the colonies. They were calculated to bring distress on the British islands in the West Indies, whose chief dependence for subsistence was on the importation of pro- vision from the American continent. They also occasioned new difficulties in the sup- port of the British army and fisheries. The colonists were so much indebted to Great Britain, that government bills for the most part found among them a-ready market. A war in the colonies was therefore made sub- servient to commerce, by increasing the sources of remittance. This enabled the mother country, in a great degree, to supply her troops without shipping money out of the kingdom. From the operation of these resolutions, advantages of this nature were not only cut off, but the supply of the Brit- ish army rendered both precarious and ex- pensive. The new congress had been convened but a few days, when then- venerable president, Peyton Randolph, was under a necessity of returning home. On his departure John Hancock was unanimously chosen his suc- cessor. The objects of deliberation pre- sented to this new congress were, if possible, more important than those which in the pre- ceding year had engaged the attention of their predecessors. In this awful crisis congress had but a choice of difficulties. The New-England states had already organized an army and blockaded general Gage. To desert them would have been contrary to plighted faith and to sound policy ; to support them would make the war general, and involve all the provinces in one general promiscuous state of hostility. The resolution of the people 152 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. in favor of the latter was fixed, and only wanted public sanction for its operation. Congress therefore, on the twenty-sixth of May, resolved, " That for the express pur- pose of defending and securing the colonies, and preserving them in safety, against all attempts to carry the late acts of parliament into execution, by force of arms, they be im- mediately put in a state of defence ; but as they wished for a restoration of the harmony formerly subsisting between the mother- country and the colonies, to the promotion of this most desirable reconciliation, an humble and dutiful petition be presented to his majesty. To resist and to petition were coeval resolutions. As freemen they could not tamely submit, but as loyal subjects, wishing for peace as far as was compatible with their rights, they once more, in the character of petitioners, humbly stated their grievances to the common father of the em- pire. To dissuade the Canadians from co- operating with the British, they again ad- dressed them, representing the pernicious tendency of the Quebec act, and apologizing for their taking Ticonderoga and Crown Point, as measures which were dictated by the great law of self-preservation. About the same time congress took measures for warding oft' the danger that threatened their frontier inhabitants from Indians. Commis- sioners to treat with them were appointed, and a supply of goods for their use was or- dered. A talk was also prepared by con- gress, and transmitted to them, in which the controversy between Great Britain and her colonies was explained, in a familiar Indian style. They were told that they had no concern in the family quarrel, and were urged by the ties of ancient friendship and a common birth-place, to remain at home, keep their hatchet buried deep, and to join neither side. The novel situation of Massachusets made it necessary for the ruling powers of that province to ask the advice of congress on a very interesting subject, "The taking up and exercising the powers of civil govern- ment" For many months they had been kept together in tolerable peace and order by the force of ancient habits, under the simple style of recommendation and advice from popular bodies, invested with no legis- lative authority. But as war now raged in their borders, and a numerous army was ac- tually raised, some more efficient form of government became necessary. At this early day it neither comported with the wishes nor the designs of the colonists to erect forms of government independent of Great Britain; congress therefore recom- mended only such regulations as were im- mediately necessary, and these were con- formed as nearly as possible to the spirit and substance of the charter, and were only to last till a governor of his majesty's appoint- ment would consent to govern the colony according to its charter. On the same principles of necessity, an- other assumption of new powers became unavoidable. The great intercourse that daily took place throughout the colonies, pointed out the propriety of establishing a general post-office. This was accordingly done, and Dr. Franklin, who had by royal authority been dismissed from a similar em- ployment about three years before, was ap- pointed by his country, the head of the new department. While congress was making arrangements for their proposed continental army, it was thought expedient once more to address the inhabitants of Great Britain, and to publish to the world a declaration setting forth their reasons for taking up arms ; to address the speaker and gentlemen of the assembly of Jamaica, and the inhabitants of Ireland ; and also to prefer a second humble petition to the king. In their address to the inhabit- ants of Great Britain, they again vindicated themselves from the charge of aiming at independency, professed their willingness to submit to the several acts of trade and navi- gation which were passed before the year 1763, recapitulated their reasons for reject- ing lord North's conciliatory motion, stated the hardships they suffered from the opera- tions of the royal army in Boston, and in- sinuated the danger the inhabitants of Britain would be in of losing their freedom, in case their American brethren were subdued. In their declaration, setting forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms, they enumerated the injuries they had re- ceived, and the methods taken by the British ministry to compel their submission; and then said, " We are reduced to the alterna- tive of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or re- sistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery." They asserted " that foreign as- sistance was undoubtedly attainable." This was not founded on any private information, but was an opinion derived from their know- ledge of the principles of policy, by which states usually regulate their conduct towards each other. But their petition to the king, which was drawn up at the same time, produced more solid advantages in favor of the American cause, than any other of their productions. In this, among other things, it was stated, " that, notwithstanding their sufferings, they had retained too hicrh a regard for the king- dom from which they derived their origin, to request such a reconciliation as might, GEORGE HI in any manner, be inconsistent with her dig- nity and welfare. Attached to his majesty's person, family, and government, with all the devotion that principle and affection can in- spire, connected with Great Britain by the strongest ties that can unite society, and de- ploring every event that tended in any de- gree to weaken them, they not only most fervently desired the former harmony be- tween her and the colonies to be restored, but that a concord might be established be- tween them, upon so firm a basis as to per- petuate its blessings, uninterrupted by any future dissensions, to succeeding generations, in both countries. They, therefore, beseech- ed that his majesty would be pleased to di- rect some mode by which the united appli- cations of his faithful colonists to the throne, in pursuance of their common councils, might be improved into a happy and perma- nent reconciliation." By this last clause, it is said that congress meant that the mother- country should propose a plan for establish- ing, by compact, something like a Magna Charta for the colonies. This well-meant petition was presented on September 1st, 1775, by Mr. Penn and Mr. Lee; and on the 4th, lord Dartmouth informed them, " that to it no answer would be given." This slight contributed not a little to the union and perseverance of the colonies. When pressed by the calamities of war, a doubt would sometimes arise in the minds of scrupulous persons, that they had been too hasty hi their opposition to their protecting parent-state. GENERAL WASHINGTON APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. A MILITARY opposition to the armies of Great Britain being resolved upon by the colonies, it became an object of consequence to fix on a proper person to conduct that op- position. On the 15th of June, George Washington was, by an unanimous vote, ap- pointed commander-in-chief of all the forces raised, or to be raised, for the defence of the colonies. It was a fortunate circumstance attending his election, that it was accom- panied with no competition, and followed by no envy. General Washington, Dr. Ramsay informs us, was born on the llth of February, 1732. His education was such as favored the pro- duction of a solid mind and a vigorous body. Mountain air, abundant exercise in the open country, the wholesome toils of the chase, and the delightful scenes of rural life, ex- panded his limbs to an unusual, but graceful and well-proportioned size. His youth was spent in the acquisition of useful knowledge, and hi pursuits tending to the improvement of his fortune, or the benefit of his country. Fitted more for active than for speculative life, he devoted the greater proportion of his 17601820. 153 time to the former ; but this was amply com- pensated by his being frequently in such sit- uations as called forth the powers of his mind, and strengthened them by repeated exercise. Early in life, in obedience to his country's call, he entered the military line, and began his career of fame in opposing that power in concert with whose troops he acquired his last and most distinguished honors. He was with general Braddock in 1755, when that unfortunate officer, from an excess of bravery, chose rather to sacrifice his army than to retreat from an unseen foe. The remains of that unfortunate corps were brought off the field of battle chiefly by the address and good conduct of colonel Wash- ington. After the peace of Paris, 1763, he retired to his estate, and with great industry and success pursued the arts of peaceful life. When the proceedings of the British parlia- ment alarmed the colonists with apprehen- sions that a blow was levelled at their liber- ties, he again came forward into public view, and was appointed a delegate to the con- gress which met in September, 1774. Pos- sessed of a large proportion of common sense, directed by a sound judgment, he was better fitted for the exalted station to which he was called, than many others who to a greater brilliancy of parts frequently add the eccentricity of original genius. Engaged in the busy scenes of life, he knew human na- ture, and the most proper method of accom- plishing the proposed objects. His passions were subdued, and kept in subjection to rea- son. His soul, superior to party spirit, to prejudice, and illiberal views, moved accord- ing to the impulses it received from an honest heart and a sound judgment He was habituated to view things on every side, to consider them in all relations, and to trace the possible and probable consequences of proposed measures. Much addicted to close thinking, his mind was constantly employed. By frequent exercise, his understanding and judgment expanded so as to be able to dis- cern truth, and to know what was proper to be done in the most difficult conjuncture* Coeval with the resolutions for raising an army, was another for emitting a sum not exceeding two millions of Spanish milled dollars, in bills of credit, for the defence of America, and the colonies were pledged for the redemption of them. This sum was in- creased from tune to time by further emis- sions. The colonies having neither money nor revenue at their command, were forced to adopt this expedient, the only one which was in their power for supporting an army. No one delegate opposed the measure. So great had been the credit of the former emissions of paper in the greater part of the colonies, that very few at that time foresaw or apprehended the consequences of unfund- 154 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ed paper emissions ; but had all the conse- quences which resulted from this measure in the course of the war been foreseen, it must, notwithstanding', have been adopted. A happy ignorance of future events, com- bined with the ardor of the times, prevented many reflections on this subject, and gave credit and circulation to these bills. When general Washington arrived at Cambridge, July third, he was received with the joyful acclamations of the American army. At the head of his troops he publish- ed a declaration, previously drawn up by congress, in the nature of a manifesto, set- ting forth the reasons for taking up arms. In this, after enumerating various griev- ances of the colonies, and vindicating them from a premeditated design of establishing independent states, it was added, "In our own native land, in defence of the freedom which is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the industry of our forefathers and our- selves, against violence actually offered we have taken up arms ; we shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before." When general Washington joined the American army, he found the British in- trenched on Bunker's Hill, having also three floating batteries in Mystic river, and a twenty-gun ship below the ferry, between Boston and Charlestown. They had also a battery on Copse's Hill, and were strongly fortified on the Neck. The Americans were intrenched at Winter Hill, Prospect Hill, and Roxbury, communicating with one an- other by small posts, over a distance of ten miles. There were also parties stationed in several towns along the sea-coast They had neither engineers to plan suitable works, nor sufficient tools for their erection. Embarrassments from various quarters oc- curred in the formation of a continental army. The appointment of general officers made by congress was not satisfactory. En- terprising leaders had come forward with their followers, on the commencement of hostilities, without scrupulous attention to rank. When these were all blended togeth- er, it was impossible to assign to every offi- cer the station which his services merited, or his vanity demanded. Materials for a good army were collected. The husband- men who flew to arms were active, zealous, and of unquestionable courage ; but to in- troduce discipline and subordination among freemen, who were habituated to think for themselves, was an arduous labor. The want of system and of union, under proper heads, pervaded every department. Prom the circumstance that the persons em- ployed in providing necessaries for the army, were unconnected with eacji other, much waste and unnecessary delays were occasioned. The troops of the different col- onies came into service under varied estab- lishments some were enlisted with the ex- press condition of choosing their officers. The rations promised by the local legisla- tures varied both as to quantity, quality, and price. To form one uniform mass of these discordant materials, and to subject the li- centiousness of independent freemen to the control of military discipline, was a delicate and difficult business. The continental army put under the com- mand of general Washington, amounted to about 14,500 men. These had been so judi- ciously stationed round Boston, as to confine the British to the town, and to exclude them from the forage and provisions which the adjacent country and islands in Boston Bay afforded. The force was thrown into three grand divisions. General Ward commanded the right wing at Roxbury; general Lee the left at Prospect Hill; and the centre was commanded by general Washington. When some effectual pains had been taken to discipline the army, it was found that the term for which enlistments had ta- ken place, was on the point of expiring. The troops from Connecticut and Rhode-Isl- and were only engaged till the first day of December 1775, and no part of the army longer than the first day of January 1776. Such mistaken apprehensions respecting the future conduct of Great Britain prevailed, that many thought the appearance of a de- termined spirit of resistance would lead to a redress of all their grievancea Towards the close of the year (on the 10th of October) general Gage sailed for England, and the command of the British troops devolved on general Howe. The Massachusets assembly and continent- al congress both resolved to fit out armed ves- sels to cruise on the American coast, for the purpose of intercepting warlike stores and supplies designed for the use of the British army. The object was at first limited, but as the prospect of accommodation vanished, it was extended to all British property afloat on the high seas. The Americans were dif- fident of their ability to do anything on the water, in opposition to the greatest naval power in the world ; but from a combination of circumstances, their first attempts were successful. On the 29th of November, the Lee priva- teer, captain Manley, took the brig Nancy, an ordnance vessel from Woolwich, con- taining a large brass mortar, several pieces of brass cannon, a large quantity of arms and ammunition, with all manner of tools, GEORGE HI. 17601820. 155 utensils, and machines, necessary for camps and artillery. Had congress sent an order for supplies, they could not have made out a list of articles more suitable to their situa- tion, than what was thus providentially thrown into their hands. In about nine days after, three ships, with various stores for the British army, and a brig from Antigua, with rum, were taken by captain Manley. Before five days more had elapsed, several other store-ships were captured. By these means the distresses of the British troops in Boston were increased, and supplies for the continental army were procured. Naval captures being unexpect- ed, were matter of triumph to the Ameri- cans, and of surprise to the British. FORT TICONDEROGA TAKEN. WHILE these affairs were transacting, a bold enterprise was undertaken by the Americans against the British possessions on the frontiers of Canada, and this it will be proper to relate before we return to the transactions of the mother country. Situated on a promontory, formed at the junction of the waters of Lake George and Lake Champlain, Ticonderoga is the key of all communication between New- York and Canada. Messrs. Deane, Wooster, Parsons, Stevens, and others of Connecticut, planned a scheme for obtaining possession of this valuable post Having procured a loan of 1800 dollars of public money, and provided a sufficient quantity of powder and ball, they set off for Bennington, to obtain the co- operation of colonel Allen of that place. Two hundred and seventy men, mostly of that brave and hardy people who are called green mountain boys, were speedily collect- ed at Castleton, which was fixed on as the place of rendezvous. At this place colonel Arnold, who, though attended only with a servant, was prosecuting the same object, unexpectedly joined them. He had been early chosen a captain of a volunteer com- pany, by the inhabitants of New-Haven, among whom he resided. As soon as he re- ceived news of the Lexington battle, he marched off with his company for the vicini- ty of Boston, and arrived there, though 150 miles distant, in a few days. Immediately after his arrival, he waited on the Massa- chusets committee of safety, and informed them, that there were at Ticonderoga many pieces of cannon, and a great quantity of valuable stores, and that the fort was in a ruinous condition, and garrisoned only by about 40 men. They appointed him a colo- nel, and commissioned him to raise 400 men, and to take Ticonderoga, The leaders of the party which had previously rendez- voused at Castleton, admitted colonel Ar- nold to join them, and it was agreed that colonel Allen should be the commander-in- chief of the expedition, and that colonel Ar- nold should be his assistant They proceed- ed without delay, and arrived in the night of the 9th of May at Lake Champlain, op- posite to Ticonderoga. Allen and Arnold crossed over with 83 men, and landed near the garrison. The commander, surprised in his bed, was called upon to surrender the fort ; he asked by what authority ? Colonel Allen replied, " I demand it in the name of the great Jehovah, and of the continental congress." No resistance was made, and the fort, with its valuable stores, and forty- eight prisoners, fell into the hands of the Americans. The boats had been sent back for the remainder of the men, but the busi- ness was done before they got over. Colo- nel Seth Warner was sent off with a party to take possession of Crown Point, where a serjeant and twelve men performed garri- son duty. This was speedily effected. The next object calling for the attention of the Americans, was to obtain the command of Lake Champlain ; but to accomplish this, it was necessary for them to get possession of a sloop of war, lying at St. John's, at the northern extremity of the lake. With the view of capturing this sloop, it was agreed to man and arm a schooner lying at South Bay, that Arnold should command her, and that Allen should command some ba- teaux on the same expedition. A favorable wind carried the schooner ahead of the ba- teaux, and colonel Arnold got immediate possession of the sloop by surprise. The wind again favoring him, he returned with his prize to Ticonderoga, and rejoined colo- nel Allen. The latter soon went home, and the former, with a number of men, agreed to remain there in garrison. In this rapid manner the possession of Ticonderoga, and the command of Lake Champlain, were ob- tained, without any loss, by a few determin- ed men. Intelligence of these events was in a few days communicated to congress, which met for the first time, at ten o'clock of the same day in the morning of which Ticonderoga was taken. They rejoiced in the spirit of enterprise displayed by their countrymen, but feared the charge of being aggressors, or of doing anything to widen the breach between Great Britain and the colonies ; for an accommodation was at that time nearly their unanimous wish. They therefore recommended to the committees of the cities and counties of New- York and Albany, to cause the cannon and stores to be removed from Ticonderoga to the south end of Lake George, and to take an exact inventory of them, " in order that they might be safely returned when the restoration of the former harmony between Great Britain and the colonies, so ardently wished for by the latter, should render it prudent and con- 156 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. sietent with the overruling law of self-pre- servation." EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC. COLONEL ARNOLD having begun his mili- tary career with a series of successes, was urged by his native impetuosity to project more extensive operations. On the 13th of June he wrote a letter to congress, strongly urging an expedition into Canada, and offer- ing with 2000 men to reduce the whole province. In his ardent zeal to oppose Great Britain, he had advised the adoption of an offensive war, even before congress had or- ganized an army or appointed a single mili- tary officer. His importunity was at last successful. Such was the increasing fervor of the public mind in 1775, that what in the early part of the year was deemed violent and dangerous, was in its progress pro- nounced both moderate and expedient Sir Guy Carleton, the king's governor in Canada, no sooner heard that the Americans had surprised Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and obtained the command of Lake Cham- plain, than he planned a scheme for their re- covery. Having only a tew regular troops under his command, he endeavored to induce the Canadians and Indians to co-operate with him ; but they both declined. He established martial law, that he might compel the in- habitants to take up arms. They declared themselves ready to defend the province, but refused to march out of it, or to commence hostilities on their neighbors. Congress had committed the management of their military arrangements, in this north- ern department, to general Schuyler and general Montgomery. While the former remained at Albany, to attend an Indian treaty, the latter was sent forward to Ticon- deroga, with a body of troops from New- York and New-England. Soon after reach- ing Ticonderoga, he made a movement down Lake Champlain. General Schuyler over- took him at Cape la Motte ; whence they moved on to Isle aux Noix. About this time general Schuyler addressed the inhab- itants, informing them, " that the only views of congress were to restore to them those rights which every subject of the British empire, of whatever religious sentiments he may be, is entitled to ; and that in the exe- cution of these trusts he had received the most positive orders to cherish every Cana- dian, and every friend to the cause of liber- ty, and sacredly to guard their property." The Americans, about 1000 in number, on the 10th of September effected a landing at St John's, which being the first British post in Canada, lies only 115 miles to the north- ward of Ticonderoga. The British picquets were driven into the fort The environs were, then reconnoitred, and the fortifica- tions were found to be much stronger than had been suspected. This induced the call- ing of a council of war, whicli recommended a retreat to Isle aux Noix, twelve miles south of St. John's, to throw a boom across the channel, and to erect works for its defence. Soon after this event an extreme bad state of health induced general Schuyler to retire to Ticonderoga, and the command devolved on general Montgomery. This enterprising officer in a few; days re- turned to the vicinity of St John's, and opened a battery against it Ammunition was so scarce that the siege could not be carried on with any prospect of speedy suc- cess. The general detached a small body of troops to attempt the reduction of Foil Chamblee, only six miles distant Success attended this enterprise. By its surrender six tons of gunpowder were obtained, which enabled the general to prosecute the siege of St John's with vigor. The garrison, though straitened for provisions, persevered in defending themselves with unabating for- titude. While general Montgomery was prosecuting this siege, the governor of the province collected at Montreal about 800 men, chiefly militia and Indians. He en- deavored to cross the river St Laurence with this force, and to land at Longueil, in- tending to proceed thence to attack the be- siegers ; but colonel Warner with 300 green mountain boys and a four-pounder, prevented the execution of the design. The governor's party was suffered to come near the shore, but was then fired upon with such effect as to make them retire, after sustaining great loss. An account of this affair being communi- cated to the garrison in St John's, major Preston, the commanding officer, surren- dered, on receiving honorable terms of ca- pitulation. After the reduction of St. John's, general Montgomery proceeded towards Montreal. The few British forces there, unable to stand their ground, repaired for safety on board the shipping, in hopes of escaping down the river ; but they were prevented by colonel Easton, who was stationed at the point of Sorel river with a number of continental troops, some cannon, and an armed gondola. General Prescot who was on board with several officers, and about 120 privates, hav- ing no chance to escape, submitted to be prisoners on terms of capitulation. Eleven sail of vessels with all their contents, con- sisting of ammunition, provision, and in- trenching tools, became the property of the provincials. Governor Carleton was about his time conveyed in a boat with muffled saddles by a secret way to the Three Rivers, and thence to Quebec in a few days. When Montreal was evacuated by the troops, the inhabitants applied to general GEORGE HI. 17601820. 157 Montgomery for a capitulation. He informed them, that as they were defenceless, they could not expect such a concession, but he engaged upon his honor to maintain the in- dividuals and religious communities of the city, in the peaceable enjoyment of their property, and the free exercise of their reli- gion. In all his transactions, he spoke, wrote, and acted with dignity and propriety, and in particular treated the inhabitants with liberality and politeness. Montreal, which at this time surrendered to the provincials, carried on an extensive trade, and contained many of those articles, which from the operation of the resolutions of congress could not be imported into any of the united colonies. From these stores the American soldiers, who had hitherto suf- fered from the want of suitable clothing, obtained a plentiful supply. General Montgomery, after leaving some troops in Montreal, and sending detachments into different parts of the province to en- courage the Canadians, and to forward pro- visions, advanced towards the capital. His little army arrived with expedition before Quebec. Success had hitherto crowned every attempt .of general Montgomery, but notwithstanding his situation was very em- barrassing. In the choice of difficulties, the genius of Montgomery surmounted many obstacles. During his short career, he con- ducted himself with so much prudence, as to make it doubtful whether we ought to admire most the goodness of the man or the address of the general. About the same time that Canada was in- vaded, in the usual route from New- York, a considerable detachment from the American army at Cambridge was conducted into that royal province by a new and unexpected passage. Colonel Arnold, who successfully conducted this bold undertaking, thereby acquired the name of the American Hanni- bal. The most pointed instructions had been given to this corps, to conciliate the affections of the Canadians. It was par- ticularly enjoined upon them, if the son of lord Chatham, then an officer in one of the British regiments in that province, should fall into their hands, to treat him with all possible attention, in return for the great ex- ertions of his father in behalf of American liberty. While general Montgomery lay at Mont- real, colonel Arnold arrived [November 8th] at Point Levy opposite to Quebec. Such was the consternation of the garrison and inhabitants at his unexpected appearance, that had not the river intervened, an imme- diate attack in the first surprise and confu- sion, might have been successful. The em- barrassments of the garrison were increased by the absence of Sir Guy Carleton ; that VOL. IV. 14 gallant officer, on hearing of Montgomery's invasion, prepared to oppose him in the ex- tremes of the province. While he was collecting a force to attack invaders in one direction, a different corps, emerging out of the depths of an unexplored wilderness, suddenly appeared from another. In a few days after colonel Arnold had arrived at Point Levy, he crossed the river St Lau- rence, but his chance of succeeding by a coup de main was in that short space great- ly diminished. The critical moment was passed. The panic occasioned by his first appearance had abated, and solid prepara- tions for the defence of the town were adopt- ed. The inhabitants, both English and Ca- nadians, as soon as danger pressed, united for their common defence. Alarmed for their property, they were, at their own re- quest, embodied for its security. The sailors were taken from the shipping in the harbor, and put to the batteries on shore. As colo- nel Arnold had no artillery, after parading some days on the heights near Quebec, he drew off his troops, intending nothing more until the arrival of Montgomery, than to cut off supplies from entering the garrison. At the time the Americans were before Montreal, general Carleton, as has been re- lated, escaped through their hand, and got safe to Quebec. His presence was itself a garrison. The confidence reposed in his talents, inspired the men under his command to make the most determined resistance. General Montgomery having on the first of December effected at Point aux Trem- bles a junction with colonel Arnold, com- menced the siege of Quebec. Towards the end of the year, the tide of fortune began to turn. Dissensions broke out between colonel Arnold and some of his officers, threatening the annihilation of dis- cipline. The continental currency had no circulation in Canada, and all the hard money furnished for the expedition was nearly expended. Difficulties of every kind were daily increasing. The extremities of fatigue were constantly to be encountered. The extremity of winter was fast approach- ing. From these combined circumstances, general Montgomery was impressed with a conviction, that the siege should either be raised, or brought to a summary termination. To storm the place was the only feasible method of effecting the latter purpose ; but this was an undertaking, in which success was but barely possible. The garrison of Quebec at this time con- sisted of about 1520 men, of which 800 were militia, and 460 were seamen belong- ing to the king's frigates, or merchants' . ships in the harbor. The rest were marines, regulars or colonel Maclean's new raised emigrants. The American army consisted 158 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of about 800 men. Some had been left at Montreal, and near a third of Arnold's de- tachment, as has been related, had returned to Cambridge. ATTACK ON QUEBEC AND DEATH OF MONTGOMERY. GENERAL MONTGOMERY having divided this little force into four detachments, or- dered two feints to be made against the up- per town, one by colonel Livingston, at the head of the Canadians, against St John's gate ; and the other by major Brown, against Cape Diamond, reserving to himself and colonel Arnold the two principal attacks against the lower town. At five o'clock in the morning of the 31st of December gene- ral Montgomery advanced against the lower town. He passed the first barrier, and was just opening to attack the second, when he was killed, together with his aid-de-camp, captain John M'Pherson, captain Cheesman, and some others. This so dispirited the men, that colonel Campbell, on whom the command devolved, thought proper to draw them off. In the mean time colonel Arnold, at the head of about 350 men, passed through St Roch, and approached near a two-gun battery, without being discovered. .This he attacked, and though it was well defended, carried it, but with considerable loss. In this attack colonel Arnold received a wound, which made it necessary to carry him off the field of battle. His party nevertheless continued the assault, and pushing on, made themselves masters of a second barrier ; but finding themselves hemmed in, and without hopes either of success, relief, or retreat, they yielded to numbers, and the advanta- geous situation of their adversaries. The loss of the Americans, in killed and wound- ed, was about 100, and 300 were taken prisoners. This deliverance of Quebec may be con- sidered as a proof how much may be done by one man for the preservation of a coun- try. It also proves that soldiers may in a short time be formed out of the mass of citizens. The conflict being over, the ill will which had subsisted, during the siege, between the royal and provincial troops gave way to timents of humanity. The Americans sen- Americans who surrendered, were treated with kindness. Ample provisions were made for their wound- ed, and no unnecessary severity shown to any. Few men have ever fallen in battle so much regretted on both sides as general Montgomery. His well-known character was almost equally esteemed by the friends and foes of the side which he had espoused. In America he was celebrated as a martyr to the liberties of mankind ; in Great Britain as a misguided good man, sacrificing to what he supposed to be the rights of his country. ASPECT OF AFFAIR& A SERIES of disasters followed the royal cause in the year 1775. General Gage's army was cooped up in Boston, and render- ed useless. In the southern states, where a small force would have made an impression, the royal governors were unsupported. Much was done to irritate the colonists and to ce- ment their union, but very little, either in the way of conquest or concession, to subdue their spirits or conciliate their affections. In this year the people of America gene- rally took their side. Every art was made use of by the popular leaders to attach the inhabitants to their cause; nor were the votaries of the royal interest inactive. But little impression was made by the latter, ex- cept among the uninformed. The great mass of the wealth, learning, and influence, in all the southern colonies, and in most of the northern, was in favor of the American cause. Some aged persons were exceptions to the contrary. Attached to ancient habits, and enjoying the fruits of their industry, they were slow in approving new measures subversive of the former, and endangering the latter. A few who had basked in the sunshine of court fevor, were restrained by honor, principle, and interest, from forsaking the fountain of their enjoyments. Some feared the power of Britain, and others doubted the perseverance of America ; but a great majority resolved to hazard every- thing in preference to a tame submission. NOTES TO CHAPTER XI. 1 The awembly of South Caro- lina voted 150W. to this fund ; nd the committee, in their let- ter of thanks for the favor, took care, amongother inflammatory suggestions, to hint that the parliament, as then constituted, had no right to levy taxes either in England or America, and that "demands which were made without authority, should be heard* without obedience." 2 This petition having been re- ferred by the king to the privy- council, and Dr. Franklin being summoned in hie official ca- pacity to support the charges, the lords of the council made their report to his majesty, " that the petition was founded upon false and erroneous alle- gations, and that the same is groundless, vexatious, and scan- dalous, and calculated only for the seditious purposes of keep- ing up a spirit of clamor and discontent in the province." GEORGE m. 17601820. 159 CHAPTER XII. Fatal effects of the War Meeting of Parliament Defection of the Duke of Grafton and General Conway from the Ministry Introduction of foreign troops Prohibito- ry Bill Changes in the ministry Affairs of Ireland Debates on foreign troops Conclusion of the Session Boston evacuated by the British Siege of Quebec rais- ed Americans defeated on the Lakes Unsuccessful attempt upon Charlestown Preparations against New- York Declaration of Independence Americans defeat- ed at Long-Island New- York taken Americans retreat into the Jerseys and over the Delaware Rhode-Island reduced General Lee made prisoner Hessians cut off at Trenton British defeated at Princeton. EFFECTS OF THE WAR. THE war in America had no sooner se- riously commenced, than its fatal effects were experienced in the trading world. The manufactures and trade of Great Britain appeared completely at a stand hi all the great provincial towns and cities. Bristol and Liverpool, in particular, suffered con- siderably ; and in the latter place, the Afri- can trade being almost annihilated by the war, and numbers of seamen having been thrown out of employ, some dangerous riots took place in the month of August, and were only quelled by the arrival of a military force from Manchester. Notwithstanding the confident boasts of ministry, that the forces which had been voted in the last session were fully adequate to the subjugation of America, it wag found that they were not sufficient to maintain their ground in the city of Boston. Negotiations for foreign troops, therefore, became absolutely necessary. Russia was applied to in vain, nor could the Dutch be prevailed on to part with their Scotch brig- ade for this nefarious service. With the slave-merchants of Germany the ministers were more successful, and a number of troops were purchased, like cattle, of the princes of Hesse and Brunswick. It is always one of the principal artifices of a weak and bad ministry, to amuse the populace with fabricated plots and conspira- cies to overturn the government Previous to the meeting of parliament, something of this kind was deemed necessary, and a Mr. Sayre, a banker, an American by birth, was committed to the Tower, on a ridiculous charge of a plot to seize the king on his passage to the house of peers, and to con- vey him out of the kingdom. On an appli- cation, however, by habeas corpus, to the court of king's-bench, the charge appeared so frivolous and ill-founded, that Mr. Sayre was discharged ; and he afterwards recovered in a court of law, 1000Z. damages against lord Rochford, secretary of state, on an ac- tion for false imprisonment PARLIAMENT MEETS. THE parliamentary session commenced rather earlier than usual, viz. on October 26th. His majesty, in a speech of unusual length, gave the present situation of Ameri- ca as a reason for having called the houses together early. It was observed, that those who had too long successfully labored to in- fluence the people in America by gross mis- representations, and to infuse into their minds a system of opinions repugnant to the true constitution of the colonies, and to their subordinate relation to Great Britain, now openly avowed their revolt, hostility, and rebellion. They had raised troops, were collecting a naval force, had seized the pub- lic revenue, and assumed to themselves le- gislative, executive, and judicial powers, which they already exercised in the most arbitrary manner, over the persons and prop- erties of their fellow-subjects ; and although many of these unhappy people might still retain their loyalty, too wise not to see the fatal consequences of this usurpation, and might wish to resist it, yet the torrent of vio- lence had been strong enough to compel their acquiescence, till a sufficient force should appear to support them. The rebellious war was now become more general, and was manifestly carried on for the purpose of establishing an independent empire. The object was too important, the spirit of the British nation too high, the re- sources with which God had blessed her too numerous, to give up so many colonies which she had planted with great industry, nursed with great tenderness, encouraged with many commercial advantages, and protected and defended at much expense of blood and treasure. It was now become the part of wisdom, and, in its effects, of clemency, to put a speedy end to these disorders by the most decisive exertions. For this purpose his majesty had increased his naval estab- lishment, and greatly augmented his land forces ; but in such a manner as might be least burdensome to the kingdom. His ma- jesty informed them that the most friendly 160 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. offers of foreign service had been made, and, if necessary, should be laid before them. He assured them, that when the un- happy and deluded multitude, against whom force was to be directed, should become sensible of their error, he would receive the misled with tenderness and mercy. An apology was made to the commons for the increased demand of supplies, arid it was affirmed that the constant employment of his majesty's thoughts, and the most earnest wishes of his heart, tended wholly to the safety and happiness of his people ; and that his majesty saw no probability that the mea- sures which parliament might adopt would be interrupted by disputes with any foreign power. The addresses, in answer to this speech, contained the same sentiments, and the efforts of opposition were powerfully di- rected to avoid the imputation of those ad- dresses being the unanimous voice of the house. GENERAL CONWAY AND THE DUKE OF GRAFTON JOIN THE OPPOSITION. THEIR arguments were powerfully aided by the defection of general Con way and the duke of Grafton ; who, in their respective houses, pleaded the cause of the injured col- onists with great ability, feeling, and cor- rectness. They gave it as their opinion, that if ever a reconciliation could be effected, this was the time to make the attempt, by a repeal of every obnoxious act passed against the Americans since the year 1763. The addresses, however, passed in the original forms in both houses, by prodigious majori- tiea The debates were unusually long, and the questions attended to with unremitting zeal. The duke of Richmond distinguished himself in the house of lords, and was one of nineteen against the peers who signed a protest proceedings of that house. What relates to the employment of Hano- verian troops, conveys the following senti- ments : " that Hanoverian troops should, at the mere pleasure of the ministers, be con- sidered as a part of the British military es- tablishment, and take a rotation of garrison duties, through these dominions, is, in prac- tice and precedent, of the highest danger to the safety and liberties of this kingdom, and tends wholly to invalidate the wise and salutary declaration of the grand funda- mental law of our glorious deliverer, king William, which has bound together the rights of the subject, and the succession of the throne." Upon this opinion, a few days after the address had been delivered, the duke of Manchester founded a resolution, "That bringing into any part of the domin- ions of Great Britain, the electoral troops of his majesty, or any other foreign troops, is dangerous and unconstitutional." The Hanoverians, his grace observed, would not be under the command of any military law in those garrisons, and the mutiny act could not extend to them, being confined to those troops only which are specified in it, or voted by parliament There was no secu- rity in putting fortified places of such im- portance into the hands of foreign troops, and the king had no right to maintain, in any part of his British dominions, any troops to which parliament had not given their consent On the other hand, the lords in administration said, that the clause in the bill of rights, which is in question, is .to be understood with the conditions annexed to it, one of which relates to the bringing of troops within the kingdom, and another mentions the time of peace, and in the pres- ent case neither of those conditions was violated. Nay, the bill of rights, it was said, confirms to the king a power to raise an army, in time of war, in any part of his dominions, both of natives and foreigners a power which had been exerted on several occasions, without the consent of parliament, and was justified now by necessity. The opposition answered, that the words " with- in the kingdom," if confined to England alone, would exclude Ireland, Scotland, and other places into which armies of foreigners might be introduced. " However the cir- cumstantial quibbling of law might pretend to determine, the measure was certainly contrasy to the spirit and intention of the bill of rights, which particularly provides against keeping a standing army without the consent of parliament" They main- tained that no foreign troops had been brought into the kingdom at any time since the revolution, without the previous consent of parliament, either by an address, or by some former treaty which it had ratified ; and the hiring of foreign troops, and after- wards prevailing on parliament to ratify the engagements, had always been censured as an unwarrantable step. In the late war, ministers were exceedingly cautious in this respect, and even after the parliament had agreed to the raising of 4000 Germans for American service, such effectual provision was made for the security of this kingdom, that it was impossible any mischief could ensue. With all the deference king Wil- liam's parliament entertained for that prince, they never would consent to the admission of his Dutch guards into England. Notwith- standing these and other forcible arguments, the previous question was put, and the num- bers were, 75 who voted against, and 32 who supported the motion. A further infraction on the constitution presented itself at this time to the opposi- without the previous consent of parliament, | tion. A new militia-bill which was intro- GEORGE IH 17601820. 161 duced, was said to be subversive of every idea of a constitutional militia, as they were not to be called out except in cases of in- vasion or rebellion, pretences of which might at any time be made ; a minister had it in his power to embody them, and in that case they composed a standing army. The min- istry endeavored to assure the house that their fears on this topic were groundless, and that it was not to be supposed that any min- ister would dare to abuse the power granted to him, and that if he did, he was accounta- ble for it at the risk of his life. This apology, however, did not satisfy the opposition ; part of the Devonshire militia had offered their personal service against all internal enemies ; this was a specimen of what we had to ex- pect from the establishment of this new mi- litia, who were to obey any orders that might be given, no matter by whom ; and where would they, who might differ from adminis- tion in matters of political opinion, find se- curity against the undue exertion of this power, or the misconstruction of the senti- ments of opposition 1 On the contrary it was replied, that the Devonshire militia, by this address, only wished to give a proof of their attachment to the crown, and that it was proper for other societies to do the same, as a counterpart to the addresses of London and Middlesex, and to undeceive the people in the country, who dreaded that nothing less than a revolution was meditated by the present adverse proceedings of some bodies of men. The question being put, the bil was carried by 259 to 50. These debates were followed by the aug- mentation of the land-tax to four shillings in the pound. This passed with little oppo- sition, excepting some complaints about the want of information. PROHIBITORY BILL. No ministry had, in any preceding war exerted themselves more to prosecute mili- tary operations against alien enemies, than the present to make the ensuing campaign decisive of the dispute between the mother country and the colonies. One legislative act was still wanting to give full efficacy to the intended prosecution of hostilities. This was brought into parliament in a bill inter- dicting all trade and intercourse with the thirteen united colonies. By it all property of Americans, whether of ships or goods on the high seas, or in liarbor, was declared " to be forfeited to the captors, being the officers and crews of his majesty's ships of war.' It farther enacted, " that the masters, crews and other persons found on board capture( American vessels, should be entered on board his majesty's vessels of war, and there considered to be in his majesty's service to all intents and purposes, as if they had en tered of their own accord." This bill also 14* uthorized the crown to appoint commission- irs, who, over and above granting pardons o individuals, were empowered to " inquire into general and particular grievances, and a determine whether any colony, or part of a colony, was returned to that state of obe- lience which might entitle it to be received within the king's peace and protection." In that case, upon a declaration from the com- missioners, " the restrictions of the proposed aw were to cease." It was said, in favor of this bill, that as the Americans were already in a state of war, it became necessary that hostilities should be carried on against them, as was usual against alien enemies : That the more vigorously and extensively military opera- tions were prosecuted, the sooner would peace and order be restored : That as the commissioners went out with the sword in one hand, and terms of conciliation in the other, it was in the power of the colonists to prevent the infliction of any real or ap- parent severities in the proposed statute. In opposition to it, it was said, that treat- ing the Americans as a foreign nation, was marking out the way for their independence. One member observed, that as the indis- criminate rapine of property, authorized by the bill, would oblige the colonists to coa- lesce as one man, its title ought to be, " A bill for carrying more effectually into exe- cution the resolves of the congress." But of all parts of this bill, none was so severely condemned as that clause by which persons taken on board the American vessels, were indiscriminately compelled to serve as com- mon sailors in British ships of war. This was said to be " a refinement of tyranny worse than death." It was also said, " that no man could be despoiled of his goods as a foreign enemy, and at the same time obliged to serve as a citizen, and that compelling captives to bear arms against their families, kindred, friends, and country ; and after be- ing plundered themselves, to become ac- complices in plundering their brethren ; was unexampled, except among pirates, the out- laws and enemies of human society." To all these high charges the ministry replied, " that the measure was an act of grace and favor; for," said they, "the crews of Ameri- can vessels, instead of being put to death, the legal punishment of their demerits, as traitors and rebels, are by this law to be rated on the king's books, and treated as if they were on the same footing with a great body of his most useful and faithful sub- jects." In the progress of the debates on this bill, lord Mansfield declared, "that the ques- tions of original right and wrong were no longer to be considered that they were en- gaged in a war, and must use their utmost 162 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. efforts to obtain the ends proposed by it ; that they must either fight or be pursued ; and 1 hat the justice of the cause must give way to their present situation." Perhaps no speech, in or out of parliament, operated more extensively on the irritated minds of the colonists than this. CHANGES IN THE CABINET. THE recess for the holidays now took place, but previous to it some changes in the ministry had happened which it is proper to notice ; the privy-seal, vacant by the resig- nation of the duke of Grafton, was given to the earl of Dartmouth, who resigned the secretaryship of the American department ; lord George Sackville Germain succeeded him, who once had been attached to opposi- tion and a zealous friend of Mr. Grenville, after whose death he gradually came over to the side of administration, and had voted with them in favor of all the late measures respecting America. Lord Weymouth suc- ceeded the earl of Rochford as secretary for the southern department IRISH AFFAIRS. 1776. THE first business of any conse- quence, after the recess, related to Ireland. The lord-lieutenant of that kingdom had sent a written message to the house of com- mons, containing a requisition in the king's name, of 4000 additional troops from that kingdom for the American service, not to be paid by that establishment during their ab- sence, and, if desired by them, to be replaced by an equal number of foreign Protestant troops, the charges of which should be de- frayed without any expense to Ireland. The commons granted 4000 troops, but rejected the offer of foreign troops, and the patriotic members wished rather to embody a part of the nation under the description of volunteers for their internal defence. DEBATE ON FOREIGN TROOPS. THE treaties which had been concludec with the landgrave of Hesse Cassel, the duke of Brunswick, and the hereditary prince of Hesse Cassel, for hiring their troops to the king of Great Britain, to be employed in the American service, being on the 29th of Feb- ruary laid before the house of commons, a motion was made thereon for referring them to the committee of supply. This occasion- ed a very interesting debate on the propriety of employing foreign troops against the Americans. The measure was supported on the necessity of prosecuting the war, and the impracticability of raising a sufficient number of domestic levies. It was also urged, "that foreign troops, inspired with the military maxims and ideas of implicit submission, would be less apt to be biassed by that -false lenity which native soldiers might indulge, at the expense of national in- terest" It was said, u Are we to sit still and suffer an unprovoked rebellion to termi- nate in the formation of an independent hos- tile empire ? " " Are we to suffer our colo- nies, the object of grea't national expense, and of two bloody wars, to be lost for ever to us, and given away to strangers, from a scruple of employing foreign troops to pre- serve our just rights over colonies for which we have paid so dear a purchase 1 As the Americans, by refusing the obedience and taxes of subjects, deny themselves to be a part of the British empire, and make them- selves foreigners, they cannot complain that foreigners are employed agafnst them." On the other side, the measure was severely condemned ; the necessity of the war was denied, and the nation was represented as disgraced by applying to the petty princes of Germany for succors against her own rebellious subjects. The tendency of the example to induce the Americans to form alliances with foreign powers, was strongly urged. It was said, " Hitherto the colonists have ventured to commit themselves singly in this arduous contest, without having re- course to foreign aid ; but it is not to be doubted, that in future they will think them- selves fully justified, both by our example and the laws of self-preservation, to engage foreigners to assist them in opposing those mercenaries, whom we are about to trans- port for their destruction. Nor is it doubtful that, in case of their application, European powers of a rank far superior to that of those petty princes, to whom we have so abjectly sued for aid, will consider themselves to be equally entitled to interfere in the quarrel between us and our colonies." The supposition of the Americans receiv- ing aid from France or Spain, was on this and several other occasions ridiculed, on the idea that these powers would not dare to set to their own colonies the dangerous example of encouraging those of Great Britain in op- posing their sovereign. It was also suppos- ed, that they would be influenced by consid- erations of future danger to their American possessions, from the establishment of an independent empire in their vicinity. A bill for the establishment of a militia in Scotland had been brought in by lord Mount- stewart, on the 8th of December 1775 ; but from want of attendance, and multiplicity of other business, had been neglected during the greater part of the season. It was now brought under consideration ; but, notwith- standing the apparent sanction of adminis- tration, as well as the patronage of the Scots gentlemen, it was at last thrown out by 112 to 95. On this occasion the minister divided with the minority. On the 23d of May his majesty put an end to the session. In the speech, his ma- jesty expressed the usual satisfaction with GEORGE ffl. 17601820. 163 their proceedings; that no alteration had taken place in the state of foreign affairs : the commons were thanked for their readi- ness and dispatch in granting the supplies, which unavoidably were this year extraor- dinary; a proper frugality was promised, and it was observed that they were engaged in a great national cause, the prosecution of which must be attended with great difficul- ties, and much expense ; but when they con- sidered, that the essential rights and inter- ests of the whole empire were deeply con- cerned in the issue of it, and could have no safety or security but in that constitutional subordination for which they were contend- ing, it afforded a conviction that they could not think any price too high for such objects. His majesty hoped, that his rebellious sub- jects would be awakened to a sense of then- errors, and by a voluntary return to their duty, justify the restoration of harmony ; but if a due submission should not be obtained from such motives and dispositions on their part, it was trusted, that it would be effectu- ated by a full exertion of the great force with which they had intrusted him. BOSTON EVACUATED BY THE BRITISH WHILE these affairs were transacting in England, the troops at Boston were suffer- ing the inconvenience of a blockade. From the 19th of April they were cut off from those refreshments which their situation re- quired ; their supplies from Britain did not reach the coast for a long time after they were expected. Several were taken by the American cruisers, and others were lost ai sea. This was in particular the fate of many of their coal-ships. The want of fue^ was peculiarly felt in a climate where the winter is both severe and tedious. They relieved themselves in part from their suf- ferings on this account, by the timber of houses which they pulled down and burned Vessels were dispatched to the West Indies to procure provisions ; but the islands were so straitened that they could afford but little assistance. Armed ships and transports were ordered to Georgia, with an intent to procure rice ; but the people of that prov- ince, with the aid of a party from South 'Carolina, so effectually opposed them, that of eleven vessels, only two got off safe with their cargoes. It was not till the stock of the garrison was nearly exhausted, that the transports from England entered the port of 1 Boston, and relieved the distresses of the garrison. While the troops within the lines were apprehensive of suffering from want of pro- visions, the troops without were equally un- easy for want of employment. Used to labor and motion on their farms, they relished il the inactivity and confinement of a camp- life. - Fiery spirits declaimed in favor of an assault They preferred a bold spirit of enterprise to that passive fortitude which >ears up under present evils, while it waits or favorable junctures. To be in readiness "or an attempt of this kind, a council of war recommended to call, in 7280 militia-men, Tom New-Hampshire or Connecticut This number, added to the regular army before Boston, would have made an operating force of about 17,000 men. The eyes of all were fixed on . general Washington, and from bun it was unreason- ably expected that he would, by a bold ex- rtion, free the town of Boston from the British troops. The dangerous situation of public affairs led him to conceal the real scarcity of arms and ammunition, and with that magnanimity which is characteristical of great minds, to suffer his character to be assailed, rather than vindicate himself by exposing his many wants. There were not wanting persons who, judging from the su- perior numbers of men in the American army, boldly asserted, that if the Commander- in-chief was not desirous of prolonging his importance at the head of an army, he might, by a vigorous exertion, gain posses- sion of Boston. Such suggestions were re- ported and believed by several, while they were uncontradicted by the general, who chose to risk his fame rather than expose his army and his country. Agreeably to the request of the council of war, about 7000 of the militia had ren- dezvoused in February. General Washing- ton stated to his officers, that the troops in camp, together with the reinforcements which had been called for, and were daily coming in, would amount nearly to 17,000 men that he had not powder sufficient for a bombardment, and asked their advice whether, as reinforcements might be daily expected to the enemy, it would not be pru- dent, before that event took place, to make an assault on the British lines. The propo- sition was negatived; but it was recom- mended to take possession of Dorchester Heights. To conceal this design, and to divert the attention of the garrison, a bom- bardment of the town, from other directions commenced, and was carried on for three days with as much briskness as a deficient stock of powder would admit In this first essay, three of the mortars were broken, either from a defect in their construction, or more probably from ignorance of the proper mode of using them. The night of the 4th of March was fixed upon for taking possession of Dorchester Heights. A covering-party of about 800 men led the way ; these were followed by the carts with the intrenching tools, and 1200 of a working-party, commanded by general Thomas. In the rear, there were 164 HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. more than 200 carts, loaded with fascines and hay in bundles. While the cannon were playing in other parts, the greatest silence was kept by this working-party. The ac- tive zeal of the provincials completed lines of defence by the morning, which astonished the garrison. The difference between Dor- chester Heights on the evening of the 4th, and the morning of the 5th, seemed to re- alize the tales of romance. The admiral informed general Howe, that if the Ameri- cans kept possession of these heights, he would not be able to keep one of his majesty's ships in the harbor. It was therefore determin- ed in a council of war, to attempt to dislodge them. An engagement was hourly expected. It was intended by general Washington, hi that case, to force his way into Boston with 4000 men, who were to have embarked at the mouth of Cambridge river. The militia had come forward with great alertness, each bringing three days' provision, in expecta- tion of an immediate assault The men were in high spirits, and impatiently waiting for the appeal. In a few days after, a flag came out of Boston with a paper signed by four select- men, informing, " that they had applied to general Robertson, who, on application to general Howe, was authorized to assure them that he had no intention of burning the town, unless the troops under his com- mand were molested during their embarka- tion, or at their departure, by the armed force without" When this paper was pre- sented to general Washington, he replied, " that as it was an unauthenticated paper, and without an address, and not obligatory on general Howe, he could take no notice of it ;" but at the same time intimated his good wishes for the security of the town. A proclamation was issued by general Howe, ordering all woollen and linen goods to be delivered to Crean Brush, Esq. Shops were opened and stripped of their goods. A licentious plundering took place ; much was carried off, and more was wantonly destroy- ed. These irregularities were forbidden in orders, and the guilty threatened with death, but nevertheless, every mischief which dis- appointed malice could suggest, was com- mitted. The British, amounting to more than 7000 men, evacuated Boston on the 17th of March, leaving their barracks standing, and also a number of pieces of cannon spiked, four large iron sea-mortars, and stores to the value of 30,000*. They demolished the cas- tle, and knocked off the trunnions of the cannon. Various incidents caused a delay of nine days after the evacuation, before they left Nantasket-road. The evacuation of Boston had been pre- viously determined upon by the British min- istry, from principles of political expedience. Being resolved to carry on the war for pur- poses affecting all the colonies, they con- ceived a central position to be preferable to Boston. Reasoning of this kind had induced the adoption of the measure, but the Ameri- can works on Roxbury expedited its execu- tion. The abandonment of their friends, and the withdrawing their forces from Boston, was the first act of a tragedy in which evacuations and retreats were the scenes which most frequently occurred, and the epilogue of which was a total evacuation of the United States. SIEGE OF QUEBEC RAISED. THOUGH congress and the states made great exertions to support the war in Canada, yet from the fall of Montgomery their in- terest in that colony daily declined. The reduction of Quebec was an object to which then- resources were inadequate. Their un- successful assault on Quebec made an im- pression both on the Canadians and Indians unfavorable to their views. By the first of May, so many new troops had arrived, that the American army, in name, amounted to 3000, but from the prevalence of the small- pox, there were only 900 fit for duly. The increasing number of invalids retarded their military operations, and discouraged their friends, while the opposite party was buoyed up with the expectation that the advancing season would soon bring them relief. On ftie 5th of May, the van of the British force, destined for the relief of Quebec, made good its passage through the ice up the river St. Laurence. The expectation of their coming had for some tune damped the hopes of the besiegers, and had induced them to think of a retreat The day before the first of the British reinforcements ar- rived, that measure was resolved upon by a council of war, and arrangements were made for carrying it into execution. Governor Carleton was too great a profi- cient in the art of war, to delay seizing the advantages which the consternation of the besiegers, and the arrival of a reinforcement afforded. A small detachment of soldiers and marines, from the ships which had just ascended the river St Laurence, being landed and joined to the garrison in Quebec, he marched out at their head to attack the Americans. On his approach, he found everything in confusion ; the late besiegers, abandoning their artillery and military stores, had in great precipitation retreated. In this manner, at the expiration of five months, the mixed siege and blockade of Quebec was raised. The reputation acquired by general Carle- ton in his military character, for bravely and judiciously defending the province com- mitted to his care, was exceeded by the su- GEORGE ffl. 17601820. 165 perior applause, merited from the exercise of the virtues of humanity and generosity. Among the numerous sick in the American hospitals, several, incapable of being moved, were left behind. The victorious general proved himself worthy of success, by his treatment of these unfortunate men ; he not only fed and clothed them, but permitted them, when recovered, to return home. Ap- prehending that fear might make some con- ceal themselves in the woods, rather than, by applying for relief, make themselves known, he removed their doubts by a procla- mation, [May 10th] in which he engaged, " that as soon as their health was restored, they should have free liberty of returning to then- respective provinces." This humane line of conduct was more injurious to the views of the leaders in the American coun- cils, than the severity practised by other British commanders. The truly politic, as well as humane, general Carleton, dismissed these prisoners, after liberally supplying their wants, with a recommendation, "to go home, mind their farms, and keep them- selves and their neighbors from all participa- tion in the unhappy war." The small force which arrived at Quebec in May, was followed by several British regiments, together with the Brunswick troops, in such a rapid succession, that in a few weeks the whole was estimated at thir- teen thousand men. The Americans retreated forty-five miles before they stopped. After a short halt, they proceeded to the Sorel, at which place they threw up some slight works for their safety. They were there joined by some battalions coming to reinforce them. About this time, general Thomas, the commander-in-chief hi Canada, was seized with the small-pox, and died ; having forbidden his men to inoculate, he conformed to his own rule, and refused to avail himself of that precaution. On his death, the command devolved at first on feneral Arnold, and afterwards on general ullivan. It soon became evident that the Americans must abandon the whole province of Canada. The possession of Canada so eminently favored the plans of defence adopted by con- gress, that the province was evacuated with great reluctance. The Americans were not only mortified at the disappointment of their favorite scheme, of annexing it as a four- teenth link in the chain of their confederacy, but apprehended the most serious conse- quences from the ascendency of the British power in that quarter. Anxious to preserve a footing there, they had persevered for a long time in stemming the tide of unfavor- able events. General Gates was about this time ap- pointed to command in Canada, but on com- ing to the knowledge of the late events in that province, he determined to stop short within the limits of New- York. The scene' was henceforth reversed. Instead of medi- tating the recommencement of offensive op- erations, that army which had lately excited so much terror in Canada, was called upon to be prepared for repelling an invasion threatened from that province. The attention of the Americans being ex- clusively fixed on plans of defence, then- general officers commanding in the northern department were convened to deliberate on the place and means most suitable for that purpose. To form a judgment on this sub- ject, a recollection of the events of the late war between France and England was of advantage. The same ground was to be fought over, and the same posts to be again contended for. On the confines of Lake George and Lake Champlain, two inland seas, which stretch almost from the sources of Hudson's river to the St Laurence, are situated the famous posts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point These are of primary neces- sity to any power which contends for the possession of the adjacent country, for they afford the most convenient stand either for its annoyance or defence. In the opinion of some American officers, Crown Point, to which the army on the evacuation of Canada had retreated; was the most proper place for erecting works of defence ; but it was other- wise determined by the council convened on this occasion. It was also by their advice resolved to move lower down, and to make the principal work on the strong ground east of Ticonderoga, and especially by every means to endeavor to maintain a naval supe- riority on Lake Champlain. In conformity to these resolutions, general Gates, with about twelve thousand men, which collected in the course of the summer, was fixed in command of Ticonderoga, and a fleet was constructed at Skenesborough. This was carried on with so much rapidity, that hi a short tune there were afloat in Lake Cham- plain, one sloop, three schooners, and six gondolas, carrying in the whole fifty-eight guns, eighty-six swivels, and four hundred and forty men. Six other vessels were also nearly ready for launching at the same time. The fleet was put under the command of general Arnold, and he was instructed by general Gates to proceed beyond Cro\vn Point, down Lake Champlain to the Split Rock ; but most peremptorily restrained from advancing any farther, as security against an apprehended invasion was the ultimate end of the armament. AMERICANS DEFEATED ON LAKE CHAM- PLAIN. THE expulsion of the American invaders from Canada was but a part of the British 166 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. designs in that quarter. They urged the pursuit no farther than St John's, but indulg- ed the hope of being soon in a condition for passing the lakes, and penetrating through the country to Albany, so as to form a com- munication with New- York. The objects they had in view were great, and the obsta- cles in the way of their accomplishment equally so. Before they could advance with any prospect of success, a fleet superior to that of the Americans on the lakes was to be constructed. The materials of some large vessels were, for this purpose, brought from England, but their transportation, and the labor necessary to put them together, re- quired both time and patience. The spirit of the British commanders rose in proportion to the difficulties which were to be encoun- tered. Nevertheless it was so late as the month of October before their fleet was pre- pared to face the American naval force on Lake Champlain. The former consisted of the ship Inflexible, mounting eighteen twelve pounders, which was so expeditiously con- structed, that she sailed from St John's twenty-eight days after laying her keel ; one schooner mounting fourteen, and another twelve six pounders, a flat-bottomed radeau carrying six twenty-four and six twelve pounders, besides howitzers, and a gondola with seven nine pounders. There were also twenty smaller vessels with brass field- pieces, from nine to twenty-four pounders, or with howitzers. Some long-boats were furnished in the same manner. An equal number of large boats acted as tenders. Be- sides these vessels of war, there was a vast number destined for the transportation of the army, its stores, artillery, baggage, and pro- visions. The whole was put under the command of captain Pringle. The naval force of the Americans, from the deficiency of means, was far short of what was brought against them. No one step could be taken towards ac- complishing the designs of the British, on the northern frontiers of New- York, till they had the command of Lake Champlain. With this view their fleet proceeded up the lake, and on the eleventh of October engaged the Americans. The wind was so unfavorable to the British, that their ship Inflexible, and some other vessels of force, could not be brought to action. This lessened the in- equality between the contending fleets so much, that the principal damage sustained by the Americans was the loss of a schooner and gondola. At the approach of night the action was discontinued. The vanquished took the advantage which the darkness af- forded to make their escape. This was effected by general Arnold with great judg- ment and ability. By the next morning the whole fleet under his command was out of sight The British pursued with all the sail they could crowd. The wind having become more favorable, they overtook the Americans, and on the seventeenth of Oc- tober brought them to action near Crown Point A smart engagement ensued, and was well supported on both sides for about two hours. Some of the American vessels which were most ahead escaped to Ticon- deroga. Two galleys and five gondolas re- mained, and resisted an unequal force with a spirit approaching to desperation. One of the galleys struck and was taken. General Arnold, though he knew that to escape was impossible, and to resist unavailing, yet, in- stead of surrendering, determined that his people should not become prisoners, nor his vessels a reinforcement to the British. This spirited resolution was executed with a judgment equal to the boldness with which it had been adopted. He ran the Congress galley, on board of which he was, together with the five gondolas, on shore, hi such a position as enabled him to land his men and blow up the vessels. In the execution of this perilous enterprise, he paid a romantic attention to a point of honor. He did not quit his own galley till she was in flames, lest the British should board her and strike his flag. The American naval force being nearly destroyed, the British had undisputed pos- session of Lake Champlain. On this event a few continental troops, which had been at Crown Point, retired to their main body at Ticonderoga. General Carleton took pos- session of the ground from which they had retreated, and was there soon joined by his army. He sent out several reconnoitring parties, and at one tune pushed forward a strong detachment on both sides of the lake, which approached near to Ticonderoga. Some British vessels appeared at the same time, within cannon-shot of the American works at that place. It is probable he had it in contemplation, if circumstances favor- ed, to reduce the post, and that the apparent strength of the works restrained him from making the attempt, and induced his return to Canada. UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK ON CHARLES- TOWN. THE command of the forces which was destined to make an impression on the south- ern colonies, was by the British ministry committed to general Clinton and Sir Peter Parker ; the former with a small force hav- ing called at New- York, and also visited in Virginia lord Dunmore, the late royal gover- nor of that colony, and finding that nothing could be done at either place, proceeded to Cape Fear river. At Cape Fear a junction was formed be- tween Sir Henry Clinton and Sir Peter GEORGE HI. 17601820. 167 Parker. They concluded to attempt the re- duction of Charlestown, as being, of al] places within the line of their instructions, the object at which they could strike with the greatest prospect of advantage. They had 2800 land forces, which they hoped, with the co-operation of their shipping, would be fully sufficient For some months every exertion had been made by the Americans to put the colony of South Carolina, and especially its capital, Charlestown, in a respectable posture of de- fence. In subserviency to this view, works had been erected on Sullivan's Island, which is situated so near the channel leading up to the town, as to be a convenient poet for an- noying vessels approaching it On the 18th of July Sir Peter Parker at- tacked the fort on that island, with two fifty- gun ships, the Bristol and Experiment, four frigates, the Active, Acteon, Solebay, and Syren, each of 28 guns ; the Sphynx of 20 guns, the Friendship armed vessel of 22 guns, the Ranger sloop, and Thunder bomb, each of 8 guns. On the fort were mounted 26 cannon, 26, 18, and 9 pounders. The at- tack commenced between ten and eleven in the forenoon, and was continued for upwards of ten hours. The garrison, consisting of 375 regulars and a. few militia, under the command of colonel Moultrie, made a most gallant defence. They fired deliberately, for the most part took aim, and seldom missed their object. The ships were torn almost to pieces, and the killed and wounded on board exceeded 200 men. The loss of the garri- son was only ten men killed, and 22 wound- ed. The fort being built of palmetto, was little damaged ; the shot which struck it were ineffectually buried in its soft wood. General Clinton had, some time before the engagement, landed with a number of troops on Long-Island, and it was expected that he would have co-operated with Sir Peter Par- ker, by crossing over the narrow passage which divides the two islands, and attacking the fort in its unfinished rear ; but the ex- treme danger to which he must unavoidably have exposed his men, induced him to de- cline the perilous attempt Colonel Thom- son, with 7 or 800 men, was stationed at the east end of Sullrvan's Island, to oppose their crossing. No serious attempt was made to land, either from the fleet, or the detachment commanded by Sir Henry Clinton. The firing ceased in the evening, and soon after the ships slipped their cables ; before mom- ing they had retired about two miles from the island. Within a few days more the troops reimbarked, and the whole sailed for New-York. The thanks of congress were given to general Lee, who had been sent on by congress to take the command in Caroli- na, and also to colonels Moultrie and Thom- son, for their good conduct on this memora- ble day. In compliment to the commanding officer, the fort from that time was called Fort 'Moultrie. By the repulse of this armament, the southern states obtained a respite from the calamities of war for two years and a half. The defeat the British experienced at Charlestown, seemed in some measure to counterbalance the unfavorable impression made by their subsequent successes to the northward. The effects of this victory, in animating the Americans, were much greater than could be warranted by the circumstances of the action. As it was the first attack made by the British navy, its unsuccessful issue inspired a confidence which a more exact knowledge of military calculations would have corrected. The circumstance of its happening in the early part of the war, and in one of the weaker provinces, were instru- mental in dispelling the gloom which over- shadowed the minds of many of the colo- nists on hearing of the powerful fleets and numerous armies which were coming against them. PREPARATIONS AGAINST NEW- YORK. THE command of the forces which was destined to operate against New- York, in this campaign, was given to admiral lord Howe, and his brother Sir William, officers who, as well from their personal characters, as the known bravery of their family, stood high in the confidence of the British nation. To this service was allotted a very powerful army, consisting of about 30,000 men. This force was far superior to anything that America had hitherto seen. The troops were amply provided with artillery, military stores, and warlike materials of every kind, and were supported by a numerous fleet. The admiral and general, in addition to their military powers, were appointed commis- sioners for restoring peace to the colonies. General Howe havinj months at Halifax for in vain waited two iis brother, and the expected reinforcements from England, im- patient of farther delays, on the 10th of June sailed from that harbor, with the force with which he had previously commanded in Boston, and directing his course towards New- York, arrived in the latter end of June off Sandy Hook. Admiral lord Howe, with part of the reinforcement from England, ar- rived at Halifax soon after his brother's de- parture. Without dropping anchor he fol- lowed, and soon after joined him neai^Staten Island. The British general, on his approach, found every part of New- York island, and the most exposed parts of Long-Island, forti- fied and well defended by artillery. About fifty British transports anchored near Staten Island, which had not been so much the ob- 168 HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. ject of attention. The inhabitants, either from fear, policy, or affection, expressed great joy on the arrival of the royal forces. Gen- eral Howe was there met by Tryon, late governor of the province, and by several of the loyalists, who had taken refuge with him in an armed vessel. He was also joined by about sixty persons from New-Jersey, and 200 of the inhabitants of Staten Island were embodied as a royal militia. From these appearances, great hopes were indulged that as soon as the army was in a condition to penetrate into the country, and protect the loyalists, such numbers would flock to their standard as would facilitate the attainment of the objects of the campaign. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. WHILE such were the arrangements of the British generals, a bold and decisive measure was taken by their opponents, which gave a new complexion to the con- test, and was soon productive of the most important consequences. We speak of the declaration of independence. The public mind had been long prepared by pamphlets and harangues for this import- ant step. But in the people the eagerness for independence resulted more from feeling than reasoning. The advantages of an un- fettered trade, the prospect of honors and emoluments in administering a new govern- ment, were of themselves insufficient mo- tives for adopting this bold measure. But what was wanting from considerations of this kind, was made up by the perseverance of Great Britain in her schemes of coercion and conquest. The determined resolution of the mother-country to subdue the colo- nists, together with the plans she adopted for accomplishing that purpose, and their equally determined resolution to appeal to Heaven rather than submit, made a declara- tion of independence as necessary in 1776, as was the non-importation agreement 1774, or the assumption of arms in 1775. The last naturally resulted from the first. The revolution was not forced on the people by ambitious leaders grasping at supreme power, but every measure of it was forced on congress, by the necessity of the case and the voice of the people. The motion for declaring the colonies free and independent was first made in congress by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia; he was warranted in making this motion by the par- ticular instructions of his immediate con- stituents, and also by the general voice of the people of all the states. The debates were continued for some time, and with great animation. In these John Adams, and John Dickinson took leading and opposite parts. The former strongly urged the im- mediate dissolution of all political connexion of the colonies with Great Britain, from the voice of the people, from the necessity of the measure in order to obtain foreign as- sistance, from a regard to consistency, and from the prospects of glory and happiness, which opened beyond the war, to a free and independent people. Dickinson urged that the present time was improper for the de- claration of independence, that the war might be conducted with equal vigor with- out it, and that it would divide the Ameri- cans, and unite the people of Great Britain against them. He then proposed that some assurance should be obtained of assistance from a foreign power, before they renounced their connexion with Great Britain, and thdt the declaration of independence should I e the condition to be offered for this assistance. He likewise stated the disputes that existed between several of the colonies, and pro- posed that some measures for the settlement of them should be determined upon, before they lost sight of that tribunal which had hitherto been the umpire of all their differ- ences. After a full discussion, the measure of de- claring the colonies free and independent was approved, by nearly.an unanimous vote. The anniversary of the day on which this great event took place, has ever since been consecrated by the Americans to religious gratitude and social pleasures ; it is consid- ered by them as the birth-day of their free- dom. The act of the united colonies for sepa- rating themselves from the government of Great Britain, and declaring their independ- ence, was expressed in the following words : " When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dis- solve the political bands which have con- nected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of na- of| ture and of nature's God entitle them, a de- cent respect to the opinions of mankind re- quires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that whenever any form of government be- comes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organ- izing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dic- tate that governments long established GEORGE ffl. 17601820. 161) should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursu- ing invariably the same object, evinces a de- sign to reduce them under absolute despot- ism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these col- onies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former sys- tems of government The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an ab- solute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. "He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the pub- lic good. " He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained ; and when so sus- pended he has utterly neglected to attend to them. "He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of peo- ple, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legisla- ture, a right inestimable to them, and for- midable to tyrants only. " He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and dis- tant from the depository of their public rec- ords, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. " He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firm- ness, his invasions on the rights of the peo- ple. "He has refused, for a long time alter such dissolutions, to cause others to be elect- ed; whereby the legislative powers, inca- pable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the state remaining in the mean tune exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within. " He has endeavored to prevent the popu- lation of these states, for that purpose ob- structing the laws for naturalisation of for- eigners ; refusing to pass others to encour- age their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. " He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. *i He has made judges dependent on his VOL. IV. 15 will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. " He has erected a multitude of new of- fices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. " He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. " He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. " He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitu- tion, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giv- ing his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : " For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : "For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states : " For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : "For imposing taxes on us without our consent : " For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury : " For transporting us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended offences : " For abolishing the free system of Eng- lish laws in a neighboring province, estab- lishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies: " For taking away our charters, abolish- ing our most valuable laws, and altering fun- damentally the form of our governments : "For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with pow- er to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. ' He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. ' He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. "He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun, with circumstances of cru- elty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. " He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the execu- tioners of their friends and brethren, or to [all themselves by their hands. "He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to bring on 170 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the inhabitants of our frontiers the merci- less Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. " In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most hum- ble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. " Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts made by their legislature, to extend an unwarrant- able jurisdiction over us. We have remind- ed them of the circumstances of our emi- gration and settlement here. We have ap- pealed to their native justice and magnan- imity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connexions and correspond- ence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends. " We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general con- gress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colo- nies are, and of right ought to' be, FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES ; that they are absolv- ed from all allegiance to the British crown ; and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved ; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. " JOHN HANCOCK, President" NEW GOVERNMENT ARRANGEMENTS. FROM the promulgation of this declara- tion, everything assumed a new form. The Americans no longer appeared in the char- acter of subjects in arms against their sove- reign, but as an independent people, repel- ling the attacks of an invading foe. The propositions and supplications for reconcilia- tion were done away. The dispute was brought to a single point, whether the late British colonies should be conquered prov- inces, or free and independent states. All political connexion between Great Britain and her colonies being dissolved, the institution of new forms of government be- came unavoidable. The necessity of this was so urgent, that congress, before the declaration of independence, had recom- mended to the respective assemblies and conventions of the United States to adopt such governments as should, in their opinion, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents. During more than twelve months the colonists had been held together by the force of ancient habits, and by laws under the simple style of recom- mendations. The impropriety of proceeding in courts of justice by the authority of a sovereign against whom the colonies were in arms, was self-evident The impossibility of. governing for any length of time, three millions of people, by the ties of honor, without the authority of law, was equally apparent The rejection of British sove- reignty therefore drew after it the necessity of fixing on some other principle of govern- ment. The genius of the Americans, their republican habits and sentiments, naturally led them to substitute the majesty of the people in lieu of discarded royalty. The kingly office was dropped, but in most of the subordinate departments of government, ancient forms and names were retained. Such a portion of power had at all times been exercised by the people and their re- presentatives, that the change of sovereignty was hardly perceptible, and the revolution took place without violence or convulsion. Popular elections elevated private citizens to the same offices which had formerly been conferred by royal appointment The people felt an uninterrrupted continuation of the blessings of law and government under old names, though derived from a new sove- reignty, and were scarcely sensible of any change in their political constitution. The checks and balances which restrained the popular assemblies under the royal govern- ment, were partly dropped and partly re- tained, by substituting something of the same kind. The temper of the people would not permit that any one man, however ex- alted by office, or distinguished by abilities, should have a negative on the declared sense of a majority of their representatives ; but the experience of all ages had taught them the danger of lodging all power in one body of men. A second branch of legisla- ture, consisting of a few select persons, under the name of senate or council, was therefore constituted in eleven of the thir- teen states, and their concurrence made necessary to give the validity of law to the acts of a more numerous branch of popular representatives. New- York and Massachu- sets went one step further. The former GEORGE m. 17601820. 171 constituted a council of revision, consisting of the governor and the heads of judicial departments, on whose objecting to any pro- posed law, a reconsideration became neces- sary, and unless it was confirmed by two- thirds of both houses, it could have no ope- ration. A similar power was given to the governor of Massachusets : .Georgia and Pennsylvania were the only states whose legislature consisted of only one branch. Though many in these states, and a majority corner, and disturbed the peace and harmony of neighborhoods. By making the business of government the duty of every man, it drew off' the attention of many from the steady pursuit of their respective businesses. The state of Pennsylvania also adopted another constitution peculiar to itself, under the denomination of a council of censors. These were to be chosen once every seven years, and were authorized to inquire whether the constitution had been preserved ; whether in all the others, saw and acknowledged the the legislative and executive branch of gov- propriety of a compounded legislature, yet the mode of creating two branches out of a homogeneous mass of people, was a matter of difficulty. No distinction of ranks existed in the colonies, and none were entitled to any rights, but such as were common to all Some possessed more wealth than others, but riches and ability were not always asso- ciated. Ten of the eleven states, whose legislatures consisted of two branches, or- dained that the members of both should be elected by the people. This rather made two co-ordinate houses of representatives, than a check on a single one, by the mode- ration of a select few. Maryland adopted a singular plan pendent senate. for constituting an inde- By her constitution, the members of that body were elected for five years, while the members of the house of delegates held their seats only for one. The number of senators was only fifteen, and they were all elected indiscriminately from the inhabitants of any part of the state, ex- cepting that nine of them were to be resi- dents on the west, and six on the east side of the Chesapeak Bay. They were elected not immediately by the people, but by elec- tors, two from each county, appointed by the inhabitants for that sole purpose. By these regulations, the senate of Maryland consist- ed of men of influence, integrity, and abili- ties ; and such as were a real and beneficial check on the hasty proceedings of a more numerous branch of popular representative; The laws of that state were well digested, and its interests steadily pursued, with a peculiar unity of system ; while elsewhere it too often happened, in the fluctuation of public assemblies, and where the legislative department was not sufficiently checked, that passion and party predominated over principle and public good. Pennsylvania, instead of a legislative council or senate, adopted the expedient of publishing bills after the second reading, for the information of the inhabitants. This had its advantages and disadvantages. It pre- vented the precipitate adoption of new regu- lations, and gave an opportunity of ascer- taining the sense of the people on those laws by which they were to be bound : but it carried the spirit of discussion into every eminent had performed their duty, or as- sumed to themselves, or exercised other or greater powers than those to which they were constitutionally entitled: to inquire whether the public taxes had been justly laid and collected, and in what manner the public moneys had been disposed of, and whether the laws had been duly executed. However excellent this institution may ap- pear in theory, it is doubtful whether in practice it will answer any valuable end. It most certainly opens a door for discord, and furnishes abundant matter for periodical al- tercation. Either from the disposition of its inhabitants, its form of government, or some other cause, the people of Pennsyl- vania have constantly been in a state of fer- mentation. The end of one public contro- versy has been the beginning of another. From the collision of parties, the minds of the citizens were sharpened, and their ac- tive powers improved ; but internal harmony has been unknown. Those who were out of place so narrowly watched those who were in, that nothing injurious to the public could be easily effected ; but from the fluc- tuation of power, and the total want of per- manent system, nothing great or lasting could with safety be undertaken, or prosecuted to effect Under all these disadvantages the state flourished, and from the industry and ingenuity of its inhabitants, acquired an un- rivalled ascendency in arts and manufac- tures. This must, in a great measure, be ascribed to the influence of habits of order and industry, that had long prevailed. The Americans agreed in appointing a supreme executive head to each state, with the title either of governor or president. They also agreed in deriving the whole powers of government, either mediately or immediately, from the people. In the east- ern states, and in New- York, their govern- ors were elected by the inhabitants, in their respective towns or counties, and in the other states by the legislatures ; but in no case was the smallest title of power exer- cised from hereditary right. New- York was the only state which invested its governor with executive authority without a council. Such was the extreme jealousy of power which pervaded the American states, that 172 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. they did not think proper to trust the man of their choice with the power of executing their own determinations, without obliging him in many cases to take the advice of such counsellors as they thought proper to nominate. The disadvantages of the insti- tution far outweighed its advantages. Had the governors succeeded by hereditary right, a council would have been often necessary to supply the real want of abilities; but when an individual had been selected by the people as the fittest person for discharg- ing the duties of this high department, to fetter him with a council was either.to lessen his capacity of doing good, or to rurnish him witli a screen for doing evil. It destroyed the secrecy, vigor, and dispatch, which the executive power ought to possess ; and by making government acts the acts of a body, diminished individual responsibility. In some states it greatly enhanced the ex- penses of government, and in all, retarded its operations without any equivalent advan- tages. New- York, in another particular, display- ed political sagacity superior to her neigh- bors. This was in her council of appoint- ment, consisting of one senator from each of her four great election districts author- ized to designate proper persons for filling vacancies in the executive departments of government Large bodies are far from being the most proper depositories of the power of appointing to offices. The assidu- ous attention of candidates is too apt to bias the voice of individuals in popular assemblies. Besides, in such appointments, the responsi- bility for the conduct of the officer is in a great measure annihilated. The concur- rence of a select few on the nomination of one, seems a more eligible mode for securing a proper choice, than appointments made ei- ther by one, or by a numerous body. In the former case there would be danger of favor- itism ; in the latter, a modest unassuming merit would be overlooked, in favor of the forward and obsequious. A rotation of public officers made a part of most of the American constitutions. Fre- quent elections were required by all, but several proceeded still farther, and deprived the electors of the power of continuing the same office in the same hands, after a spe- cified length of time. Young politicians suddenly called from the ordinary walks of life, to make laws and institute forms of government, turned their attention to the histories of ancient republics, and the wri- tings of speculative men on the subject of government This led them into many er- rors, and occasioned them to adopt opinions, unsuitable to the state of society in America, and contrary to the genius of real republic- anism. The principle of rotation was carried so far, that in some of the states, public officers in several departments scarcely knew their official duty, till they were obliged to retire and give place to others, as ignorant as they had been on their first appointment. If offi- cers had been instituted for the benefit of the holders, the policy of diffusing these benefits would have been proper ; but insti- tuted as they were for the convenience of the public, the end was marred by such fre- quent changes. By confining the objects of choice, it diminished the privileges of elec- tors, and frequently deprived them of the liberty of choosing the man who, from pre- vious experience, was of all men the most suitable. The favorers of this system of rotation contended for it, as likely to pre- vent a perpetuity of office and power in the same individual or family, and as a secu- rity against hereditary honors. To this it was replied, that free, fair, and frequent elections were the most natural and proper securities for the liberties of the people. It produced a more general diffusion of political knowledge, but made more smat- terers than adepts in the science of govern- ment As a farther security for the continuance of republican principles in the American constitution, they agreed in prohibiting all hereditary honors and distinction of ranks. It is not easy to define the power of the state legislatures, so as to prevent a clashing between their jurisdiction and that of the general government On mature delibera- tion it was- thought proper, that the former should be abridged of the power of forming any other confederation or alliance of lay- ing on any imposts or duties that might in- terfere with treaties made by congress or keeping up any vessels of war, or granting letters of marque or reprisals. The powers of congress were also defined. *Of these the principal were as follows : To have the sole and exclusive right of determining on peace and war of sending and receiving ambassadors of entering into treaties am) alliances of granting letters of marque and reprisals in time of war to be the last resort on appeal in all disputes between two or more states to have the sole and exclu- sive right of regulating the lloy and value of coin of fixing the standard of weights and measures regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians es- tablishing and regulating post-offices to borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the United States to build and equip a navy to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each state for its quota of men, in proportion to the number of its white inhabitants. On the fourth day after the arrival of the GEORGE m. 17601820. 173 British off Sandy Hook, congress ratified the declaration of independence; it was published at the head of the American ar- my, and though they were eye-witnesses of the immense force which was preparing to act against them, both officers and pri- vates gave every evidence of their hearty approbation of the decree which severed the colonies from Great Britain, and submit- ted to the decision of the sword, whether they should be free states or conquered prov- inces. PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENCE OF NEW-YORK. IT had early occurred to general Wash- ington, that the possession of New- York would be with the British a favorite object Its central situation and contiguity to the ocean enabled them to carry with facility the war to any part of the sea-coast. The possession of it was rendered still more valuable by the ease with which it could be maintained. Surrounded on all sides by water, it was defensible by a small number of British ships, against adversaries whose whole navy consisted only of a few frigates. Hudson's river being navigable for ships of the largest size to a great distance, afford- ed an opportunity of severing the eastern from the more southern states, and of pre- venting almost any communication between them. From these well-known advantages, it was presumed by the Americans, that the British would make great exertions to ef- fect the reduction of New- York. General Lee, while the British were yet in posses- sion of the capital of Massachusets, had been detached from Cambridge, to put Long-Isl- and and New- York into a posture of de- fence. As the departure of the British from Boston became more certain, the prob- ability of their instantly going to New- York increased the necessity of collecting a force for its safety. It had been therefore agreed in a council of war, that five regiments, to- gether with a rifle battalion, should march without delay to New- York, and that the states of New- York and New-Jersey should be requested to furnish, the former two thousand, and the latter one thousand men for its immediate defence. General Wash- ington soon followed, and early in April fix- ed his head-quarters in that city. A new distribution of the American army took place : part was left in Massachusets, between two and three thousand were ordered to Canada, but the greater part rendezvoused at New- York. Experience had taught the Americans the difficulty of attacking an army after it had effected a lodgment They therefore made strenuous exertions to prevent the British from enjoying the advantages in New-York, 15* which had resulted from their having been permitted to land and fortify themselves in Boston. The sudden commencement of hos- tilities in Massachusets, together with the previous undisturbed landing of the royal army, allowed no tune for deliberating on a system of war. A change of circumstances indicated the propriety of fixing on a plan for conducting the defence of the new-form- ed states. On this occasion general Wash- ington, after much thought, determined on a war of posts. This mode of conducting military operations gave confidence to the Americans, and besides, it both retarded and alarmed then- adversaries. The soldiers in the American army were new levies, and had not yet learned to stand uncovered be- fore the instruments of death ; habituating them to the sound of fire-arms, while they were sheltered from danger, was one step towards inspiring them with a portion of mechanical courage. The British remem- bered Bunker's Hill, and had no small rever- ence for even slight fortifications, when de- fended by freemen. From views of this kind, works were erected in and about New- York, on Long-Island, and the heights of Haerlem. These, besides batteries, were field redoubts, formed of earth, with a para- pet and ditch. The former were sometimes fraised, and the latter palisadoed, but they were in no instance formed to sustain a siege. Slight as they were, the campaign was near- ly wasted away before they were so far re- duced, as to permit the royal army to pene- trate into the country. The war having taken a more important turn than in the preceding year bad been foreseen, congress, at the opening of the campaign, found themselves destitute of a force sufficient for their defence. They therefore in June determined on a plan to reinforce their continental army, by bring- ing into the field a new species of troops, that would be more permanent than the common militia, and yet more easily raised than regulars. With this view they insti- tuted a flying camp, to consist of an inter- mediate corps, between regular soldiers and militia. Ten thousand men were called for from the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, to be in constant service to the first day of the ensuing December. Con- gress, at the same time, called for 13,800 of the common militia from Massachusets, Con- necticut, New- York, and New-Jersey. The men for forming the flying camp, were gen- erally procured, but there were great defi- ciencies of the militia, and many of those who obeyed their country's call, manifested a reluctance to submit to the necessary dis- cipline of camps. The uncertainty of the place where the British would commence their op 174 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. added much to the embarrassments of gene- ral Washington. ATTEMPTS AT NEGOTIATION. THB two royal commissioners, admiral and general Howe, thought proper, before they commenced their military operations, to try what might be done in their civil ca- pacity, towards effecting a reunion between Great Britain and the colonies. It was one of the first acts of lord Howe, to send on shore a circular letter to several of the royal governors in America, informing them of the late act of parliament, "for restoring peace to the colonies, and granting pardon to such as should deserve mercy," and de- siring them to publish a declaration which accompanied the same. In this he informed the colonists of the powers with which his brother and he were intrusted, " of grant- ing general or particular pardons to all those who, though they had deviated from their allegiance, were willing to return to their duty," and of declaring " any colony, prov- ince, county, or town, port, district, or place, to be at the peace of his majesty." Con- gress, impressed with a belief, that the pro- posals of the commissioners, instead of dis- uniting the people, would have a contrary effect, ordered them to be speedily published in the several American newspapers. Had a redress of grievances been at this late hour offered, though the honor of the states was involved in supporting their late declaration of independence, yet the love of peace, and the bias of great numbers to their parent state, would, in all probability, have made a powerful party for rescinding the act of separation, and for reuniting with Great Britaia But when it appeared that the power of the royal commissioners was little more than to grant pardons, congress ap- pealed to the good sense of the people for the necessity of adhering to the act of inde- pendence. The resolution for publishing the circular letter, and the declaration of the royal commissioners, assigned a reason there- of to be, " that the good people of the Uni- ted States may be informed of what nature are the commissioners, and what the terms, with expectation of which the insidious court of Great Britain had endeavored to amuse and disarm them, and that the few who still remain suspended by a hope, founded either in the justice or moderation of their late king, may now at length be convinced that the valor alone of their country is to save its liberties." About the same time, flags were sent ashore by lord Howe, with a letter directed to George Washington, Esq. which he re- fused to receive, as not being addressed to him with the title due to his rank. In his letter to congress on this subject he wrote as follows : " I would not on any occasion sacrifice essentials to punctilio ; but in this instance I deemed it a duty to my country and appointment, to insist on that respect, which in any other than a public view, I would willingly have waived." Congress applauded his conduct in a public resolution, and at the same time directed, that no letter or message should be received on any occa- sion whatever, from the enemy, by the com- mander-in-chiefj or others the commanders of the American army, but such as were di- rected to them in the characters they seve- rally sustained. Some time after, adjutant-general Patter- son was sent to New- York by general Howe, with a letter addressed to general Washing- ton, &c. &c. &c. On an interview, the ad- jutant-general, after expressing his high es- teem for the person and character of the American general, and declaring, that it was not intended to derogate from the respect due to his rank, expressed his hopes that the et ceteras would remove the impediments to their correspondence. General Wash- ington replied, "That a letter directed to any person in a public character should have some description of it, otherwise it would appear a mere private letter; that it was true the et ceteras implied everything ; but they also implied anything; and that he should therefore decline the receiving of any letter directed to him as a private person, when it related to his public station." A long conference ensued, in which the adju- tant-general observed, "that the commis- sioners were armed with great powers, and would be very happy in effecting an accom- modation." He received for answer, " that from what appeared, their powers were only to grant pardon ; that they who had com- mitted no fault wanted no pardon." Soon after this interview, a letter from Howe, re- specting prisoners, which was properly ad- dressed to Washington, was received. While the British, by their manifestoes and declarations, were endeavoring to separate those who preferred a reconciliation with Great Britain from those who were the friends of independence, congress, by a simi- lar policy, was attempting to deiach the for- eigners, who had come with the royal troops, from the service of his Britannic majesty. Before hostilities had commenced, the fol- lowing resolution was adopted, and circu- lated among those on whom it was intended to operate : " Resolved, that these states will receive all such foreigners who shall leave the armies of his Britannic majesty in Ame- rica, and shall choose to become members of any of these states, and they shall be pro- tected in the free exercise of their respec- tive religions, and be invested with the rights, privileges, and immunities of natives, as es- tablished by the laws of these states; and, GEORGE HL 17601820. 175 moreover, that this congress will provide for every such person fifty acres of unappropri- ated lands in some of these states, to be held by him and his heirs as absolute property." The numbers which were prepared to oppose the British, when they should disem- bark, made them for some time cautiqus of proceeding to their projected land opera- tions ; but the superiority of their navy en- abled them to go by water whithersoever On the 12th of July, a British forty-gun ship, with some smaller vessels, sailed up the North River, without receiving any damage of consequence, though fired upon from the batteries of New- York, Paule's-Hook, Red- Bank, and Governor's-Island. An attempt was made, not long after, with two fire- ships, to destroy the British vessels in the North River, but without effecting anything more than the burning of a tender. They were also attacked with row-galleys, but to little purpose. After some tune, the Phcenix and Rose men-of-war came down the river, and joined the fleet Every effort of the Americans from their batteries on land, as well as their exertions on the water, proved ineffectual. The British ships passed with less loss than was generally expected ; but nevertheless the damage they received was such as deterred them from frequently re- peating the experiment. In two or three instances they ascended the North River, and in one or two the East River, but those which sailed up the former speedily return- ed, and by their return a free communica- tion was opened through the upper part of the state. The American army in and near New- York amounted to seventeen thousand two hundred and twenty-five men. These were mostly new troops, and were divided in many small and unconnected posts, some of which were fifteen miles removed from others. The British force about New- York was increasing by frequent successive ar- rivals from Halifax, South Carolina, Florida, the West Indies, and Europe. But so many unforeseen delays had taken place, that the month of August was far advanced before they were in a condition to open the cam- paign. AMERICANS DEFEATED AT LONG- ISLAND. WHEN all things were ready, the British commanders resolved to make their first at- tempt upon Long-Island. This was pre- ferred to New- York, as it abounded with those supplies which their forces required. The British landed, without opposition, between two small towns, Utrecht and Gravesend. The American works protect- ed a small peninsula, having Wallabout Bay to the left, and stretching over to Red Hook on the right, the East River being in then- rear. General Sullivan, with a strong force, was encamped within these works at Brooklyn. From the east side of the nar- rows runs a ridge of hills covered with thick wood, about five or six miles in length, which terminates near Jamaica. There were three passes through these hills, one near the narrows, a second on the Flatbush road, and a third on the Bedford road, and they are all defensible. These were the only roads which could be passed from the south side of the hills to the American lines, ex- cept a road which led round the easterly end of the hills to Jamaica. The Americans had eight hundred men on each of these roads, and colonel Miles was placed with his battalion of riflemen, to guard the road from the south of the hills to Jamaica, and to watch the motions of the British. General de Heister, with his Hessians, took post at Flatbush in the evening of the twenty-sixth of August. In the following night the greater part of the British army, commanded by general Clinton, marched to gain the road leading round the easterly end of the hills to Jamaica, and to turn the left of the Americana He arrived about two hours before day within half a mile of this road. One of his parties fell in with a patrol of American officers, and took them all prisoners, which prevented the early transmission of intelligence. Upon the first appearance of day, general Clinton advanc- ed, and took possession of the heights over which the road passed. General Grant, with the left wing, advanced along the coast by the west road, near the narrows ; but this was intended chiefly as a feint The guard which was stationed at this road fled without making any resistance. A few of them were afterwards rallied by lord Stirling, who advanced with fifteen hundred men, and took possession of a hill about two miles from the American camp, and in front of general Grant. An attack was made very early in the morning of the twenty-seventh of August, by the Hessians from Flatbush, under gene- ral de Heister, and by general Grant on the coast, and was well-supported for a conside- rable tune by both sides. The Americans who opposed general de Heister were first informed of the approach of general Clinton, who had come round on their left. They immediately began to retreat to their camp r but were intercepted by the right wing under general Clinton, who got into the rear of their left, and attacked them with his light infantry and dragoons while return- ing to their lines. They were driven back till they were met by the Hessians. They were thus alternately chased and intercept- ed, between general de Heister and general 176 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Clinton. Some of their regiments never- theless found their way to the camp. The Americans under lord Stirling, consisting of colonel Miles's two battalions, colonel Alice's, colonel Smallwood's, and colonel Hatche's regiments, who were engaged with general Grant, fought with great resolution for about six hours. They were uninformed of the movements made by general Clinton, till some of the troops under his command had traversed the whole extent of country in their rear. Their retreat was thus inter- cepted ; but several, notwithstanding, broke through, and got into the woods; many threw themselves into the marsh, some were drowned, and others perished in the mud, but a considerable number escaped by this way to their lines. The king's troops displayed great valor throughout the whole day. The variety of the ground occasioned a succession of small engagements, pursuits and slaughter, which lasted for many hours. British discipline in every instance triumphed over the native valor of raw troops, who had never been in action, and whose officers were unacquaint- ed with the stratagems of war. In the time of the engagement, and sub- sequent to it, general Washington drew over to Long-Island the greatest part of his army. After he had collected his principal force there, it was his wish and hope that Sir William Howe would attempt to storm the works on the island. These, though in- sufficient to stand a regular siege, were strong enough to resist a coup-de-main. The remembrance of Bunker's Hill, and a desire to spare his men, restrained the British general from making an assault On the contrary, he made demonstrations of pro- ceeding by siege, and broke ground within three hundred yards to the left at Putnam's redoubt Though general Washington wish- ed for an assault, yet being certain that his works would be untenable when the British batteries should be fully opened, on the thir- tieth of August he called a council of war, to consult on the measures proper to be taken. It was then determined that the ob- jects in view were in no degree proportion- ed to the dangers to which, by a continuance on the island, they would be exposed. Con- formably to this opinion, dispositions were made for an immediate retreat This com- menced soon after it was dark from two points, the upper and lower ferries on East River. General IVTDougal regulated the em- barkation at one, and colonel Knox at the other. The intention of evacuating the island had been so prudently concealed from the Americans, that they knew not whither they were going, but supposed to attack the enemy. The field artillery, tents, baggage, and about nine thousand men, were convey- ed to the city of New- York over East River, more than a mile wide, in less than thirteen hours, and without the knowledge of the British, though not six hundred yards distant Providence in a remarkable manner favored the retreating army. For some time after the Americans began to cross, the state of the tide and a strong north-east wind made it impossible for them to make use of their sail-boats, and their whole number of row- boats was insufficient for completing the business in the course of the night. But about eleven o'clock the wind died away, and soon after sprung up at south-east, and blew fresh, which rendered the sail-boats of use, and at the same time made the passage from the island to the city, direct, easy, and expeditious. Towards morning an extreme thick fog came up, which hovered over Long- Island, and by concealing the Americans, enabled them to complete their retreat with- out interruption, though the day had begun to dawn some time before it was finished. By a mistake in the transmission of orders, the American lines were evacuated for about three quarters of an hour before the last embarkation took place; but the British, though so near, that their working parties could be distinctly heard, being enveloped in the fog, knew nothing of the matter. The lines were repossessed and held till six o'clock in the morning, when everything except some heavy cannon was removed. General Mifflin, who commanded the rear- guard, left the lines, and under the cover of the fog got off safe. In about half an hour the fog cleared away, and the British enter- ed the works which had been just relinquish- ed. Had the wind not shifted, the half of the American army could not have crossed, and even as it was, if the fog had not con- cealed their rear, it must have been dis- covered, and could hardly have escaped. General Sullivan, who was taken prisoner on Long-Island, was immediately sent on parole, with the following verbal message from lord Howe to congress, " That though he could not at present treat with them in that character, yet he was very desirous of having a conference with some of the mem- bers, whom he would consider as private gentlemen that he, with his brother the general, had full power to compromise the dispute between Great Britain and America, upon terms advantageous to both that he wished a compact might be settled at a time when no decisive blow was struck, and neither party could say it was compelled to enter into such agreement that were they disposed to treat, many things which they had not yet asked, might and ought to be granted ; and that if upon conference they found any probable ground of accommoda- tion, the authority of congress would be af- GEORGE EL 17601820. 177 terwards acknowledged, to render the treaty complete." Three days after this message was received, general Sullivan was request- ed to inform lord Howe, " That congress be- ing the representatives of the free and inde- pendent states of America, they cannot with propriety send any of their members to con- fer with his lordship in their private char- acters ; but that, ever desirous of establish- ing peace on reasonable terms, they will send a committee of their body, to know whether he has any authority to treat with persons authorized by congress for that pur- pose, on behalf of America, and what that authority is ; and to hear such propositions as he shall think fit to make respecting the same." They elected Dr. Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge, their com- mittee for this purpose. In a few days they met lord Howe on Staten Island, and were received with great politeness. On their re- turn they made a report of their confer- ence, which they summed up by saying, " It did not appear to your committee that his lordship's commission contained any other authority than that expressed in the act of parliament ; namely, that of granting par- dons, with such exceptions as the commis- sioners shall think proper to make, and of declaring America, or any part of it, to be in the king's peace on submission : for as to the power of inquiring into the state of America, which his lordship mentioned to us, and of conferring and consulting with any persons the commissioners might think proper, and representing the result of such conversation to the ministry, who, provided the colonies would subject themselves, might after all, or might not, at their pleasure, make any alterations in the former instruc- tions to governors, or propose in parliament any amendment of the acts complained of; we apprehend any expectation from the effect of such a power would have been too uncertain and precarious to be relied on by America, had she still continued in her state of dependence." Lord Howe had ended the conference on his part, by expressing his re- gard for America, and the extreme pain he would suffer in being obliged to distress those whom he so much regarded. Dr. Franklin thanked him for his regards, and assured him, "that the Americans would show their gratitude, by endeavoring to less- en as much as possible all pain he might feel on their account, by exerting their ut- most abilities in taking good care of them- selves." The committee in every respect maintain- ed the dignity of congress. Their conduct and sentiments were such as became their character. The friends to independence re- joiced that nothing resulted from this inter- view tha't might disunite the people. Con- gress, trusting to the good sense of their countrymen, ordered the whole to be print- ed for their information. All the states would have then rejoiced at less beneficial terms than they obtained about seven years after. But Great Britain counted on the certainty of their absolute conquest, or un- conditional submission. Her offers there- fore comported so little with the feelings of America, that they neither caused demur nor disunion among the new-formed states. The unsuccessful termination of the action on the 27th led to consequences more seri- ously alarming to the Americans than the loss of their men. The army was univer- sally dispirited. The militia ran off by com- paniea Their example infected the regular regiments. The loose footing on which the militia came to camp, made it hazardous to exercise over them that discipline, without which an army is a mob. To restrain one part of an army while another claimed and exercised the right of doing as they pleased, was no less impracticable than absurd. NEW-YORK TAKEN. A COUNCIL of war recommended to act on the defensive, and not to risk the army for the sake of New- York. To retreat, subject- ed the commander-in-chief to reflections painful to bear, and yet impolitic to refute : to stand his ground, and, by suffering him- self to be surrounded, to hazard the fate of America on one decisive engagement, was contrary to every rational plan of defending the wide-extended states committed to his care. A middle line between abandoning and defending was therefore for a short time adopted. The public stores were moved to Dobb's Ferry, about 26 miles from New- York; 12,000 men were ordered to the northern extremity of New- York Island, and 4500 to remain for the defence of the city, while the remainder occupied the interme- diate space, with orders either to support the city or Kingsbridge, as exigencies might require. Before the British landed, it was impossible to tell what place would be first attacked: this made it necessary to erect works for the defence of a variety of places as well as of New- York. Though every- thing was abandoned when the crisis came that either the city must be relinquished, or the army risked for its defence, yet from the delays occasioned by the redoubts and other works which had been erected on the idea of making the defence of the states a war of posts, a whole campaign was lost to the British, and saved to the Americana The year began with hopes that Great Britain would recede from her demands, and there- fore every plan of defence was on a tempo- rary system. The declaration of indepen- dence, which the violence of Great Britain forced the colonies to adopt in July, though 178 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. neither foreseen nor intended at the com- mencement of the year, pointed out the ne- cessity of organizing an army on new terms, correspondent to the enlarged objects for which they had resolved to contend. Con- gress accordingly, on the 16th of September, determined to raise 88 battalions, to serve during the war. Under these circumstances, to wear away the campaign with as little misfortune as possible, and thereby to gain time for raising a permanent army aga nst the next year, was to the Americans a mat- ter of the last importance. Though the commander-in-chief abandoned those works, which had engrossed much time and atten- tion, yet the advantage resulting from the delays they occasioned, far overbalanced the expense incurred by their erection. General Howe having prepared every- thing for a descent on New- York Island, began, on September 15, to land his men under cover of ships of war, between Kepp's Bay and Turtle Bay. A breastwork had been erected in the vicinity, and a party sta- tioned in it to oppose the British, in case of their attempting to land; but on the first appearance of danger, they ran off in con- fusion. The commander-in-chief came up, and in vain attempted to rally them. Though the British in sight did not exceed sixty, he could not, either by example, entreaty, or authority, prevail on a superior force to stand their ground, and face that inconsider- able number. Such dastardly conduct raised a tempest in the usually tranquil mind of general Washington. Having embarked in the American cause from the purest princi- ples, he viewed with infinite concern this shameful behav-or, as threatening ruin to his country. He recollected the many de- elarations of congress, of the army, and of the inhabitants, preferring liberty to life, and death to dishonor, and contrasted them with their present scandalous flight. Extensive confiscations and numerous attainders pre- sented themselves in full view to his agita- ted mind. He saw, in imagination, new- formed states, with the means of defence in their hands, and the glorious prospects of liberty before them, levelled to the dust, and such constitutions imposed on them as were likely to crush the vigor of the human mind, while the unsuccessful issue of the present struggle would, for ages to come, deter pos- terity from the bold design of asserting their rights. Impressed with these ideas, he hazarded his person for some considerable time in the rear of his own men and in front of the enemy, with his horse's head towards the latter, as if in expectation that by an honorable death he might escape the infamy he dreaded from the flastardly conduct of troops on whom he could place no depend- ence. His aids and the confidential friends around his person, by indirect violence com- pelled him to retire. The royal army, after a halt of six days at Frog's Neck, advanced on the 18th of October near to New-Rochelle. After three days, general Howe moved the right and centre of his army two miles to the north- ward of New-Rochelle, on the road to the White Plains, and there he received a large reinforcement. General Washington, while retreating from New- York Island, was careful to make a front towards the British, from East-Ches- ter almost to White Plains, in order to se- cure the march of those who were behind, and to defend the removal of the sick, the cannon, and stores of his army. In this manner his troops made a line of small de- tached and intrenched camps on the several heights and strong grounds, from Valentine's Hill on the right, to the vicinity of the White Plains on the left. On the 25th of October the royal army moved in two columns, and took a position with the Brunx in front, upon which the Americans assembled their main force at White Plains, behind intrenchments. A general action was hourly expected, and a considerable one took place, in which seve- ral hundreds fell. -The Americans were commanded by general M'Dougal, and the British by general Leslie. While they were engaged the American baggage was moved off, in full view of the British army. Soon after this, general Washington changed his front, his left wing stood fast, and his right fell back to some hills. In this position, which was an admirable one in a military point of view, he both desired and expected an action; but general Howe declined it, and drew off his forces towards Dobb's Fer- ry. The Americans afterwards retired to North-Castle. General Washington, with part of his army, crossed the North River, and took post in the neighborhood of Fort Lee. A force of about 7500 men was left at North Castle, under general Lee. The Americans having retired, on the 12th of November Sir William Howe deter- mined to improve the opportunity of their absence, for the reduction of Fort Washing- ton. This, the only post the Americans then held on New- York Island, was under the command of colonel Magaw. The royal army made four attacks upon it The first, on the north side, was led on by general Kniphausen; the second, on the east, by general Matthews, supported by lord Corn- wallis. The third was under the direction of lieutenant-colonel Sterling, and the fourth was commanded by lord Percy. The troops under Kniphausen, when advancing to the fort, had to pass through a thick wood, which GEORGE IE. 171601820. 179 was occupied by colonel Rawling's regiment of riflemen, and suffered very much from their well-directed fire. During this attack, a body of the British light infantry advanced against a party of the Americans, who were annoying them from behind rocks and trees, and obliged them to disperse. Lord Percy carried an advance work on his side, and lieutenant-colonel Sterling forced his way up a steep height, and took 170 prisoners. Their out-works being carried, the Ameri- cans left their lines, and crowded into the fort. Colonel Rahl, who led the left wing of Kniphausen's attack, pushed forward, and lodged his column within a hundred yards of the fort, and was there soon joined by the left column. The garrison surrendered on terms of capitulation, by which the men were to be considered as prisoners of war, and the officers to keep their baggage and side-arms. The number of prisoners amount- ed to 2700. The loss of the British, inclu- sive of killed and wounded, was about 1200. Shortly after Fort Washington had surren- dered, lord Cornwallis with a considerable force passed over to attack Fort Lee, on the opposite Jersey shore. WASHINGTON RETREATS. THE garrison was saved by an immediate evacuation, but at the expense of their artil- lery and stores. General Washington about this time retreated to Newark. Having abundant reason, from the posture of affairs, to count on the necessity of a farther retreat, he asked colonel Reed " Should we retreat to the back parts of Pennsylvania, will the Pennsylvanians support us 1" The colonel replied, " If the lower countries are sub- dued and give up, the back countries will do the same." The general replied, " We must retire to Augusta county in Virginia ; numbers will be obliged to repair to us for safety, and we must try what we can do in carrying on a predatory war, and if over- powered, we must cross the Allegheny moun- tains." While a tide of success was flowing in upon general Howe, he and his brother, as royal commissioners, issued a proclamation, in which they commanded " all persons as- sembled in arms against his majesty's gov- ernment to disband, and all general or pro- vincial congresses to desist from their trea- sonable actings, and to relinquish their usurped power." They also declared, " that every person who, within sixty days, should appear before the governor, lieutenant-gov- ernor, or commander-in-chief of any of his majesty's colonies, or before the general or commanding officer of his majesty's forces, and claim the benefit of the proclamation, and testify his obedience to the laws, by sub- scribing a certain declaration, should obtain a full and free pardon of all treasons by him committed, and of all forfeitures and penal- ties for the same." Many who had been in office, and taken an active part in support of the new government, accepted of these of- fers, and made their peace by submission. Some who had been the most vehement in favor of independence, veered round to the strongest side. Men of fortune generally gave way ; the few who stood firm, were mostly to be found in the middle ranks of the people. When it was expected that the conquerors would retire to winter-quarters, they com- menced a new plan of operations, more alarming than all their previous conquests. The reduction of Fort Washington, the evacuation of Fort Lee, and the diminution of the American army, by the departure of those whose time of service had expired, en- couraged the British, notwithstanding the severity of the winter, and the badness of the roads, to pursue the remaining incon- siderable continental force, with the prospect of annihilating it. By this turn of affairs, the interior country was surprised into con- fusion, and found an enemy within its bowels, without a sufficient army to oppose it. To retreat was the only expedient left. This having commenced, lord Cornwallis followed, and was close in the rear of general Wash- ington as he retreated successively to New- ark, to Brunswick, to Princeton, to Trenton, and to the Pennsylvania side of the Dela- ware. The pursuit was urged with so much rapidity, that the rear of the one army pull- ing down bridges was often within sight and shot of the van of the other building them up. On the day general Washington retreated over the Delaware, the British took posses- sion of Rhode-Island without any loss, and at the same time blocked up commodore Hopkins's squadron, and a number of priva- teers, at Providence. In this period, when the American army was relinquishing its general, the people giving up the cause, some of their leaders going over to the enemy, and the British commanders succeeding in every enterprise, general Lee was taken prisoner at Basken- ridge, by lieutenant-colonel Harcourt This caused a depression of spirits among the Americans, far exceeding any real injury done to their essential interest He had been repeatedly ordered to come forward with his division, and join general Washing- ton ; but these orders were not obeyed. This circumstance, and the dangerous crisis of public affairs, together with his being alone at some distance from the troops which he commanded, begat suspicions that he chose to fall into the hands of the British. Though these apprehensions were without founda- tion, they produced the same extensive mis- chief as if they had been realities. The 180 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Americans had repoeed extravagant confi- dence in his military talents, and experience of regular European war. Merely to have lost such an idol of the state at any time, would have been distressful ; but losing him under circumstances, which favored an opin- ion that, despairing of the American cause, he chose to be taken prisoner, was to many an extinguishment of every hope. By the advance of the British into New- Jersey, the neighborhood of Philadelphia be- came the seat of war. This prevented that undisturbed attention to public business which the deliberations of congress required. They, therefore, on the 12th of December, adjourned themselves to meet in eight days at Baltimore, resolving at the same time, "that general Washington should be pos- sessed of full power to order and direct all things relative to the department and opera- tions of war." The activity of the British in the close of the campaign, seemed in some measure to compensate for their tardiness in the be- ginning of it Hitherto they had succeeded in every scheme ; they marched up and down the Jersey side of the river Delaware, and through the country, without any molesta- tion. All opposition to the re-establishment of royal government seemed to be on the point of expiring. The Americans had thus far acted without system, or rather feebly executed what had been tardily adopted. Though the war was changed from its first ground, a redress of grievances to a strug- gle fc>r sovereignty, yet some considerable time ekpsed before arrangements conforma- ble to this new system were adopted, and a much longer before they were carried into execution. EXERTIONS OF CONGRESS. IN proportion as difficulties increased, con- gress redoubled their exertions to oppose them : on the tenth of December they ad' dressed the states in animated language, calculated to remove their despondency, re- new their hopes, and confirm their resolu- tions. They at the same time dispatched gentle- men of character and influence to excite the militia to take the field. General Mifflin was, on this occasion, particularly useful ; he exerted his great abilities in rousing his fellow-citizens, by animated and affectionate addresses, to turn out inj defence of their endangered liberties. Congress also recommended to each of the United States " to appoint a day of sol- emn fasting and humiliation, to implore of Almighty God the forgiveness of their many sins, and to beg the countenance and assist- ance of his providence in the prosecution of the present just and necessary war." In the dangerous situation to which every- thing dear to the friends of independence was reduced, congress transferred extraor- dinary powers to general Washington, " to raise and collect together, in the most speedy and effectual manner, from any or all of these United States, sixteen battalions of infantry, in addition to those already vot- ed by congress ; to appoint officers for the said battalions of infantry ; to raise, officer, and equip three thousand light-hofrse, three regiments of artillery, and a corps of engi- neers, and to establish their pay ; to apply to any of the states for such aid of the militia as he shall judge necessary ; to form such magazines of provisions, and in such places as he shall think proper ; to displace and appoint all officers under the rank of briga- dier-general, and to fill up all vacancies in every other department in the American armies ; to take, wherever he may be, what- ever he may want for the use of the army, if the inhabitants will not sell it, allowing a reasonable price for the same ; to arrest and confine persons who refuse to take the con- tinental currency, or are otherwise disaf- fected to the American cause ; and return to the states of which they are citizens, their names and the nature of their offences, together with the witnesses to prove them : That the foregoing powers be vested in gen- eral Washington, for and during the term of six months from the date hereof, unless sooner determined by congress." In this hour of extremity, the attention of congress was employed in devising plans to save the states from sinking under the heavy calamities which were bearing them down. It is remarkable, that neither in the present condition, though trying and severe, nor in any other since the declaration of in- dependence, was congress influenced either by force, distress, artifice, or persuasion, to entertain the most distant idea of purchas- ing peace, by returning to the condition of British subjects. So low were they reduced in the latter end of 1776, that some mem- bers, distrustful of- their ability to resist the power of Great Britain, proposed to author- ize their commissioners at the court of France to transfer to that country the same monopoly of their trade which Great Brit- ain had hitherto enjoyed. On examination it was found, that concessions of this kind would destroy the force of many arguments heretofore used in favor of independence, and probably disunite their citizens. It was next proposed to offer a monopoly of certain enumerated articles of produce. To this the variant interests of the different states were so directly opposed, as to occasion a speedy and decided negative. Some pro- posed offering to France a league offensive and defensive, in case she would heartily GEORGE ffl. 17601820. 181 support American independence; but this was also rejected. The more enlightened members of congress argued, " Though the friendship of small states might be purchas- ed, that of France could not" They al- leged, that if she would risk a war with Great Britain, by openly espousing their cause, it would not be so much from the prospect of direct advantages, as from a na- tural desire to lessen the overgrown power of a dangerous rival. It was therefore sup- posed, that the only inducement likely to influence France to an interference, was an assurance that the United States were de- termined to persevere in refusing a return to their former allegiance. Instead of lis- tening to the terms of the royal commis- sioners, or to any founded on the idea of their resuming the character of British sub- jects, it was therefore again resolved, to abide by their declared independence, and proffered freedom of trade to every foreign nation, trusting the event to Providence, and risking all consequences. Copies of these resolutions were sent to the principal courts of Europe, and proper persons were appointed to solicit their friendship to the new-formed states. These dispatches fell into the hands of the British, and were by them published. This was the very thing wished for by congress ; they well knew, that an apprehension of their making up all differences with Great Britain was the prin- cipal objection to the interference of foreign courts, in what was represented to be no more than a domestic quarrel. A resolution adopted in the deepest distress and the worst of times, that congress would listen to no terms of reunion with their parent state, convinced those who wished for the dismemberment of the British empire, that it was sound policy to interfere, so far as would prevent the conquest of the United States. These judicious determinations in the cabinet were accompanied with vigorous exertions in the field. The delay so judi- ciously contrived on the retreat through Jer- sey, afforded time for these volunteer rein- forcements to join general Washington. The number of troops under his command at that time fluctuated between two and three thou- sand men. To turn round and face a victo- rious and numerous foe, with this inconsid- erable force, was risking much ; but the ur- gency of the case required that something should be attempted. The recruiting busi- ness for the proposed new continental army was at a stand, while the British were driv- ing the Americans before them. The pres- ent regular soldiers could, as a matter of right, in less than a week claim their dis- charge, and scarce a single recruit offered to supply their place. Under these circum- VOL. IV. 16 stances, the bold resolution was formed of recrossing into the state of Jersey, and at- tacking that part of the enemy which was posted at Trenton. HESSIANS CAPTURED AT TRENTON. WHEN the Americans retreated over the Delaware, the boats in the vicinity were re- moved out of the way of their pursuers. This arrested their progress : but the Brit- ish commanders, in the security of conquest, cantoned their army at Burlington, Borden- ton, Trenton, and other towns of New-Jer- sey, in daily expectation of being enabled to cross over into Pennsylvania, by means of the ice which is generally formed about that time. In the evening of Christmas-day, general Washington made arrangements for recross- ing the Delaware in three divisions ; at M'Konkey's Ferry, at Trenton Ferry, and at or near Bordenton. The troops which were to have crossed at the two last places, were commanded by generals Ewing and Cadwallader ; they made every exertion to get over, but the quantity of ice was so great, that they could not effect their pur- pose. The main body, which was com- manded by general Washington, crossed at M'Konkey's Ferry, but the ice in the river retarded their passage so long, that it was three o'clock in the morning before the ar- tillery could be got over. On their landing in Jersey, they were formed into two divi- sions commanded by generals Sullivan and Greene, who had under their command brig- adiers lord Stirling, Mercer, and St Clair. One of these divisions was ordered to pro- ceed on the lower, or river road, the other on the upper, or Pennington road. Colonel Stark, with some light troops, was also di- rected to advance near to the river, and to possess himself of that part of the town which is beyond the bridge. The divisions having nearly the same distance to march, were ordered immediately, on forcing the out-guards, to push directly into Trenton, that they might charge the enemy before they had time to form. Though they march- ed different roads, yet they arrived at the enemy's advanced post within three minutes of each other. The out-guards of the Hes- sian troops at Trenton soon fell back, but kept up a constant retreating fire. Their main body being hard pressed by the Amer- icans, who had already got possession of half their artillery, attempted to file off by a road leading towards Princeton, but were checked by a body of troops thrown in their way. Finding they were surrounded, they laid down their arms. The number which submitted was twenty-three officers, and eight hundred and eighty-six men. Be- tween thirty and forty of the Hessians were killed and wounded. Colonel Rahl was 192 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. among the former, and seven of his officers among the latter. Captain Washington, of the Virginia troops, and five or six of the Americans, were wounded ; two were kill- ed, and two or three were frozen to death. The detachment in Trenton consisted of the regiments of Rahl, Losberg, and Knip- hausen, amounting in the whole to about fifteen hundred men, and a troop of British light-horse. About six hundred escaped by the road leading to Bordenton. The British had a strong battalion of light infantry at Princeton, and a force yet re- maining near the Delaware, superior to the American army. General Washington, there- fore, in the evening of the same day, thought it most prudent to recross into Pennsylvania with his prisoners. The effects of this successful enterprise were speedily felt in recruiting the Ameri- can army. About fourteen hundred regular soldiers, whose time of service was on the point of expiring, agreed to serve six weeks longer, on a promised gratuity of ten paper dollars to each. Men of influence were sent to different parts of the country to rouse the militia. The Hessian prisoners, taken on the twenty-sixth, being secured, general Wash- ington recrossed the Delaware, and took possession of Trenton. The detachments which had been distributed over New-Jer- sey, previous to the capture of the Hessians, immediately after that event, assembled at Princeton, and were joined by the army from Brunswick, under lord Cornwallis. From this position, on the second of January, 1777, they came forward towards Trenton in great force, hoping, by a vigorous onset, to repair the injury their cause had sustained by the late defeat. Truly delicate was the situa- tion of the feeble American army. To re- treat, was to hazard the city of Philadel- phia, and to destroy every ray of hope which had begun to dawn from their late success. To risk an action with a superior force in front, and a river in the rear, was danger- ous in the extreme. To get round the ad- vanced party of the British, and by pushing forwards to attack in their rear, was deemed preferable to either. The British on their advance from Princeton, about four o'clock in the afternoon, attacked a body of Ameri- cans which were posted, with four field- pieces, a little to the northward of Trenton, and compelled them to retreat The pur- suing British being checked at the bridge over Sanpink Creek, which runs through that town, by some field-pieces which were posted on the opposite banks of that rivulet, fell back so far as to be out of reach of the cannon, and kindled their fires. The Ameri- cans were drawn up on the other side of the creek, and in that position remained till night, cannonading the enemy and receiv- ing their fire. In this critical hour, two ar- mies, on which the success or failure of the American revolution materially depended, were crowded into the small village of Tren- ton, and only separated by a creek, in many places fordable. The British, believing they had all the advantages they could wish for, and that they could use them when they pleased, discontinued all further operations, and kept themselves in readiness to make the attack next morning. The next morn- ing presented a scene as brilliant on the one side, as it was unexpected on the other. Soon after it became dark, general Wash- ington ordered all his baggage to be silently removed, and having left guards for the pur- pose of deception, marched with his whole force, by a circuitous route, to Princeton. This mano3uvre was determined upon in a council of war, from a conviction that it would avoid the appearance of a retreat, and at the same time the hazard of an action in a bad position, and that it was the most likely way to preserve the city of Philadel- phia from falling into the hands of the Brit- ish. General Washington also presumed, that from an eagerness to efface the impres- sions made by the late capture of the Hes- sians at Trenton, the British commanders had pushed forward -their principal force, and that of course the remainder in the rear at Princeton was not more than equal to his own. The event verified this conjecture. The more effectually to disguise the depar- ture of the Americans from Trenton, fires were lighted up in front of their camp. These not only gaye an appearance of going to rest, but as flame cannot be seen through, concealed from the British what was trans- acting behind them. In this relative posi- tion, they were a pillar of fire to the one army, and a pillar of cloud to the other. Providence favored this movement of the Americans. The weather had been for some time so warm and moist, that the ground was soft, and the roads so deep as to be scarcely passable: but the wind suddenly changed to the north-west, and the ground in a short time was frozen so hard, that when the Americans took up their line of march, they were no more retarded than if they had been upon a solid pavement General Washington reached Princeton early the next morning, and would have completely surprised the British, had not a party, which was on their way to Trenton, descried his troops, when they were about, two miles distant, and sent back couriers to alarm their unsuspecting fellow-soldiers in their rear. These consisted of the seven- teenth, the fortieth, and sixty-fifth regiments of British infantry, and some of the royal artillery, with two field-pieces, and three GEORGE IE. 17601820. 183 troops of light dragoons. The centre of the Americans, consisting of the Philadelphia militia, while on their line of march, was briskly charged by a party of the British, and gave way in disorder. The moment was critical: general Washington pushed forward, and placed himself between his own men and the British, with his horse's head fronting the latter. The Americans, encouraged by his example and exhorta- tions, made a stand, and returned the Brit- ish fire. The general, though between both parties, was providentially uninjured by ei- ther. A party of the British fled into the college, and were there attacked with field- pieces which were fired into it The seat of the muses became for some time the scene of action. The party which had taken refuge in the college, after receiving a few discharges from the American field-pieces, came out and surrendered themselves pris- oners of war. In the course of the engage- ment, sixty of the British were killed, and a greater number wounded, and about three hundred of them were taken prisoners. The rest made their escape, some by push- ing on towards Trenton, others by return- ing towards Brunswick. The Americans lost only a few ; but colonel Haslet and Pot- ter, and captain Neal, of the artillery, were among the slain. General Mercer received three bayonet-wounds, of which he died in a short time. He was a Scotchman by birth, but from principle and affection had engaged to support the liberties of his adopted coun- try, with a zeal equal to that of any of its native sons. In private life he was amiable, and his character as an officer stood high in the public esteem. While they were fighting in Princeton, the British in Trenton were under arms, and on the point of making an assault on the evacuated camp of the Americans. With so much address had the movement to Princeton been conducted, that though, from the critical situation of the two armies, every ear may be supposed to have been open, and every degree of watchfulness to have been employed, yet general Washing- ton moved completely off the ground with his whole force, stores, baggage, and artil- lery, unknown to, and unsuspected by, his adversaries. The British in Trenton were so entirely deceived, that when they heard the report of the artillery at Princeton, though it was in the depth of winter, they supposed it to be thunder. That part of the royal army, which hav- ing escaped from Princeton, retreated to- wards New-Brunswick, was pursued for three or four miles. Another party, which had advanced as far as Maidenhead, on their way to Trenton, hearing the frequent dis- charge of fire-arms in their rear, wheeled round, and marched to the aid of their com- panions. The Americans, by destroying bridges, retarded these, though close in their rear, so long as to gain time for themselves to move off, in good order, to Pluckemin. So great was the consternation of the British at these unexpected movements, that they instantly evacuated both Trenton and Princeton, and retreated with their whole force to New-Brunswick. The American militia collected, and forming themselves into parties, waylaid their enemies, and cut them off whenever an opportunity present- ed. In a few days, they overran the Jerseys. General Maxwell surprised Elizabeth Town, and took near 100 prisoners. Newark was abandoned, and the late conquerors were forced to leave Woodbridge. The royal troops were confined to Amboy and Bruns- wick, which held a water communication with New- York. Thus, in the short space of a month, that part of Jersey, which lies between New-Brunswick and Delaware, was both overrun by the British, and recovered by the Americans. The victories of Trenton and Princeton seemed to be like a resurrection from the dead to the desponding friends of indepen- dence. A melancholy gloom had in the first twenty-five days of December over- spread the United States ; but from the mem- orable era of the 26th of the same month, their prospects began to brighten. The re- cruiting service, which for some time had been at a stand, was successfully renewed ; and hopes were soon indulged, that the commander-in-chief would be enabled to take the field in the spring, with a perma- nent regular force. General Washington retired to Morristown, that he might aflbrd shelter to his suffering army. The American militia had some successful skirmishes with detachments of their adversaries. Within four days after the affair at Princeton, be- tween forty and fifty Waldeckers were kill- ed, wounded, or taken, at Springfield, by an equal number of the same New-Jersey mili- tia, which but a month before suffered the British to overrun their country without opposition. This enterprise was conducted by colonel Spencer, whose gallantry on the occasion was rewarded with the command of a regiment. During the winter movements, which have been just related, the soldiers of both armies underwent great hardships ; but the Americans suffered by far the greater. Many of them were without shoes, though marching over frozen ground, which BO gashed their naked feet, that each step was marked with blood: there was scarcely a tent in their whole army: the city of Phila- delphia had been twice laid under contribu- tion to provide them with blankets : officers 184 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. had been appointed to examine every house, and, after leaving a scanty covering for the family, to bring off the rest for the use of the troops in the field ; but notwithstanding these exertions, the quantity procured was far short of decency, much less of comfort The officers and soldiers of the American army were about this time inoculated in their cantonment at Morristown; as very few of them had ever had the small-pox, the inoculation was nearly universal. The disorder had previously spread among them in the natural way, and proved mortal to many: but after inoculation was introduced, though whole regiments were inoculated in a day, there was little or no mortality from the small-pox, and the disorder was so slight, that from the beginning to the end of it, there was not a single day in which they could not, and if called upon, would not, have turned out and fought the British. To induce the inhabitants to accommodate of- ficers and soldiers in their houses, while under the small-pox, they and their families were inoculated gratis by the military sur- geons. Thus in a short time, the whole army and the inhabitants in and near Mor- ristown were subjected to the small-pox, and with very little inconvenience to either. Three months, which followed the actions of Trenton and Princeton, passed away with- out any important military enterprise on either side. Major-general Putnam was di- rected to take post at Princeton, and cover the country in the vicinity. He had only a few hundred troops, though he was no more than eighteen miles distant from the strong garrison of the British at Brunswick. At one period he had fewer men for duty than he had miles of frontier to guard. The sit- uation of general Washington at Morris- town was not more eligible. His force was trifling when compared with that of the British ; but the enemy and his own coun- trymen believed the contrary. Their decep- tion was cherished, and artfully continued by the specious parade of a considerable army. Throughout the campaign of 1776, an un- common degree of sickness raged in the American army. Husbandmen, transferred at once from the conveniencies of domestic life, to the hardships of a field encampment, could not accommodate themselves to the sudden change. On the eighth of August, the whole American army before New- York consisted of seventeen thousand two hun- dred and twenty-five men, but of that num- ber only ten thousand five hundred and fourteen were fit for duty. These numer- ous sick suffered much from the want of necessaries; hurry and confusion added much to their distresses : there was besides a real want of the requisites for their relief. RESULT OF THE CAMPAIGN. THE campaign of 1776 did not end till it had been protracted into the first month of the year 1777. The British had counted on the complete and speedy reduction of their late colonies, but they found the work more difficult of execution than was supposed. They wholly failed in their designs on the southern states. In Canada they recovered what in the preceding year they had lost ; drove the Americans out of their borders, and destroyed their fleet on the lakes ; but they failed in making their intended impres- sion on the north-western frontier of the states. They obtained possession of Rhode- Island; but the acquisition was of little ser- vice ; perhaps was of detriment. For near three years several thousand men stationed thereon for its security, were lost to every purpose of active co-operation with the royal forces in the field, and the possession of it secured no equivalent advantages. The British completely succeeded against the city of New- York and the adjacent country; but when they pursued their victories into New-Jersey, and subdivided their army, the recoiling Americans soon recovered the greater part of what they had lost Sir William Howe, after having nearly reached Philadelphia, was confined to limits so narrow, that the fee-simple of all he com- manded would not reimburse the expense incurred by its conquest. The war on the part of the Americans, was but barely begun. Hitherto they had engaged with temporary forces for a redress of grievances, but towards the close of this year they made arrangements for raising a permanent army to contend with Great Britain for the sovereignty of the country. To have thus far stood their ground with their new levies, was a matter of great importance, because to them delay was victory, and not to be conquered was to conquer. GEORGE 17601820. 185 CHAPTER XIH. State of Great Britain in the Summer of 1776 Meeting of Parliament Debate on the Proclamation of the American Commissioners Secession of the Minority Ha- beas Corpus Act suspended Fire in Portsmouth Dock- Yard Shameful Profusion of Ministers Debates on the Augmentation of the Civil List Address of the Speaker, Sir F. Norton, to the King Censured by Ministry Dispute unth Hol- land Campaign in America Action on the Brandyunne Philadelphia taken Battle of German-Town American Forts taken Progress of General Burgoyne Ticonderoga evacuated British repulsed at Fort Schuyler Defeat of Colonel Baum Actions at Stillwater, <$-c. Surrender of Burgoyne Conclusion of the Campaign. STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 1777. THE summer of1776 passed in England with but little agitation of the pub- lic mind. The pompous accounts which had been detailed by ministry of the suc- cesses of our arms, amused and misled the unthinking many ; and the extensive influ- ence which they had established by means of jobs, loans, contracts, and commissions, silenced all opposition. Even the minority in both houses of parliament, though consist- ing' of the most respectable of the. ancient nobility of the realm, and of the best fami- lies of the landed interest, were so dispirited by continued disappointments and fruitless efforts, that they even meditated a secession from their public duty. The inattention of the British nation to the deplorable situation, in which the errors and wickedness of the ministry had involved them, is the more extraordinary, when we recollect the ever-wakeful attention of the commercial world to their own interests, and observe, at the same time, that the cap- tures made on the seas by the American cruisers were calculated at no less than one million sterling. The West India islands were also reduced to a state of almost intol- erable distress, from the failure of the usual supplies from America ; and in most of them the necessaries of life had risen to three or four times their usual price. A contemporary historian has remarked, that the speech from the throne at the opening of parliament, on the 31st October 1776, was distinguished by " an unguarded and undignified intemperance of language." Nothing, his majesty observed, could have afforded him so much satisfaction, as to have been able to inform the houses, at the open- ing of this session, that the troubles in North America were at an end ; but so daring and desperate was the spirit of those leaders whose object had always been dominion and power, that they had now openly renounced all allegiance to the crown, and all political connexion with this country; they had re- 16* jected, with circumstances of indignity and insult, the means of conciliation held out to them under the authority of his majesty's commission, and had presumed to set up their rebellious confederacies for indepen- dent states. If their treason were suffered to take root, much mischief must grow from it, to the safety of his majesty's colonies, the commerce of the kingdom, and indeed the present system of all Europe. One great advantage, however, would be derived from the object of the rebels having been openly avowed, and clearly understood ; we should have unanimity at home, founded in the general conviction of the justice and necessity of our measures. The two houses were informed of the recovery of Canada, and the success on the side of New- York, which, although they had been so important as to give the strongest hopes of the most decisive good consequences, would never- theless not prevent the preparations for an- other campaign. His majesty observed that he continued to receive assurances of amity from the several courts of Europe, but that nevertheless it was necessary we should be in a respectable state of defence at home. An apology was made to the commons for the unavoidable expense. The speech concluded with an assurance that his majesty had no object in this arduous contest but to promote the true interest of all his subjects. No people ever enjoyed more happiness, or lived under a milder government, than those now revolted provinces; the improvements in every art, of which they boast, declare it; their numbers, their wealth, their strength by sea and land, which they think sufficient to enable them to make head against the whole power of the mother-country, are ir- refragable proofs of it. The debates on the addresses, in consequence of this speech, were long and tedious. Addresses, the echo of the speech, were brought forward in both houses; but an amendment, which was in reality another address in a totally different strain, was HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. moved by lord Jolin Cavendish in the house of commons, and the marquis of Rocking- ham in the house of lords, containing a masterly recapitulation of the manifold er- rors of that system which had caused the entire alienation, and at length the open revolt of so large a part of his majesty's once loyal and affectionate subjects. It concluded with the observation, " that a wise and prov- ident use of the late advantages might be productive of happy effects, as the means of establishing a permanent connexion be- tween Great Britain and her colonies, on principles of liberty, and terms of mutual benefit" " We should look," said this truly excel- lent and admirable address, " with shame and horror on any events that should bow them to any abject and unconditional sub- mission to any power whatsoever annihi- late their liberties, and subdue them to ser- vile'principles and passive habits by the mere force of foreign mercenary arms. The speech from the throne, under the established and decorous pretext of its being the speech of the minister, was treated with the most contemptuous and sarcastic severi- ty. "Where," it was asked, "are those mighty leaders to be found whom the Ame- ricans obey so implicitly, and who govern them with so despotic a rule 1 They have no grandees among them ; their soil is not productive of nobility; in no country are there in fact so few individuals possessed of a commanding or extensive influence ; the president of their supreme assembly was a merchant; the general of their armies a private gentleman. Nothing could be more evident than that a sense of common danger and of common suffering had driven them to the necessity of creating leaders, who were possessed only of such powers as the people had thought it expedient to intrusl them with. In the same spirit^of falsehood it was asserted, ' that the Americans had rejected with circumstances of indignity and insult the terms of conciliation offeree them.' The truth was, that no terms had been offered them but the offer of a pardon on unconditional submission, which the min- isters well knew they would never accept ; nor was even this mock offer made till the whole system of irritation and oppression was completed by the injustice and cruelty of the capture act, by which they were put out of the protection of the law, and their property held out as common spoil. The position in the speech, so undeniably true, ' that no people ever enjoyed greater happi- ness, or lived under a milder government, than these now revolted colonies,* implied wonderful effects." The expectation of una- . nimity from the present situation of affairs was, however, said to be of all the parts of this extravagant speech the most ridiculous. " What ! shall we at last concur in mea- sures, because all the mischiefs which were originally predicted have ultimately resulted from them] Have ministers the unparal- leled effrontery to call upon us to give our. sanction to that fatal system which we in vain warned and implored them to shun, and which persisted in must terminate in utter ruin 1" On a division, the amendment was rejected in the house of commons by a majority of 342 to 87, and in the house of peers by 91 to 26, fourteen of whom joined in a protest, in which the proposed amend- ment was verbatim inserted, in order that it might remain a!s a perpetual memorial on the journals of that house. DEBATE ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE BRITISH COMMISSIONERS IN AMERICA. IN a few days after the addresses were presented, lord John Cavendish exhibited in the house a printed paper, purporting to be a proclamation of his majesty's commission- ers in America, and called upon ministers to inform him as to the authenticity of it. This being acknowledged, his lordship expressed in the strongest terms his astonishment at the contempt and indignity offered to the house, who, through the medium of a com- mon newspaper only, were at length inform- ed that they stand engaged to America to undertake a revision of all those laws by which the Americans had conceived them- selves to be aggrieved. Notwithstanding the resentment he felt as a member of the house at this ministerial insolence of conduct, his lordship said that he felt a dawn of joy break in upon his mind at the bare mention of re- conciliation, whatever color the measures might wear that led to so desirable an event. The great object of restoring peace and unity to this distracted empire outweighed so far with him all other present considerations, that he not only would overlook punctilios on this account, but even such matters of real import as would upon any other occa- sion call all his powers into action. On these grounds his lordship moved, " that the house should resolve itself into a committee, to consider of the revisal of all acts of par- liament by which his majesty's subjects in America think themselves aggrieved." SECESSION OF THE MINORITY IN PAR- LIAMENT. THE opposition were strenuous in assert- ing, that the crown promised in this procla- mation more than it could grant without permission of parliament ; the crown having the severest censure on those who had so i only a voice in the passing or repeal of laws, wantonly and wickedly departed from a sys- but no power to revise such as the parlia- tem which had produced such noble and ment have again and again confimied coo- GEORGE m. 17601820. 187 trary to all endeavors from opposition. No- thing can be more unjust than to pretend to disarm the Americans previous to a negotia- tion. Such a practice cannot derive a founda- tion even from the most tyrannical- edicts or practices ; and after having by sure and de- liberate degrees impelled the Americans to the natural protection, self-defence, to ask them to lay down their arms, and intrust themselves to their mercy, who had undone them, who had tortured them to desperation, is not more absurd than cruel, and not more unlike Britons, than unlike savages. The question, after great animosity of debate, be- ing put, the motion was rejected by a major- ity of 109 to 47. This event was followed by that secession, which had been long med- itated, of a great number of the members of opposition, particularly of the Rocking- ham party ; they no longer saw duty or ad- vantage to the public in wasting their time and strength in unavailing attempts to op- pose the resistless determinations of minis- try. They had long ago foretold everything that had happened ; they had made uniform efforts to prevent the impending danger, but they saw that all their efforts now served only to expose them to the resentment of a people infatuated and deluded. We may add, that few circumstances contributed more to open the eyes of the besotted people of England, than this secession. They now felt themselves at the mercy of the ministry, and deserted by all the wisdom and patriot- ism of the nation ; and the dissatisfaction which soon after broke forth in various pa- triotic meetings and resolves, may in part be attributed to this proceeding. HABEAS CORPUS ACT SUSPENDED. SOON after the recess, which continued from December the thirteenth to the twen- ty-first of January, 1777, lord North moved for leave to bring in a bill, to enable his ma- jesty to secure and detain persons charged with, or suspected of the crime of high trea- son committed in America, or on the high seas, or the crime of piracy. The bill was brought in and read the following day (Feb- ruary the 7th), and a motion made, that it should be read a second time on the 10th : But the principal enacting clause appearing in a very alarming point of view, it was strongly combated by such of the opposition as were present. This clause declared all persons taken in the act of high treason, committed in any of the colonies, or on the high seas, or in the act of piracy, or who are or shall be charged with or suspected of any of these crimes, liable to be committed to any common jail, or to any other place of confinement, appointed for that purpose un- der his majesty's sign manual, within any part of his dominions, there to be detained in safe custody, without bail, mainprize, or trial, during the continuance of the law, with a provision, however, enabling a cer- tain number of the privy-council to grant an order for admitting such persons to bail or trial. Of the few members in opposition who happened to be present, Mr. Dunning ani- madverted most severely on the bill now proposed by the minister. He expressed the utmost astonishment, that a bill of such mag- nitude and importance, which was to suspend all the functions of the constitution, should be attempted to be smuggled through a thin house under false colors, before the nation could be apprized of its danger, or their con- stituents have the smallest notice, that they were going to surrender the foundation of all their other rights, and the peculiar char- acteristic of the British government The alarm excited by this measure re- called a few of the minority gentlemen, who had before refused their attendance, and the debates were renewed with as great vio- lence as ever. Among the manifold objec- tions to this bill, it was remarked, that it was framed with " such treacherous artifice of construction," that by the enacting claus- es, the crown was enabled, at its pleasure, to commit, not only Americans, but any other person resident in the British dominions, without bail or mainprize, to any place of confinement in Great Britain or elsewhere. Thus was the habeas corpus act, that great bulwark of British liberty, completely anni- hilated by a construction of law, which left it in the power of the crown to apprehend on the slightest suspicion, or pretence of sus- picion, any individual against whom the ven- geance of the court was meant to be direct- ed ; and to convey them beyond the seas to any of the garrisons in Africa or the Indies, far from all hope or possibility of relief. At length the minister, with that inconsistency which marked his conduct, explicitly disa- vowed as to himself all design of extending the operation of the bill beyond its open and avowed objects. He said, " that the bill was intended for America, and not for England ; that, as he would ask for no power that was not wanted, so he would scorn to receive it by any covert means; and that, far from wishing to establish any unconstitutional precedent, he neither sought nor wished any powers to be vested in the crown or its min- isters which were capable of being employ- ed to bad or oppressive purposes." He there- fore agreed to receive the amendments pro- posed ; the principal of which were in sub- stance : 1. That the clause empowering his majesty to confine such persons as might be apprehended under this act "in any part of his dominions, should be modified by the in- sertion of the words, "within the realm;" and secondly, That an additional clause or 188 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. proviso be inserted, " that nothing in this act shall be construed to extend to persons resi- dent in Great Britain." These concessions gave extreme offence to the leaders of the high prerogative party, who had zealously defended the bill in its original state, and who now exclaimed, that they were desert- ed by the minister in a manner which seem- ed calculated to disgrace the whole measure, to confirm all the charges and surmises of their adversaries, and to fix all the odium upon them. " And it was indeed sufficiently evident (a modern writer observes) from the whole conduct of the business, that the min- ister, on this as on other occasions, was not admitted into the inmost recesses of the roy- al cabinet" JOHN THE PAINTER'S PLOT. WHILE these affairs were transacting, .the ministry were enabled, by a fortunate occur- rence, to raise an alarm in the minds of the people, and still farther to excite their ab- horrence of the Americans. The absurd story of a plot against the government which had been fabricated in 1775, and on which Mr. Sayre had been committed to the Tower, was not found to answer the purposes of the ministry, and had rather contributed to over- whelm them with disgrace, than to raise their popularity. The instance we have to relate, was more favorable to their views; either the man in question was really guilty, or the circumstances were involved in such perplexity, that it was impossible to unravel the mystery. In the latter end of the year 1776, a fire was discovered in the rope- house at the royal dock-yard of Portsmouth, which was however extinguished without communicating to the other magazines. On the seventh of January, a fire also broke out in some warehouses at Bristol ; six or seven of which were consumed. The alarm was instantly raised of plots and incendiaries, and the suspicions of the public were at length directed to an itinerant painter of the name of John Aitken, by birth a Scotchman, but who was said lately to have returned from America, where he had resided some time. As the fire at Bristol had taken place while he was supposed to be in that city, and some suspicious circumstances in his conduct, and his solitary mode of life, had attracted attention, he was arrested soon after his departure from that place. On his examination, however, before the lords of the admiralty, nothing appeared to criminate him, but he was nevertheless committed to prison. In the mean time, every stratagem was employed to draw from him a confes- sion of guilt Another American painter was enlisted for this purpose, who, by pre- tending to sympathize with the misfortunes of John the Painter, asserted that he had extorted from him a full confession of his crimes. This man was almost the sole evi- dence brought forward on the trial, and though a person of infamous character, on his testimony respecting the communications which took place in the prison, John the Painter was condemned and executed. On his way to the place of execution, he is said to have made a confession of his guilt to a certain commissioner of the admiralty, add- ing, that he had been encouraged to the un- dertaking by Silas Deane, one of the Ameri- can agents at Paris. Such are the outlines of this mysterious transaction. The fact was generally be- lieved at the time, though there were some who entertained doubts, even then, concern- ing the truth of every particular. It was thought extraordinary that John the Painter, who was certainly a man of considerable talents, and who knew how much depended upon keeping his own counsel, should un- burden himself at a few interviews to a man who was before a perfect stranger to him, and who, he might justly suspect, was sent purposely to draw from him the fatal secret. The infamous character of the witness was also severely animadverted upon ; and even the confession which he was said to have made to the commissioner of the admiralty, did not serve entirely to remove these doubts. The confession, as to its genuineness, must ultimately rest upon the veracity of that commissioner ; but we are not informed, it was said, what methods were made use of to extort that confession, or what hopes of pardon might have been held out to a man, who, within sight of the gibbet, considered his case as desperate. The other circum- stances adduced on his trial were too slight to have determined a case where the life of a fellow-creature is depending ; and it must not be forgotten, that the poor victim was a friendless and destitute wretch, without either money or support of any kind, and whose character, from his itinerant mode of life, &c. was involved in suspicion. In a word, however guilty John the Painter might be, we trust the precedent will not operate in other cases : we trust that no person, more innocent or more meritorious, will ever be convicted on circumstantial proof, or on the testimony of such a witness as the person on whose evidence he was condemned. MINISTERIAL PROFUSION. SEVERE inquiries were about this period instituted in parliament, concerning the ex- penditure of the public money. The ac- counts were said to be in many places ob- scure, and, if anywhere intelligible, they were extravagant, and only calculated to enrich the avaricious contractor at the ex- pense of the public. Lord North assured the house, that great economy had been ob- served, and that in some cases the contract- GEORGE IIL 17601820. 189 ors were losers ; but in every exigency he had been careful to make such bargains as were most advantageous for the public. The landgrave of Hesse, however, had made a demand for forty-four thousand pounds of levy-money ; this demand was unexpected, and seemingly unfair ; the minister to this replied, that the landgrave quoted the treaty of 1755 as a precedent, and was entitled to the advantages both of the former and pres- ent treaties, although his troops had never served in America ; the demand was unex- pected, indeed, but perfectly fair. A very severe and continued debate was daily re- newed in the committee of supply on these subjects, and the minister had scarcely fin- ished his defence, however lame, when he was under a necessity of laying before them a message from his majesty, at a time very unfavorable for the request contained in it On the ninth of April 1777, a message was delivered by the minister from the king, in which his majesty expressed " his con- cern in acquainting the house with the diffi- culties he labored under from the debts in- curred by expenses of the civil government, amounting, on the fifth of January preceding, to upwards of six hundred thousand pounds." And the house, on this message, resolving itself into a committee of supply, the min- ister moved, " That the sum of six hundred and eighteen thousand pounds be granted, to enable his majesty to discharge the debts of the civil government ; and that the sum of one hundred thousand pounds per annum, over and above the sum of eight hundred thousand pounds, be granted as a farther provision for the same." These propositions called forth the whole strength of opposition. The gentlemen on that side of the house, while they lamented the degrading situation of the sovereign, and the many distresses brought upon indi- viduals, ascribed the debt entirely to the boundless and scandalous profusion of min- isters, and insisted that the present revenue was, without any possibility of doubt, not only sufficient to answer all the purposes of government, when under the restriction of a prudent economy, but also fully to support the grandeur, splendor, and magnificence of the crown, in a manner suitable to its own dignity, and the greatness of the nation, even in its happiest era. It was too manifest, however, that the debt had been incurred in supporting and carrying on a system of cor- ruption. The opposition animadverted on the ac- counts in the most severe manner. They were fabricated, they said, to perplex, and not to give information ; the facts of which their titles announced the discovery, could not bear the light. It was observed, that the large sums of one hundred and seventy-one thousand pounds, and one hundred and four- teen thousand pounds, were charged in two lines for secret service, under the disposal of the two secretaries of the treasury, which could not but seem dangerous as well as mysterious. It was allowed to be right and necessary that the secretaries of state should be allowed money for the purpose of pro- curing foreign intelligence; but that the officers of the treasury, who can have no public connexion beyond their own office, much less any intercourse with foreign states, should be the agents for disposing of the public money in secret service, was most alarming, and had in itself sufficient evi- dence to put an end at once to all doubts as to its design or application. The expense charged under the heads of Cofferer's Office, Board of Works, and Foreign Ministers, was said to be enormous beyond measure. It now appeared, that an attempt was made to realize the wretched policy of James IL viz. the maintaining an army of ambassadors, at the same time that every transaction, either with regard to foreign or domestic affairs, proclaimed aloud the imbecility of ministers, and the folly of their negotiations. Above half a million was stated under the article of the Board of Works, without the least item to show to whom, or for what purpose it was disposed ; or on what palace, house, park, or royal garden it had been ex- pended. But leaving inquiries into past transac- tions, and deductions drawn from them, it was maintained by several members in both houses, that if the revenues proceeding from Wales, Cornwall, the dutchy of Lancaster, Ireland, the West India islands, American quit-rents, and other sources of smaller con- sequence, were taken into consideration, and added to the civil list establishment, the crown would be found to have possessed, for several years, a revenue of more than a mil- lion sterling : that if the American quit-rents had not been lost, or could be recovered, this revenue, solely in the crown, independent of account, and free from inquiry, would, in a few years, increase in such a degree, as to afford a greater fund of treasure for private disposal than the most powerful and arbitrary sovereign in Christendom could boast of. Though the revenues of Hanover and Osna- burgh did not come within the cognizance of parliament, they were, however, to be considered as objects of attention in all ques- tions relative to the excessive growing pow- er, and dangerous influence of the crown. Notwithstanding these arguments, and the detestable light in which the ministry were placed by opposition on the present occasion, the grant of six hundred eighteen thousand three hundred and forty pounds, was, how- ever, carried without a division ; and soon 190 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. after that of one hundred thousand pounds additional revenue, by a great majority. SPEAKER'S ADDRESS TO THE KING. THE most remarkable circumstance at- tending this extraordinary grant, was the speech made by the speaker of the house of commons to his majesty, on presenting it a few days afterwards for the royal assent " In a time, sir," said he, " of public distress, full of difficulty and danger, their constitu- ents laboring under burdens almost too heavy to be borne, your faithful commons, post- poning all other business, have not only granted to your majesty a large present sup- ply, but also a very great additional revenue, great beyond example, great beyond your majesty's highest expense ; but all this, sir, they have done in the well-grounded confi- dence, that you will apply wisely what they have granted liberally. The countenance of the king plainly indicated how little ac- ceptable was this unexpected liberty. On the return of the speaker and the attendant members, the thanks of the house were nevertheless immediately voted him ; yet not without exciting the secret and acrimo- nious resentment of the king's friends, or prerogative party ; one of whom, Rigby, took occasion in a subsequent debate to ar- raign the conduct of the speaker with un- usual vehemence, as conveying little less than an insult on the king, and as equally misrepresenting the sense of parliament and the state of the nation. The sentiments delivered at the bar of the other house, he said, were not those of the house of com- mons ; he for one totally disclaimed them ; and he had no doubt but the majority of the house thought with him. The speaker ap- pealed to the vote of thanks which had been passed, as a proof that he had not been guil- ty of the misrepresentation imputed to him : and the minister, uneasy at the altercation, intimated his wish that the subject might not be farther discussed. But Fox, imme- diately rising, declared, " that a serious and direct charge having been brought, the ques- tion was now at issue. Either the speaker had misrepresented the sense of the house, or he had not He should therefore, in order to bring this question to a proper and final decision, move, that the speaker of the house, in his speech to his majesty at the bar of the house of peers, did express with just and proper energy the sentiments of this house." The speaker himself declared, " that he would sit no longer in that chair than he was supported in the free exercise of his duty. He had discharged what he conceived to be his duty, intending only to express the sense of the house ; and from the vote of approbation with which he had been honored, he had reason to believe he was not chargeable with any misrepresenta- tion." The ministers now found themselves involved in a most unpleasant dilemma, and in pressing terms recommended the with- drawing of the motion. This being posi- tively refused, Rigby moved for the house to adjourn. But the house appearing evi- dently sensible of the degradation which its dignity must sustain from any affront offered to the chair, he at length thought fit in some degree to concede ; and professed, " that he meant no reflection upon the character of the speaker, but that what he had said was the mere expression of his private opinion, and the result of that freedom of speech which was the right and privilege of every member of that house, without respect of persons ; and that, if what he had advanced was not agreeable to the sense of that house, he would readily withdraw his motion of adjournment ;" which being done, Fox's mo- tion was unanimously carried ; and, to com- plete the triumph, the thanks of the house to the speaker for his conduct in this affair was also moved, and agreed to without op- position. On the seventh of June the session was closed, and his majesty expressed in his speech his entire approbation of the conduct of parliament, lavishing upon them high and flattering compliments for the unquestiona- ble proofs they had given of their clear dis- cernment of the true interests of their coun- try. DISPUTE WITH HOLLAND. WHILE these affairs were transacting in parliament, a memorial, in a very unusual style, was delivered by Sir Joseph Yorke, ambassador at the Hague, to the States-gen- eral, in which his excellency declared, " That the king, his master, had hitherto borne with unexampled patience the irregu- lar conduct of the subjects of their high mightinesses, in their interested commerce at St Eustatia, as also in America. If," said the ambassador, " the measures which your high mightinesses have thought proper to take, had been as efficacious as your as- surances have been amicable, the under- signed would not now have been under the necessity of bringing to the cognizance of your high mightinesses, facts of the most serious nature." His excellency then pro- ceeds to state, that M. Van Graaf, governor of St. Eustatia, had permitted the seizure of an English vessel, by an American pirate, within cannon-shot of the island ; and that he had returned from the fortress of his gov- ernment the salute of a rebel flag : and the ambassador concludes, with demanding, in his majesty's name, and by his express order, from their high mightinesses, a formal dis- avowal of the salute by Fort Orange at St Eustatia to the rebel ship, and the dismission GEORGE Itt 17601820. 101 and immediate recall of the governor Van Graaf; declaring farther, that until such satisfaction is given, they are not to expect, that his majesty will suffer himself to be amused by mere assurances, or that he will delay one instant to take such measures as he shall think due to the interest and digni- ty of his crown. The states, offended at the imperious lan- guage of this memorial, yet acting with their usual caution, did not condescend to give an answer to the British ambassador, but or- dered count Welderen, their resident in Lon- don, to deliver into the king of England's own hand a counter-memorial, in which they complained of the menacing tone of the English court, such as ought not to take place between sovereign and independent powers; adding, however, "that, from the sole motive of demonstrating their regard to his majesty, they have actually dispatched orders to M. Van Graaf, to render himself within the republic without delay, in order to give the necessary information respecting his conduct ; nor do they scruple to disavow, in the most express manner, any act or mark of honor which may have been given by their officers to any vessels belonging to the colonies of America, so far as it may imply a recognition of American independence." The ministry pretended to be satisfied with this conduct, but secretly meditated a blow against the United Provinces on the very first favorable opportunity. We return now to the most important scene of action, and resume our narrative of the proceedings in America during the campaign of 1777. CAMPAIGN IN AMERICA. SOON after the declaration of independ- ence, the authority of congress was obtained for raising an army that would be more per- manent than the temporary levies which they had previously brought into the field. It was at first proposed to recruit for the in- definite term of the war ; but it being found on experiment that the habits of the people were averse to engagements for such an un- certain period of service, the recruiting of- ficers were instructed to offer the alternative of either enlisting for the war, or for three years. Those who engaged on the first con- ditions, were promised a hundred acres of land hi addition to their pay and bounty. The troops raised by congress for the service of the United States were called continent- als. Though, in September 1776, it had been resolved to raise eighty-eight battalions, and in December following, authority was given to general Washington to raise six- teen more, yet very little progress had been made in the recruiting business, till after the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Even after that period, so much time was necessa- rily consumed before these new recruits joined the commander-in-chief, that his whole force at Morristown, and the several outposts, for some time did not exceed fif- teen hundred men ; yet, what is almost in- credible, these fifteen hundred kept as many thousands of the British closely pent up in Brunswick. Almost every party that was sent out by the latter was successfully op- posed by the former, and the adjacent coun- try preserved in a great degree of tranquil- lity. It was matter of astonishment, that the British suffered the dangerous interval be- tween the disbanding of one army and the raising of another, to pass away without at- tempting something of consequence against the remaining shadow of an armed force. Hitherto there had been a deficiency of arms and ammunition, as well as of men ; but in the spring of 1777, a vessel of 24 guns ar- rived from France at Portsmouth in New- Hampshire, with upwards of eleven thou- sand stand of arms, and one thousand bar- rels of powder. Ten thousand stand of arms arrived about the same time in another part of the United States. As the season advanced, the American army in New-Jersey was reinforced by the successive arrival of recruits; but neverthe- less at the opening of the campaign it amounted only to seven thousand two hun- dred and seventy-two men. Towards the latter end of May, general Washington quitted his winter encampment at Morristown, and took a strong position at Middlebrook. Soon after this movement was effected, the British marched from Bruns- wick, and extended their van as far as Som- erset Court-house, but in a few days return- ed to their former station. Sir William Howe, after his retreat to Brunswick, endeavored to provoke general Washington to an engagement, and left no manoeuvre untried, that was calculated to induce him to quit his position. At one time he appeared as if he intended to push on without regarding the army opposed to him. At another he accurately examined the sit> uation of the American encampment, hoping that some unguarded part might be found on which an attack might be made that would open the way to a general engagement : all these hopes were frustrated ; general Wash- ington knew the full value of his situation. He had too much penetration to lose it from the circumvention of military manoeuvres, and too much temper to be provoked to a dereliction of it. He was well apprized that it was not the interest of his country to com- mit its fortune to a single action. Sir William Howe suddenly relinquished his position in front of the Americans, and retired with his whole force to Amboy. The apparently retreating British were pursued 192 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. by a considerable detachment of the Amer- ican army, and general Washington advanc- ed from Middlebrook to Quibbletown, to be near at hand for the support of his advanced parties. The British general immediately marched his army back from Amboy, with great expedition, hoping to bring on a gene- ral action on equal ground ; but he was dis- appointed. General Washington fell back, and posted his army in such an advantage- ous position, as compensated for the inferior- ity of his numbers. Sir William Howe was now fully convinced of the impossibility of compelling a general engagement on equal terms, and also satisfied that it would be too hazardous to attempt passing the Delaware, while tlit: country was in arms, and the main American army in full force in his rear. He therefore returned to Amboy, and thence passed over to Staten Island, resolving to prosecute the objects of the campaign by another route. During the period of these movements, the real designs of general Howe were involved in great obscurity. Though the season for military operations was ad- vanced as far as the month of July, yet his determinate object could not be ascertained. Nothing on his part had hitherto taken place, but alternately advancing and retreating. General Washington's embarrassment on this account was increased by intelligence which arrived, that Burgoyne was coming in great force towards New- York from Can- ada. Apprehending that Sir William Howe would ultimately move up the North River, and that his movements, which looked south- ward, were calculated to deceive, the Amer- ican general detached a brigade to reinforce the northern division of his army. Succes- sive advices of the advance of Burgoyne fa- vored the idea that a junction of the two royal armies near Albany was intended. Some movements were therefore made by general Washington towards Peekskill, and on the other side towards Trenton, while the main army was encamped near the Clove, in readiness to march either to the north or south, as the movements of Sir William Howe might require. At length the main body of the royal army, consisting of thirty- six British and Hessian battalions, with a regiment of light-horse, and a loyal provin- cial corps, called the Queen's Rangers, and a powerful artillery, amounting in the whole to about 16,000 men, departed from Sandy- hook, and were reported to steer southward. About the time of this embarkation, a letter from Sir William Howe to general Burgoyne was intercepted. This contained intelligence that the British troops were destined to New- Hampshire. The intended deception was so superficially veiled, that in conjunction with the intelligence of the British embarkation, it produced a contrary effect Within one hour after the reception of this intercepted letter, general Washington gave orders to his army to move to the southward, but he was nevertheless so much impressed with a conviction that it was the true interest of Howe to move towards Burgoyne, that he ordered the American army to halt for some time at the river Delaware, suspecting that the apparent movement of the royal army to the southward was a feint calculated to draw him farther from the North River. The British fleet having sailed from Sandy-hook, were a week at sea before they reached Cape Henlopen. At this time and place, for reasons that do not obviously occur, general Howe gave up the idea of approaching Phil- adelphia, by ascending the Delaware, and resolved on a circuitous route by the way of the Chesapeak. Perhaps he counted on being joined by large reinforcements from the nu- merous tories in Maryland or Delaware, or perhaps he feared the obstructions which the Pennsylvania^ had planted in the Dela- ware. If these were his reasons, he was mistaken in both : from the tories he receiv- ed no advantage, and from the obstructions in the river, his ships could have received no detriment, if he had landed his troops at Newcastle, which was 14 miles nearer Phil- adelphia than the head of Chesapeak Bay. The British fleet, after they had left the capes of the Delaware, had a tedious and uncomfortable passage, being twenty days before they entered the capes of Virginia. They ascended the bay with a favorable wind, and on the 25th of August landed at Turkey Point. The circumstance of the British fleet putting out to sea, after they had looked into the Delaware, added to the apprehensions before entertained, that the whole was a feint calculated to draw the American army farther from the North Riv- er, so as to prevent their being at hand to oppose a junction between Howe and Bur- goyne. Washington therefore fell back to such a middle station, as would enable him either speedily to return to the North River, or advance to the relief of Philadelphia. The British fleet, after leaving the capes of Delaware, were not heard of for near three weeks, except that they had once or twice been seen near the coast steering southward. A council of officers convened at Neshaminy, near Philadelphia, unanimously gave it as their opinion, that Charlestown, in South Carolina, was most probably their object, and that it would be impossible for the army to march in season for its relief It was there- fore concluded to try to repair the loss of Charlestown, which was considered as una- voidable, either by attempting something on New- York Island, or, by uniting with the northern army, to give more effectual oppo- sition to Burgoyne. A small change of po- GEORGE UI. 17601820. 193 Bition, conformable to this new system, took place. The day before the above resolution was adopted, the British fleet entered the Chesapeak : the intelligence in a few days reached the American army, and dispelled that mist of uncertainty, in which general Howe's movements had been before envel- oped. The American troops were put in motion to meet the British army. Their numbers on paper amounted to 14,000, but their real effective force, on which depend- ence might be placed in the day of -battle, did not much exceed 8000 men. Every ap- pearance of confidence was assumed by them as they passed through Philadelphia, that the citizens might be intimidated from joining the British. About the same time a number of the principal inhabitants of that city, being suspected of disaffection to the American cause, were taken into custody and sent to Virginia. Soon after Sir William Howe had landed his troops in Maryland, he put forth a de- claration, in which he informed the inhabit- ants, that he had issued the strictest orders to the troops " for the preservation of regu- larity and good discipline, and that the most exemplary punishment should be inflicted upon those who should dare to plunder the property, or molest the persons, of any of his majesty's well-disposed subjects." It seemed as if, fully apprized of the conse- quences which had resulted from the indis- criminate plunderings of his army in New- Jersey, he was determined to adopt a more politic b'ne of conduct. Whatever his in- tentions might be, they were by no means seconded by his troops. ACTION ON THE BRANDYWINE. ON the third of September, the royal army set out from the eastern heads of the Chesa- peak, with a spirit which promised to com- pensate for the various delays which had hitherto wasted the campaign. Their tents and baggage were left behind, and they trusted their future accommodation to such quarters as their arms might procure. They advanced with boldness, til] they were within two miles of the American army, which was then posted near Newport. General Wash- ington soon changed his position, and. took post on the high ground near Chadd's Ford, >n the Brandywine Creek, with an intention >f disputing the passage. It was the wish, but by no means the interest, of the Ameri- cans to try their strength in an engage- ment. Their regular troops were not only greatly inferior hi discipline, but in numbers, .to the royal army. The opinion of the in- habitants, though founded on no circumstan- ces more substantial than their wishes, im- posed a species of necessity on the American general to keep his army in front of the en- emy, and to risk an action for the security VOL. IV. 17 of Phikdelphia. Instead of this, had he taken the ridge of high mountains on his right, the x British must have respected his numbers, and probably would have followed him lip the country. In this manner the campaign might have been Wasted away in a manner fatal to the invaders ; but the bulk of the American people* were so impatient of delays, and had such an overweening conceit of the numbers and prowess of their army, that they could not comprehend the wisdom and policy of manoeuvres to shun a general engagement On this occasion, necessity dictated that a sacrifice should be made on the altar of pub- lic opinion. A general action was therefore hazarded; this took place on the llth of September at Chadd's Ford, on the Brandy- wine, a small stream which empties itself into Christmas Creek, near its conflux with the river Delaware. The royal army advanced at daybreak in two columns, commanded by lieutenant- general Kniphausen, and by lord Cornwallis. They first took the direct road to Chadd's Ford, and made a show of passing it, in front of the main body of the Americans ; at the same time the other column moved up on the west side of the Brandywine to its fork, and crossed both its branches about two o'clock in the afternoon, and then marched down on the east side of it, with the view of turning the right wing of then- adversaries. This they effected, and compelled them to retreat with great loss. General Kniphausen amused the Americans with the appearance of crossing the ford, but did not attempt it until lord Cornwallis, having crossed above, and moved down on the opposite side, had commenced his attack. Kniphausen then crossed the ford, and attacked the troops posted for its defence. These, after a severe conflict, were compelled to give way. The retreat of the Americans soon became gen- eral, and was continued to Chester, under cover of general Weeden's brigade, which came off in good order. The final issue of battles often depends on small circumstan- ces, which human prudence cannot control one of these occurred here, and prevented general Washington from executing a bold design, to effect which his troops were ac- tually in motion. This was to have crossed the Brandywine, and attacked Kniphausen, while general Sullivan and lord Stirling should keep earl Cornwallis in check. In the most critical moment, general Washing- ton received intelligence which he was obliged to credit, that the column of lord Cornwallis had been only making a feint, and was returning to join Kniphausen. This prevented the execution of a plan, which, if carried into effect, would probably have giv- en a different turn to the events of the day. 194 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. The killed and wounded in the royal army were near six hundred ; the loss of the Amer- icans was twice that number. In the list of tJieir wounded were two of their general officers, the marquis de la Fayette, and gen- eral Woodford. The former was a French nobleman of high rank, who, animated with the love of liberty, had left his native coun- try, and offered his service to congress. While in France, and only nineteen years of age, he espoused the cause of the Ameri- cans with the most disinterested and gener- ous ardor. Having determined to join them, he communicated his intention to the Ameri- can commissioners at Paris. They justly conceived, that a patron of so much import- ance would be of service to their cause, and encouraged his design. Before he had em- barked from France, intelligence arrived in Europe, that the American insurgents, re- duced to two thousand men, were fleeing through Jersey before a British force of thirty thousand. Under these circumstances, the American commissioners at Paris thought it but honest to dissuade him- from the present prosecution of his perilous enterprise. It was in vain that they acted so candid a part; his zeal to serve a distressed country was not abated by her misfortunes. Having embarked in a vessel which he purchased for the purpose, he arrived in Charlestown early in 1777, and soon after joined the American army. Congress resolved, that " in consideration of his zeal, illustrious fam- ily, and connexions, he should have the rank of major-general in their army." Indepen- dent of the risk he ran as an American of- ficer, he hazarded his large fortune in con- sequence of the laws of France, and also the confinement of his person, in case of capture, when on his way to the United States, without the chance of being acknow- ledged by any nation ; for his court had for- bidden his proceeding to America, and had dispatched orders to have him confined in the West Indies, if found in that quarter. This gallant nobleman, who under all these disadvantages had demonstrated his good- will to the United States, received a wound in his leg at the battle of Brandywine ; but lie nevertheless continued in the field, and exerted himself both by word and example in rallying the Americans. Other foreign- ers of distinction also shared in the engage- ment. Count Pulaski, a Polish nobleman, the same who a few years before had carried off king Stanislaus from his capital, though surrounded with a numerous body of guards, and a Russian army, fought with the Ameri- cans at Brandywine ; he was a thunderbolt of war, and always sought for the post of danger as the post of honor. Soon after this engagement, congress appointed him com- mander of horse, with the rank of brigadier. General Howe persevered in the scheme of gaining the right flank of the Americans. This was no less steadily pursued on the one side, than avoided on the other. Washing- ton came forward in a few days with a reso- lution of risking another action. He ac-- cordingly advanced as far as the Warren Tavern on the Lancaster Road. Near that place both armies were on the point of en- gaging with their whole force, but were prevented by a most violent storm of rain, which continued for a whole day and night When the rain ceased, the Americans found that their ammunition was entirely ruined ; they therefore withdrew to a place of safety. Before a proper supply was procured, the British marched from their position near the White Horse Tavern, down towards the Swedes Ford. The Americans again took post in their front ; but the British, instead of urging an action, began to march up to- wards Reading. To save the stores which had been deposited in that place, Washing- ton took a new position, and left the British in undisturbed possession of the roads which lead to Philadelphia. His troops were worn down with a succession of severe duties ; there were in his army above a thousand men who were barefooted, and who had per- formed all their late movements in that con- dition. About this time the Americans sustained a considerable loss by a night at- tack, conducted by general Grey, on a de- tachment of their troops, which was encamp- ed near the Paoli Tavern. The out-posts and pickets were forced without noise about one o'clock in the morning of the twentieth of September. The men had scarcely time to turn out, and when they did, they unfor- tunately paraded in the light of their fires ; this directed the British how and where to proceed ; they rushed in upon them, and put about three hundred to death in a silent manner by a free and exclusive use of the bayonet The enterprise was conducted with so much address, that the loss of the assailants did not exceed eight Congress, which after a short residence at Baltimore had .returned to Philadelphia, were obliged a second time to consult their safety by flight. They retired at first to Lancaster, and afterwards to York-Town. PHILADELPHIA TAKEN. THE bulk of the British army being left in German-Town, Sir William Howe, with a small part, on the twenty-sixth of Septem- jer, made his triumphal entry into Philadel- )hia, and was received with the hearty wel- come of numerous citizens, who either from conscience, cowardice, interest or principle, lad hitherto separated themselves from the class of -active whig?. The possession of the largest city in the United States, together with the dispersion GEORGE HI. 17601820. 195 of that grand council which had hitherto conducted their public affairs, were account- ed by the short-sighted as decisive of their fate. The submission of countries, after the conquest of their capital, had often been a thing of course; but in the great contest for the sovereignly of the United States, the question did not rest with a ruler, or a body of rulers, nor was it to be determined by the possession or loss of any particular place. It was the public mind, the sentiments and opinions of the yeomanry of the country, which were to decide. Though Philadel- phia had become the residence of the Brit- ish army, yet, as long as the bulk of the people of the United States were opposed to their government, the country was unsub- dued. One of the first objects of the British af- ter they had got possession, was to erect batteries to command the river, and to pro- tect the city from any insult by water. The British shipping were prevented from ascending the Delaware, by obstructions, which were fixed near Mud Island. Phila- delphia, though possessed by the British army, was exposed to danger from the Ame- rican vessels in the river. The American frigate Delaware, of thirty-two guns, an- chored within five hundred yards of the un- finished batteries, and being seconded by some smaller vessels, commenced a heavy cannonade upon the batteries and town ; but upon the falling of the tide she ran aground. Being briskly fired upon from the town, 'while in this condition, she was soon com- pelled to surrender. The other American vessels, not able to resist the fire from the batteries, after losing one of their number, retired. General Washington having been rein- forced by two thousand five hundred men from Peekskill and Virginia; and having been informed that general Howe had de- tached a considerable part of his force for reducing the forts on the Delaware, conceiv- ed a design of attacking the British post at German-Town. Their line of encampment crossed the town at right angles near its centre ; the left wing extended to the Schuyl- kill, and was covered in front by the mount- ed and dismounted chasseurs. The queen's American rangers and a battalion of lisrht infantry were in front of the right The fortieth regiment, with another battalion of light infantry, were posted on the Chesnut Hill road, three quarters of a mile in ad- vance. Lord Cornwallis lay at Philadelphia, with four battalions of grenadiers. A few of the general officers of the American ar- my, whose advice was requested on the occa- sion, unanimously recommended an attack ; and it was agreed that it should be made in different places, to produce the greater con- fusion, and to prevent the several parts of the British forces from affording support to each other. From an apprehension that the Americans, from the want of discipline, would not persevere hi a long attack, it was resolved that it should be sudden and vigor- ous, and if unsuccessful to make an expedi- tious retreat. The morning was extremely foggy. Tais, by concealing the true situation of the parties, occasioned mistakes, and made so much caution necessary, as to give the Brit- ish time to recover from the effects of their first surprise. From these causes the early promising appearances on the part of the as- sailants were speedily reversed. The Ameri- cans left the field hastily, and all efforts to rally them were ineffectual. Lord Cornwal- lis arrived with a party of light-horse, and joined in the pursuit ; this was continued for some miles. Soon after this battle the British left German-Town, and turned their principal attention towards opening a free communi- cation between their army and their ship- ping. Much industry and ingenuity had been exerted for the security of Philadelphia on the water-side. Thirteen galleys, two float- ing batteries, two zebeques, one brig, one ship, besides a number of armed boats, fire- ships, and rafts, were constructed or employ- ed for this purpose. The Americans had also built a fort on Mud Island, to which they gave the name of Fort MifBin, and erected there a considerable battery. This island is admirably situated for the erection of works to annoy shipping on their way up the Delaware. It lies near the middle of the river, about seven miles below Philadelphia : no vessels of burden can come up but by the main ship channel, which passes close to Mud Island, and is very narrow for more than a mile below. Opposite to Fort Mif- flin there is a height, called Red Bank ; this overlooks not only the river, but the neigh- boring country ; on this eminence a battery was erected. Between these two fortresses, which are half a mile distant from each other, the American naval armament for the defence of the river Delaware made their harbor of retreat Two ranges of chevaux- de-frise were also sunk into the channel. These consisted of large pieces of timber strongly framed together, in the manner usual for making the foundation of wharfs in deep water. Several large points of beard- ed iron projecting down the river were an- nexed to the upper parts of these chevaux- de-frise, and the whole was sunk with stones, so as to be about four feet under the water at low tide. Their prodigious weight and strength could not fail to effect the destruc- tion of any vessels which came upon them. 196 HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. Thirty of these machines were sunk about three hundred yards below Fort Mifflin, so as to stretch in a diagonal line across the chan- nel. The only open passage left was be- tween two piers lying close to the fort, and that was secured by a strong boom, and could not be approached but in a direct line to the battery. Another fortification was erected on a high bank on the Jersey-shore, called Billingsport ; and opposite to this, an- other range of chevaux-de-frise was deposit- ed, leaving only a narrow and shoal chan- nel on the one side. There was also a tem- porary battery of two heavy cannon at the mouth of Mantua Creek, . about half-way from Red Bank to Billingsport. The British were well apprized, that, without the com- mand of the Delaware, their possession of Philadelphia would be of no advantage. They therefore strained every nerve to open the navigation of that river. To this end lord Howe had early taken the most effec- tual measures for conducting the fleet and transports round from the Chesapeak to the Delaware, and drew them up on the Penn- sylvania shore, from Reedy Island to New- castle. Early in October, a detachment from the British army crossed the Delaware, with a view of dislodging the Americans from Billingsport On their approach the place was evacuated. As the season advanced, more vigorous measures for removing the obstructions were concerted between the general and the admiral. Batteries were erected on the Pennsylvania shore to assist in dislodging the Americans from Mud Isl- and. At the same time count Donop with two thousand men, having crossed into New- Jersey, opposite to Philadelphia, marched down on the eastern side of the Delaware, to attack the redoubt at Red Bank. This was defended by about four hundred men under the command of colonel Greene. The attack immediately commenced by a smart cannonade, under cover of which the count advanced to the redoubt. This place was intended for a much larger garrison than was then in it ; it had therefore become ne- cessary to run a line in the middle thereof, and one part of it was evacuated. That part was easily carried by the assailants, on which they indulged in loud huzzas for their supposed victory. The garrison kept up a severe, well-directed fire on the assailants, by which they were compelled to retire. They suffered not only in the assault, but in the approach to, and retreat from the fort. Their whole loss in killed and wounded was about four hundred ; count Donop was mor- tally wounded and taken prisoner. Congress resolved to present colonel Greene with a sword for his good conduct on this occasion. An attack about the same time on Fort Mif- flin by men-of-war and frigates was not more successful than the assault on Red Bank. The Augusta man-of-war of sixty-four guns, and the Merlin, two of the vessels whicli were engaged in it, got aground : the for- mer was fired and blew up ; the latter was evacuated. AMERICAN FORTS TAKEN. THOUGH the .first attempts of the British for opening the navigation of the Delaware were unsuccessful, they carried their point in another way that viap unexpected. The chevaux-de-frise having been sunk some considerable time, the current of the water was diverted by this great bulk into new channels ; in consequence of which the pas- sage between the islands and the Pennsyl- vania shore was so deepened, as to admit vessels of some considerable draught of wa- ter. Through this passage, the Vigilant, a large ship, cut down so as to draw but little water, mounted with 24-pounders, made her way to a position from which she might en- filade the works on Mud Island. This gave the British such an advantage, that the post was no longer tenable. Colonel Smith, who had with great gallantry defended the fort from the latter end of September to the llth of November, being wounded, was removed to the main. Within five days after his re- moval, major Thayer, who as a volunteer had nobly offered to take charge of this dan- gerous post, was obliged to evacuate it. This event did not take place till the works were entirely . beaten down, every piece of cannon dismounted, and one of the British ships so near that she threw grenades into the fort, and killed the men uncovered in the platform. The troops who had so bravely defended Fort Mifflin, made a safe retreat to Red Bank. Within three days af- ter Mud Island was evacuated, the garrison was also withdrawn from Red Bank, on the approach of lord Cornwallis at the head of a large force prepared to assault it Some of the American galleys and armed vessels escaped, by keeping close in with .the Jer- sey shore, to places of security above Phila- delphia : but seventeen of them were aban- doned by their crews and fired. Thus the British gained a free communication be- tween their army and shipping. This event was to them very desirable. They had been previously obliged to draw their provisions from Chester, a distance of sixteen miles, at some risk, and a certain great expense. The long-protracted defence of the Delaware de- ranged the plans of the British for the re- mainder of the campaign, and consequently saved the adjacent country. About this time the chair of congress be- came vacant by the departure of Hancock, after he had discharged the duties of that GEORGE HI. 17601820. 197 office, to great satisfaction, two years and five months. Henry Laurens, of South Car- olina, was unanimously elected his successor. BURGOYNE'S CAMPAIGN. WHILE Sir William Howe was succeed- ing in every enterprise in Pennsylvania, a fatal reverse of fortune took place in the north, to which it will not be improper, at this period of our narrative, to direct the reader's attention. To effect a free communication between New- York and Canada, and to maintain the navigation of the intermediate lakes, was a principal object with the British for the cam- paign of 1777. The Americans, presuming on this, had been early attentive to their se- curity in that quarter. They had resolved to construct a fort on Mount Independence, which is an eminence adjoining the strait on which Ticonderoga stands, and nearly op- posite to that fortress. They had also resolv- ed to obstruct the navigation of the strait by cassoons, to be sunk in the water, and joined so as to serve at the same time for a bridge between the fortifications on the east and west side of it ; and that, to prevent the British from drawing their small craft over land into lake George, the passage of that lake should be obstructed ; that Port Schuy- ler, the same which had formerly been call- ed Fort Stanwix, should be strengthened, and other fortifications erected near the Mo- hawk river. Requisitions were made by the commanding officer in the department, for thirteen thousand six hundred men, as ne- cessary for the security of this district. The adjacent states were urged to fill up their recruits, and in all respects to be in readi- ness for an active campaign. The British ministry were very sanguine in their hopes, from the consequences of forming a line of communication between New-York and Canada. They considered the New-England people to be the soul of the confederacy, and promised themselves much by severing them from all free com- munication with the neighboring states. They hoped, when this was accomplished, to be able to surround them so effectually with fleets and armies, and Indian allies, as to compel them to submission. Animated with these expectations, 'they left nothing undone which might insure the success of the plans they had formed for this purpose. The regular troops, British and German, allotted to this service, \Vere upwards of seven thousand. As artillery is considered to be particularly useful in the American wars, where numerous inhabitants are to be driven out of woods and fastnesses, this part of the service was particularly attended to. The brass train that was sent out, was per- haps the finest, and the most excellently supplied, both as to officers and men, that 17* had ever been allotted to second the opera- tions of an equal force. In addition to the regulars, it was supposed that the Canadians and the loyalists, in the neighboring states, would add large reinforcements, well calcu- lated for the peculiar nature of the service. Arms and accoutrements were accordingly provided to supply them. Several nations of savages had also been induced to take up the hatchet, as allies to his Britannic ma- jesty. The vast force destined for this service was put under the command of lieutenant- general Burgoyne, an officer whose abilities were well known, and whose spirit of en- terprise and ardor for military fame could not be exceeded. He was supported by ma- jor-general Philips of the artillery, who had established a solid reputation by his good conduct during the late war in Germany, and by major-general Reidesel and briga- dier-general Speecht of the German troops, together with the British generals Frazer, Powell, and Hamilton, all officers of distin- guished merit. The British had also undisputed posses- sion of the navigation of Lake Champlain. The marine force there, with which in the preceding campaign they had destroyed the American shipping on the lakes, was not only entire, but unopposed. A considerable force was left in Canada for its internal security, and Sir Guy Carle- ton's military command was restricted to the limits of that province. Though the British ministry attributed the preservation of Canada to his abilities in 1775 and 1776, yet, by their arrangements for the year 1777, he was only called upon to act a sec- ondary part, in subserviency to the grand expedition committed to general Burgoyne. The plan of the British for their project- ed irruption into the north-western frontier of New- York, consisted of two parts. Gen- eral Burgoyne, with the main body, was to advance by the way of Lake Champlain, with positive orders, as has been said, to force his way to Albany, or at least so far as to effect a junction with the royal army from New- York. A detachment was to ascend the river St. Lawrence, as far as Lake On- tario, and from that quarter to penetrate to- wards Albany, by the way of the Mohawk river. This was put under the command of lieutenant-colonel St Leger, and consisted of about two hundred British troops, a regi- ment of New-York loyalists raised and com- manded by Sir John Johnson, and a large body of savages. Lieutenant-general Bur- goyne arrived in Quebec on the 6th of May, and exerted all diligence to prosecute in due time the objects of the expedition. On the 20th of June he proceeded up Lake Cham- plain, and on the 21st landed near Crown 198 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Point At this place he met the Indians, gave them a war feast, and made a speech to them. This was well calculated to excite them to take part with the royal army, but at the same time to repress their barbarity. He pointedly forbad them to shed blood when not opposed in arms, and commanded that aged men, women, children, and prisoners, should be held sacred from the knife and the hatchet, even in the heat of actual conflict A reward was promised for prisoners, and a severe inquiry threatened for scalps, though permission was granted to take them from those who were previously killed in fair op- position. These restrictions were not suffi- cient, as will appear in the sequel, to re- strain their barbarities. The Indians having decidedly taken part with the British army, general Burgoyne issued a proclamation, calculated to spread terror among the inhab- itants. The numbers of his Indian associates were magnified, and their eagerness to be let loose to their prey described in high- sounding words. The force of the British armies and fleets prepared to crush every part of the revolted colonies, was also dis- played in pompous language. Encourage- ment and employment were promised to those who should assist in the re-establish- ment of legal government, and security held out to the peaceable and industrious, who continued in their habitations. All the ca- lamities of war, arrayed in their most ter- rific forms, were denounced against those who should persevere in a military opposi- tion to the royal forces. FORT TICONDEROGA EVACUATED. GENERAL BURGOYNE advanced with his army in a few days to Crown Point At this place he issued orders, of which the follow- ing words are a part : " The army embarks to-morrow to approach the enemy. The services required on this expedition are critical and conspicuous. During our pro- gress occasions may occur, in which, nor difficulty, nor labor, nor life, are to be re- garded. This army must not retreat." From Crown Point the royal army proceed- ed to invest Ticonderoga. On their approach to it, they advanced with equal caution and order on both sides of the lake, while their naval force kept in its centre. Within a few days they had surrounded three-fourths of the American works at Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, and had also advanc- ed a work on Sugar Hill which commands both, so far towards completion, that in twenty-four hours it would have been ready to open. In these circumstances general St Clair, the commanding officer, resolved to evacuate the posts at all events ; but con- ceiving it prudent to take the sentiments of the general officers, he called a council of war on the occasion. It was represented to this council, that their whole numbers were not sufficient to man one half of the works, and that as the whole must be on constant duty, it would be impossible for them to sus- tain the necessary fatigue for any length of tune, and that as the place would be com- pletely invested on all sides within a day, nothing but an immediate evacuation of the posts could save their troops. The assumption of confident appearances in the garrisons had induced their adver- saries to proceed with great caution. While from this cause they were awed into re- spect, the evacuation was completed with so much secrecy and expedition, that a con- siderable part of the public stores was saved, and the whole would have been embarked, had not a violent gale of wind which sprung up in the night prevented the boats from reaching their station. The retreating army embarked as much of their baggage and stores as they had any prospect of saving on board batteaux, and dispatched them under convoy of five armed galleys to Skenesborough. The main body took its route towards the same place by way of Castleton. The British were no sooner apprized of the retreat of the Ameri- cans than they pursued them. General Frazer, at the head of the light troops, ad- vanced on their main body. Major-general Reidesel was also ordered, with the greater part of the Brunswick troops, to march in the same direction. General Burgoyne in person conducted the pursuit by water. The obstructions to the< navigation not having been completed, were soon cut through. The two frigates, the Royal George and the Inflexible, together with the gun-boats, hav- ing effected their passage, pursued with so much rapidity, that in the course of a day the gun-boats came up with and attacked the American galleys near Skenesborough Falls. On the approach of the frigates all opposition ceased ; two of the galleys were taken and three blown up. The Americans set fire to their works, mills, and bateaux. They were now left in the woods destitute of provisions : in this forlorn situation they made their escape up Wood Creek to Fort Anne. Brigadier Frazer pursued the retreat- ing Americans ; came up with, and on the seventh of July attacked their rear-guard at Hubbordton. In the course of the engage- ment he was joined by the German troops commanded by general Reidesel. The Amer- icans commanded by colonel Warner made a gallant resistance, but after sustaining considerable loss, were obliged to give way. Lieutenant-colonel Hall, with the ninth British regiment, was detached from Skenes- borough by general Burgoyne, to take post near Fort Anne. An engagement ensued between this regiment and a few Americans; GEORGE III. 17601820. 199 but the ktter, after a conflict of two hours, fired the fort, and retreated to Fort Edward. The destruction of the galleys and bateaux of the Americans at Skenesborough, and the defeat pf their rear, obliged general St. Clair, in order to avoid being between two fires, to change the route of his main body, and to turn off from Castleton to the left. After a fatiguing and distressing march of seven days, he joined general Schuyler at Fort Edward. Their combined forces, in- clusive of the militia, not exceeding in the whole four thousand four hundred men, were not long after, on the approach of general Burgoyne, compelled to retire far- ther into the country bordering on Albany. Such was the rapid torrent of success, which in this period of the campaign swept away all opposition from before the royal army, which, after these successes, continued for some days in Skenesborough, waiting for their tents, baggage, and provision. In the mean time general Burgoyne put forth a proclamation, in which he called on the inhabitants of the adjacent towns to send a deputation of ten or more persons from their respective townships, to meet colonel Skene at Castleton, on the fifteenth of July. The troops were at the same time busily employed in opening a road, and clearing a creek, to favor their advance, and to open a passage for the conveyance of their stores. A party of the royal army which had been left behind at Ticonderoga, was equally in- dustrious in carrying gun-boats, provision, vessels, and bateaux over land, into Lake George. An immensity of 'labor in every quarter was necessary; but, animated as they were with past successes and future hopes, they disregarded toil and danger. From Skenesborough general Burgoyne directed his course across the country to Fort Edward, on Hudson's River. Though the distance in a right line from one to the other is but a few miles, yet such is the im- practicable nature of the country, and such were the artificial difficulties thrown in his way, that nearly as many days were con- sumed as the distance passed over in a di- rect line would have measured in miles. The Americans under the directions of general Schuyler had cut large trees on both sides of the road, so as to fall across with their branches interwoven. The face of the country was likewise so broken with creeks and 'marshes, that they had no less than forty bridges to construct, one of which was a log-work over a morass, two miles in extent This difficult march might have been avoided, had general Burgoyne fallen back from Skenesborough to Ticonderoga, and thence proceeded by Lake George ; but he declined this route, from an apprehen- sion that a retrograde motion on his part would abate the panic of the enemy. He had also a suspicion that some delay might be occasioned by the American garrison at Fort George, as, in case of his taking that route, they might safely continue to resist to the last extremity, having open in their rear a place of retreat. On. the other hand it was presumed, that as soon as they knew that the royal army was marching in a direc- tion which was likely to cut off their re- treat, they would consult their safety by a seasonable evacuation. In addition to these reasons, he had the advice and persuasion of colonel Skeue. That gentleman had been recommended to him as a person proper to be consulted ; his land was so situated, that the opening of a road between Fort Edward and Skenesborough would greatly enhance its Value. This circumstance might have made him more urgent in his recommenda- tions of that route, especially as, being the shortest, it bid fan* for uniting the royal in- terest with private convenience. The opinion formed by general Burgoyne of the effect of his direct movement from Skenesborough to Fort Edward on the American garrison, was verified by the event; for being appre- hensive of having their retreat cut off, they abandoned their fort and burnt then- vessels. The navigation of Lake George being there- fore left free, provisions and ammunition were brought forward from Fort George to the first navigable parts of Hudson's River : this is a distance of fifteen miles, and the roads of difficult passage. The intricate combination of land and water carriage, to- gether with the insufficient means of trans- portation, and excessive rains, caused such delays, that at the end of fifteen days there were not more than four days' provisions brought forward, nor above ten bateaux in the river. The difficulties of this convey- ance, as well as of the march through the wilderness from Skenesborough to Fort Ed- ward, were encountered and overcome by the royal army with a spirit and alacrity which could not be exceeded. At length, on the thirtieth of July, after incredible fa- tigue and labor, general Burgoyne and the army under his command reached Fort Ed- ward, on Hudson's River. Their exultation on accomplishing what for a long time had been the object of their hopes, was unusually great. While the British were retarded in their advance by the combined difficulties of na- ture and art, events took place, which proved the wisdom and propriety of the retreat from Ticonderoga. The army saved by that means, was between the inhabitants and general Burgoyne ; this abated the panic of the people, and became a centre of rendez- vous for them to repair to: on the other hand, had they stood their ground at Ticen- 200 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. deroga, they must in the ordinary course of events, in a short time, either have been cut to pieces, or surrendered themselves prison- ers of war. From the adoption of that measure very different events took place. In a few days after the evacuation, general Schuyler is- sued a proclamation, calling to the mind of the inhabitants the late barbarities and desolations of the royal army hi Jersey ; warning them that they would be dealt with as traitors if they joined the British, and re- quiring them with their arms to repair to the American standard. Numerous parties were also employed in bringing off public stores, and in felling trees, and throwing ob- structions in the way of the advancing royal army. The terror excited by the Indians, instead of disposing the inhabitants to court British protection, had a contrary effect The friends of the royal cause, as well as its enemies, suffered from their indiscrimi- nate barbarities. Occasion was thereby given to inflame the populace, and to blacken the royal cause. The cruelties of the" In- dians, and the cause in which they were en- gaged, were associated together, and pre- sented in one view to the alarmed inhabit- ants. All the feeble aid which the royal army received from their Indian auxiliaries, was entirely overbalanced by the odium it brought on their cause, and by that deter- mined spirit of opposition which the dread of theur savage cruelties excited. An army was speedily poured forth from the woods and mountains. When they who had be- gun the retreat were nearly wasted away, the spirit of the country immediately sup- plied their place with a much greater and more formidable force. In addition to these incitements, it was early conjectured, that the royal army, by pushing forward, would be so entangled as not to be able to advance or retreat on equal terms. Men of abilities and of eloquence, influenced with this ex- pectation, harangued the inhabitants in their several towns, and set forth in high coloring the cruelties of the savage auxiliaries of Great Britain, and the fair prospects of cap- turing the whole force of their enemies. From the combined influence of these causes, the American army soon amounted to up- wards of thirteen thousand men. While general Burgoyne was forcing his way down towards Albany, lieutenant-colo- nel St Leger was co-operating with him in the Mohawk country. He had ascended the river St. Lawrence, crossed Lake Ontario, and commenced the siege of Fort Schuyler. On the approach of this detachment of the royal army, general Harkimer collected about eight thousand of the whig militia of the parts adjacent for the relief of the garrison. St Leger, aware of the consequences of being attacked in his trenches, detached Sir John Johnson, with some tories and Indians, to lie in ambush, and intercept the advancing militia. The stratagem took effect : the general and his militia were surprised, but several of the Indians were nevertheless killed by their fire. A scene of confusion followed. Some of Harkimer's men ran of but others posted themselves behind logs, and continued to fight with bravery and success. The loss on the side of the Americans was one hundred and sixty killed, besides the wousded. Among the former was their gal- lant leader general Harkimer. Several of their killed and wounded were principal in- habitants of that part of the country. Colo- nel St. Leger availed himself of the terror excited on this occasion, and endeavored by strong representations of Indian barbarity to intimidate the garrison into an immediate surrender. He sent verbal and written mes- sages, " demanding the surrender of the fort, and stating the impossibility of their obtain- ing relief, as their friends under general Harkimer were entirely cut off, and as gen- eral Burgoyne had forced his way through the country, and was daily receiving the sub- mission of the inhabitants." He represented " the pains he had taken to soften the Indians, and to obtain engagements from them, that in case of an immediate surrender every man in the garrison should be spared ;" and par- ticularly enlarged on the circumstance, " that the Indians were determined, in case of their meeting with farther opposition, to massacre not only the garrison, but every man, woman, or child, in the Mohawk country." Colonel Gansevort, who commanded in the fort, re- plied, " that being by the United States in- trusted with the charge of the garrison, he was determined to defend it to the last ex- tremity against all enemies whatever, with- out any concern for the consequences of do- ing his duty." BRITISH REPULSED AT FORT SCHUYLER. THE brave garrison, in its hour of danger, was not forgotten. General Arnold, with a brigade of continental troops, had been pre- viously detached by general Schuyler for their relief, and was then near at hand. Mr. Tost Schuyler, who had been taken up by the Americans, on suspicion of his being a spy, was promised his life and his estate, on condition that he should go and alarm the Indians with such representations of the numbers inarching against them, as would occasion their retreat He immediately pro- ceeded to the camp of the Indians, and be- ing able to converse in their own language, informed them that vast numbers of hostile Americans were near at hand. They Were thoroughly frightened, and determined to go ofE St lieger used every art to retain them ; but nothing could change their determma- GEORGE III. 17601820. tion. It is the characteristic of these people, on a reverse of fortune, to betray irresolu- tion, and a total want of that constancy which is necessary to struggle for a length of time with difficulties. They had found the fort stronger and better defended than was expected ; they had lost several head- men in their engagement with general Har- kimer, and had gotten no plunder. These circumstances, added to the certainty of the approach of a reinforcement to then- adver- saries, which they believed to be much greater than it really was, made them quite untractable. Part of them instantly de- camped, and the remainder threatened to follow, if the British did not immediately retreat This measure was adopted, and the siege raised. From the disorder occa- sioned by the precipitancy of the Indians, the tents, and much of the artillery and stores of the besiegers, fell into the hands of the garrison. The discontented savages, exasperated by their ill-fortune, are said, on their retreat, to have robbed their British associates of their baggage and provisions. While the fate of Fort Schuyler was in suspense, it occurred to general Burgoyne, on hearing of its being besieged, that a sud- den and rapid movement forward would be of the utmost consequence. As the princi- pal force of his adversaries was in front be- tween him and Albany, he hoped, by ad- vancing on them, to reduce them to the ne- cessity of fighting, or of retreating out of his way to New-England. COLONEL BAUM DEFEATED. WITH such views, general Burgoyne ,01 he supposed would be fully sufficient for the expedition. The command of this force was given to lieutenant^colonel Baum, and it was supposed that with it he would be enabled to seize upon a magazine of supplies which the Americans had collected at Bennington, and which was only guarded by militia. It was also intended to try the temper of the inhabitants, and to mount the dragoons. On his approaching the place of his destination, he found the American militia stronger than had been supposed ; he therefore took post in the vicinity, intrenched his party, and dis- patched an express to general Burgoyne, with an account of his situation. Colonel Breyman was detached to reinforce him. Though every exertion was made to push forward this reinforcement, yet, from the impracticable face of the country, and de- fective means of transportation, thirty-two hours elapsed before they had marched twenty-four miles. General Stark, who com- manded the American- militia at Benning- ton, engaged with them before the junction of the two royal detachments could be ef- fected. On this occasion, about eight hun- dred undisciplined militia, without bayonets, or a single piece of artillery, attacked and routed five hundred regular troops, advan- tageously posted behind intrenchments, fur- nished with the best arms, and defended with two pieces of artillery. The field-pieces were taken from the party commanded by colonel Baum, and the greatest part of the detachment was either killed or captured. Colonel Breyman arrived on the same ground, and on the same day, but not till promised himself great advantages from ad- the' action was over. Instead of meeting vancing rapidly towards Albany. The prin- cipal objection against this plausible project, was the difficulty of furnishing provisions for his troops. To keep up a communica- tion with Fort George, so as to obtain from that garrison regular supplies at a distance daily increasing, was wholly impracticable. The advantages which were expected from the proposed measure, were too dazzling to be easily relinquished. Though the impos- sibility of drawing provisions from the stores in then- rear, was known and acknowledged, yet a hope was indulged that they might be elsewhere obtained. A plan was therefore formed to open resources from the plentiful farms of Vermont. Every day's account, and particularly the information of colonel Skene, induced Burgoyne to believe, that one description of the inhabitants of that country were panic-struck, and that another, and by far the most numerous, were friends to the British interest, and only wanted the appearance of a protecting power to show themselves. Relying on this intelligence, he detached only five hundred men, one hundred Indians, and two field-pieces, which his friends, as he expected, he found him- self briskly attacked. Breyman's troops, though fatigued with their preceding march, behaved with great resolution, but were at length compelled to abandon their artillery, and retreat. The overthrow of these de- tachments was the first link in a grand chain of causes, which finally drew down ruin on the whole royal army. The confidence with which the Americans were inspired, on find- ing themselves able to defeat regular troops, produced surprising effects; it animated their exertions, and filled them with expec- tation of farther success. That military pride, which is the soul of an army, was nurtured by the ' captured ar- tillery, and other trophies of victory. In pro- portion to the elevation of the Americans, was the depression of their adversaries. Ac- customed to success, as they had been in the preceding part of the campaign, they felt unusual mortification from this unexpected check: though it did not diminish their courage, it abated their confidence. J not easy to enumerate all the disastrous con- sequences which resulted to the royal army, 202 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. from the failure of their expedition to Ben- nington. These were eo extensive, that their loss of men was the least considera- ble ; it deranged every plan for pushing the advantages which had been previously ob- tained. Among other embarrassments, it reduced general Burgoyne to the alterna- tive of halting till he brought forward sup- plies from Fort George, or of advancing without them at the risk of being starved. The former being adopted, the royal army was detained from August sixteenth, to Sep- tember thirteenth. This unavoidable delay gave time and opportunity for the Ameri- cans to collect in great numbers. The defeat of lieutenant-colonel Baum was the first event which for a long time had taken place in favor of the American northern army. From December 1775, it had experienced one misfortune treading on the heels of another, and defeat succeeding defeat Every moment had been either re- treating or evacuating. The subsequent transactions present a remarkable contrast Fortune, which, previous to the battle of Bennington, had not for a moment quitted the British standard, seemed, after that event, as if she had totally deserted it, and gone over to the opposite party. SUCCESSIVE DISASTERS OF THE BRITISH. AFTER the evacuation of Ticonderoga, the Americans had fallen back from one place to another, till they at last fixed at Vanshaick's Island. Soon after the retreat- ing system was adopted, congress recalled their general officers, and put general Gates at the head of their northern army. His arrival (on the nineteenth of August) gave fresh vigor to the exertions of the inhabit- ants. .The militia, flushed with their recent victory at Bennington, collected in great nnmbers to his standard ; they soon began to be animated with a hope of capturing the whole British army. When the necessary stores for thirty days' subsistence were brought forward from Lake George, gene- ral Burgoyne gave up all communication with the magazines in the rear, and on the thirteenth and fourteenth of September crossed Hudson's River. The movement was the subject of much discussion ; some charg- ed it to the impetuosity of the general, and alleged that it was premature before he was sure of aid from the royal forces posted in New- York : but he pleaded the peremptory orders of his superiors. The rapid advance of Burgovne, and especially his passage of the North River, added much to the imprac- ticability of his future retreat, and in con- junction with subsequent events made the total ruin of his army in a great degree un- avoidable. BATTLE OF STTLLWATER. GENERAL BURGOYNE, after crossing the Hudson, advanced along its side, and in four days encamped on the heights, about two miles from general Gates's camp, which was three miles above Stillwater. The Ameri- cans, elated with their successes at Ben- nington and Fort Schuyler, thought no more of retreating, but came out to meet the ad- vancing British, and engaged them with firmness and resolution. The attack began a little before mid-day of September nine- teenth, between the scouting parties of the two armies. The commanders on both sides supported and reinforced their respective parties. The conflict, though severe, was only partial for an hour and a half; but after a short pause it became general, and con- tinued for three hours without any intermis- sion. A constant blaze of fire was kept up, and both armies seemed to be determined on death or victory. The Americans and British alternately drove and were driven by each other ; men, and particularly officers, dropped every moment, and on every side. Several of the Americans placed themselves in high trees, and as often as they could dis- tinguish an officer's uniform, took him off by deliberately aiming at his person. Few actions have been characterized by more ob- stinacy in attack or defence ; the British re- peatedly tried their bayonets, but without their usual success in the use of that weapon. At length night put an end to the effusion of blood. This hard-fought battle decided nothing, and little else than honor was gain- ed by either army ; but nevertheless it was followed by important consequences : of these one was the diminution of the zeal and alac- rity of the Indians in the British army. The dangerous service in which they were en- gaged, was by no means suited to their hab- its of war : they were disappointed of the plunder they expected, and saw nothing be- fore them but hardships and danger. Fi- delity and honor were too feeble motives in the minds of savages, to retain them in such an unproductive service. By deserting in the season when their aid would have been most useful, they furnished a second instance of the impolicy of depending upon them. Very little more perseverance was exhibited by the Canadians and other British provin- cials: they also abandoned the British stand- ard, when they found that, instead of a fly- ing and dispirited enemy, they had a nu- merous and resolute force opposed to them. These desertions were not the only disap- pointment which general Burgoyne expe- rienced. From the commencement of the expedition, he had promised himself a strong reinforcement from that part of the British army which was stationed at New- York ; he depended on its being able to force its way to Albany, and to join him there, or in the vicinity. This cooperation, though attempt- GEORGE III. 17601620. 203 ed, failed in the execution, while the expec- tation of it contributed to involve him in some difficulties to which he would not have otherwise been exposed. On the twenty-first of September, gene- ral Burgoyne received intelligence in a ci- pher, that Sir Henry Clinton, who then com- manded in New- York, intended to make a diversion in his favor, by attacking the for- tresses which the Americans had erected on Hudson's River, to obstruct the intercourse between New- York and Albany. In an- swer to this communication he dispatched to Sir Henry Clinton some trusty persons, with a full account of his situation, and with instructions to press the immediate execu- tion of the proposed co-operation, and to as- sure him, that he was enabled in point of provisions, and fixed in his resolution, to hold his present position till the twelfth of October, in the hope of favorable events. The reasonable expectation of a diversion from New-York, founded on this intelligence, made it disgraceful to retreat, and at the same time improper to urge offensive opera- tions. In this posture of affairs, a delay of two or three weeks, in expectation of the promised co-operation from New- York, be- came necessary. In the mean time, the provisions of the royal army were lessening, and the animation and numbers of the Ame- rican army increasing. The New-England people were fully sensible, that their all was at stake, and at the same time sanguine, that by vigorous exertions Burgoyne would be so entangled, that his surrender would be unavoidable. Every moment made the situation of the British army more critical. From the uncertainty of receiving farther supplies, general Burgoyne lessened the sol- diers' provisions. The twelfth of October, the term till which the royal army had agreed to wait for aid from New- York, was fast approaching, and no intelligence of the expected co-operation had arrived. In this alarming situation, it was thought proper to make a movement to the left of the Ameri- cans. The body of troops employed for this purpose consisted of fifteen hundred chosen men, and was commanded by gene- rals Burgoyne, Philips, Reidesel, and Fra- zer. As they advanced, they were checked by a sudden and impetuous attack ; but ma- jor Ackland, at the head of the British gren- adiers, sustained it with great firmness. The Americans extended their attack along the whole front of the German troops, who were posted on the right of the grenadiers, and they also marched a large body round their flank, in order to cut off their retreat. To oppose this bold enterprise, the British light infantry, with a part of the 24th regi- ment, were directed to form a second line, and to cover the retreat of the troops into the camp. In the mean time, the Ameri- cans pushed forward a fresh and a strong reinforcement, to renew the action on Bur- goyne's left. That part of his army was obliged to give way, but the light infantry and twenty-fourth regiment, by a quick movement, came to its succor, and saved it from total ruin. The British lines being exposed to great danger, the troops which were nearest to them returned for their de- fence. General Arnold, with a brigade of continental troops, pushed for the works possessed by lord Balcarras, at the head of the British light infantry; but the brigade having an abatis to cross, and many other obstructions to surmount, was compelled to retire. Arnold left this brigade, and came to Jackson's regiment, which he ordered in- stantly to advance ana attack the lines and redoubt in their front, which were defended by lieutenant-colonel Breyman at the head of the German grenadiers. The assailants pushed on with rapidity, and carried the works ; Arnold was one of the first who en- tered them. Lieutenant-colonel Breyman was killed : the troops commanded by him retired firing ; they gamed their tents about thirty or forty yards from their works ; but on finding that the assault was general, they gave one fire, after which some retreat- ed to the British camp, but others threw down their arms. ' The night put an end to the action. This day was fatal to many brave men; the British officers suffered more than their common proportion. Among their slain, general Frazer, on account of his distin- guished merit, was the subject of particular regret: S:r James Clark, Burgoyne's aid- de-camp, was mortally wounded : the gene- ral himself had a narrow escape; a shot pass- ed through his hat, and another through his waistcoat: majors Williams and Ackland were taken, and the latter wounded. The loss of the Americans was inconsiderable ; but general Arnold, to whose impetuosity they were much indebted for the success of the day, was among their wounded. They took more than two hundred prisoners, be- sides nine pieces of brass artillery, and the encampment of a German brigade with all their equipage. The royal troops were under arms the whole of the next day, in expectation of another action ; but nothing more than skirmishes took place. At this time, gene- ral Lincoln, when reconnoitring, received a dangerous wound ; an event which was greatly regretted, as he possessed much of the esteem and confidence of the American army. The position of the British army, after the action of the seventh, was so dangerous, that an immediate and total change became ne- 204 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. cessary. This hazardous measure was exe- cuted without loss or disorder : the British camp, with all its appurtenances, was re- moved in the course of a single night The American general now saw a fair prospect of overcoming the army opposed to him, without exposing his own to the danger of another battle. His measures were therefore principally directed to cut off their retreat, and prevent them from receiving any farther supplies. FORT MONTGOMERY TAKEN BY THE BRITISH. WHILE general Burgoyne was pushing on towards Albany, an unsuccessful attempt to relieve him was made by the British com- mander in New-York. For this purpose, Sir Henry Clinton, on the fifth of October, conducted an expedition up Hudson's River. This consisted of about three thousand men, and was accompanied by a suitable naval force: after making many feints, he landed at Stoney Point, and marched over the mountains to Fort Montgomery, and attacked the different redoubts. The gar- rison, commanded by governor Clinton, a brave and intelligent officer, made a gallant resistance; but as the post had been de- signed principally to prevent the passing of ships, the works on the land-side were in- complete and untenable. When it began to grow dark, the British entered the fort with fixed bayonets. The loss on neither side was great ; governor Clinton, general James Clinton, and most of the officers and men, effected their escape under cover of the thick smoke and darkness that suddenly pre- vailed. The reduction of this post furnished the British with an opportunity for opening a passage up the North River; but instead of proceeding forward to Burgoyne's encamp- ment, or even to Albany, they spent seve- ral days in laying waste the adjacent coun- try. The Americans destroyed Fort Con- stitution, and also set fire to two new frig- ates and some other vessels. General Tryon at the same time destroyed a settlement, called Continental Village, which contained barracks for fifteen hundred men, besides many stores. Sir James Wallace with a flying squadron of light frigates, and gene- ral Vaughan with a detachment of land forces, continued on and near the river for several days, desolating the country near its margin. On the thirteenth of October gen- eral Vaughan so completely burned Esopus, a fine flourishing village, that a single house was not left standing, though on his ap- proach the Americans had left the town without making any resistance. Charity would lead us to suppose that these devasta- tions were designed to answer military pur- poses. Their authors might have hoped to divert the attention of general Gates, and thus indirectly relieve general Burgoyne; but if this was intended, the artifice did not take effect The preservation of property was with the Americans only a secondary object The capturing of Burgoyne prom- ised such important consequences, that they would not suffer any other consideration to interfere with it General Gates did not make a single movement that lessened the probability of effecting his grand purpose. He wrote an expostulatory letter to Vaugh- an, part of which was in the following terms : " Is it thus your king's generals think to make converts to the royal cause 1 It is no less surprising tlian true, that the me; - sures they adopt to serve their master, have a quite contrary effect Their cruelty estab- lishes the glorious act of independence upon the broad basis of the resentment of the peo- ple." Whether policy or revenge led to this devastation of property is uncertain ; but it cannot admit of a doubt that it was far from being the most effectual method of relieving Burgoyne. The passage of the North River was made so practicable by these advantages, that Sir Henry Clinton, with his whole force, amount- ing to three thousand men, might not only have reached Albany, but general Gates's encampment, before the twelfth, the day till which Burgoyne had agreed to wait for aid from New- York. While the British were doing mischief to individuals without serv- ing the cause of their royal master, they might in all probability, by pushing forward about one hundred and thirty-six miles in six days, have brought Gates's army be- tween two fires, at least twenty-four hours before Burgoyne's necessity compelled his submission to articles of capitulation. Why they neglected this opportunity of relieving their suffering brethren, about thirty-six miles to the northward of Albany, when they were only about one hundred miles be- low it, has never yet been satisfactorily ex- plained. SURRENDER OF GENERAL BURGOYNE. GATES posted fourteen hundred men on the heights opposite the fords of Saratoga, and two thousand more in the rear, to pre- vent a retreat to Fort Edward, and fifteen hundred at a ford higher up. Burgoyne, re- ceiving intelligence of these movements, concluded from them, especially from the last, that Gates meant to turn his right. This, if effected, would- have entirely in- closed him : to avoid being hemmed in, he resolved on an immediate retreat to Sarato- ga. His hospital, with the sick and wound- ed, were necessarily left behind ; but they were recommended to the humanity of gen- eral Gates, and received from him every in- dulgence their situation required. When GEORGE in. 17601820. 205 general Burgoyne arrived at Saratoga, he found that the Americans had posted a con- siderable force on the opposite heights, to impede his passage at that ford. In order to prepare the way for a retreat to Lake George, general Burgoyne ordered a detach- ment of artificers, with a strong escort of British and provincials, to repair the bridges and open the road leading thither. Part of the escort was withdrawn on other duty, and the remainder, on a slight attack of an inconsiderable party of Americans, ran away. The workmen, thus left without support, were unable to effect the business on which they had been sent. The only practicable route of retreat which now remained, was by a night march to Fort Edward. Before this attempt could be made, scouts returned with intelligence, that the Americans were intrenched opposite to those fords on the Hudson's River, over which it was proposed to pass, and that they were also in force on the high ground between Fort Edward and Fort George ; they had at the same time parties down the whole shore, and posts, so near as to observe every motion of the royal army. Their position extended nearly round the British, and was by the nature of the ground in a great measure secured from at- tacks. The royal army could not stand its ground where it was, from the want of the means necessary for their subsistence ; nor could it advance towards Albany without at- tacking a force greatly superior in number ; nor could it retreat without making good its way over a river, in the face of a strong party, advantageously posted on the opposite side. In case of either attempt, the Ameri- cans were so near as to discover every move- ment, and by means of their bridge could bring their whole force to operate. Truly distressing was the condition of the royal army. Abandoned in the most critical moment by their Indian allies, unsupported by their brethren in New- York, weakened by the timidity and desertion of the Cana- dians, worn down by a series of incessant efforts, and greatly reduced in then* num- bers by repeated battles, they were invested by an army nearly three times their num- ber, without a possibility of retreat, or of re- plenishing their exhausted stock of provi- sions. A continual cannonade pervaded their camp, and rifle and grape-shot fell in many parts of their lines ; they nevertheless re- tained a great share of fortitude. In the mean time the American army was hourly increasing. Volunteers came in from all quarters, eager to share in the glory of destroying or capturing those whom they considered as their most dangerous enemies. The thirteenth of October at length arriv- ed : the day was spent in anxious expecta- tion of its producing something of conse- VOL. IV. 18 quence. But as no prospect of assistance appeared, and then- provisions were nearly expended, the hope of receiving any in due time for their relief could not reasonably be farther indulged. General Burgoyne thought proper in the evening to take an account of the provisions left. It was found on inquiry, that they would amount to no more than a scanty subsistence for three days. In this state of distress, a council of war was call- ed, and it was made eo general, as to com- prehend both the field officers and the cap- tains. Their unanimous opinion was, that their present situation justified a capitula- tion on honorable terms. A messenger was therefore dispatched to begin this business. General Gates in the first instance demand- ed, that the royal army should surrender prisoners of war. He also proposed that the British should ground their arms. But gen- eral Burgoyne replied, " This article is in- admissible in every extremity ; sooner than this army will consent to ground their arms in their encampment, they will rush on the enemy, determined to take no quarter." Af- ter various messages a convention was set- tled, by which it was substantially stipulated as follows : " The troops under general Bur- goyne to march out of their camp with the honors of war, and the artillery of the in- trenchments, to the verge of the river, where the arms and artillery are to be left. The arms to be piled by word of command from their own officers. A free passage to be granted to the army under lieutenant-gene- ral Burgoyne to Great Britain, upon condi- tion of not serving again in North America during the present contest, and the port of Boston to be assigned for the entry of the transports to receive, the troops whenever general Howe shall so order. The army un- der lieutenant-general Burgoyne to marcii to Massachusets Bay, by the easiest route, and to be quartered in, near, or as conve- nient as possible, to Boston. The troops to be provided with provision by general Gates's orders, at the same rate of rations as the troops of his own army. All officers to retain their carriages, bat-horses, and no baggage to be molested or searched. The officers are not, as far as circumstances .will admit, to be separated from their men. The officers to be quartered according to their rank. All corps whatever of lieutenant- general Burgoyne's army to be included in the above articles. All Canadians, and per- sons belonging to the Canadian establish- ment, and other followers of the army, to be permitted to return to Canada, to be con- ducted to the first British post on Lake George, and to be supplied with provisions as the other troops, and to be bound by the same condition of not serving during the present contest Passports to be granted to 206 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. three officers, to carry dispatches to Sir William Howe, Sir Guy Carleton, and to Great Britain. The officers to be admitted on their parole, and to be permitted to wear their side-arms." Such were the embar- rassments of the royal army, incapable of subsisting where it was, or of making its way to a better situation, that these terms were rather more favorable than they had a right to expect On the other hand, it would not have been prudent for the American gen- eral, at the head of his army, which, though numerous, consisted mostly of militia or new levies, to have provoked the despair of even an inferior number of brave, disciplined, regular troops. General Gates rightly judg- ed that the best way to secure his advan- tages was to use them with moderation. Soon after the convention was signed, the Americans marched into their lines, arid were kept there til) the royal army had de- posited their arms at the place appointed. The delicacy with which this business was conducted, reflected the highest honor on the American general ; nor did the polite- ness of Gates end here : every circumstance was withheld that could constitute a triumph in the American army. The captive gene- ral was received by his conqueror with re- spect and kindness. A number of the prin- cipal officers of both armies met at general Gates's quarters, and for a while seemed to forget in social and convivial pleasures that they had been enemies. The conduct of general Burgoyne in this interview with general Gates was truly dignified, and the historian is at a loss whether to admire most, the magnanimity of the victorious, or the fortitude of the vanquished general. The British troops partook liberally of the plenty that reigned in the American army. It was the more acceptable to them, as they were destitute of bread and flour, and had only as much meat left as was sufficient for a day's subsistence. By the convention which has been men- tioned, five thousand seven hundred and ninety men were surrendered prisoners. The sick and wounded left in camp, when the British retreated to Saratoga, together with the numbers of the British, German, and Canadian troops, who were killed, wounded, or taken, and who had deserted in the preceding part of the expedition, were reckoned to be four thousand six hundred and eighty-nine. The whole royal force, ex- clusive of Indians, was probably about ten thousand. The stores which the Americans acquired were considerable. The captured artillery consisted of thirty-five brass field- pieces ; there were also four thousand six hundred and forty-eeven muskets, and a va- riety of other useful and much wanted ar- ticles, which fell into their hands. The con- tinentals in general Gates's army were nine thousand and ninety-three, the militia four thousand one hundred and twenty-nine, but of the former two thousand one hundred and three were sick or on furlough, and five hun- dred and sixty-two bf the latter were in the same situation. The number of the militia was constantly fluctuating. In a short time after the convention was signed, general Gates moved forward to stop the devastations of the British on the North River ; but on hearing of the fate of Bur- goyne, Vaughan and Wallace retired to New-York. About the same time the British, which had been left in the rear of the royal army, destroyed their cannon, and abandoning Ti- conderoga, retreated to Canada. The whole country, after experiencing for several months the confusions of war, was in a mo- ment restored to perfect tranquillity. CONCLUSION OF THE CAMPAIGN. GENERAL WASHINGTON soon after the de- feat of Burgoyne received a considerable reinforcement from the northern army, which had accomplished that great event. With this increased force he took a position at and near Whitemarsh. The royal army having succeeded in removing the obstruc- tions in the river Delaware, were ready for new enterprises. On the fourth of Decem- ber, Sir William Howe marched out of Philadelpliia with almost his whole force, expecting to bring on a general engagement The next morning he appeared on Chesnut Hill, in front of, and about three miles dis- tant from the right wing of the Americans. On the day following the British changed their ground, and moved to the right Two days after they moved still farther to the right, and made every appearance of an in- tention to attack the American encampment. Some skirmishes took place, and a general action was hourly expected ; but on the morning of the next day, after various marches and countermarches, the British filed off from their right, by two or three different routes, in full march for Philadel- phia. The position of general Washington, in a military point of view, was admirable : he was so sensible of the- advantage of it, that the manreuvres of Sir William Howe for some days, could not allure him from it. In consequence of the reinforcement lately re- ceived, he had not in any preceding period of the campaign been in an equal condition for a general engagement. Though he ar- dently wished to be attacked, yet he would not relinquish a position from which he hoped for reparation for the adversities of the campaign. Thus ended the campaign of 1777. Though Sir William Howe's army had been crowned with the most brilliant GEORGE m. 17601620. 207 success, having gained two considerable vic- tories, and been equally triumphant in many smaller actions, yet the whole amount of this tide of good fortune was no more than a good winter lodging for his troops in Phil- adelphia, whilst the men under his command possessed no more of the adjacent country than what they immediately commanded with their arms. The congress, it is true, was compelled to leave the first seat of their deliberations, and the greatest city in the United States changed a number of its whig inhabitants for a numerous royal army ; but it is as true that the minds of the Americans were, if possible, more hostile to the claims of Great Britain than ever, and their army had gained as much by discipline and expe- rience, as compensated for its diminution by defeats. The events of this campaign were ad- verse to the sanguine hopes which had been entertained of a speedy conquest of the re- volted colonies. Repeated proofs had been given, that, though general Washington was very forward to engage when he thought it to his advantage, yet it was im- possible for the royal commander to bring him to action against his consent. By this mode of conducting the defence of the new- formed states, two campaigns had been wast- ed away, and the work which was original- ly allotted for one, was still unfinished. AMERICAN SUCCESSES AT SEA. IT has already been mentioned, that con- gress, in the latter end of November 1775, authorized the capture of vessels laden with stores or reinforcements for their enemies. On the twenty-third of March 1776, they extended this permission so far as to author- ize their inhabitants to fit out armed vessels to cruise on the enemies of the United Col- onies. The Americans henceforth devoted themselves to privateering, and were very successful. In the course of the year they made many valuable captures, particularly of homeward-bound West-India-men. They found no difficulty in selling their prizes; the ports of France were open to them, both in Europe and in the West Indies. In the latter they were sold without any disguise, but in the former a greater regard was paid to appearances. Open sales were not per- mitted in the harbors of France at particu- lar times, but even then they were made at the entrance or offing. In the French West India islands the in- habitants not only purchased prizes, brought in by American cruisers, but fitted out pri- vateers under American colors and commis- sions, and made captures of British vessels. The American privateers also found coun- tenance in some of the ports of Spain, but not so readily nor so universally as in those of France. The British took many of the American vessels, but they were often of inferior value. Such of them as were laden with provisions, proved a seasonable relief to the West India islands, which otherwise would have suffered from the want of those supplies, which before the war had been usually procured from the neighboring con- tinent The American privateers, in the year 1777, increased in numbers and boldness. They insulted the coasts of Great Britain and Ire- land in a manner that had never before been attempted. The General Miffiin privateer, after making repeated captures, arrived at Brest, and saluted the French admiral This was returned in form, as to the vessel of an independent power. Lord Stormont, the British ambassador at the court of Versailles, irritated at the countenance given to the Americans, threatened to return immediate- ly to London, unless satisfaction was given, and different measures were adopted by France. An order was issued in consequence of his application, requiring all American vessels to leave the ports of his most Chris- tian majesty : but though the order was pos- itive, so many evasions were practised, and the execution of it was so relaxed, that it produced no permanent discouragement of the beneficial intercourse. Immediately after the surrender of the troops commanded by lieutenant-general Burgoyne, they were marched to the vicini- ty of Boston. On their arrival they were quartered in the barracks on Winter and Prospect Hills. The general court of Mas- sachusets passed proper resolutions for pro- curing suitable accommodations for the pris- oners ; but from the general unwillingness of the people to oblige them, and from the feebleness of that authority which the repub- lican rulers had at that time over the prop- erty of their fellow-citizens, it was impossi- ble to provide immediately for so large a number of officers and soldiers, in such a manner as their convenience required, or as from the articles of the convention they might reasonably expect The officers re- monstrated to general Burgoyne, that six or seven of them were crowded together in one room, without any regard to their re- spective ranks, in violation of the seventh article of the convention. General Burgoyne, on the fourteenth of November, forwarded this account to general Gates, and added, The public faith is broken." This letter being laid before congress gave an alarm. It corroborated an apprehension previously entertained, that the captured troops on their embarkation would make a junction with the British garrisons in America. The de- claration of the general, that " the public faith was broken," while in the power of congress, was considered by them as destroy- 208 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ing the security which they before had in his personal honor; for in every event he might adduce his previous notice to justify his future conduct They therefore resolved, " That the embarkation of lieutenant-gene- ral Burgoyne, and the troops under his com- mand, be postponed, till a distinct and expli- cit ratification of the convention of Sarato- ga be properly notified by the court of Great Britain to congress." General Burgoyne explained the intention and construction of the passage alluded to in his letter, and pledged himself, that his officers would join with him in signing any instrument that might be thought necessary for confirming the convention ; but congress would not re- cede from their resolution. They alleged, that it had been often asserted by their ad- versaries, that " faith was not to be kept with rebels," and that therefore they would be de- ficient in attention to the interests of their constituents if they did not require an au- thentic ratification of the convention by na- tional authority before they parted with the captured troops. They urged farther, that by the law of nations, a compact broken in one article was no longer binding hi any other. They made a distinction between the suspension and abrogation of the con- vention, and alleged that ground to suspect an intention to violate it, was a justifying reason for suspending its execution on their part till it was properly ratified. The de- sired ratification, if Great Britain was seri- ously disposed to that measure, might have been obtained in a few months, and congress uniformly declared themselves willing to carry it into full effect, as soon as they were secured of its observance by proper authori- ty on the other side. About eight months after, certain royal commissioners made a requisition respecting these troops; offered to ratify the conven- tion, and required permission for their em- barkation. On inquiry it was found that they had no authority to do anything in the matter which would be obligatory on Great Britain. Congress therefore resolved, " That no ratification of the convention, which may be tendered in consequence of powers which only reach that case by construction and im- plication, or which may subject whatever is transacted relative to it, to the future appro- bation or disapprobation of the parliament, of Great Britain, can be accepted by con- gress." GEORGE HI. 17601820. CHAPTER XIV. Meeting of the British Parliament Debates on the Address News arrives of Bur- goyne's defeat Debates on that subject Lord North's conciliatory bills Alliance between France and America Debates on the French War Ways and Means Address for a War with France Death and character of Lord Chatham Relief to the trade of Ireland To the Roman Catholics Toulon squadron sails for America Termination of the Session Transactions of the royal Commissioners in Amer- ica Arrival of D'Estaing Philadelphia evacuated Ambassador from France to America Attempt on Rhode-Island Expedition against East Florida Savannah taken by the British Naval preparations Engagement between Keppel and D*Or- viUiers Trial of Keppel Trial of Sir H. PaUiser. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. THE first successes of general Burgoyne elevated the hopes of the toiy party in Eng- land to the highest pitch of extravagance ; and it has been supposed that the meeting of parliament was delayed to an unusual period in order to afford his majesty an op- portunity of congratulating the British senate on the glorious event of the northern expe- dition. The defeat of the German auxilia- ries, which arrived in England previous to the commencement of the session, did not serve entirely to remove the confident hopes of success which this infatuated administra- tion still entertained. In the speech from the throne to both houses on the twentieth of November, his majesty mentioned, " that repeated assurances from foreign powers of their pacific disposition had been received ; but that while the armaments in the ports of France and Spain continued, his majesty had thought it advisable to make a consid- erable augmentation to his naval force, as well to keep the kingdom in a respectable state of security, as to provide an adequate protection to the extensive commerce of his subjects : the commons were informed, that the various services which had been men- tioned, would unavoidably require large sup- plies ; and a profession was made that no- thing could relieve his majesty's mind from the concern which it felt for the heavy charge they must bring upon the people, but a conviction of their being necessary for the welfare and essential interests of these kingdoms. The speech concluded, with a resolution of steadily pursuing the measures in which they were engaged for the re-estab- lishment of that constitutional subordination, which his majesty was determined to mam- tain through the several parts of his domin- ions, accompanied with a profession of being w.atchful for an opportunity of putting a stop to the effusion of the blood of his subjects; and a renewal or continuance of the former hope, that the deluded and unhappy multi- tude would return to their allegiance, upon 18* a recollection of the blessings of their gov- ernment, and a comparison with the miseries of their present situation." In answer to this speech, addresses were moved, as usual, full of panegyrics on the speech, and the profound wisdom of the ministry. The conduct of France, during the whole of this year, had been so unequivocal, that an impartial reader can scarcely help admir- ing the effrontery with which ministry had hitherto insisted, and still continued to in- sist, that her intentions were really pacific. She was not indeed yet arrived at that state of preparation, which would have enabled her to commence hostilities immediately. She occasionally relaxed in certain articles, where the British ministry found themselves obliged to press with more than usual vigor. Thus, when Cunningham, a bold American adventurer, had taken, and carried into Dun- kirk, with a privateer fitted out from that port, the English packet from Holland, and sent the maS to the American ministers at Paris, it then became necessary, to save ap- pearances, to imprison Cunningham and his crew. To prevent this from giving any of- fence to the Americans, however, his impris- onment was represented as occasioned by some informality in his commission, which brought him very near, if not within the verge of piracy. Even this was very soon passed over. The American adventurer and his crew were released from their mock confinement, and he was permitted to pur- chase a much stronger vessel and a better sailer than before, avowedly to infest the British commerce as usual. At another time, when the French Newfoundland fish- ery would have been totally intercepted and destroyed in case of an immediate rupture, and the capture of their seamen would have been more ruinous and irreparable than the loss even of the ships and cargoes, lord Stor- mont obtained an order from the French ministers, that all the American privateers, with their prizes, should immediately depart 210 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the kingdom. Expedients, however, were practised on this occasion with such success, that the order was not obeyed in any one instance, though it effectually answered the end held in view by the French court, viz. that of protracting time, by opening a sub- ject of tedious and indecisive controversy, until their ships were safe in port. With regard to the Americans, they had the full- est assurance from M. de Sartine, the French minister, that the king would protect his subjects in trading with them ; and for this purpose, a public instrument was sent to the several chambers of commerce, assuring them of what we have just now related. DEBATES ON THE ADDRESS. UNDER these circumstances, the marquis of Granby, after stating and lamenting, in a pathetic manner, the ruinous effects of the war, declared himself filled with the most ardent desire for grasping at the present moment of time, and of having the happi- ness even to lay the ground-work of an ac- commodation. He therefore moved an amendment to the address, the substance of which was, "to request of his majesty to adopt some measures for accommodating the differences with America; and recommend- ing a cessation of all hostilities, as necessary for the effectuating so desirable a purpose ; with an assurance, that the commons were determined to co-operate with him in every measure that could contribute to the re- establishment of peace, and the drawing such lines as should afford sufficient security to the terms of pacification." This motion was seconded with additional arguments by lord John Cavendish, and sup- ported by the opposition in general, on near- ly the following grounds. After three years' war, the expenditure of fifteen millions of money, and the loss of many brave troops, we had no more prospect of bettering our affairs than when we began. Notwithstand- ing the hopes of success yearly held out in the speech, our progress exhibited an unin- terrupted series of mortifying disappoint- ments and humiliating losses. The state of interest, of the stocks, and of real estates, as well as the gazettes, too plainly showed the degree in which our trade had been af- fected ; while the defenceless state of our coasts, and trade fleets, demonstrated that if we were at present incompetent for the pro- tection of national commerce, we should be greatly more so when involved in a war with the house of Bourbon, an event which gen- tlemen in opposition regarded as fast ap- proaching : and this was the time to extri- cate ourselves from our difficulties by a reversal of that ruinous and absurd system of coercion which irritated the Americans, strengthened the hands of our enemies, and brought no advantage to ourselves. The debate on the address in the upper tiouse was rendered peculiarly interesting by the presence of lord Chatham, who him- self moved an amendment, " To recommend an immediate cessation of hostilities, and the commencement of a treaty to restore peace and liberty to America, strength and liappiness to England, security and perma- nent prosperity to both countries. This, my lords, is yet in our power, and let not the wisdom and justice of your lordships ne- glect the happy and perhaps the only oppor- tunity." His lordship was ably supported by the other lords in opposition. The ministry strongly defended not only the policy but the justice of employing the Indians. If the women and children of the Americans were destroyed by these savages, they only were to blame, who, by their rebellion, had brought upon themselves these calamities. In the course of the debate, lord Suffolk had the effrontery to assert, that the measure was also allowable on principle, for that it was perfectly justifiable to use all the means that God and nature had put into our hands. The whole of these arguments, and par- ticularly the last, excited at once the stern indignation of lord Chatham : he suddenly rose, and gave full vent to his feelings : " To send forth the merciless cannibal thirsting for blood ! against whom ! Your Protest- ant brethren ! to lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name, by the aid and instru- mentality of these hell-hounds of war ! Spain can no longer boast pre-eminence in bar- barity. She armed herself with blood- hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico ; but we, more ruthless, loose these dogs of war against our countrymen in America, endeared to us by every tie that should sanctify humanity. My lords, I sol- emnly call upon your lordships, and upon every order of men in the state, to stamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. More par- ticularly I call upon the holy prelates of our religion to do away this iniquity : let them perform a lustration to purify their country from this deep and deadly sin. My lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more ; but my feelings and indignation were too strong to have said less. I could not have slept this night in my bed, nor re- posed my head upon my pillow, without giv- ing this vent to my eternal abhorrence of such enormous and preposterous princi- ples." After this grand effusion, the reader will be surprised to hear, that on the divi- sion, twenty-eight lords only voted in sup- GEORGE m. 17601820. 211 port of the motion, against ninety-seven who opposed it INTELLIGENCE OF BURGOYNE'S DE- FEAT. ON the succeeding day, ministers were completely humbled by the disastrous intel- ligence from America. Lord North shed tears ; and the American secretary shrunk, oppressed with shame and disappointment, under the just invectives of the minority. On the fifth, the earl of Chatham moved in the house of lords, " that an address be pre- sented to his majesty, to cause the proper officers to lay before the house copies of all orders and instructions to general Bur- goyne relative to the late expedition from Canada." Holding up a paper in view of the house, his lordship said, that he had the king's speech in his hand, and a deep sense of, the public calamity in his heart That speech, he said, contained a most unfaithful picture of the state of public affairs ; it had a specious outside, was full of hopes, while everything within was full of danger. A system destructive of all faith and confidence had been introduced, his lordship affirmed, within the last fifteen years, at St James's, by which pliable men, not capable men, had been raised to the highest posts of govern- ment A few obscure persons had obtained an ascendency where no man should have a personal ascendency, and by the most insidi- ous means the nation had been betrayed into a war of which they now reaped the bitter fruits. The spirit of delusion, his lordship said, had gone forth ; ministers had imposed on the people ; parliament had been induced to sanctity the imposition ; a vision- ary phantom of revenue had been conjured up for the basest of purposes, but it was now for ever vanished. His lordship said, that the abilities of general Burgoyne were con- fessed, his personal bravery not surpassed, his zeal in the service unquestionable. He had experienced no pestilence, nor suffered any of the accidents which sometimes su- persede the wisest and most spirited exer- tions of human industry. What then is the cause of this misfortune 1 Want of wisdom in our councils, want of ability in our min- isters. His lordship said, the plan of pene- trating into the colonies from Canada was a most wild, uncombined, and mad project; and the mode of carrying on the war was the most bloody, barbarous, and ferocious re- corded in the annals of history. The arms of Britain had been sullied and tarnished by blending the scalping-knife and tomahawk with the sword and firelock. Such a mode of warfare was a contamination which all the waters of the Hudson and the Delaware would never wash away. It was impossi- ble for America to forget or forgive so horrid an injury." In the course of his speech he animad- verted in the severest terms on the language recently held by the archbishop ofYork. " The pernicious doctrines advanced by that prelate were, he said, the doctrines of At- terbury and Sacheverel. As a whig h ab- jured and detested them ; and he hoped he should yet see the day when they would be deemed libellous, and treated as such." The motion being negatived, his lordship next moved an address to the king, "that all orders and treaties relative to the employ- ment of the Indian savages be laid before the house." Lord Gower rose to oppose the motion, and asserted, " that the noble lord had him- self employed savages without scruple in the operations of the last war." This charge lord Chatham positively and peremptorily denied, and challenged the ministers, if any such instructions of his were to be found, to produce them. If at all employed, they had crept into the service, from the occasional utility of their assistance in unexplored parts of the country. He said, "the late king George IL had too much regard for the mili- tary dignity of his people, and also too much humanity, to agree to such a proposal, had it been made to him, and he called upon lord Amherst to declare the truth." Lord Amherst, not able to evade this appeal, reluctantly owned that Indians had been employed on both sides the French em- ployed them first, he said, and we followed their example ; but that he had been author- ized to take them into his majesty's service by instructions from the minister, his lord- ship would not affirm. The motion was dis- missed by the previous question. LORD NORTH'S CONCILIATORY BILLS. ON the seventeenth of February, having given previous notice of his intention, the minister introduced to the house of com- mons some new propositions tending to a reconciliation with America. He said, that his wishes for peace had been frustrated by a variety of misfortunes; that American tax- ation, he had always believed, could never produce a beneficial revenue, but he had found them taxed when he came into office. He never could have conceived, that the agreement with the East India company would have proved so unfortunate : that the coercive acts had produced effects which he could not foresee ; that his former concilia- tory proposition was so disfigured by obscure discussions as to lose its effect in America ; that the issue of the war had been contrary to all expectation, considering the conduct of the commanders and the goodness of the troops. His present motions were two, for "a bill for declaring the intentions of -the parliament of Great Britain, concerning the exercise of the right of imposing taxes 212 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. within his majesty's colonies, provinces, and plantations in North America :" and, " a bill to enable his majesty to appoint commission- ers, with sufficient powers to treat, consult, and agree upon the means of quieting the disorders now subsisting in certain of the colonies, plantations, and provinces of North America," His lordship added, that it was intended to appoint five commissioners, and enable them to treat with the congress, as if it were a legal body, to treat with any of the provincial assemblies upon their present constitution, or with any individuals in mili- tary or civil command, general Washington, or any other officer. They were to have a power of suspending hostilities, granting pardons, and restoring all or any of the colo- nies to the form of their ancient constitu- tion ; that should the Americans now claim independence, they should not be required to renounce it, until the treaty had been ratified by the parliament of Great Britain ; and if the Americans refused a moderate contribution towards the common defence of the empire when reunited, they should be warned, that, in that case, they were not to look for support from it The minister de- clared farther, that all these concessions were consistent with his former opinions, and if the question was asked, why they had not been sooner proposed, he should reply, that the moment of victory, for which he had anxiously waited, seemed to him the only proper season for offering terms of con- cession. But though the result of the war had proved unfavorable, he would no longer delay the desirable and necessary work of reconciliation. " Never, perhaps," observes a modern writer (1), " was the inexpressible absurdity of the ministerial system more apparent than at the present moment The powers now granted were precisely of the nature of those with which it was the object of the motion made by the duke of Grafton, in the spring of 1775, to invest the former commis- sioners, lord and general Howe. Had that motion been adopted, the contest might un- questionably have been, with the utmost fa- cility, amicably and honorably terminated ; but the general aspect of affairs since that period was totally changed. From the de- claration of independence which America had once made, she could never be expected to recede. The strength of Great Britain had been tried, and found unequal to the contest The measures adopted by the Eng- lish government, particularly in the employ- ment of German mercenaries and Indian savages, had inflamed the resentment of America to the highest pitch. Her recent success had rendered it to the last degree improbable that she would ever again con- sent to recognize, in any shape, or under any modification, the authority of Britain. A treaty of peace, commerce, and alliance, was all that a just and sound policy, in the pres- ent circumstances, could hope, or would en- deavor to accomplish." The general voice of the country gentle- men was, that as taxation was now given up, peace ought to be procured on any terms, and in the speediest manner. The members in opposition, properly so called, though they approved of the concilia- tory bills, showed no mercy to the conduct of the minister. He was reprobated indeed by both parties in such a manner, as must have made his situation extremely disagree- able. By his own he was asked, as taxation had not been his object, what were the real motives which had induced him to begin the war? Had he sported away 30,000 lives, and thirty millions of money, and, in that amusement, put not only the unity, but the existence of the empire, to the utmost hazard, in order to try the spirit of the Americans, and to discover how they would behave in defence of everything that was dear to them ? Fox in a fine strain of irony complimented the minister on his conversion, and congratu- lated his own party on the acquisition of such a potent auxiliary. He was glad to find that his own propositions did not materially differ from those made by Burke three years before. He reminded the house, that though they were then rejected, a war of three years had convinced him that they were really useful. But if the concession should be found ample enough, and then come too late, what pun- ishment would be sufficient for those minis- ters who adjourned parliament, in order to make propositions of concession, and then neglected to do it, until France had con- cluded a treaty with the independent states of America, acknowledging them as such 1 He did not speak from surmise ; he had it from authority which he could not question, that the treaty he mentioned had been signed in Paris ten days before, counting from that instant. He therefore wished that ministry would give the house satisfaction on that, very interesting point ; for he feared that it would be found, that their present apparently pacific and equitable disposition, with that proposition which seemed to be the result of it, owed their existence to the previous knowledge of this treaty, which must, from its nature, render that proposition as useless to the peace, as it was humiliating to the dignity of Britain. The intimation of Fox, though faintly controverted by the minister, and treated as only matter of rumor, was too well founded ; and the doubts of the ministry completely removed in a few days by a formal notifica- tion of the fact from the French ambassa- dor. GEORGE IH. 17601820. 213 ALLIANCE BETWEEN FRANCE AND AMERICA. CONGRESS having agreed on the plan of the treaty, which they intended to propose to his most Christian majesty, proceeded to elect commissioners to solicit its acceptance. Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, and Thomas Jef- ferson, were chosen. The latter declining to serve, Arthur Lee, who was then in Lon- don, and had been very serviceable to his country in a variety of ways, was elected in his room. It was resolved, that no mem- ber should be at liberty to divulge anything more of these transactions than " that con- gress had taken such steps as they judged necessary for obtaining foreign alliances." The secret committee were directed to make an effectual lodgment in France of ten thou- sand pounds sterling, subject to the order of these commissioners. Dr. Franklin, who was employed as agent in the business, and afterwards as minister plenipotentiary at the court of France, was in possession of a greater proportion of foreign fame than any other native of America. By the force of superior abilities, and with but few advan- tages in early life, he had attained the high- est eminence among men of learning, and in many instances extended the empire oi science. His genius was vast and compre- hensive, and with equal ease investigated the mysteries of philosophy and the labyrinths of politics. His fame as a philosopher had reached as far as human knowledge is pol- ished or refined. His philanthropy knew no bounds. The prosperity and happiness of the human race were objects which at all times had attracted his attention. Disgustec with Great Britain, and glowing with the most ardent love for the liberties of his op- pressed native country, he left London where he had resided some years in the character of agent for several of the colo- nies, and early in 1775 returned to Philadel- phia, and immediately afterwards was elect- ed by the legislature of Pennsylvania, to share in the opposition to Great Britain as a member of congress. Shortly after his ap- pointment to solicit the interests of congress in France [October 27], he sailed for that country ; he was no sooner landed [Decem- ber 13] than universally caressed. His fame had smoothed the way for his reception in a public character. Doctor Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, havingrendezvousec at Paris, soon after [December 28] openec their business in a private audience with the count de Vergennes. At this period congress did not so much expect any direct aid from France, as the indirect relief of a war between that coun- try and Great Britain. To subserve this de- sign, they resolved, that " their commission- ers at the court of France should be fur- nished with warrants and commissions, and authorized to arm and fit for war in the French ports any number of vessels (not ex- ceeding six) at the expense of the United States, to war upon British property, pro- vided they were satisfied this measure would not be disagreeable to the court of France." This resolution was carried into effect, and in the year 1777 marine offi- cers, with American commissions, both sail- d out of French ports, and carried prizes of British property into them. They could not procure their condemnation in the courts of France, nor sell them publicly, but they nevertheless found ways and means to turn them into money. The commanders of these vessels were sometimes punished by authority to please the English, but they were oftener caressed from another quarter to please the Americana While private agents on the part of the United States were endeavoring to embroil the two nations, the American commission- ers were urging the minikers of the king of France to accept the treaty proposed by congress. They received assurances of the rood wishes of the court of France, but were rom time to time informed, that the import- ant transaction required farther considera- tion, and were enjoined to observe the most profound secrecy. Matters remained in this fluctuating state from December 1776 till December 1777. Private encouragement and public discountenance was alternated, but both varied according to the complexion of news from America. The defeat on Long- Island, the reduction of New- York, and the train of disastrous events in 1776, which have already been mentioned, sunk the credit of the Americans very low, and abated much of the national ardor for their support. Their subsequent successes at Trenton and Princeton effaced these impressions, and rekindled active zeal in their behalf. The capture of Burgoyne fixed these wavering- politics. The success of the Americans in the campaign of 1777, placed them on high ground ; their enmity had proved itself for- midable to Britain, and then- friendship be- came desirable to France. The news of the capitulation of Saratoga reached France very early in December 1777. The Ameri- can deputies took that opportunity to press for an acceptance of the treaty, which had been under consideration for the preceding twelve months. The capture of Burgoyne's army convinced the French, that the oppo- sition of the Americans to Great Britain was not the work of a few men who had got power in their hands, but of the great body of the people, and was likely to be finally successful. It was therefore determined to take them by the hand, and publicly to es- pouse their cause. The commissioners ot 214 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. congress, on the sixteenth of December 1777, were informed, by Mr. Gerard, one of the secretaries of the king's council of state, "that it was decided to acknowledge the independence of the United States, and to make a treaty with them : that in the treaty no advantage would be taken of their situa- tion to obtain terms, which otherwise it would not be convenient for them to agree to. It was therefore intended that the terms of the treaty should be such as the new- formed states would be willing to agree to, if they had been long since established, and in the fullness of strength and power, and such as they should approve of when that time should come. That his most Christian majesty was fixed in his determination not only to acknowledge, but to support their independence : that in doing this he might probably soon be engaged in a war, yet he should not expect any compensation from the United States on that account The only condition h should require and rely on would be, that the United States, in no peace to be made, should give up their independ- ence, and return to the obedience of the British government" At any time previous to the sixteenth of December 1777, when Mr. Gerard made the foregoing declaration, it was in the power of the British ministry to have ended the American war, and to have established an alliance with the United States, that would have been of great ser- vice to both ; but from the same haughtiness which for some time had predominated in their councils, and blinded them to their in- terests, they neglected to improve the favor- able opportunity. Conformably to the preliminaries proposed by Gerard, his most Christian majesty Lewis the Sixteenth, on the sixth of February 1778, entered into treaties of amity and commerce, and of alliance, with the United States, on the footing of the most perfect equality and reciprocity. As there was nothing exclusive in the treaty, an opening was left for Great Britain to close the war when she pleased, with all the advantages of future commerce that France had stipulated for herself. This ju- dicious measure made the establishment of American independence the common cause of all the commercial powers of Europe ; for the question then was, whether the trade of the United States should by the subver- sion of their independence be again monop- olized by Great Britain, or, by the establish- ment of it, laid open on equal terms to all the world. Previous, however, to announcing the de- claration of the French ambassador to the British parliament the minister's concilia- tory bills passed both houses, and the com- missioners were appointed, viz. the earl of Carlisle, Mr. Eden, governor Johnstone. lately become a proselyte to the court, and the commanders-in-chief by sea and land. The impression which was made on all parties by the ill success of the war, and the retraction of the ministers, was now be- come very apparent So great indeed was the eagerness of all parties to obtain peace and reconciliation with the Americans,' that some, even of the gentlemen in office, wish- ed to extend the repeal to all obnoxious acts relative to America : and the minister him- self, in opening his propositions, had declar- ed his willingness to give up all these laws from the tenth of February 1763. The only difference of opinion now upon the subject was concerning the time of carrying it into execution ; that is, whether it should be pre- liminary to, or a consequence of the treaty 1 The latter at length prevailed, and a motion for the repeal of the Massachusets charter- act was rejected by one hundred and eighty- one to one hundred and eight It was after- wards agreed, however, to repeal the tea- act; and Burke having, the same day, moved, that the provisions of the bill should be extended to the West Indies, his motion was likewise agreed to. WAYS AND MEANS. In the debates on the ways and means, some motions were made which exceeding- ly alarmed administration, and even threat- ened the total downfall of their power, ^n order to raise the interest of six millions, which the minister found it necessary to borrow, he proposed a new tax on houses and wines. This occasioned some debate in the committee of supply on the house-tax, which was considered Ijy the members in opposition as not only a land-tax in effect, but as being also exceedingly disproportion- ate and oppressive, and falling particularly heavy upon the inhabitants of London and Westminster, who already paid so vast a proportion to the land-tax, and whose bur- dens, including poors' rate, window-tax, watch, lights, pavement and other imposts, amounted in several parishes to more than eight shillings in the pound : whilst to ren- der it still more grievous, it frequently hap- pened that those who were the least able to bear them, had the heaviest burdens imposed upon them. Such, however, was the present temper of the house, that though the motions were at last agreed to, another was made by a gentleman in office, and closely connected with one branch of the ministry, " That the better to enable his majesty to vindicate the honor and dignity of his crown and domin- ions, in the present exigency of affairs, there be granted one fourth part of the net annual income upon the salaries, fees, and perqui- sites of all offices under the crown, except- GEORGE IE. 17601820. 215 ing only those held by the speaker of the house of commons, the chancellor, or com- missioners of the great seal, the judges, ministers to foreign parts, commissioners, officers in the army and navy, and all those which do not produce a clear yearly income of two hundred pounds to their possessors , the tax also extending to all annuities, pen- sions, stipends, or other yearly sums issuing out of the exchequer, or any branch of the revenue; to commence from the twenty- fifth of March 1778, and to continue for one year, and during the American war." This motion, to the astonishment and ter ror of administration, was carried in the committee by one hundred to eighty-two and though the ministry summoned all their forces against the ensuing day, in order to oppose it on receiving the report from th( committee, it was rejected only by a majori ty of six ; nor would even this have been the case, had the members in opposition been at all unanimous in its support. DECLARATION OF WAR WITH FRANCE ON the seventeenth of March, the follow ing message was sent from his majesty t both houses of parliament: "His majestj having been informed, by order of the FrencJ king, that a treaty of amity and commerce has been signed between the court ol France, and certain persons employed by his majesty's revolted subjects in North America, has judged it necessary to direct that a copy of the declaration, delivered b] the French ambassador to lord viscoun Weymouth, be laid before the house of com mons; and at the same time to acquaim them, that his majesty has thought proper in consequence of this offensive communi cation on the part of France, to send orders to his ambassadors to withdraw from tha court. His majesty is persuaded, that the justice and good faith of his conduct towards foreign powers, and the sincerity of his wishes to preserve the tranquillity of Eu- rope, will be acknowledged by all the world and his majesty trusts, that he shall not stanc responsible for the disturbance of that tran- quillity, if he should find himself called upon to resent so unprovoked and so unjust an aggression on the honor of his crown, and the essential interests of his kingdom, con- trary to the most solemn assurances, subver- sive of the law of nations, and injurious to the rights of every sovereign power in Eu- rope. His majesty, relying with the firmest confidence on the zealous and affectionate support of his faithful people, is determined to be prepared to exert, if it should become necessary, all the forces and resources of his kingdoms ; which he trusts will be ade- quate to repel every insult and attack, and to maintain and uphold the power and repu- tation of this country." The declaration mentioned in the above message, was dated thirteenth of March, and was as follows : " The undersigned ambassador of his most Christian majesty has received express or- ders to make the following declaration to the court of London : The United States of North America, who were in full possession of independence, as pronounced by them on the fourth of July 1776, have 'proposed to the king to consolidate, by a formal conven- tion, the connexion begun to be established between the two nations, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed a treaty of friendship and commerce, designed to serve as a foundation for their mutual good cor- respondence. His majesty, being determin- ed to cultivate the good understanding sub- sisting between France and Great Britain, by every means compatible with his dignity, and the good of his subjects, thinks it neces- sary to make this proceeding known to the court of London, and to declare at the same tune, that the contracting parties have paid great attention not to stipulate any exclusive advantages in favor of the French nation ; and that the United States have reserved the liberty of treating with every nation whatever, upon the same footing of equality and reciprocity. In making this communi- cation to the court of London, the king is firmly persuaded it will find new proofs of his majesty's constant and sincere disposi- tion for peace ; and that his Britannic ma- jesty, animated by the same sentiments, will equally avoid everything that may alter their good harmony ; and that he will par- ticularly take effectual measures to prevent the commerce between his majesty's sub- jects and the United States of North Ameri- ca, from being interrupted, and to cause all the usages received between commercial nations, to be, in this respect, observed ; and all those rules which can be said to subsist between the two crowns of France and Great Britain. In this just confidence, the undersigned ambassador thinks it superflu- ous to acquaint the British minister, that, the king his master being determined to protect effectually the lawful commerce of iis subjects, and to maintain the dignity of lis flag, his majesty has, in consequence, aken eventual methods, in concert with the Jnited States of North America. Signed, Le M. de Noailles." DEATH OF LORD CHATHAM. ON the seventh of April, the duke of lichmond, at the close of the grand com- mittee of inquiry, in which the upper house as well as that of the commons had been uring the greater part of the session deep- y engaged, moved an address to the king- n the state of the nation. In his speech in support of this address, his grace declared n strong terms his conviction of the neces- 216 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. sity of an immediate recognition of Ameri- can independence. " The mischief," he said, " whatever might be the magnitude of it, was already done ; America was al- ready lost ; her independence was as firmly established as that of other states. We had sufficient cause for regret, but our lamenta- tion on the subject was of no more avail than it would be for the loss of Normandy or France." On this occasion lord Chatham made his last and most affecting speech in the house of lords. He had long been a prey to those incurable disorders which brought him to his grave, and, at this time, was so exceed- ingly weak, that it was with the utmost difficulty he could be brought into the house. He delivered his speech, however, with ex- traordinary energy, and was heard with mark- ed attention ; but his lordship's speech was cut short by extreme weakness. Lord Chatham, who had appeared greatly moved during the reply, made an eager ef- fort to rise at the conclusion of it, as if la- boring with some great idea, and impatient to give full scope to his feelings ; but, be- fore he could utter a word, pressing his hand on his bosom, he fell down suddenly in a convulsive fit The duke of Cumberland, lord Temple, and other lords near him, caught him in their arms. The house was imme- diately cleared ; and his lordship being car- ried into an adjoining apartment, the debate was adjourned. Medical assistance being ob- tained, his lordship in some degree recovered, and was conveyed to his villa of Hayes in Kent, where, after lingering some few weeks, he expired, May eleventh, 1778, in the sev- entieth year of his age. CHARACTER OF LORD CHATHAM. THE decease of this illustrious person de- mands a pause in our narration, and calls for a few general remarks, on his character and abilities. Ambition was his ruling passion, and in seeking to gratify it, we must own, that he sometimes at least em- ployed the means which other courtiers have done, and even sacrificed his private judgment to his advancement. No man, while out of office, ever opposed continent- al and German connexions with more force of argument, with more depth of political sagacity, than he did ; no man, when call- ed to a situation under a sovereign, with whom these connexions were a darling ob- ject, ever more ingeniously defended them. As a minister, we must perhaps allow that lord Chatham had one foiling. Formed by nature for the most active and tempestuous scenes, he was too fond of war ; but let it be remembered that he was the only minister of this country that ever had the art of di- recting even the calamities of war to the advantages of the nation. As an orator he, perhaps, yet stands unri- valled in this country. In fire and energy tie equalled Demosthenes ; in a vivid fancy, and a promptness of idea, he greatly exceed- ed him. The best speakers of the time shrunk before the amazing force of his eloquence. Lord Mansfield trembled at it ; and even the vigor of lord Holland was found inadequate to the contest In private life the talents of lord Chatham were alloyed by a mixture of pride and re- serve ; but it was pride united with dignity. He was not selfish, but rather too inattentive to his private affairs. He was the man of the public ; and though he had certainly equal means with other ministers of amass- ing wealth, he chose rather to leave his fam- ily dependent on the bounty of that country which he had essentially served, than to en- rich them by its plunder. His political system was that of a staunch whig; and though he sometimes conceded to the wishes of the court, as he evidently did with respect to the German connexions, which he described emphatically as " a mill- stone tied about his neck," yet his enemies cannot charge him with ever having made a sacrifice of any great constitutional prin- ciple. On the same evening which terminated the existence of this great statesman, the melancholy event was announced to the house of commons by colonel Barre, who, after a short eulogium on his character, moved for an address to the king, request- ing that he would give directions that " the remains of William Pitt, earl of Chatham, be interred at the public expense." The motion was seconded by Townshend, and seemed to receive a very general approba- tion. Notwithstanding the vast effusions of sor- row and gratitude which were poured forth, it was, however, well known, that, for some time past, lord Chatham had been so ungra- cious at court, that it was not even thought proper frequently to mention his name there. A gentleman (Rigby) at that time high in office, endeavored, therefore, to evade the motion by a proposal, to erect a monument to his lordship's memory, which, he could not help thinking, would be a more eligible as well as a more lasting testimony of the public gratitude, than merely to defray his funeral expenses. This proposal, however, produced an effect directly contrary to what was intended. The opposition received it with joy; but, instead of the substitution proposed, they joined it to the original mo- tion, in the following words : " And that a monument be erected in the collegiate church of St Peter, Westminster, to the memory of that great and excellent states- man, with an inscription expressive of the GEORGE III. 17601820. 217 sentiments of the people on so great and irreparable a loss ; and to assure his majes- ty that this house will make good the ex- pense." Lord John Cavendish arose, and said, he hoped that virtue should not, in this instance, be merely its own reward ; but that the grat- itude of the public to lord Chatham's family, These resolutions excited a very great and general alarm amongst the commercial part of the British nation, who seemed to consider the admission of Ireland to any par- ticipation in trade, as equally destructive to their property, and subversive of their rights. After the recess, very many instructions and petitions were presented to the house in whom he had left destitute of all suitable I opposition to them : and it deserves mention, provision, should be the means of exciting an emulation in those yet unborn to copy such an example. The minister concurred in these measures in a manner that did him honor ; and the whole house seemed to participate of a gen- eral pleasure in the approbation of them. In consequence of a motion, made by Towns- hend, a bill was brought in and passed, by which an annuity of 4000Z. a-year payable out of the civil-list revenue, was for ever set- tled on those heirs of the late earl, on whom the earldom of Chatham may descend ; and this was followed by a grant of 20,OOOZ. from the commons, for the discharge of the late earl's debts. Though all this passed in the house of commons without any altercation, or with- out a single dissentient voice upon any one proposition, it was otherwise in the house of lords. A motion made by the earl of Shelburne, that the house should attend his funeral, was directly opposed, and the mo- tion lost by the majority of one. The bill for settling an annuity on his descendants was likewise vigorously opposed by a few lords ; however, it was carried, by a majority of 42 to 11. RELIEF TO THE TRADE OF IRELAND. THE distresses in which the kingdom of Ireland was involved, in consequence of the war, and the general and loud complaints of the majority of its inhabitants, made it absolutely necessary to attempt something farther for its relief; and in a committee of the whole house, it was resolved, L That the Irish might be permitted to export directly to the British plantations or settlements, all goods, wares, and merchan- dise, being the produce of that kingdom, or of Great Britain, wool and woollen manu- factures only excepted ; as also foreign cer- tificate goods legally imported. II. That a direct importation be allowed of all goods, wares, and merchandise, being the produce of the British plantations, to- bacco only excepted. III. That the direct exportation of glass, manufactured in Ireland, be permitted to all places except Great Britain. IV. That the importation of cotton-yarn, the manufacture of Ireland, be allowed, duty free, into Great Britain ; a? also, V. The importation of sail-cloth and cordage. VOL. IV. 19 as a striking instance of commercial folly and prejudice, that, in several of the peti- tions, the importation of Irish sail-cloth, and of wrought iron, are particularly specified as ruinous to the same manufactures in Eng- land ; though it was by this tune discovered, that, by a positive law of long standing, Ire- land was in actual possession of those very privileges, although the Irish were so far from being able to prosecute these manufac- tures to any purpose of competition with the British, that great quantities of both were annually exported to that country from England. An almost equally great and equally groundless alarm had been taken at the bill passed a few years since, for the free importation of woollen yarn into England ; which was by experience found and acknow- ledged to be not merely innocuous, but bene- ficial ; yet such influence had the apprehen- sions of the public upon the disposition of the house, that the bills founded on the resolutions actually passed, were ultimately dismissed, and some trivia) points only con- ceded, not meriting a distinct specification. RELIEF TO ROMAN CATHOLICS. LATE in the session. Sir George Saville moved for leave to bring in a bill for the repeal of certain penalties imposed by an act passed in the 10th of king William, en- titled, " an act for preventing the farther growth of popery;" which penalties the mover stated to be, the punishment of popish priests, or Jesuits, as guilty of felony, who should be found to officiate in the services of their church ; the forfeiture of estate to the next Protestant heir, in case of the edu- cation of the Romish possessor abroad ; the power given to the son, or other nearest re- lation, being a Protestant, to take possession of the father's estate during the lifetime of the proprietor; and the depriving Papists of the power of acquiring any legal prop- erty by purchase. In proposing the repeal of these penalties, Sir George Saville said, " that he meant to vindicate the honor and assert the principles of the Protestant reli- gion, to which all persecution was foreign and adverse. The penalties in question were disgraceful, not only to religion, but to humanity. They were calculated to loosen all the bands of society, to dissolve all so- cial, moral, and religious obligations and du- ties ; to poison the sources of domestic feli- city, and to annihilate every principle of 218 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. honor." The motion was received with ap- probation, and the bill founded upon it pass- ed without a single negative. A message for a vote of credit excited many severe strictures on the conduct of ministers; and although it not only passed in the committee, but the report was re- ceived and agreed to in the house without a division, opposition could not help regretting the miserable situation into which the con- duct of ministers had reduced the country. Intelligence had been received that D'Es- tainir, with twelve ships of the line, had sailed from Toulon about the middle of April, and we had no force in America suf- ficient to oppose him. In answer, ministers endeavored to convince the house, that, if D'Estaing was really destined for America, lord Howe would be able to use such means of defence as would prevent any immediate consequence of moment; if not, admiral Byron, with the fleet under his command, at Portsmouth, could certainly arrive in time to regain any losses that might ensue. It was difficult, however, to persuade the pub- lic, that this tardiness in sending out a proper force accorded with that flourishing state of the navy of which the ministry had boasted. The disputes relative to the northern ex- pedition, were revived on the arrival of general Burgoyne, who was refused admit- tance into the royal presence ; the sun of court-favor no longer shone upon him, and while he remained depressed by ministerial neglect, a court of inquiry was appointed, but the general officers reported, that as he was prisoner on parole to the congress, they could take no cognizance of his conduct He then demanded a court-martial ; this be- ing refused, he determined to submit his ac- tions to parliamentary inquiry. The inquiry was brought on by Vyner, and seconded by Fox. From the manly and spirited behavior of general Burgoyne on this day, he had no reason to expect favor from the administra- tion, nor much cause to think that they would very deeply interest themselves in an inquiry that bore a more favorable aspect to him than to them. SESSION CLOSES. THIS session had now been extended be- yond the usual time; it was, however, in both houses moved, that an address should be presented against the prorogation of par- liament, until the present alarming crisis might be terminated. This was rejected by the usual majorities, and on June the third, his majesty closed this tedious session. The commons were thanked for the provision made for the more honorable support of the royal family. "The last particular mentioned, refers to a bill passed in the course of the session, for settling an annuity of 60,000/. on the six younger princes, of 30,OOOZ. on the five princesses, and of 12,000/. on the prince and princess, son and daughter to his royal high- ness the duke of Gloucester ; the annuities to take effect, in the first instance, on the death of his majesty, and in the second, on the death of the duke of Gloucester. PLANS OF CONCILIATION REJECTED BY AMERICA. THE conciliatory bills of the minister, even before they had received the sanction of parliament, were copied, and sent across the Atlantic, to lord and general Howe. On their arrival in America, they were sent by a flag to the congress at York-Town. When they were received, congress was uninform- ed of the treaty which their commissioners had lately (on the twenty-first of April) con- cluded at Paris. For upwards of a year, they had not received one line of informa- tion from them on any subject whatever. One packet had in that time been received, but all the letters were taken out before it was put on board the vessel which brought it from France, and blank paper put in their stead. A committee of congress was ap- pointed to examine these bills, and report on them. Their report was brought in the day following, and was unanimously adopted. By this they rejected the proposals of Great Britain. The vigorous and firm language in which congress expressed their rejection of these offers, considered in connexion with the circumstance of their being wholly ig- norant of the late treaty with France, ex- hibits the glowing serenity of fortitude. While the royal commissioners were indus- triously circulating these bills in a partial and secret manner, as if they suspected an intention of concealing them from the com- mon people, congress, trusting to the good sense of their constituents, ordered them to be forthwith printed for the public informa- tion. Having directed the aflairs of their country with an honest reference to its wel- fare, they had nothing to fear from the peo- ple knowing and judging for themselves. They submitted the whole to the public ; their act, after some general remarks on the bill, concluded as follows : "From all which it appears evident to your committee, that the said bills are in- tended to operate upon the hopes and fears of the good people of these states, so as to create divisions among them, and a defec- tion from the common cause, now, by the blessing of Divine Providence, drawing near to a favorable issue : that they are the sequel of that insidious plan, which, from the days of the stamp-act down to the present time, hath involved this country in contention and bloodshed : and that, as in other cases so in this, although circumstances may force them GEORGE HI. 17601820. 219 at times to recede from their unjustifiable claims, there can be no doubt but they will, as heretofore, upon the first favorable occa- sion, again display that lust of domination which hath rent in twain the mighty empire of Britain. " Upon the whole matter, the committee beg leave to report it as their opinion, that as the Americans united in this arduous contest upon principles of common interest, for the defence of common rights and privi- leges, which union hath been cemented by common calamities, and by mutual good ofiices and affection, so the great cause for which they contend, and in which all man- kind are interested, must derive its success from the continuance of that union. Where- fore any man or body of men, who should presume to make any separate or partial convention or agreement with commissioners under the crown of Great Britain, or any of them, ought to be considered and treated as open and avowed enemies of these United States. " And further, your committee beg leave to report it as their opinion, that these United States cannot with propriety hold any conference with any commissioners on the part of Great Britain, unless they shall, as a preliminary thereto, either withdraw their fleets and armies, or else, in positive and express terms, acknowledge the inde- pendence of the said States. "And inasmuch as it appears to be the design of the enemies of these States to lull them into a fatal security to the end that they may act with a becoming weight and importance, it is the opinion of your com- mittee, that the several States be called upon to use the most strenuous exertions to have their respective quotas of continental troops in the field as soon as possible, and that all the militia of the said States be held in readi- ness to act as occasion may require." The conciliatory bills were speedily fol- lowed by the royal commissioners, deputed to solicit their reception. Governor John- stone, lord Carlisle, and Mr. Eden, appoint ed on this business, attempted to open a ne- gotiation on the subject They requested general Washington to furnish a passport for their secretary, Dr. Ferguson, with a letter from them to congress ; but this was refused, and the refusal was unanimously approved by congress. They then forward- ed in the usual channel of communication a letter addressed " To his excellency Henry Laurens, the president, and other the mem- bers of congress," in which they communi- cated a copy of their commission and of the acts of parliament on which it was founded, and offered to concur in every satisfactory and just arrangement towards the following among other purposes : " To consent to a cessation of hostilities, both by sea and land. "To restore free intercourse, to revive mutual affection, and renew the common benefits of naturalization, through the seve- ral parts of this empire. " To extend every freedom to trade that our respective interests can require. "To agree that no military forces shall be kept up in the different states of North America, without the consent of the gene- ral congress or particular assemblies. "To concur in measures calculated to discharge the debts of America, and to raise the credit and value of the paper circulation. " To perpetuate our union by a reciprocal deputation of an agent or agents from the different States, who shall have the privilege of a seat and voice in the parliament of Great Britain ; or if sent from Britain, in that case to have a seat and voice in the as- semblies of the different States to which they may be deputed respectively, in order to attend the several interests of those by whom they are deputed. " In short, to establish the power of the respective legislatures in each particular state, to settle its revenue, its civil or mili- tary establishment, and to exercise a perfect freedom of legislation and internal govern- ment, so that the British states throughout North America, acting with us in peace and war under one common sovereign, may have the irrevocable enjoyment of every privi- lege that is short of a total separation of in- terests, or consistent with that union of force, on which the safety of our common religion and liberty depends." A decided negative having been already given, previous to the arrival of the British commissioners, to the overtures contained in the conciliatory bills, and intelligence of the treaty with France having in the mean time arrived, there was no ground left for farther deliberation. President Laurens therefore, by order of congress, on the seventeenth of June, returned the following answer : " I have received the letter from your ex- cellencies of the ninth instant, with the in- closures, and laid them before congress. Nothing but an earnest desire to spare the farther effusion of human blood could have induced them to read a paper, containing expressions so disrespectful to his most Christian majesty, the good and great ally of these States ; or to consider propositions so derogatory to the honor of an independ- ent nation. " The acts of the British parliament, the commission from your sovereign, and your letter, suppose the people of these States to be the subjects of the crown of Great Brit- ain, and are founded on the idea of depend- ence, which is utterly inadmissible. 220 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. " I am further directed to inform your ex- cellencies, that congress is inclined to peace, notwithstanding the unjustclaimsfrom which this war originated, and the savage manner in which it hath been conducted. They will therefore be ready to enter upon the consideration of a treaty of peace and com- merce, not inconsistent with treaties already subsisting, when the king of Great Britain shall demonstrate a sincere disposition for that purpose. The only solid proof of this disposition will be, an explicit acknowledg- ment of the independence of these States, or the withdrawing his fleets and armies." Though congress could not, consistently with national honor, enter on a discussion of the terms proposed by the British commis- sioners, yet some individuals of their body ably proved the propriety of rejecting them. Among these governor Morris, and W. H. Drayton, with great force of argument and poignancy of wit, justified the decisive mea- sures adopted by their countrymen. These offers of conciliation in a great measure originated in an opinion that the congress was supported by a faction, and that the great body of the people was hos- tile to independence, and well disposed to reunite with Great Britain. The latter of these suppositions was true, till a certain period of the contest ; but that period was elapsed. With their new situation, new opinions and attachments had taken place. The political revolution of the government was less extraordinary than that of the style and manner of thinking in the United States. The independent American citizens saw with other eyes, and heard with other ears, than when they were in the condition of British subjects. That narrowness of sentiment, which prevailed in England to- wards France, no longer existed among the Americans. The British commissioners, un- apprized of this real change in the public mind, expected to keep a hold on the citi- zens of the United States, by thp.t illiberality which they inherited from their forefathers. Presuming that the love of peace, and the ancient national antipathy to France would counterbalance all other ties, they flattered themselves that by perseverance an impres- sion favorable to Great Britain might yet be made on the mind of America. They there- fore renewed their efforts to open a ne- gotiation with congress, in a letter of the eleventh of July. As they had been inform- ed, in answer to their preceding letter of the tenth of June, that an explicit acknow- ledgment of the independence of the United States, or a withdrawing of their fleets and armies, must precede an entrance on the consideration of a treaty of peace, and as neither branch of this alternative had been complied with, it was resolved by congress that no answer should be given to their re- iterated application. In addition to his public exertions as a commissioner, governor Johnstone endeav- ored to attain the objects on which he had been sent, by opening a private correspond- ence with some of the members of congress, and other Americans of influence. He in particular addressed himself by letter to Henry Laurens, Joseph Reed, and Robert Morris. His letter to Henry Laurens was in these words : " Dear Sir, " I beg to transfer to my friend Dr. Fer- guson, the private civilities which my friends Mr. Manning and Mr. Oswald request in my behalf. He is a man of the utmost prob- ity, and of the highest esteem in the repub- lic of letters. " If you should follow the example of Britain in the hour of her insolence, and send us back without a hearing, I shall hope from private friendship, that I may be per- mitted to see the country, and the worthy characters she has exhibited to the world, upon making the request in any way you may point out." In a letter to Joseph Reed, of April elev- enth, governor Johnstone said, "The man who can be instrumental in bringing us all to act once more in harmony, and to unite together the various powers which this con- test has drawn forth, will deserve more from the king and people, from patriotism, hu- manity, and all the tender ties that are af- fected by the quarrel and reconciliation, than ever was yet bestowed on human kind." On the sixteenth of June he wrote to Robert Morris, " I believe the men who have con- ducted the affairs of America incapable of being influenced by improper motives ; but in all such transactions there is risk ; and I think, that whoever ventures should be se- cured, at the same time that honor and emolument should naturally follow the for- tune of those, who have steered the vessel in the storm, and brought her safely to port. I think Washington and the president have a right to every favor that grateful nations can bestow, if they could once more unite our interests, and spare the miseries and de- vastations of war." To Joseph Reed, private information was communicated, that it had been intended by governor Johnstone, to offer him, in case of his exerting his abilities to promote a re- union of the two countries, if consistent with his principles and judgment, ten thousand pounds sterling, and any office in the colo- nies in his majesty's gift. To which Reed replied, "I am not worth purchasing, but such as I am, the king of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it." Congress, on the ninth of July, ordered all letters, received GEORGE EL 17601820. 221 by members of Congress, from any of the British commissioners, or their agents, or from any subject of the king of Great Brit- ain, of a public nature, to be laid before them. The above letters and information being communicated, congress resolved, 44 That the same cannot but be considered as direct attempts to corrupt their integrity, and that it is incompatible with the honor of congress to hold any manner of corres- pondence or intercourse with the said George Johnstone, Esquire, especially to negotiate with him upon affairs in which the cause of liberty is interested." Their determination, with the reasons of it, were expressed in the form of a declaration, a copy of which was signed by the president, and sent by a flag to the commissioners at New- York This was answered by governor Johnstone by an angry publication, in which he denied or explained away what had been alleged against him. Lord Carlisle, Sir Henry Clin- ton, and Mr. Eden, denied their having any knowledge of the matter charged on gov- ernor Johnstone. The commissioners failing in their at- tempts to negotiate with congress, had no resource left, but to persuade the inhabitants to adopt a line of conduct counter to that of their representatives. To this purpose they published a manifesto and proclamation, ad- dressed to congress, the assemblies, and all others the free inhabitants of the colonies, in which they observed, "The policy, as well as the benevolence of Great Britain, have thus far checked the extremes of war, when they tended to distress a people still considered as our fellow-subjects, and to des- olate a country shortly to become a source of mutual advantage : but when that coun- try professes the unnatural design not only of estranging herself from us, but of mort- gaging herself and her resources to our en- emies, the whole contest is changed, and the question is, how far Great Britain may, by every means in her power, destroy or ren- der useless a connexion contrived for her ruin, and for the aggrandizement of France. Under such circumstances the laws of self- preservation must direct the conduct of Great Britain ; and if the British colonies are to become an accession to France, will direct her to render the accession of as little avail as possible to her enemy." Congress, upon being informed of the de- sign of the commissioners to circulate these papers, declared, that the agents employed to distribute the manifestoes and proclama- tions of the commissioners, were not enti- tled to protection from a flag. They also re- commended to the several states to secure and keep them in close custody; but that they might not appear to hoodwink their 19* constituents, they ordered the manifestoes and proclamation to be printed in the news- papers. The proposals of the commissioners were not more favorably received by the people than they had been by congress. In some places the flags containing them were not received, but ordered instantly to de- part ; in others they were received, and for- warded to congress, as the only proper tri- bunal to take cognizance of them. In no one place, not immediately commanded by the British army, was there any attempt to accept, or even to deliberate on the propri- ety of closing with the offers of Britain. To deter the British from executing their threats of laying waste the country, con- gress, on the thirtieth of October, published to the world a resolution and manifesto, in which they concluded with these words : " We, therefore, the congress of the Unit- ed States of America, do solemnly declare and proclaim, that if our enemies presume to execute their threats, or persist in then- present career of barbarity, we will take such exemplary vengeance as shall deter others from a like conduct We appeal to that God who searcheth the hearts of men, for the rectitude of our intentions ; and in his holy presence we declare, that as we are not moved by any light and hasty sugges- tion of anger and revenge, so through every possible change of fortune we will adhere to this our determination." This was the last effort of Great Britain, in the way of negotiation, to regain her col- onies. It originated in folly, and ignorance of the real state of affairs hi America. She had begun with wrong measures, and had now got into wrong time. Her concessions, on this occasion, were an implied justifica- tion of the resistance of the colonists. By offering to concede all that they at first ask- ed for, she virtually acknowledged herself to have been the aggressor in an unjust war. Nothing could be more favorable to the ce- menting of the friendship of the new allies than this unsuccessful negotiation. The states had an opportunity of evincing the sincerity of their engagements, and France abundant reason to believe that, by prevent- ing their being conquered, her favorite scheme of lessening the power of Great Britain would be secured beyond the reach of accident After the termination of the campaign of 1777, the British army retired to winter- quarters in Philadelphia, and the American army to Valley Forge. The former enjoy- ed all the conveniencies which an opulent city afforded, while the latter, not half clothed, and more than once on the point of starving, were enduring the severity of a cold winter in a hutted camp. It was well 222 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. for them that the British made no attempt to disturb them, while in this destitute con- dition. The winter and spring passed away with- out any more remarkable events in either army, than a few successful excursions of parties from Philadelphia to the neighboring country, for the purpose of bringing in sup- plies, or destroying property. In one of these, a party of the British proceeded to Borden- ton, and there burned four store-houses full of useful commodities. Before they return- ed to Philadelphia, they burned two frig- ates, nine ships, six privateer sloops, twen- ty-three brigs, with a number of sloops and schooners. Soon after, an excursion from Newport was made by five hundred British and Hes- sians, under the command of lieutenant-colo- nel Campbell. These having landed in the night, marched next morning (May twenty- fifth) in two bodies, the one for Warren, the other for the head of Kickemuet river. They destroyed about seventy flat-bottomed boats, and burned a quantity of pitch, tar, and plank. They also set fire to the meeting- house at Warren, and seven dwelling-houses. At Bristol they burned the church and twen- ty-two houses. FRENCH SQUADRON ARRIVES IN AMER- ICAPHILADELPHIA EVACUATED. THE French squadron, commanded by count D'Estaing, which had sailed from Tou- lon for America, arrived, on the 9th of July, after a passage of eighty-seven days, at the entrance of the Delaware. From an appre- hension of something of this kind, and from the prospect of greater security, it was re- solved in Great Britain forthwith to evacu- ate Philadelphia, and to concentrate the royal force in the city and harbor of New- York. The commissioners brought out the orders for this movement, but knew nothing of the matter : it had an unfriendly influence on their proposed negotiations, but it was indispensably necessary ; for if the French fleet had blocked up the Delaware, and the Americans besieged Philadelphia, the escape of the British from either would have been scarcely possible. On the eighteenth of June the royal army passed over the Delaware into New-Jersey. General Washington, having penetrated into their design of evacuating Philadelphia, had previously detached general Maxwell's brig- ade to co-operate with the Jersey militia in obstructing their progress, till time should be given for his army to overtake them. The British were encumbered with an enormous baggage, which, together with the impedi- ments thrown in their way, greatly retarded their march. The American army having, in pursuit of the British, crossed the Dela- ware, six hundred men were immediately detached under colonel Morgan to reinforce general Maxwell. Washington halted his troops, when they had marched to the vicin- ity of Princeton. The general officers in the American army, being asked by the com- mander-in-chief, "Will it be advisable to hazard a general action 1" answered in the negative, but recommended a detachment of fifteen hundred men to be immediately sent to act as occasion might serve on the enemy's left flank and rear. This was im- mediately forwarded under general ScotL The British pursued their march without farther interruption than a partial and inde- cisive action at Monmouth, and on the thir- tieth of June reached the neighborhood of Sandy-hook, without the loss of either their covering party or baggage. The American general declined all farther pursuit of the royal army, and soon after drew off his troops to the borders of the North River. Soon after the battle of Monmouth, the American army took post at the White Plains, a few miles beyond Kingsbridge; and the British, though only a few miles dis- tant, did not molest them. They remained in this position from an early day in July, till a late one in the autumn, and then the Americans retired to Middlebrook in Jersey, where they built themselves huts in the same manner as they had done at Valley Forge. FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO CONGRESS- BRITISH FLEET BLOCKADED IN NEW- YORK. IMMEDIATELY on the departure of the British from Philadelphia, congress, after an absence of nine months, returned to the for- mer seat of their deliberations. Soon after their return, they were called upon to give a public audience to a minister plenipoten- tiary from the court of France. The person appointed to this office was M. Gerard, the same who had been employed in the nego- tiations antecedent to the treaty. The Brit- ish had but barely completed the removal of their fleet and army, from the Delaware and Philadelphia to the harbor and city of New- York, when they received intelligence that the French fleet was on the coast of Amer- ica, Count D'Estaing had with him twelve ships of the line and three frigates : among the former, one carried ninety guns, another eighty, and six seventy-four guns each. Their first object was the surprise of lord Howe's fleet in the Delaware, but they ar- rived too late. In naval history there are few more narrow escapes than that of the British fleet on this occasion. It consisted only of six sixty-four gun ships, three of fifty, and two of forty, with some frigates and sloops. Most of these had been long on ser- vice, and were in a bad condition. Their force, when compared with that of the French fleet, was so greatly inferior, that, GEORGE IE. 17601820. had the latter reached the mouth of the Del- aware after a less tedious passage, their cap- ture, in the ordinary course of events, would have been inevitable. This stroke was prov- identially prevented by the various hindranc- es which retarded D'Estaing in his voyage to the term of eighty-seven days, in the last eleven of which, lord Howe's fleet not only quitted the Delaware, but reached the har- bor of New- York. D'Estaing, disappointed in his first scheme, pursued, and on the eleventh of July appeared off Sandy-hook. American pilots of the first abilities, pro- vided for the purpose, went on board his fleet Among them were persons, whose circumstances placed them above the ordi- nary rank of pilots. The sight of the French fleet raised all the active passions of their adversaries. Transported with indignation against the French, for interfering in what they called a domestic quarrel, the British displayed a spirit of zeal and bravery which could not be exceed- ed. A thousand volunteers were dispatched from their transports to man their fleet The masters and mates of the merchantmen and traders at New- York took their stations at the guns with the common sailors; others put to sea in light vessels, to watch the mo- tions of the enemy. The officers and pri- vates of the British army contended with so much eagerness to serve on board the men- of-war as marines, that it became necessary to decide the point of honor by lot The French fleet came to anchor, and continued without the Hook for eleven days. During this time the British had the morti- fication of seeing the blockade of their fleet, and the capture of about twenty vessels un- der English colors. On the twenty-second, the French fleet appeared under way. It was an anxious moment to the British. They supposed that count D'Estaing would force his way into the harbor, and that an engagement would be the consequence. Everything with them was at stake. No- thing less than destruction or victory would have ended the contest If the first had been their lot, the vast fleet of transports and victuallers, and the army, must have fallen. The pilots on board the French fleet declared it to be impossible to carry the large ships over the bar, on account of their draught of water. D'Estaing on that account, and by the advice of general Washington, left the Hook, and sailed for Newport By his departure the British had a second escape, for, had he remained at the Hook but a few days longer, the fleet of ad- miral Byron must have fallen into his hands. That officer had been sent out to relieve lord Howe, who had solicited to be recalled, and the fleet under his command had been sent to reinforce that which had been previ- ously on the coast of America. Admiral Byron's squadron had met with bad weather, and was separated in different storms. It now arrived, scattered, broken, sickly, dis- masted, or otherwise damaged. Within eight days after the departure of the French fleet, the Renown, the Raisonable, the Cen- turion, and the Cornwall, arrived singly at Sandy-hook. ATTEMPT ON RHODE-ISLAND. THE next attempt of count D'Estaing was against Rhode-Island, of which the British had been in possession since December 1776. A combined attack against it was projected, and it was agreed that general Sullivan should command the American land forces. Such was the eagerness of the people to co- operate with their new allies, and so confi- dent were they of success, that some thou- sands of volunteers engaged in the service. The militia of Massachusets was under the command of general Hancock. The royal troops on the island having been lately re- inforced, were about six thousand. Sulli- van's force was about ten thousand. Lord Howe followed count D'Estaign, and came within sight of Rhode-Island the day after the French fleet entered the harbor of New- port. The British fleet exceeded the French in point of number, but wag inferior with respect to effective force and weight of metal. On the appearance of lord Howe, the French admiral put out to sea with his whole fleet to engage him : while the two commanders were exerting their naval skill to gain respectively the advantages of posi- tion, a strong gale of wind came on, which afterwards increased to a tempest, and great- ly damaged the ships on both sidea In this conflict of the elements, two capital French ships were dismasted. The Languedoc of ninety guns, D'Estaing's own ship, after losing afl her masts and her rudder, was at- tacked by the Renown of fifty guns, com- manded by captain Dawson. The same evening the Preston of fifty guns fell in with the Tonnant of eighty guns, with only her mainmast standing, and attacked her with spirit, but night put an end to the engage- ment. Six sail of the French squadron came up in the night, which saved the dis- abled ships from any farther attack. There was no ship or vessel lost on either side. The British suffered less hi the storm than their adversaries, yet enough to make it necessary for them to return to New- York for the pur- pose of refitting. The French fleet came to anchor on the twentieth, near Rhode- Island, but sailed on the twenty-second to Boston. Before they sailed, general Greene and the marquis de la Fayette went on board the Languedoc, to consult on measures proper to be pursued. They urged D'Estaing to return with his fleet into the harbor, but 224 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. his principal officers were opposed to the measure, and protested against it He had been instructed to go to Boston, if his fleet met with any misfortune. His officers in- sisted on his ceasing to prosecute the expe- dition against Rhode-Island, that he might conform to the orders of their common su- periors. . Upon the return of general Greene and the marquis de la Fayette, and their re- porting the determination of count D'Es- taing, a protest was drawn up and sent to him against the count's taking the fleet to Boston, as derogatory to the honor of France, contrary to the intention of his most Chris- tian majesty, and the interest of his nation, and destructive in the highest degree to the welfare of the United States, and highly in- jurious to the alliance formed between the two nations. Had D'Estaing prosecuted his original plan within the harbor, the reduc- tion of the British post on Rhode-Island would have been probable ; but his departure in the first instance to engage the British fleet, and in the second from Rhode-Island to Boston, frustrated the whole plan. Per- haps count D'Esta.mg hoped by something brilliant to efface the impressions made by his late failure at New- York ; or he might have thought it imprudent to stake his whole fleet within a harbor possessed by his ene- mies. After his ships had suffered both from bat- tle and the storm, the letter of his instruc- tions, the importunity of his officers, and his anxiety to have his ships speedily refitted, might have weighed with him to sail direct- ly for Boston. Whatever were the reasons which induced his adoption of that measure, the Americans were greatly dissatisfied; they complained that they had incurred great expense and danger, under the pros- pect of the most effective co-operation ; that depending thereon, they had risked their lives on an island, where, without naval pro- tection, they were exposed to particular dan- ger : that in this situation they were totally abandoned, at a time, when by persevering in the original plan, they had well-grounded hopes of speedy success. Under these ap- prehensions, the discontented militia went home in such crowds, that the regular army which remained was in danger of being cut off from a retreat. In these embarrassing circumstances, general Sullivan extricated himself with judgment and ability ; he be- gan to send off his heavy artillery and bag- gage on the twenty-sixth of August, and re- treated from the lines on the night of the twenty-eighth. It had been that day re- solved in a council of war, to remove to the north end of the island, fortify their camp, secure a communication with the main, and hold the ground till it could be known whe- ther the French fleet would return to their as- sistance. The marquis de la Fayette, by de- sire of his associates, set off for Boston, to request the speedy return of the French fleet. To this count D'Estaing would not consent, but he made a spirited offer to lead the troops under his command, and co-ope- rate with the American land forces against Rhode-Island. Sullivan retreated with great order, but he had not been five hours at the north end of the island, when his troops were fired upon by the British, who had pursued them on discovering their retreat In the first in- stance, these light troops were compelled by superior numbers to give way, but they kept up a retreating fire. On being reinforced they gave their pursuers a check, and at length repulsed them. By degrees the ac- tion became in some respects general, and near twelve hundred Americans were en- gaged. The loss on each side was between two and three hundred. Lord Howe's fleet, with Sir Henry Clin- ton, and about four thousand troops on board, being seen off the coast, general Sullivan concluded immediately to evacuate Rhode- Island. As the sentries of both armies were within four hundred yards of each other, the greatest caution was necessary. To cover the design of retreating, the show of resist- ance and continuance on the island was kept up. The retreat was made in the night of August the thirtieth. With the abortive expedition to Rhode- Island, there was an end to the plans, which were in this first campaign projected by the allies of congress, for a co-operation. The Americans had been intoxicated with hopes of the most decisive advantages, but in every instance they were disappointed. Lord Howe, with an inferiority of force, not only preserved his own fleet, but counteract- ed and defeated all the views and attempts of count D'Estaing. The French fleet gained no direct advantages for the Ameri- cans, yet their arrival was of great service to their cause. Besides deranging the plans of the British, it carried conviction to their minds, that his most Christian majesty was seriously disposed to support them. The good-will of their new allies was manifested to the Americans, and though it had failed in producing the effects expected from it, the failure was charged to winds, weather, and unavoidable incidents. Some censured count D'Estaing ; but while they attempted to console themselves, by throwing blame on him, they felt and acknowledged their obli- gation to the French nation, and were en- couraged to persevere in the war, from the hope that better fortune would attend their future co-operations. One of the most disastrous events which occurred at this period of the campaign, was GEORGE in. 17601830. the surprise and massacre of an American regiment of light dragoons, commanded by lieutenant-colonel Baylor. While employee in a detached situation, to intercept and watch a British foraging party, they took up their lodging in a barn near Taapan. The officer who commanded the party which sur- prised them was major-general Grey : he acquired the name of the " No-flint General,' from his common practice of ordering the men under his command to take the flints out of their muskets, that they might be con- fined to the use of their bayonets. A party of militia which had been stationed on the road by which the British advanced, quitted their post, without giving any notice to colo- nel Baylor. This disorderly conduct was the occasion of the disaster which followed. Grey's men proceeded with such silence and address, that they cut off a Serjeant's patrol without noise, and surrounded Old Taapan without being discovered ; they then rushed in upon Baylor's regiment while they were in a profound sleep. Incapable of defence or resistance, cut off from every prospect oi selling their lives dear, the surprised dra- goons sued for quarter. Unmoved by their supplications, their adversaries applied the bayonet, and continued its repeated thrusts, while objects could be found in which any signs of life appeared. A few escaped, and others, after having received from five to eleven bayonet-wounds in the trunk of the body, were restored, in a course of time, to perfect health. Baylor himself was wounded, but not dangerously : he lost, in killed, wounded, and taken, sixty-seven privates out of a hundred and four ; and about forty were made prisoners. These were indebted for their lives to the humanity of one of Grey's captains, who gave quarter to the whole fourth troop, though contrary to the orders of his superior officers. The circumstance of the attack being made in the night, when neither order nor discipline can be observed, may apologize in some degree, with men of a certain description, for this bloody scene. It cannot be maintained, that the laws of war require that quarter should be given in simi- lar assaults, but the lovers of mankind must ever contend, that the laws of humanity are of superior obligation to those of war. The truly brave will spare when resistance ceases, and in every case where it can be done with safety. The perpetrators of such actions may justly be denominated the enemies of refined society. As far as their example avails, it tends to arrest the growing humani- ty of modern times, and to revive the barba- rism of Gothic ages. On these principles, the massacre of colonel Baylor's regiment was the subject of much complaint ; the par- ticulars of it were ascertained, by the oaths of credible witnesses, taken before governor Livingston of Jersey, und the whole was submitted to the judgment of the public. EXPEDITION AGAINST EAST FLORIDA SAVANNAH TAKEN BY THE BRITISH^ IN the summer of this year (1778,) an ex- pedition was undertaken by the Americans against East Florida. This was resolved upon with the double view of protecting the state of Georgia from depredation, and of causing a diversion. General Robert Howe, who conducted it, had under his command about two thousand men, a few hundred of which were continental troops, and the re- mainder militia of the states of South Caro- lina and Georgia ; they proceeded as far as St Mary's River, and without any opposi- tion of consequence. At this place the Brit- ish had erected a fort, which, in compliment to Tonyn, governor of the province, was called by his name. On the approach of general Howe, they destroyed this fort, and after some slight skirmishing, retreated to- wards St Augustine. The season was more iatal to the Americans than any opposition they experienced from their enemies. Sick- ness and death raged to such a degree, that an immediate retreat became necessary ; but before this was effected, they lost nearly one-fourth of then 1 whole number. The royal commissioners having failed in their attempts to induce the Americans to resume the character of British subjects, and the successive plan's of co-operation be- tween the new allies having also failed, a solemn pause ensued. It would seem as if the commissioners indulged a hope that the citizens of the United States, on finding a disappointment of their expectation from the French, would reconsider and accept the offers of Great Britain. Full tune was given, both for the circulation of their manifesto, and for observing its effects on the public mind ; but no overtures were made to them from any quarter. The year was drawing near to a close before any interesting expe- dition was undertaken. With this new era, a new system was introduced. Hitherto the conquest of the states had been attempted by proceeding from north to south : but that order was henceforth inverted, and the southern states became the principal theatre on which the British conducted their offen- sive operations. Georgia being one of the weakest states in the union, and at the same time abounding in provisions, was marked out as the first object of renewed warfare. Lieutenant-colonel Campbell, an officer of known courage and ability, on the twenty- seventh of November, embarked from New- York for Savannah, with a force of about wo thousand men, under the convoy of some ihips of war, commanded by commodore rlyde Parker. To make more sure of suc- cess in the enterprise, major-general Pre- 226 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. vest, who commanded the royal forces in East Florida, was directed to advance with them into the southern extremity of Geor- gia. The fleet that sailed from New- York in about three weeks effected a landing near the mouth of the river Savannah. From the landing-place a narrow causeway of six hundred yards in length, with a ditch on each side, led through a swamp. A body of the British light infantry moved forward along this causeway. On their advance, they received a heavy fire from a small party under captain Smith, posted for the purpose of impeding their passage. Captain Came- ron was killed, but the British made their way good, and compelled captain Smith to retreat General Howe, the American offi- cer to whom the defence of Georgia was committed, took his station on the main road, and posted his little army, consisting of about six hundred continentals and a few hundred militia, between the landing-place and the town of Savannah, with the river on his left, and a morass in front This dis- position announced great difficulties to be overcome before the Americans could be dislodged. While colonel Campbell was making the necessary arrangements for this purpose, he received intelligence from a negro, of a private path, tlirough the swamp on the right of the Americans, which lay in such a situation that the British troops might inarch through it unobserved. Sir James Baird, with the light infantry, was directed to avail himself of this path, in order to turn the right wing of the Americans, and at- tack their rear. As soon as it was supposed that Sir James Baird had cleared his pas- sage, the British in front of the Americans were directed to advance and engage. Howe, finding himself attacked in the rear as well as in the front, ordered an immediate re- treat The British pursued with great exe- cution : their victory was complete. Up- wards of one hundred of the Americans were killed. Thirty-eight officers, four hun- dred and fifteen privates, forty-eight pieces of cannon, twenty-three mortars, the fort with its ammunition and stores, the shipping in the river, a large quantity of provisions, with the capital of Georgia, were all, in the space of a few hours, in the possession of the conquerors. The broken remains of the American army retreated up the river Sa- vannah for several miles, and then took shel- ter by crossing into South Carolina. Agree- ably to instructions, general Prevost had marched from East Florida about the same time that the embarkation took place from New- York. After encountering many dif- ficulties, the king's troops from St. Augus- tine reached the inhabited parts of Georgia, and there heard the welcome tidings of the arrival and success of colonel Campbell. Savannah having fallen, the fort at Sunbury surrendered. General Prevost marched to Savannah, and took the command of the combined forces from New- York and St Au- gustine. Previous to his arrival, a procla- mation had been issued, to encourage the inhabitants to come in and submit to the conquerors, with promises of protection, on condition that with their arms they would support royal government Lieutenant-colonel Campbell acted with great policy, in securing the submission of the inhabitants. He did more in a short tune, and with comparatively a few men, towards the re-establishment of the British interest, than all the general officers who had preceded him. He not only extirpated military opposition, but subverted for some time every trace of republican government, and paved the way for the re-establishment of a royal legislature. Georgia, soon after the reduction of its capital, exhibited a sin- gular spectacle. It was the only state of the union, in which, after the declaration of independence, a legislative body was con- vened under the authority of the crown of Great Britain. The moderation and pru- dence of lieutenant-colonel Campbell were more successful in reconciling the minds of the citizens to their former constitution, than the severe measures which had been gene- rally adopted by other British commanders. NAVAL PREPARATIONS. WHILE such were the proceedings on the continent of America, which was the grand scene of action, naval preparations were carried on with some spirit both by France and England. Admiral Keppel, an officer of tried cour- age and great experience, was appointed to the command of the grand fleet at Ports- mouth. This fleet was found in a very in- sufficient condition ; but so vigilant and ac- tive were the admiral's endeavors, that about June he was enabled to take the sea. The British admiral sailed from Ports- mouth with twenty sail of the line, before war had been declared, or even reprisals or- dered : when he arrived in the bay of Bis- cay, he observed two French frigates (the Licorne and Belle Poule) taking a survey of the British fleet Determined to risk the consequences of such conduct as the neces- sity of the moment suggested, he gave or- ders for the frigates to be attacked, which were soon forced to yield to the English flag. When, however, he understood the force of the French in Brest water to be thirty-two sail of the line, besides ten or twelve frig- ates, he thought it prudent to return to Portsmouth, in order to augment his force, and on the ninth of July he was enabled to put to sea again with twenty-four sail of the line, and was joined on the way by six more. GEORGE HI. 17601820. 227 The French king made the capture of his frigates a pretence for ordering reprisals; this was retorted on the part of Great Brit- ain, and war was now virtually proclaimed, although the accustomed ceremony was not performed. The day before the British fleet sailed from Portsmouth, the French fleet sailed from Brest, amounting to thirty-two sail of the line, with a great number of frigates, under the command of the count D'Orvil- liers, assisted by several other admirals in different divisions. The English fleet was divided into three divisions ; the van com- manded by admiral Harland, of the red, and the rear by Sir Hugh Palliser, of the blue. The fleets came in sight of each other on the twenty-third of July. When, however, the French commander perceived that Kep- pel's fleet had been reinforced, he avoided an engagement, and as night was fast ad- vancing, the latter formed a line, leaving it to the enemy to make an attack. In the morning the French had gained the wea- ther-gage, by which they had it in their pow- er to hazard or avoid an action. Admira Keppel had many motives for attempting to bring on a general engagement ; one was the protection of two East India, and two West India fleets, hourly expected. . It was probable at the same time that the French commander entertained hopes of a rein- forcement. Admiral Keppel discontinuee the signal for preserving the line of battle and put up that for chasing to windward. In this manner he kept up a chase, in order to seize the first opportunity of a change oi wind, to bring the enemy to a decisive ac tion. ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN KEPPEL ANE D'ORVILLIERS. ON the morning of the twenty-seventh o1 July, the vice-admiral of the blue was rathei more to leeward than his station required upon which admiral Keppel threw out a sig nal for several ships of that division to chas to windward. About eleven o'clock th fleets were so shifted, by changes of wind that an engagement seemed inevitable while the French endeavored to avoid it, b; putting about to a contrary tack, instead ol lying-to, and receiving the British fleet in a line of battle on the same tack, so that the ships could only engage as they passed. Ii this situation any British ship that coul< reach the head of the French fleet, wouir engage with every ship in then- line. Thi mode is obviously disadvantageous for th purposes of a general engagement, but ther was now no choice. The French began bj firing from a great distance at the headmos of Sir Robert Harland's division, who di not return a single shot till they came verj near ; the example was followed by the rest f the British fleet, so that in a short time hey were all in battle. The action lasted bout three hours, and both sides did consid- rable execution. As soon as the smoke per- tiitted admiral Keppel to make an observa- ion, he perceived that the vice-admiral of tie red, with part of his division, had alrea- y tacked and was standing towards the en- my, but that none of the other ships which were come out of action had yet tacked, lis own ship the Victory was not in a con- ition for immediate tacking ; but notwith- tanding her damages, she was the first ship hat wore of the centre division, and that jot round again towards the enemy. Haul- ng down the signal for battle, he made the signal for forming the line of battle ahead. The Victory now was ahead of all the cen- re and red divisions, and had time to un- >end her main-topsail (which had been ren- dered totally unserviceable) while the ships astern were getting into their respective situations. The vice-admiral of the blue was ahead of the Victory, his proper station, yet disregarded the signal, quitted his station, passed his admiral to leeward on the contra- ry tack, and never came into the line during the rest of the day. By this manreuvre, the Victory, the nearest ship to the enemy, was supported by no more than three or four of tier own division. Sir Robert Harland, with six or seven of his division ready for service, was to the windward ; other ships were far astern, and five, disabled in then- rigging, were at a great distance to leeward, so that all the force which the admiral could col- lect for the engagement, at three o'clock, was twelve ships. The French, observing the exposed situation of the British ships which had fallen to leeward to repair dam- ages, formed an intent of cutting them off from the rest of the line. The admiral per- ceiving their design, stood across the van of the enemy, in a diagonal line, for the pro- tection of his ships, ordering Sir Robert Harland to form his division at a distance astern of the Victory in order to cover the rear, until the vice-admiral of the blue should obey the signal, and bring his divi- sion into its proper station : and this move- ment afterwards formed the grand charge against admiral Keppel. Having accom- plished, by his motions, the protection of the disabled ships, he repeated his signals for the ships to come into his wake ; but by some unfortunate repetition of the signal by the vice-admiral, it was not obeyed as Kep- pel intended. The vice-admiral of the blue still continuing to windward, a frigate was dispatched to him, with express orders that he should bear down into admiral Keppel's wake ; this produced no effect, and before another signal for these ships to take their station in the line could be obeyed, night 228 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. came on, and interrupted all farther opera- tions. On the return of daylight, the Brit- ish fleet descried the French fleet at an im- mense distance, bearing for the port of Brest ; and in a few hours they were entire- ly out of sight. The loss of men in the Brit- ish ships amounted to one hundred and thir- ty-three slain, and three hundred and seven- ty-three wounded. Private accounts from France estimated the loss at two thousand killed and wounded. Leaving a proper force for the protection of the homeward-bound fleets, admiral Keppel returned to Ports- mouth to refit; but his public letter, con- taining an account of this transaction, occa- sioned great speculation his desire to screen the misconduct of the admiral of the blue inducing him to give such a relation of this engagement as seemed to imply great impropriety of behavior in the commander liimself. For no reason whatever was as- signed for not renewing the engagement in the afternoon, except the expectation of the admiral, "that the French would fight it out handsomely the next day." TRIAL AND ACQUITTAL OF ADMIRAL KEPPEL. TRIAL AND DISGRACE OF ADMIRAL PALLISER. IT was impossible, however, that the truth should not transpire ; and a well-written let- ter appearing some time afterwards in the public prints, severely reflecting on the con- duct of Sir Hugh Palliser, that officer thought proper to require from the com- mander-in-chief a formal disavowal of the charges it contained, and a public justifica- tion of his character. This the commander absolutely and indignantly declined, and the vice-admiral immediately exhibited articles of accusation against admiral Keppel, for misconduct and neglect of duty on lie twen- ty-seventh of July, although he had in the month of October a second time sailed with admiral Keppel, and had never before this so much as whispered a word to his preju- dice. The lords of the admiralty, to the aston- ishment of the nation, without the least hesi- tation, and even with apparent alacrity and satisfaction, fixed a day for the trial of the commander-in-chief ; the result of which was in the highest degree honorable to that brave and injured oflicer, who was not only unanimously acquitted by the court-martial, but received the thanks of both houses of parliament for his services. Sir Hugh Pal- liser afterwards demanded a court-martial upon himself, which terminated in a slight censure only ; but the resentment of the public was so great, that it was deemed ex- pedient by the ministers to accept his suc- cessive resignations of his place at the board of admiralty, his lieutenant-generalship of marines, his government of Scarborough castle, and to permit him to vacate his seat in the house of commons. The acquittal of admiral Keppel was celebrated with illumi- nations and rejoicings in all parts of the kingdom ; and the houses of lord Sandwich and Sir Hugh Palliser were insulted by the populace, and the demolition of them with difficulty prevented. The ready acquiescence of the board of admiralty in the appointment of the court- martial, on a charge so grossly invidious and unjust, gave the highest disgust to the offi- cers of the navy. A strong memorial was presented to his majesty on the subject by the duke of Bolton, signed by twelve admi- rals, with the venerable Hawke at their head, stating to his majesty, in strong colors, the ruinous consequences which the prece- dent now introduced would inevitably bring upon all naval service and discipline. " If," said these gallant defenders of their coun- try, " we had conceived that this board had no legal use of their reason in a point of such delicacy and importance, we should have known on what terms we served ; but we never did imagine it possible that we were to receive orders from, and be account- able to, those who by law were reduced to become mere passive instruments to the pos- sible ignorance, malice, or treachery of any individual, who might think fit to disarm his majesty's navy of its best and highest of- ficers. We conceive it to be disrespectful to the laws of our country, to suppose them capable of such manifest injustice and ab- surdity." NOTE TO CHAPTER XIV. 1 Mr. Belsham : Memoirs of tbe Reign of George III. vol. ii. GEORGE IIL 17601820. 229 CHAPTER XV. Meeting of Parliament Debates on the Manifesto of the Commissioners Affairs of Ireland Votes of Censure moved on Lord Sandwich Return of the Howes Debates thereon Spaniards declare War Regulation of Militia War in East Indies In America Descent on Virginia Capture of Stoney Point British attack South Carolina Repulsed at Charlestown Operations of French Fleet Siege of Savan- nah by the French and Americans Siege raised Capture of the British Settlements on the Coast of Africa by the French. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. THE accession of a new enemy seemed almost to obliterate from the minds of the people every reflection which their previous disasters had produced on the wretched state to which the gross improvidence and inca- pacity of ministry had reduced them in the American war ; and either from the hope- lessness of the contest on the continent of America, or from resentment against the court of France, all thoughts of the reduc- tion of the former seemed to be given up by the tories themselves. The principal topic of conversation throughout England during the recess of parliament was the contest between the admirals Keppel and Palliser, and the expected trial of the for- mer. While this was in agitation, the par- liament assembled on the twenty-sixth of November. It was remarkable that in the speech from the throne, no mention what- ever was made of the war in America, His majesty complained loudly of the unprovok- ed aggression of the court of France, which had not forborne to disturb the public tranquil- lity, in violation of the faith of treaties, and the" rights of sovereigns, at first by the clan- destine supply of arms, &c. to the American rebels, and afterwards by openly entering into engagements with the leaders of the rebellion ; by committing hostilities and de- predations ; and by an invasion of his ma- jesty's dominions in America, and the West Indies. His majesty expressed also his re- gret that the efforts which had been made for disappointing the malignant designs of the enemy had not been attended with all the success which the justice of the cause, and the vigorous exertions that had been made, seemed to promise. In the course of the debates on the ad- dress from the house of commons, an amend- ment was proposed, inquiring " by what fe- tal councils, and unhappy systems of policy, this country had been reduced to her present situation." DEBATES ON THE MANIFESTO OF THE COMMISSIONERS. MR. COKE moved for an address to his majesty, expressing that the sense of the VOL. IV. 20 house was directly against those exception- able passages in the maledictory manifesto of the American commissioners, which were inconsistent with that humanity and generous courage, that at all times have distinguished the British nation ; subversive of the max- ims which have been established among Chris- tians, and civilized communities ; derogatory to the dignity of the crown of this realm ; tending to debase the spirit and subvert the discipline of his majesty's armies, and to ex- pose his innocent subjects, in all parts of his dominions, to cruel and ruinous retaliations. The proposed address was rejected by a ma- jority of two hundred and nine to one hun- dred and twenty-two. A similar motion was made in the house of lords by the marquis of Rockingham, " expressing the displeasure of the house at the manifesto issued under the seal of .the American commissioners on the third day of October last ; and to acquaint his majesty with the sense of this house, that the said commissioners had no authority whatsoever under the act of parliament, in virtue of which they were appointed, to make such declaration ; and humbly beseeching that the said manifesto be publicly disavowed by his majesty." The motion was negatived by a majority of seventy-one to thirty-seven peers, thirty-one of whom joined in a protest of uncommon energy and ability. "The public law of nations," said their lordships, " in affirmance of the dictates of nature and the precepts of religion, forbids us to resort to the extremes of war upon our own opin- ion of their expediency, or in any case to carry on war for the purpose of desolation. We are shocked to see the first law of na- ture, ' self-preservation,' perverted and abus- ed into a principle destructive of all other laws. Those objects of war which cannot be compassed by fair and honorable hostil- tiy, ought not to be compassed at all. An end that has no means but such as are unlawful, is an unlawful end." Among the names recorded on this occasion, we find that of the venerable Shipley, bishop of St Asaph, with a long and illustrious train of signatures affixed to this memorable pro- 230 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. test ; which, if it wanted any other recom- mendation to notice than its own intrinsic merit, might with pride recount the names of Rockingham, Camden, Effingham, and Harcourt In the month of February, Sir Philip Jennings Clerk made another vain attempt to disqualify contractors from sitting in the house. The motion was carried upon a di- vision by a majority of one hundred and fifty-eight to one hundred and forty-three ; but on the second reading, the bill was lost upon the motion of referring it to a commit- tee ; the question was rejected by a majori- ty of forty-one ; and the minister moved that it might be deferred for four months, which was carried, and the bill consequently lost. In a few days after, it was moved that the house should resolve itself into a committee, in order to consider of granting further relief to Protestant dissenting min- isters and school-masters. Some of the bigoted tories opposed this toleration, but without effect, as the bill, framed for the purpose, was carried through both houses with facility. AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. A SUBJECT of still greater difficulty next presented itself to the legislature, and that was the grievances of Ireland. The com- plaints from that country became every day louder. Besides the losses sustained from the American war, and the ancient restraints upon their commerce, an embargo had been continued from the year 1776. Their beef and butter were perishing in their ware- houses, and their linen trade contracted to almost nothing. The embargo had answer- ed no beneficial purpose. The want of Irish provisions had not retarded the armaments of the French, and their West India islands were supplied on as good terms as our own islands with many articles. In the northern parts of Germany, and other countries ad- joining to the Baltic, the traders had begun their trade of curing and packing beef, and had sent considerable quantities of it to French markets ; and although they had as yet made but slow progress in the art, it was evident they soon would take it entirely from the Irish, who did not scruple to affirm that the cause of the embargo was merely the avarice of contractora Added to these complaints, it was found that the rents in Ireland had been very much increased. The people were poor and destitute of employ- ment ; and although about twenty thousand of them had received relief from charitable donations and subscriptions in Dublin, yel this was of small avail to the remedying of the general and growing evil. Lord New- haven, in concert with other members of the house of commons, showed in strong terms that necessity ought now to impel us to the preservation of what remained of our empire; that, however loyal the Irish had iroved hitherto, yet there were bounds to which it would be both cruel and unjust to drive them ; and if we should remain their masters by a continuance of griping tyranny, as soon as a peace was established, they would emigrate to America, and transport to ;hat country those manufactures, arts, and industry, from which this country reaped un- deniable advantages. The exports from Eng- land to Ireland, on an average of ten years, amounted to two millions fifty-seven thou- sand pounds yearly. The exports from Ire- land to England, upon an average of the same time, did not exceed one million three lundred and fifty-three thousand pounds an- nually, so that the balance of trade in favor of England exceeded seven millions sterling in that time. This was exclusive of the im- mense sums drawn from that country every year, under the heads of, rents to absentees, pensions, and the emoluments of places to those who never saw the country ; appeals in law and equity ; business and pleasure. The decrease of the exports from England to Ireland during the last two years, amount- ed upon an average to no less than seven hundred and sixteen thousand pounds per annum. On the other side, it was alleged, that even if the distresses of Ireland were so great as were represented, it was not owing so much to the trade-laws here, as to mal-administra- tion there ; and to faults in the internal con- stitution of their government; that if Ireland had suffered from the American war, Eng- land had suffered much more; and while gentlemen were apprehensive of a rebellion in Ireland, they should reflect on the much more dangerous consequences of one in Eng- land, which we had just cause to dread if any addition was made to the distresses of our manufacturers. Influenced by these and similar arguments, and the remonstrances of some trading towns, the motion for open- ing the trade of Ireland to the West Indies was lost by a majority of four. MOTION OF CENSURE ON LORD SAND- WICH. IN the house of lords, the earl of Bristol moved an address to the king, for the re- moval of the earl of Sandwich. His lord- ship supported this motion in a speech, con- taining a very extensive display of political and professional knowledge. This noble- man affirmed, "that about seven millions more money had been allotted for the sup- port and increase of our navy during the last seven years, than in any former equal period ; and that, during this time, the de- crease and decline of the navy had been in an inverse ratio to the excess of the expen- diture. While such has been the unbound- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 231 ed liberality of parliament ; what (exclaimed the noble lord) is become of our navy 1 or, if there is no navy, what is become of our money 1 " The motion was rejected by sev- enty-eight voices to thirty-nine. Notwith- standing these repeated acquittals, however, the reputation of lord Sandwich most de- servedly suffered in the estimation of the public. . Twenty-five lords united in a protest against these proceedings, and one was en- tered on the journals by the earl of Bristol himself, from which the following appear to be the grounds of accusation. Since the year 1771, six million nine hundred and seventeen thousand eight hundred and sev- enty-two pounds had been granted for naval purposes, more than was granted in an equal number of years, between 1751 and 1759, for the use of the navy, although we had been four years at war with France within that period. The navy was reduced from what it was in 1771, when lord Sand- wich succeeded to the head of that board, notwithstanding the immense sums granted for its support and increase since that time. No fleet was sent out to watch the motions of the Toulon fleet, nor any reinforcement sent to lord Howe, upon intelligence of the said Toulon fleet Admiral Keppel, with twenty sail of the line, was sent off Brest, when the commissioners of the admiralty knew, or ought to have known, that the French fleet then actually at Brest, and fit- ting for sea, consisted of thirty-two ships of the line. For want of reinforcements or in- structions sent to admiral Barrington, the valuable island of Dominica was lost ; and, no naval force having been sent to Africa, we had lost Senegal : and lastly, the admi- ralty, without any deliberation whatsoever, precipitately ordered a court-martial upon a commander-in-chief, of great rank and char- acter, thereby frustrating the salutary inten- tions of that discretionary power, lodged by the constitution in the lords commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral of Great Britain, whereby all malicious and ill-founded charges (by whomsoever exhibit- ed) may be avoided, and the tin ion and dis- cipline of the service not interrupted. DEBATES IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE RETURN OF THE HOWES. THE return of lord and general Howe ex- cited about this time considerable attention ; and as their characters had been covertly attacked by ministers, who wished to excuse their own misconduct by throwing the blame upon the commanders, they, as well as gen- eral Burgoyne, earnestly solicited a par- liamentary inquiry. The minister, on the contrary, endeavored to avoid all inquiry whatever, and insisted that parliament was not the place where it should be instituted. To this it was answered, that the conduct of ministers and that of commanders were too fatally connected in this war, and that the plans and the means must be examined together. To deny the competence of the house to institute this inquiry, was a daring violation of the privileges of parliament On this occasion Sir William Howe proposed that earl Cornwallis should be examined, " as to the general conduct of the American war ; to military points generally and par- ticularly." To this the minister instantly proposed an amendment, " that lord Corn- wallis be called in and examined relative to general and particular military points, touch- ing the general conduct of the American war." Nothing could excite greater indig- nation than this evasion of inquiry and truth; but on a division, the minister carried his amendment by one hundred and eighty-nine to one hundred and fifty-five. The main question was rejected by one hundred and eighty to one hundred and fifty-eight Thus all inquiry appeared at an end ; but opposi- tion were determined not to let it perish in this manner ; they renewed the motion for the examination of lord Cornwallis, a few days after, and were so ably supported, that no means employed by the minister were sufficient to prevent the hearing of that noble lord. Besides lord Cornwallis, major- general Grey, Sir Andrew Snape Hammond, with others, were examined, and the follow- ing facts resulted from their evidence. The force sent to America was at no time equal to the subjugation of the country, which proceeded partly from the aversion of the people to the government of Great Britain, and partly from the nature of the country, which obstructed many military operations. Several other local points were established, which tended to a refutation of the charges brought against the commander-in-chief. It was, at the same time, proved that the Amer- ican minister had been constantly reminded of the difficult and impracticable nature of the war, that he had discredited what was said on the subject, and had not sent out the necessary supplies, and that the reinforce- ment he at length had sent, came too late for any effectual purpose. After a variety of facts tending to the defence of the commander-in-chief, and the censure of the American secretary, had been established, evidence was moved to be heard on the other side. The opposition at first reprobated the design of bringing up Ameri- can refugees, pensioners, and custom-house officers, to impeach and set aside the evi- dence of military men of high rank and great professional knowledge. This objec- tion being overruled, orders were issued for the attendance of general Robertson, general Jones, John Maxwell, and others. During 232 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the time that intervened between the call- ing and appearance of these gentlemen, evidence was heard on the part of general Bur joyne. The officers examined were Sir Guy Carleton, the earl of Balcarras, captain Money, the earl of Harrington, major For- bes, captain Bloomfield, and lieutenant-colo- nel Kingston ; all of whom, excepting the first, were present during the whole cam- paign. This evidence tended most clearly to acquit the general of every suspicion of misconduct, and to establish his character as an officer of the first abilities, and peculiarly the favorite of his army. Whether the gen- eral's orders for proceeding to Albany were peremptory or conditional, was still a matter of opinion : but two assertions were mani- festly disproved, viz. that general Philips at the time of the convention offered to force his way, with a part of the army, from Sar- atoga back to Ticonderoga ; and that the late general Fraser had disapproved passing the Hudson river. This examination being closed, the wit- nesses, brought in opposition to those examin- ed on the part of Sir William Howe, now attended. Their evidence tended to estab- lish the most absurd of all assertions, that a great majority (two thirds, or four fifths of the people were attached to the British gov- ernment, and that the force sent out was entirely competent to have brought the war to a speedy conclusion ; that the country of America did not afford any extraordinary obstructions to military operations ; that the rebel force was always inferior to the reports spread concerning it The particular ma- noeuvres of general Howe were reprobated by some of the witnesses, particularly one of the name of Galloway, who had been a lawyer in America, and a member of con- gress, and who had come over to general Howe at a time when the American cause was apparently ruined. In consequence of the charges which this person laid against Sir William Howe, that commander re- quested ' that a particular day should be ap- pointed on which he might bring witnesses to prove the falsity of the assertions; but this was refused, and the committee was dissolved on the twenty-ninth of June, with- out coming to a single resolution on all the impdrtant matter which had been submitted to them. While such were the disgraceful proceed- ings of the commons, the duke of Richmond was engaged in strenuously promoting an inquiry into the abuses of Greenwich hospi- tal in the house of lords. The rejection of the inquiry through the influence of the exe- crable Sandwich and the other ministers, is perhaps the best proof that could be adduced that the complaint was well founded. WAR DECLARED BY SPAIN. THE Spanish manifesto declaring war against Britain, was introduced by a royal message, June seventeenth, 1779. As this event had been repeatedly foretold by the minority, and all along treated with con- tempt by the ministry, it is not to be sup- posed but the verification of these predic- tions must now produce the most severe re- proaches on those who had despised them. They were indeed reminded with great se- verity of their obstinacy, blindness, and ab- surdity ; of the contempt with which they had treated every warning of danger, the triumph which they had constantly express- ed at the folly and ignorance of opposition for entertaining such ideas. Spain, said the ministry, could have no interest in joining our enemies : they had colonies of their own, and would never set such an ill example to them, as to assist our rebellious colonists. Nay, those ministers, whose daily conduct proved them to be incapable of managing their own affairs with any degree of pro- priety, had the matchless effrontery of setting themselves up as statesmen and politicians for the house of Bourbon, and of knowing the interests of France and Spain better than they did themselves. MILITIA REGULATIONS. ALL these heavy charges, however, were disregarded. A resolution was taken to op- pose this new enemy as well as the others, and at the same time never to submit to the idea of American independence. As the national danger was now undeniably very great, it was proposed by the minister to in- crease the militia to double its number. To this the opposition consented ; though they considered it as probably impracticable, or even dangerous, from the apprehensions they had of its being violently opposed by the people at large ; and that along with several other causes of objection, it would in its ef- fect go to the annihilation of the regular or standing army, in cutting off its usual and only means of supply from the recruiting service. The raising of new regiments ap- peared to them to be vastly preferable ; and they severely reproved ministers for the continuance of that wretched system of policy which had hitherto led them to re- ject with indifference, and even contempt, the liberal and patriotic offers made by seve- ral of the peers in opposition for raising regi- ments at their private expense for the de- fence of their country. But that narrow predilection in&vor of men of a certain de- scription, and particularly of the northern part of the island, was still predominant, and would continue while there was any- thing either to bestow or to lose ; and thus the duke of Rutland, the earl of Derby, and GEORGE HI. 17601820. 233 others of the oldest English nobility, the hereditary supporters of the throne and con- stitution, met with indifference or insult in their generous offers for the service antl preservation of their country, in this season of peril and distress. It was observed, with great acrimony, on this occasion, that all these generous and disinterested offers came from such as ministry had stigmatized with the title of leaders or partisans of faction, and who were constantly represented as enemies to government ; whilk not one of those who had grown rich on her spoils, or great on her ruin, whether ministers, con- tractors, court favorites, or king's friends, had offered to raise a single man, or to ex- pend a shilling in its defence. As the minister did not profess any at- tachment to this particular mode of defence, a great variety of amendments were pro- posed. The only one of any consequence, however, which was carried through, was for the raising of volunteer companies, to be attached to the militia regiments of the county or district to which they belonged ; and for this purpose the lord-lieutenants of counties were empowered to grant commis- sions to officers, as high as the rank of lieu- tenant-colonel, in proportion to the number of men they were able to procure. But when the committee had sat on this subject till midnight, the house was no sooner resumed, than they were surprised by the introduction of a new bill of another nature. This was to take away, for a limited tune, the legal exemptions from being pressed on board the navy, which several descriptions of men and apprentices belonging to the sea, or in some degree to maritime affairs, had hitherto en- joyed ; and also for suspending, for a time, the right of suing out a writ of habeas- corpus, for such breaches of these exemp- tions as had already taken place from the seventeenth of that month, or as might still take place before the final ratification of the bill. Such an extraordinary proposal, militating so strongly against the liberty and security of the subject, was severely censured. The manner of bringing it forward indeed, at so late an hour, and in a very thin house, be- came a subject of complaint e v en more than the proposal itself, which was likewise con- demned upon many accounts, but particu- larly for being a breach of faith between the legislature and the people, which should ever be held most sacred. All this, however, was justified on the plea of necessity ; and the time of bringing it in was said to be chosen on purpose for the greater secrecy and dispatch, and to prevent the effect of the bill from being defeated by the knowledge of its design, which the public prints would have spread through the whola nation. The 20* measure itself was justified upon the ground already mentioned, and the proposer remark- ed, that he could not avoid being astonished at the horror which was now expressed with respect to compulsion, when they were but newly risen from a committee wherein they had been for ten hours engaged in framing a compulsive law whereby arms would be forced into the hands of thirty thousand men contrary to their inclination. The militia bill, like all others proposed by ministry, was easily carried through the house of commons ; but in that of the lords, it not only met with a vigorous opposition from the adverse party,' but was even much more coolly received by the friends of gov- ernment themselves than might have been expected. Neither were the lords-lieuten- ant of counties in general at all satisfied with the bill. In this state of things, the question being at length put, Whether the clause empowering his majesty to order the militia to be augmented to double its present number, should stand as part of the bill ! it was carried in the negative by thirty-nine to twenty-two. In this debate, it was remark- able, that the lord president of the council, and both secretaries of state, voted against the compulsory principle of the bill. Lord North could not conceal his chagrin, nor his dissatisfaction with the conduct of his colleagues. A new question, however, now arose, which produced a considerable debate : for the militia being considered by several members as a money bill, they in- sisted, that no amendment of the lords could be admitted, without a surrender of their own most valuable and peculiar privilege ; for which reason the bill ought now to be totally rejected. But the minister, consider- ing that it was absolutely incumbent on him to do something which might at least have the appearance of regarding the public de- fence and security, determined in the present instance to overlook the point of privilege. After many ingenious arguments on both sides, therefore, the bill was carried by a majority of sixty-three to forty-five. The parliament was not prorogued till the third of July. WAR IN INDIA. ABOUT the latter end of the preceding year, hostilities had commenced in the East Indies. The East India company haying formed a design of extirpating the French power in India, transmitted instructions for an attack upon Pondicherry. Major-general Munro, commander of the company's troops on the coast of Coromandel, about the twen- ty-first of August found his troops in suffi- cient strength for the siege, and immediate- ly took possession of the bound-hedge, within cannon-shot of the fortifications, by which all communication with the country was cut 234 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. off! Some unavoidable delays prevented the farther operations of the besiegers until the sixth and seventh of September, when they broke ground both on the north and south sides of the town. By this time their opera- tions were greatly assisted by the English fleet under Sir Edward Vernon, who had sailed from Madras, at the end of July, to block up Pondicherry. As soon as he arrived on his station he perceived a French fleet, under M. de Tronjolly, consisting of one ship of sixty-four, one of thirty-six, one of thirty-two guns, and two French East India ships armed. Sir Edward Vernon's fleet consisted of one sixty, one twenty-eight, one twenty gun-ship, a sloop, and an East India-man. An engagement ensued, and with so much loss to the French, that they dared not to hazard another, but abandoned Pondicherry, which was now blocked up both by sea and land. The garrison, under M. de Bellecombe, governor and general commandant of all the French settlements in India, made a brave defence. Before the middle of October, however, the artillery of the besiegers had gained so much superiori- ty, that preparations were made for a gene- ral assault. On the day preceding, the gov- ernor, in order to save useful lives, and pre- vent bloodshed without advantage or honor, offered to capitulate. The conditions were generous, and agreeable to the conquered. About thirty pieces of artillery, serviceable and unserviceable, fell into the hands of the victors, together with all public property; the private was secured to the owners. The company's troops, which amounted to ten thousand five hundred men, lost about two hundred and twenty-four slain, and six hun- dred and ninety-three wounded ; the garri- son, amounting to three thousand, had two hundred men killed, and four hundred and eighty wounded. CAMPAIGN IN AMERICA. 1779. THE British army in America seem to have aimed at little more, during the campaign of 1779, in the states to the northward of Carolina, than distress and de- predation. Having publicly announced their resolution of making "the colonies of as lit- tle avail as possible to their new connex- ions," they planned several expeditions on this principle. One of these, consisting of both naval and land force, was committed to Sir George Collyer and general Matthews, who made a i! ^mnt on Virginia. On the tenth of May they sailed for Portsmouth, and on their ar- rival took possession of that defenceless town. The remains of Norfolk on the op- posite side of the river, fell of course into their hands. The Americans burned some of their own vessels, but others were made prizes by the invaders. The British guards marched eighteen miles in the night, and arriving at Suffolk by morning, proceeded to the destruction of vessels, naval stores, and of a large magazine of provisions, which had been deposited in that place. A similar destruction was carried on at Kemp's Land- ing, Shepherd's Gosport, Tanner's Creek, and other places in the vicinity. The frig- ates and armed vessels were employed on the same business along the margin of the rivers. Three thousand hogsheads of tobac- co were taken at Portsmouth. Every house in Suffolk was burnt except the church and one dwelling-house. The houses of several private gentlemen in the country shared the same fate. Above a hundred and thirty vayments were to be divided into nine classes, GEORGE m. 17601820. putting each class forward according to the importance or justice of the demand, or to the inability of the persons entitled to en- force their pretensions. In the first of these classes were placed the judges ; in the sec- ond, the ministers to foreign courts ; in the third, the tradesmen who supplied the crown; in the fourth, the domestic servants of the king, and all persons in efficient offices, whose salaries did not exceed two hundred pounds annually ; and the fifth class compre- hended the pensions and allowances of the royal family, comprehending of course the queen, together with the stated allowance of the privy-purse. The sixth took in those efficient officers of duty, whose salaries might exceed two hundred pounds a-year. The whole pension-list was included in the seventh ; the officers of honor about the king, in the eighth ; and the ninth included the salaries of the first lord of the treasury him- self, the chancellor of the exchequer, and other commissioners of that department. To these arrangements were added some regulations, which would for ever have pre- vented any civil-list debt from coming on the public. Burke's speech on this occasion, upwards of three hours in length, was not only heard with the greatest attention, but received the highest encomiums from both sides of the house, who could not refrain from express- ing then- admiration of the vast fund of po- litical knowledge displayed by that gentle- man with regard to every department of state. The minister, therefore, perceiving this, thought proper not to object to the plan on the first motion. He assured the house, that no man was more zealous for the estab- lishment of a permanent system of economy than himself. But that, besides the subjects of the present being so numerous and vari- ous as to require some time for comprehen- sion, some of them affected the king's pat- rimonial income; on which account he thought it necessary to obtain the consent of the crown before they proceeded upon them. For this reason he proposed to post- pone the three bills which related to the crown lands, the principality of Wales, &c. which was yielded to as a point of decorum. In three days, however, they were brought in without any objection. The surveyor- general of the dutchy of Cornwall made ob- jections to that relating to the union of this county with the crown, on account of the minority of the prince of Wales ; on which Burke, though with reluctance, withdrew his motion. The house of peers in the mean time were far from being indolent or inattentive spec- tators of the interesting scenes now passing. On the very day that the petition of the county of York was presented to the house of commons, the earl of Shelburne moved, in the house of peers, " for the appointment of a committee of members of both houses of parliament, possessing neither employ- ments nor pensions, to examine into the public expenditure and the mode of account- ing for the same." This motion was sup- ported by his lordship in a very able speech, in which he declared " that the great point to which his wishes tended, and to effect which his motion was chiefly framed, was to annihilate that undue influence operating upon both houses of parliament, which, 5* not eradicated, would prove the destruction of this country. To restore to parliament its constitutional independence, and to place government upon its true foundations, wis- dom, justice, and public virtue, was, the noble earl said, his most earnest desire, and this could not be effected without striking at the root of parliamentary corruption. Exclusive of this great and primary object, his lordship showed, that the most shameful waste of the public money had taken place in every branch of the national expenditure. To support a most ruinous and disgraceful war, a wicked, bloody, and unjust war ! the minister had borrowed year after year upon fictitious and unproductive taxes, and anti- cipated the produce of the sinking fund to answer his own views. Solely intent upon borrowing, he appeared to have lost sight of every idea of decreasing the debt. It was the uncontrolled possession of the public purse which created that corrupt and dan- gerous influence in parliament, of which such fatal use had been made ; which put into the minister's hands the means, of delu- sion, which served to fortify him in his mad career, and which left no hope or prospect of punishing him for the enormity of his crimes. Influence so employed, his lordship declared to be a curse far greater, and more to be deprecated, than pestilence or famine. The present motion, the noble earl observed, was not of a nature novel to parliament ; in for- mer tunes, particularly in the years 1702, 1703, and 1717, there had been commission- ers of accounts appointed by act of par- liament. The object of the proposition now before the house was of a nature exactly similar, and it went to the abolition of all offices, whatever their salaries or appoint- ments, that answered no other end but that of increasing the undue and unconstitutional influence of the crown." In support of the motion, the duke of Grafton declared, "that from his own knowledge and immediate observation, he could assert with confidence that the spirit of discontent and dissatisfac- tion was almost universally gone forth, and that the petitions recently presented ex- pressed the genuine sense of the people. The lords Stormont, Mansfield, and the lord- 250 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. chancellor, maintained, " that the present motion was a violation of the inherent ex- clusive privilege of the other house to con- trol the public expenditure, which no com- position, compromise, or compact, would induce them to part with. They insisted that the motion was brought forward to em- barrass government, and to throw an odium upon his majesty's confidential advisers ; and that the petitions with which the motion was connected were filled with absurd and impracticable notions of public reform, and specious theories calculated to mislead the nation, and to introduce universal confusion." The marquis of Rockingham distinguished himself in the debate by an animated speech in defence of the motion. His lordship said, " that a system had been formed at the ac- cession of his present majesty to govern this country under the forms of law, but in re- ality through the immediate influence of the crown. This was the origin of all our na- tional misfortunes; the measures of the present reign wore every internal and ex- ternal evidence of that dangerous and alarm- ing' origin ; and, when combined, they pre- sented such a system of corruption, venality, and despotism, as had never perhaps been known under any form of free and limited government This system he had for sev- enteen years uniformly and vigorously op- posed, and particularly during the short time he had presided at the head of the treasury, .but to very little purpose. As he had come into office at his majesty's desire, so he had quitted it in obedience to his authority. His lordship implored the ministry not to persist in that blind and hitherto invincible spirit of obstinacy, which had brought the nation into its present calamitous situation, but to pay some attention to the voice of the people and the interests of their country." On the division the numbers were, non-contents one hundred and one, contents fifty-five, five-and-thirty of whom entered their pro- test on the journals. This was the largest minority that had for many years been known in the house of peers in opposition to the court; and, exclusive of placemen, pensioners, and bishops, this expiring faction constituted a clear and decisive majority of the lords present at this interesting dis- cussion. Burke's economical bill, having been read a first time, was proposed for a second read- ing. But the minister, instead of using any arguments against H, charged the minority with precipitating a measure not sufficiently considered ; until at last being called upon to declare, whether he would oppose it on the second reading, or let it go to a commit- tee, he declared, after much apparent irreso- lution, that he did not mean to oppose it The bill being then read a second time with- out opposition, another debate ensued on its commitment Burke insisted on its being committed the ensuing day, and the minister that it should be delayed for some time. Af- ter some altercation, however, the question was carried in favor of the minister, by two liundred and thirty to one hundred and nine- ty-five. One clause of the bill was for the aboli- tion of the board of trade. On this subject the opponents of ministry endeavored to prove, that the board in question was totally inefficient and useless ; or, if at any time it was active, it became either mischievous or ridiculous ; but of late it had dwindled into a mere sinecure office, which answered no other purpose, than that of providing eight members for parliament, and securing their votes to the minister by a pension of a thou- sand a-year each. On this occasion it was shown, that when the business of trade and plantations had been managed by a com- mittee of council without salaries, it had been attended by persons of greater rank, weight, and ability, and that much more dif- ficult and delicate business was transacted with more expedition and satisfaction than after the appointment of the board of trade. The question was called after two in the morning, when the abolition of the board was carried against ministry by a majority of eight ; the numbers being two hundred and seven against one hundred and ninety- nine. Some members in opposition had en- deavored to persuade the lords of trade to withdraw before the division, on the footing of decency ; but the question was too inter- esting for them to make any sacrifice to deli- cacy and punctilio on such an occasion. During the debates on this subject it was first discovered, that the minister and Sir Fletcher Norton, the speaker of the house of commons, were on bad terms. Fox hav- ing called up the latter to give his private opinion as a member, and his professional one as a lawyer, on the competency of par- liament to control the civil-list revenue, the speaker, after stating several other reasons against complying with Fox's request, de- clared also, that he had formerly given an opinion with regard to a law question in that house (supposed to allude to a clause in the royal marriage bill), which not only subject- ed him to a misinterpretation of his conduct ; but he had also the misfortune to find, that he had thereby given offence in a quarter where he certainly did not intend or wish to give any. He then took notice, that the minister had long withdrawn from him all friendship and confidence : that from the time of his reporting the sense of that house at the bar of the other, on delivering the money-bills for the discharge of the civil-list debts, and the increase of its revenue, all GEORGE IE. 17601820. 251 appearances of friendship and confidence had ceased on the part of the ministry; though he was still at a loss to guess what just cause of offence he had given. After apologizing for his conduct on that occasion, and giving some hints of a recent injury he had received, he declared, that he was not a friend to the minister, and he had repeated and convincing proofs that the minister was no friend to him. The time, however, was not yet arrived when it would be proper to make the circumstances of the transaction public : but, if the noble lord did not do him justice, he would state the particulars to the house ; and he would submit to them, how far he was bound to remain in a situa- tion, where a performance of, the duties an- nexed to it subjected him to gross and fla- grant injury. The minister expressed the greatest sur- prise at this charge, as well as ignorance concerning any thing that could possibly have given occasion to it; which at length in- duced Sir Fletcher to depart from his pro- posed intention of keeping secret the injury he had received, and to lay it before the house. It was stated by Sir Fletcher, thai upon the death of the late speaker, he hac been strongly solicited by the minister al that time (the duke of Grafton) to accept of the honorable station of speaker of the house of commons. As he had then several very strong objections to his acceptance of the place in question ; particularly, that his busi- ness as a lawyer would thereby be interrupt- ed ; the minister endeavored to remove that objection, by promising, that in consequence of the advantages he had given up, he should be entitled to hold the sinecure place of chief justice in eyre, which he now possess- ed. But notwithstanding this, he had lately discovered, to his great surprise, that a ne- gotiation was then on foot between the pres- ent minister, and the chief judge of one of the courts, by which the latter was to retire on a pension, for the purpose of enabling an- other to supply his place, and to the utter subversion of his own claim. He assured the committee, that he never meant to chal- lenge their attention upon any subject mere- ly personal to himself: but thinking at all times, that nothing ought to be kept more pure and unpolluted than the fountains of public justice, he could not but feel when any measure was adopted, under whatever pretext, that might afford even a color of their being corrupted, or that any improper means were used for rendering the courts of justice subservient to party and to fac- tious views ; on which account, he thought it incumbent upon him to relate the whole transaction. Money, he said, iiad been pro- posed to be given and received to a very large amount, to bring about the arrange- ment he had mentioned; and he pledged [limself to the house, that at a proper time be would bring a satisfactory proof of what he had asserted. To all this the minister replied, that he did not look upon himself to be responsible for any promise which might have been made by his predecessors in office. He did not question the account given by the right honorable gentleman, of the considerations on which he had accepted the chair ; but he could fairly answer, that he neither knew of the transactions at the time, nor looked upon himself as bound, when he did come into office, by any such promise. With re- spect to the speaker's assertion, that a nego- tiation, such as he had described, was on foot, and that money had been proposed to be given and received, he totally denied it ; assuring the speaker, that he had been grossly misinformed ; and, as he himself was accused of being one of the acting par- ties, he was entitled to say, that no such ne- gotiation was on foot. This produced such a scene of altercation between these two illustrious antagonists as had never before been exhibited in the Brit- ish parliament ; but- though the affair made a noise at the time, it produced no farther effect, than that of furnishing opposition with a new argument, namely, that the alarming influence of the crown had not only per- vaded, but deranged every part of the na- tional economy. The twentieth of March, Burke's clause, for the abolition of the offices of treasurer of the chamber, treasurer of the household, cofferer, and a number of subordinate places belonging to them, was introduced to the committee. This was regarded by many of the friends of administration with the great- est horror, as a kind of sacrilege with re- gard to the person and dignity of the sove- reign. This, they said, was not a regulation of office ; it was an intrusion into the king's own household. The state had nothing to do with the domestic servants of the king. The bill they considered from the beginning as a systematic attack on the constitution, and the pernicious tendency of it appeared every day more and more. The question with them was not the utility of the em- ployments, but the power of taking them away. If this could be done by parliament, the king had nothing that he could call his own. Burke himself insisted very much upon the present clause of the bill; and said, that if this was carried against him, he would consider the whole as lost. The office of treasurer of the chamber was the first office he had fixed upon ; it led the way, and in- volved all the rest He concluded, by de- claring, that he would not continue to tor- 252 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ture his weak and disordered constitution by lighting his bill through, inch by inch, but would leave it to the people at large to go on with it as they thought proper ; and they would judge by the event, how far their pe- titions were likely to procure redress for the grievances they complained o In this manner the debates were carried on till very late, when the question was lost by two hundred and ten to a hundred and fifty-eight Burke then declared his total indifference as to what became of the rest of the bill ; but Fox encouraged him to go on. The mere abolition of the board of trade, even if nothing more was done, he said, was worth the struggle ; for as he was determined, and hoped his honorable friend would join him, in renewing his bill from session to session, they would have seven fewer of the enemy to encounter the next time. The succeeding parts were accord- ingly gone through, and each of them nega- tived without a division. CELEBRATED VOTE ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE CROWN ON the sixth of April, administration met with a severe defeat; a more remarkable resolution having been adopted than any that had been passed in the British parlia- ment since the revolution. The day had been previously appointed for taking into consideration the petitions of the people of England, amounting to forty in number, and filled with such immense numbers of sub- scriptions as occupied a most astonishing bulk. The business was introduced by Dunning; who, with his usual eloquence and ability, observed, that though the peti- tions conveyed many different ideas, they all agreed in one fundamental principle, which was, the setting limits to the danger- ous, increased, and unconstitutional influ- ence of the crown ; and a request of an economical method of spending the public money. Though these appeared to be two different subjects, they were, he said, very strictly connected. If the public money was faithfully applied, and frugally expended, it would, in its effect, reduce the undue influ- ence of the crown ; and if, on the other hand, that influence should be reduced with- in its due bounds, it would immediately re- store the energy of parliament, and once more give efficacy to the exercise of that great power of seeing to the disposal, and controlling the expenditure of the public money, with which the constitution had in- vested the house. Having stated, at great length, the little regard which had been paid to the petitions of so many counties, he con- cluded, that as every means had failed of producing the desired effect, he thought it his duty, and it was the duty of the house, to take some determinate measure, by which the people might certainly know what they had to trust to, and whether their petitions were adopted or rejected ; and, in order to bring matters fairly to a decision, he said, that he should now frame two propositions, abstracted from the petitions on the table, and take the sense of the committee upon them. The first of these propositions was, that " the influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished." The fact, he said, was notorious. But as a collateral evidence, he observed, that nothing less than the most alarming and corrupt in- fluence could induce a number of gentle- men in that house to support the minister by their votes in those measures which they reprobated without-doors as absurd and ru- inous. This he declared upon his honor to be the case, and within his own immediate knowledge ; and he added, that he himself had never bestowed upon the measures of administration such severe epithets as had fallen in his presence from the mouths of members abroad, who had nevertheless sup- ported them within the walls of the house. Nor was the number small who behaved in this manner, as he had it in his power, were not the task too invidious, to point out more than fifty members who held such strange language and conduct On this trying occasion, the ministry de- fended themselves by calling Dunning's reso- lution an abstract proposition, which ought not to come before the house. In other re- spects it was entirely useless, being neither calculated to avert any evil, nor to point out any remedy ; it was unsupported by facts ; and as for the allegations of Dunning, they could answer for themselves, that they were totaHy without foundation. The very unfor- tunate circumstances of the times, when the people were universally discontented by the consequences of a ruinous war, and their own heavy burdens, showed that the influ- ence of the crown could not be increasing. It was, besides, very unfair to represent mal- ters in such a light as if the influence of the crown had only taken place during the pres- ent administration. This was a censure of such a severe nature, that the most substan- tial and solid proofs were evidently required before it could be adopted ; whereas, there was not a single word of evidence tending in any manner of way to show, that the present administration was, in the least, dif- ferent from those which had gone before it The speaker (Sir Fletcher Norton) now joined his influence to that of opposition. He said, that however disagreeable it might be to hun to take any part in the debates of the house, there were some cases, and he considered the present as one of them, in which it would be criminal to remain silent GEORGE IIL 17601820. 253 He affirmed, from his own knowledge, that the influence of the crown was increasing ; but, at the same time, he asserted, that the allegation could admit of no proofs ; it could only be known by the members of the house, who were to decide upon it as jurors, from the internal conviction arising in their minds. After appealing to the feelings of the gen- tlemen who heard him, and pointing out how idle it was to prescribe limits to the prerog- atives of the crown, while they permitted a more dangerous, because concealed, influ- ence to remain, he observed, that the gov- ernment of Britain, under its true and proper definition of " a monarchy limited by law," required no other assistance for the exercise of its functions, than what it derived from the constitution and the kws. The powers vested in the executive part of government, and, in his opinion, wisely placed there, were abundantly sufficient for every useful pur- pose of government, and without any further assistance were too ample for the purposes of bad government ; and he thought him- self bound, as an honest man, to declare, that the influence of the crown had increas- ed far beyond the bounds of a monarchy strictly limited in its nature and extent. He likewise observed, that it was no doubt very galling to the house, to be informed of their duty by the petitioners ; but they ought to recollect, that it was entirely their own fault. What the petitioners now demanded, ought to have originated within the walls of the house ; and then, what would now bear the appearance of too much compul- sion, would have been received with grati- tude. But, at all events, they ought to con- sider that they were then sitting as the representatives of the people, and solely for their advantage and benefit, and that they in duty stood pledged to that people, as their creators, for the faithful discharge of then- trust The authority of the speaker had such an effect, that the ministerial party soon found the question going against them. The lord advocate of Scotland, in order to prevent it from being lost, proposed such an amend- ment as he supposed would be rejected by opposition, and consequently that the whole would fall to the ground. The amendment consisted in inserting the words, " That it is now necessary to declare ;" but in this he was mistaken : the amendment was readily and unexpectedly agreed to by the opposite party ; and on a division the numbers were in favor of the motion two hundred and thirty-three, against it two hundred and fif- teen ; so that the court was left in a minori- ty of eighteen. Dunning then moved, " that it was competent to that house to examine into and correct abuses hi the expenditure of the civil-list, as well as in every other 3ranch of the public revenue, whenever it shall seem expedient to the house to do so." This was opposed by lord North, who, in the strongest terms, expressed his wishes that the committee would not proceed. The motion was nevertheless agreed to by the house. Mr. Thomas Pitt then moved, " that it was the duty of that house to provide, as far as might be, an immediate and effectual redress of the abuses complained of in the petitions presented to the house from the different counties, cities, and towns in this kingdom." The minister once more earnest- ly implored the committee to desist, but with no effect; the motion was agreed to. It was lastly moved by Fox, " that the resolutions should be immediately reported to the house ;" which was deprecated and protested against by lord North, as violent, arbitrary, and con- trary to the established usage of parlia- ment The motion, however, was carried, and the chairman reporting the resolutions accordingly, they were severally agreed to by the house. On the tenth of April, the committee be- ing resumed, Dunning " congratulated the house upon the late decisions, which he however said, could avail little unless the house proceeded effectually to remedy the grievances complained of by the people. The alarming and increasing influence of the crown being now admitted by a solemn decision of that house, it was incumbent upon them to go from generals to particu- lars, that With a view therefore of extirpating corrupt influence, he should move, VOL. IV. 22 " that there be laid before the house every session, within seven days after the meeting of parliament, an account of all moneys paid out of the civil revenue, to or for the use of, or in trust for, any member of parlia- ment since the last recess." This was ob- jected to by lord North, the lord-advocate of Scotland, the attorney-general Wedder- burne, &c. but was carried without a divis- ion. Dunning tJien moved, " that the per- sons holding the offices of treasurer of the chamber, treasurer of the household, cofferer of the household, comptroller of the house- hold, master of the household, clerks of the green cloth, and then- deputies, should be rendered incapable of a seat in that house." This was again opposed, and by the same persons as before ; but on a division was car- ried by a majority of two hundred and fif- teen to two hundred and thirteen voices. So far the patriotic party in parliament had triumphantly proceeded, to the infinite joy of, the disinterested and independent part of the public, when the sudden illness of the speaker obliged the house to adjourn to the twenty-fourth of April ; on which day, the committee being resumed, Dunning moved for an address, " that his majesty would be 254 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. pleased not to dissolve the parliament or prorogue the present session until the ob- jects of the petitions were answered." When the house, after a vehement debate, came to a division on this important ques- tion, it was at once discovered that the un- fortunate illness of the speaker had infected "the very life-blood of their enterprise;" the motion being rejected by a majority of two hundred and fifty-four to two hundred and three. On the question being carried, Fox rose to speak, but the ministerial party, dreading his eloquence, especially after such provoca- tion, resolved that he should not be heard. A most extraordinary scene of confusion and disorder ensued ; and the chair being repeatedly called upon to exercise its authori- ty, the speaker at length, with the utmost vehemence of voice, called upon every side of the house to order ; and having caused the bar to be cleared by the proper officers, required and insisted that every member should take his place. The way being thus cleared for Fox, the deserters were condemn- ed to hear their conduct represented in such a manner as perhaps was never done on any occasion in that house before, the severity of which was aggravated by the consciousness that the treatment they received was not unmerited. Fox was seconded in his censure by Dun- ning, and a direct charge of treachery against the nation was brought by both. The counties, they said, depending on the faith of parliament for the redress held out by those resolutions, had relaxed greatly in the measures they had formerly pursued for obtaining it by other means ; and the coun- ty of Cambridge in particular had, upon that dependence, rescinded its own resolu- tion of appointing a committee of associa- tion. They both likewise declared, that the division of this night was totally deci- sive with regard to the petitions; that it amounted to a full and general rejection of their prayer ; and that all hope of obtain- ing any redress for the people in that house was at an end. The minister replied in his usual strain of address ; and the house be- ing now disposed to assent to whatever he said, the aflair of reformation was totally abandoned, and the remainder of Burke's es- tablishment bill was rejected as fast as it was proposed. The triumph of the ministry was soon completed, and every attempt at reformation was rendered for ever fruitless in this coun try by the proceedings of an intolerant and lawless mob. The offence which the repea of the penal laws against Papists gave to the people of Scotland, and the violent pro- ceedings of the intemperate zealots in tha part of the kingdom, have been already no- iced. The prejudice was gradually extend- ed to England, and much pains were taken iy inflammatory harangues and pamphlets to >rejudice the minds of the people against he late wise and salutary relaxation of the >enal code. It was at length determined to >repare a petition for a repeal of the law in question, which is affirmed to have obtained one hundred and twenty thousand signatures, or marks, of men of the lowest orders of society, whose excess of zeal could be equal- ed only by the grossness of their ignorance; a combination of qualities at once ridiculous and terrible. Lord George Gordon, the presi- dent of the Protestant associations both in Sngland and Scotland, who was also a mem- >er of the house of commons, declined to present this petition, unless he were accom- panied to the house by at least twenty thou- sand men. RIOTS IN LONDON. A PUBLIC meeting of the association was, in consequence, convened in St. George's Fields, June second, 1780, whence it was supposed that not less than fifty thousand persons proceeded in regular divisions, with lord George Gordon at their head, to the house of commons, where their petition was presented by their president. Towards even- ing this multitude began to grow very tu- multuous, and grossly insulted various mem- bers of both nouses, compelling them in passing to and from the house to cry, " No Popery!" and to wear blue cockades. During the debates on the petition, lord George Gor- don frequently addressed the mob without, in terms calculated to inflame their passions, and expressly stating to them, " that the people of Scotland had no redress till they pulled down the Popish chapels." After the adjournment of the house, the mob, on this suggestion, immediately proceeded to the demolition of the chapels of the Sardinian and Bavarian ambassadors. The military being ordered out could not prevent the mis- chief, but apprehended various of the ring- leaders. The next day, Saturday, passed quietly ; but on Sunday the rioters reassembled in vast numbers, and destroyed the chapels and pri- vate dwellings belonging to the principal Catholics in the vicinity of Moorfields. On Monday they extended their devasta- tions to other parts of the town ; and Sir George Saville's house, in Leicester Fields, was totally demolished by these blind and barbarous bigots that distinguished senator and patriot having had the honor to be the first mover of the bill. On Tuesday, the day appointed for taking the petition into consideration, the mob again surrounded the parliament-house, and re- newed their outrages and insults. The house, after passing some resolutions adapted to the GEORGE HI. 17601620. 255 occasion, and expressive of their just indig- nation, immediately adjourned. In the even- ing the populace, now grown more daring than ever, attacked the prison of Newgate, where their comrades were confined, with astonishing resolution; and, setting the building in flames, liberated more than three hundred felons and debtors resident within its walls. Encouraged by the impunity with which they had hitherto acted, they then proceeded to lord Mansfield's house in Bloomsbury Square, which they totally de- molished, his lordship escaping not without difficulty. The prisons of Clerkenwell were also forced, many private houses plundered or destroyed, and scarcely did the night afford any cessation of the riots. On Wednesday, the King's Bench prison, the Fleet, and the house of Langdale, a dis- tiller in Holborn, were marked for destruc- tion ; and as the evening approached, a scene presented itself, the outlines of which may be described, but the human imagination is incapable of conveying those sensations of horror which filled the breasts of those who saw it. At the same instant the King's Bench and Fleet prisons, New Bridewell, the toll-gates on Blackfriars bridge, the large houses at the bottom of Holborn, and various houses in other parts of the town, to the number of thirty-six, were seen in flames. Some wretches were burned at the houses of distillers ; the spirits were brought out in pail-fuls, and not only common but non-rectified spirits were drunk with avidity. At one time a piece of ruins fell on the heads of these devoted miscreants; at another they were discovered nodding over the fire, and so desperately insensible of their situa- tion, and incapable to move, through intoxi- cation, that many of them were seen to drop into eternity, in a manner too shocking for description. The same day attempts were made on the Bank, and the Pay-Office ; but these places being strongly guarded, they failed, and many of the rioters embraced an untimely and unprepared death at the hand of the military, rather than abandon their destructive pursuits. This night was the most dreadful of any ; the numbers of the killed cannot be ascertained ; but as far as report enables us to estimate them, they stand thus ; one hundred and nine killed by asso- ciation troops and guards, one hundred and one by light-horse, and seventy-five died in the hospitals. Those who were present speak of these scenes as exceeding anything recorded in our annals. Before noon on Thursday, the regulars and militia from the country had put a stop to any further devas- tations. In the mean time about two hundred members of the house of commons had the courage to assemble in that place, under the protection of the military. Some resolu- tions were passed ; one was, an assertion of their own privileges ; the second, for a com- mittee of inquiry into the late and present outrages, and for the discovery of their pro- moters and abettors ; a third for a prosecu- tion by the attorney-general ; and the fourth for an address to his majesty for the reim- bursement of the foreign ministers to the amount of the damages they had sustained by the rioters. But the news of the confla- gration begun in the city arriving, occasion- ed their hasty adjournment On Thursday the eighth of June, lord George Gordon was taken into custody, and conveyed to the horse-guards, where he underwent an ex- amination before the lord president, lord North, lord Amherst, the secretaries of state, and several lords of the privy-council, and in the evening was committed a close pris- oner to the Tower. He was attended thither by a greater force than ever was known on any similar occasion. Lord George Gordon was in the following year brought to trial for high treason, and acquitted of all the charges ; nor among all those who were ap- prehended, brought to trial, and hanged, were there any proved to belong to that company who assembled in St. George's Fields. Thus ended this disgraceful affair. Though the ministry, however artfully, endeavored to throw the whole of the riots on the in- tolerant spirit of the Protestant association, yet it is certain that their own unpopularity greatly served to increase that spirit of dis- content in the people, which, on the slightest occasion, was ready to break out into vio- lence. The American war, and the misery it occasioned, was what gave spirit and vigor to the proceedings of the Protestant associa- tion, and popularity to the mobs which as- sembled. The actual mischief, however, was done by the felons who were rescued from the prisons, joined by a set of miscre- ants, who are ever ready to take the oppor- tunity of any popular commotion to plunder and rob their fellow-citizens. It was determined in a committee of the whole house of commons, that no repeal should take place of the act in favor of the Roman Catholics, as the grievances said to arise from it were imaginary ; they came to resolutions in order to set the conduct of parliament in a fair light, and to undeceive the ill-informed but well-meaning part of the petitioners. On Saturday, July the eighth, his majesty closed this tedious ses- sion with a speech, in which he expreawd his satisfaction at the magnanimity and per- severance of his faithful commons. In the course of the summer a special commission was issued for the trial of the rioters, of whom a very great number, con- 256 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. sisting of men very opposite in description and character, were apprehended. Lord chief justice De Grey, whose mild and be- nignant disposition, as well as his infirm health, was ill suited to this painful task, willingly resigning his office ; the attorney- general Wedderburne was advanced to the chief justiceship, under the title of lord Loughborough. The multiplicity combined with the precipitate and indiscriminate se- verity of the sentences passed in his judicial capacity by this magistrate upon the rioters, far exceeded anything known in this country since the days of Judge Jefferies : such in- deed as left the memory of these transac- tions impressed upon the public mind in in- delible characters of blood. On the first of September, a proclamation was issued for the dissolution of the parlia- ment, and for calling a new one. SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR. WHILE intestine violence and riot shook the capital, our fleets abroad met with suc- cess, which served to console the unthink- ing^ populace for past misfortunes. The close investment of Gibraltar imme- diately succeeded the Spanish declaration of war. It was about the middle of August 1779, when the enemy's troops first began to break ground before that fortress. Though the Spanish batteries were not sufficiently in forwardness to annoy the garrison to any extent, they suffered much from a dreadful scarcity. Thistles, dandelion, &c. were the daily food of multitudes. The squadron, therefore, which had been fitted out, in the latter end of 1779, for the defence of the West Indies, under the command of admiral Sir George Rodney, was ordered, in its way, to touch at Gibraltar, to relieve it from the blockade, and to convoy thither a considera- ble fleet of transports with necessaries for the garrison. He had been but a few days at sea, when a fortunate chance threw in his way a convoy bound from St. Sebastian to Cadiz, consisting of fifteen sail of mer- chantmen, under the protection of a fine new sixty-four gun ship, and four frigates. The whole fleet was captured by the Eng- lish admiral, who had scarcely adjusted the distribution of his prizes, when, on the six- teenth of January, off Cape St Vincent, he came in sight of a Spanish squadron of eleven ships of the line, commanded by Don Juan J.insrra. After a most gallant defence by the Spaniards, their admiral's ship of eighty guns and three others of seventy, fell into the hands of the English, and were carried to Gibraltar. After having relieved that for- tress, the English admiral sailed about the middle of Feoruary with a part of the fleet to the West Indies, leaving the Spanish prizes, with a squadron, under the care of rear-admiral Digby, who in his way home captured a French man-of-war of sixty-four guns. AMERICAN AFFAIRS. THE successful defence of Savannah, to- gether with the subsequent departure of count D'Estaing from the coast of the United States, soon dissipated all apprehension.- previously entertained for the safety of New- York. These circumstances pointed out to Sir Henry Clinton the propriety of renewing offensive operations. Having effected no- thing of importance for the two preceding campaigns, he turned his attention south- ward, and regaled himself with flattering prospects of easy conquest among the weaker states. The suitableness of the climate for winter operations, the richness of the coun- try, and its distance from support, designated South Carolina as a proper object of enter- prise. No sooner, therefore, was the depar- ture of the French fleet known and confirm- ed, than Sir Henry Clinton committed the command of the royal army in New- York to lieutenant-general Kniphausen, and embark- ed for the southward, with four flank bat- talions, twelve regiments, and a corps of British, Hessian, and provincials, a powerfur detachment of artillery, two hundred and fifty cavalry, together with an ample supply of military stores and provisions. Vice-ad- miral Arbuthnot, with a suitable naval force, undertook to convoy the troops to the place of their destination. On the twenty-sixth of December 1779, the whole sailed from New- York. After a tedious and dangerous pas- sage, in which part of their ordnance, most of then- artillery, and all their cavalry horses were lost, the fleet, on the twenty-first of January 1780, arrived at Tybee in Georgia. In a few days the transports, with the army on board, sailed from Savannah for North Edisto, and after a short passage, the troops made good their landing about thirty miles from Charlestown, and on the eleventh of February took possession of John's Island and Stono Ferry, and soon after of James Island and Wappoo Cut. A bridge was thrown over the canal, and part of the royal army took post on the banks of Ashley River, opposite to Charlestown. The assembly of the state was sitting when the British landed, but broke up after " delegating to governor Rutledge, and such of his council as he could conveniently con- sult, a power to do everything necessary for the public good, except the taking away the life of a citizen without a legal trial." The governor immediately ordered the militia to rendezvous. Though the necessity was great, few obeyed the pressing call. A proclama- tion was issued by the governor, under his extraordinary powers, requiring such of the militia as were regularly drafted, and all the inhabitants and owners of property in GEORGE IE. 17601820. 257 the town, to repair to the American standard and join the garrison immediately, under pain of confiscation. This severe though necessary measure produced very little ef- fect ; so much was the country dispirited by the late repulse at Savannah. CHARLESTOWN TAKEN. THE tedious passage from New-York to Tybee gave the Americans time to fortify Charlestown. This, together with the losses which the royal army had sustained in the late tempestuous weather, induced Sir Henry Clinton to dispatch an order to New- York for reinforcements of men and stores. He also directed major-general Prevost to send on to him twelve hundred men from the gar- rison of Savannah. Brigadier-general Pat- terson, at the head of this detachment, made his way good over the river Savannah, and through the intermediate country, and soon after joined Sir Henry Clinton near the banks of Ashley River. The royal forces without delay proceeded to the siege. At Wappoo on James Island, they formed a depot, and erected fortifications both on that island and on the main, opposite to the south- ern and western extremities of Charlestown. An advanced party crossed Ashley River, and soon after broke ground at the distance of eleven hundred yards from the American works. At successive periods, they erected five batteries on Charlestown Neck. The garrison was equally assiduous in preparing for its defence. The works which had been previously thrown up were strengthened and extended. Lines and redoubts were continued across from Cooper to Ashley River. In front of the whole was a strong abatis, and a wet ditch made by passing a canal from the heads of swamps which run in opposite directions. Between the abatis and the lines, deep holes were dug at short intervals. The lines were made particularly strong on the right and left, and so con- structed as to rake the wet ditch in almost its whole extent To secure the centre, a horn-work had been erected, which being closed during the siege formed a kind of citadel. Works were also thrown up on all sides of the town, where a landing was prac- ticable. Though the lines were no more than field works, yet Sir Henry Clinton treated them with the respectful homage of three parallels. From the third to the tenth of April, the first parallel was completed, and immediately after the town was sum- moned to surrender. On the twelfth, the batteries were opened, and from that day an almost incessant fire was kept up. About the time the batteries were opened, a work was thrown up near Wando River, nine miles from town, and another at Lempriere's Point, to preserve the communication with the country by water. A post was also or- 22* dered over the Santee, to favor the coming in of reinforcements, or the retreat of the garrison when necessary. On the twenty- first of March, the British marine force, con- sisting of one ship of fifty guns, two of forty- four guns, four of thirty-two, and the Sand- wich armed ship, crossed the bar in front of Rebellion Road, and anchored in Five Fath- om Hole. The American force opposed to this was the Bricole, which, though pierced for forty-four guns, did not mount half of that number, two of thirty-two guns, one of twenty-eight, two of twenty-six, two of twenty, and the brig Notre Dame of sixteen guns. The first object of its commander, commodore Whipple, was to prevent admiral Arbuthnot from crossing the bar, but on far- ther examination this was found to be im- practicable. He therefore fell back to Fort Moultrie, and afterwards to Charlestown. The crew and guns of all his vessels, except one, were put on shore to reinforce the bat- teries. On the ninth of April, admiral Arbuthnot weighed anchor at Five Fathom Hole, and with the advantage of a strong southerly wind, and flowing tide, passed Fort Moultrie without stopping to engage it, and anchored near the remains of Fort Johnson. Colonel Pinckney, who commanded on Sullivan's Island, kept up a brisk and well-directed fire on the ships in their passage, which did as great execution as could be expected. To prevent the royal armed vessels from run- ning into Cooper River, eleven vessels were sunk in the channel opposite to the Exchange. The batteries of the besiegers soon obtained a superiority over those of the town. All expectation of succor was at an end : the only hope left was that nine thousand men, the flower of the British army, seconded by a naval force, might fail in storming exten- sive lines defended by less than three thou- sand men. Under these circumstances, the siege was protracted till the eleventh. On that day a great number of the citizens ad- dressed general Lincoln in a petition, ex- pressing their acquiescence in the terms which Sir Henry Clinton had offered, and requesting his acceptance of them. On the reception of this petition, general Lincoln wrote to Sir Henry, and offered to accept the terms before proposed. The royal com- manders, wishing to avoid the extremity of a storm, and unwilling to press to uncondi- tional submission an enemy whose friend- ship they wished to conciliate, returned a favorable answer. A capitulation was signed, and major-general Leslie took possession of the town on the next day. The number which surrendered prisoners of war, inclusive of the militia and every adult male inhabitant, was above five thou- sand ; but the proper garrison at the time of 258 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the surrender did not exceed two thousand five hundred. This was the first instance in which the Americans had attempted to defend a town. The unsuccessful event, with its conse- quences, demonstrated the policy of sacrific- ing the towns of the union, in preference to endangering the whole, by risking too much for their defence. Shortly after the surrender, the command- er-in-chief adopted measures to induce the inhabitants to return to their allegiance. It was stated to them in a hand-bill, which, though without a name, seemed to flow from authority, " That the helping hand of every man was wanting to re-establish peace and good government: that the commander-in- chief wished not to draw them into danger, while any doubt could remain of his success ; but as that was now certain, he trusted that one and all would heartily join, and give effect to necessary measures for that pur- pose." Those who had families were in- formed, " that they would be permitted to remain at home, and form a militia for the maintenance of peace and good order ; but from those who had no families it was ex- pected that they would cheerfully assist in driving their oppressors, and all the miseries of war, from their borders." To such it was promised, " that when on service, they would be allowed pay, ammunition, and provisions, in the same manner as the king's troops." About the same time [May 22,] Sir Henry Clinton, in a proclamation, declared, " That if any person should thenceforward appear in arms in order to prevent the establishment of his majesty's government in that country, or should, under any pretence or authority whatever, attempt to compel any other per- son or persons so to do, or who should hinder the king's faithful subjects from joining his forces, or from performing those duties their allegiance required, such persons should be treated with the utmost severity, and their estates be immediately seized for confisca- tion." In a few days after [June 1,] Sir Henry Clinton and admiral Arbuthnot, in the character of commissioners for restoring peace, offered to the inhabitants, with some exceptions, " pardon for their past treasona- ble offences, and a reinstatement in the pos- session of all those rights and immunities which they heretofore had enjoyed under a free British government, exempt from taxa- tion, except by their own legislatures." The capital having surrendered, the next object with the British was to secure the general submission of the whole body of the people. IMPOLITIC PROCEEDINGS IN NORTH CAROLINA. To this end, they posted garrisons in dif- ferent parts of the country to awe the in- mbitants. They also marched with upwards of two thousand men towards North Caro- u This caused an immediate retreat of some parties of Americans, who had advanc- ed into the northern extremity of South ""arolina, with the expectation of relieving harlestown. One of these, consisting of about three hundred continentals command- ed by colonel Buford, was overtaken at Wa- chaws by lieutenant-colonel Tarleton, and completely defeated. Five out of six of the whole were either killed, or so badly wound- id, as to be incapable of being moved from the field of battle ; and this took place though they made such ineffectual opposi- tion as only to kill twelve and wound five of the British. This great disproportion of the killed, on the two sides, arose from the circumstance that Tarleton's party refused quarter to the Americans after they had ceased to resist and laid down their arms. Sir Henry Clinton having left about four thousand men for the southern service, em- barked early in June with the main army for New- York. On his departure the com- mand devolved on lieutenant-general earl Cornwallis. The season of the year, the condition of the army, and the unsettled state of South Carolina, impeded the imme- diate invasion of North Carolina. Earl Corn- wallis dispatched instructions to the princi- pal loyalists in that state to attend to the harvest, prepare provisions, and remain quiet till the latter end of August or beginning of September. His lordship committed the care of the frontier to lord Rawdon, and repair- ing to Charlestown, devoted his principal at- tention to the commercial and civil regula- tions of South Carolina. In the mean time, the impossibility of fleeing with their fami- lies and effects, and the want of an army to which the militia of the states might repair, induced the people in the country to aban- don all schemes of farther resistance. At Beaufort, Camden, and Ninety-six, they gen- erally laid down their arms, and submitted either as prisoners or as subjects. Except- ing the extremities of the state bordering on North Carolina, the inhabitants who did not flee out of the country preferred submission to resistance. This was followed by an un- usual calm, and the British believed that the state was thoroughly conquered. An oppor- tunity was now given to make an experi- ment from which much was expected, and for the omission of which, Sir Henry Clin- ton's predecessor, Sir William Howe, had been severely censured. It had been con- fidently asserted, that a majority of the Americans were well-affected to the British government, and that, under proper regula- tions, substantial service might be expected from them, in restoring the country to peace. At this crisis every bias in favor of congress GEORGE HI. 17601820. 259 was removed. Their armies in the southern states were either captured or defeated. There was no regular force to the south- ward of Pennsylvania, which was sufficient to awe the friends of royal government. Every encouragement was held forth to those of the inhabitants who would with arms support the old constitution. Confisca- tion and death were threatened as the con- sequence of opposing its re-establishment. While there was no regular army within four hundred miles to aid the friends of in- dependence, the British were in force post- ed over all the country. The people were thus left to themselves, or rather strongly impelled to abandon an apparently sinking cause, and arrange themselves on the side of the conquerors. Under these favorable circumstances, the experiment was made, for supporting the British interest by the ex- ertion of loyal inhabitants, unawed by Amer- ican armies or republican demagogues. It soon appeared that the disguise which fear had imposed, subsisted no longer than the present danger, and that the minds of the people, though overawed, were actuated by a hostile spirit. In prosecuting the scheme for obtaining a military aid from the inhab- itants, that tranquillity which previous suc- cesses had procured was disturbed, and that ascendency which arms had gained was in- terrupted. The inducement to submission with many, was a hope of obtaining a respite from the calamities of war, under the shel- ter of British protection. Such were not less astonished than confounded, on finding themselves virtually called upon to take arms in support of royal government. This was done in the following manner : After the inhabitants, by the specious promises of protection and security, had generally sub- mitted as subjects, or taken their parole as prisoners of war, a proclamation was issued by Sir Henry Clinton, which set forth, " That it was proper for all persons to take an ac- tive part in settling and securing his majes- ty's government" And in which it was de- clared, "That all the inhabitants of the province who were then prisoners on parole (those who were taken in Fort Moultrie and Charlestown, and such as were in actual confinement, excepted) should, from and af- ter the twentieth of June, be freed from their paroles, and restored to all the rights and duties belonging to citizens and inhabit- ants." And it was in the same proclamation farther declared, "that all persons under the description above mentioned, who should afterwards neglect to return to their alle- giance, and to his majesty's government, should be considered as enemies and rebels to the same, and treated accordingly." It was designed by this arbitrary change of the political condition of the inhabitants, from prisoners to citizens, to bring them into a dilemma which would force them to take an active part in settling and securing the roy- al government It involved a majority in the necessity of either fleeing out of the country, or of becoming a British militia. With this proclamation the declension of British authority commenced ; for though the inhabitants, from motives of fear or con- venience, had generally submitted, the great- est part of them retained an affection for their American brethren, and shuddered at the thought of taking arms against them. Among such it was said, " If we must fight, let it be on the side of America, our friends and countrymen." A great number consid- ering this proclamation as a discharge from their paroles, armed themselves in self-de- fence, being induced to this step by the roy- al menaces, that they who did not return to their allegiance as British subjects, must ex- pect to be treated as rebels. A party always attached to royal govern- ment, though they had conformed to the laws of the state, rejoiced in the ascenden- cy of the royal arms ; but their number was inconsiderable, in comparison with the mul- titude who were obliged by necessity, or in- duced by convenience, to accept of British protection. THE AMERICANS RALLY. WHILE the conquerors were endeavoring to strengthen the party for royal govern- ment, the Americans were not inattentive to their interests. Governor Rutledge, who, during the siege of Charlestown, had been requested by general Lincoln to go out of town, was industriously and successfully ne- gotiating with North Carolina, Virginia, and congress, to obtain a force for checking the progress of the British arms. Representa- tions to the same effect had also been made in due time by general Lincoln. Congress ordered a considerable detachment from their maLi army to be marched to the south- ward. North Carolina also ordered a large body of militia to take the field. As the British advanced to the upper country of South Carolina, a considerable number of determined whigs retreated before them, and took refuge in North Carolina. In this class was colonel Sumter, a distinguished partisan, who was well qualified for con- ducting military operations. A party of ex- iles from South Carolina made choice of him for their leader. At the head of this little band of freemen, he returned to his own state, and took the field against the victori- ous British, after the inhabitants had gene- rally abandoned all ideas of farther resist- ance. This unexpected impediment to the extension of British conquests, roused all the passions which disappointed ambition can inspire. Previous successes had natter- 260 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ed the royal commanders with hopes of dis- tinguished rank among the conquerors of America, but the renewal of hostilities ob- scured the pleasing prospect Flushed with the victories they had gained in the first of the campaign, and believing everything told them favorable to their wishes, to be true, they conceived that they had little to fear on the south side of Virginia. When expe- rience refuted these hopes, they were trans- ported with indignation against the inhabit- ants, and confined several of them on suspi- cion of their being accessory to the recom- mencement of hostilities. The first effort of renewed warfare was on the twelfth of July, two months after the fell of Charlestown, when one hundred and thirty-three of colonel Sumter's corps attack- ed and routed a detachment of the royal forces and militia, which were posted in a lane at Williamson's plantation. This was the first advantage gained over the British since their landing in the beginning of the year. The steady persevering friends of America, who were very numerous in the north-western frontier of South Carolina, turned out with great alacrity to join colonel Sumter, though opposition to the British gov- ernment had entirely ceased in every other part of the state. His corps in a few days amounted to six hundred men. With this increase of strength he made a spirited at- tack on a party of the British at Rocky Mount ; but as he had no artillery, and they were secured under cover of earth filled in between logs, he could make no impression upon them, and was obliged to retreat Sen- sible that the minds of men are influenced by enterprise, and that to keep militia to- gether it is necessary to employ them, this active partisan attacked another of the royal detachments, consisting of the Prince of Wales's regiment, and a large body of to- nes, posted at the Hanging Rock. The Prince of Wales's regiment was almost totally destroyed. From two hundred and seventy-eight it was reduced to nine. The loyalists, who were of that party which had advanced from North Carolina under colonel Bryan, were dispersed. The panic occa- sioned bv the fall of Charlestown daily aba- ted. The whig militia on the extremities of the state formed themselves into parties, under leaders of their own choice, and some- times attacked detachments of the British army, but more frequently those of their own countrymen, who, as a royal militia, were co-operating with the king's forces. While Sumter kept up the spirits of the people by a succession of gallant enterprises, a respect- able continental force was advancing through the middle states, for the relief of their southern brethren. With the hopes of re- lieving Charlestown, on the twenty-eixth of March orders were given for the Maryland and Delaware troops to march from general Washington's head-quarters to South Caro- lina; but the quarter-master-general was unable to put this detachment in motion as soon as was intended. The manufacturers employed in providing for the army would neither go on with their business, nor deliver the articles they had completed, declaring they had suffered so much from the depreciation of the money, that they would not part with their property without immediate payment. Under these embarrassing circumstances, the southern states required an aid from the northern army, to be marched through the interme- diate space of eight hundred miles. The Maryland and Delaware troops were with great exertions at length enabled to move. After marching through Jersey and Penn- sylvania, they embarked at the head of Elk, and on the sixteenth of April landed at Pe- tersburgh, and hence proceeded through the country towards South Carolina. This force was at first put under the command of major- general baron de Kalb, and afterwards of general Gates. The success of the latter in the northern campaigns of 1776 and 1777, induced many to believe that his presence as commander of the southern army, would reanimate the friends of independence. While baron de Kalb commanded, a council of war had advised him to file off from the direct road to Camden, towards the well- cultivated settlements in the vicinity of the Waxhaws : but general Gates, on taking the command, did not conceive this movement to be necessary, supposing it to be most for the interest of the States that he should pro- ceed immediately with his army on the shortest road to the vicinity of the British encampments. This led through a barren country, in passing over which, the Ameri- cans severely felt the scarcity of provisions. Their murmurs became audible, and there were strong appearances of mutiny ; but the officers, who shared every calamity in com- mon with the privates, interposed and con- ciliated them to a patient sufferance of their hard lot They principally subsisted on lean cattle, picked up in the woods. The whole army was under the necessity of using green corn, and peaches, in the place of bread ; they subsisted indeed for several days on the latter alone. Dysenteries became common in consequence of this diet The heat of the season, the unhealthiness of the climate, together with insufficient and unwholesome food, threatened destruction to the army. The common soldiers, instead of desponding, began after some time to be merry with their misfortunes. They used " starvation" as a cant word, and vied with each other in burlesquing their situation : and the wit and GEORGE Itt 17601820. 261 humor displayed on the occasion contributed not a little to reconcile them to their suffer- ings. The American army having made its way through a country of pine-barrens, sand- hills, and swamps, on the thirteenth of Au- gust reached Clermont, thirteen miles from Camden. The next day general Stephens arrived with a large body of Virginia militia. As the American army approached South Carolina, lord Rawdon concentred his force at Camden. The retreat of the British from their out-posts, the advances of the Ameri- can army, and the impolitic conduct of the conquerors towards their new subjects, con- curred at this juncture to produce a general revolt in favor of congress. The people were daily more dissatisfied with their sit- uation. Tired of war, they had submitted to British government with the expectation of bettering their condition ; but they soon found their mistake. The greatest address should have been practised towards the in- habitants, in order to second the views of the parent state in reuniting the revolted colo- nies to her government. That the people might be induced to return to the condition of subjects, their minds and affections, as well as their armies, ought to have been conquered. This delicate task was rarely attempted. The officers, privates, and fol- lowers of the royal army, were generally more intent on amassing fortunes by plun- der and rapine, than on promoting a reunion of the dissevered members of the empire. Instead of increasing the number of real friends to royal government, they disgusted those that they found. The high-spirited citizens of Carolina, impatient of their ra- pine and insolence, rejoiced in the prospect of freeing their country from its oppressors. Motives of this kind, together with a pre- vailing attachment to the cause of independ- ence, induced many to break through all ties to join general Gates, and more to wish him the completest success. The similarity of language and appear- ance between the British and American ar- mies, gave opportunities for imposing on the inhabitants. Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton, with a party, by assuming the name and dress of Americans, passed themselves near Black River for the advance of general Gates's army. Some of the neighboring militia were eagerly collected by Mr. Brad- ley to co-operate with their supposed friends; but after some time the veil being thrown aside, Bradley and his volunteers were car- ried to Camden, and confined there as pris- oners. GATES DEFEATED DISTRESSES OF THE AMERICANS. GENERAL GATES, on reaching the frontier of South Carolina, issued a proclamation, in- viting the patriotic citizens " to join heartily in rescuing themselves and their country, from the oppression of a government impos- ed on them by the ruffian hand of conquest." He also gave "assurances of forgiveness and perfect security to such of the unfortu- nate citizens as had been induced by the terror of sanguinary punishment, the menace of confiscation, and the arbitrary measures of military domination, apparently to acqui- esce under the British government, and to make a forced declaration of allegiance and support to a tyranny which the indignant souls of citizens resolved on freedom, in- wardly revolted at with horror and detesta- tion," excepting only from this amnesty, " those who in the hour of devastation had exercised acts of barbarity and depredation on the persons and property of their fellow- citizens." The army with which Gates ad- vanced, was, by the arrival of Stephens's militia, increased nearly to four thousand men ; but of this large number, the whole regular force was only nine hundred infan- try, and seventy cavalry. On the approach of Gates, lord Cornwallis hastened from Charlestown to Camden, and arrived there on the fourteenth. The force which his lordship found collected on his arrival, was seventeen hundred infantry and three hun- dred cavalry. The inferior number would have justified a retreat, but he chose rather to stake his fortune on the decision of a bat- tle. On the night of the fifteenth, he march- ed from Camden with his whole force, in- tending to attack the Americans in their camp at Clermont In the same night Gates, after ordering his baggage to the Waxhaws, put his army in motion, with an intention of advancing to an eligible posi- tion, about eight miles from Camden. The American army was ordered to march at ten o'clock, P. M. in the following order : colonel Armand's advance cavalry ; colonel Porterfield's light infantry on the right flank of colonel Armand's, in Indian file, two hun- dred yards from the road. Major Armstrong's light infantry in the same order as colonel Porterfield's on the left flank of the legion advanced guard of foot, composed of the ad- vanced pickets, first brigade of Maryland, second brigade of Maryland, a division of North Carolina, Virginia rear-guard, volun- teer cavalry, upon flanks of the baggage equally divided. The light infantry upon each flank were ordered to march up and support the cavalry, if it should be attacked by the British cavalry, and colonel Armand was directed in that case to stand the attack at all events. The advance of both armies met in the night and engaged. Some of the cavalry of Armand's legion being wounded in the first fire, fell back on others, who recoiled so suddenly, that the first Maryland regi- 262 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ment was broken, and the whole line of the army was thrown into confusion. This first impression struck deep, and dispirited the militia. The American army soon recov- ered its order, and both they and their ad- versaries kept their ground, and occasion- ally skirmished through the night. Colonel Porterfield, a most "excellent officer, on whose abilities general Gates particularly depended, was wounded in the early part of this night-attack. In the morning, a se- vere and general engagement took place. At the first onset, the great body of the Vir- ginia militia, who formed the left wing of the American army, on being charged with fixed bayonets by the British infantry, threw down their arms, and with the utmost pre- cipitation fled from the field. A considera- ble part of the North Carolina militia fol- lowed the unworthy example ; but the con- tinentals, who formed the right wing of the army, inferior as they were hi numbers to the British, stood their ground, and main- tained the conflict with great resolution. Never did men acquit themselves better: for some time they had clearly the advan- tage of their opponents, and were in posses- sion of a considerable body of prisoners: overpowered at last by numbers, and nearly surrounded by the enemy, they were com- pelled reluctantly to leave the ground. In justice to the North Carolina militia, it should be remarked that part of the brigade, commanded by general Gregory, acquitted themselves well. The Americans lost the whole of their artillery, eight field-pieces, upwards of two hundred wagons, and the greatest part of their baggage; almost all their officers were separated from their re- spective commands. Every corps was bro- ken in action, and dispersed. To add to the distresses of the Ameri- cans, the defeat of Gates was immediately followed by the surprise and dispersion of Sumter's corps, by Tarleton's legion, and a detachment of infantry, at Fishing Creek. Though there was no army to oppose lord Cornwallis, yet the season and bad health of his army restrained him from pursuing his conquests. By the complete dispersion of the continental forces, the country was in his power. The present moment of triumph seemed therefore the most favorable conjunc- ture for breaking the spirits of those who were attached to independence. To pre- vent their future co-operation with the ar- mies of congress, a severer policy was hence- forward adopted. Unfortunately for the inhabitants, this was taken up on grounds which involved thousands in distress, and not a few in the loss of life. The British conceived them- selves in possession of the rights of sove- reignty over a conquered country, and that therefore the efforts of the citizens to assert their independence, exposed them to the penal consequences of treason and rebellion. Influenced by these opinions, and transport- ed with indignation against the inhabitants, they violated the rights which are held sa- cred between independent hostile nations. Orders were given by lord Cornwallis, " that all the inhabitants of the province, who had submitted, and who had taken part in this revolt, should be punished with the greatest rigor that they should be impris- oned, and their whole property taken from them or destroyed." He also ordered in the most positive manner, " that every militia- man, who had borne arms with the British, and afterwards joined the Americans, should be put to death." At Augusta, at Camden, and elsewhere, several of the inhabitants were hanged in consequence of these or- ders. The men who suffered, had been com- pelled, by the necessities of their families, and tbe prospect of saving their property, to make an involuntary submission to the royal conquerors. Experience soon taught them the inefficacy of these submissions. This, in their opinion, absolved them from the obligations of their engagements to sup- port the royal cause, and left them at liberty to follow their inclinations. To treat men thus circumstanced, with the severity of pun- ishment usually inflicted on deserters and traitors, might have a political tendency to discourage farther revolts; but the impar- tial world must regret that the unavoidable horrors of war should be aggravated by such deliberate effusions of human blood. To compel the re-establishment of British government, lord Cornwallis, on the six- teenth of September, about four weeks after his victory, issued a proclamation for the se- questration of all estates belonging to the active friends of independence. By this he constituted "John Cruden, commissioner, with full power and authority, on the re- ceipt of an order or warrant, to take into his possession the estates both real and per- sonal (not included in the capitulation of Charlestown) of those in the service, or act- ing under the authority of the rebel con- gress; and also the estates, both real and personal, of those persons, who, by an open avowal of rebellious principles, or by other notorious acts, manifested a wicked and des- perate perseverance in opposing the re-es- tablishment of his majesty s just and lawful authority ;" and it was farther declared, " That any person or persons obstructing or impeding the said commissioner in the exe- cution of his duty, by the concealment or removal of property or otherwise, should, on conviction, be punished as aiding and abet- ting rebellion." An adherent to independence was now GEORGE IIL 17601820. 2G3 considered as one who courted exile, pov- erty, and ruin. Many yielded to the tempta- tion, and became British subjects. The mis- chievous effects of slavery, in facilitating the conquest of the country, now became apparent. As the slaves had no interest at stake, the subjugation of the state was a matter of no consequence to them. Instead of aiding in its defence, they, by a variety of means, threw the weight of their little influence into the opposite scale. The British ministry, by this flattering posture of affairs, were once more intoxi- cated with the hope of subjugating America. New plans were formed, and great expecta- tions indulged, of speedily reuniting the dis- severed members of the empire. It was now asserted, with a confidence bordering on presumption, that such troops as fought at Camden, put under such a commander as lord Cornwallis, would soon extirpate rebel- lion so effectually as to leave no vestige of it in America. The British ministry and army, by confidence in their own wisdom and prowess, were duly prepared to give, in their approaching downfall, a useful lesson to the world. AMERICAN PROSPECTS BRIGHTEN. THE disaster of the army under general Gates overspread at first the face of Ameri- can affairs with a dismal gloom ; but the day of prosperity to the United States began from that moment to dawn. Their prospects brightened up, while those of their enemies were obscured by disgrace, broken by de- feat, and at last covered with ruin. Elated with their victories, the conquerors grew more insolent and rapacious, while the real friends of independence became resolute and determined. We have seen Sumter penetrating into South Carolina, and recommencing a mili- tary opposition to British government. Soon after that event, he was promoted by gover- nor Rutledge to the rank of brigadier-gene- ral. About the same tune Manon was pro- moted to the same rank, and in the north- eastern extremities of the state successfully prosecuted a similar plan. Opposition to British government was not wholly confined to the parties commanded by Sumter and Marion. It was at no time altogether extinct in the extremities of the state. The disposition to revolt, which had been excited on the approach of general Gates, was not overcome by his defeat The spirit of the people was overawed, but not subdued. The severity with which revolters who fell into the hands of the British were treated, induced those who escaped to perse- vere and seek safety in swamps. The total rout of a party which had joined major Ferguson, operated as a check on the future exertions of the loyalists. The same timid caution which made them averse to joining their countrymen in opposing the claims of Great Britain, restrained them from risking any more in support of the royal cause. Henceforward they waited to see how the scales were likely to incline, and reserved themselves till the British army, by its own unassisted efforts, should gain a decided superiority. In a few weeks after the general action near Camden, lord Cornwallis left a small force in that village, and marched with the main army towards Salisbury, intending to push forwards in that direction. While on his way thither, the North Carolina militia was very industrious and successful in an- noying his detachments. Riflemen frequent- ly penetrated near his camp, and from be- hind trees made sure of their objects. The late conquerors found their situation very uneasy, being exposed to unseen dangers if they attempted to make an excursion of only a few hundred yards from their main body. Lord Cornwallis soon after retreated to Winnsborough. As he retired, the militia took several of his wagons, and single men often rode up within gunshot of his army, discharged their pieces, and made their es- cape. The panic occasioned by the defeat of general Gates had in a great measure worn off. The defeat of major Ferguson, and the consequent retreat of lord Conwal- lis, encouraged the American militia to take the field, and the necessity of the times in- duced them to submit to stricter discipline. Sumter, soon after the dispersion of his corps on the eighteenth of August, collected a band of volunteers, partly from new adven- turers, and partly from those who had es- caped on that day. With these, though for three months there was no continental army in the state, he constantly kept the field in support of American independence. He varied his position from time to time about Evoree, Broad, and Tyger Rivers, and had frequent skirmishes with his adversaries. Having mounted his followers, he infested the British parties with frequent excursions, beat up their quarters, intercepted their con- voys, and so harassed them with successive alarms, that then- movements could not be made but with caution and difficulty. His spirit of enterprise was so particularly inju- rious to the British, that they laid many plans for destroying hie force, but they all failed in the execution. On the twelfth of November, he was attacked at Broad River by major Wemys, commanding a corps of infantry and dragoons. In this action the British were defeated, and their command- ing officer taken prisoner. Eight days after he was attacked at Black Stocks, near Ty- ger River, by lieutenant-colonel Tarleton. The attack was begun with a hundred and 264 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. seventy dragoons and eighty men of the 63 regiment A considerable part of Sumter's force had been thrown into a large log barn, from the apertures of which they fired with security. Many of the 63d regiment were killed. Tarleton charged with his cavalry, but being unable to dislodge the Americans, retreated, and Sumter was left in quiet pos- session of the field. For the three months which followed the defeat of the American army near Camden, general Gates was industriously preparing to take the field. Having collected a force at Hillsbury, he advanced to Salisbury, and very soon after to Charlotte. He had done everything in his power to repair the injuries of his defeat, and was again in a condition to face the enemy ; but from that influence which popular opinion has over public affairs in a commonwealth, congress resolved to supersede him, and to order a court of in- quiry to be held on his conduct While the war raged in South Carolina, the campaign of 1780, in the northern states, was barren of important events. At the close of the preceding campaign, the Amer- ican northern army took post at Morristown, and built themselves huts, agreeably to the practice which had been first introduced at Valley Forgfe. This position was well cal- culated to cover the country from the ex- cursions of the British, being only -twenty miles from New- York. The loyal Americans who had fled within the British lines, commonly called refugees, reduced a predatory war into system. On their petition to Sir Henry Clinton, they had been, in the year 1779, permitted to set up a distinct government in New- York, un- der a jurisdiction called the honorable board of associated loyalists. They had something like a fleet of small privateers and cruisers, by the aid of which they committed various depredations. A party of them who had formerly belonged to Massachusets, went to Nantucket, broke open the warehouses, and carried off everything that fell in their way. They also carried off two loaded brigs and two or three schooners. In a proclamation they left behind them, they observed, " That they had been deprived of their property, and compelled to abandon their dwellings, friends, and connexions : and that they con- ceived themselves warranted by the laws of God and man, to wage war against their persecutors, and to endeavor by every means in their power to obtain compensation for their sufferings." These associated loyalists eagerly embraced every adventure which gratified either their avarice or their re- venge. Their enterprises were highly lu- crative to themselves, and extremely dis- tressing to the Americans. Their know- ledge of the country and superior means of transportation enabled them to make hasty descents and successful enterprises. A war of plunder, in which the feelings of humani- ty were often suspended, and which tended to no valuable public purpose, was carried on in this shameful manner, from the double incitements of profit and revenge. The ad- joining coasts of the continent, and especially the maritime parts of New-Jersey, became scenes of waste and havoc. The distress which the Americans suffered from the diminished value of their currency, though felt in the year 1778, and still more so in the year 1779, did not arrive to its highest pitch till the year 1780. Under the pressure of sufferings from thia cause, the officers of the Jersey line addressed a me- morial to their state legislature, setting forth, " That four months' pay of a private would not procure for his family a single bushel of wheat ; that the pay of a colonel would not purchase oats for his horse ; that a common laborer or express rider received four times as much as an American officer." A tide of misfortunes from all quarters was, indeed, at this time, pouring in upon the new states. There appeared not, how- ever, in their public bodies, the smallest dis- position to purchase safety by concessions of any sort They seemed to rise in the midst of their distresses, and to gain strength from the pressure of calamities. When congress could neither command money nor credit for the subsistence of then- army, the citizens of Philadelphia formed an association to pro- cure a supply of necessary articles for their suffering soldiers. The sum of three hun- dred thousand dollars was subscribed in a few days, and converted into a bank, the principal design of which was to purchase provisions for the troops in the most prompt and efficacious manner. The advantages of this institution were great, and particular- ly enhanced by the critical time in which it was instituted. The loss of Charlestown, and the subsequent British victories in Caro- lina, produced effects directly the reverse of what were expected. It being the deliberate resolution of the Americans never to return to the government of Great Britain, such unfavorable events as threatened the subver- sion of independence operated as incentives to their exertions. The powers of the committee of congress in the American camp were enlarged so far as to authorize them to frame and execute such plans as, in their opinion, would most iffectually draw forth the resources of the country, in co-operating with the armament xpected from France. In this character they wrote letters to the states, stimulating ;hem to vigorous exertions. It was agreed to make arrangements for bringing into the ield thirty-five thousand effective men, and GEORGE HI. 17601820. 265 to call on the states for specific supplies of everything necessary for their support To obtain the men it was proposed to complete the regular regiments by drafts from the militia, and to make up what they fell short of thirty-five thousand effectives, by calling forth more of the militia. The tardiness of deliberation in congress was in a great measure done away, by the full powers given to their committee in camp. Accu- rate estimates were made of every article of supply necessary for the ensuing cam- paign. These, and also the numbers of men wanted, were quotaed on the ten north- ern states in proportion to their abilities and numbers. In conformity to these requisi- tions, vigorous resolutions were adopted for carrying them into effect Where volun- tary enlistments fell short of the proposed number, the deficiencies were, by the laws of several states, to be made up by drafts or lots from the militia. The towns in New- England and the counties in the middle states were respectively called on for a spe- cified number of men. Such was the zeal of the people in New-England, that neigh- bors would often club together, to engage one of their number to go into the army. The legislative part of these complicated ar- rangements was speedily passed, but the ex- ecution, though uncommonly vigorous, lag- ged far behind. Few occasions could occur in which it might so fairly be tried, to what extent, in conducting a war, a variety of wills might be brought to act in unison. The result of the experiment was, that however favor- able republics may be to the liberty and hap- piness of the people in the time of peace, they will be greatly deficient in that vigor and dispatch, which military operations re- quire, unless they imitate the policy of mon- archies, by committing the executive depart- ments of government to the direction of a single will. ARRIVAL OF ROCHAMBEAU. WHILE these preparations were making in America, the armament which had been promised by the king of France was on its way. As soon as it was known in France, that a resolution was adopted to send out troops to the United States, the young French nobility discovered the greatest zeal to be employed on that service. Court fa- vor was scarcely ever solicited with more earnestness, than was the honor, of serving under general Washington. The number of applicants was much greater than the ser- vice required. The disposition to support the American revolution was not only prev- alent in the court of France, but it animated the whole body of the nation. The winds and waves did not second the ardent wishes of the French troops. Though they sailed from France on the first of May, 1780, they VOL. IV. 23 did not reach a port in the United States till the tenth of July following. On that day, to the great joy of the Americans, M. de Ternay arrived at Rhode-Island, with a squadron of seven sail of the line, five frig- ates, and five smaller armed vessels. He likewise convoyed a fleet of transports with four old French regiments, besides the le- gion de Lauzun, and a battalion of artillery, amounting in the whole to six thousand men, all under the command of lieutenant-gene- eral count de Rochambeau. To the French as soon as they landed possession was given of the forts and batteries on the island, and by their exertions they were soon put in a high state of defence. Rochambeau de- clared, " that he only brought over the van- guard of a much greater force which was destined for their aid ; that he was ordered by the king his master to assure them, that his whole power should be exerted for their support Admiral Arbuthnot had only four sail of the line at New- York, when M. de Ternay arrived at Rhode Island. This inferiority was in three days reversed, by the arrival of admiral Graves with six sail of the line. The British admiral, having now a superi- ority, proceeded to Rhode-Island. He soon discovered that the French were perfectly secure from any attack by sea. Sir Henry Clinton, who had returned in the preced- ing month with his victorious troops from Charlestown, embarked about eight thou- sand of his best men, and proceeded as far as Huntingdon Bay, on Long-Island, with the apparent design of concurring with the Brit- ish fleet, in attacking the French force at Rhode-Island. When this movement took place, general Washington set his army in motion, and proceeded to Peek's Kill. Had Sir Henry Clinton prosecuted what appear- ed to be his design, general Washington in- tended to have attacked New- York in his absence. Preparations were made for this purpose, but Sir Henry Clinton instantly turned about from Huntingdon Bay towards New-York. DEFECTION OF ARNOLD. THE campaign of 1780 passed away in the northern states, as has been related, in successive disappointments and reiterated distresses to the American cause. The country was exhausted, the continental cur- rency expiring. While these disasters were openly menacing the new states, treachery was silently undermining them. A distin- guished officer engaged, for a stipulated sum of money, to betray into the hands of the British an important post committed to his care. General Arnold, who committed this foul crime, was a native of Connecticut The disposition of the American forces in the year 1780 afforded an opportunity of 266 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. accomplishing this so much to the advan- tage of the British, that they could well afford a liberal reward for the beneficial treachery. The American army was sta- tioned in the strong-holds of the highlands on both sides of the North River. In this arrangement, Arnold solicited for the com- mand of West Point This had been called the Gibraltar of America. It was built after the loss of Fort Montgomery, for the de- fence of the North River, and was deemed the most proper for commanding its naviga- tion. Rocky ridges rising one behind an- other, rendered it incapable of being invested by less than twenty thousand men. Though some even then entertained doubts of Ar- nold's fidelity, yet general Washington be- lieving it to be impossible that honor should be wanting in a breast which he knew was the seat of valor, cheerfully granted his request, and intrusted him with the impor- tant post. General Arnold, thus invested with command, carried on a negotiation with Sir Henry Clinton, by which it was agreed that the former should make a disposition of his forces, which would enable the latter to surprise West Point under such circum- stances, that he would have the garrison so completely in his power, that the troops must either lay down their arms or be cut to pieces. The object of this negotiation was the strongest post of the Americans, the thoroughfare of communication between the eastern and southern states, and was the re- pository of their most valuable stores. The loss of it would have been severely felt The agent employed in this negotiation on the part of Sir Henry Clinton, was ma- jor Andre, adjutant-general of the British army. To favor the necessary communica- tions, the Vulture sloop of war had been previously stationed in the North River, as near to Arnold's posts as was practicable, without exciting suspicion. Before this a written correspondence between Arnold and Andre had been for some time carried on under the fictitious names of Gustavus and Anderson. In the night of the twenty-first of September, a boat was sent from the shore to fetch major Andre. Arnold met him at the beach, without the posts of ei- ther army. Their business was not finished till it was too near the dawn of day for An- dre to return to the Vulture. Arnold told him he must be concealed till the next night For that purpose, he was conducted within one of the American posts, against his pre- vious stipulation and knowledge, and con- tinued with Arnold the following day. The boatmen refused to carry him back the next night, as the Vulture, from being exposed to the fire of some cannon brought up to annoy her, had changed her position. Andre's re- turn to New- York by land, was then the only practicable mode of escape. To favor Jiis he quitted his uniform, which he had litherto worn under a surtout, for a com- mon coat, and was furnished with a horse, and under the name of John Anderson, with a passport " to go to the lines of White Plains, or lower if he thought proper, he being on public business." He advanced alone and undisturbed a great part of the way. When he thought himself almost out of danger, he was stopped by three of the New- York mili- tia, who were with others scouting between the out-posts of the two armies. Major An- dre, instead of producing his pass, asked the man who stopped him, " Where he belonged to," who answered, "To below," meaning New- York. He replied, " So do I," and declared himself a British officer, and pressed that he might not be detained. He soon discovered his mistake. His cap- tors proceeded to search him : several pa- pers were found in his possession. These were secreted in his boots, and were in Arnold's hand-writing; they contained ex- act returns of the state of the forces, ord- nance, and defences at West Point, witli the artillery orders, critical remarks on the works, &c. ANDRE EXECUTED AS A SPY. ANDRE offered his captors a purse of gold and a new valuable watch, if they would let him pass, and permanent provision and fu- ture promotion, if they would convey and accompany him to New- York. They nobly disdained the proffered bribe, and delivered him a prisoner to lieutenant-colonel Jame- son, who commanded the scouting parties. In testimony of the high sense entertained of the virtuous and patriotic conduct of John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Vert, the captors of Andre, congress resolv- ed, " That each of them receive annually two hundred dollars in specie during life, and that the board of war be directed to pro- cure for each of them a silver medal, on one side of which should be a shield with this inscription, Fidelity ; and on the other the following motto : Vincit Amor PatrUc ; and that the commander-in-chief be requested to present the same, with the thanks of con- gress, for their fidelity, and the eminent ser- vice they had rendered their country." An- dre, when delivered to Jameson, continued to call himself by the name of Anderson, and asked leave to send a letter to Arnold, to acquaint him with Anderson's detention. This was inconsiderately granted. Arnold, on the receipt of this letter, abandoned everything, and went on board the Vulture sloop of war. Lieutenant-colonel Jameson forwarded to general Washington all the papers found on Andre, together with a let- ter giving an account of the whole affair ; but the express, by taking a different route GEORGE III. 17601820. from the general, who was returning from a conference at Hartford with count de Ro- chambeau, missed him. This caused such a delay as gave Arnold time to effect his es- cape. The same packet which detailed the particulars of Andre's capture, brought a letter from him, in which he avowed his name and character, and endeavored to show that he did not come under the de- scription of a spy. He stated, that he held a correspondence with a person under the orders of his general : that his intention went no farther than meeting that person on neutral ground, for the purpose of intel- ligence ; and that, against his stipulation, his intention, and without his knowledge be- forehand, he was brought within the Amer- ican posts, and had to concert his escape from them ; being taken on his return, he was betrayed into the vile condition of an enemy in disguise. General Washington referred the whole case of major Andre to the examination anc decision of a board, consisting of fourteen general officers. On his examination, he voluntarily confessed everything that related to himself, and particularly that he did not come ashore under the protection of a flag. The board did not examine a single wit- ness, but founded their report on his own confession. In this they stated the following facts : " That major Andre came on shore on the night of the twenty-first of Septem- ber, in a private and secret manner, and that he changed his dress within the American lines, and under a feigned name and dis- guised habit passed their works, and was ta- ken hi a disguised habit when on his way to New- York, and when taken, several papers were found in his possession, which con- tamed intelligence for the enemy." From these facts they farther reported it as then- opinion, "That major Andre ought to be considered as a spy, and agreeably to the laws and usages of nations, he ought to suf- fer death." Sir Henry Clinton, lieutenant-general Robertson, and the late American general Arnold, wrote pressing letters to general Washington, to prevent the decision of the board of general officers from being carried into effect General Arnold hi particular urged, that everything done by major An- dre was done by his particular request, and at a time when he was the acknowledged commanding officer in the department. He contended, " that he had a right to transact all these matters, for which, though wrong, major Andre ought not to suffer." An in- terview also took place between general Robertson, on the part of the British, and general Greene, on the part of the Ameri- cans. Everything was urged by the former, that ingenuity or humanity could suggest 267 for averting the proposed execution ; Greene made a proposition for delivering up Andre for Arnold, but found this could not be ac- ceded to by the British. Robertson urged, " that Andre went on shore under the sanc- tion of a flag, and that being then in Ar- nold's power, he was not accountable for his subsequent actions, which were said to be compulsory." To this it was replied, that " he was employed in the execution of mea- sures very foreign from the objects of flags of truce, and such as they were never meant to authorize or countenance ; and that major Andre in the course of his examination had candidly confessed, that it was impossible for him to suppose that he came on shore under the sanction of a flag." As Greene and Robertson differed so widely, both hi their statement of facts, and the inferences they drew from them, the latter proposed to the former, that the opinions of disinterest- ed gentlemen might be taken on the sub- ject, and proposed Kniphausen and Rocham- beau. Robertson also urged that Andre pos- sessed a great share of Sir Henry Clinton's esteem, and that he would be infinitely obliged if he should be spared. He offered that in case Andre was permitted to return with him to New- York, any person what- ever that might be named should be set at liberty. All these arguments and entreaties having failed, Robertson presented a long letter from Arnold, in which he endeavored to exculpate Andre, by acknowledging him- self the author of every part of his conduct, "and particularly insisted on his coming from the Vulture, under a flag which he had sent for that purpose." He declared, that if Andre suffered, he should think himself bound in honor to retaliate. He also observ- ed, " that forty of the principal inhabitants of South Carolina had justly forfeited their lives, which hitherto had been spared only through the clemency of Sir Henry Clinton, but who could no longer extend his mercy if major Andre suffered ; an event which would probably open a scene of bloodshed, at which humanity must revolt." He en- treated Washington by his own honor, and for that of humanity, not to suffer an unjust entence to touch the life of Andre ; " but if that warning should be disregarded, and Andre suffer, he called Heaven and earth to witness, that he alone should be justly an- swerable for the torrents of blood that might be spilt in consequence." Every exertion was made by the royal commanders to save Andre, but without ef- fect. It was the general opinion of the American army that his life was forfeited, and that national dignity and sound policy required that the forfeiture should be ex- acted. The execution was the subject of severe 268 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. censures. Barbarity, cruelty, and murder, were plentifully charged on the Americans ; but the impartial of all nations allowed, that it was warranted by the usages of war. It cannot be condemned, without condemning the maxims of self-preservation, which have uniformly guided the practice of hostile na- tions. The finer feelings of humanity might have been gratified, by dispensing with the rigid maxims of war ; but these feelings must be controlled by a regard for the pub- lic safety. Such was the distressed state of the American army, and so abundant were their causes of complaint, that there was much to fear from the contagious nature of treachery. Could it have been reduced to a certainty that there were no more Arnolds in America, perhaps Andre's life might have been spared ; but the necessity of discour- aging farther plots, fixed his fate, and stamp- ed it with the seal of political necessity. If conjectures in the' boundless field of possible contingencies were to be indulged, it might be said that it was more consonant to ex- tended humanity to take one life, than by ill-timed lenity to lay a foundation, which probably would occasion not only the loss of many, but endanger the independence of a great country. This grand project terminated with no other alteration in respect of the British, than that of their exchanging one of their best officers for the worst man in the Amer- ican army. Arnold was immediately made a brigadier-general in the service of the king of Great Britain. The failure of the scheme respecting West Point, made it necessary for him to dispel the cloud which overshad- owed his character, by the performance of some signal service for his new masters. The condition of the American army, af- forded him a prospect of doing something of consequence. He flattered himself that by the allurements of pay and promotion, he should be able to raise a numerous force from among .the distressed American sol- diery. He therefore took methods for ac- complishing this purpose, by obviating their scruples, and working on their passions. His first public measure was issuing an ad- dress, directed to the inhabitants of America, dated from New- York [October 7th,] iivo days after Andre's execution. This address was soon followed by another, inscribed to the officers and soldiers of the continental army. This was intended to induce them to follow his example, and engage in the royal service. He informed them, that he was authorized to raise a corps of cavalry and infantry, who were to be on the same footing with the other troops in the British service. To allure the private men, three guineas were offered to each, besides pay- ments for their horses, arms, and accoutre- ments. Rank in the British army was also held out to the American officers who would recruit, and bring in a certain number of men, proportioned to the different grades in military service. These offers were proposed to unpaid soldiers, who were suffering from the want of both food and clothing, and to officers who were in a great degree obliged to support themselves from their own re- sources, while they were spending the prime of their days, and risking their lives, in the unproductive service of congress. Though they were urged, at a time when the paper currency was at its lowest ebb of deprecia- tion, and the wants and distresses of the American army were at their highest pitch, yet they did not produce the intended effect on a single sentinel or officer. Whether the circumstances of Arnold's case added new shades to the crime of desertion, or whether their providential escape from the deep-laid scheme against West Point, gave a higher tone to the firmness of the American sol- diery, cannot be unfolded : but either from these or some other causes, desertion wholly ceased at this remarkable period of the war. It is not to be supposed that the Spaniards, on the American frontier, would be totally inactive during these transactions. Don Ber- nardo de Galves, the governor of Louisiana, was one of the first to proclaim the inde- pendence of America ; and in the spring of 1780, assembled a small force at New-Or- leans, and surprised and made himself mas- ter of Mobile, and all the British settlements on the Mississippi. GEORGE HI. 17601820. CHAPTER XVII. 269 Causes which produced a Rupture with Holland Armed Neutrality Count Bylanfs Squadron taken Capture of Mr: Laurens Declaration of War Affairs of East Indies Mr. Cornwall chosen Speaker Dutch War India Affairs Burke' s Re- form Bill Petition of Delegates from Counties Bill to repeal the Marriage Act Motion on American War Session concluded Attack upon Jersey Siege of Gibraltar Capture of St. Eustatia Campaign in America Revolt of Pennsyl- vania Line Arnold's Expedition to Virginia General Greene appointed to the Command in Carolina Tarleton defeated by Morgan Masterly Retreat of the Americans Battle of Guildford Lord Cornwallis proceeds to Virginia Operations in Virginia Capture of Lord Cornwallis Expedition of Commodore Johnstone Operations in the West Indies Tobago taken St. Eustatia Convoy taken East Indies Hyder Ally defeated Cheyt Sing Engagement with the Dutch Com- bined Fleets in the Channel. CAUSES OF RUPTURE WITH HOLLAND- ARMED NEUTRALITY. THE desperation which ill success and ill conduct produced in ministers was never more clearly evinced than in the course of the year 1780. As if Great Britain had not been sufficiently involved in the work of bloodshed and devastation ; by the singular diligence and activity of administration a new enemy was conjured up, and added to an already sufficiently powerful combination. One of the causes which provoked the resentment of the British ministry against the States-General has already been no- ticed ; but there were some of a still more important nature, which it is now time to remark. The naval superiority of Great Britain had long been the subject of regret and envy in Europe. As it was the interest, so it seemed to be the wish of the European powers to avail themselves of the present favorable moment to effect a humiliation of her maritime grandeur. That the flag of all nations must strike to British ships of war, could not be otherwise than mortifying to independent sovereigns. The haughty demand was not their only cause of com- plaint. Various litigations had taken place between the commanders of British armed vessels, and those who were in the service of neutral powers, respecting the extent of that commerce, which was consistent with a strict and fair neutrality. The British in- sisted on the lawfulness of seizing supplies, which were about to be carried to their ene- mies. Having been in the habit of com- manding on the sea, they considered power and right to be synonymous terms. As other nations, from a dread of provoking their ven- geance, had submitted to their claim of do- minion on the ocean, they fancied them- selves invested with authority to control the commerce of independent nations, when it 23* interfered with their views. This haughti- ness worked its own overthrow. The em- press of Russia took the lead in establishing a system of maritime laws, which subverted the claims of Great Britain. On the twenty-sixth of February 1780, a declaration was published by the empress of Russia, addressed to the courts of London, Versailles, and Madrid. In this it was ob- served, "That her Imperial majesty had given such convincing proofs of the strict regard she had for the rights of neutrality, and the liberty of commerce in general, that it might have been hoped her impartial con- duct would have entitled her subjects to the enjoyment of the advantages belonging to neutral nations. Experience had however proved the contrary : her subjects had been molested in their navigation by the ships and privateers of the belligerent powers. Her majesty therefore declared, " That she found it necessary to remove these vexations v/hich had been offered to the commerce of Russia ; but before she came to any serious measures, she thought it just and equitable to expose to the world, and particularly to the belligerent powers, the principles she had adopted for her conduct, which were as follows : ; ' That neutral ships should enjoy a free navigation, even from port to port, and on the coasts of the belligerent powers. That all effects belonging to the belligerent pow- ers should be looked on as free on board such neutral ships, with an exception of places actually blocked up or besieged, and with a proviso that they do not carry to the enemy contraband articles." These were limited by an explanation, so as to "comprehend only warlike stores and ammunition;" and tier Imperial majesty declared, that "she was firmly resolved to maintain these prin- ciples, and that with the view of protecting the commerce and navigation of her subjects 270 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. she had given orders to fit out a considerable part of her naval force. This declaration was communicated to the States-General, and the empress of Russia invited them to make a common cause with her, so far as such a union might serve to protect com- merce and navigation. Similar communica- tions and invitations were also made to the courts of Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Lis- bon. A civil answer was received from the court of Great Britain, and a very cordial one from the court of France. On this oc- casion it was said by his most Christian ma- jesty, that what her Imperial, majesty claim- ed from the belligerent powers was nothing more than the rules prescribed to the French navy." The kings of Sweden and Denmark also formally acceded to the principles and measures proposed by the empress of Rus- sia. The States-General did the same. The queen of Portugal was the only sovereign who refused to concur. The powers en- gaged in this association resolved to support each other against any of the belligerent nations, who should violate the principles which had been laid down in the declaration of the empress of Russia. This combination assumed the name of the armed neutrality. By it a respectable guarantee was procured to a commerce from which France and Spain procured a plentiful supply of articles essentially con- ducive to a vigorous prosecution of the war. The armed neutrality led almost immedi- ately to a rupture with the States-General. Besides this cause, their conduct had in- deed all along been directed by the narrow and selfish views of trading policy, and not by any sense of former obligations. Few Europeans had a greater prospect of advan- tage from American independence than the Hollanders. The conquest of the Unitec States would have regained to Great Britain a monopoly of their trade ; but the establish- ment of their independence promised to other nations an equal chance of partici- pating therein. As commerce is the sou of the United Netherlands, to have neglect- ed the present opportunity of extending it would have been a deviation from their es- tablished maxims of policy. Former trea- ties framed in distant periods, when other views were predominant, opposed but a feeble barrier to the claims of present in- terest From the year 1777, Sir Joseph Yorke, the British minister at the Hague had made representations to their high mightinesses of the clandestine commerce carried on between their subjects and the Americans. He particularly stated thai Mr. Van Graaf, the governor of St Eustatia had permitted an illicit commerce with the Americans ; and had at one time returnee the salute of a vessel carrying their flag Sir Joseph, therefore, demanded a formal disavowal of this salute, and the dismission and immediate recall of governor Van Graaf. This demand was answered with a pusillani- mous, temporizing reply. On the twelfth of September 1778, a memorial was present- ed to the States-General from the merchants and others of Amsterdam, hi which they complained that their lawful commerce was obstructed by the ships of his Britannic ma- jesty. On the twenty-second of July, 1779, Sir Joseph Yorke demanded of the States- General the succors which were stipulated in the treaty of 1678 : but this was not com- plied with. COUNT BYLAND'S SQUADRON TAKEN. THE British government, therefore, being determined to break with Holland, and hav- ing received information, that a large fleet of Dutch merchant-ships, laden with naval and military stores, had sailed for the ports of France, dispatched captain Fielding with a proper force to examine the convoy, and to seize such articles as should be deemed contraband. On the first of January 1780, commodore Fielding fell in with this fleet : and the Dutch admiral peremptorily refus- ing permission to search the ships ; and the boats which commodore Fielding dispatched for that purpose, having been fired at, and prevented from executing his orders; the commodore proceeded to fire a shot ahead of the Dutch admiral, which was answered by a broadside. Count Byland, the Dutch admiral, however, having received one in return, and not being in condition to support the engagement, struck his colors. Most of the suspected vessels escaped during the contest. The admiral, with the rest of his squadron, was brought to Spithead. Strong remonstrances were addressed to the minis- try by the States-General on this transaction, but no satisfaction was obtained. On the seventeenth of April, a most hostile procla- mation was published by the king of Great Britain ; but the policy of the Dutch was too deep to be led into the snare laid for them by the British ministry. They saw that more numerous advantages were to be de- rived from the cultivation of a pacific sys- tem, than from precipitating themselves vio- lently into all the calamities of war. CAPTURE OF MR. LAURENS. DECLARA- TION OF WAR. ANOTHER occasion, however, soon pre- sented itself for the English to regard the Dutch as enemies. On the third of Septem- ber the Mercury packet, from Philadelphia for Holland, was captured off the banks of Newfoundland by the Vestal frigate. On board the packet was Mr. Laurens, late pres- ident of the congress, who was proceeding on a diplomatic commission to the States- general. Before the vessel struck, he had GEORGE HI. 17601820. 271 thrown his papers overboard ; but the greater part of them were recovered, and submitted to the inspection of the privy-council ; and among them, it is said, was found the sketch of a treaty of amity and commerce between the two republics, which had been examined and approved by M. Van Berkel, counsellor and grand pensionary of Amsterdam. Mr. Laurens, after having been examined by the privy-council, was committed close prisoner to the Tower, on a charge of high treason ; and strong representations were made by the British ambassador at the Hague, to the States-General, demanding, that "exem- plary punishment should be inflicted on Van Berkel and his accomplices, as disturbers of the public peace, and violators of the rights of nations." The States-General observed their usual caution on this occasion; but their deliberate proceedings were not agree- able to the British ministry, who actually published a declaration of war against Hol- land on the twentieth of December. INDIAN AFFAIRS. IT was not only in Europe and America that Great Britain was involved in the most distressing embarrassments at this disastrous period, but even in the East Indies several causes had occurred to inspire the native powers of India with general disgust and disapprobation of the politics of England. No regular system was adopted for the gov- ernment of those provinces, which British valor and rapacity had wrested from the na- tive princes of the East The whole politics of India were committed to the mercenary servants of the company, who were too in- tent upon the acquisition of wealth, to enter- tain any liberal system of policy ; and whose whole time and attention were consequently consumed in low intrigues with the native princes, and in schemes of conquest formed on no regular plan. About the year 1779 the British in India made repeated attempts to interfere in the revolution which had taken place in the Mahratta government Ragonaut Row caus- ed his nephew the reigning Paishwa (with the care of whom, during his minority, he was solemnly intrusted) to be assassinated, in the hope of securing to himself the sover- eignty. From these circumstances, and from the British presidency at Bombay receiving and protecting Ragonaut the murderer of his nephew, the foundation was laid for that fa- mous confederacy which, in the year 1779, was formed between the Nizam, Hyder Ally, and the Mahrattas, the object of which was no less than the complete expulsion of the British from the continent of India. Early in the year 1780 preparations were made for invading the Mahratta territories, and on the fifteenth of February, general Goddard marched with a considerable force to besiege the city of Ahmedabad, the capital of the province of Guzerat, which was taken by storm in five days after the arrival of the British army under its walls ; the reduction of the whole province soon followed. On the third of April following, the general surprised the camp of Scindia and Holkar, and the Mahratta chiefs were forced to re- treat with considerable loss. Some brilliant services were also performed on the side of Bengal. But these successes were more than counterbalanced by the progress made by Hyder Ally, who, having collected a pro- digious force, on the twentieth of July, made his way through the ghauts, or narrow passes in the mountains; and, at the head of nearly one hundred thousand men, entered without resistance the Carnatic ; and by the tenth of August his cavalry had penetrated even to the vicinity of Madras. In this emergency, Sir Hector Munro hastily assembled the different corps which were scattered through the province, and endeavored to post himself strongly on the Mount, to cover and protect the capital ; and orders were dispatched to colonel Baillie, who commanded in the Guntoor, to hasten back to join the mam army, and in the course of his march to endeavor, as much as possi- ble, to intercept the enemy's convoys. In the mean time Hyder formed the siege of Arcot, and Sir Hector thought it an indis- pensable duty to march to its relief. On the approach of the British general, Hyder rais- ed the siege, but directed the route of his army in such a manner across the course of colonel Baillie's detachment, as effectually to prevent the intended junction. On the sixth of September, the troops of the sultan, under the command of his brother Meer Saib and his son, the since celebrated Tippoo Sultan, encountered Fletcher at a place All that skill could devise or valor effect, was performed by the British ; and though the disparity of force was almost unexam- pled, victory at first declared in favor of col- onel Baillie. Unfortunately, in the moment of success and exultation, the tumbrils which contained the ammunition suddenly blew up, with two dreadful explosions, in the centre of the British lines ; and one whole face of their column was laid open, and the artillery destroyed. The moment of advan- tage was suddenly caught by Tippoo Saib, who forced his way, at the head of his cav- alry, into the broken square ; and the British being deprived of their ammunition, and not having had even time to form, were, after prodigies of valor, cut to pieces, or made prisoners of war. The British are said to have lost on this occasion about four thou- sand Sepoys, and six hundred Europeans. Immediately after this disastrous event, the colonels Baillie and called Perinbancum. 272 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. army, under Sir Hector Munro, retreated and abandoned Arcot to its fate, which soon fell into the hands of Hyder Ally. Thus ended this unfortunate campaign in India. MR. CORNWALL CHOSEN SPEAKER. WHILE these things were transacting abroad, the ministry had contrived to pro- cure a new parliament at home, modeller for their purposes. It met on the thirty-first of October 1780, when their first business was the choice of a speaker. The great merit and faithful services of Sir Fletcher Norton, were totally obliterated by the quar- rel he had with the minister, as has been already mentioned; and another speaker was determined upon. The business, how- ever, was introduced with the highest com- pliments to the late speaker, and the choice of another was proposed on account of th.e importance of parliamentary business, which might be productive of debates inconsistent with his precarious state of health ; on which account the American secretary (lord George Germaine) moved that Wolfran Cornwall be appointed to that high office ; and the motion was seconded by Welbore Ellis. The members in opposition expressed the utmost astonishment, not only at the conduct of administration in proposing a new speaker, at the very time that they acknowledged Sir Fletcher Norton to be the most proper of all men to fill the office, but at the strange arguments made use of on the occasion. The health of the speaker was now so firmly established, that the pretence of his want of it, especially when coming from the ministerial side, must be considered as an absolute mockery of the house, and a direct insult upon the gentleman himself. Dunning therefore proposed, that Sir Fletcher Norton should be continued speaker, and his motion was seconded by Thomas Townshend. The late speaker, however, declined the intended honor, and said, that he had come to the house with a full resolution not to stand a candidate for the chair upon any account ; but he declared that he must be an idiot in- deed, if he could believe that his state of health was the reason of the determination of ministry against his being continued in the chair. Cornwall's election was carried by two hundred and three to one hundred and thirty- four. DUTCH WAR. 1781. On the twenty-fifth of January, the king sent a message to the house by his minister, acquainting them that letters of marque and reprisals had been issued against the Dutch. This communication was no sooner made, than Burke observed, " That, however lightly a war might be thought of by some men, he was one of those who thought it always a most serious matter ; a matter which nothing but the greatest ne- cessity could justify. It was further ob- served by the opposition, " that the British manifesto stated that a treaty was entered into between the city of Amsterdam and America; but the treaty now laid before the house was, in the express terms of it, the plan of a treaty, or the rough draught of a compact, the ratification of which was to depend upon events which might never happen. This declaration of war was also ventured on, contrary to every recent pre- cedent, during a recess. The minister was reminded, that in this manner the house had been betrayed into all the pernicious mea- sures of his administration. In this manner had the house been led into the American war, that fatal source of all our calamities. In this manner had the French rescript been announced ; and afterwards the Spanish re- script, and at length the declaration of war against Holland, our ancient and natural ally. Year after year had the minister ac- quainted the house with a new enemy, but never had he yet brought them the welcome information of a new friend. Much had been said of the provocations we had re- ceived from Holland, and the predominance of a French interest in that country but had Holland received no provocation from us ] The insolence of the British memorial presented to the States in 1777, contributed more than anything else to the prevalence of the French faction in Holland. It had been stated, as a serious ground of offence, that Holland had not complied with the re- quisition of troops, which, by treaty, she lad engaged to furnish. But it was notori- ous, that, in the event of this compliance, Holland would have been immediately in- vaded by France ; and, in conformity with ;he same treaties, we must then have sent a much greater aid to the assistance of the republic. If the Dutch, at the present pe- riod, had changed their political system re- specting this country, it was owing to the criminal conduct of an administration, who lad precipitated us into a war, whence all our misfortunes had arisen. In consequence of that war, our American commerce was ost ; and could it be a matter of surprise that the Dutch, a people who existed by commerce, should be desirous to secure a share of it 1 We were abandoned, not by the Dutch only, but by all the powers of Eu- rope, who were all equally convinced, that, under the present wretched administration if affairs, whoever became the ally of Great Jritain, would only share in her disgrace and her misfortunes." An address to his majesty, however, in avor of the war, was voted by a great raa- ority in the two houses of parliament GEORGE III. 17601820. 273 INDIAN AFFAIRS BURKE'S REFORM BILL. THE crude and improvident politics of lord North and his colleagues, had reduced the British possessions in the East Indies to an unsettled and distracted state. On the fourth of December 1780, a petition was presented to the house of commons from the British inhabitants of Bengal, Bahar, and Grissa, complaining of the injudicious and indiscriminate manner in which the judges of the supreme court endeavored to admin- ister the English laws in those provinces ; and this was seconded by another from the governor-general and council, containing a long statement of the transactions, and re- questing an indemnification from the legal penalties, which, for the preservation of gov- ernment and the country, they had been under the necessity of incurring, by forcibly resisting the proceedings of the chief-justice, Sir Elijah Irnpey. General Smith, on the twelfth of February, moved that these peti- tions should be referred to a committee of fifteen members to be chosen by ballot, and to meet in a chamber above-stairs ; and after some time, a bill was introduced by general Smith, founded on the report of the com- mittee of fifteen, for regulating the admin- istration of justice in India, and for indem- nifying the governor-general and council for the resistance made by them to the supreme court. This bill, after some resistance from the law-members, passed both houses, and received the royal assent; it defined and limited the authority of the supreme court, and exempted the governor-general and council of Bengal from its jurisdiction. It declared farther, that no person should be under the cognizance of the supreme court, on account of his being a landholder or far- mer in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa ; and that no judicial officers in the country courts should be liable to actions in the supreme court for their decisions. Burke, not being dejected by the rejec- tion of his reform bill last year, on the fif- teenth of February moved for leave to bring in a bill exactly similar, and opened his proposition by stating the powerful motives which engaged him now to resume his un- dertaking; and these were the celebrated resolutions of the late parliament, respect- ing the alarming increase of the influence of the crown ; the general wish and expect- ation of the people, and the direct applica- tions to himself from several of the most considerable counties. Under very unfavorable auspices, the bill was read a second time, when it experienced the weight of that influence it was meant to reduce. It however introduced to public notice the splendid talents of young lord Maitland, and the captivating eloquence of William Pitt, the second son of the late earl of Chatham, who in very early youth had been elected a member of the present par- liament, and who now exhibited himself to an admiring nation as the supposed heir of his talents and virtues. " One great object," Pitt said, "of all the petitions which had been presented, was a recommendation of economy in the public expenditure ; and the design of the present bill was, to carry into effect the wishes of the people, by intro- ducing a substantial system of economy. Besides the benefits which would result from the bill in this respect, it had another object still more important, and that was the re- duction of the influence of the crown, an influence which was the more to be dread- ed, because more secret in its attacks, and more concealed in its operations, than the power of prerogative." Pitt adverted to the extraordinary objections which had been made to the bill; it proposed to bring no more than two hundred thousand pounds per annum into the public coffers, and that sum was insignificant, in comparison of the mil- lions annually expended. " What then is the conclusion we are led to deduce 1 ? The ca- lamities of the present crisis are too great to be benefited by economy. Our expenses are so enormous, that it is useless to give ourselves any concern about them ; we have spent, and are spending, so much, that it is foolish to think of saving anything. Such is the language which the opponents of this bill have virtually employed. It had also been said, that the king's civil-list was an irresumable parliamentary grant, and it had been even compared to a private freehold. The weakness of such arguments was their best refutation. The civil-list revenue was granted to his majesty, not for his private use, but for the support of the executive government of the state. His majesty, in feet, was the trustee of the public, subject to parliamentary revision. The parliament made the grant, and undoubtedly had a right to resume it when the pressure of the times rendered such resumption necessary. Upon the whole, he considered the present bill as essential to the being and independence of this country, and he would give it his most determined support" PETITIONS OF COUNTY DELEGATES- PROPOSED MARRIAGE BILL. THE existing grievances of the country appeared so much to increase in consequence of the war, and so little prospect of redress was afforded by the last parliament, that an association was formed by several of the most opulent and populous counties, and del- egates were chosen for the purpose of pros- ecuting the object of a parliamentary re- form, with proper vigor and unanimity. A petition prepared by the delegates, and sign- 274 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ed by themselves only, was presented on the eighth of May, by Mr. Buncombe and Sir George Saville, who moved that it should be referred to a committee of the whole house. The motion was however rejected on the plea that it was a petition not from the parties who complained of the griev- ances, but from persons in a delegated ca- pacity. The numbers were two hundred and twelve, to one hundred and thirty-five. Fox made an effort, in the course of this session, to introduce a bill for the repeal, or at least for a modification, of the famous marriage act. The principal feature in the proposed bill was, that it reduced the legal age for contracting marriage, to eighteen in males, and sixteen in females, and no mar- riage was to be annulled after the parties had cohabited for one year. The bill passed the house of commons, but was rejected by the lords. MOTION ON AMERICAN WARSESSION CLOSED. TOWARDS the end of the session, Fox moved the house to resolve itself into a committee, 19 consider of the American war, for the purpose of devising some means of accommodation. This motion was supported in an animated speech by Pitt, who express- ed his utter abhorrence of a war, " which was conceived," he said, " in injustice, nur- tured in folly, and whose footsteps were marked with slaughter and devastation. It exhibited the height of moral depravity and human turpitude. The nation was drained of its best blood and its vital resources, for which nothing was received in return but a series of inefficient victories or disgraceful defeats, victories obtained over men strug- gling in the holy cause of liberty, or defeats which filled the land with mourning for the loss of dear and valuable relatives, slain in a detested and impious quarrel." The mo- tion was rejected by a majority of seventy- three voices. On the eighteenth of July 1781, the ses- sion was closed by a speech, hi which his majesty observed, " that the great efforts made by the nation, to surmount the difficul- ties of the present arduous and complicated war, must convince the world that the an- cient spirit of the British nation was not abated or diminished ; and he was resolved to accept of no terms or conditions of peace, than such as might consist with the honor and dignity of his crown, and the perma- nent interests and security of his people." ATTACK ON JERSEY. WE now return to the military transac- tions of this eventful year. On the sixth of January 1781, eight hundred French troops under the command of the baron de Rulle, landed before daybreak on the island of Jer- sey ; and so little expectation was entertain- ed of any attack, that they passed undiscov- ered to the town of St Hillier, and, to the utter astonishment of the inhabitants, at day- break, the market-place was filled with French soldiers. Fortunately the lieuten- ant-governor, major Moses Corbet, had re- ceived information of then- landing, time enough to dispatch intelligence to the differ- ent stations of the three regiments in the island, and to the militia. But he was taken prisoner himself by seven o'clock, and im- mediately carried before the French com- mander, who pressed him to sign terms of capitulation, under pain of firing the town and putting the inhabitants to the sword. It was in vain the governor represented, that, being a prisoner, he was deprived of all au- thority, and no capitulation that he could sign would be of any force or efficacy : the general still insisted, and to avoid the con- sequences, the governor ratified the capitu- lation. The king's troops and the militia assem- bled on the heights near the town, under the command of major Pierson, and now in their turn summoned the invaders to surrender themselves prisoners of war. An engage- ment ensued, in which major Pierson was killed ; and the French general being mor- tally wounded, the second in command de- sired Corbet to resume the government, and accept their submission as prisoners of war. The negligence of the lieutenant-governor was afterwards censured by a court-martial, and he was dismissed from his office. SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR. THE siege of Gibraltar still continued, and the blockade was renewed after admiral Rodney's departure ; but the Spaniards un- der Don Barcelo were defeated on the sev- enth of June, in an attempt to burn the English shipping in the harbor there. In the command of the channel fleet, Sir Charles Hardy, who died on the nineteenth of May, was succeeded by admiral Geary. He sail- ed in the beginning of June, and was not out many days before he was so fortunate as to intercept a considerable convoy of French West India ships, homeward-bound from St, Domingo, and captured twelve rich vessels. But this advantage was counterbalanced by the loss of almost the whole outward-bound convoy from England to the East and West Indies, which, on the twenty-ninth of July, was taken by the combined fleets, to the number of fifty-five. In the mean time, the court of Spain, mortified at this repeated disappointment, determined to make greater exertions for the reduction of Gibraltar. Their works were carried on with more vigor than ever. Having, on an experiment of twenty months, found the inefficacy of a blockade, they re- solved to try the effects of a bombardment GEORGE IIL 17601820. 275 Their batteries were mounted with guns of the heaviest metal, and with mortars of the largest dimensions. These disgorged torrents of fire on a narrow spot. It seem- ed as if not only the works, but the rock itself, must have been overwhelmed. All distinction of parts was lost in flame and smoke. This dreadful cannonade continued day and night, almost incessantly, for three weeks, in every twenty-four hours of which one hundred thousand pounds of gunpowder were consumed, and between four and five thousand shot and shells went through the town. It then slackened, but was not inter- mitted during one whole day for upwards of a twelve-month. The fatigues of the gar- . rison were extreme ; but the loss of men was less than might have been expected. For the first ten weeks of this unexampled bombardment, the whole number of killed and wounded was only about three hundred. The damage done to the works was trifling. The houses in the town, about five hundred in number, were mostly destroyed. Such of the inhabitants as were not buried in the ruins of their houses, or torn to pieces by the shells, fled to the remote parts of the rock ; but destruction followed them to places which had always been deemed secure. No scene could be more deplorable. Mothers and children clasped in each other's arms, were so completely torn to pieces, that it seemed more like an annihilation, than a dispersion of their shattered fragments. Ladies of the greatest sensibility and most delicate constitutions deemed themselves happy to be admitted to a few hours of re- pose in the casement, amidst the noise of a crowded soldiery, and the groans of the wounded. At the first onset general Elliot retorted on the besiegers a shower of fire ; but fore- seeing the difficulty of procuring supplies, he soon retrenched, and received with com- parative unconcern the fury and violence of his adversaries. By the latter end of November, the besiegers had brought their works to that state of perfection which they intended. The care and ingenuity employed upon them were extraordinary. The best engineers of France and Spain had united then- abilities, and both kingdoms were filled with sanguine expectations of speedy suc- cess. In this conjuncture, when all Europe was in suspense concerning the fate of the garrison, and when, from the prodigious ef- forts made for its reduction, many believed that it could not hold out much longer, a sal- ly was projected and executed, which in about two hours destroyed those works which had required so much time, skill, and labor to accomplish. A body of two thousand chosen men, un- der the command of brigadier-general Roes, marched out about two o'clock in the morn- ing of the twenty-seventh of November 1781, and at the same instant made a general at- tack on the whole exterior front of the lines of the besiegers. The Spaniards gave way on every side, and abandoned their works. The pioneers and artillery-men spread their fire with such rapidity, that in a little time everything combustible was in flames. The mortars and cannon were spiked, and their beds, platforms, and carriages destroyed. The magazines blew up one after another. The loss of the detachment which accom- plished all this destruction, was inconsider- able. This unexpected event disconcerted the besiegers ; but they soon recovered from then- alarm, and with a perseverance al- most peculiar to then- nation, determined to go on with the siege. Their subsequent exertions and reiterated defeats shall be re- lated in the order of time in which they took place. ST. EUSTATIUS TAKEN. THE war with Holland was no sooner resolved upon, than British vengeance burst on the Dutch island of St Eustatius. Thie, though intrinsically of little value, had long been the seat of an extensive com- merce. It was the grand free port of the West Indies, and as such was a general market and magazine to all nations. In con- sequence of its neutrality and situation, to- gether with its unbounded freedom of trade, it reaped the richest harvests of commerce, during the seasons of warfare among its neighbors ; it was in a particular manner a convenient channel of supply to the Ameri- cans. The island is a natural fortification, and very capable of being made strong ; but as its inhabitants were a motley mixture of transient persons, wholly intent on the gains of commerce, they were more solicitous to acquire property, than attentive to improve those means of security which the island af- forded. On the third of February 1781, Sir George Rodney and general Vaughan, with a large fleet and army, surrounded this isl- and, and demanded a surrender of it and of its dependencies within an hour. Mr. de Graaf returned for answer, "that being utterly incapable of making any defence against the force which invested the island, he must of necessity surrender it, only re- commending the town and its inhabitants to the known and usual clemency of British commanders." The wealth accumulated in this barren spot was prodigious. The whole island seemed to be one vast magazine. The storehouses were filled, and the beach cov- ered with valuable commodities. These 276 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. alone, on a moderate calculation, were es-i timated to be worth above three millions sterling. All this property, together with what was found on the island, was indis- criminately seized and declared to be con- fiscated. This valuable booty was farther increased by new arrivals. The conquerors lor some time kept up Dutch colors, which decoyed a number of French, Dutch, and American vessels into their hands. Above one hundred and fifty merchant-vessels, most of which were richly laden, were captured. A Dutch frigate of thirty-eight guns, and five small armed vessels, shared the same fate. The neighboring islands of St Martin and Saba were in like manner reduced. Just before the arrival of the British, thirty large ships, Jaden with West India commodities, had sailed from Eustatius for Holland, under the convoy of a ship of sixty guns. Admiral Rodney dispatched the Monarch and Pan- ther, with the Sybil frigate, in pursuit of this fleet; the whole of it was overtaken and captured. The Dutch West India company, many of the citizens of Amsterdam, and several Americans, were great sufferers by the cap- ture of this island, and the confiscation of all property found therein, which immediately followed; but the British merchants were much more so. These, confiding in the ac- knowledged neutrality of the island, and in acts of parliament, had accumulated there great quantities of West India produce as well as European goods. They stated their hard case to admiral Rodney and general Vaughan, and contended that their connex- ion with the captured island was under the sanction of acts of parliament, and that their commerce had been conducted accord- ing to the rules and maxims of trading na- tions. To applications of this kind it was answered, "that the island was Dutch, every- thing in it was Dutch, under the protection of the Dutch flag, and as Dutch it should be treated." The severity with which the victors pro- ceeded drew on them pointed censures, not only from the immediate sufferers, but from all Europe. It must be supposed that they were filled with resentment for the sup- plies which the Americans received through this channel ; but there is also reason to sus- pect, that the love of gain was cloaked under the specious veil of national policy. While Admiral Rodney and his officers were at St Eustatius, and especially while his fleet was weakened, by a large detach- ment sent off to convoy their booty to Great Britain, the French were silently executing a well-digested scheme, which assured them a naval superiority on the American coast, to the total ruin of the British interest in the United States. AMERICAN CAMPAIGN. REVOLT OF PENNSYLVANIA LINE. THE campaign in America however com- menced with some favorable omens to the British; for though general Arnold's ad- dress to his countrymen produced no effect in detaching the soldiery of America from the unproductive service of congress, their steadiness could not be accounted for, from any melioration of their circumstancea They still remained without pay, and without such clothing as the season required. They could not be induced to enter the British service ; but their complicated distresses at length broke out into deliberate mutiny. This event, which had been long expected, made its first threatening appearance in the Pennsylvania line. The common soldiers enlisted in that state were for the most part natives of Ireland, but though not bound to America by the accidental tie of birth, they were inferior to none in discipline, courage, or attachment to the cause of independ- ence. They had been, but a few months before, the most active instruments in quell- ing a mutiny of the Connecticut troops, and had on all occasions done their duty to ad- miration. An ambiguity in the terms of their enlistment furnished a pretext for their conduct A great part of them were enlisted for three years, or during the war ; the three years were expired, and the men insisted that the choice of staying or going remained with them, while the officers con- tended that the choice was in the state. The mutiny was excited by the noncom- missioned officers and privates in the night of the first of January 1781, and soon be- came so universal in the line of that state as to defy all opposition. The whole, ex- cept three regiments, upon a signal for the purpose, turned out under arms without their officers, and declared for a redresk of grievances. The officers in vain endeavor- ed to quell them. Several were wounded, and a captain was killed, in attempting it. General Wayne presented his pistole, as if about to fire on them ; they held their bayo- nets to his breast, and said, " We love and respect you, but if you fire, you are a dead man. We are not going to the enemy ; on the contrary, if they were now to come out, you should see us fight under your orders with as much alacrity as ever ; but we will be no longer amused ; we are determined on obtaining what is our just due." Deaf to arguments and entreaties, they, to the number of one thousand three hundred, mov- ed off" in a body from Morristown, and pro- ceeded in good order with their arms and six field-pieces to Princeton. They elected tem- porary officers from their own body, and appointed a serjeant-major, who had former- ly deserted from the British army, to be GEORGE UI. 17601820. 277 their commander. General Wayne forwarded provisions after them to prevent their plun- dering the country for then* subsistence. They invaded no man's property, farther than their immediate necessities made una- voidable. This was readily submitted to by the inhabitants, who had long been used to exactions of the same kind, levied for simi- lar purposes by their lawful rulers. They professed that they had no object in view, but to obtain what was justly due to them, nor were their actions inconsistent with that pro- fession. Congress sent a committee of their body, consisting of general Sullivan, Matthews, Atlee, and Dr. Witherspoon, to procure an accommodation. The revolters were reso- lute in refusing any terms, of which a re- dress of their grievances was not the found- ation. Everything asked of their country, they might, at any time after the sixth of January, have obtained from the British, by passing over into New- York : this they re- fused. Their sufferings had exhausted their patience, but not their patriotism. Sir Henry Clinton, by confidential messengers, offered to take them under the protection of the British government, to pardon all their past offences, to have the pay due to them from congress faithfully made up, without any ex- pectation of military service in return, al- though it would be received if voluntarily offered. It was recommended to them to move behind the South River ; and it was promised, that a detachment of the British troops should be in readiness for their pro- tection as soon as desired. In the mean time, the troops passed over from New- York to Staten Island, and the necessary arrange- ments were made for moving them into New- Jersey, whenever they might be wanted. The royal commander was not less disap- pointed than surprised to find that the faith- ful though revolting soldiers disdained his offers. The messengers of Sir Henry Clin- ton were seized and delivered to general Wayne. President Reed and general Pot- ter were appointed, by the council of Penn- sylvania, to accommodate matters with the revolters. They met at Princeton, and agreed to dismiss all whose terms of enlist- ment were completed, and admitted the oath of each soldier to be evidence in his own case. A board of officers tried and con- demned the British spies, and they were in- stantly executed. President Reed offered a purse of one hundred guineas to the muti- neers, as a reward of their fidelity, in deliv- ering up the spies ; but they refused to ac- cept it, saying, " That what they had done was only a duty they owed their country, and that they neither desired nor would re- ceive any reward but the approbation of that VOL. IV. 24 country, for which they have so often fought and bled." ARNOLD'S EXPEDITION TO VIRGINIA. WHILE the Americans were suffering the complicated calamities which introduced the year 1781, their adversaries were carrying on the most extensive plan of operation, which had ever been attempted since the war. It had often been objected to the Brit- ish commanders, that they had not conducted the war in the manner most likely to effect the subjugation of the revolted provinces. Military critics, in particular, found fault with them for keeping a large army idle at New- York, which they said, if properly ap- plied, would have been sufficient to make successful impressions at one and the same time on several of the states. The British seem to have calculated the campaign of 1781, with a view to make an experiment of the comparative merit of this mode of conducting military operations. The wai raged in fiat year, not only in the vicinity of the British head-quarters at New- York, but in Georgia, South Carolina, North Caro- lina, and in Virginia. The latter state, from its peculiar situation, and from the modes of building, planting, and living, which had been adopted by the inhabitants, is particu- larly exposed, and lies at the mercy of what- ever army is master of the Chesapeak. These circumstances, together with the pre- eminent rank which Virginia held in the confederacy, pointed out the propriety of making that state the object of particular attention. To favor lord Cornwallis's de- signs in the southern states, major-general Leslie, with about two thousand men, had been detached from New- York to the Chesa- peak, in the latter end of 1780 ; but subse- quent events induced his lordship to order him from Virginia to Charlestown, with the view of his more effectually co-operating with the army under his own immediate command. Soon after the departure of gen- eral Leslie, Virginia was again invaded by another party from New- York. This was commanded by general Arnold, now a briga- dier in the royal army. His force consisted of about sixteen hundred men, and was sup- ported by such a number of armed vessels as enabled him to commit extensive ravages on the unprotected coasts of that well-watered country. On the fifth of January the invad- ers landed about fifteen miles below Rich- mond ; and in two days marched into the town, where they destroyed large quantities of tobacco, salt, mm, sail-cloth, and other merchandise. Successive excursions were made to several other places, in which the royal army committed similar devastations. In about a fortnight, they marched into Portsmouth, and began to fortify it. The 278 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. loss they sustained from the feeble opposi- tion of the dispersed inhabitants was incon- siderable. The havoc made by general Ar- nold, and the apprehension of a design to fix a permanent post in Virginia, induced gene- ral Washington to detach the marquis de la Fayette, with twelve hundred of the Ameri- can infantry, to that state, and also to urge the French in Rhode-Island to co-operate with him in attempting to capture Arnold and his party. The French commanders eagerly closed with the proposal. Since they had landed in the United States, no proper opportunity of gratifying their passion for military fame had yet presented itself. They rejoiced at that which now offered, and indulged a cheerful hope of rendering essential service to their allies, by cutting off the retreat of Arnold's party. With this view, their fleet, with fifteen hundred addi- tional men on board, on the eighth of March sailed from Rhode-Island for Virginia. D'Es- touches, who, since the death of de Ternay in the preceding December, had commanded the French fleet, previous to the sailing of his whole naval force, on the ninth of Feb- ruary dispatched the Eveille, a sixty-four gun ship, and two frigates, with orders to destroy the British ships and frigates in the Chesapeak. These took or destroyed ten vessels, and captured the Romulus of forty- four guns. On the tenth of March, Arbuth- not with a British fleet sailed from Gardi- ner's Bay, in pursuit of D'Estouches. On the sixteenth of the same month, the former overtook and engaged the latter oft' the Cape: of Virginia, The British had the advantage of more guns than the French ; but the lat- ter were much more strongly manned than the former. The contest between the fleets thus nearly balanced, ended without the loss of a ship on either side ; but the British ob- tained the fruits of victory so far as to frus- trate the whole scheme of their adversaries. The French fleet returned to Rhode-Island without effecting the object of the expedi- tion. Thus was Arnold saved from immi- nent danger of falling into the hands of his exasperated countrymen. The day before the French fleet returned to Newport, March twenty-fifth, a convoy arrived in the Chesa- peak from New- York, with major-general Philips, and about two thousand men. This distinguished officer, who having been taken at Saratoga, had been lately exchanged, was appointed to be commander of the royal forces in Virginia. Philips and Arnold soon made a junction, and carried everything be- fore them. They successively defeated those bodies of militia which came in their way. The whole country was open to their ex- cursions. With this expedition, major-general Phil- ips terminated a life, which in all his pre- vious operations had been full of glory. At early periods of his military career, on dif- ferent occasions in a preceding war, he had gained the full approbation of prince Ferdi- nand, under whom he had served in Ger- many. As an officer he was universally admired. Though much of the devastations committed by the troops under his command, may be vindicated on the principles of those who hold that the rights and laws of war are of equal obligation with the rights and laws of humanity ; yet the friends of his fame have reason to regret tliat he did not die three weeks sooner. The successes which, with a few checks^ followed the British arms since they had re- duced Savannah and Charlestown, encour- aged them to pursue their object by advanc- ing from south to north. A vigorous invasion of North Carolina was therefore projected, for the business of the winter, which followed general Gates's defeat GENERAL GREENE SUCCEEDS GATES. TARLETON DEFEATED. THE American army, after its defeat and dispersion on the sixteenth of August 1780, rendezvoused at Hillsborough. In the latter end of the year they advanced to Charlotte- Town. At this place general Gates trans- ferred the command to general Greene. The manly resignation of the one, was equalled by the delicate disinterestedness of the other. Expressions of civility, and acts of friendship and attention, were reciprocally exchanged. With an inconsiderable army, miserably provided, general Greene took the field against a superior British regular force, which had marched in triumph two hundred miles from the sea-coast, and was flushed with successive victories through a whole campaign. Soon after he took the com- mand, he divided his force, and sent general Morgan with a respectable detachment to the western extremity of South Carolina, and about the same time marched with the main body to Hicks' Creek, on the north side of the Pedee, opposite the Cheraw Hill. When this irruption was made into the district of Ninety-six, lord Cornwallis was far advanced in his preparations for the in- vasion of North Carolina. To leave gen- eral Morgan in the rear, was contrary to military policy. In order therefore to drive him from his station, and to deter the inhab- itants from joining him, lieutenant-colonel Tarleton was ordered to proceed with about one thousand one hundred men, and " push him to the utmost." He had two field-pieces, and a superiority of infantry in the propor- tion of five to four, and of cavalry in the proportion of three to one. Besides this in- equality of force, two-thirds of the troops under general Morgan were militia. With GEORGE m. 17601820. 279 these fair prospects of success, Tarleton, on the seventeenth of January 1781, engaged Morgan at the Cowpens, with the expecta- tion of driving him out of South Carolina. The militia fell back. The British advanced and engaged the second line, which, after an obstinate conflict, was compelled to re- treat to the cavalry. In this crisis, lieuten- ant-colonel Washington made a successful charge on captain Ogilvie, who, with about forty dragoons, was cutting down the militia, and forced them to retreat in confusion. Lieutenant-colonel Howard almost at the same moment rallied the continental troops, arid charged with fixed bayonets. The ex- ample was instantly followed by the militia. Nothing could exceed the astonishment and confusion of the British, occasioned by these unexpected charges. Their advance fell back on their rear, and communicated a panic to the whole. Two hundred and fifty horse which had not been engaged, fled with pre- cipitation. The pieces of artillery were seized by the Americans, and the greatest confusion took place among the infantry. While they were in this state of disorder, lieutenant-colonel Howard called to them to " lay down their arms," and promised them good quarter. Some hundreds accepted the offer, and surrendered. The first battalion of the seventy-first, and two British light infantry pompanies, laid down their arms to the American militia. A party which had been left some distance in the rear to guard the baggage, was the only body of infantry that escaped. MASTERLY RETREAT OF THE AMERI- CANS. LORD CORNWALLIS, though preparing to extend his conquests northerly, was not in- attentive to the security of South Carolina. Besides the force at Charlestown, he left a considerable body of troops under the com- mand of lord Rawdon. These were princi- pally stationed at Camden, from which cen- tral situation they might easily be drawn forth to defend the frontiers, or to suppress insurrections. To facilitate the intended operations against North Carolina, major Craig, with a detachment of about three hundred men from Charlestown, and a small marine force, took possession of Wilmington. While these arrangements were making, the year 1781 commenced with the fairest prospects to the friends of British govern- ment. The arrival of general Leslie in Charlestown from Virginia, gave earl Corn- wallis a decided superiority, and enabled him to attempt the reduction of North Carolina, with a force sufficient to bear down all prob- able opposition. Arnold was before him in Virginia, while South Carolina in his rear was considered as completely subdued. His lordship had much to hope and little to fear. His admirers flattered him with the expect- ation, that his victory at Camden would but prove the dawn of his glory ; and that the events of the approaching campaign would immortalize his name, as the conqueror, at least, of the southern states. Whilst lord Cornwallis was indulging these pleasina prospects, he received intelligence, no less unwelcome than unexpected, that Tarleton, his favorite officer, in whom he placed the greatest confidence, instead of driving Mor- gan out of the country, was completely de- feated by him. This surprised and morti- fied, but did not discourage his lordship. He hoped by vigorous exertions soon to obtain reparation for the late disastrous event, and even to recover what he had lost With the expectation of retaking the prisoners captured at the Cowpens, and to obliterate the impression made by the issue of the late action at that place, his lordship instantly determined on the pursuit of general Mor- gan, who had moved off towards Virginia with his prisoners. . The movements of the royal army in consequence of this determi- nation, induced general Greene immediately to retreat from Hicks' Creek, lest the Brit- ish, by crossing the upper sources of the Pedee, should get between him and the de- tachment, which was encumbered with the prisoners. In this critical situation general Greene left the main army, under the com- mand of general Huger, and rode one hun- dred and fifty miles through the country, to join the detachment under general Morgan, that he might be in front of lord Cornwallis, and direct the motions of both divisions of his army, so as to form a speedy junction between them. Immediately after the ac- tion, on the seventeenth of January, Morgan sent on his prisoners under a proper guard, and having made every arrangement in his power for their security, retreated with ex- pedition. Nevertheless the British gained ground upon him. Morgan intended to cross the mountains with his detachment and pris- oners, that he might more effectually secure the latter : but Greene, on his arrival, order- ed the prisoners to Charlotteville, and di- rected the troops to Guildford court-house, to which place he had also ordered general Huger to proceed with the main army. The British had urged the pursuit with so much rapidity, that they reached the Ca- tawba on the evening of the same day on which their fleeing adversaries had crossed it. Before the next morning a heavy fall of rain made that river impassable. The Ameri- cans, confident of the justice of their cause, considered this event as an interposition of Providence in their favor. It is certain, that if the rising of the river had taken place a few hours sooner, general Morgan, with his whole detachment, and five hundred prison- 280 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ere, would have scarcely had any chance of escape. When the flood had subsided so far as to leave the river fbrdable, a large proportion of the king's troops received or- ders to be in readiness to march at one o'clock in the morning of the first of Feb- ruary. Feints had been made of passing at several different fords, but the real attempt was made at a ford near M'Cowans, the north banks of which were defended by a small guard of militia, commanded by gen- eral Davidson. The British marched through the river, upwards of five hundred yards wide, and about three feet deep, sustaining a constant fire from the militia on the oppo- site bank, without returning it till they had made good their passage. The light infan- try and grenadier companies, as soon as they reached the land, dispersed the Americans, general Davidson, the brave leader of the latter, being killed on the first onset. The militia throughout the neighboring settle- ments were dispirited, and but few of them could be persuaded to take or keep the field. A small party which collected about ten miles from the ford, was attacked and dis- persed by lieutenant-colonel Tarleton. All the fords were abandoned, and the whole royal army crossed over without any farther opposition. The passage of the Catawba being effected, the Americans continued to flee and the British to pursue. The former by expeditious movements crossed the Yad- kin, partly in flats, and partly by fording, on the second and third days of February, and secured their boats on the north side. Though the British were close in their rear, yet the want of boats, and the rapid rising of the river from the preceding rains, made their crossing impossible. This second hair- breadth escape was considered by the Ameri- cans as a farther evidence that their cause was favored by Heaven. The British having failed in their first scheme of passing the Yadkin, were obliged to cross at the upper fords ; but before this was completed, the two divisions of the American army, on the seventh of February, made a junction at Guildford court-house. Though this had taken place, their combined numbers were so much inferior to the Brit- ish, that general Greene could not with any propriety risk an action. He therefore call- ed a council of officers, who unanimously concurred in opinion that he ought to retire over the Dan, and to avoid an engagement till he was reinforced. Lord Cornwallis, knowing the inferiority of the American force, conceived hopes, by getting between general Greene and Virginia, to cut off his retreat, intercept his supplies and reinforce- ments, and oblige him to fight under many disadvantages. With this view, his lordship kept the upper country, where only the rivers are fordable supposing that his ad- versaries, from the want of a sufficient num- ber of flats, could not make good their pas- sage in the deep water below, or, in case of their attempting it, he expected to overtake and force them to action before they could cross. In this expectation he was deceived. General Greene by good management elud- ed his lordship. The British urged their pursuit with so much rapidity, that the American light troops were on the fourteenth compelled to retire upwards of forty miles. By the most indefatigable exertions, general Greene had that day transported his army, artillery, and baggage, over the river Dan into Virginia. So rapid was the pursuit, and so narrow the escape, that the van of the pursuing British just arrived as the rear of the Americans had crossed. The hardships and difficulties which the royal army had undergone in this march, were exceeded by the mortification that all their toils and ex- ertions were to no purpose. They conceiv- ed it next to impossible that general Greene could escape without receiving a decisive blow. They therefore cheerfully submitted to difficulties, of which they who reside in cultivated countries can form no adequate ideas. After surmounting incredible hard- ships, when they fancied themselves within grasp of their object, they discovered that all their hopes were blasted. PLANS OF LORD CORNWALLIS DE- FEATED. THE continental army being driven out of North Carolina, lord Cornwallis thought the opportunity favorable for assembling the loyalists. With this view he left the Dan, and proceeded to Hillsborough. On his ar- rival there, he erected the king's standard, and published a proclamation, inviting all loyal subjects to repair to it with their arms and ten days' provision, and assuring them of his readiness to concur with them in effectual measures for suppressing the re- mains of rebellion, and for the re-establish- ment of good order and constitutional gov- ernment Soon after the king's standard was erected at Hillsborough, some hundreds of the inhabitants rode into the British camp. They seemed to be very desirous of peace, but averse to any co-operation for procuring it They acknowledged the continentals were chased out of the province, but ex- pressed their apprehensions that they would soon return, and on the whole declined to take any decided part in a cause which yet appeared dangerous. Notwithstanding the indifference or timidity of the loyalists near Hillsborough, lord Cornwallis hoped for sub- stantial aid from the inhabitants between Haw and Deep River. He therefore detach- ed lieutenant-colonel Tarleton with four hun- dred and fifty men to give countenance to GEORGE IE. 1760-1820. 281 the friends of royal government in that dis- trict Greene being informed that many of the inhabitants had joined his lordship, and that they were repairing in great numbers to make their submission, was apprehensive that unless some spirited measure was im- mediately taken, the whole country would be lost to the Americans. He therefore concluded, at every hazard, to recross the Dan. This was done by the light troops, and these on the next day were followed by the mam body, accompanied with a brigade of Virginia militia. Immediately after the return of the Americans to North Carolina, some of their light troops, commanded by general Pickens and lieutenant-colonel Lee, were detached in pursuit of Tarleton, who had been sent to encourage the insurrection of the loyalists. Three hundred and fifty of these tories commanded by colonel Pyles, when on their way to join the British, fell in with this light American party, and mis- took them for the royal detachment sent for their support The Americans attacked them, laboring under this mistake, to great advantage, and cut them down as they were crying out, " God save the king," and mak- ing protestations of their loyalty. Natives of the British colonies, who were of this character, more rarely found mercy than European soldiers. Tarleton was refreshing his legion about a mile from the scene of slaughter. Upon hearing the alarm, he re- crossed the Haw and returned to Hillsbo- rough. On his retreat he cut down several of the royalists, as they were advancing to join the British army, mistaking them for the rebel militia of the country. These events, together with the return of the American army, overset all the schemes of lord Cornwallis. The tide of public senti- ment was no longer in his favor. The re- cruiting service in behalf of the royal army was entirely stopped. The absence of the American army, for one fortnight longer, might have turned the scale. The advocates for royal government being discouraged by these adverse accidents, and being also gene- rally deficient in that ardent zeal which characterized the patriots, could not be in- duced to act with confidence. They were BO dispersed over a large extent of a thinly settled country, that it was difficult to bring them to unite in any common plan. They had no superintending congress to give sys- tem or concert to then- schemes. While each little district pursued separate measures, all were obliged to submit to the American governments. Numbers of them, who were on their way to join lord Cornwallis, struck with terror at the unexpected return of the American army, and the unhappy fate of their brethren, went home to wait events. Their policy was of that timid kind, which 24* disposed them to be more attentive to per- sonal safety, than to the success of either army. BATTLE OF GUILDFORD. THOUGH general Greene had recrossed, his plan was not to venture upon an imme- diate action, but to keep alive the courage of his party, to depress that of the loyalists, and to harass the foragers and detachments of the British, till reinforcements should ar- rive. While Greene was unequal even to defensive operations, he lay seven days with- in ten miles of Cornwallis's camp, but took a new position every night, and kept it a profound secret where the next was to be. By such frequent movements lord Cornwallis could not gain intelligence of his situation in tune to profit by it He manoeuvred in this manner to avoid an action for three weeks. By the end of that period, two brigades of militia from North Carolina, and one from Virginia, together with four hun- dred regulars raised for eighteen months, joined his army, and gave him a superiority of numbers: he therefore determined no longer to avoid an engagement Lord Corn- wallis having long sought for this, no longer delay took place on either side. The Ameri- can army consisted of about four thousand four hundred men, of which more than one half were militia ; the British of about two thousand four hundred, chiefly troops grown veteran in victories. The former was drawn up in three lines; the front composed of North Carolina militia, the second of Vir- ginia militia, the third and last of conti- nental troops commanded by general Huger and colonel Williams. After a brisk can- nonade in front, the British advanced in three columns ; the Hessians on the right, the guards in the centre, and lieutenant- colonel Webster's brigade on the left ; and attacked the front line. This gave way when their adversaries were at the distance of one hundred and forty yards, from the misconduct of a colonel, who, on the ad- vance of the enemy, called out to an officer at some distance that he would be surround- ed. The alarm was sufficient : without in- quiring into the probability of what had been injudiciously suggested, the militia precipi- tately quitted the field. As one good officer may sometimes mend the face of affairs, so the misconduct of a bad one may injure a whole army. Untrained men when on the field are similar to each other. The difference of their conduct depends much on inci- dental circumstances, and on none more than the manner of their being led on, and the quality of the officers by whom they are commanded. The Virginia militia stood their ground, and kept up their fire till they were ordered to retreat. General Stevens, their con- 282 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. inandcr, had posted forty riflemen at equal distances, twenty paces in the rear of his brigade, with orders to shoot every man who should leave his post. The continental troops were last engaged, and maintained the conflict with great spirit for an hour and a halC At length the discipline of veteran troops gained the day. They broke the second Maryland brigade, turned the Ameri- can left flank, and got in rear of the Virginia brigade. They appeared to be gainii Greene's right, which would have encircl the whole of the continental troops : a re- treat was therefore ordered. This was made in good order, and no farther than over the Reedy Fork, a distance of about three miles. Greene halted there, and drew up till he had collected most of the stragglers, and then retired to Speedwell's iron-works, ten miles distant from Guildford. The Ameri- cans lost four pieces of artillery, and two ammunition-wagons. The victory cost the British dear. Their kflled and wounded amounted to several hundreds. The guards lost colonel Stuart and three captains, be- sides subalterns. Colonel Webster, an offi- cer of distinguished merit, died of his wounds, to the great regret of the whole army. Gen- erals O'Hara and Howard, and lieutenant- colonel Tarleton, were wounded. About three hundred of the continentals, and one hundred of the Virginia militia, were killed or wounded. Among the former was major Anderson, of the Maryland line, a most val- uable officer; of the latter were generals Huger and Stevens. The early retreat of the North Carolinians saved them from much loss. The American army sustained a great diminution, by the numerous fugitives, who, instead of rejoining the camp, went to their homes. On the other hand, lord Cornwallis suffered so much, that he was in no condi- tion to improve the advantage he had gain- ed. The British had only the name, the Americans, all the good consequences of a victory. General Greene retreated, and lord Cornwallis kept the field ; but notwithstand- ing, the British interest in North Carolina was from that day ruined. Soon after this action, (on the eighteenth of March) lord Comwallis issued a proclamation setting forth his complete victory, and calling on all loyal subjects to stand forth, and take an active part in restoring order and good gov- ernment, and offering a pardon and protec- tion to all rebels, murderers excepted, who would surrender themselves on or before the twentieth of April. On the next day after this proclamation was issued, his lordship left his hospital and seventy-five wounded men, with the numerous loyalists, in the vicinity, and began a march towards Wil- mington, which had the appearance of a re- treat Major Craig, who for the purposes of co-operating with his lordship, had been stationed at Wilmington, was not able to open a water-communication with the Brit- ish army, while they were in the upper country. The distance, the narrowness of Cape Fear River, the commanding elevation of its banks, and the hostile sentiments of the inhabitants on each side of it, forbade the attempt The destitute condition of the British army made it necessary to go to these supplies, which for these reasons could not be brought to them. General Greene no sooner received in- formation of this movement of lord Corn- wallis, than he put his army in motion to follow him. As he had no means of pro- viding for the wounded, of his own, and the British forces, he wrote a letter to the neigh- boring inhabitants of the Quaker persuasion, in which he mentioned his being brought up a Quaker, and urged them to take care of the wounded on both sides. His recom- mendations prevailed, and the Quakers sup- plied the hospitals with every comfort in their power. Lord Cornwallis halted and refreshed his army for about three weeks at Wilmington, and then marched across the country to Pe- tersburgh, in Virginia. The resolution of returning to South Carolina was formed by general Greene. This animated the friends of congress in that quarter. Had the Ameri- can army followed his lordship, the southern states would have considered themselves con- quered ; for their hopes and fears prevailed just as the armies marched north or south. Though lord Cornwallis marched through North Carolina to Virginia, yet as the Amer- ican army returned to South Carolina, the people considered that movement of his lord- ship in the light of a retreat While the two armies were in North Carolina, the whig inhabitants of South Carolina were animated by the gallant ex- ertions of Sumter and Marion. These dis- tinguished partisans, while surrounded with enemies, kept the field. Though the conti- nental army was driven into Virginia, they did not despair of the commonwealth. Hav- ing mounted their followers, their motions were rapid, and their attacks unexpected. With their light troops they intercepted the British convoys of provisions, infested their out-posts, beat up their quarters, and harassed their detachments with such frequent alarms, that they were obliged to be always on their guard. While lord Cornwallis was preparing to invade Virginia, general Greene determined to recommence offensive military operations in the southern extreme of the confederacy, in preference to pursuing his lordship into Virginia. General Sumter, who had warmly urged this measure, was about this time au- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 283 thorized to raise a state-brigade, to be in service for eighteen months. He had also prepared the militia to co-operate with the returning continentals. With these forces, an offensive war was recommenced in South Carolina, and prosecuted with spirit and sue cess. Camden, before which the main Ameri can army was encamped, is a village situ ated on a plain, covered on the south am east sides by the Wateree and a creek, on the western and northern by six redoubts. I was defended by lord Rawdon, with abou nine hundred men. The American army consisting only of about an equal number ol continentals, and between two and three hundred militia, was unequal to the task ol carrying this post by storm, or of completely investing it. General Greene, therefore took a good position, about a mile distant, in expectation of alluring the garrison out oi their lines. Lord Rawdon armed his whoL force, and with great spirit sallied on the twenty-fifth. An engagement ensued. Vic tory for some time evidently inclined to the Americans, but in the progress of the ac- tion, the premature retreat of two compa- nies eventually occasioned the defeat of the whole American army. Greene, with his usual firmness, instantly took measures to prevent lord Rawdon from improving the success he had obtained. He retreated with such order, that most of his wounded, anc all his artillery, together with a number of prisoners, were carried off! The British re- tired to Camden, and the Americans en- camped about five miles from their former position. Their loss was between two and three hundred. Soon after this action, gene- ral Greene, knowing that the British garri- son could not subsist long in Camden with- out fresh supplies from Charlestown or the country, took such positions as were most likely to prevent their procuring any. On the seventh of May, lord Rawdon re- ceived a reinforcement of four or five hun- dred men, by the arrival of colonel Watson from Pedee. With this increase of strength, he attempted, on the next day, to compel general Greene to another action, but found it to be impracticable. Failing in this de- sign, he returned to Camden, and burned the jail, mills, many private houses, and a great deal of his own baggage. He then evacu- ated the post, and retired to the southward of Santee. His lordship discovered as much prudence in evacuating Camden, as he had shown bravery in its defence. The position of the American army, in a great measure, intercepted supplies from the adjacent coun- try. The British in South Carolina, now cut off" from all communication with lord Cornwallis, would have hazarded the capital, by keeping large detachments in their distant out-posts : they therefore resolved to contract their limits, by retiring within the Santee. This measure animated the friends of con- gress in the extremities of the state, and disposed them to co-operate with the Amer- ican army. While operations were carrying on against the small posts, Greene proceeded with his main army, and laid siege to Ninety-six, in which lieutenant-colonel Cruger, with up- wards qf five hundred men, was advan- tageously posted. On the left of the besieg- ers was a work, erected in the form of a star; on the right was a strong blockade fort, with two block-houses in it The town was also picketed in with strong pickets, and surrounded with a ditch, and a bank, near the height of a common parapet The besiegers were more numerous than the be- sieged, but the disparity was not great. The siege was prosecuted with indefati- gable industry. The garrison defended them- selves with spirit and address. On the twen- ty-fifth of May, the morning after the siege began, a party sallied from the garrison, and drove the advance of the besiegers from their works. The next night, two strong block batteries were erected at the distance of three hundred and fifty yards. Another battery, twenty feet high, was erected with- in two hundred and twenty yards, and soon after a fourth was erected within a hundred yards of the main fort, and lastly, a rifle bat- tery was erected thirty feet high, within thirty yards of the ditch ; from all of which the besiegers fired into the British works. The abatis was turned, and a mine and two trenches were so far extended, as to be within six feet of the ditch. At that inter- esting moment, intelligence was conveyed into the garrison, that lord Rawdon was near at hand with about two thousand men for their relief. These had arrived in Charlestown from Ireland after the siege be- gan, and were marched for Ninety-six on ;he seventh day after they landed. In these ;ircumstances, general Greene had no al- ternative but to raise the siege, or attempt ;he reduction of the place by assault. The alter was attempted. Though the assailants displayed great resolution, they foiled of success. On this, general Greene raised the siege, and retreated over Saluda. His loss in the assault and previous conflicts was about a hundred and fifty men. Lieutenant- colonel Cruger deservedly gained great re- mtation by this successful defence. He was Mtrticularly indebted to major Greene, who lad bravely and judiciously defended that redoubt, for the reduction of which the greatest exertions had been made. lord lawdon, who by rapid marches was near Ninety-six at the tune of the assault, pursu- ed the Americans as far as the Enoree riv- 281 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. er ; but without overtaking them. Desistr ing from this fruitless pursuit, he drew ofi' a part of his force from Ninety-six, and fixed a detachment at the Congaree. General Greene, on hearing that the British force was divided, faced about to give them bat- tle. Lord Rawdon, no less surprised than alarmed at this unexpected movement of his lately retreating foe, abandoned the Conga- ree in two days after he had reached it, and marched to Orangeburgh. General Greene in his turn pursued and offered him battle. His lordship would not venture out, and his adversary was too weak to attack him in his encampment with any prospect of success. Reasons similar to those which induced the British to evacuate Camden, weighed with them about this time to withdraw their troops from Ninety-six. While the American army lay near Orangeburgh, lieu- tenant-colonel Cruger, having evacuated the post he had gallanfly defended, was march- ing with the troops of that garrison, through the forks of Edisto, to join lord Rawdon at Orangeburgh. General Greene being un- able to prevent their junction, and still less so to stand before their combined force, re- tired to the high hills of Santee. The evac- uation of Camden having been effected by striking at the posts below it, the same ma- noeuvre was now attempted to induce the British to leave Orangeburgh. With this view, generals Sumter and Marion, with their brigades, and the legion of cavalry, were detached to Monk's Corner and Dor- chester. They moved down different roads, and commenced separate and successful at- tacks, on convoys and detachments, in the vicinity of Charlestown. In this manner was the war carried on. While the British kept their forces compact, they could not cover the country, and the American general had the prudence to avoid fighting. When they divided their army, their detachments were attacked and defeated. While they were in the upper country, light parties of Ameri- cans annoyed their small posts in the lower their promised protection. The spirit of re- volt became general, and the royal interest daily declined. The British having evacuated all their posts to the northward of Santee and Con- garee, and to the westward of Edisto, con- ceived themselves able to hold all that fer- tile country, which is in a great measure inclosed by these rivers. They therefore once more resumed their station near the junction of the Wateree and Congaree. The Americans retired to their former po- sition on the high hills of Santee, and the British took poet in the vicinity of Monk's Greene moved down into the lower country, and about the same time the British aban- doned their out-posts, and retired with their whole force to the quarter-house on Charles- town Neck. The defence of the country was given up, and the conquerors, who had lately carried their arms to the extremities of the state, seldom aimed at anything more than to secure themselves in the vicinity of the capital. The crops which had been planted in the spring of the year under Brit- ish auspices, and with the expectation of af- fording them supplies, fell into the hands of the Americans, and administered to them a seasonable relief. A few excursions were afterwards made by the British, and some small enterprises were executed, but nothing of more general consequence occurred than the loss of property, and of individual lives. LORD CORNWALLIS PROCEEDS TO VIR- GINIA. IT has already been mentioned that lord Cornwallis, soon after the battle of Guildford, marched to Wilmington in North Carolina. When he had completed that march, various plans of operation were presented to his view. It was said in favor of his proceeding southwardly, that the country between Wil- mington and Camden was barren, and of difficult passage that an embarkation for Charlestown would be both tedious and dis- graceful, and that a junction with the royal forces in Virginia, and the prosecution of solid operations in that quarter, would be the most effectual plan for effecting and secur- ing the submission of the more southern states. Other arguments of apparently equal force urged his return to South Carolina. Previous to his departure for Virginia, he had received information that general Greene had begun his march for Camden, and he had reason from past experience to fear that if he did not follow him, the inhabitants, by a second revolt, would give the American army a superiority over the small force left under lord Rawdon. Though his lordship was very apprehensive of danger from that quarter, he hoped either that lord Rawdon would be able to stand his ground, or that general Greene would follow the royal army to Virginia ; or in the most unfavorable event he flattered himself, that by the con- quest of Virginia, the recovery of South Carolina would be at any time practicable. His lordship having too much spirit to turn back, and preferring the extensive scale of operations which Virginia presented, to the narrow one of preserving past conquests, determined to leave Carolina to its fate. Be- fore the end of April, he therefore proceed- ed on his march from Wilmington towards Virginia. To favor the passage of the many rivers, with which the country is intersect- Corner. In the close of the year general I ed, two boats were mounted on carriages GEORGE HI. 17601820. and taken along with his army. The king's troops proceeded several days without oppo- sition, and almost without intelligence. The Americans made an attempt at Swift Creek, and afterwards at Fishing Creek, to stop their progress, but without any effect. The British took the shortest road to Halifax, and on their arrival there defeated several parties of the Americans, and took some stores, with very little loss on their side. The Roanoke, the Meherrin, and the Notta- way rivers were successfully crossed by the royal army, and with little or no opposition from the dispersed inhabitants. In less than a month the march from Wilmington to Pe- tersburgh was completed. The latter had been fixed upon as the place of rendezvous, in a private correspondence with general Philips. By this combination of the royal force previously employed in Virginia, with the troops which had marched from Wil- mington, lord Cornwallis was at the head of a very powerful army. This junction was scarcely completed, when lord Cornwallis received lord Rawdon's report of the advan- tage he had gained over general Greene, on the twenty-fifth of the preceding month. About the same time he received informa- tion that three British regiments had sailed from Cork for Charlestown. These two events eased his mind of all anxiety for South Carolina, and inspired him with brilliant hopes of a glorious campaign. He considered himself as having already subdued both the Carolinas, and as being in a fair way to increase his military fame, by the addition of Virginia to the list of his conquests. By the late combination of the royal forces under Philips and Cornwallis, and by the recent arrival of a reinforcement of fifteen hundred men directly from New- York, Virginia became the principal theatre of operation for the remainder of the cam- paign. The formidable force, thus collected in one body, called for vigorous exertions. The defensive operations, in opposition to it, were principally intrusted to the marquis de la Fayette. Early in the year he had been detached from the main American army on an expedition, the object of which was a co-operation with the French fleet in cap- turing general Arnold. On the failure of this, the marquis marched back as far as the head of Elk. There he received an order to return to Virginia to oppose the British forces, which had become more formidable by the arrival of a considerable reinforce- ment, under general Philips. He proceeded without delay to Richmond, and arrived there the day before the British reached Manchester, on the opposite side of James River. Thus was the capital of Virginia, at that time filled with almost all the mili- tary stores of the state, saved from imminent danger. So great was the superiority of numbers on the side of the British, that the marquis had before him a labor of the great- est difficulty, and was pressed with many embarrassments. In the first moments of the rising tempest, and till he could provide against its utmost rage, he began to retire with his little army, which consisted only of about one thousand regulars, two thousand militia, and sixty dragoons. OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA. LORD CORNWALLIS advanced from Peters- burgh to James River, which he crossed at Weston, and thence marching through Hano- ver county, crossed the South Anna, or Pa- munkey river. The marquis followed his motions, but at a guarded distance. The superiority of the British army, especially of their cavalry, which they easily supplied with good horses from the stables and pas- tures of private gentlemen in Virginia, enabled him to traverse the country in all directions. Two distant expeditions were therefore undertaken. The one was to Charlotteville, with the view of capturing the governor and assembly of the state; the other to Point of Fork, to destroy stores. Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton, to whom the first was committed, succeeded so far as to disperse the assembly, capture seven of its members, and to destroy a great quantity of stores at and near Charlotteville. The other expedition, which was committed to lieuten- ant-colonel Simcoe, was only in part success- ful, for the Americans had previously re- moved most of their stores from Point of Fork. In the course of these marches and counter-marches, immense quantities of prop- erty were destroyed, and some unimportant skirmishes took place. The British made many partial conquests, but these were sel- dom of longer duration than their encamp- ments. The young marquis, with a degree of prudence that would have done honor to an old soldier, acted so cautiously on the de- fensive, and made so judicious a choice of posts, and showed so much vigor and design in his movements, as to prevent any advan- tage being taken of his weakness. In his circumstances, not to be destroyed was tri- umph. He effected a junction at Racoon Ford with general Wayne, who was at the head of eight hundred Pennsylvanians. While this junction was forming, the British got between the American army and its stores, which had been removed from Rich- mond to Albemarle old court-house. The possession of these was an object with both armies. The marquis, by forced marches, got within a few miles of the British army, when they were two days' march from Albe- marle old court-house. The British general considered himself as sure of his adversary, for he knew that the stores were his object; 286 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. and he conceived it impracticable for the marquis to get between him and the stores ; but by a road, in passing which he might be attacked to advantage. The marquis had the address to extricate himself from this difficulty, by opening in the night a nearer road to Albemarle old court-house, which had been long disused and was much em- fcarrassed. To the surprise of lord Cornwal- lis, the marquis fixed himself the next day, June eighteenth, between the British army and the American stores. Lord Cornwallis finding his schemes frustrated, fell back to Richmond. About this time the marquis's army was reinforced by Steuben's troops, and by militia from the parts adjacent. He followed lord Cornwallis, and had the address to impress him with an idea that the Ameri- can army was much greater than it really was. His lordship therefore on the twenty- sixth retreated to Williamsburgh. The day after the main body of the British army ar- rived there, their rear was attacked by an American light corps under colonel Butler, and sustained a considerable loss. It being a principal object of the campaign to fix on a strong permanent post or place of arms in the Chesapeak, for the security of both the army and navy, and Portsmouth and Hampton road having both been pro- nounced unfit for that purpose, York-Town and Gloucester Points were considered as the most likely to accord with the views of the royal commanders. Portsmouth was therefore evacuated, and its garrison trans- ferred to York-Town. Lord Cornwallis ap- plied himself with industry to fortify his new posts, so as to render them tenable by his present army, amounting to seven thou- sand men, against any force that he supposed likely to be brought against them. Count de Grasse, with a French fleet of twenty-eight sail of the line from the West Indies, on the thirtieth of August entered the Chesapeak, and about the same time in- telligence arrived, that the French and Amer- ican armies which had been lately stationed in the more northern states, were advancing towards Virginia. Count de Grasse, with- out loss of time, blocked up York River with three large ships and some frigates, and moored the principal part of the fleet in Lyn- haven Bay. Three thousand two hundred French troops, brought in this fleet from the West Indies, commanded by the marquis de St. Simon, were disembarked, and soon after formed a junction with the continental troops under the marquis de la Fayette, and the whole took post at Williamsburarh. An attack on this force was intended, but before all the arrangements subservient to its execution were fixed upon, letters of an early date in September were received by lord Cornwal- lis from Sir Henry Clinton, announcing that he would do his utmost to reinforce the royal army in the Chesapeak, or make every di- version in his power, and that admiral Digby was hourly expected on the coast. On the receipt of this intelligence, earl Cornwallis, not thinking himself justified in hazarding an engagement, abandoned the resolution of attacking the combined force of Fayette and St Simon. Admiral Graves, with twenty sail of the line, made an effort for the relief of lord Cornwallis, but without effecting his pur- pose. When he appeared off' the Capes of Virginia, M. de Grasse went out to meet him, and an indecisive engagement took place on the seventh of September. The British were willing to renew the action, but M. de Grasse for good reasons declined it His chief object in coming out of the Capes was to cover a French fleet of eight line-of-bat- tle ships, which was expected from Rhode- Island. In conformity to a preconcerted plan, count de Barras, commander of this fleet, had sailed for the Chesapeak, about the time de Grasse sailed from the West In- dies for the same place. To avoid the Brit- ish fleet, he had taken a circuit by Bermuda. For fear that the British fleet might inter- cept him on his approach to the Capes of Virginia, de Grasse came out to be at hand for his protection. While Graves and de Grasse were manoeuvring near the mouth of the Chesapeak, count de Barras passed the former in the night, and got within the Capes of Virginia, This gave the French fleet a decided superiority. Admiral Graves soon took his departure, and M. de Grasse re-en- tered the Chesapeak. All this time, con- formably to the well-digested plan of the campaign, the French and the American forces were marching through the middle states on their way to York-Town. To un- derstand in their proper connexion the great events shortly to be described, it is necessary to go back and trace the remote causes which brought on this grand combination of fleets and armies which put a period to the . war. AIDS FROM FRANCE. THE fell of Charlestown in May 1780, and the complete rout of the American and south- ern army in August following, together with the increasing inability of the Americans to carry on the war, gave a serious alarm to the friends of independence. In this low ebb of their affairs, a pathetic statement of their distresses was made to their ally the king of France. To give greater efficacy to their solicitations, congress appointed lieu- tenant-colonel John Laurens their special minister, and directed him, after repairing to the court of Versailles, to urge the neces- sity of speedy and effectual succor, and in particular to solicit for a loan of money, and GEORGE HI. 17601820. 287 the cooperation of a French fleet, in attempt- ing some important enterprise against the common enemy. At this crisis his most Chris- tian majesty gave his American allies a sub- sidy of six millions of livres, and became their security for ten millions more, borrowed for their use in the United Netherlanda A naval co-operation was promised, and a con- junct expedition against their common foe was projected. The American war was now so far in- volved in the consequences of naval opera- tions, that a superior French fleet seemed to be the only hinge on which it was likely soon to take a favorable turn. The British army being parcelled in the different sea- ports of the United States, any division of it blocked up by a French fleet, could not long resist the superior combined force which might be brought to operate against it. The marquis de Castries, who directed the marine of France, with great precision calculated the naval force which the British could concentre on the coast of the United States, and disposed his own in such a man- ner as insured him a superiority. In con- formity to these principles, and in subserv- iency to the design of the campaign, M. de Grasse sailed in March 1781 from Brest, with twenty-five sail of the line, several thousand land forces, and a large convoy, amounting to more than two hundred ships. A small part of this force was destined for the East Indies, but M. de Grasse with the greater part sailed for Martinique. The British fleet then in the West Indies had been previously weakened by the departure of a squadron for the protection of the ships which were employed in carrying to Eng- land the booty which had been taken at St. Eustatius. The British admirals Hood and Drake were detached to intercept the out- ward-bound French fleet commanded by M. de Grasse ; but a junction between his force and eight ships of the line, and one of fifty guns, which were previously at Martinique and St. Domingo, was nevertheless effect- ed. By this combination of fresh ships from Europe, with the French fleet previously in the West Indies, they had a decided superi- ority. M. de Grasse having finished his business in the West Indies, sailed in the beginning of August with a prodigious con- voy. After seeing this out of danger, he directed his course for the Chesapeak, and arrived there, as has been related, on the thirteenth of the same month. Five days before his arrival in the Chesapeak, the French fleet in Rhode-Island sailed for the same place. These fleets, notwithstanding their original distance from the scene of ac- tion, and from each other, coincided in their operations in an extraordinary manner, far beyond the reach of military calculation. They all tended to one object and at one and the same time, and that object was nei- ther known nor suspected by the weak and ill-informed British ministry, till the proper season for counteraction was elapsed. The plan of operations had been so well digested, and was so faithfully executed by the differ- ent commanders, that general Washington and count Rochambeau had passed the Brit- ish head-quarters in New- York, and were considerably advanced in their way to York- Town before count de Grasse had reached the American coast This was effected in the following manner : Mons. de Barras, ap- pointed to the command of the French squad- ron at Newport, on the sixth of May arrived at Boston with dispatches for count de Roch- ambeau. An interview soon after took place at Weathersfield, between general Wash- ington, Knox, and Du Portail, on the part of the Americans, and count de Rocham- beau, and the chevalier Chastelleux, on the part of the French. At this interview, an eventual plan of the whole campaign was fixed. This was to lay siege to New- York in concert with a French fleet, which was to arrive on the coast in the month of Au- gust. It was agreed that the French troops should march towards the North River : the French troops marched from Rhode- Island in June, and early in the following month joined the American army. About the time this junction took place, general Washington marched his army from their winter encampment near Peek's Kill, to the vicinity of Kingsbridge. General Lincoln fell down the North River with a detachment in boats, and took possession of the ground where Fort Independence formerly stood. An attack was made upon him, but was soon dis- continued. The British about this time re- tired with almost the whole of their force to New- York Island. General Washington hoped to be able to commence operations against New- York, about the middle, or at farthest, the latter end of July. That tardiness of the states, which at other times had brought them near the brink of ruin, was now the accidental cause of real service. Had they sent forward their recruits for the regular army, and their quo- tas of militia, as was expected, the siege of New- York would have commenced in the latter end of July, or early in August While the season was wasting away in expectation of these reinforcements, lord Cornwallis, as bas been mentioned, fixed himself near the Capes of Virginia. His situation there, the arrival of a reinforcement of three thousand Germans from Europe at New- York, the superior strength of that garrison, the fail- ure of the states, in filling up their battal- ions, and embodying their militia, and espe- cially recent intelligence from count de 288 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Grasse, that his destination was fixed to the Chesapeak, concurred, about the middle of August, to make a total change in the plan of the campaign. The appearance of an intention to attack New- York was nevertheless kept up. While this deception continued, the allied army on the twenty-fourth of that month crossed the North River, and passed on the way of Phil- adelphia to York-Town. An attempt to reduce the British forces in Virginia, prom- ised success with more expedition, and to secure an object of nearly equal import- ance with the reduction of New- York. No one can undertake to say what would have been the consequence, if the allied forces had persevered in their original plan ; but it is evident from th'e event, that no success could have been greater, or more conducive to the establishment of their schemes, than what resulted from their operations in Vir- ginia. While the attack of New- York was in serious contemplation, a letter from general Washington detailing the particulars of the intended operations of the campaign being intercepted, it fell into the hands of Sir Henry Clinton. After the plan was chang- ed, the royal commander was so much un- der the impression of the intelligence con- tained in the intercepted letter, that he be- lieved every movement towards Virginia to be a feint calculated to draw off his atten- tion from the defence of New- York. Un- der the influence of this opinion, he bent his whole force to strengthen that post, and suffered the French and American armies to pass him without any molestation. When the best opportunity of striking at them was elapsed, then for the first time he was brought to believe that the allies had fixed on Virginia for the theatre of their combined operations. As truth may be made to an- swer the purposes of deception, so no feint of attacking New- York could have been more successful than the real intention. In the latter end of August, the American army began their march to Virginia, from the neighborhood of New- York. Genera! Washington had advanced as far as Chester, before he received the news of the arrival of the fleet commanded by Monsieur de Grasse. The French troops marched at the same time, and for the same place. Gene- ral Washington and count Rochambeau reached Williamsburgh on the fourteenth of September. They, with generals Chastel- leux, Du Portail, and Knox, proceeded to vimt count de Grasse on board his ship the Ville de Paris, and agreed on a plan of ope- rationa The count afterwards wrote to Washing- ton, that in case a British fleet appeared, " he conceived that he ought to go out and meet them at sea, instead of risking an en- gagement in a confined situation." This alarmed the general. He sent the marquis de la Fayette with a letter to dissuade him rom the dangerous measure. This letter and the persuasions of the marquis had the desired effect The combined forces proceeded on their way to York-Town, partly by land, and mrtly down the Chesapeak. The whole, gether with a body of Virginia militia, under the command of general Nelson, amounting in the aggregate to twelve thou- sand men, rendezvoused at Williamsburgh on the twenty-fifth of September, and in five days after, moved down to the investiture of York-Town. The French fleet at the same' time moved to the mouth of York river, and took a position which was calculated to pre- vent lord Cornwallis either from retreating or receiving succor by water. Previously to the march from Williamsburgh to York- Town, Washington gave out in general or- ders as follows : " If the enemy should be tempted to meet the army on its march, the general particularly enjoins the troops to place their principal reliance on the bayonet, that they may prove the vanity of the boast which the British make of their peculiar prowess in deciding battles with that weapon." The combined army halted in the even- ing, about two miles from York-Town, and lay on their arms all night About this time lord Cornwallis received a letter from Sir Henry Clinton, announcing the arrival of admiral Digby with three ships of the line from Europe, and the determination of the general and flag officers in New- York to embark five thousand men in a fleet, which would probably sail on the fifth of October ; that this fleet consisted of twenty-three sail of the line, and that joint exertions of the navy and army would be made for his relief. On the night after the receipt of this in- telligence, lord Cornwallis quitted his out- ward position, and retired to one more inward. CAPTURE OF LORD CORNWALLIS. THE works erected for the security of York-Town on the right, were redoubts and batteries, with a line of stockade in the rear. A marshy ravine lay in front of the right, over which was placed a large redoubt The morass extended along the centre, which was defended by a line of stockade, and by batteries : on the left of the centre was a horn-work with a ditch, a row of fraise and an abatis. Two redoubts were advanced before the left. The combined forces ad- vanced and took possession of the ground from which the British had retired. About this time the legion cavalry and mounted infantry passed over the river to Gloucester; GEORGE m. 17601820. 289 general de Choisy invested the British post on that side so fully, as to cut off all commu- nication between it and the country. In the mean time the royal army was straining every nerve to strengthen their works, and their artillery was constantly employed in impeding the operations of the combined army. On the ninth and tenth of October, the French and Americans opened their bat- teries; they kept up a brisk and well direct- ed fire from heavy cannon, from mortars, and howitzers. The shells of the besiegers reached the ships in the harbor, and the Charon of forty-four guns and a transport ship were burned. On the tenth a messen- ger arrived with a dispatch from Sir Henry Clinton to lord Cornwallis, dated on the thirtieth of September, which stated various circumstances tending to lessen the proba- bility of relief being obtained, by a direct movement from New- York. Lord Corn- wallis was at this juncture advised to evacu- ate York-Town, and after passing over to Gloucester, to force his way into the coun- try. Whether this movement would have been successful, no one can with certainty pronounce ; but it could not have produced any consequences more injurious to the royal interest than those which resulted from de- clining the attempt. On the other hand, had this movement been made, and the royal army been defeated or captured in the inte- rior country, and in the mean time had Sir Henry Clinton, with the promised relief, reached York-Town, the precipitancy of the noble lord would have been perhaps more the subject of censure, than his resolution of standing his ground and resisting to the last extremity. On the eleventh of October the besiegers commenced their second par- allel two hundred yards from the works of the besieged. Two redoubts which were advanced on the left of the British, greatly impeded the progress of the combined ar- mies; it was therefore proposed to carry them by storm. To excite a spirit of emu- lation, the reduction of the one was com- mitted to the French, of the other to the Americans, and both marched to the assault with unloaded arms. The Americans hav- ing passed the abatis and palisades, they at- tacked on all sides, and carried the redoubt in a few minutes. The French were equally successful on their part. They carried the redoubt as- signed to them with rapidity, but lost a con- siderable number of men. These two re- doubts were included in the second parallel, and facilitated the subsequent operations of the besiegers. The British could not with propriety risk repeated sallies. One was projected at this time, October sixteenth, consisting of four hundred men, commanded by lieutenant-colonel Abercrombie. He pro- VOL. IV. 25 ceeded so far as to force two redoubts, and to spike eleven pieces of cannon. Though the officers and soldiers displayed great bra- very in this enterprise, yet their success produced no essential advantage. The can- non were soon unspiked and rendered fit for service. By this time the batteries of the besiegers were covered with nearly a hundred pieces of heavy ordnance, and the works of the be- sieged were so damaged, that they could scarcely show a single gun. Lord Corn- wallis had now no hope left but from oner- ing terms of capitulation or attempting an escape. He determined on the latter. This, though less practicable than when first pro- posed, was not altogether hopeless. Boats were prepared to receive the troops in the night, and to transport them to Gloucester Point. After one whole embarkation had crossed, a violent storm of wind and rain dispersed the boats employed on this busi- ness, and frustrated the whole scheme. The royal army, thus weakened by division, was exposed to increased danger. Orders were sent to those who had passed, to recross the river to York-Town. With the failure of this scheme the last hope of the British army expired. Longer resist- ance could answer no good purpose, and might occasion the loss of many valuable lives. Lord Cornwallis therefore wrote a letter to general Washington, requesting a cessation of arms for twenty-four hours, and that commissioners might be appointed to digest terms of capitulation. It is remark- able while lieutenant-colonel Laurens, the officer employed by general Washington, on this occasion, was drawing up these articles, that his father was closely confined in the Tower of London, of which lord Cornwallis was constable. By this singular combination of circumstances, his lordship became a pris- oner to the son of his own prisoner. On the nineteenth of October the posts of York and Gloucester were surrendered by a capitulation, the principal articles of which were as follows : The troops to be prisoners of war to congress, and the naval force to France. The officers to retain their side- arms and private property of every kind : but all property, obviously belonging to the inhabitants of the United States, to be sub- ject to be reclaimed. The soldiers to be kept in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylva- nia, and to be supplied with the same rations as were allowed to soldiers in the service of congress. A proportion of the officers to march into the country with the prisoners ; the rest to be allowed to proceed on parole to Europe, to New- York, or to any other American maritime post in possession of the British. The honor of marching out with colors flying, which had been refused to 290 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. general Lincolnon his giving upCharlestown, was now refused to lord Cornwallis ; and gen- eral Lincoln was appointed to receive the sub- mission of the royal army at York-Town, precisely in the same way his own had been conducted about eighteen months before. Lord Cornwallis endeavored to obtain per- mission for the British and German troops to return to their respective countries, under no other restrictions than an engagement not to serve against France or America. He also tried to obtain an indemnity for those of the inhabitants who had joined him ; but he was obliged to recede from the former, and also to consent that the loyalists in his camp should be given up to the uncondition- al mercy of their countrymen. His lordship nevertheless obtained permission for the Bo- netta sloop of war to pass unexamined to New- York. This gave an opportunity of screening such of them as were most obnox- ious to the Americans. The regular troops of France and Amer- ica, employed in this siege, consisted of about seven thousand of the former, and five thou- sand five hundred of the latter ; and they were assisted by about four thousand militia. On the part of the combined army about three hundred were killed or wounded : on the part of the British about five hundred, and seventy were taken in the redoubts, which were carried by assault on the four- teenth of October. The troops of every kind that surrendered prisoners of war ex- ceeded seven thousand men ; but so great was the number of sick and wounded, that there were only three thousand capable of bearing arms. A British fleet and an army of seven thou- sand men, destined for the relief of lord Cornwallis, arrived off the Chesapeak on the twenty-fourth of October; but on re- ceiving advice of his lordship's surrender, they returned to Sandy-hook and New- York. Such was the fate of that general, from whose gallantry and previous successes the speedy conquest of the southern states had been so confidently expected. No event during the war promised fairer for overset- ting the independence of at least a part of the confederacy, than his complete victory at Camden ; but by the consequences of that action, his lordship became the occasion of rendering that a revolution, which from his previous success was in danger of terminat- ing as a rebellion. The loss of his army may be considered as the closing scene of the continental war in North America. EXPEDITION OF COMMODORE JOHN- STONEOPERATIONS IN THE WEST INDIES- In the beginning of the campaign a squad- ron of ships, under the command of commo- dore Johnstone, was sent against the Cape of Good Hope; the court of France however not being unapprized of its destination, dis- patched a fleet of superior force from Brest, under the command of M. de Sufirein, to counteract the design of the British commo- dore. The French overtook the English squadron at the Cape de Verd Islands, on the sixteenth of April, and though the latter was at anchor in a neutral port (Port Praya, in the island of St Jago), and consequently under the protection of the Portuguese flag, proceeded to attack it. The British squad- ron was thrown into some confusion on the first attack, and the conduct of the commo- dore has not escaped censure on this occa- sion. The native valor of the British sea- men, however, soon displayed itself, and the outward-bound India ships which came un- der convoy of the commodore, taking an ac- tive part in the engagement, the French were beaten off, but not without the loss of seventy-seven killed and wounded on the part of the English. The object of the ex- pedition was by this rencounter completely defeated. As before mentioned, a fleet of twenty sail of the line, and a fifty-four gun ship, had sailed from Brest, under the command of M. de Grasse ; and as the French had already eight sail of the line and a fifty gun ship at Martinique and St Domingo, it was gene- rally supposed they would have a decided superiority in the West Indies. The British fleet was weakened by the admiral's sending a squadron under the command of commo- dore Hotham, with the convoy which con- veyed the Eustatia treasure to England, which reduced his fleet to twenty-one sail of the line ; As it was therefore of the ut- most importance to intercept the squadron of de Grasse, admiral Rodney detached the admirals Hood and Drake, with seventeen sail, for that purpose, while he remained him- self at St. Eustatia, with a few ships, for its protection. On the twenty-ninth of April the French fleet appeared in sight of the British admi- ral Hood as he lay in the channel of St. Lu- cia. The French convoy got safe into the harbor of Fort Royal in Martinique, and four ships of the line, and a fifty gun ship out of the same harbor, were enabled to join the French fleet The enemy, notwithstand- ing this superiority, appeared desirous of avoiding a general engagement, and after many ineffectual endeavors on the part of the English to gain the wind, so as to force the French admiral to a decisive action, both fleets ceased firing, and each claimed the victory. To the French indeed it was al- most productive of equal consequences ; for though they lost the greatest number of men in the action, five of the English ships were so disabled as to be rendered unfit for imme- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 291 diate service. Thus the superiority of the enemy in those seas was decided and irre- sistible. M. de Grasse, on the following day was desirous of bringing the contest to thai conclusive point which before he had evad- ed ; but Sir Samuel Hood disappointed him by his masterly movements, by which the English fleet arrived safe at Antigua after being pursued by the French. On the twenty-sixth of May, admiral Rod- ney received intelligence from governor Ferguson that the French fleet had appear- ed off the island of Tobago on the twenty- third ; upon which admiral Drake was dis- patched with six sail of the line and some land forces to its relief. Upon reaching the island on the morning of the thirtieth, ad- miral Drake discovered the enemy's fleet, of twenty sail, between him and the land he was therefore obliged to retreat. When admiral Rodney on the fourth of June arriv- ed off the island, with twenty sail of the line, he found it in possession of the enemy the next day he saw the French fleet of twenty-four sail of the line, with which he did not think it prudent to engage on ac- count of their superiority ; he therefore re- turned to Barbadoes. It may be necessary to remark in this place the ill fate which attended the booty seized by the plunderers of SL Eustatia. The home ward-bound convoy, which convey- ed a groat part of the property, was almosl entirely captured by the French in the chan- nel, on the second of May; and the island itself was taken on the twenty-sixth of No- vember following, by four ships of the line, and a handful of men, under the command of the marquis de Bouille, and the whole English garrison made prisoners of war. The island of St Martin submitted at the same time to the French arms. SUCCESSES IN INDIA. HYDER ALLY DEFEATED. WHEN we turn our attention towards the East Indies, we find the British forces more successful than in the West. After the de- feat of colonel Baillie, the whole Carnatic was evacuated by the Britisli, and Madras itself might be considered as in a state of blockade. The arrival of the indefatigable Sir Eyre Coote, in the latter end of 1780, and the vigorous measures which he pursu- ed, effected a sudden and unexpected change, and relieved, almost at a single blow, the Carnatic from the ravages of a dangerous and remorseless enemy. In two days after his arrival he took his seat at the council- board, and produced orders from the supreme government of Bengal, for the suspension of Mr. Whitehill, the president, whose intem- perate conduct had been a chief cause of alienating the affections of the Nizam. Upon the arrival of Sir Eyre Coote, the troops were in a wretched state of despond- ency ; the Sepoys deserting, the inhabitants treacherous, and all the resources cut off. The general, therefore, ordered dispatches at the same time to Sir Edward Hughes and to general Goddard, to urge them to be ac- tive in distressing the possessions of Hyder on the Malabar coast, and to promote as much as possible a peace with the Mahrat- tas. In the beginning of the year 1781, Hy- der's force within lie boundaries of the Car- natic alone was estimated at above one hun- dred thousand men, while that of Sir Eyre Coote did not exceed seven thousand. The two armies encountered near Porto Novo on the first of July. At seven in the morning the British troops proceeded from that place, and after an hour's march came in sight of the enemy strongly posted. Hy- der's artillery was well served by Europeans, or those instructed by them, and did consid- erable execution. In this critical situation, a bold movement was necessary ; and the British general determined to turn the right of the enemy. Fortunately the country ac- corded with his wishes, and by this move- ment he was enabled to take the enemy ob- liquely, and avoid the full front and fire of their works and batteries. In this manner the first line only decided the fortune of the day. Though Hyder, with great dexterity and promptness, formed a new front to re- cei^e the British general, and detached a large body of infantry to prevent the second line from obtaining possession of some high grounds, yet at length European order and discipline was victorious over the undisci- plined rabble of an eastern camp. Hyder was obliged to retreat, after leaving three thousand of his best troops dead on the field of battle. In the course of the following month the British gained a second victory over Hyder, after fighting from nine in the morning till sun-set, within about sixteen miles of the city of Trepassore. In the mean time the shipping of Hyder Ally was destroyed by Sir Edward Hughes, in his own ports of Callicut and Mangalore. The Dutch also fatally experienced the valor and enterprise of the British forces in that quarter of the globe. Some gentlemen of the factory at Fort Marlborough, in the month of August, under- :ook an expedition against Sumatra ; and all the Dutch settlements on the western coast of that island were reduced without any loss. The town and fortress of Negapatam, in the Tanjore country (one of the most valuable of the Dutch settlements on the continent of India), surrendered by capitulation to the English on the twelfth of November, after a siege of twenty-two days. 292 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ENGAGEMENT WITH THE DUTCH. THE inactivity of the Dutch has been at- tributed to the treachery of certain persons, employed in high offices of trust under the States-general, secretly in league with the court of London. To harass the trade of Holland, and to pro- tect that of England, a squadron was fitted out at Portsmouth, in the month of June, and the command given to admiral Sir Hyde Parker. The Dutch seemed, at an instant, to awake from their torpid inactivity ; and by the middle of July, a considerable fleet was fitted out in the Texel, under the com- mand of admiral Zoutman, who sailed about that period, with a considerable convoy un- der his protection. The British admiral was then on his return with* the convoy from Elsineur. The hostile fleets met and fought on the morning of the fifth of August off the Dogger Bank. The force of the Dutch was seven ships of the line, and ten frigates ; and the British squadron consisted only of six ships of the line, and five frigates, but was superior in weight of metal to the Dutch fleet: the firing on both sides was restrained till the ships came within half-musket shot of each other ; and the action continued with an unceasing fire for tiiree hours and forty minutes, till the vessels on both sides were so shattered that they became unmanagea- ble and unable to form a line to renew the combat For a considerable time both squad- rons lay to in this condition ; at lengtlirthe Dutch, with their convoy, bore away for the Texel ; and admiral Parker was in no con- dition to follow them. The English lost one hundred and four men killed, and three hun- dred and thirty-nine wounded ; the loss of the enemy must have been more considera- ble. It was attributed to the neglect of the admiralty that the advantages on the part of the English were not greater. It was owing to the remissness of the same department, that the French fleet from Brest, under the count de Guichen, was permitted to form a junction with the Spanish fleet from Cadiz, in the latter end of July. The combined fleets consisted of forty-nine ships of the line, and carried with them ten thou- sand land forces for the reduction of Minor- ca. After landing the troops upon that island, the combined fleets returned with the arro- gant intention of annihilating, for ever, the naval force of England. The hostile fleets appeared in the British channel before the ministry had any information of their move- ments ; and it was owing to the accidental meeting of a neutral vessel that admiral Darby had time to escape into Torbay with the British fleet. The count de Guichen was for an immediate attack upon the British ships as they lay; a contrary opinion was supported by M. Bpussel, an officer of great reputation, who pointed out the danger there would be in attacking admiral Darby, in his present situation, as they could not bear down upon him in a line of battle abreast, but must go down upon the enemy singly. The Spanish admiral, and the major part of the officers of the fleet, coincided with M. Boussel in opinion : besides, the leaky con- dition of the ships, and the mortality which prevailed among the seamen, were further inducements to refrain from an immediate attack. The combined fleets, after waiting in vain for some time to intercept our homeward- bound ships, were obliged, from the hard weather, which set in about September, to return to port as soon as possible. M. Gui- chen took shelter in Brest ; but though the Spanish squadron was scarcely in a condi- tion to reach its destined port, the etiquette of that frivolous court forbade its entrance into a French harbor. In the beginning of December M. de Gui- chen sailed again from Brest with nineteen ships of the line, and a considerable convoy of merchant-ships. Admiral Kempenfelt was dispatched to intercept them with no more than twelve sail of the line. On the twelfth the British admiral encountered the enemy in a hard gale of wind, when both fleet and convoy were considerably dispersed. With much professional skill he cut off twenty of the convoy, and afterwards drew up in a line of battle to face the enemy, when, for the first time, he was apprized of his great in- feriority, and was obliged to retreat. -The gross neglect of the admiralty excited the discontent of the public, when they saw so favorable an opportunity lost of regaining the honor of the British flag. GEORGE IIL 17601820. CHAPTER XVIII. Decline of Lord North's Influence Session of Parliament King's Speech Motion against offensive War with America Petitions against the War Misconduct of Admiralty General Conway's Motion against the War Dissolution of the Minis- try New Ministry Popular Measures Affairs of Ireland Reform Bills Mi- norca taken French Fleet in the West Indies defeated by Rodney Misfortunes of West India Fleet Bahamas taken by the Spaniards Defeat of Spaniards at Gib- raltar Neio Administration. DECLINE OF LORD NORTH'S INFLUENCE. KING'S SPEECH TO PARLIAMENT. NOTWITHSTANDING ministers had flattered themselves that they had secured such a majority at the general election, as to render their power permanent and irresistible, yet it soon appeared that they were mistaken in this opinion, and that of the new members the majority were secretly disposed to favor the whig party. From the moment of the capture of lord Cornwallis, all discerning men foresaw the downfall of lord North's administration, and the wavering and venal phalanx in the senate had already begun to make overtures to the leaders of opposition. In the midst of the dissatisfaction and gene- ral ill-humor created by the repeated dis- graces which had attended the British arms in America, the parliament assembled on the twenty-seventh of November 1781. In the speech from the throne, his majesty ob- served, " that the war was still unhappily prolonged, and that to his great concern, the events of it had been very unfortunate to his army in Virginia, having ended in the total loss of his forces in that province. But he could not consent to sacrifice, either to his own desire of peace, or to the temporary ease and relief of his subjects, those essen- tial rights and permanent interests upon which the strength and security of this country must ever principally depend." His majesty declared, " that he retained a firm confidence in the protection of Divine Provi- dence, and a perfect conviction of the jus- tice of his cause ;" and he concluded by call- ing "for the concurrence and support of parliament, and a vigorous, animated, and united exertion of the faculties and resources of his people." A motion for an address of thanks, in the usual style, was made in the house of com- mons. MOTION AGAINST AMERICAN WAR. Nor discouraged by repeated defeats, the minority, on the twelfth of December, re- newed their opposition to the American war under the form of a specific motion ; two of the leading men among the landed inter- est, Sir James Lowther and Powys, were 25* appointed to introduce the motion. In the beginning of the debate, lord North rose to make a declaration, that it was no longer in the contemplation of government to prose- cute the war internally in America, but that the whole form and conduct of it was to un- dergo a total change. The motion of oppo- sition, however, went no farther than to de- clare, that the war has hitherto been inef- fectual to the purposes for which it was un- dertaken, and that all further attempts to reduce the Americans by force, would be injurious to the interests of the country. In the course of the debate, general Bur- goyne acknowledged " that he was now convinced the principle of the American war was wrong, though he had not been of that opinion when he engaged in the ser- vice. Passion, and prejudice, and interest, were now no more, and reason and observa- tion had led him to a very different conclu- sion: and he now saw that the American war was only one part of a system levelled against the constitution of this country, and the general rights of mankind." The minister stated various arguments against the motion, such as the impolicy of pointing out to the enemy what was to be the future system of the war. On the vote of this day, the minister experienced a de- fection of about twenty of those members who usually divided with him, as Sir James Lowther's motion was rejected by only a majority of forty-one, or two hundred and twenty against one hundred and seventy- nine. The late hour to which the debate on the twelfth had been protracted, made it neces- sary to defer proceeding on the business of the army estimates till the following Friday, fourteenth of December, when the subject of the American war underwent, for the fourth time since the beginning of the ses- sion, a long and vehement discussion. The secretary at war informed the house, that the whole force of the army, including the militia of the kingdom, required for the ser- vice of the year 1782, would amount to one hundred and ninety-five thousand men. One hundred thousand seamen and marines had 294 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. been akeady voted by the house. It was, however, stated by lord George Germaine, " that the ministry were of opinion, consid- ering the present situation of affairs, and the misfortunes of the war, that it would not be right to continue any longer the plan on which it had hitherto been conducted ; and that a fresh army would not be sent to sup- ply the place of that captured at York- Town. It was intended only to preserve such posts in America as might facilitate and co-operate with the enterprises of our fleets." General Conway declared himself " anxi- ous for a recall of our fleets and armies from America. Of two evils, he would choose the least, and submit to the independence of America, rather than persist in the prose- cution of so pernicious and ruinous a war. As to the idea now suggested of a war of posts, what garrisons, he asked, would be able to maintain them, when it was well known that even Sir Henry Clinton, at New- York, did not consider himself as se- cure?" Fox remarked, " that four years ago, after the disaster of Saratoga, the noble lord at the head of affairs had amused the house with the same language as at present. Then the plan of future hostilities was to be dif- ferently modified, and the war conducted on a smaller and more contracted scale. On this contracted scale, however, we had lost another great army, besides suffering other grievous defeats, and irretrievable calami- ties." Pitt reprobated, with the utmost force of language, "as a species of obstinacy bor- dering upon madness, the idea of any fur- ther prosecution of the American war, with our fleets opposed by a superior force, and our armies in captivity. He appealed to the whole house, whether every description of men did not detest and execrate the Ameri- can war, and whether it were uncharitable to implore the Almighty to shower down his vengeance on the men who were the au- thors of their country's ruin !" PETITIONS AGAINST THE WAR. MS- CONDUCT OF ADMIRALTY. THE approbation of the people to the cause of the minority now appeared in several pe- titions and remonstrances which were pre- sented against the war. The city of London, on this occasion, led the way in a very strong remonstrance, in which they tell his majesty, " Your armies have been captured ; your do- minions have been lost; and your majesty's faithful subjects have been loaded with a burden of taxes, which, even if our victories had been as splendid as our defeats have been disgraceful ; if our accession of do- minion had been as fortunate as the dismem- berment of the empire has been cruel and disastrous, could not itself be considered but as a great and grievous calamity." Seve- ral other remonstrances and addresses were brought in from other places ; and the speedy dissolution of the ministry appeared evident 1782. An inquiry into the conduct of the first lord of the admiralty was the first busi- ness of parliament after the recess. The accusation was opened on the twenty-third of January 1782, with great address and ability, by Mr. Fox. In support of the motion it was urged that our naval armaments had been always too late to be attended with any success; and that the earl of Sandwich had uniformly neg- lected to send fleets at the opening of the several campaigns, to prevent the junction of the French and Spanish squadrons ; nor had he, at the conclusion of those campaigns, made any attempts to attack or to annoy their separate force. The confederate fleets, amounting to sixty sail of the line, under count d'Orvilliers, had appeared in the chan- nel, with every mark of triumph, for two campaigns, not only unresisted but even shunned by our naval armaments. The chevalier de Ternay had also been suffered to proceed unmolested with his ships to America, when he transported thither those French troops which afterwards served under general Washington, and assisted in the capture of Lord Cornwallis and his army. Captain Moutray, and the large fleet of East and West Indiamen under his convoy, had been betrayed into the hands of the enemy, by being directed to repair to Madeira; whereby they were of necessity obliged to proceed in that track which could not fail to conduct them to the naval armaments of the enemy. Indeed, the first lord of tin- admiralty had acted uniformly as the ally and servant of the house of Bourbon ; and so had the rest of his majesty's ministers ; without whose aid, the wisdom of a Frank- lin, the valor and the prudence of a Mau- repas, the vigilance of a Sartine, the craft of a de Caistres, the policy of America, and all the vigor and resources of France and Spain, though doubly formidable from their confederacy with Holland, could never have attained the power of overwhelming our once invincible dominions with so much dis- grace and calamity. The culprit was defended by captain John Luttrel, lord Mulgrave and lord North. After some altercation, however, it was agreed, that the inquiry should be referred to a committee of the whole house, on the following Thursday ; and this was followed by resolutions for certain papers, which were necessary to substantiate the criminal charges. The committee of inquiry having been, from various causes, delayed to the seventh of February, Fox on that day rose GEORGE IH. 17601820. 295 to move a resolution of censure, founded on facts contained in the papers which were laid in evidence before the house. Though no charges could be better founded, or more satisfactorily proved, than those against the first lord of the admiralty, the vote of censure was negatived in a very full house by a ma- jority of twenty-two. LORD GEORGE GERMAINE MADE A PEER. THE creating of lord George Germaine a peer, and consequently calling him to that house which lord Chesterfield has emphati- cally termed, " The hospital of incurables," was the first happy omen for the country of the mouldering state of the ministry ; but before he assumed his new title of lord vis- count Sackville, he resigned his office of American secretary. A motion was made by the marquis of Carmarthen (afterwards duke of Leeds), intimating, that it was de- rogatory to the honor of the house, that any person, laboring under the heavy censure of a court-martial, should be recommended by the crown as a proper person to sit in that house." The motion was evaded by the question of adjournment ; but lord George Germaine having actually taken his seat in the house under the title of lord viscount Sackville, the marquis of Carmarthen renewed his at- tack, and urged, " that the house of peers being a court of honor, it behoved them to preserve that honor uncontaminated, and to mark in the most forcible manner their dis- approbation of the introduction of a person into that assembly who was stigmatized in the orderly-books of every regiment in the service." Lord Abingdon, who seconded the motion, styled the admission of lord George Germaine to a peerage " an unsufferable indignity to that house, and an outrageous insult to the public. What (said his lordship) has that person done to merit honors superior to his fellow-citizens! His only claim to promo- tion was, that he had undone his country by executing the plan of that accursed, invisi- ble, though inefficient cabinet, from whom as he received his orders, so he had obtained his reward." Lord Sackville, in his own vindication, denied the justice of the sentence passed upon him, and affirmed " that he considered his restoration to the council-board, at a very early period of the present reign, as amount- ing to a virtual repeal of that iniquitous ver- dict." The duke of Richmond strongly defended the motion, and said " that he himself was present at the battle of Minden, and was summoned on the trial of Lord George Ger- maine ; and had his deposition been called for, he could have proved that the tune lost when the noble viscount delayed to advance, under pretence of receiving contradictory orders, was not less than one hour and a half; that the cavalry were a mile and a quarter only from the scene of action ; and it was certainly in his lordship's power, therefore, to have rendered the victory, im- portant as it was, far more brilliant and de- cisive ; and he had little reason to complain of the severity of the sentence passed upon him." Lord Southampton also, who, as aid-de- camp to prince Ferdinand on that memora- ble day, delivered the message of his serene highness to his lordship, vindicated the equity of the sentence. On the division, nevertheless, it was re- jected by a majority of ninety-three to twenty-eight voices: but to the inexpressible chagrin of lord Sackville, a protest was en- tered on the journals of the house, declaring his promotion to be "an insult on the memory of the late sovereign, and highly derogatory to the dignity of that house." GENERAL CONWAY'S MOTION AGAINST THE WAR. DEFEAT OF MINISTRY. THE appointment of Welbore Ellis to the office of secretary to the American depart- ment in the room of lord Sackville, and Sir Guy Carleton to that of commander-in- chief in North America, occasioned an alarm among those who were persuaded, that there still existed a secret and obstinate attach- ment in the court to the prosecution of the war against the Americans. Another at- tempt, therefore, was made in the commons, on the twenty-second of February, to bind the hands of the executive power, by the strong and explicit declaration of parliament. To this purpose general Conway made a motion, " That an address should be present- ed, imploring his majesty, that the war might be no longer pursued for the imprac- ticable purpose of reducing the people of America by force." The motion was second- ed by lord John Cavendish, and opposed by the new secretary for the American depart- ment, who declared, "that it was now in contemplation to contract the scale of the war, and to prosecute hostilities by such means as were very dissimilar from the past In order to obtain peace with America, we must vanquish the French ; and as in the late war, America had been said to be con- quered in Germany, so in this America must be conquered in France. In the present circumstances the administration were con- scious of the necessity of drawing into a narrow compass the operations of the Ameri- can war, a change of circumstances de- manding a corresponding change of mea- sures." The decision of this question was a real triumph to opposition, as the motion was lost only by a single vote ; and as a majority of the absent members were supposed to be 296 HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. adverse to the ministry, it was thought ex- pedient to bring the question again before the house in a different form. On the twenty- seventh of February, therefore, general Conway brought forward a new motion to the same effect, which was seconded by lord Althorpe, and petitions from several trading towns were read, in disapprobation of the war. In order to evade the question, the at- torney-general, Wallace, recommended that a truce should be proposed with America : the intended deception, however, was too obvious to impose upon the house ; and, on a division upon his amendment, a majority of nineteen appeared against the ministry. The motion of general Conway was imme- diately followed by another, for an address to his majesty, to put an end to the war ; and it was further resolved, that the address should be presented by the whole house. When the house went up to St. James's with the address, it was observed as a re- markable circumstance, that the noted gen- eral Arnold was found standing at the right hand of his majesty. This circumstance drew forth some pointed observations in par- liament from lord Surrey, afterwards duke of Norfolk, who declared, " that it was an insult to the house, and deserved its cen- sure." His majesty's answer to the address was in general terms, that he should take such measures as might appear to him most con- ducive to the restoration of peace. All refer- ence to the prosecution of offensive war was cautiously avoided. The evasive nature of this answer induc- ed general Conway to move another resolu- tion in the commons, declaring, " that the house would consider as enemies to his ma- jesty, and to the country, all those who should advise the further prosecution of of- fensive war on the continent of North Amer- ica." After a feeble opposition, the motion was permitted to pass without a division. The embarrassment of ministers, and the triumph and exultation which pervaded the whole nation on the success of these mo- tions, are hardly to be described. The whigs were regarded as the real friends and sa- viors of their country. The continuance of the ministry in office was, however, thought to be a favorite object with certain persons in high authority ; and it had been intimated by ministers themselves, that though parlia- ment had interfered with its advice respect- ing the American war, still, since it had ex- pressed no direct censure on their conduct, they could not be expected to resign. In or- der to remove this impediment, lord John Cavendish, on the eighth of March, moved a direct vote of censure upon the adminis- tration, which was seconded by Powys, in a forcible speech. The debate lasted till two in the morning, when, on a division, there appeared, in favor of administration, a ma- jority of ten. The unpopularity of lord North, however, was now further augmented by his proposal of some new taxes ; particularly that on soap, the carriage of goods, and places of public entertainment ; all of which were finally rejected by the house. The interval between the eighth and fif- teenth was generally supposed to have been employed in various unsuccessful attempts to divide the party in opposition ; and as lord North still seemed averse to resign, on the latter day a motion was made by Sir John Rous, and Seconded by the younger lord George Cavendish, the design of which was to accelerate a change of administration. After reciting the facts contained in the re- solutions moved on the eighth, it was pro- posed to resolve, "That, on consideration thereof, the house could have no farther con- fidence in the ministers who had the direc- tion of public affairs." In the debate, the necessity of some new arrangement in the administration of public affairs was no lon- ger denied ; but the impolicy, and even the danger, of throwing the country entirely into the hands of any party, was still strong- ly contended. A coalition was loudly called for by many moderate and independent members, and the propriety of leaving the noble lord at the head of the treasury in possession of his office, till such a measure could be accomplished, was much insisted on. On the other side it was urged, that the bait of a coalition had been thrown out by the court merely for the purpose of delay, and giving room for intrigue and cabal ; and that, in order to secure to the nation the ad- vantages which it was now universally ad- mitted would arise from a total change in the public councils, it was necessary not to relax, for a moment, the vigorous pursuit of such measures, as could not fail of being speedily crowned with success. Lord North endeavored to vindicate his own administration. He affirmed, that it could not be declared with truth, by that house, that the loss of the American colo- nies, or of the West India islands, or our other national calamities, originated from the measures of the present administration. The repeal of the American stamp-act, and the. passing of the declaratory law, took place before his entrance into office. As a private member of parliament, he gave his vote in favor of both ; but, as a minister, he was not responsible for either. The house at length divided upon the question, when there appeared for it two hundred and twen- ty-seven, and against it two hundred and thirty-six ; so that there was a majority of nine in favor of administration. GEORGE 1IL 17601820. 297 MINISTRY DISSOLVED. NOTWITHSTANDING this seemingly favora- ble determination, it was so well known that the ministry could not stand their ground, that four days after (March nineteenth) a similar motion to that made by Sir John Rous, was to have been made by the earl of Surrey ; but when his lordship was about to rise for that purpose, lord North addressed himself to the speaker, and observed, that as he understood the motion to be made by the noble earl was similar to that made a few days before ; and the object of which was the removal of the ministers, he had such information to communicate to the house, as must, he conceived, render any such motion now unnecessary. He could with authority assure the house, that his majesty had come to a full determination to change his ministers. Indeed, those persons who had for some time conducted the public affairs, were no longer his majesty's minis- ters. They were not now to be considered as men holding the reins of government, and transacting matters of state, but merely remaining to do their official duty, till other ministers were appointed to take their places. The sooner those new ministers were ap- pointed, his lordship declared, that, in his opinion, the better it would be for the pub- lic business, and the general interests of the nation. He returned thanks to the house for the many instances of favor and indul- gence which he had received from them during the course of his administration ; and he declared, that he considered himself as responsible, in all senses of the word, for every circumstance of his ministerial con- duct, and that he should be ready to answer to his country, whenever he should be called upon for that purpose. Upon this intelli- gence the motion was withdrawn, and the house adjourned to the Monday following. Thus ended an administration which had plunged the nation into a war, under the pretext of levying a tax which would not have paid for the collection of it ; and which refused every offer of accommodation from the revolted colonies, short of the most un- conditional submission. The venerable Franklin, and the judicious Penn, were equally insulted, with proposals in their hands for the adjustment of the disputed points between the Americans and the mother country. NEW MINISTRY. WHILE the nation at large evinced the most unfeigned joy at the sudden dissolution of this cabal, it was still feared by many, that great difficulty would arise in the for- mation of a new and efficient administra- tion, on account of the unfortunate division which had long subsisted among the whigs in opposition to the court. Of the two par- ties, that of lord Rockingham was by far the most numerous and powerful ; but, from va- rious causes, easily and distinctly ascertain- able by attentive observers, the other party, of which, since the death of lord Chatham] the earl of Shelburne was accounted the head, were in less disfavor with the king ; and the highest department of government was upon this occasion expressly offered to that nobleman by his majesty. For, not to descend to subordinate reasons of prefer- ence, it is evident that the chief of the in- ferior party, lord Shelburne, would, from his comparative weakness of connexion, have been more immediately and necessarily de- pendent than his competitor lord Rocking- ham upon the crown for protection and sup- port But the noble lord had the generosity and wisdom to resist the temptation; and the marquis of Rockingham, to the univer- sal satisfaction of the kingdom, was a second time, in a manner the most honorable and flattering to his character and feelings, placed at the head of the treasury ; under whom lord John Cavendish acted as chan- cellor of the exchequer ; the earl of Shel- burne and Fox were nominated secretaries of state ; lord Camden was appointed presi- dent of the council ; the duke of Graflon reinstated as lord privy-seal ; admiral Kep- pel, now created lord Keppel, placed at thV head of the admiralty ; general Conway, dF the army ; the duke of Richmond, of tie* ordnance. The duke of Portland succeedd : lord Carlisle as lord-lieutenant of Irelani ;: Burke was constituted paymaster of tie- forces ; and colonel Barre, treasurer of the- navy. Lord Thurlow alone, by the unac- countable and unmerited indulgence of the- new ministers, continued in possession of tie- great seal. Previous to their coming into office, the whig ministry stipulated for peace with America, and the acknowledgment of its in- dependence, should it be necessary to that object ; a reform in the several branches of the civil-list expenditure, upon the plan sug- gested by Burke ; and the diminution of the influence of the crown by excluding con- tractors from the house of commons, and by disqualifying revenue officers from voting in elections for members of parliament While these changes were taking place, the Irish began to be dissatisfied with the opposition which the ministry had manifested to what they considered as their natural rights. At a general meeting of the volun- teers of the province of Ulster on the .fif- teenth of February 1782, it was -resolved, " That the claim of any body of men, other than the king, lords, and commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind that kingdom, is un- constitutional, illegal, and a grievance ; that the powers exercised by the privy-councils 298 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of both kingdoms, tinder the color of Poyn- ing's law, are unconstitutional : and that all restraints imposed upon the trade of Ireland, except by the parliament of that kingdom, are likewise unconstitutional." These reso- lutions they determined to support by every legal means. AFFAIRS OF IRELAND EFFORTS FOR PEACE. THB parliament met on the eighth of April ; and on the following day Fox pre- sented a message from his majesty to the house of commons, recommending to them to take the affairs of Ireland into considera- tion. In the Irish house of commons the cele- brated orator Grattan moved an address to his majesty, which was unanimously voted, stating, that Ireland was a distinct kingdom, the crown of Ireland an imperial ciovtn ; and that no authority except the king, lords, and commons of Ireland, could make laws to bind that nation. It represented the power assumed by the councils of both king- doms, of altering bills, as an unconstitutional grievance ; and insisted upon a mutiny-bill, limited in duration, as essential to the liber- ty of the nation. Justice and policy seconding the views of Ireland, the obnoxious acts of parliament vere immediately repealed ; by which the vhole powers of government were vested -sdely in the king, lords, and commons of Ireland ; the controlling power of the Eng- lish parliament, and the practice of altering "the bills in the privy-council, were renounced Hot ever. The parliament of Ireland in return for 'these concessions immediately voted one iiuulrcd thousand pounds for the purpose of raising twenty thousand seamen for the pub- lic service. At the same time fifty thousand pounds was voted to Henry Grattan, Esquire, for his services. Whilst measures were thus happily pur- suing for restoring order and tranquillity in the sister kingdom, the new ministry were no less anxiously intent on effectuating a general peace with the different foreign powers with whom the nation was at war. No time was lost in pursuit of this great ob- ject, or in taking the necessary steps for its attainment Accordingly, the empress of Russia having offered her mediation, in or- der to restore peace between Great Britain and Holland, secretary Fox, within two days after his entrance into office, wrote a letter to Mons. Simolin, the Russian minister in London, informing him, that his majesty was ready to enter into a negotiation, for the purpose of setting on foot a treaty of peace, on the terms and conditions of that which was agreed to in 1764, between his majesty and the republic of Holland ; and that in order to facilitate such a treaty, he was will- ing to give immediate orders for a suspen- sion ot hostilities, if the States-General were disposed to agree to that measure. But the states of Holland did not appear inclined to a separate peace ; nor, perhaps, would it have been agreeable to the principles of sound policy, if they had agreed to any propositions of this kind. However, imme- diately after the change of ministry, negotia- tions for a general peace were commenced at Paris. Grenville was invested with full powers to treat with all the parties at war ; and was also directed to propose the inde- pendency of the thirteen united provinces of America, in the first instance, instead of making it a condition of a general treaty. Admiral Digby and general Carleton were also directed to acquaint the American con- gress with the pacific views of the British court, and with the offer that was made to acknowledge the independency of the United States. REFORM BILLS. THE British parliament prosecuted with vigor the plans of reformation and economy which had been recommended by the new ministry. The bills for excluding contrac- tors from seats hi the house of commons, and incapacitating revenue officers from voting at elections for members of parlia- ment, were passed with a feeble opposition from lord Mansfield and the chancellor, the latter declaring it to be a " puny regulation, only calculated to deceive and betray the people." Every good patriot will indeed agree with the noble lord in the truth of the assertion, that it was a " puny," that is, an inefficient " regulation," but on very differ- ent principles. Burke's bill for the reform of the civil-list expenditure was introduced with augmented splendor, but diminished utility. By this bill, which now passed the house with little difficulty, the board of trade, and the board of works, with the great ward- robe, were abolished ; together with the office of American secretary of state, now rendered useless by the loss of the American colonies ; the offices of treasurer of the chamber, cofferer of the household, the lords of police in Scotland, the paymaster of the pensions, the master of the harriers, the master of the stag-hounds, and six clerks of the board of green cloth. Provision also was made to enable his majesty to borrow a sum for the liquidation of a new arrear of three hundred thousand pounds, by a tax on salaries and pensions ; for a debt to this amount had been again contracted by the shameful prodigality of the late ministers, notwithstanding the addition of one hundred thousand pounds per annum, so recently made to the civil-list The economical abolitions and retrench- GEORGE m. 17601820. ments of the reform bill met with a violent opposition in the upper house, from the lords Thurlow and Loughborough, but it finally passed by a great majority. A bill sent up from the commons, for disfranchising certain voters of the borough of Cricklade, who had been proved guilty of the most shameful and scandalous acts of bribery, was also impeded and embarrassed in all its stages by the same kw lords, with every possible subtilty of legal quibble and chicanery. The duke of Richmond was upon this occasion provoked to charge the chancellor with indiscriminate- ly opposing every measure of regulation and improvement which was laid before the house. And lord Fortescue, with unguarded but honest warmth, remarked, " that what 299 pass ; from the profusion of lawyers intro- duced into that house, it was no longer a house of lords, it was converted into a mere court of law, where all the solid and honor- able principles of truth and justice were sacrificed to the low and miserable chicanery used in Westminster Hall. That once vene- rable, dignified, and august assembly, now resembled more a meeting of pettifoggers than a house of parliament. With respect to the learned lord on the woolsack, who had now for some years presided in that house, he seemed to be fraught with nothing but contradictions and distinctions and law sub- tilties. As to himself," lord Fortescue with a noble pride added, " he had not attended a minister's levee, till very lately, for these forty years; and the present ministry he would support no longer than they deserved it But as they came into office upon the most honorable and laudable of all princi- ples, the approbation of their sovereign, and the esteem and confidence of the nation, it filled his breast with indignation when he beheld their measures day after day thwarted and opposed, by men who resembled more a set of Cornish attorneys than members of that right honorable house." On the third of May, on the motion of Wilkes, seconded by Byng, the celebrated Vote of the seventeenth of February 1769, relative to the Middlesex election, was re- scinded and expunged from the journals, as well as all the other motions relative to the incapacity of Wilkes to take his seat in that parliament. On the twenty-second of April, the lord- advocate of Scotland moved a long series of resolutions relative to the affairs of the East India company, which were passed by the house ; and on the twenty-ninth, a bill for inflicting pains and penalties on Sir Thomas Rumbold, for high crimes and misdemeanors committed during his administration in the Carnatic; and another for restraining Sir Thomas Rumbold, and Peter Perring, Esq. from going out of the kingdom ; were in- troduced under the same authority. A vote of censure was soon afterwards passed on the conduct of Warren Hastings, Esq. governor- general in Bengal, and William Hornsby, Esq. president of the council in Bombay ; and a declaration, that it was the duty of the court of directors to take the necessary le- gal steps for then- recall. Several resolu- tions were also passed, censuring the con- duct of Laurence Sullivan, Esq. chairman of the court of directors, for neglecting to transmit the act for the regulation of the company's service in India. An address to the king was also agreed to by the house, pressing for the recall of Sir Elijah Impey. MINORCA TAKEN. FRENCH FLEET DE- FEATED BY RODNEY. ON the seventh of May, Pitt made a mo- tion " that a committee should be appointed to inquire into the state of the representa- tion, and to report to the house then- opin- ion thereon." Though ably supported by several members, the motion was rejected by one hundred and sixty-one against one hundred and forty-one. While this patriotic ministry were reforming abuses at home, our fleets and armies were reaping laurels abroad. In the beginning of the year, bow- ever, Great Britain experienced some ad- verse fortune the island of Minorca was taken by the Spaniards, on the fifth of Feb- ruary, after a close siege of upwards of six months. On the first of January, the mar- quis de Bouille landed on the island of St Christopher with eight thousand men, and was supported by the count de Grasse, with thirty-two ships of the line. After a press- ing siege of four weeks, the fortress on Brimstone-hill, to which the British forces had retired upon the approach of the enemy, was compelled to surrender, though Sir Samuel Hood had made a bold effort to re- lieve the island with his fleet. Nevis and Montserrat followed the fortune of St. Chris- topher's ; but the naval career of the French and Spaniards was fortunately interrupted in the beginning of February, by the arrival of Sir George Rodney, with twelve ships of the line, at Barbadoes, which were augment- ed by the beginning of March to a fleet of thirty-six sail of the line ; that of the French consisting only of thirty-four. On the eighth of April, the count de Grasse weighed an- chor from Fort Royal, with a large convoy under his protection, and intended to pro- ceed to Hispaniola, where he expected to meet the Spanish fleet But the British ad- miral, by means of good intelligence, was enabled to follow them by noon of the same day, from Gros-islet Bay, in St. Lucia, and came within sight of the enemy off Itomi- 300 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. nique that night Both "fleet* prepared for action by daybreak on the succeeding day. The English, however, lay becalmed under the high lands of Dominique, till near nine o'clock, when the breeze at length reached the fleet, and carried the van directly into the centre of the enemy, while the centre and the rear of the English were still be- calmed. The French admiral could not re- sist the temptation of falling upon one-third of the force of his adversaries, with his whole fleet The combat commenced with the van of the English, which was greatly pressed for more than an hour by the supe- rior force of the enemy. Upon the approach of some ships to the assistance of the van, the French admiral perceived that he had tailed in his design of crushing the first di- vision of the British ; he therefore withdrew his fleet from the action, and, having the command of the wind, completely evaded all the efforts of the British commanders for its renewal. Two of the French ships were so much disabled, as to be under the neces- sity of putting into Guadaloupe to refit The damages the English received were not so great, but that they were reparable at sea. On the eleventh, the French were so far to the windward as to weather Guadaloupe; and had gained such a distance, that the body of their fleet could only be perceived from the masts of the English centre. About noon, however, two of the disabled ships were observed to fall considerably to lee- ward. The British admiral made signals for a general chase ; and the pursuit became so vigorous, that these ships must have been inevitably cut off before the evening, had not M. de Grasse borne down to their as- sistance. The scene of action is described as a moderately large basin of water, lying between the islands of Guadaloupe, Domi- nique, the Saints, and Marigalante. The hostile fleets met upon opposite tacks; and the line of battle being formed early in the morning of the twelfth, the battle commenced about seven, and continued with unremit- ting fury till about the same hour in the evening. The ships were so near each other, that every shot told ; and those of the French being full of men, a dreadful carnage en- sued. The Formidable, Sir George Rod- ney's ship, fired no less than eighty broad- sides, and every other ship in proportion; and the gallantry of the French was in no instance inferior to that of their opponents. About noon, the British admiral, with his seconds the Duke and the Namur, broke through the enemy's line ; and immediately throwing out the signals for the van to tack, the British got to windward, and completed the general confusion of the French squad- ron. In this state the contest continued with unabated violence till the close of the day, when the admiral's ehip, the Ville de Paris, struck to Sir Samuel Hood in the Barfleur. Four other ships of the line were taken ; one was sunk, and another blew up in the action. Sir Samuel Hood pursued the flying squadron, and on the nineteenth overtook and captured two of them in the Mona Passage, the Jason and the Caton, with two frigates. Sir George Rodney im- mediately proceeded with the ships and prizes for Jamaica, and on his return to England, was honored with an English, and Sir Samuel Hood with an Irish, peerage. This victorious fleet however, suffered afterwards from the inclemency of the ele- ments. On the twenty-sixth of July, admi- ral Graves sailed from Jamaica, with seven ships of the line, including the Ville de Paris, and some other of the prizes, the Pal- las frigate, and about one hundred sail of merchantmen. The admiral had not been long at sea, before the Hector of seventy- four guns, one of the prizes, from her bad condition, lost company with the fleet and was never able afterwards to recover it On the eighth of September, the Caton of sixty- four guns, another of the French vessels, sprung a leak in a hard gale of wind, and the admiral ordered both her and the Pallas to Halifax to refit This was only a pre- lude to their future misfortunes ; for on the tenth the fleet and convoy, which still amounted to nearly ninety, encountered, on the banks of Newfoundland, one of the most dreadful storms which was ever known in that quarter. The hurricane increased du- ring the night, and was accompanied with a dreadful deluge of rain. At ten o'clock in the morning, the Ramillies, the admiral's ship, had five feet of water in her hold, and she was obliged to part with several of her guns, and other heavy articles, to enable her to keep afloat The water increasing, the admiral removed the people on board some of the merchantmen. About four o'clock, the water in her hold was increased to fif- teen feet, and at the same period she was so completely set on fire, that captain Mori- arty and the people had quitted her but a few minutes when she blew up. The fate of the Centaur was still more dreadful. After losing her masts and rud- der, she was, by the unwearied exertions of the crew, kept afloat till the twenty-third ; but the struggle was then at an end. The ship rapidly filling with water, while the as- pect of the sea indicated that neither boat nor raft could live for any length of time, Jie majority of the crew had given them- selves up for lost, and remained below. In this extremity, captain Inglefield came upon deck, and observed that a few of the people GEORGE HI. 17601820. 301 had forced their way into the pinnace, and others were preparing to follow ; upon this he threw himself into the boat, but found much difficulty in getting clear of the ship's side, from the violence of the crowd that was passing to follow his example. Of all these Mr. Baylis only, a youth of seventeen, who threw himself into the waves and swam after the boat, had the good fortune to be taken in. The number of the persons who were thus committed to the mercy of the waves, amounted to twelve; their whole stock of provisions consisted of a bag of bread, a small ham, a single piece of pork, a few French cordials, and one quart bottle of water. A minute detail of their suffer- ings would exceed our bounds ; suffice it to say, that they were sixteen days exposed in this forlorn state ; when at length their pro- vision and water being totally exhausted, they were happy enough to gain the port of Fayal. The rest of the crew, it is presum- ed, perished with the vessel. For an account of the fate of the Ville de Paris, and the Glorieux, the public are in- debted to a singular accident A Danish merchant-ship returning from the West In- dies, found a man floating upon a piece of a wreck, who appears to have been insensible when taken on board. When restored to his senses, he reported that his name was Wilson ; that he had been a seaman on board the Ville de Paris ; and added, that when she was going to pieces, he clung to a part of the wreck, and remained in a state of in- sensibility during most of the time that he continued in the water ; he perfectly recol- lected that the Glorieux had foundered, and that he saw her go down on the day pre- ceding that on which the Ville de Paris perished. The crew of the Hector, after suffering great hardships, were saved by the good for- tune of meeting with a merchant-ship called the Hawke, commanded by Thomas Hill, of Dartmouth, who humanely received them on board his own vessel, and conveyed them to Newfoundland. The Hector had previ- ously had a desperate engagement with two of the enemy's frigates, who left her in that miserable condition in which the merchant- ship found her. Thus of seven ships of the line, which composed the Jamaica squad- ron, only two, the Canada and the Caton, escaped. The victory of Rodney was in some mea- sure damped by the taking of the Bahama Islands by the Spaniards on the eighth of May, which were found in a defenceless state by the enemy. This loss was however again nearly compensated by the capture of Acra, and four other Dutch forts on the coast of Africa, by captain Shirley in the Leander. VOL. IV. 26 On the fifth of January, also, Sir Edward Hughes reduced the town of Trincomale selonging to the Dutch, in the island of Ceylon. TOTAL DEFEAT OF THE SPANIARDS AT GIBRALTAR. Ix Europe the conclusion of the campaign was not less glorious for Great Britain, than it had been in the West Indies. The reduc- tion of Minorca inspired the Spanish nation with fresh motives to perseverance. The duke de Crillon, who had been recently suc- cessful in the siege of Minorca, was appoint- ed to conduct the siege of Gibraltar, and it was resolved to employ the whole strength of the Spanish monarchy in seconding his operations. No means were neglected, nor expense spared, that promised to forward the views of the besiegers. From the failure of all plans hitherto adopted for effecting the reduction of Gibraltar, it was resolved to adopt new ones. Among the various pro- jects for this purpose, one which had been formed by the chevalier d'Arcon was deem- ed the most worthy of trial. This was to construct such floating batteries as could neither be sunk nor fired. With this view, then- bottoms were made of the thickest timber, and their sides of wood and cork long soaked in water, with a large layer of wet sand between. To prevent the effects of red-hot balls, a number of pipes were contrived to carry water through every part of them, and pumps were provided to keep these con- stantly supplied with water. The people on board were to be sheltered from the fall of bombs by a cover of rope netting, which was made sloping, and overlaid with wet hides. These floating batteries, ten in number, were made out of the hulls of large vessels, cut down for the purpose, and carried from twenty-eight to ten guns each, and were seconded by eight large boats mounted with guns of heavy meal, and also by a multi- tude of frigates, ships of force, and some hundreds of small craft. General Elliot, the intrepid defender of Gibraltar, was not ignorant that inventions of a peculiar kind were prepared against him, but knew nothing of their construction. He nevertheless provided for every circum- stance of danger that could be foreseen or imagined. The thirteenth day of Septem- ber was fixed upon by the^ besiegers for making a grand attack, when the new- invented machines, with all the united pow- ers of gunpowder and artillery in their highest state of improvement, were to be called into action. The combined fleets of France and Spain in the bay of Gibraltar amounted to forty-eight sail of the line. 302 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Their batteries were covered with one hun- dred and fifty-four pieces of heavy hrass cannon. The numbers employed by land and sea against the fortress were estimated at one hundred thousand men. With this force, and by the fire of three hundred can- non, mortars, and howitzers, from the adja- cent isthmus, it was intended to attack every part of the British works at one and the same instant The surrounding hills were covered with people assembled to behold the spectacle. The cannonade and bombard- ment were tremendous. The showers of shot and shells from the land batteries and the ships of the besiegers, and from the va- rious works of the garrison, exhibited a most dreadful scene. Four hundred pieces of the heaviest artillery were playing at the same moment The whole peninsula seemed to be overwhelmed in the torrents of fire which were incessantly poured upon it The Span- ish floating batteries for some time answered the expectations of their framers. The heaviest shells often rebounded from their tops, while thirty-two pound shot made no visible impression upon their hulls. For some hours the attack and defence were so equally supported, as scarcely to admit of any appearance of superiority on either side. The construction of the battering ships was so well calculated for withstanding the com- bined force of fire and artillery, that they seemed for some time to bid defiance to the powers of the heaviest ordnance. In the afternoon the effects of hot shot became vis- ible. At first there was only an appearance of smoke, but in the course of the night, after the fire of the garrison had continued about fifteen hours, two of the floating bat- teries were in flames, and several more vis- ibly beginning to kindle. The endeavors of the besiegers were now exclusively di- rected to bring off the men from the burn- ing vessels; but in this they were inter- rupted. Captain Curlis, who lay ready with twelve gun-boats, advanced and fired upon them with such order and expedition, as to throw them into confusion before they had finished their business. They fled with their boats, and abandoned to their fate great numbers of their people. The opening of daylight disclosed a most dreadful specta- cle. Many were seen in the midst of the flames crying out for help, while others were floating upon pieces of timber, exposed to equal danger from the opposite element. The generous humanity of the victors equal- led their valor, and was the more honorable, as the exertions of it exposed them to no less danger than those of active hostility. In endeavoring to save the lives of his enemies, captain Curtis nearly lost his own. While for the most benevolent purpose he was along-side of the floating batteries, one of them blew up, and some heavy pieces of timber fell into his boat, and pierced through its bottom. By similar perilous exertions, near four hundred men were saved from in- evitable destruction. The exercise of hu- manity to an enemy under such circum- stances of immediate action and impending danger, conferred more true honor than could be acquired by the most splendid se- ries of victories. It in some degree ob- scured the impression made to the disad- vantage of human nature, by the madness of mankind in destroying each other by wasteful wars. The floating batteries were all consumed. The violence of their ex- plosion was such, as to burst open the doors and windows at a great distance. Soon after the destruction of the floating batte- ries, lord Howe, with thirty-five ships of the line, brought to the brave garrison an ample supply of everything wanted, either for their support or their defence. This com- plete relief of Gibraltar was the third de- cisive event in the course of a twelvemonth, which favored the re-establishment of a general peace. NEW ADMINISTRATION. THE prosperity of nations often depends upon unforeseen contingencies. We have seen the government, in the year 1782, wrested out of the unskilful hands which had conducted it almost to the verge of de- struction ; and the whole ability, the patriot- ism, the landed interest of the nation, at once united in support of an administra- tion formed on the most popular basis. But this pleasing prospect was clouded by the lamented death of the marquis of Rocking- ham on the first of July. He was the centre of union which kept up the jarring particles of the whig interest united. A few days after the death of the marquis, a meeting of the Rockingham party was convened by Fox, the avowed object of which was, to de- feat the appointment of Lord Shelburne to the situation of prime minister. At this meeting it was agreed to support the nomi- nation of the duke of Portland to the first office in the treasury, and that Fox should wait on his majesty with this resolve. It is said that Fox arrived at the royal closet only in time to learn that the treasurer's staff had just been committed to the hands of lord Shelburne. It is added, that Fox then re- quested leave to name the new secretary of state ; and, on being informed that the office was already disposed of, he requested per- mission to resign, and was followed by lord John Cavendish, the duke of Portland, Burke, Sheridan, Montague, lord Althorpe, lord Duncaunon, J. Townshend, and Lee. GEORGE HI The Shelburne administration was re- spectable, but it was feeble : it wanted both parliamentary interest and parliamentary ability. Lord Grantham, a nobleman more distinguished by his amiable character than by the extent of his abilities, succeeded to the office of Fox ; Pitt was made chancellor of the exchequer, and earl Temple succeed- ed the duke of Portland as lord-lieutenant of Ireland. 17601820. 303 Though lord Shelburne had formerly de- clared in the house of lords, "that when- ever the parliament of Great Britain should acknowledge the independence of America, the sun of England's glory was set for ever ;" he took occasion to observe, in the same house, when he came into administration, that he now considered it as a necessary evil to which the country must inevitably submit 304 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XIX. Motives for a general Peace Preliminaries Signed with America With France, Spain, Sfr,. Meeting of Parliament Debates on the Peace Resolutions carri! against Ministry Lord Shelburne resigns Coalition Ministry Bill preventing appeals from Ireland India Affairs Pitt's Motion on the Subject of a Parliament- ary Reform The Quakers petition the House of Commons against the Slave Trade Fox introduces his India Bill A second Bill for the internal Government of the British Dominions in India The Bill lost in the House of Peers Contest between the Crown and Commons The Conduct of the High Bailiff' of Westminster in re- fusing to return Fox brought before the House of Commons Pitt's India Bill The Commutation Tax Bill for the Restoration of the Estates forfeited in Scot- land in 1715 and 1745, passed. MOTIVES FOR A GENERAL PEACE. THE events which disposed the hostile na- tions to pacific measures have been amply detailed in the two preceding chapters. The capture of the British army in Virginia, the defeat of count de Grasse, and the destruc- tion of the Spanish floating batteries, incul- cated on Great Britain, France, and Spain, the policy of sheathing the sword, and stop- ping the effusion of human blood. Each na- tion found, on a review of past events, that though their losses were great, their gains were little or nothing. By urging the American war, Great Britain had increased her national debt upwards of one; hundred millions of pounds sterling, and wasted the lives of at least fifty thousand of her sub- jects. To add to her mortification, she had brought all this on herself, by pursuing an object, the attainment of which seemed to be daily less probable, and the benefits of which, even though it could have been at- tained, were very problematical. The empress of Russia/ and the emperor of Germany, were the mediators in accom- plishing the great work of peace. Such was the state of the contending parties, that the intercession of powerful mediators was no longer necessary. The disposition of Great Britain to recognize the independence of the United States had removed the prin- cipal difficulty which had hitherto obstruct- ed a general pacification. The avowed object of the alliance be tween France and America, and the steady adherence of both parties not to enter into negotiations without the concurrence of each other, reduced Great Britain to the alterna- tive of continuing a hopeless unproductive war, or of negotiating under the idea of re- cognizing American independence. Seven years' experience had proved to the nation that the conquest of the American states was impracticable ; they now received equal con- viction, that the recognition of their inde- pendence was an indispensable preliminary to the termination of a war, from the con- tinuance of which, neither profit nor honor was to be acquired. At the close of the war, a revolution was effected in the sentiments of the inhabitants of Great Britain, not less remarkable than what in the beginning of it took place among the citizens of America. In the course of the summer of 1782, Fitzherbert, the minister at Brussels, was appointed plenipotentiary on the part of Great Britain, to conclude the treaty with the ministers of France, Spain, and Holland ; and Mr. Oswald, a merchant, who had been long conversant in American affairs, was nominated as commissioner from his Britan- nic majesty to treat with John Adams, Ben- jamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Lau- rens, the commissioners from America. PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE WITH AMER- ICAFRANCE, SPAIN, &c. ON the thirtieth of November 1782, pro- visional articles were signed by the British and American commissioners, which were to be inserted in the general treaty of peace, whenever it should be concluded between the European powers. By these articles the independence of America was acknowledg- ed in the fullest extent ; very ample bounda- ries were assigned to the States, compre- hending the extensive countries on both sides the Ohio, and on the east of the Mississippi, and the full right of fishing on the banks of Newfoundland. The preliminary articles between Great Britain and France were signed at Versailles by Fitzherbert and the count de Vergennes, on the twenty-eighth of January 1783, and those with Spain on the same day. By the former of these treaties the fishery on the coast of Newfoundland was permitted to the French, from Cape St. John, on the eastern side, round the north of the island, to Cape Ray on the west. The islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon were ceded to France. In the West Indies Great Britain ceded also the island of Tobago, and restored that of St GEORGE IH 17601820. Lucia. In Africa the river Senegal, and all its dependencies and forts, were ceded, and the island of Goree restored to the French. In the East Indies England restored all her conquests. The articles also relative to the port and harbor of Dunkirk, established at the peace of Utrecht, were by the new treaty annulled. In return for these concessions, France restored to Great Britain the islands of Gren- ada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica, St Christopher's, Nevis, and Montserrat, in the West Indies ; and in Africa the posses- sion of Fort James, and the river Gambia, were guarantied to Great Britain. By the treaty with Spain, Great Britain relinquished all right and claim to West Florida, and the island of Minorca, and ceded the province of East Florida : on the other side, the Bahama islands were restor- ed to Great Britain. With respect to the Dutch, a suspension of arms only was agreed to ; and it was some months before the pre- liminaries were settled. [See note B, at the end of this Vol.] By these treaties an end was put to the most unfortunate war, in which Great Brit- ain had hitherto been engaged. From the conflict of parties which distracted the na- tion, however, these articles of peace were doomed to undergo a severe examination. DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT ON THE PEACE MINISTRY OUTVOTED THEY RESIGN. THE parliament met on the twenty-first of January 1783, and a coalition having been previously formed between lord North and the Portland faction, some debates en- sued concerning the provisional articles with America ; but little business of conse- quence was transacted till the seventeenth of February, when the preliminary articles were laid before the two houses. An address of thanks and approbation be- ing moved in the house of peers by lord Pembroke, and seconded by the marquis of Carmarthen, a succession of able and elo- quent speeches were made by the lords Car- lisle, Walsington, Sackville, Stormont, and Loughborough, reprobating the prelimina- ries of peace as derogatory from the dignity, and in the highest degree injurious to the interests of the nation. " The dereliction of the loyalists of America, and the Indians our allies, was said to be a baseness unexampled in the records of history. In the lowest ebb of distress we ought not to have subscribed to terms so ignominious. Francis I. when conquered and a captive, wrote, "that all was lost except his honor;" and his mag- nanimity finally re-established his fortune. The folly of our negotiations was every- where apparent In Africa, our trade was surrendered to France by the cession of 26* " 305 Senegal and Goree In Asia, Pondicherry was not only given back, but, to render the boon more acceptable, a large territory was made to accompany it In America, the pro- hibitions against fortifying St Pierre and Miquclon were removed, and the limits of the fishery extended and under pretence of drawing a boundary line, the treaty grants to the United States an immense tract of country inhabited by more than twenty In- dian nations In the West Indies, St Lucia was relinquished, which was of such mili- tary importance, that so long as we retained this island in our hands, we might well have stood upon the uti possidetis, as the basis of negotiation in that quarter The cession of East Florida to Spain was an extravagance for which it was impossible to find even the shadow of a pretence to complete the whole, France was allowed to repair and fortify the harbor of Dunkirk, which, in the event of a future war, might annoy our trade in its centre, and counteract all the advantages of our local situation for foreign commerce: and what is most wonderful, all these sacrifices are made on the professed ground of arranging matters on the princi- ples of reciprocity." The minister defended himself from these attacks with great ability. His lordship de- clared, " that peace was the object for which the nation at large had discovered the most unequivocal desire ; the end he had in view was the ^advantage of his country, and he was certain that he had attained it. The vast uncultivated tract of land to the south- ward of the lakes," his lordship said, " was of infinite consequence to America, and of none to England ; and the retention of it, or even of the forts which commanded it, could only have laid the foundation of future hos- tility. If our liberality to Ireland was the sub- ject of just applause, why act upon princi- ples of illiberality to America 1 The refusal of the Newfoundland fishery would have been a direct manifestation of hostile inten- tions ; and as it lay on their coasts, it was in reality impossible to exclude them from it by any restrictions ; it is an advantage which nature has given them, and to attempt to wrest it from them would not only be unjust, but impracticable. Of one objection his lordship acknowledged that he deeply felt the force. His regret and compassion for the situation of the unhappy loyalists were as pungent as those of their warmest advocates. This objection admitted only of one answer, the answer which he had given to his own bleeding heart 'It is better that a part should suffer, rather than the whole empire perish.' He would have dashed from him the bitter cup which the adversities of his country held out to him, if peace had not been absolutely necessary if it had not 306 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. been called for with a unanimity and vigor that could not be resisted. No arts of ad- gbess or negotiation luul been neglected ; but the American commissioners had no power to concede further. The congress itself had not the power for, by the constitution of America, every state was supreme, including in itself the legislative and judicial powers; its jurisdiction, therefore, was not liable to control. In the mode of interposition, by recommendation alone, could the congress act If, after all, the loyalists should not be received into the besom of their native coun- try, Britain, penetrated with gratitude for their services, and warm with the feelings of humanity, would afibrd them an asylum: and it would doubtless be wiser to indemnify them for their losses, than to ruin the nation by a renewal or prolongation of the calami- ties of war. The cession of East Florida, his lordship said, was rendered unavoidable, by the mistaken and ruinous policy of those ministers who had brought the nation under the miserable necessity of treating with its enemies on terms very different from those it could formerly have commanded. This prov- ince, detached from Western Florida, already conquered by the arms of Spain, was how- ever of trivial value ; and the amount of its hnports and exports bore no proportion to the expense of its civil establishment. We had, nevertheless, obtained a compensation in the restitution of the Bahamas. Although the bounds of the French fishery weje some- what extended, by far the most eligible parts of the Newfoundland coast were left in possession of the English, and a source of future contention removed by the exact as- certainment of limits. In exchange for St. Lucia, France had restored six of the seven islands she had taken, anrl only retained Tobago. Senegal and Goree had been origi- nally French settlements, but their com- merce was inconsiderable; and the whole African trade was open to the English, by our settlements on the river Gambia, which were guarantied to us by this treaty. The restoration of Pondicherry, and our other conquests in the East, must be acknowledg- ed not a measure of expediency so much as of absolute necessity, if the state of the East India company were adverted to. Such had been the formidable confederacy against which they were compelled to contend, such the wretched derangement of their finances, and so exposed to hazard were their vast and precarious possession?, that nothing but peace could recover to them their ascen- dency in Asia; in such a situation it was impossible to procure terms of accommoda- tion more honorable. The removal of the restraints relative to the harbor of Dunkirk restraints disgraceful to France, and of trifling advantage to England was inveigh- ed against without candor or reason ; Dun- kirk, as a port, was, as his lordship asserted, far from possessing the consequence ascribed to it ; it lies near a shoaly part of the chan- nel ; it cannot receive ships of a large size, and can never be a rendezvous for squadrons; it may indeed be a resort for privateers, but these we know by experience could easily issue from other ports. In fine, the confede- racy formed against us was decidedly su- perior to our utmost exertions our taxes were exorbitant our debts, funded and un- funded, amounted to two hundred and forty- seven millions our commerce was rapidly declining our navy was overbalanced by the fleets of the combined powers, in the alarming proportion of more than fifty ships of the line. Peace was in those circum- stances necessary to our existence as a na- tion. The best terms of accommodation which our situation would admit had been procured; and his lordship ventured to affirm, that they could be decried or opposed only by ignorance, prejudice, or faction." On a division, the address was carried by a ma- jority of seventy-two to fifty-nine voices. In the house of commons the ministry were less successful. The address was moved by T. Pitt, and seconded by Wilber- force. It however met with a very different fate, after giving occasion to very warm debates. An amendment to the address was pro- posed by lord John Cavendish, and seconded by St John. Lord North, in a very long, but (consid- ering his situation) a most unbecoming speech, went over the different articles of the peace, which he reprobated as being al- together unfavorable to Great Britain, dan- gerous to the safety, and derogatory to the honor of the nation, and not warranted or justified by the situation of the parties at war. He therefore said, he would vote for the amendment, to which he proposed to add a clause in favor of the American loyalists. Powys was strenuous for the address, and declared his satisfaction with the peace in the most unequivocal manner. He disavow- ed all personal and interested motives ; and while he gloried that the first lord of the treasury had broken the confederacy in arms against this country, he confessed that he had no great predilection for his character. He thought that this was the age of strange confederacies. The world had seen great and arbitrary despots stand forth the pro- tectors of an infant republic. France and Spain had combined to establish the rising liberties of America; and what was wonder- ful, the house of commons now surveyed the counterpart of this picture. A monstrous coalition had been made between a noble lord, and an illustrious commoner. The lofty GEORGE HI. 17601820. 307 asserter of the prerogative had joined in al- liance with the worshipper of the majesty of the people. The lord advocate exclaimed against the amendment, and against the addition made to it by lord North ; and from the coalition formed between the latter and Fox, he judg- ed that they would be both against the ori- ginal motion. After attacking the coalition, his lordship defended the treaties. He was persuaded that, with regard to the loyalists, the ministry had done everything within the compass of their power. Sheridan remarked the reflections which had been thrown out against the coalition of lord North and Fox; and pointed out, as something more singular, the intimate alli- ance which had been formed between the lord advocate, the most pledged supporter of the high prerogative of the crown, and Pitt, the leader of the popular advocates for a parliamentary reform. He doubted not the convenience of the principles of the learned lord. They could perpetually fluc- tuate with his interest. It mattered not to him whether he was to advance the pre- rogative, or to act to its overthrow. In then- opposite lines of conduct he could preserve his consistency ; for his uniform object was himself. Fox now rose, and pointed out the pecu- liar delicacy of his situation. He had been accused of having formed a union with a noble lord whose principles he had opposed for several years of his life. But the grounds of their opposition being removed, he did not conceive it to be honorable to keep up animosities for ever. The American war was the source of his disagreement with the noble lord ; and that cause of enmity being now no more, it was wise and fit to put an end to the ill-will, the animosity, the rancor, and the feuds which it engendered. The learned lord, who had imprudently been so i parliament. 4. That the concessions made lavish of his charges, had once been the The defeat of the minister in the house of commons on the subject of the address to the throne, was a topic of universal con- versation, and considered as a proonostic of his approaching fall. It was immediately perceived, that the determination of the house would be a public notification of the impropriety of the peace ; and it was there- fore thought advisable that it should be fol- lowed up by some other proceedings. Ac- cordingly, on the twenty-first February, the subject was a second time brought before the house of commons by lord John Caven- dish. His lordship expressed his concern, that the majority for the amendment on the address to the throne had been represented as having actually voted against the peace, possibly by some persons who might have had their own views to serve in propagating such a report He was therefore anxious to convince the nation, and the powers with whom we were negotiating, of our fixed de- termination not to renew the war. Never- theless, he censured in severe terms the conditions on which the peace had been ob- tained; and having recapitulated the va- rious disadvantages we had sustained in ef- fecting the pacification, read the following motions : " 1. That in consideration of the public faith, which ought to be preserved inviolable, his faithful commons will support his majes- ty in rendering firm and permanent the peace to be concluded definitivray, in consequence of the provisional treaty, and the prelimina- ry articles. 2. That, in concurrence with his majesty's paternal regard for his people, they will employ their best endeavors to im- prove the blessings of peace. 3. That his majesty, in acknowledging the independence of the United States of America, has acted as the circumstances of affairs indisputably required, and in conformity to the sense of obedient friend of the noble person in the blue riband; and with what view had he deserted him 1 He had formerly approved his system when it was calamitous and un- just ; and did he now, from a spirit of sys- tem, avoid him when his line of conduct was to the adversaries of Great Britain, are great- er than they were entitled to, either from the actual situation of their respective pos- sessions, or from their comparative strength. And, 5. That they would take the case of the loyalists into consideration, and admin- ister such relief as their conduct and neces- more meritorious ? The maxims adopted I sity should be found to merit" by the learned lord were not unknown; arifl no virtuous statesman could possibly ap- prove of them. They taught him to submit to perpetual variations of his sentiments ; and to go decidedly into the views of minis- ters, whatever they might be. Pitt, and several other members, took part in the debate ; after which the house having divided, it appeared that ministry were out- voted, there being a majority for the amend- ment of two hundred and twenty-four to two hundred and eight. The two first resolutions were agreed to without any opposition. On the third a short debate took place, occasioned by doubts hav- ing arisen in the minds of several members, respecting the power vested in the king, to acknowledge the independency of the Unit- ed States, which, it was unanimously agreed by the gentlemen of the long robe, his ma- jesty had full authority to do, in consequence of the statute past last year to enable him to make peace with America. The last reso- lution lord John Cavendish consented to HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. waive. On the fourth, which conveyed so pointed a censure on ministry, a very ani- mated debate took place ; but the memorable coalition brought such an accession of strength and numbers to one side, that the question was carried against the ministry by a major- ity of two hundred and seven voices to one hundred and ninety. The success of this motion ascertained the certainty of a ministerial revolution, and the house of commons adjourned from time to time, with the view of forwarding a new arrangement. From these ineffectual en- deavors to accommodate party views, the business of the nation was suspended, and more than a month passed in a kind of min- isterial interregnum. The want of an efficient government could be at no time more severely felt than at this. At home the disembodying the mi- litia, the discharge of seamen, the reduc- tion of soldiers, the neglect of giving them their pay, contributed to fill Portsmouth and Plymouth with tumult and confusion, and spread mutinies and riots all over the king- dom. But these were not the only matters that called fcr the attention of government Our negotiations with foreign powers were not brought to an end. No definitive trea- ty was concluded with France and Spain. No commercial alliance was adjusted with America, and the East India Company re- quired the immediate aid of parliament both with regard to its foreign and domestic con- cerns. Such was the state of public affairs, when Coke, member for Norfolk, moved, on the twenty-fourth of March, an address to the king, " That he would be graciously pleased to take into consideration the distracted and unsettled state of the empire, and conde- scend to a compliance with the wishes of this house, by forming an administration en- titled to the confidence of his people." This address was unanimously carried, and pre- sented to the king, by such members of the house as were privy-counsellors. His majes- ty replied, " That it was his earnest desire to do everything in his power to comply with the wishes of his faithful commons." This answer not being deemed sufficiently explicit, lord Surrey moved, in a few days after, another address, framed in very strong and pointed terms, " Assuring his majesty that all delays in a matter of this moment, have an inevitable tendency to weaken the authority of his government, and most hum- bly entreating his majesty that he will take such measures towards this object as may quiet the anxiety and apprehension of his faithful subjects." But Pitt, declaring that he had resigned his office of chancellor of the exchequer, and that any resolution or address relative to a new arrangement of administra- tion was unnecessary, lord Surrey consented to withdraw his motion : and the ministers, who, reluctant to quit the luxury of power, had lingered in office to the last moment, now gave place to their determined and vic- torious antagonists. COALITION MINISTRY ACT AGAINST APPEALS FROM IRELAND. THE duke of Portland was placed at the head of the treasury ; and lord John Caven- dish was reappointed chancellor of the ex- chequer ; lord North and Fox were nominat- ed joint secretaries of state, the first for the home, the latter for the foreign department ; lord Keppel, who bad recently resigned on account of his disapprobation of the peace, was again placed at the head of the admi- ralty ; lord Stormont was created president of the council ; and lord Carlisle was ad- vanced to the post of lord privy-seal. The great seal was put into commission : the chief-justice Loughborough, so distinguished for political versatility, " who could change and change and yet go on," being declared first lord commissioner; the earl of Northing- ton was appointed to the government of Ireland : and Burke was reinstated in his former post of paymaster of the forces. Of the seven cabinet ministers, the majority, who also occupied the most important posts of administration, were of the old whig, or Rockingham party. Lord Stormont, lord North, and lord Carlisle, contented them- selves rather with a participation of honors and emoluments, than of power. Notwithstanding, therefore, the admission of those tory lords into the ministry, it could not but be acknowledged, as to all the grand purposes of government, a whig adminis- tration : more especially when the ability, the vigor, and the decision, of its efficient leader, were justly and impartially estimat- ed. But unfortunately a junction of persons whose principles were radically hostile, op- erated to diminish public confidence in their measures ; and therefore, while it obtained them a complete conquest, it deprived them of the more solid advantages of victory. One of the first measures of the new ministry was to expedite the passage of a bill, before pending, "for preventing any writs of error or appeal from the kingdom of Ireland, from being received by any of his majesty's courts in Great Britain ; and of renouncing, in express terms, the legisla- tive authority of the British parliament in relation to Ireland." This bill was a neces- sary consequence of the general plan of Irish emancipation ; for the mere repeal of the declaratory act did not, in the contem- plation of the common law, make any dif- ference whatever in the relative situation of the two countries. Mr. Fox lost no time in attempting to re- GEORGE IH. 17601820. 309 move every obstacle which opposed the opening an immediate intercourse with America ; and early in April he moved for liberty to bring in a "bill for preventing any manifesto, certificate, or other docu- ment being required from any ships belong- ing to the United States of America, arriv- ing from thence at any port of this king- dom ; or upon entering or clearing out from any port of this kingdom, for any port with- in the United States." The bill, in its origin- al shape, was supposed to go too fax, by ex- tending an indulgence that might be made subservient to the practice of smuggling ; an amendment was therefore adopted, limit- ing for a certain time the powers to be vest- ed in the king, after which it was carried through the commons, and with some slight opposition passed the lorda INDIAN AFFAIRS. THE very critical situation of our affairs in the East next engaged the attention of parliament The house of commons had ap- pointed a select committee to examine into the state of the British dominions in India. In the prosecution of this important inquiry, it was discovered that the administration of justice in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, had been perverted to the base purposes of peculation, plunder, and oppres- sion, and that corruption, fraud, and injus- tice, pervaded all the departments of the company's government in India. These alarming discoveries produced a general .unity of opinion amongst public men of every description, on the immediate neces- sity of taking some effectual step, to rescue the British name from disgrace, to restore to the natives the pure, administration of mild and equal laws, and to secure and im- prove our territorial possessions in India. To a representation of the defects and abuses of Indian government, succeeded in a few days a disclosure of the ruined state of the company's finances, by a bill intro- duced by Sir Henry Fletcher. " For sus- pending the payments of the company now due to the royal exchequer, and for enabling them to borrow the sum of three hundred thousand pounds for their farther relief." Lord John Cavendish declared this bill to be only a branch of a larger plan ; and that it was brought forward separately, in order to answer an exigency which did not admit of delay. In the upper house, lord Fitzwilliam dwelt on the desperate situation of the East India company, and affirmed, " that, unless the bill passed, their bankruptcy would be inevitable. The expenditure of their settle- ments had far exceeded their revenue ; bills had been drawn upon them which they were unable to answer without a temporary sup- ply, so that the existence of the company depended upon the success of the bill " which accordingly passed both houses with little difficulty or opposition. Here it may not be improper to remark, that about this period, intelligence was re- ceived of an event, that opened a prospect of a favorable change to our affairs in the East This was peace being concluded with the Mah.ra.ttas. This advantage to Great Britain, and to the East India company, was soon followed by the death of Hyder Ally, a man eminently distinguished for an enter- prising spirit and vigor of mind ; who en- tertained the most rooted aversion to the English name ; and who by his power, cour- age, and military skill, had long proved him- self the most daring and formidable of all the company's enemiea PITT'S REFORM BILL. THE former motion of Pitt, for an inqui- ry into the state of the representation, being negatived, he now brought forward (May 7th) a specific plan for adding one hundred members to the counties, and abolishing a proportionable number of the burgage-ten- ure, and other small and obnoxious boroughs. The revival of this important subject, which had deeply agitated the public mind, pro- duced an animated debate ; in the course of which, the discordant sentiments of min- isters did not fail to awaken afresh the re- sentment of the house against the " ill-star- red coalition." Lord North, in a strain of allusive plea- santry declared, "That while some w&h Lear demanded a hundred knights, and others with Goneril were satisfied with fifty, he with Regan exclaimed, No, not one." Fox, whose opinion on this great national question was totally irreconcilable with that of his brother secretary's, very honorably preferred the consistency of public charac- ter to every consideration. " In his opinion the constitution required innovation and re- novation. Its nature exposed it to change ; and he regarded it as one of its chief excel- lences, that it was capable of renewed im- provements. It might thus be gradually car- ried to perfection." While the discussion of this important subject exposed the absurdity of one coali- tion, it is very remarkable that it paved the way for another, in every view certainly as singular and extraordinary. The lord advo- cate for Scotland, who had all along distin- guished himself by his zeal for high prerog- ative, suspended upon the present occasion his natural sentiments, became at once a convert to the doctrine of reform, and as- serted his entire approbation of Pitt's reso- lutions. He stood up boldly the advocate of the people, and affirmed, " that the yielding to their wishes would be the happiest means of putting an end to their complaints ; and 310 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. would certainly give a fresh infusion of fine blood into the constitution of the house of commons." Though the lord advocate and Pitt had been in office together during the short-lived Shelburne administration, they had continued until now rather shy than familiar, but this unexpected support and patriotic effusion effected a cordial and last- ing union between those two celebrated characters. But Pitt's motion and resolu- tions were lost by a majority of two hundred and ninety-three to one hundred and forty- nine. Pitt having failed in his attempt to im- prove the constitution of the house of com- mons, alderman Sawbridge brought forward, May sixteenth, his motion for shortening the duration of parliaments. He observed " that he had heard the British constitution char- acterized, on a former day, as the most glo- rious fabric, the work of ages, and the won- der of the world. It was his rooted persua- sion, that the British constitution, till the de- collation of Charles the first, was a system of the most wretched despotism. No gleam of liberty had ever shone out till after that era. It was in late times only, that the flame of public liberty illuminated the con- stitution. It was in late times only, that our constitution had become the wonder of the world. To talk of it as having been so for ages, was to falsify records and history." The motion of Sawbridge was seconded by alderman Bull, and warmly supported by the earl of Surrey and others, but was lost by a majority of one hundred and twenty- three to fifty-six. QUAKERS PETITION AGAINST THE SLAVE TRADE A BILL for regulating the trade of the African Company, being introduced towards the close of the session, with a clause pro- hibiting the officers of the company from exporting negroes, that humane, intelligent, and respectable class of citizens, known by the appellation of Quakers, convened in their annual assembly in the metropolis, embraced this favorable occasion to petition the house of commons, " That the clause in question might be extended to all persons whatsoever, professing themselves deeply affected with the consideration of the rapine, oppression, and blood attending this traffic : under the countenance of the laws of this country, say the petitioners, many thousands of these our fellow-creatures, entitled to the natural rights of mankind, are held as personal property in cruel bondage. Your petitioners regret, that a nation professing the Christian faith should so far counteract the principles of humanity and justice." This petition awak- ened in a remarkable degree the compassion of the house, and of the public, for those un- happy beings, and laid the foundation of the subsequent noble and generous efforts, to ef- fect a total abolition of this detestable and inhuman commerce. A variety of business comprehending de- tails not sufficiently important to claim a place in history, having been completed ; the parliament was at length prorogued, July sixteenth, by a speech, in which his majesty declared his intention of calling them to- gether at an early period, in order to resume the consideration of the affairs of the East Indies, which would demand their most se- rious and unintermitted attention. In the course of the summer, few material events occurred deserving of particular no- tice. The king, by virtue of an act passed for that purpose, issued an order in council, limiting the commerce between the continent of America and the British West India isl- ands, to ships British built This was con- formable to the grand principle on which the act of navigation was originally founded ; and though this restriction gave extreme of- fence to the inhabitants of the United States, they had certainly no just reason to com- plain, as they could have no possible right to claim the advantages of dependence and in- dependence at one and the same time. On the third of September the definitive treaties of peace with France, Spain, and America, were with some alteration signed ; and also preliminaries of peace with the States-General, by which all the conquests of England were restored, except the town of Negapatnam on the coast of Coromandel, which their high mightinesses were at last most reluctantly compelled to cede. In the speech from the throne, at the meeting of parliament on the eleventh of November, his majesty, after noticing the conclusion of peace with France, Spain, and America ; and the ratification of the pre- liminary articles with the States-General ; stated as a principal object of their conside- ration, the situation of the East India com- pany. " The utmost exertions of their Wis- dom," he said, " would be required to main- tain and improve the valuable advantages de- rived from our India possessions ; and to pro- mote and secure the happiness of the native inhabitants of those provinces." The ad- dress passed without opposition. FOX'S INDIA BILL. ON the eighteenth of November, accord- ingly, Fox moved for leave to bring in a bill for vesting the affairs of the East India com- pany in the hands of certain commissioners, for the benefit of the proprietary and the public. The plan proposed by Fox, was marked with all the characteristics of his ardent, daring, and luminous mind. The total derangement of the finances of the company, and their utter incompetency to govern the vast territories of which they GEORGE ID. 17601820. 311 had by very questionable means obtained the possession, was too evident to admit of con- tradiction. The evil was notorious, and dif- ficult indeed was the task of devising an adequate remedy. This famous bill proposed to take at once from the directors and pro- prietors, the entire administration, both of their territorial and commercial affairs ; and to vest the management and direction of them in the hands of seven commissioners named in the bill, and irremovable by the crown, except in consequence of an address of either house of parliament. These com- missioners were to be assisted by a subordi- nate board of nine directors, to be named in the first instance by parliament, and after- wards chosen by the proprietors. These commissioners and directors were empowered to enter immediately into pos- session of all lands, tenements, books, re- cords, vessels, goods, merchandise, and secu- rities, in trust for the company. They were required to come to a decision upon every question within a limited time, or to assign a specific reason for their delay. They were never to vote by ballot, and they were al- most in all cases to enter upon their journals the reasons of their vote. They were to submit once in every six months an exact state of their accounts to the court of pro- prietors, and at the beginning of every ses- sion to present a statement of their affairs to both houses of parliament. This bill which vested the government in commissioners, was to continue hi force four years, that is, till the year after the next general election. It was accompanied by a second bill, enacting regulations for the fu- ture government of the British territories in Hindostan. It took from the governor-gene- ral all power of acting independently of his council. It declared every existing British power in India incompetent to the acquisi- tion or exchange of any territory in behalf of the company ; to the acceding to any treaty of partition ; to the hiring out the company's troops; to the appointment to office of any person removed for misdemean- or ; and to the hiring out any property to any civil servant of the company. It pro- hibited all monopolies; and also declared every illegal present recoverable by any per- son for his own sole benefit But that part of the present bill, upon which the principal value seemed to be placed by its author, re- lated to the Zemindars, or native landholders, whom it employed effectual means to secure in the possession of their respective inher- itances, and to defend from oppression. It particularly endeavored to preclude all vexa- tious and usurious claims that might be made upon them. It therefore prohibited mort- gages, and subjected every doubtful claim to the examination and censure of the com missioners. It is scarcely possible to conceive the as tonishment excited in the house of commons by the disclosure of this system. It was espoused with zeal and enthusiasm by the friends of the minister ; and it was attacked by his opponents with all the vehemence of indignation, and all the energy of invective. It was on one side of the house extolled as a masterpiece of genius, virtue, and ability; while on the other it was reprobated as a deep and dangerous design, fraught with mischief and ruin. Pitt distinguished him- self 6n this occasion as a formidable adver- sary of the minister. He acknowledged, " that India indeed wanted a reform, but not such a reform as thia The bill under con- sideration included a confiscation of the property, and a disfranchisement of the mem- bers of the East India company. The influ- ence which would accrue from this bill a new, enormous, and unexampled influence, was indeed in the highest degree alarm- ing. Seven commissioners chosen ostensibly by parliament, but really by administration, were to involve in the vortex of their au- thority, the patronage and treasures of India. The right honorable mover had acknow- ledged himself to be a man of ambition, and it now appeared that he was prepared to sacrifice the king, the parliament, and the people, at the shrine of his ambition. He desired to elevate his present connexions to a situation in which no political convulsions, and no variations of power, might be able to destroy their importance, and terminate their ascendency." On the other hand, Fox with his astonish- ing eloquence and ability vindicated the bill. The arguments of his opponents, he said, might have been adopted with additional propriety, by king James the second. He might have claimed the property of domin- ion ; but what had been the language of the people 1 No, you have no property in domin- ion ; dominion was vested in you, as it is in every chief magistrate, for the benefit of the community to be governed. It was a sacred trust delegated by compact You have abused the trust You have exercised dominion for the purpose of vexation and tyranny, not of comfort, protection, and good order. . We therefore resume the power which was originally ours. I am also (con- tinued Fox,) charged with increasing the influence, and giving an immense accession of power to the crown. But certainly this bill as little augments the influence of the crown, as any measure that could be devised for the government of India, with the slight- est promise of success. The very genius of influence consisted in hope or fear ; fear 312 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of losing what we had, or hope of gaining more. Make the commissioners removable at will, and you set all the little passions of human nature afloat Invest them with power, upon the same tenure as the British judges hold their station, removable upon delinquency, punishable upon guilt, but fear- less of danger if they discharge their trust ; and they will be liable to no seduceme'nt, and will execute their functions with glory to themselves, and for the common good of the country and mankind. This bill pre- sumes the possibility of bad administration, for every word in it breathes suspicion. It supposes that men are but men ; it confides in no integrity ; it trusts to no character. It annexes responsibility, not only to every action, but even to the inaction of the powers it has created. He would risk (he said) his all upon the excellence of this bill. ' He would risk upon it whatever was most dear to him, whatever men most valued, the cha- racter of integrity, of talents, of honor, of present reputation and future fame : these he would stake upon the constitutional safety, the enlarged policy, the equity and wisdom of the measure. Whatever therefore might be the fate of its authors, he had no fear that it would produce to this country every bless- ing of commerce and revenue ; and by ex- tending a generous and humane government over those millions whom the inscrutable dispensations of Providence had placed un- der us in the remotest regions of the earth ; it would consecrate the name of England among the noblest of nations." While the bill was pending in the com- mons, a petition was presented by the East India company, representing the measure as subversive of their charter, and operating as a confiscation of their property without charging against them any specific delin- quency ; without trial, without conviction ; a proceeding contrary to the most sacred privileges of British subjects ; and praying to be heard by counsel against the bill. The city of London also took the alarm, and pre- sented a strong petition to the same effect But it was carried with uncommon rapidity through all its stages in the house of com- mons by decisive majorities, the division on the second reading being two hundred and seventeen to one hundred and three voices. On the ninth of December, Fox, attended by a numerous train of members, presented the bill at the bar of the house of lords. FOX'S BILL THROWN OUT BY THE PEERS. THE second reading of the bill took place on the fifteenth of December, when counsel was heard at the bar in behalf of the compa- ny : and on the seventeenth it was moved that the bill be rejected. On this occasion, lord Camden spoke with great ability against the bill, which his lordship affirmed to be " in the highest degree pernicious and un- constitutional. To divest the company of the management of their own property, and commercial concerns, was to treat them as IDIOTS; and he regarded the bill, not so much in the light of a commission of bank- ruptcy as of lunacy. But as a means of throwing an enormous edition of weight into the scale, not of legal, but ministerial influence, it was still more alarming. Were this bill to pass into a law, his lordship for- cibly declared, we should see the king of England and the king of Bengal contending for superiority in the British parliament" After a vehement debate, the motion of re- jection was carried by ninety-five against seventy-six voices. Such was the concluding scene of an ad- ministration from whose vigor its partisans had conceived the most sanguine hopes; and whose strength had been represented by its enemies so vast and irresistible, as would, in its progress, break down all the barriers of the constitution. As the first di- visions in the upper house were favorable to this bill, it will naturally be imagined that such a sudden and remarkable change of sentiment, must have been occasioned by the intervention of some powerful cause, ade- quate to so extraordinary and unexpected an effect On the eleventh of December, earl Temple had a conference with his majesty, which appears principally to have turned on the bill then pending in parliament. Though it was generally believed that the most en- tire cordiality and confidence on all points did not subsist between the king and his ministers, yet upon this measure they had obtained his perfect concurrence. It was probably the language that had been held by some of the members in the house of commons, who, in the heat of debate had asserted, that if the bill passed into a law, the crown would be no longer worth wear- ing, that first excited doubts in the royal breast. The monarch considered himself as having been duped and deceived by his con- fidential servants. A card was immediately written, stating, " that his majesty allowed earl Temple to say, that whoever voted-for the India bill, was not only not his friend, but would be considered by him as his ene- my. And if these words were not strong enough, earl Temple might use whatever words he might deem stronger, or more to the purpose." An interference of so extraordinary a na- ture, was not likely to pass without animad- version and censure. William Baker, ac- cordingly, moved the house of commons on the seventeenth, the very day that the bill was rejected by the lords; "That it was now necessary to declare, that to report any opinion, or pretended opinion of the king GEORGE III. 17601820. 313 upon any bill, or other proceeding depend- ing in either house of parliament, with a. view to influence the votes of the members, was a high crime and misdemeanor." After an animated debate, the house divided upon the question, when the resolution was car- ried, by a majority of seventy-three. CONTEST BETWEEN THE CROWN AND THE COMMONS. THIS contest between the crown and the commons, presented to the public a scene truly novel and interesting. Prerogative and privilege at war, is one of those alarm- ing events, which the wisdom of preceding reigns had taken care to prevent The crown, therefore, boldly entering the lists with the commons, exhibited a conduct with- out example in the annals of the present royal family. The situation of the prince was critical : he had gone perhaps too far to be able to recede. The ministers were com- mitted upon their Indian system, and could not, without a total sacrifice of personal in- dependence, and the reputation of principle, abandon the scheme. It was impossible to discover a medium to preserve, unwounded, the honor of both. An entire change of administration was therefore determined upon ; and accordingly at midnight, on the eighteenth of Decem- ber, a royal message was sent to the secre- taries of state, demanding the seals of their several departments, and at the same tune directing that they should be delivered to the sovereign by the under-secretaries, as a personal interview would be disagreeable. Early next morning, letters of dismission, signed Temple, were sent to the other mem- bers of the cabinet In a few days after, Pitt was declared first lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer, the mar- quis of Carmarthen and Thomas Townshend, created lord Sydney, were nominated secre- taries of state ; lord Thurlow was reinstated as lord-chancellor ; earl Gower as president of the council ; the duke of Rutland was constituted lord privy-seal ; lord Howe placed at the head of the admiralty ; and the duke of Richmond of the ordnance. The earl of Northington was recalled from his govern- ment of Ireland, to which lord Temple, who had retained the seals of secretary only three days, was again appointed to succeed. On the twenty-second of December, the house of commons, being in a committee on the state of the nation, Erskine moved, " That an address be presented to the king, stating, that alarming reports had gone forth of an intended dissolution of parliament, and humbly representing to his majesty, the in- conveniencies and dangers of a prorogation or dissolution in the present conjuncture ; and entreating the sovereign to hearken to VOL. IV. 27 the advice of that house, and not to the se- cret advice of particular persons who might have private interests of their own, sepa- rate from the true interests of the king and people." This address was carried without a division, and on the twenty-fourth was pre- sented to the sovereign, who returned the following answer : " Gentlemen, it has been my constant object to employ the authority intrusted to me by the constitution to its true and only end, the good of my people ; and I am always happy in concurring with the wishes and opinions of my faithful com- mons. I agree with you in thinking, that the support of the public credit and revenue must demand your most earnest and vigilant care. The state of the East Indies is also an object of as much delicacy and import- ance as can exercise the wisdom and justice of parliament I \rust you will proceed in these considerations with all convenient speed, after such an adjournment as the pres- ent circumstances may seem to require ; and I assure you, that I shall not interrupt your meeting, by any exercise of my prerogative, either of prorogation or dissolution." 1784. The house now with tolerable sat- isfaction adjourned for the usual Christmas recess to the tenth of January, 1784; on which day the committee on the state of the nation was resumed ; and several resolutions were brought forward by Fox, and agreed to by the house ; prohibiting the lords of the treasury from assenting to the acceptance of the company's bills from India ; forbidding also the issue of any of the public money after a prorogation or dissolution of parlia- ment, unless the act of approbation shall have previously passed ; and ordering ac- counts to be laid before the house of the moneys already issued. These resolutions were followed by a motion from the earl of Surrey, "1. That in the present situation of his majesty's dominions it was peculiarly necessary that there should be an adminis- tration that had the confidence of the public. 2. That the late changes in his majesty's councils were accompanied with circum- stances new and extraordinary, and such as did not conciliate the confidence of that house." On this motion the house divided, but it was carried in the affirmative by one hundred and ninety-six to one hundred and forty-two voices. On the sixteenth of January a resolution was moved by lord Charles Spencer, " That the continuance of the present ministers in trusts of the highest importance and respon- sibility, was contrary to the principles of the constitution, and injurious to the interests of the king and people." Upon this ques- tion the house divided, ayes two hundred and five, noes one hundred and eighty-four ; 314 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. so that the antiministerial majority was re- duced by defection from fifty-four to twenty- one voices. About this time the chancellor of the ex- chequer introduced into the house a bill for the better government of India, on princi- ples which left the commercial concerns of the company in their own hands, and estab- lished a board of control, consisting of cer- tain commissioners appointed by the king, possessing a negative on the proceedings of the company in all matters of government. On the motion of commitment, this bill was lost by two hundred and twenty-two against two hundred and fourteen so that the op- position majority was now diminished by an Iwninous defection to eight Whatever hopes the present cabinet might form, from this flattering accession of par- liamentary strength, they were still more encouraged by the addresses of thanks to the king for the removal of his late minis- ters, which now began to pour in from every quarter of the kingdom. In this the city of London took the lead, and in their address they say, " Your faithful citizens lately be- held with infinite concern the progress of a measure which equally tended to encroach on the right of your majesty's crown to annihilate the chartered rights of the East India company and to raise a power un- known to this free government, and highly inimical to its safety. As this dangerous measure was warmly supported by your ma- jesty's late ministers, we heartily rejoice in their dismission, and humbly thank your majesty for exerting your prerogative in a manner so salutary and constitutional." And concluding in a style widely different from the usual tenor of their addresses on former occasions, they say, "Highly sensible of your majesty's paternal care and affection for your people, we pray the Almighty that you may long reign in peace over a free, a happy, and united nation." Though the dismissal of the late minis- ters originated in a cause merely accidental, and on thiirpart of the crown from a sudden and strong resentment at a supposed inva- sion of the prerogative ; yet the monarch acquired a popularity by the measure that effaced for a time all recollection of former disagreements ; and elevated the loyalty of the people to a degree of ardor, which court flattery itself cannot but acknowledge was at least commensurate with the merits of the sovereign. However grateful this cir- cumstance might prove to the royal feelings, and however acceptable to the ministers ; it still failed in securing to government the advantage most essential to the interests of the country, an ascendency in the house of commons. Nor could the opposition expect pied. Every gazette threatened them with three or four addresses of thanks for their late removal from power ; their numbers were daily falling oflT, and under such cir- cumstances the most sanguine could not hope for ultimate success. Both parties, therefore, alarmed at the novel and danger- ous situation of the country, seemed at length disposed to pause ; and a number of respectable independent members having expressed a strong desire, that the great leaders of both sides would unite and form an administration on a broad and compre- hensive basis, the idea was listened to with such general approbation as held out for a time a tolerable prospect of its being carried into effect. With a view to forward this general union of parties, a meeting had been held of the independent interest of the house of com- mons. These gentlemen, finding their en- deavors fruitless, in attempting to induce Pitt to an actual or virtual resignation of office ; or to bring the duke of Portland to negotiate on any other terms ; came at last to the resolution that a message should be sent from the king desiring an interview between hie grace and Pitt, as the only re- maining expedient that could preserve un- sullied the honor of both, without any con- cession of principle on either side. His ma- jesty accordingly complied with this request, and sent a message to the duke of Portland, expressing his desire that an interview might take place between his grace and Mr. Pitt, for the purpose of arranging a new plan of administration on fair and equal terms. The duke, previous to such inter- view, requested to be informed in what sense he was to understand the words fair and equal ; and Pitt declining any explana- tion, the negotiation finally terminated. The king and the nation at large were now evidently and openly united in senti- ment against the commons ; and the house of peers, who had hitherto remained the si- lent and passive spectators of this extraor- dinary contest, thought proper to come for- ward at this time, and at the motion of the earl of Effingham their lordships resolved, " 1. That an attempt in any one branch of the legislature to suspend the execution of law, by separately assuming to itself the di- rection of a discretionary power vested by act of parliament, is unconstitutional. 2. That by the known principles of the consti- tution the undoubted authority of appointing to the great offices of the executive govern- ment was solely vested in the king; and that this house had every reason to place the firmest reliance on his majesty's wisdom in the exercise of this prerogative." These resolutions, shaped in the form of an ad- dress, were presented to the king. It was GEORGE IE. 17601820. 315 not to be supposed that so direct an attack upon the authority and wisdom of the com- mons, would be passed over in silence. In return therefore they resolved, at the mo- tion of lord Beauchamp, " 1. That the house had not assumed to itself a right to suspend the execution of law, and 2. that for them to declare their opinion respecting the exer- cise of any discretionary power was consti- tutional and agreeable to established usage." The opposition, who were still the major- ity of the house of commons, found them- selves daily in a more embarrassing situa- tion. But no difficulties however pressing, no dangers however formidable, could sub- due their spirit, or suspend their exertions. On the eighteenth of February, previous to the house entering on business, Pitt thought proper to acquaint them, not as a message from the king, but as a piece of information he conceived himself pledged to communi- cate, " That his majesty had not yet, in com- pliance with the resolutions of the house, thought proper to dismiss his ministers, and that his ministers had not resigned." This intimation so far affected the temper and feelings of the house, that it was found ne- cessary to adjourn for two days, in order to recover a state of mind suitable to the dis- cussion of a question, which involved the character, the attributes, and the existence of the popular branch of the legislature. On the twentieth of February the house met again, and an address, carried by a ma- jority of twenty voices only, was presented to the king, expressive of " the reliance the house had on the wisdom of the sovereign, that he would take such measures as might tend to give effect to the wishes of his faith- ful commons, by removing every obstacle to the formation of such an administration as the house of commons had declared to be requisite." To this the king again replied in terms happily adapted to the occasion. He mentioned " his recent endeavors to unite in the public service, on a fair and equal footing, those whose joint efforts might have a tendency to put an end to the unhap- py divisions and distractions of the country. Observing, at the same time, that there was no specific charge or complaint suggested against his present ministers, and that num- bers of his subjects had expressed to him in the warmest manner their satisfaction at the late changes. Under these circumstances he trusted his faithful commons would not wish that the essential offices of the execu- tive government should be vacated, until such a plan of union as he had called for, and they had pointed out, could be carried into effect." This answer was by no means satisfacto- ry, and on the first of March a yet stronger address was moved and carried, but by a still smaller majority than the last. The house, " humbly besought his majesty that he would be graciously pleased to lay the foundation' of a strong and stable govern- ment, by the previous removal of his present ministers. To this address, which went di- rectly to the point at issue, and left no room for evasion, the king replied in the same mild and firm language as before, repeating, "that no charge nor complaint, nor any specific objection, was yet made against any of his present ministers ;" and adding this remarkable observation, " that if there were any just grounds for their removal, it ought to be equally a reason for not admit- ting them as a part of that extended and united administration which is stated to be requisite." The measure of addressing having been fully and unavailingly tried, and it now ap- pearing unquestionably clear, that any far- ther experiment of this kind would prove useless and nugatory ; Fox, in the following week, moved a representation to the crown, a mode of addressing to which no answer was customary, and which at great length, and in energetic language, stated " the dan- gerous and pernicious tendency of those mea- sures and maxims, by which a new system of executive government had been set up, which, wanting the confidence of that house and acting in defiance of their resolutions, must prove at once inadequate by its ineffi- ciency to the necessary objects of govern- ment, and dangerous by its example to the liberties of the people." This motion was carried by a majority of one. On the following day, Fox perceiving him- self deserted by many of his partisans, aban- doned his original intention of moving the postponement of the mutiny-bill, as a secu- rity against a sudden and premature dissolu- tion. Here then the contest finally termin- ated, and administration obtained a complete victory. And on the twenty-fourth of March the parliament was prorogued, and the next day dissolved by proclamation, and a new par- liament convened to meet on the eighteenth of May. NEW PARLIAMENT. AT the general election, the influence of the crown being evidently combined with the inclination of the country, the effect pro- duced was astonishing. The coalitionists, even those wlto once stood highest in the estimation of the public, were almost every- where thrown out. But the most distinguish- ed contest was that of the election for the city of Westminster ; where the parties main- tained a long and violent struggle, almost as memorable as a battle between contending nations. Fox, however, to the surprise of all, closed the poll with a majority of two hun- dred and thirty-five ; but the high-bailiff, by 316 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. a scandalous partiality, refused to make the return in bis favor, for which an action was afterwards brought by Fox, in the court of king's-bench, and a verdict with large dam- ages obtained. The meeting of parliament took place on the eighteenth of May ; and from this term we may date the commencement of the par- liamentary existence of administration. The remainder of the last session may rather be said to have been spent in a contest about places and power, than in the characteristic exertions of a regular government. The new ministers had now completed their ar- rangements ; they had now obtained every advantage of situation ; and had leisure to pursue, and strength to carry those measures which were to decide their character as statesmen and legislators. The king in his opening speech expressed " great satis- faction at meeting his parliament at this time, after having recurred in so important a moment to the sense of his people. He recommended to their most serious consid- eration to frame suitable provisions for the good government of our possessions in the East Indies. Upon this subject, parliament would not lose sight of the effect which the measures they adopted might have on our own constitution and our dearest interests at home." The address of thanks proposed on this occasion, contained strong expressions of approbation' respecting the late dissolu- tion. On this point, therefore, the house, divided, and the address, as originally pro- posed, was carried by a majority of seventy- six voices ; a decisive proof that the disso- lution had fully answered its intended pur- pose. HIGH-BAILIFFS CONDUCT IN REFUSING TO RETURN FOX. THE business which chiefly occupied the attention of the house and the public for some time, wag the complaint stated by Fox respecting the conduct of the high-bailiff of Westminster, .who had daringly refused to make the return in his favor, although ln> was evidently entitled to it from a large and decided majority. On the twenty-fourth of May, a resolution was moved by Lee, late attorney-general, " That the high-bailiff of Westminster, on the day upon which the writ of election ex- pired, ought to have returned two citizens to serve in parliament for that city." A long and violent debate ensued, but, on the motion of Sir Lloyd Kenyon, the previous question was put and carried, by more than two to one. It was then ordered that the high-bailiff and his deputy should attend the house on the day following. The only ground on which that officer rested his de- fence was that he had granted a scrutiny, and could not in conscience make the return till its termination. But to this simple and barefaced plea, a decisive answer present- ed itself. He was bound, by the nature of his office and the tenor of his oath, to make his return at the period the writ was re- turnable, according to the poll actually ta- ken. If he really felt any of those scruples of conscience by which he professed to be embarrassed, the law of parliament allowed him to include all the three candidates in the same return ; which would at once have transferred the burden of the decision from his own conscience to the conscience of the house. After long pleadings by counsel at the bar of the house on either part, the mo- tion was renewed, " that the high-bailiff be directed forthwith to make the return ;" but to the astonishment of every liberal mind in the kingdom, this motion was on a divis- ion finally negatived by a majority of seventy- eight. It was then moved by lord Mulgrave, and carried ; " that the high-bailiff do pro- ceed in the scrutiny with all possible dis- patch." Thus ended for the present session this shameful business. On the sixteenth of June, a motion was made by alderman Sawbridge, " that a com- mittee be appointed to inquire into the pres- ent state of the representation of the com- mons of Great Britain in parliament." Pitt, in the usual language of ministers, stated, that the time was improper, but observed also, that the measure had his approbation, and he should bring the subject before par- liament early next session. But the most remarkable circumstance attending this de- bate was, that Dundas, who had supported the former proposition of Pitt, had the good luck to escape the charge of inconsistency in opposing the present motion, by the for- tunate discovery of a distinction which pre- served his reputation. His objection was, that the committee now moved for, was a select committee, whereas the committee for which he had formerly voted, was a commit- tee of the whole house. Lord Mulgrave moved the previous question, which was car- ried by a majority of seventy-four. PITT'S INDIA BILL. PITT had now reached the summit of popularity, and the public with impatient anxiety expected the production of his plan for the future government of India. He therefore introduced the subject on the sixth of July, by a bill, founded on the general principles of that rejected by the former par- liament, and to which the company had now given their slow and reluctant assent. By this bill, a board of control, composed of a certain number of commissioners of the rank of privy-counsellors, was established, the members of which were to be appointed by the king, and removable at his pleasure. This board was authorized to check, super- GEORGE IIL 1760-1820. 317 intend, and control the civil and military government and revenue of the company. The dispatches transmitted by the court of directors to the different presidencies, were to be previously subjected to the inspection of the board, and were also by them to be counter-signed. The directors were enjoin- ed to pay due obedience to the orders of the board, touching civil and military govern- ment and revenues ; and in case such orders do at any time, in the opinion of the direct- ors, relate to matters not connected with these points, they are empowered to appeal to his majesty in council, whose decision is declared final. The bill also enacted, that the appointment of the court of directors to the office of governor-general, president, or counsellor to the different presidencies, shali be subject to the approbation and recall of his majesty. As to the Zemindars, or greal hereditary land-holders of India, who had been violently dispossessed of their property, and who, agreeably to the generous and de- cisive tenor of Fox's bill, were to have been universally and peremptorily reinstated in their zemindaries, the present bill provided, only that an inquiry should be instituted, in order to restore such as should appear to have been irregularly and unjustly deprived. Lastly, a high tribunal was created, for the trial of Indian delinquents, consisting of three judges, one from each court, of four peers, and six members of the house of com- mons, who were authorized to judge without appeal ; to award, in case of conviction, the punishment of fine and imprisonment, and to declare the party convicted incapable of serv- ing the East India company. Such were the grand and leading features of Pitt's bill. Fox, with his usual powers of discrimina- tion, pointed out the defects of the bill. He observed, " that it established a weak and inefficient government, by dividing its pow- ers. To the one board belonged the privi- lege of ordering and contriving measures ; to the other, that of carrying them into ex- ecution. Theories which did not connect men with measures, were not theories for this world. The new tribunal he stigma- tized as a screen for delinquents ; as a pal- pable and unconstitutional violation of the sacred right of a trial by jury. Since no man was to be tried but on the accusation of the company, or the attorney-general, he had only to conciliate government in order to his remaining in perfect security. It was a part of the general system of deception and delusion, and he would venture to pro- nounce it a bed of justice, where justice would for ever sleep." With all the partiality of the house in fa- vor of Pitt, this bill was found to be so crude and imperfect on its first appearance, that almost all his own friends objected to one or 27* other of its clauses ; and in a variety of sub- sequent amendments which it underwent, it may be said to have lost entirely its original shape ; and after all, such were its radical defects, that it required (as will appear in the sequel) a declaratory act to render it in- telligible. With respect to the amendments, Sheridan humorously remarked, " that twen- ty-one new clauses were added to the bill, which were distinguished by the letters of the alphabet, and he requested some gentle- man to suggest three more, in order to com- plete the horn-book of the present ministry." On the motion of commitment, the numbers were, ayes two hundred and seventy-six, noes sixty-one; and it was carried in tri- umph to the house of peers, where, after an opposition vigorous in point of exertion, but feeble in regard of numbers, the bill passed August ninth, 1784. It was however ac- companied by a protest, in which it was severely branded as a measure ineffectual in its provisions, unjust in its inquisitorial spirit, and unconstitutional in its partial abolition of the trial by jury. COMMUTATION TAX. ON the dismission of this unwelcome bus- iness, the attention of the house was imme- diately transferred to a bill introduced by the minister for the more effectual preven- tion of smuggling, which had of late years arisen to a most alarming height This bill contained various prudential, but somewhat severe regulations. The distance from shore at which seizures should in future be deem- ed lawful was extended, and the construct- ing of vessels of a certain form and dimen- sion peculiarly calculated for smuggling prohibited. But by far the most extraordi- nary part of the present plan was the reduc- tion of the duties paid by the East India company on the importation of tea, which was declared to be the grand medium of the smuggling traffic ; and the consequent im- position of a new duty on windows, already most grievously burdened, to the amount of the deficiency, stated at no less than six hundred thousand pounds per annum. This was styled by the minister a commutation tax, and the equity of it was defended on the simple and vague idea, that teas being an article of universal consumption, the weight of the tax would be compensated by a proportional abatement in the purchase of the commodity. A vigorous but unavailing opposition was made to the bill by Fox He asked, " what connexion there was between an impost upon tea, and an impost upon windows, to entitle ihe latter to be denominated a commutation for the former ? He affirmed it to be the es- sence of financial injustice and oppression :o take off a tax upon luxury, and substitute in its stead a tax upon that which was of 318 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. indispensable necessity." The bill at length passed the house by a great majority. The remaining great operation of finance during this session, was the providing for the arrears of the unfunded debt left at the conclusion of the war, amounting to more than twenty millions. This was disposed of partly in the four per cents, and partly in a new created five per cent, stock, made irredeemable for thirty years, or until twen- ty-five millions of the existing funds should be extinguished. It must not be omitted, that the 'sum of sixty thousand pounds was voted to his majesty, to enable him to dis- charge the debt contracted on the civil-list. This 'was the fourth grant for the same pur- pose since his accession. A warm alterca- tion took place as to the precise period when this debt was incurred. All however that the public could be fully certified of was, that with the civil-list revenue of eight hundred thousand pounds, afterwards in- creased to nine hundred thousand pounds per annum, exclusive of the revenues aris- ing from the crown lands, more than four- teen hundred thousand pounds had been voted within the space of about fifteen years, for the payment of the debts of the crown. The stern observation of the great Milton could not but forcibly recur at this time to the public recollection "That the very trappings of a monarchy were more than sufficient to defray the whole expense of a republic." RESTORATION OF THE FORFEITED ESTATES. THE last measure which came before par- liament during the present session, was a bill introduced by Dundas for the restora- tion of the estates forfeited in Scotland in consequence of the rebellionf in 1715 and 1745: he declared " the measure to be, in his opinion, worthy of the justice and generosity of parliament He said there was not one of the families comprehended in the scope of it, in which some person had not atoned for the crimes and errors of his ancestors, by sacrificing his blood in the cause of his country ; and that the sovereign had not for a long series of years past a more loyal set of subjects than the highlanders and their chieftains. Of this the late lord Chatham was deeply sensible, and that illustrious statesman had publicly recognized the rec- titude of the measure now proposed. He did not however mean, that the estates should be freed from the claims existing against them at the time of forfeiture. This might be regarded as a premium for rebel- lion. He therefore proposed the appropria- tion of such sums, amounting to about eighty thousand pounds, to public purposes; fifty thousand of which he would recommend to be employed in the completion of the grand canal reaching from the Frith of Forth to that of Clyde." This liberal measure was received in a manner that did honor to the feelings of the house. Fox, in particular, with his usual generosity, bestowed upon it the highest en- comiums. Nevertheless when the bill was sent to the lords, it met with a most deter- mined resistance from the lord chancellor, who expatiated with much satisfaction on that maxim of ancient wisdom, which pro- nounced treason to be a crime of so deep a dye, that nothing less was adequate to its punishment, than the total eradication of the person, the name, and the family out of the community. Fortunately on dividing the house, this nobleman was left in a mi- nority, and to the entire satisfaction of the public the bill passed, and an end was put to the session, August twentieth, 1784. GEORGE IIL 17601820. 319 CHAPTER XX. Meeting of Parliament Westminster Scrutiny resumed by the Commons Parlia- mentary Reform The Shop-Tax The Hawkers and Pedlars' 1 Tax both unjust and oppressive The Irish Commercial Propositions pass the Commons carried to the Lords amended by the Lords returned to the Commons finally passed Reflections on the System of Commercial Intercourse held out by the Irish Proposi- tions Plan of Fortifications submitted to the House of Commons Proposal of a Sinking Fund Bill passed The Civil-List in Arrears Burke commences his Charges against Warren Hastings Attempt to assassinate the King by Margaret Nicholson Treaty of Commerce with France signed A Convention with Spain re- specting the British Settlements on the Mosquito Shore, and the Coast of Honduras Consideration of the French Commercial Treaty Embarrassed circumstances of the Prince of Wales Hastings' Impeachment resumed by the Commons Interfer- ence of the Courts of London and Berlin in the Affairs of Holland Meeting of Par- liament The East India Declaratory Act Hastings' Trial A Bill to regulate the Transportation of Slaves passed The King's Indisposition Disputes on the Mode of Establishing a Regency Notification of the King's Recovery Parliament regu- larly opened The Shop-Tax repealed Test and Corporation Acts African Slave Trade Prorogation of Parliament. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. WESTMIN- STER SCRUTINY CLOSED. THE short interval between the proroga- tion of parliament and its reassembling, proved a period of profound national tran- quillity, in which no event occurred of suf- ficient importance to demand particular at- tention. The people of England, highly gratified with the recent change which had taken place, seemed to repose with unbound- ed confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the present administration. The young premier had indeed become the idol of the public, and the most sanguine hopes were indulged, that, under his auspices, Britain would soon resume her rank and dignity among the nations, and rise to a state of prosperity and splendor superior to the bright- est era of her former greatness. 1785. Such appeared to be the temper of the public mind, and such the flattering hopes of the nation, when the parliament of Great Britain assembled for its second ses- sion on the twenty-fifth of January 1785. The measure, on this occasion, chiefly re- commended in the speech from the throne, was the adjustment of such points in the commercial intercourse between this coun- try and Ireland, as were not yet finally ar- ranged. The address of thanks being car- ried unanimously, the first business which engaged the attention of the house of com- mons, was the. state of the Westminster scrutiny ; and such was the violent and ma- lignant spirit with which its continuance was defended, that this wretched burlesque on English jurisprudence was at last digni- fied by the appellation of the " Court of Scrutiny." This court had now existed for a period of eight months, and only two parishes out of seventeen had been scru- tinized; so that there remained no proba- bility, by this mode of procedure, of deciding- the question of return during the existence of the present parliament The high-bailiff had no power to summon witnesses, to im- pose an oath, or to commit for contempt; and in consequence of this miserable imbe- cility, both court and council were exposed to low and sarcastic buffoonery. Pitt, however, condescended to vindicate the proceedings of this judicature, and led Fox to remark, " that he well remembered the day when he congratulated the house on the acquisition of Pitt's splendid abilities: it had been his pride to fight, in conjunction with him, the battles of the constitution : he had been ever ready to recognize in the right honorable gentleman a formidable ri- val, who would leave him far behind in the pursuit of glory ; but he had never expected that this rival would become his persecutor. He thought he had possessed an elevation of mind wholly incompatible with so low and grovelling a passion. He considered the present measure, with regard to Westmin- ster, as a succedaneum to expulsion, with- out daring to exhibit any charge against the person expelled." The motion of Welbore Ellis, " that the high-bailiff do attend at the bar of this house," was at length negatived, February ninth, by one hundred and seventy-four, to one hundred and thirty-five voices. This being but a slender majority, the motion was renewed by colonel Fitzpatric, and rejected by a majority of only nine: and was finally repeated by alderman Sawbridge, on the 320 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. third of March, and carried in the affirma- tive, ayes one hundred and sixty-two, noes one hundred and twenty-four. Thus did the house, by a decision truly honorable to them- selves, and highly satisfactory to the nation, leave the minister, and the veteran phalanx of courtiers and king's friends, in a disgrace- ful minority. Thus abruptly terminated this scandalous scrutiny, and the high-bailiff next day made a return of lord Hood. and Fox. PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. As the late proceedings in parliament on the business of the scrutiny, were viewed, even by the minister's friends, with inex- pressible regret and astonishment, it was fortunate for Pitt that the public attention was quickly transferred to a subject of high national importance, namely, reform in the commons house of parliament. In support- ing this measure, which, of all others, has long been deemed by the wisest and best of men, the most essential to the true honor and lasting interests of Britain, he discover- ed a conduct more worthy of his talents, station, and character, and which tended to revive all the former flattering preposses- sions in his favor; and he shone forth at once the patriot and statesman. This plan of reform was brought forward by Pitt, on the eighteenth of April, and in his introductory speech, " He rose," he said, " with hopes infinitely more sanguine than he had ventured to entertain at any former period. There never was a moment when the minds of men were more enlightened on this interesting topic, or more prepared for its discussion. He declared his present plan of reform to be perfectly coincident with the spirit of those changes which had taken place in the exercise of the elective franchise from the earliest ages, and not in the least allied to the spirit of innovation. King James the first, in his first proclamation for call- ing a parliament, directed that the sheriffs should not call upon such boroughs as were decayed and ruined, to send members to par- liament *For this discretion, as vested in the crown, he was certainly no advocate ; but he wished to establish a permanent rule, to operate like the discretion out of which the constitution had sprung. He wish- ed," he said, " to bring forward a plan that should be complete, gradual, and perma- nent ; a plan that not only corrected the ine- qualities of the present system, but which would be competent to preserve the purity it restored, and give to the constitution not only consistency, but if possible immortali- ty. It was his design that the actual num- ber of the house of commons should be pre- served inviolate. His immediate object was to select a certain number of the decayed and rotten boroughs, the right of represent- ation attached to thirty-six of which, should be transferred to the counties, in such pro- portions as the wisdom of parliament might prescribe; and that all unnecessary harsh- ness might be avoided, he recommended the appropriation of a fund of one million to be applied to the purchasing the franchise of such boroughs, on their voluntary applica- tion to parliament. When this was effected, he proposed to extend the bill to the pur- chasing the franchise of other boroughs, be- sides the original thirty-six ; and to transfer the right of returning members to large towns, hitherto unrepresented, upon their petitioning parliament to be indulged with this privilege." The other most important particulars of Pitt's plan, were the admitting of copy-holders to an equality with free- holders, and the extending the franchise in populous towns, where the electors were few, to the inhabitants in general. The re- sult of the minister's plan was to give one hundred members to the popular interest in the kingdom, and to extend the right of elec- tion to one hundred thousand persons, who, by the existing provisions of the law, were excluded from the privilege. This plan, which was admitted on all hands to be cautious, temperate, and well- digested, was nevertheless destined to en- counter the raillery and ridicule of an oppo- sition truly formidable in point of numbers; for the bill was rejected by a majority of two hundred and forty-eight to one hundred and seventy-four voices. SHOP AND HAWKERS' TAX. IRISH COM- MERCIAL PROPOSITIONS. ON the ninth of May, the chancellor of the exchequer proposed that the remaining part of the floating arrear of debt, consisting of navy bills and ordnance debentures, should be funded on five per cent stock; and the interest, amounting to above four hundred thousand pounds per annum, pro- vided by fresh taxes. Among the taxes brought forward on this occasion, was one on retail shops, which proved singularly ob- noxious. As this tax was proportioned to the rent of the house, it was inevitably des- tined to fall, almost exclusively, upon the inhabitants of the metropolis. It was there- fore with great justice denominated neither more nor less than a partial house-tax ; and the whole body of retail traders were uni- versally agreed, that it was utterly imprac- ticable to indemnify themselves, by raising the price of their different commodities upon the consumer. Struck with the force of these and other arguments, and conscious of the extreme unpopularity of the measure, Pitt, by way of recompense to the shop- keeper, proposed to revoke and take away the license from all hawkers and pedlars, whom he styled " a pest to the community, and a nursery and medium for the preserva- GEORGE III. 17601820. 321 tion of illicit trade." The cause of this humble, useful, and unprotected description of men was generally and powerfully sup- ported by Fox, Courtenay, and other gentle- men. In the result, the prohibition was changed to a very heavy duty, with a num- ber of severe restrictions. But the subject which chiefly engaged the attention of parliament during the pres- ent session, was the projected plan of com- mercial intercourse with Ireland. This new system was first introduced into the parlia- ment of Ireland, on the seventh of February, by Orde, secretary to the lord-lieutenant, in the form of ten propositions ; but by slight alteration, and a distribution of the subject of one of them into two heads, they were increased to eleven. In this state they re- ceived the final assent of the parliament of Ireland, on the sixteenth of February. On the twenty-second of the same month Pitt brought the subject before the British house of commons ; and hi the opening of this im- portant business, he observed, "that the species of policy which had been long exer- cised by the English government in regard to Ireland, was calculated to debar her from the enjoyment and use of her own resources, and to make her completely subservient to the interest and opuleiicy of this country. Some relaxation of this system had taken place at an early period of the present cen- tury ; more had been done in the reign of king George the second ; but it was not till within a very few years that the system had been reversed. Still however the future intercourse between the two kingdoms re- mained for legislative wisdom to arrange; and the propositions moved by Orde in the Irish parliament, and ratified by that assem- bly, held out a system liberal, beneficial, and permanent If the question should be ask- ed, whether, under the accumulation of our heavy taxes, it would be wise to equalize the duties, and to enable a country free from those taxes to meet us in their own market and in ours, he would answer that Ireland, with an independent legislature, would no longer submit to be treated with inferiority. A great and generous effort was to be made by this country, and we were to choose be- tween inevitable alternatives. We must cal- culate from general and not from partial views. Above all, we should learn not to regard Ireland with an eye of jealousy. It required little philosophy to reconcile us to a competition, which would give us a rich customer instead of a poor one. The prop- erty of the sister kingdom would be a fresh and inexhaustible source of opulence to us." Fox remarked that they had entirely over- looked a question which appeared to him of primary importance ; he meant the propriety and policy of permitting the produce of Africa and America to be brought into Great Britain through Ireland. By this means we threw down the whole fabric of our naviga- tion laws ; even with regard to the great ar- ticle of tea, the period was not very distant, when the charter of the East India company would expire; and according to the tenor of the resolutions now proposed, there cer- tainly remained no power in this country to renew it with the same, or indeed any ex- clusive privileges. Fox severely censured the precipitancy with which this business was urged : he asserted, that not only the manufactures, but the revenues and political existence of Britain were involved in the dis- cussion ; and he contended for the necessity of calling the merchants and manufacturers to the bar of the house, in order that the house might be fully informed in a case of this momentous nature, before they proceed- ed to vote a definitive resolution. About .the middle of March, the spirit of commercial jealousy appeared to be tho- roughly awakened. The petitions presented against the measure amounted in the whole to upwards of sixty. They were sent up to parliament from every quarter of the king- dom, and there was scarcely a single species of manufacture or merchandise, upon the subject of which the persons peculiarly in- terested had not conceived considerable alarm. From the sixteenth of March to the twelfth of May, the house of commons were almost incessantly employed in the hearing of counsel, and the examination of witnesses. In consequence of this long and able inves- tigation, many additional lights were thrown upon the subject ; and Pitt was at last re- luctantly compelled to acknowledge the ne- cessity of making some material alterations and amendments in his original plan. Accord ingly, on the twelfth of May, the minister brought forward a series of propo- sitions, so altered, modified, and enlarged, as to exhibit in their improved form what might well be considered as a new system. On this occasion, Fox, in the language of triumph, congratulated the house on the happy escape they had made from the system proposed by the chancellor of the exchequer but two months since; all opposition to which, was then treated as the effect of fac- tion and disappointment "If," said Fox, "the original resolutions had passed, we should have lost for ever the monopoly of the East India trade; we must have hazarded all the revenue arising from spirituous liquors ; we should have sacrificed the whole of the navigation laws of this country. The just alarm of the minister on the subject of the navigation laws, sufficiently appeared from the extraordinary remedy he had thought it expedient to adopt, which was no other than to assert, that, notwithstanding 322 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the independence of Ireland, she must still in commercial laws and external legislation be governed by Britain." Fox affirmed, that the propositions, as they were even now modified, were far too complicated and ex- tensive to be voted by a majority of that house, on any other ground than that of con- fidence in the minister ; and surely the right honorable gentleman had sufficiently demon- strated, that implicit confidence in him was as dangerous as it was absurd ; that infalli- bility was no more his prerogative than that of the rest of the world. The house at length divided on the motion of adjournment, ayes one hundred and fifty-five, noes two hundred and eighty-one ; and the first reso- lution, broken into two distinct propositions in the new arrangement, passed the house. The remaining resolutions were subsequent- ly carried, after an obstinate and violent con- test, and on the thirtieth of May were sent up to the house of lords. Here they were again the subject of long and laborious investigation ; in the course of which, various amendments were offered and received by the house. At last, on the nineteenth of July, the resolutions in their altered state were sent down from the lords to the commons ; where, after much eager debate, the amendments of their lordships were agreed to by the commons ; and on the twenty-eighth of July, an address was pre- sented to the king by both houses of parlia- ment, acquainting his majesty with the steps which had been taken ia this important af- fair ; adding, " that it remained for the par- liament of Ireland to judge of the condi- tions according to their wisdom and discre- tion, as well as of every other part of the settlement proposed to be established by mutual consent" The two houses now ad- journed themselves to a distant day, and on the thirtieth of September 1785, the parlia- ment was prorogued by royal proclamation^ REFLECTIONS ON COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. IF the original propositions adopted by the Irish legislature were rejected with indig- nation by the British parliament, the Eng- lish series of propositions proved still more obnoxious to the general spirit of the Irish nation. To promote the mutual interest of England and Ireland, to regulate the com- mercial intercourse between both countries on equal principles, were the objects the original propositions professed to have in view ; arid the philanthropist will certainly lament, that a scheme of so liberal and gen- erous an aspect, should be defeated by the malign spirit of mercantile jealousy. The sister kingdom, however, it must be con- fessed, in the rejection of the plan transmit- ted from England, was actuated by high and noble motives. Ireland, by a long series of virtuous and patriotic struggles, had at last established the independence of her legisla- ture ; and finding that the fourth proposition struck at that independence, the parliament, jealous of their infant liberty, and almost without glancing at the commercial features of the proffered system, peremptorily re- jected the whole on that ground, with just and manly indignation. Public illumina- tions in the populous towns of Ireland tes- tified the general joy excited by the sudden termination of a business which was origin- ally intended to communicate both to Eng- land and Ireland, solid and lasting advan- tages ; but, from the issue, appears to have been destined by a singular fate to rouse commercial jealousies, to awaken national prejudices, and to disturb the public tran- quillity of both kingdoms more, perhaps, than any preceding measure of that reign. PROPOSED NEW PLAN OF FORTIFICA- TIONS. 1786. AFTER a tranquil interval of a few months, the parliament of Great Britain met on the twenty-fourth of January 1786. In the speech from the throne, the king de- clared to the house of commons, his earnest wish to enforce economy in every depart- ment; recommending to them the mainte- nance of our naval strength on the most re- spectable footing ; and above all, the estab- lishment of a fixed plan for the reduction of the national debt. Nothing very material occurred until near the middle of February, when the attention of parliament and the public was drawn to a plan of fortifications, originally suggested by the duke of Rich- mond. This design had been interrupted last session, in consequence of a suggestion of colonel Barre, " that a board of land and sea officers ought to be appointed to examine the merits of the system." This idea hav- ing been pretty generally adopted by the house, Pitt not only agreed, that no money should be then voted for the purpose, but also that the sum of fifty thousand pounds, granted in the year 178i, for that service, and not yet expended, should be reserved till the matter had undergone a complete in- vestigation. In conformity with this agree- ment, a board of officers was appointed on the thirteenth of April 1785, and on the twenty-fourth of June following, they made their report to the king. This business was again brought before parliament, in the present session, on the tenth of February ; when Pitt stated the re- port of the board of land and sea officers to be in the highest degree favorable to the plan of fortification, submitted to their decision, but the report itself he declined laying be- fore the house, as a matter of too serious and delicate a nature for public inspection. The discontent manifested when the question was GEORGE m. 17601820. last year under discussion, now rose into the warmth of indignation. " If the report, or the essentials it contained, were not to be in some mode subject to the inspection of the house, they were, it was affirmed, in exactly the same situation in which they had stood before the board was appointed. They must decide, not upon their own judgments, but in deference to the authority of the minis- ter. But the house of commons were not justified in voting away the money of their constituents upon the grounds of passive complaisance, and courtly submission. The expense attending this novel system would be enormous, and it was at least their duty, before they adopted it, to be fully convinced of its necessity." General Burgoyne, who was one of the board, controverted the asser- tion of Pitt respecting the entire approbation expressed by them of the system in ques- tion. " It was well known," he said, " that cases hypothetically put, admitted only of a direct answer, given under the admission of the hypothesis. It remained to be ascer- tained, whether the case thus hypothetically put, was sufficiently within the limits of probability to deserve attention. The ques- tion relative to the fortifications was beyond the reach of party. It was, in his mind, the most important and the most interesting, whether considered as a question of science, of revenue, or of constitution, that was ever submitted to the decision of parliament" Pitt waived the farther discussion of the question at present, but declared his inten- tion of bringing it again before the house in a short time, in the most specific and solemn manner. Accordingly, in about a fortnight after, he moved the following resolution ; " That it appears to the house, that to pro- vide effectually for securing the dockyards of Portsmouth and Plymouth by a perma- nent system of fortification, was an essential object for the safety of the state," &c. &c. On this occasion a violent debate arose, in which Sheridan eminently distinguished himself as an enemy to the measure. " When we talked of a constitutional jealousy of the military power of the crown, what was the real object," he asked, " to which we pointed our suspicion ? What, but that it was in the nature of kings to love power, and in the constitution of armies to obey kings. The fact was, that these strong military holds, if maintained, as they must be in peace, by full and disciplined garrisons, would in truth promisa tenfold the means of curbing and subduing the country, than could arise even from doubling the present army establish- ment, with this extraordinary aggravation, that those very naval stores and magazines, the seeds and sources of future navies, the effectual preservation of which was the pre- tence for these unassailable fortresses, would, in that case, become a pledge and hostage in the hands of the crown ; a circumstance which, in a country like this, must insure unconditional submission to the most ex- travagant claims that despotism could dic- tate. The minutes which contained the opinion of the naval officers, in condemna- tion of the plan, were wholly omitted, be- cause they were mixed with matter of such dangerous import that no chemical process known in the ordnance elaboratory could possibly separate them ; while, on the con- trary, every approving opinion, like a light, oily fluid, floated at the top, and was capable of being presented to the house, pure and untinged by a single particle of the argu- ment and information upon which it was founded." It was thought by many to be impossible, that a man of Pitt's discernment, could be the sincere and cordial advocate of so pre- posterous a scheme ; and it was even men- tioned in the house, by one of his friends, as a topic of report, that in this business he was suspected of acting against his own opinion : but, however this may be, certain it is, that he found himself on this occasion very generally deserted by the country gen- tlemen ; and the division was rendered mem- orable by an exact equality of numbers, both the ayes and the noes amounting to one hundred and sixty-nine. The speaker, being of course compelled to give his cast- ing vote, acquired much applause, by de- claring for the rejection of this chimerical, extravagant, and dangerous system. SINKING FUND. THE subject which the minister seemed to intend should make the principal figure in this session of parliament, was the pro- posal of a sinking fund for the liquidation of the national debt On the seventh of March, Pitt moved for the appointment, by ballot, of a select committee of nine persons, to re- port to the house the state of the public revenue and expenditure. The result of their inquiry was laid before the house on the twenty-first of the same month ; and proved in the highest degree pleasing and satisfactory. The amount of the revenue for the current year was estimated by the committee at fifteen millions three hundred and ninety-seven thousand pounds. The permanent expenditure, including the civil- list, and the interests payable on the differ- ent funds, amounted to ten millions five hun- dred and fifty-four thousand pounds. The peace-establishment, allowing eighteen thou- sand men for the navy, and the usual com- plement of seventy regiments for the army, exclusive of life-guards and cavalry, was estimated at three millions nine hundred and twenty-four thousand pounds. In all, four- teen millions four hundred and seventy-eight 3*24 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. thousand pounds ; of consequence there re- mained a surplus of more than nine hun- dred thousand pounds. Pitt observed upon this report, " that though this was stated to be the annual expenditure, a considerable interval must elapse before this reduction could take place ; this term he fixed at four years. The exceedings of the army, navy, and ordnance, together with the sums ne- cessary for the indemnification of the Amer- ican loyalists, he calculated, would not, du- ring this period, fell short of three millions. There were sums appropriated, during the war, to different services, which had not been expended ; four hundred and fifty thou- sand pounds had already been paid into the exchequer upon this account There were, moreover, immense sums in the hands of former paymasters, which it was expected would soon be brought to account ; these he conjecturally stated at the sum of one mil- lion. There was a balance of six hundred thousand pounds due to government from the East India company. When to these were added the improvements that might yet be made by judicious regulations in the different branches of the revenue, he was not," Pitt said, " he hoped, too sanguine in affirming, that we possessed resources equal to all our ordinary and extraordinary de- mands." The proposition which he now submitted to the house, was, the appropria- tion of the annual sum of one million to be invariably applied to the liquidation of the national debt This annual million he pro- posed to vest in the hands of certain com- missioners, to be by them applied regularly to the purchase of stock ; so that no sum should ever lie within his grasp large enough to tempt him to violate this sacred deposit. The interests annually discharged, were, conformably to this plan, to be added to, and incorporated with, the original fund, so that it would operate with a determinate and ac- celerated velocity. This fund was also to be assisted by the annuities granted for dif- ferent times, which would from time to time fall in within the limited period of twenty-eight years, at the expiration of which, Pitt calculated that the fund would produce an income of four millions per an- num. The commissioners to be nominated under the act, were, the chancellor of the exchequer, the speaker of the house of com- mons, the master of the rolls, the governor and deputy-governor of the bank of Eng- land, and the accomptant-general of the high court of chancery. The only amendment of any material con- sequence, suggested on Pitt's plan, was, in the progress of the bill, offered by Fox, " that whenever a new loan should hereaf- ter be made, the commissioners should be empowered to accept the loan, or such pro- portion of it, as should be equal to the cash then in their hands ; the interest and dou- ceur annexed to which should be applied to the purposes of the sinking fund." This amendment was readily and candidly ac- cepted by Pitt, and the bill finally passed with great and deserved approbation. CIVIL-LIST IN ARREARS. NOTWITHSTANDING the acknowledged ne- cessity of economy in every department of government, it is truly painful to relate, that even before the sinking fund bill passed into a law, a message from the king to the house of commons was delivered by the minister, stating, " that it gave him great concern to inform them, that it had not been found jx>- sible to confine the expenses of the civil- list within the annual sum of eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds, now applicable to that purpose. A farther debt had been ne- cessarily incurred, and the king relied on the zeal and affection of his parliament to make provision for its discharge." On this occasion, Pitt stated, " that under Burke's re- form bill an annual reduction of fifty thou- sand pounds from the civil-list had been set apart by parliament for the liquidation by in- stalments of the sum of three hundred thou- sand pounds, then issued in exchequer-bills for the supply of former deficiencies. Of this debt, one hundred and eighty thousand pounds yet remained unpaid, and a fresh debt of thirty thousand pounds had accru- ed." This application was the more extra- ordinary, as at the opening of the session of December 1782, and when Pitt was chan- cellor of the exchequer, the king in his speech from the throne had said, " I have carried into strict execution the several re- ductions in my civil-list expenses, directed by an act of last session ; I have introduced a farther reform in other departments, and suppressed several sinecure places in them. I have by this means so regulated my estab- lishments, that my expenses shall not in fu- ture exceed my income." It is almost su- perfluous to say, that all the arguments of- fered on this head, proved a mere waste of words, and that the money was ultimately voted. BURKE'S CHARGES AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS. THE remaining subject of importance that belongs to the history of this session, is the impeachment of Warren Hastings, late gov- ernor-general of Bengal. In undertaking the arduous task of public accuser against this supposed great Indian delinquent, the various difficulties to be encountered, pre- sented such a train of formidable obstacles to the successful prosecution of the accused, as only the spirit, the perseverance, and the inflexibility of Burke could overcome. That powerful India interest, which had defeated GEORGE HI. 1760-1620. 325 the scheme of Fox, and effected the ruin of his administration, was to be exerted in vig- orous hostility to the present measure. It was also obvious, that the opinions of admin- istration were much in favor of the ex-gov- ernor. Burke, however, far from sinking under the pressure of circumstances so in- auspicious to his design, resolutely persisted in his purpose ; and having adopted the an- cient mode of trial by impeachment, he pro- ceeded on the fourth of April 1786, to charge Warren Hastings, Esq. before the house of commons, with high crimes and misdemean- ors, exhibiting at the same time nine distinct articles of accusation, which in a few weeks were increased to the number of twenty- two. Hastings, at his own express desire, ap- peared at the bar of the house of commons on the first of May, and delivered in his de- fence an answer to Burke's charges. The defence, however, was of little service to his cause, and contributed in a very slight degree to the vindication of his character. Though his assertions were bold, his argu- ments were weak, and the language of his defence was beyond all example boastful and arrogant. He even called in question the, authority of the house to institute a ju- dicial inquiry into his conduct. The house, unmoved by what they had heard, proceed- ed in the examination of evidence : and the first article of impeachment respecting the Rohilla war was brought formally before the house on the first of June : after a very long debate, the question was decided in favor of Hastings, ayes for the impeachment being sixty-seven, noes one hundred and nineteen. On the thirteenth of June, the second charge relative to the Rajah of Benares being brought forward, it was resolved by the house, on a division of one hundred anc nineteen to seventy-nine voices, " that this charge contained matter of impeachment against the late governor-general of Ben- gal." On the eleventh of July an end was put to these proceedings for the present, by a prorogation of the parliament, which was dismissed with assurances of " the particu- lar satisfaction with which the king had ob- served then- diligent attention to the public business, and the measures they had adoptee for improving the resources of the country." MARGARET NICHOLSON'S ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THE KING. Ox the second of August, after the rising of parliament, a singular incident occurred, which engrossed for a short time the atten- tion of the public. As the king was alight- ing from his post chariot, at the garden en- trance of St. James's palace, a woman de- cently dressed presented a paper to his ma- jesty ; and while he was in the act of re- ceiving it, she struck with a concealed knife VOL. IV. 28 at his breast The king happily avoided the blow by drawing back ; and as she was pre- paring to make a stecond thrust, one of the yeomen caught her arm, and the weapon was wrenched out of her hand. The king, with great temper, exclaimed, " I am not hurt take care of the poor woman, do not hurt her." On examination before the privy- council, it immediately appeared that the woman was insane. Being asked where she had lately resided, she answered frantically, " That she had been all abroad since that matter of the crown broke out." Being far- ther questioned what matter 1 she said, " That the crown was her's ; and that if she had not her right, England would be del- uged in blood for a thousand generations." On being interrogated as. to the nature of her right, she refused to answer, saying in the genuine style of royalty, " That her rights were a mystery." It appeared that this poor maniac, whose name was Marga- ret Nicholson, had presented a petition ten days before, full of wild and incoherent non- sense. Lake most other petitions, it had probably never been read, or the person of the petitioner would have been secured. The idea of a judicial process was of course abandoned, and she was consigned to an apartment provided for her in Bethlehem hospital COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH FRANCE. IN the month of September, the king was pleased to appoint a new committee of coun- cil for the consideration of all matters relat- ing to trade and foreign plantations. Of this board, Charles Jenkinsori, since, for his long and faithful services, created lord Hawkes- bury, and constituted chancellor of the dutchy of Lancaster, was declared president Under this new commission, a treaty of com- merce was, on September the twenty-sixth, signed between the courts of England and France. Its general principle was to admit the mutual importation and exportation of the commodities of each country at a very low ad valorem duty. The negotiator of this treaty was Eden, who under the coali- tion administration had filled the lucrative ofSce of vice-treasurer of Ireland. This was the first memorable defection from that un- fortunate alliance : and it was the more re- markable, as Eden had himself been gene- rally considered as the original projector of the coalition, or at least as the man who might contest that honor with Burke. CONVENTION WITH SPAIN RELATIVE TO THE BAY OF HONDURAS. ABOUT the same tune a convention was signed with Spain, of some importance, as it finally terminated the long subsisting dis- putes respecting the British settlements on the Mosquito shore and the coast of Hondu- ras. By the present treaty the Mosquito set- 326 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. tlements were formally and explicitly relin- quished, as they had already virtually beeni by the sixth article of the general treaty of 1783. In return, the boundaries of the Brit- ish settlements on the coast and bay of Hon- duras were somewhat extended. In a politi- cal view this convention answered a valua- ble purpose, as it removed a probable source of national disagreement But the claims of humanity and justice were not sufficient- ly attended to: for the Mosquito settlers, who had for time immemorial occupied their lands and habitations under the protection of the English government, and who amount- ed to many hundred families hi number, were peremptorily commanded to evacuate the country without exception, in the space of eighteen months, nothing farther being stipulated in their favor, than that his Cath- olic majesty "shall order his governors to grant to the said English, so dispersed, all possible facilities for their removal to the settlements agreed upon by the present con- vention." The greatest confusion, conster- nation, and distress among this unhappy peo- ple were the inevitable consequences of this barbarous edict of expulsion, which with the cold-blooded politicians of Europe, at the distance of three thousand miles, passed only for a regulation of commerce. An affecting representation of their distresses, and an humble petition for some sort of indemnifi- cation from the government which had thus shamefully abandoned them to their fate, was subsequently presented to the board of treasury ; but it does not appear to have ex- cited any attention. TREATY WITH FRANCE CONSIDERED BY THE COMMONS. 1787. THE parliament reassembled on January the twenty-third 1787, but no sub- ject of material import came under discus- sion till the twelfth of February, when the house resolved itself into a committee on the commercial treaty with France. On this occasion, Pitt entered into an able and elo- quent vindication of the measure. It was ridiculous to imagine, he said, that the French would consent to yield advantages without the idea of compensation. The trea- ty would doubtless be a benefit to them ; but he did not hesitate to say, it would be a much greater benefit to us. She gained for her wines and other productions a great and opulent market. We did the same for our manufactures to a far greater degree. She procured a market 1 of eight millions of peo- ple, we a market of twenty-four millions. Both nations were disposed and prepared for such a connexion. France, by the peculiar dispensation of Providence, was gifted per- haps more than any other country upon earth with what made life desirable in point of soil, climate, and natural productions, in the most fertile vineyards and the richest har- vests. Britain, on the other hand, possessing .hese advantages in an inferior degree, had Tom the happy freedom of its constitution, and the equal security of its laws, risen to a state of commercial grandeur, and acquir- ed the ability of supplying France with the requisite conveniences of life, in exchange for her natural luxuries. The only real difficulty, respecting the execution of this treaty, arose from its in- :onsistency with the famous Methuen trea- ;y, concluded with Portugal early in the present century ; and in conformity to which Jie duties on Portugal wines were to bear in future the proportion of only two-thirds of those imported from France and other countries. But this point being candidly :onceded by France in the progress of the Business, the measure received, as it well deserved, the necessary concurrence and sanction of parliament ; and the whole trans- action terminated greatly to the honor of the minister, and the advantage of the na- tion. EMBARRASSMENTS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. THE subject which next claims our atten- tion, will be found upon every account high- ly interesting. The great personage to whdm it relates is the heir apparent of the British crown. In addition to the rank and character of the party, the narrative is ren- dered still more attractive by private anec- dote, by delicacy of situation, and by a new and uncommon circumstance, that alarmed the apprehensions of many, and employed the reflections of all. When his royal high- ness attained the age of majority, A. D. 1783, the sum of fifty thousand pounds per annum only was allotted to him out of the civil-list revenue to defray the whole ex- pense of his establishment. Considering the numerous salaries payable to the officers of his household, this sum was clearly inade- quate to the support of his rank and situa- tion in life ; and the then ministers, Fox and lord North, strongly insisted upon the ne- cessity of fixing the revenue of the prince at one hundred thousand pounds per annum, which the late king had enjoyed as prince of Wales, at a period when the civil-list pro- duced two hundred thousand pounds per an- num less than at present. To this the sove- reign positively objected ; and the prince, to prevent disagreeable consequences, gen- erously declared that he chose to depend on the spontaneous bounty of the king. The obvious result of this miserable economy was, that the prince in the four years which were now elapsed had contracted debts to a large amount ; his negligence as to pecuni- ary concerns being perhaps increased by the consciousness of the extreme difficulty of GEORGE m. 17601820. 327 contracting his expenses within the narrow limits of his income. The public, not suffi- ciently adverting to these circumstances, censured the prince with a too rigid severi- ty for the heedlessness and prodigality of his conduct. It was however too notorious to admit of disguise or palliation, that the orince was exempt from none of those youth- ful indiscretions and excesses by which men of high rank in early life are for the most part so unhappily characterized. The prince of Wales, like most other young men, had been more distinguished by a general regard to the fair sex than for any particular individual attachment. A report however of a serious nature had for some time past gained very general credit ; name- ly, that the prince had contracted a secret marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert, a lady of family, and justly celebrated for her person- al beauty and mental accomplishments. That the prince should not be privately mar- ried, was an event particularly guarded against by the royal marriage act By this act it was declared that the heir apparent was incapable of marrying till the age of twenty-five years, without his father's con- sent, or, in case of refusal, without the con- sent of both houses of parliament. The marriage therefore, if it had taken place, was null in law. But this was by no means the circumstance which made the greatest impression upon the public mind. The lady was educated in the Roman Catholic religion, and the act of settlement which seated the house of Brunswick on the British throne, expressly declared the prince who married a Catholic to have forfeited his right of suc- cession to the crown. To add to the diffi- culties of a situation in the highest degree trying and critical, the prince found his em- barrassments continually increasing, and a large debt already accumulated. In the summer therefore of 1786, the prince applied to the king his father for assistance, but meeting with a peremptory refusal, he im- mediately adopted a resolution, which in every view reflected the highest honor on his character. Suppressing the establish- ment of his household, he formally vested forty thousand pounds per annum of his reve- nue in the hands of trustees for the liquida- tion of his debts. His stud of running horses, his hunters, and even his coach horses were sold by public auction. The elegant im- provements and additions making to the palace of Carlton house were suddenly stop- ped, and the most splendid apartments shut up from use. In this manner he thought proper to retire from the splendor of his sta- tion, rather than forfeit the honor of a gen- tleman by practising on the credulity of his creditors. The prince had lived in a state of retire- ment for near a twelvemonth, when he was persuaded to countenance a proposal for lay- ing the state of his affairs before parliament ; and on the twentieth of April, alderman Newnham, member for the city of London, gave notice that he would bring forward a motion for an address to the king, praying him to take the situation of the prince into consideration, and to grant him such relief as he in his wisdom should think fit, and pledging the house to make good the same. This gave rise to an interesting conversa- tion ; and Newnham was by the minister and many other members earnestly entreated to withdraw his motion, as fertile of inconve- nience and mischief. Pitt said, " that by the perseverance of Newnham he should be driv- en to the disclosure of circumstances which he should otherwise have thought it his duty to conceal." Rolle, member for Devonshire, declared, " that the investigation of this question involved in it circumstances which tended immediately to affect the constitution in church and state." Fox, Sheridan, and other gentlemen in the confidence of the prince, declared, " that there was nothing his royal highness less feared than a full and impartial investigation of his conduct ; and nothing that he would more deprecate, than a studied ambiguity or affected tenderness on the pretence of respect and indulgence." Rolle was particularly called upon, but in vain, to explain the extraordinary language he had used. The subject being in a few days resumed, Fox again called the atten- tion of the house to the declaration of Rolle. " To what that declaration alluded (Fox said) it was impossible to ascertain, till the person who made it thought proper to explain his meaning ; but he supposed it must refer to that base and malicious calumny which had been propagated without doors by the ene- mies of the prince, with a view to depreciate his character and injure him in the esteem of his country." Fox further declared, that the prince had authorized him to as- sert, that as a peer of parliament, he was ready in the other house to submit to any the most pointed questions that could be put to him upon the subject, or to afford the king or his ministers the fullest assurances of the utter falsehood of the fact in question." Rolle now thought proper to acknowledge, that the subject upon which Fox had spoken, was the matter to which he alluded as af- fecting both church and state. He said, " that the reports relative to this transaction had made a deep impression upon the minds of all men who loved and venerated the con- stitution. He knew that this thing could not have been accomplished under the formal sanction of law ; but if it existed as a fact, it might be productive of the most alarming consequences, and ought to be satisfactorily 328 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. cleared up." Fox replied, " that he did not deny the calumny in question merely with regard to the eftect of certain existing laws, but he denied it in tolo, in fact as well as in law. The fact not only could never have happened legally, but never did happen any way, and had from the beginning been a vile ami malignant falsehood. Rolle rose again, and asked, " whether in what he now assert- ed Fox spoke from direct authority '!" Fox said, he had spoken from direct authority. In consequence of these explicit and authorita- tive asseverations, Rolle was loudly called upon to express his satisfaction : but this he obstinately declined, saying only " that the house would judge for themselves of what had passed." On this Sheridan was provoked to declare, " that if Rolle persisted in his refusal, or otherwise to put the matter into such a state of inquiry as should satisfy him, tiie house ought to come to a resolution, that it was seditious and disloyal to propagate reports injurious to the prince." Pitt now properly interposed, and protested against so flagrant an attack on the freedom of speech and deliberation in that house. And it must be confessed that Rolle was so far justified as the voice of the public could justify him, in retaining his doubts ; for a general and firm persuasion still prevailed of a secret marriage between the prince and Mrs. Fitz- herbert, though no one presumed to call in question the honor of Fox in the declara- tions made by him in the prince's name, for which he undoubtedly had, or thought he had, sufficient authority, and which operated to the perfect apparent conviction of the house of commona In this stage of the business an interview, at the desire of the king, took place between the prince of Wales and Pitt at Carlton house ; and the prince was informed, " that if the intended motion were withdrawn, everything might be settled to his royal highness's satisfaction." This being acceded to, a message was delivered by the minister from the king to the house, stating his ma- jesty's great concern, "that from the ac- counts of the prince of Wales, it appeared that he had incurred a debt to a large amount, which, painful as it was to him to propose any addition to the burdens of his people, he was induced by his paternal affection to the prince, to desire the assistance of parlia- men to discharge on the well-grounded expectation, nevertheless, that the prince would avoid contracting any debts in future ; with a view to which, the king had directed a sum often thousand pounds to be paid out of the civil-list, in addition to his former al- lowance ; and he had the satisfaction to ob- serve, that the prince had given the fullest assurance of his determination to confine his future exp nses within his income, and had settled a plan, and fixed an order in those expenses, which it was trusted would efli < the due execution of his intentions." On the very next day after the accounts referred to in the royal message were laid before the house, and of which the dignified generosity of parliament suffered not the inspection, an address was voted to the king, to request him to direct the sum of one hundred and sixty-one thousand pounds to be paid out of the civil-list for the full discharge of the dells of the prince of Wales, and the farther sum of twenty thousand pounds to complete the repairs of Carlton house. IMPEACHMENT OF HASTINGS VOTED BY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. THE subject of Hastings' impeachment had been resumed early in the present ses- sion, and had occupied a large proportion of time and attention. The primary charge respecting the Rohilla war, brought for- ward towards the conclusion of the session of 1786, had made a deep impression upon the house ; and although Hastings had been acquitted of the charge, it was upon grounds on which it was impossible to rest his future defence. The conduct of the minister in this business had been hitherto indecisive and mysterious ; but the part taken by Jen- kinson, and the party of which he was con- sidered as the head, left no room for doubt as to the secret inclination of the court. Pitt had negatived the charge of the Rohilla war, upon the ground that Hastings had sub- sequent to that event received the highest certificate of legislative approbation, by being nominated, by act of parliament, governor- general of India : and although oii the Ben- ares charge he had voted against Hastings, he expressly declared that he did not upon that account consider himself as committed to a final vote of impeachment. The grand question therefore still remained doubtful, when on the seventh of February 1787, Sheridan opened the third charge respecting the Begum princess Oude, with an eloquence and energy which were perhaps never sur- passed, and which, in their consequences, proved completely decisive. On this occa- sion Pitt acted a part which did him great honor. Though the wonderful speech of Sheridan had excited a spirit of enthusiasm in the house, which perhaps no degree of ministerial influence could have counteract- ed, it would be highly invidious and unjust to attribute the decided conduct of Pitt on this memorable night to the dread of being left in a minority, by an attempt to negative the motion. On the contrary, he appeared penetrated with a perfect conviction of the atrocity of the facts, and of the strength of the evidence by which they were supported : and the minister felt all the sympathies of hu- manity, all the energies of virtue awakened GEORGE IIL 17601820. 329 in his breast, and impelling him to testify, in terms the most explicit and expressive, his detestation of perfidy so vile, of cruelty so remorseless. On a division the numbers were, in favor of the motion one hundred and seventy-five, against it sixty-eight On the second of March, Pelham opened the charge relative to the Nabob of Fer- ruckabud, which was affirmed by one hun- dred and twelve against fifty voices. On the fifteenth of March, the charge upon the sub- ject of contracts was brought forward by Sir James Erskine ; and on this article the division was ayes sixty, noes twenty-six. Upon the twenty-second of March, the charge relative to Fyzoola Kan was intro- duced by Wyndham ; and was carried on a division of ninety-six against thirty-seven voices. On the second of April, Sheridan opened to the house the charge upon the subject of presents ; and on this occasion he observed, "that the late governor-general had, in every part of his conduct, exhibited proofs of a wild, eccentric, and irregular mind. In pride, in passion, in all things changeable, except in corruption. His re- venge was a tempest, a tornado involving all within its influence in one common de- struction. But his corruption was regular and systematic, a monsoon blowing uniformly from one point of the compass, and wafting the wealth of India to the same port in one certain direction." Upon a division the numbers appeared ayes one hundred and sixty-five, noes sixty-four. On the nine- teenth of April the charge respecting the revenues was opened by Francis, who had formerly occupied, with much honor to him- self, the office of member in the supreme council of India, and who had recently taken his seat as a member of the house of com- mons. This charge was confirmed, not- withstanding the unexpected dissent of the minister, by seventy-one to fifty-five voices. On the ninth of May the report made by Burke, from the committee to whom it had been referred to prepare the articles of im- peachment, was confirmed by the house, ayes one hundred and seventy-five, noes eighty-nine. On the following day it was voted that Hastings be impeached ; and Burke accordingly, in the name of the house of commons, and of all the commons of Great Britain, repaired to the bar of the house of lords, and impeached Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors ; at the same time acquainting their lordships, that the commons would with all convenient speed exhibit articles against him, and make good the same. On the fourteenth another charge respecting misdemeanors in Oude was added to the former, and voted without a division ; and on the twenty-first Hastings being con- ducted to the bar of the house of lords by 28* the serjeant-at-arms, was taken into the cus- tody of the black rod ; but on the motion of the lord chancellor was admitted to bail himself in twenty thousand pounds, and two sureties, Sullivan and Summer, in ten thou- sand pounds each ; and he was ordered to deliver in an answer to the articles of im- peachment in one month from that time, or upon the second day of the next session of parliament, On the thirtieth of May 1787, the king put an end to the present session by a speech applauding "the measures taken by parlia- ment respecting the reduction of the na- tional debt, and the treaty of navigation and commerce with the most Christian king. He spoke of the general tranquillity of Europe, and lamented the dissensions which unhap- pily prevailed amongst the states of the united provinces." INTERFERENCE WITH THE AFFAIRS OF HOLLAND. DURING the recess of parliament, the at- tention of government was particularly at- tracted by the troubled state of Holland. In the autumn of the year 1787, the dissensions which had long subsisted between the stadt- holder and the states of Holland, had risen to an alarming height, and the ultimate event of the contest seemed to depend greatly on the forbearance or interposition of foreign nations. The French weje known to be friendly to the states of Holland, but they were too deeply engaged by their domestic situation, to be able to render them any ef- fectual assistance. On the other hand, the cause of the stadtholder was warmly espous- ed by the king of Prussia, in conjunction with Great Britain. The head of the house of Nassau displayed neither the talents nor the virtues which had for ages been sup- posed attached to that illustrious name. The princess his consort was said to possess a much larger share of spirit as well as un- derstanding. In the month of June 1787, for reasons which have never perfectly tran- spired, her royal highness, then resident at Nimeguen, adopted the bold and hazardous resolution of proceeding in person to the Hague, where the States-General were at that time assembled, accompanied only by the baroness de Wassanaer and a few do- mestics. As might previously be expected, she was arrested in her progress at about a league beyond Schoonhoven, and forced back to Nimeguen. On the tenth of July a me- morial was addressed by the Prussian mon- arch to the states of Holland, in which he affected to consider the indignity offered to the princess of Orange his sister, as a per- sonal insult to himself. To avenge this pre- tended affront, the duke of Brunswick, who commanded the Prussian forces in the con- tiguous dutchy of Cleves. entered Holland- 330 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. at the head of an army consisting of about twenty thousand men on the thirteenth of September. The march of the Prussian general bore the appearance of a triumphal procession. On the seventh day from the commencement of the invasion, the prince of Orange made his public entry into the Hague. Amsterdam only made a show of resistance ; but on the tenth of October, that proud capital, now closely invested, opened its gates to the victor. To the astonishment of Sie world, that republic which maintain- ed a contest of eighty years against the power of Spain ; which contended for the empire of the ocean with Great Britain ; which repulsed the attacks of Louis the fourteenth in the zenith of his glory ; was overrun by the arms of Prussia in a single month. In the whole of this transaction, Prussia acted in intimate and avowed con- cert with Great Britain ; and it was on this occasion that the British government con- cluded a subsidiary treaty with the land- grave of Hesse-Cassel ; by which the latter engaged to furnish England with a body of twelve thousand men at four weeks' notice, for thirty-six thousand pounds per annum. So kte as the month of September, and just before the duke of Brunswick began his march, France tardily professed her inten- tion of assisting the Dutch in case they were attacked by any foreign power. This cir- cumstance animated the court of London to act with spirit and decision, and vigorous naval preparations were made to support the king of Prussia, in opposition to the menac- ing declarations of France. But the object of the Prussian expedition being accom- plished in a much shorter space of time than could have been previously imagined, the court of Versailles found itself disengaged from all obligations. MEETING OF P A RLI A MENT. CONTI- NENTAL ENGAGEMENTS. IN consequence of these transactions, it was found necessary to assemble the parlia- ment of Great Britain somewhat earlier than is usual in time of peace ; and, the ses- sion having commenced on the twenty-sev- enth of November, the king, in his speech to both houses, remarked, "that at the close of the last session, he had informed them of the concern with which he observed the dis- putes unhappily subsisting in the republic of the united provinces. Their situation soon afterwards became more critical and alarming. The king of Prussia having de- manded satisfaction for the insult offered to the princess of Orange his sister, the party which had usurped the government, applied to the most Christian king for assistance; and that prince having notified to his majesty his intention of granting their request, the king did not hesitate to declare that he could not remain a quiet spectator, and gave immediate orders for augmenting his forces both by sea and land ; and, in the course of this transaction, he had concluded a subsidi- ary treaty with the Landgrave of Hesse- Cassel. In the mean time, the rapid success of the duke of Brunswick enabled the prov- inces to deliver themselves from the oppres- sion under which they labored ; and all sub- jects of contest being thus removed, an amicable explanation . had taken place be- tween the courts of London and Versailles." It is worthy of transient remark, that the language of the speech from the throne, was that of a zealous partisan of the house of Orange. It is inconceivable how the exist- ing government of Holland could, with any color of justice, be stigmatized as an usurp- ation ; for by the constitution of that coun- try, the prince of Orange, as stadtholder, was not a sovereign, but a subject, possess- ing no share of the legislative power ; and though by the formula of 1747, the office was declared hereditary, it was not on that account irrevocable, any more than the he- reditary offices of earl marshal, or great chamberlain, under the English constitution. And the oppressions alluded to in the speech, were certainly nothing more than the usual severities inflicted upon those who presumed to resist the measures of the supreme gov- ernment. It must, however, be confessed, that the prompt and vigorous measures of the English cabinet were absolutely neces- sary to counteract the insidious designs of France in her projected interference in the affairs of Holland, and in this point of view their conduct was highly and deservedly ap- plauded by the nation. The addresses, in answer to the king's speech, were voted with great unanimity in both houses ; and the subsidy to Hesse passed without a dis- sentient vote. In a short time, treaties of alliance were concluded between the courts of London, Berlin, and the Hague ; by which the two former guarantied the stadtholderate in per- petuity to the serene house of Orange, as an essential part of the constitution of the united provinces. By the treaty between the kings of Great Britain and Prussia, each of the high contracting powers engages, in case of attack, to furnish the other with a succor of sixteen thousand infantry, and four thousand cavalry, or an equivalent in mo- ney, within the term of two months from the date of the requisition. Thus was Brit- ain once more fatally entangled in the in- tricate and inextricable toils of continental engagements. EAST INDIA DECLARATORY ACT. THE most considerable legislative mea- sure of the present session, related to a con- troversy which had arisen between the board GEORGE HI. 17601820. 331 of control and the East India company. At the moment of the general alarm excited by the affairs of Holland, government pro- posed to the directors, to send out four regi- ments of the king's troops, as a reinforce- ment to the army in India, upon condition that the whole expense was defrayed by the company. This proposal was at first partly accepted, but the rumor of war having speedily subsided, the matter was reconsid- ered by the board of direction, and finally rejected. They contended, that lord North's bill of 1781 expressly provided, that the company should pay only for such troops as by their requisition should be sent to India ; and the opinion of different eminent law- yers, who had been consulted on the sub- ject, appeared perfectly to coincide with that of the directors. Part of the troops, however, were already prepared for embark- ation, and the company refusing to admit them on board their ships, the minister, to extricate himself from this perplexing di- lemma, introduced into parliament his fa- mous declaratory act, to show that his own India bill of 1784 had vested in the board of control, and not in the directors, the su- preme power of determining the propriety of every such measure. The declaratory bill met with a most formidable opposition in parliament. Colonel Barre protested that he had from the first discerned the traces of a system of Indian patronage, of which he believed the bill under discussion to be a great advance to the final completion ; and if it should be suffered to pass, a fatal stab would be given to the constitution. The question of commitment was carried by a majority of fifty-seven voices only ; and on being carried into the house of lords, it ex- perienced a second opposition not less vio- lent than the first. It passed at length, ac- companied with a protest, signed by sixteen peers, in which the declaratory bill was reprobated as friendly to corrupt intrigue and cabal hostile to all good government and abhorrent to the principles of our constitution. TRIAL OF HASTINGS. 1788. IN the early part of the session, Hastings had delivered in his answer to the impeachment of the commons, who imme- diately appointed a committee of managers to make good the same, and the trial com- menced on the fifteenth of February 1788, in Westminster-hall, which was fitted up for the purpose with great magnificence. Burke was four days in making his prelimi- nary speech, which was filled with vehe- ment invective, with much rhetorical exag- geration, and with matter almost wholly ex- traneous to the subject of the impeachment The friends of Burke extolled this speech as a more than Ciceronean effort of elo- quence ; but the public considered it injudi- cious, extravagant, and bombastical. On the twenty-second of February, the Benares charge was opened by Fox ; and concluded on the twenty-fifth by Gray, member for Northumberland, a gentleman whose talents, at a very early period of life, attracted, in an eminent degree, the attention of the house. On the fifteenth of April, the charge relative to the Begums of Oude was brought forward by Adam, and the evidence on this charge was summed up by Sheridan with transcendent ability. BILL TO REGULATE THE SLAVE TRADE. THE last business of importance which engaged the attention of parliament, was a bill to regulate the transportation of slaves from the coast of Africa to the West Indies. This bill, which was intended merely to es- tablish a certain reasonable proportion be- tween the number of the slaves and tonnage of the ships, was violently and obstinately opposed by petitions from the merchants of London and Liverpool, concerned in the Af- rican trade. Counsel being therefore en- gaged, and witnesses examined, it appeared in evidence, at the bar of the house, that the slaves had not, as was emphatically stated, when stowed together, so much room as a man in his coffin, either in length or breadth. They drew their breath with labo- rious and painful efforts, and many, unable to support the struggle, died of suffocation. The customary mortality of the voyage ex- ceeded seventeen times the usual estimate of human life. A slave-ship, when full fraught with this cargo of wretchedness and abomination, exhibited at once the extremes of human depravity and human misery. In reviewing this superlatively wicked and de- testable traffic, Pitt, with indignant elo- quence, declared, " that if, as had been as- serted by the members of Liverpool, the trade could not be carried on in any other manner, he would retract what he had said on a former day, and waiving every farther discussion, give his instant vote for the an- nihilation of a traffic thus shocking to hu- manity. He trusted that the house, being now in possession of such evidence as was never before exhibited, would endeavor to extricate themselves from the guilt and re- morse, which every man ought to feel, for having so long overlooked such cruelty and oppression." The bill was carried up, June the eighteenth, to the house of lords, where it was fated to encounter the determined opposition of lord Thurlow, the duke of Chandos, and lord Sidney. The bill, how- ever, had a number of friends, and to the honor of parliament, the nation, and human nature, finally passed by a considerable ma- jority. The king put an end to the session, July 332 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the eleventh, by a speech from the throne in which he complimented the two houses on their attention and liberality. " His faith- ful subjects had every reason," as heffirmed " to expect the continuance of the blessings of peace, and the engagements which he had recently formed with the king of Prus- sia and the States-General of the united provinces would, he trusted, promote the se- curity and welfare of his own dominions, and contribute to the general tranquillity of Europe." THE KING'S INDISPOSITION. SOON after the recess of parliament, the king, who had been for some time rather in- disposed, was advised by his physicians to try the mineral waters of Cheltenham. His majesty accordingly took a journey to that place. His health appeared, during his resi- dence there, greatly re-established ; but soon after his arrival at Windsor, late in the sum- mer, his illness returned with new and alarming symptoms. By the end of Octo- ber, it could no longer be concealed that the malady of the king was of a nature peculi- arly afflictive and dreadful. A mental de- rangement had taken place, which rendered him totally incapable of public business. The parliament stood prorogued to the twen- tieth of November. On the fourteenth of that month circular letters were addressed to the members of the legislature, signifying that the indisposition of the sovereign ren- dered it doubtful whether there would be a possibility of receiving his commands for the further prorogation of parliament. If not, in that case the two houses must of neces- sity assemble, and the attendance of the dif- ferent members was earnestly requested. Parliament being accordingly assembled, the state of the king's health was formally no- tified to the house of peers by the lord-chan- cellor, and to the commons by Mr. Pitt : and as the session of parliament could not be opened in the regular mode, an adjournment of fourteen days was recommended and adopted. Upon the reassembling of parlia- ment, December the fourth, a report of the board of privy-council was presented to the two houses, containing an examination of the royal physicians ; and it was suggested, that, considering the extreme delicacy of the sub- ject and the person concerned, parliament would do well to rest satisfied without any more direct or express information, especial- ly as the examinations of counsel had been taken upon oath, which the house of com- mons had no power to administer: doubts, however, were started by Fox, Burke, and others of the same party, whether parliament could in this momentous case dispense with that sort of evidence on which they had been accustomed to proceed. As the minister's chief object was procrastination, the objec- tion was too acceptable to be warmly con- tested, and therefore, after a trifling debate, a committee of twenty-one persons was ap- pointed in each house to examine and report the sentiments of the royal physicians. The report of the committee was laid upon the table of the house of commons on the tenth of December, when a motion was made by Pitt, for the appointment of another com- mittee to inspect the journals for precedents. " With respect to precedents, there were," said Fox, " notoriously none which applied to the present instance ; and he affirmed, that all that was requisite to their ultimate decision had been obtained by the report now lying upon their table. By that report they had ascertained the incapacity of the sove- reign : and he advanced as a proposition de- ducible from the principles of the constitu- tion, and the analogy of the law of heredita- ry succession, that whenever the sovereign was incapable of exercising the functions of his high office, the heir apparent, if of full age and capacity, had as indisputable a claim to the exercise of the executive au- thority, in the name and on the behalf of the sovereign, during his incapacity, as in the case of his natural demise." Pitt immedi- ately, with much apparent warmth, declared, " that the assertion which had been made by Fox was little short of treason against the constitution; and he pledged himself to prove, that the heir apparent, in the instance in question, had no more right to the exer- cise of the executive power than any other person ; and that it belonged entirely to the two remaining branches of the legislature, to make such a provision for supplying the temporary deficiency as they might think proper. To assert an inherent right in the prince of Wales to assume the government, was virtually to revive those exploded ideas of the divine and indefeasible authority of princes, which had so justly sunk into con- tempt, and almost into oblivion. Kings and princes derive their power from the people, and to the people alone, through the organ of their representatives, did it appertain to decide in cases for which the constitution had made no specific or positive provision." Thus was this famous political question at issue between these two great political rivals ; in which it was remarkable tliat Fox, the steady, uniform, and powerful ad- vocate of the people, appeared to lean to prerogative ; and Pitt, who had been loudly and justly accused of deserting the princi- ples of liberty, stood forth their intrepid and zealous asserter. All those popular argu- ments and primary axioms of government, on which the friends of freedom delight to dwell, were upon this occasion urged by Pitt with energy and eloquence. If he was sin- cere on this occasion, his sentiments, as will GEORGE IE. 17601820. 333 appear in the sequel, afterwards underwent an entire revolution. The motion of Pitt for a committee to examine precedents being carried in the commons, a similar motion was the next day made by lord Camden in the house of peers, and the doctrine of Fox reprobated by his lordship with great severity. . It was on the other hand defended with much ability by lord Loughborough and lord Stormont ; the latter of 'whom concluded his speech with recommending an immediate address to the prince of Wales, entreating him to assume the exercise of the royal authority. The discussion of the abstract question of right having afforded a great and unexpected ad- vantage to the ministry, the duke of York, soon after this debate, in the name of the prince, expressed his wishes, " that the ques- tion might be waived. No claim of right," his highness said, " had been advanced by the prince of Wales ; and he was confident that his brother too well understood the sa- cred principles which seated the house of Brunswick upon the throne, ever to assume or exercise any power, be his claim what it might, that was not derived from the will of the people expressed by their representa- tives." The duke of Gloucester confirmed the declaration of the duke of York. Lord Thurlow, who had at first consented to take a part in the regency administration, in the arrangement of which the post of lord presi- dent had been assigned to him, now varying the course of his policy, spoke with great energy of his " sentiments of affection to- wards the king. Nothing could be more disgraceful than to desert the sovereign in his distressed and helpless situation. His own debt of gratitude for favors received was ample : when he forgot his king, might God forget him." This pathetic and loyal exclamation, not being perhaps in perfect unison with the acceptance of a place in the new administration, it was rumored to be the result of certain intimations which his lordship recently received of the happy and not very distant prospect of the king's re- covery. This was however as yet a matter of anxious and doubtful speculation. On the sixteenth of December, the house being in a committee on the state of the na- tion, Pitt moved the two following declara- tory resolutions ; first, the interruption of the royal authority ; and, second, that it was the duty of parliament to provide the means of supplying that defect. A vehement de- bate ensued, hi the course of which Fox de- clared the principles of the minister to be, that the monarchy was indeed hereditary, but that the executive power ought to be elective. "Where," said he, "is that fa- mous dictum to be found by which the crown is guarded with inviolable sanctity, while its powers are left to the mercy of every assail- ant ] The prince, it is asserted, has no more right than another person, and at the same tinie it is acknowledged that parliament is not at liberty to think of any other regent ; and all this paradoxical absurdity for the paltry triumph of a vote over a political an- tagonist." The resolution was, however, on a division, carried by two hundred and six- ty-eight against two hundred and four voices. This great point being gained, the ministry proceeded without delay to convert it to their own advantage. A third resolution passed, on the twenty- thud of December, empowering the chan- cellor of Great Britain to affix the great seal to such bill of limitations as might be neces- sary to restrict the power of the future re- gent. This mode of procedure was warmly opposed by lord North " A person," said his lordship, " is to be set up without power or discretion, and this pageant, this fictitious being, is to give the force of a law to the decisions of the two houses. Was it ever before heard of, that there could be a power of giving assent without the power of refus- ing that assent 1 Would any man seriously maintain that the third estate, thus conjured up, is really distinct from the other two ?" 1789. On the second of January 1789, to complete the singularity and perplexity of the business, died Cornwall, speaker of the house of commons ; and on the fifth the vacant chair was filled by Grenville, brother to lord Temple, and though there were a striking irregularity in entering upon the duties of his office without the previous sanction of royal approbation, yet in this season of novelties, a defect of this sort was scarcely noticed, amid the pressure of af- fairs so much more important. In consequence of some difference of opin- ion among the royal physicians respecting the state of his majesty's health, Loveden made a motion for a fresh committee to re- examine the physicians on the subject of the king's illness, and the probability of re- covery. This motion having been acceded to, gave rise to .a second report, which left the house, with regard to the event, as much in the dark as ever, answering no other purpose than to create delay, of which the minister well knew the value and ad- vantage. A letter was at length written to the prince of Wales by Pitt, informing his royal highness of the plan meant to be pur- sued : that the care of the king's person and the disposition of the royal household should be committed to the queen, who would by this means be vested with the patronage of four hundred places, amongst which were the great offices of lord steward, lord cham- berlain, and the master of the horse. That the power of the prince should not extend 334 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. to the granting any office, reversion, or pen- sion, for any other term than during the king's pleasure, nor to the conferring any peerage. The answer of the prince was firm, dignified, and temperate. He said, "it was with deep regret, that he perceived in the propositions of administration, a project for introducing weakness, disorder, and in- security into every branch of political busi- ness; for separating the court from the state, and depriving government of its natu- ral and accustomed support ; a scheme for disconnecting authority to command service, from the power of animating it by reward ; and for allotting to him all the invidious du- ties of the kingly station, without the means of softening them to the public by any one act of grace, favor, or benignity." He ob- served, that the plea of public utility must be strong, manifest, and urgent, that could thus require the extinction or suspension of any of those essential rights in the supreme power or its representative, or which could justify the prince in consenting, that in his person an experiment should be made to as- certain with how small a portion of kingly power the 'executive government of this country could be conducted. In fine, the prince declared, that his conviction of the evils which might otherwise arise, outweigh- ed in his mind every other consideration, and would determine him to undertake the painful trust imposed upon him by that mel- ancholy necessity, which of all the king's subjects he deplored the most KING'S RECOVERY. THE bill intended to carry into effect this wild and dangerous project, the offspring of party interest, and personal ambition, was brought into the house on the sixteenth of January 1789. Long and violent debates ensued ; and in the house of lords, it was accompanied by a protest, signed by the duke of York, at the head of the princes of the blood, and fifty-five other peers, expressive of their highest indignation at the restric- tions thus arbitrarily imposed on the execu- tive authority. These extraordinary and un- precedented proceedings were at length, happily for the public, arrested in their pro- gress by an intimation from the chancellor, that the king was declared by his physicians to be in a state of convalescence. This was followed by a declaration on the tenth of March, that his majesty being perfectly re- covered from his indisposition,,had ordered a commission to be issued for holding the parliament in the usual manner. The tidings of the king's recovery diffused the most gen- eral and heartfelt satisfaction. A national thanksgiving was appointed, and the king himself went in solemn procession to the cathedral of St Paul's, to offer up to the Almighty his grateful devotions on this event His recovery was also celebrated throughout the kingdom by splendid illumi- nations, and all the other accustomed de- monstrations of joy. PARLIAMENT REGULARLY OPENED. IN the speech delivered by the chancellor in the name of the king to the two houses, his majesty conveyed to them his warmest acknowledgments for the additional proofs they had given of attachment to his person, of their concern for the honor and interests of his crown, and the security and good government of his dominions. It very soon appeared that the last proceedings of the ministry in the regency business were high- ly agreeable to the sovereign. A number of persons holding posts under the government, who had concurred in the measures of op- position, were unceremoniously dismissed from their offices. SHOP TAX REPEALED. TEST AND COR- PORATION ACTS. ONE of the earliest topics that engaged the attention of parliament was the unpopu- lar shop-tax. Fox renewed his annual mo- tion for its repeal, to which Pitt did not choose any longer to withhold his assent, though at the same time he affirmed he had heard nothing in the shape of argument which induced him to change his original opinion. Encouraged by the success of this application, Dempster immediately moved for the repeal of the hawkers and pedlars' tax. This, however, could not be obtained ; but a bill passed to explain and amend the act, by which the more oppressive clauses were mitigated, and that friendless and in- jured class of persons restored in some mea- sure to their civil and commercial rights. On the eighth of 'May, Beaufoy introduc- ed the motion which he had two years be- fore submitted to the house, for the repeal of the cprporation and test acts. Fox sup- ported the motion with uncommon force of argument He laid it down as a primary axiom of policy, "that no human govern- ment bad jurisdiction over opinions as such, and more particularly over religious opin- ions. It had no right to presume that it knew them, and much less to act upon that presumption. When opinions were produc- tive of acts injurious to society, the law knew how and where to apply the remedy. If the reverse of this doctrine were adopt- ed, if the actions of men were to be pre- judged from their opinions, it would sow the seeds of everlasting jealousy and dis- trust; it would give the most unlimited scope to the malignant passions ; it would incite each man to divine the opinions of his neighbor, to deduce mischievous conse- quences from them, and then to prove that he ought to incur disabilities, to be fettered with restrictions, to be harassed with penal- GEORGE EL 17601820. 335 ties. From this intolerant principle had flowed every species of party zeal, every system of political persecution, every ex- travagance of religious hate. There were many men not of the establishment, to whose services their country had a claim. Surely a citizen of this description might be per- mitted without danger or absurdity to say though I dissent from the church, I am a friend to the constitution ; and on religious subjects I am entitled to think and act as I please. Ought the country to be deprived of the benefit she might derive from the talents of such men, and his majesty be pre- vented from dispensing the favors of the crown except to one description of his sub- jects ] The test and corporation acts had subsisted, it was contended, for more than a century. True ; but how had they subsist- ed ? by repeated suspensions. For the in- demnity-bills were, literally speaking, annu- al acts. Where then would be the impro- priety of suspending them for ever by an act of perpetual operation ] Let not Great Britain be the last to avail herself of the general improvement of the human under- standing. Indulgence to other sects, a can- did respect for their opinions, a desire to promote charity and good will, were the best proofs that any religion could give of its di- vine origin." Pitt, in an artificial harangue delivered with a great external show of candor, and decorated with a speciousness of language, opposed the motion. On a di- vision this important question was lost by a majority of only twenty voices. MOTION FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. . WILBERFORCE, at an advanced period of the session, brought forward his long ex- pected motion, relating to the abolition of the African slave trade, which was now be- come the theme of public execration. Lord Penryn asserted, in the course of this de- bate, "that to his knowledge, the planters were now willing to assent to any regula- tion of the trade, short of its abolition." In reply to this remark, Fox, with great anima- tion, declared, " that he knew of no such thing, as a ' regulation of robbery, and re- striction of murder.' There was no medi- um : the legislature must either abolish the trade, or plead guilty to all the iniquity with which it was attended. This was a traffic which no government could authorize, with- out participation in the infamy." Evidence being heard at the bar of the house for sev- eral successive weeks, it was at length, on the twenty-third of June, moved by alder- man Newnham, " that the farther consider- ation of the subject be deferred to the next session," which was accordingly carried. The session was terminated August the eleventh 1789, by a speech from the lord chancellor in the name of the sovereign. 336 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XXI. Meeting of Parliament Burke 1 s first Philippic against France The Sentiments of Fox and Sheridan on the same Subject Opposition to tlie Motion for Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts A Reform in Parliament moved by Mr. Flood and withdrawn State of Settlements in India Royal Message announces a Rupture with Spain The Dispute settled, and a Convention signed War commenced in India To defray the Expenses of the Spanish Armament, the Minister proposes seizing the unclaimed Dividends in the Bank Violently opposed Compromised Question wliether Impeachments abate or not by a Dissolution of Parliament Bill in Favor of the Catholics passed-^-Bill for settling the Rights of Juries in Cases of Libel The Slave Trade The Establishment of the Sierra Leona Company Bill for the better Government of Canada Burke 1 s Invective against the French Revolution Answered by Fox Terminates in a Breach of Friendship Rupture with Russia Grounds of the Quarrel The French Revolution divides the Nation into Parties Birmingham thrown into a Ferment by an inflammatory and seditious Hand-Bill Dr. Priestley's House, y respecting the tnui- _ iillity ;i:id rights of other power.-, and to guaranty the essential basis of the French monarchical form of government against the infringements of violence and anarchy. The king of Prussia published a similar declaration. His manifesto, however, was more diffuse than that of Austria, These manifestoes of the allied powers produced a violent fermentation at Paris. The country was publicly declared to be in danger, and the most vigorous measures were immedi- ately adopted to recruit the army and strengthen the frontiers. A royal proclama- tion was published, setting forth in a strong light the dangers to which France was ex- posed. In consequence of this and other steps taken by the French government, a profusion of volunteers of all ages immedi- ately poured down upon the frontiers with the ardor of the most frantic enthusiasm. Coblentz was at this time the general rendezvous of the French emigrants. Here they had assembled to the number of near twenty thousand ; and the king of Prussia, on his arrival, was received as the illustrious chief, under whose auspices they expected the complete restoration of the ancient order of things. The reigning duke of Brunswick had the command of the combined armies which were destined for the great enter- prise of invading France. But before he began his march from Coblentz, in order that the whole world might fully know the views and spirit of his glorious mission, he pub- lished a manifesto in his own name, in which, to a general recapitulation of the reasons assigned by the emperor and the king of Prussia, for combining their forces against France, he subjoins ; " To these high inter- ests, is added another important object, and which both sovereigns have most cordially in view, which is to put an end to that anar- chy which prevails in the interior parts of France ; to put a stop to the attacks made on the throne and the altar, and restore to the king his legitimate power," Ace. Then, as Commander-in-chief of the two armies, he disavows any pretence to enrich themselves by conquest ; and disclaims any intention to meddle with the internal government of France. But in case of their making any resistance when summoned to surrender, or when attacked ; or of their not preventing conflagrations, murders, and pillage ; or of their removing the king and royal family from Paris ; or of their attempting to force or insult the palace of the Thuilleries ; or of their offering the least violence or outrage to their majesties or the royal family : then does he fulminate his maledictions upon the devoted land ; he denounces instant death to the rebels taken in arms ; decapitation and confiscation to the members of the depart- ments, districts, and municipalities ; military execution to the members of the national assembly, magistrates, and all the inhabit- ants of Paris ; and total destruction to their guilty city. Though this thundering men- ace seemed to threaten vengeance awfully compendious, yet the duke of Brunswick was still reproached with some afflicting qualms of lenity ; and, in less than forty- eight hours, he sent forth a second manifesto, to confirm and heighten the terror of the first, declaring, " that if, contrary to all ex- pectation, by the perfidy or baseness of some inhabitants of Paris, the king, the queen, or any other person of the royal family should be carried off from that city, all the places and towns whatsoever which shall not have opposed their passage, and shall not have stopped their proceedings, shall incur the same punishments as those inflicted on the inhabitants of Paris, and their route shall be marked with a series of exemplary punish- ments justly due to the authors and abettors of crimes for which there is no remission." However carefully the different parties to the convention of Pilnitz concealed their secret stipulations from the eyes of curiosity and of interest ; yet, the faithful historian will not lose sight of the principles upon which they professed to have entered into the confederacy, and upon which thy suc- ceeded in engaging this country, as well as most other powers of Europe, in the fatal al- liance. All parties disavowed the right, and disclaimed the intention of interfering with the internal government of France ; and in the same breath they insisted upon the abolition of that change in their internal government which the nation had called for, and which the king himself had accepted and confirmed by oath. The fatal folly of the combined powers, who in their proclamations had asserted, that the king was not sincere in his acceptance of the constitution, sufficed for the Jacobins, to hold him out to the nation as combining with foreign powers to reduce France by force of arms, either to a strange yoke, or to GEORGE HI. 17601820. 363 a worse than their ancient slavery. What- ever party in France might have still wished for the re-establishment of the ancient un- qualified power of the crown, could not avow themselves abettors of the cause of enemies, who were marching into the king- dom in open war. All those who had sworn to support the constitution, were by their oath committed to defend it, against those who were by force attempting to destroy it Thus, by this ill-judged and fatal declaration, the real cause of royalty in France was irre- trievably deprived of the possibility of any open or efficient support. DEPOSITION OF THE FRENCH KING THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR LEAVES PARIS. THE grand and fatal question of deposition or forfeiture stood for the ninth of August : but the extreme agitation of the public mind would not permit the subject to be fairly dis- cussed in the assembly. A detail of the aw- ful and terrific scenes of the tenth is foreign from the design of English history, and therefore, it is only necessary to state, that in consequence of the dread transactions of that memorable day, and the virtual deposi- tion of the French monarch, lord Gower, the English ambassador at Paris, received orders from the court of London to quit the king- dom immediately, on the slight and frivolous pretext, that the functions of royalty being suspended, his mission was at an end. This recall was considered by the leading men in France as an ominous and certain indication of the enmity of the British court : never- theless, as a demonstration of their modera- tion, and solicitude for peace, Chauvelin the French ambassador still remained in London, though from this period unacknowledged in any public or authorized capacity. The re- call of the English ambassador at this criti- cal moment, on the ground stated by the English court, seemed to imply that appoint- ments of this nature are a mere matter of form and compliment between sovereigns; but if ambassadors are considered in a high- er and juster light, as the necessary means of intercourse between nation and nation, never could the recall of an ambassador take place at a period when his presence and services were more indispensable. MULTITUDES OF FRENCH PRIESTS AR- RIVE IN ENGLAND. THE execution of the decree for banishing all the nonjuring clergymen to Guiana, who should not have quitted the kingdom in four- teen days from its passing, poured thousands of these unfortunate exiles from Normandy, Picardy, and Brittany, upon our coasts of Kent and Sussex. Misery and distress are at all times a sufficient passport to English humanity ; and this amiable characteristic of our countrymen was on this occasion most eminently displayed. Wherever these suf- ferers appeared, they were welcomed, re- lieved, and comforted. The old rivalry of the two nations was forgotten, and our dif- ference from that very religion for which they were persecuted, was swallowed up in a generous feeling for their unfortunate and hapless condition. Never was an opportu- nity of exercising heroic charity more eager- ly embraced, nor benevolence conferred with more glowing sensibility. NATIONAL CONVENTION OF FRANCE CONSTITUTED. DR. PRIESTLEY AND THOMAS PAINE DECLARED MEMBERS. ON the twenty-first of September 1792, the national convention was formally declar- ed to be constituted, and the second national assembly was of course dissolved. " Thus ended," says Brissot, " after a year's exist- ence, that stormy legislature under which the public spirit made such a rapid progress, and the French nation marched with giant strides towards a republic." From this pe- riod commenced what the French term the reign of liberty and equality ; but what their enemies, in derision, call that of anarchy and tyranny. It has been the boast of the French, to have collected from every region into the national convention, whatever talent and spirit could be found to enlighten the intellects, establish the freedom, and insure the happiness of mankind. From this coun- try, they selected Dr. Priestley and Thomas Paine: the former declined, the latter ac- cepted the nomination. If Paine had been thought guilty of seditious or treasonable practices against the state ; and if govern- ment had been desirous of checking the progress of those evils, of which they so loudly complained in their late proclama- tion ; they might certainly with ease have prevented the avowed fomenter of the mis- chief from quitting the kingdom. His elec- tion for the department of Calais, was so well known in England, that the custom- house officers had received early informa- tion of his departure for France, and exam- ined his baggage, with that of Frost, for pro- hibited articles, immediately on their arrival at Dover. This ceremony was performed by the collectors in a manner totally un- known before in this country. They exam- ined all their papers, sealed and unsealed ; and upon their urging the illegality of cus- tom-house officers seizing private papers, which were not things under their cogni- zance they replied, that they were author- ized to do it by the late proclamation. ADDRESS OF THE ENGLISH SOCIETY AT PARIS TO THE CONVENTION. IF the French were opposed by numerous and powerful enemies, they had the consola- tion to know that the friends of liberty in every quarter of the world rejoiced in the success of their revolution. Englishmen in 364 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. particular, ever alive to the blessings of free- dom themselves, took a distinguished and sympathetic part in the struggles of France. There had long existed in Paris a society of British subjects, who, upon receiving the news of the conquest of Brabant, celebrated the joyful event in a general and magnifi- cent festival, and afterwards addressed the convention upon the subject. Some other addresses from our countrymen were pre- sented to the convention in congratulation of their successes. One from the constitu- tional society of London, was presented by their deputies, Joel Barlow and John Frost, who at the same time entreated their accept- ance of one thousand pair of shoes, as a pa- triotic offering to the brave soldiers of liber- ty. As the high-flown terms of applause and admiration contained in this last address, will be repeatedly referred to in the sequel, the insertion of it in this place, will as- sist the reader in forming a just opinion of a subsequent and important transaction. " Whilst foreign plunderers ravage your territories," say these English addressers, " an oppressed part of mankind, forgetting their own evils, are sensible only of yours, and address their fervent prayers to the God of the universe, that he may be favorable to your cause, with which their's is so inti- mately connected. Degraded by an oppres- sive system of inquisition, the insensible, but continual encroachments of which quickly deprived this nation of its liberty, and re- duced it almost to that abject state of slave- ry from which you have so gloriously- eman- cipated yourselves, five thousand English citizens, fired with indignation, have the courage to step forward to rescue their coun- try from that opprobrium, which has been thrown on it by the base conduct of those who are invested with power. We see with concern that the elector of Hanover unites his troops to those of traitors and rob- bers : but the king of England will do well to remember that England is not Hanover. Should he forget this, we will not forget it" The president of the convention, in answer to this address, used expressions full of re- spect and complacency. " The . sentiments of five thousand Britons," said he, " devoted openly to the cause of mankind, exist with- out doubt, in the hearts of all the freemen in England." Copies of the address were ordered to be sent to all the armies and de- partments of the republic. DECREE OF FRATERNIZATION. THE national convention was now so ela- ted with the amazinjr progress of their arms, and so confident of the propriety and recti- tude of every measure proposed for their adoption, that they seem to have thought deliberation a drudgery, and reflection su- perfluous. In this spirit a decree was pass- ed by acclamation in the assembly, Novem- ber the nineteenth 1792, in the following terms : " The national convention declare, in the name of the French nation, that they will grant fraternity and assistance to all those people who wish to procure liberty. And they charge the executive power to send orders to the generals to give assist- ance to such people, and to defend citizens who have suffered and are now suffering in the cause of liberty." This famous decree, which deserved to be considered in no other light than as a magnificent and empty vaunt, was productive of very serious and import- ant consequences. Two other decrees of the assembly also demand a specific notice : the one erecting the dutchy of Savoy into an eighty-fourth department of the French republic, contrary to a fundamental article of the constitution, by which she renounced all foreign conquest ; the other, on the cap- ture of Antwerp, declaratory of the freedom of navigation on the river Scheld. THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT OFFERS AS- SISTANCE TO HOLLAND. REFUSED. IT was now that the English government began to discover their alarm at the rapidity and extent of the French conquests. Bra- bant, Flanders, and Liege had been subdued, and seemed perfectly disposed to fraternize with their conquerors. It was well known that in Holland a very considerable party of malcontents sought an opportunity of de- claring themselves openly against the prince of Orange. Lord Auckland, the English ambassador, was therefore directed to assure their high mightinesses, " that as the theatre of war was brought so near to the confines of their republic, his Britannic majesty was both ready and determined to execute with the utmost good faith the treaty of 1788." The states, in their answer to this declara- tion, professed the strongest belief, " that no hostile intentions were conceived by any of the belligerent powers against them." The native phlegm of the Hollander begat, in the more peaceful and steady, an aversion to bustle and activity : and a rooted hatred of the court party induced numbers to dis- semble the expectation of what they most ardently wished. Hence the frequent and just observation, that we had officially forced their high mightinesses even into a war of defence, against their obvious interest or inclination. ARTIFICES OF MINISTERS TO INFLAME THE PEOPLE AGAINST THE FRENCH. THE period was now arrived, when our cabinet was determined to suppress no long- er their approbation of the principles of the grand confederacy. But it was first requi- site to dispose the nation to a proper acqui- escence in their measures. The multitude in all countries act more from feeling than GEORGE HI. 17601820. 365 judgment. Whom they hate or fear, they eagerly persecute, and are seldom delicate in the means, when they find the opportuni- ty of satiating their vengeance. A supreme abhorrence of the French government had been two years since, by Burke, wickedly, but successfully, excited in this country. The causes of the deposition of the French monarch, and the nature of the provocations and injuries which preceded and produced that event, not being sufficiently understood in England, contributed also to make an im- ciferated with tremendous clamors from the Tamar to the Tweed ; from the cliffs of Do- ver to the hills of Cheviot After the British cabinet had made such recent and repeated avowals of the right of France to form, alter, and model its internal government without foreign interference after such unequivocal declarations of con- tinued neutrality, and the warmest profes- sions of amity and good understanding it was undoubtedly a task of no small inge- nuity to give a plausible color to their rash pression very unfavorable on the minds of and sudden accession to the armed combina- the generality of the people : and the horrid massacres of September completely aliena- ted their minds from the revolution, although these shocking enormities could not in any rational sense be said to originate in the rev- olution, but merely and solely in the opposi- tion made to its establishment. Artful ad- vantage was taken of this disposition ; every wish, every word, and every action, that was disagreeable to ministers, was construed into a dislike of the British constitution, and held to be an almost unequivocal proof of repub- lican and revolutionary sentiments. The press teemed with inflammatory prod actions, and the pulpit rung with anathemas against republicans and levellers. Every measure directed against the French, or their admi- rers, however oppressive and illegal, now be- came sanctioned in the object of its direc- tion. The nation was on a sudden struck with terror at the idea of political innova- tion of any kind, and the very name of re- form became the subject of violent and in- discriminate reprobation. Under the impres- sion of this furious prejudice, an association openly countenanced by government was formed in London for the protection of lib- erty and property against republicans and levellers ; and an innumerable multitude of pamphlets, in the popular form of letters, di- alogues, and narratives, admirably fitted to inflame the passions, were by this means cir- culated throughout the kingdom, inculcating an unreserved submission to government, on the old exploded principles of toryism and high churchism. In one of the most notori- ous of these tracts, it was urged, in favor of monarchy, "that the king is in scripture called the Lord's anointed, but who (say these profound politicians) ever heard of an anointed republic 1" The rage of associa- ting spread rapidly through the kingdom ; and in every county, and almost every town, resolutions were subscribed strongly expres- sive of loyalty and attachment to the king and constitution, and abhorrence of all lev- elling and republican doctrines. The popu- lace entering with violence into these senti- ments, and their passions bein?, by the methods now put in practice, dangerously excited, the cry of church and king was vo- 31* tion of despots. Such a war was not to be undertaken upon open principle: it could not be supported by reason, but what was wanting in solid argument, was abundantly supplied by stratagem and artifice. At this gloomy period, appeals were only made to the passions the understanding was never consulted. The pathetic case of an unfor- tunate monarch, contrasted with the fero- cious cruelties of a licentious and frantic populace, had successfully seized the feel- ings of a great portion of the British public : and where the mind is preoccupied by ani- mated passion, the voice of cool and sober reason sounds in vain. This disposition is in nature, and the nation was prepared for it by the eloquence and example of Burke. " We are so made," says he, " as to be af- fected at such spectacles with melancholy sentiments upon the unstable condition of mortal prosperity, and the tremendous un- certainty of human greatness : because in those natural feelings we learn great les- sons ; because in events like these our pas- sions instruct our reason; when kings are hurled from their thrones by the supreme director of this great drama, and become the objects of insult to the base, and pity to the good." The prejudices of the people being thus excited, and " their reason subjected to the instruction of their passions," the nation was brought to concur in a destructive war. THE MILITIA CALLED OUT, AND PAR- LIAMENT ASSEMBLED. As the war, however, could not be sup- ported upon any political justice, as it held out no prospect of interest, nor could be un- dertaken without at least the appearance of violating our solemn engagements; it be- came necessary to devise some domestic urgency to render the intended measures of government completely palatable to the na- tion. His majesty was accordingly advised to issue another proclamation, December the first, 1792, announcing the alarming intelli- gence, " that notwithstanding the late pro- clamation of the twenty-first of May, the utmost industry was still employed by evil- disposed persons within this kingdom, acting in concert with persons in foreign partsf with a view to subvert the laws and established 366 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. constitution of this realm; and to destroy all order and government therein ; and that a spirit of tumult and disorder thereby ex- cited had lately shown itself in acts of riot and insurrection. And that, these causes moving him thereto, his majesty had resolved forthwith to embody part of the militia of the kingdom." On the same day, another proclamation was issued for convening the parliament (which stood prorogued to the third of January) on the thirteenth of De- cember ; the law requiring, that if the mili- tia be drawn out during the recess of parlia- ment, and this it can only be in case of in- vasion or actual insurrection, parliament shall be assembled in the space of fourteen days. If credit be given to the language of these proclamations, the political state of the kingdom, which depended upon the wis- dom, vigilance, and energy of government, was at this time in the convulsed agonies of a mortal disease. Without any external hostilities either to make or resist without the conviction or even accusation of one in- dividual, for attempting to excite sedition or insurrection without the example of one pain, penalty or punishment having been in- flicted upon a person guilty of turbulence or rebellion his majesty's ministers thought themselves warranted to take these bold and daring measures. Bounties were now of- fered to landsmen and seamen ; naval arma- ments were put into preparation in all the dock-yards; the army was drawn into a focus near the metropolis; and the tower was put into a posture of defence. The public alarm caused by these proceedings was inexpressible. Those who were con- vinced of the existence of a plot, thought it so much the more terrible, from its being invisible and incomprehensible. At this pe- riod of infatuation and terror, the nation was convulsed from the extremities to the centre. Every man looked on his neighbor with an eye of sullen suspicion. Jealousy sat on every countenance, and banished from the cheerful and domestic circles of life, all the pleasures of social and friendly intercourse. In a word, the timid were agitated with fear- ful apprehensions the licentious and disor- derly exulted in the prospect of approach- ing commotions but the reflecting few saw through the artifice, and sighed in solitude over the misfortunes of their country. GEORGE IE. 17601820. 367 CHAPTER XXIV. Meeting of Parliament Fox in Opposition to the Address Burke for it Oppo- sition reduced by Desertion Motions for adjusting Differences with France by Negotiation, and for sending a Minister to Paris The French Ambassador's Me- morial on the relative Situation of France and England Answered by Lord Gren- ville Memorial of the Executive Council of France Lord Grenville's Reply French Ambassador ordered to leave the Kingdom Message from his Majesty to the Commons on French Affairs Pitt's Speech on moving the Address Opposed by Lord Wycombe by Whitbread and by Fox The French declare War against England and Holland. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. ON the meeting of parliament, which took place on the thirteenth of December 1792, the expressions of the first proclama- tion were repeated in his majesty's speech ; towards the conclusion of which the real views of the court became sufficiently mani- fest It was intimated in the speech, " that his majesty had judged it necessary to em- body a part of the militia, and to call the parliament together within the time limited for that purpose." It stated, as the grounds of these strong measures, the seditious prac- tices which had been discovered, and the spirit of tumult and disorder shown in acts of riot and insurrection, which required the interposition of a military force in support of the civil magistrate. " The industry," it asserted " employed to excite discontent on various pretexts, and in different parts of the kingdom, appeared to proceed from a design to attempt the destruction of our happy constitution, and the subversion of all order and government ; and that this design had evidently been pursued in connexion and concert with persons in foreign coun- tries. I have," said his majesty, " carefully observed a strict neutrality in the present war on the continent, and have uniformly abstained from any interference with re- spect to the internal government of France ; but it is impossible for me to see without the most serious uneasiness the strong and increasing indications which have appeared there, of an intention to excite disturbances in other countries, to disregard the rights ol neutral nations, and to pursue views of con- quest and aggrandizement, as well as to adopt towards my allies, the States-General, measures which are neither conformable to the law of nations, nor to the positive stipu- lations of existing treaties. Under these circumstances his majesty thought it right to have recourse to those means of preven- tion and internal defence with which he was intrusted by law, and to make some augmentation of his naval and military force." FOX IN OPPOSITION TO THE ADDRESS. ON moving the address, in answer to the speech, a memorable debate arose. Never did the strength and superiority of Fox's genius appear perhaps so conspicuous as in this moment of national infatuation. He began by observing, "that his majesty's speech contains a variety of assertions of the most .extraordinary nature. It was the duty of that house to inquire into the truth of these assertions, and in discharging this part of his duty, he should consider the speech from the throne as the speech of the minister, which his majesty's confidential servants had advised him to deliver ; and as they were responsible for that advice, to them every observation of his should be ad-, dressed. I state it, therefore," said Fox, " to be my firm opinion and belief, that there is not one feet asserted in his majesty's speech which is not false not one asser- tion or insinuation which is not unfounded. Nay, I cannot be so uncandid as to believe, that ministers themselves think them true. The leading and prominent feature of the speech is a wanton and base calumny on the people of Great Britain ; an insinuation of so black a nature that it demands the most rigorous inquiry, and the most severe pun- ishment. The next assertion is, that there exists at this moment an insurrection in this kingdom. An insurrection! where is it^ where has it reared its head ? Good God ! an insurrection in Great Britain ! The speech goes on in the same strain of falsehood and f calumny, and says, ' the industry employed to excite discontent on various pretexts, and in different parts of the kingdom, has ap- peared to proceed from a design to attempt the destruction of our happy constitution, and the subversion of all order and govern- ment.' I desire gentlemen to consider these words, and I demand of their honor and truth if they believe this assertion to be founded in fact. There have been, as I un- derstand, and as every one must have heard, some slight riots in different parts. I have heard of a tumult at Shields ; of another at 368 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Leith ; of some riot at Yarmouth, and of something of the same nature at Perth and Dundee. I ask gentlemen if they believe that in each of these places the avowed ob- ject of the complaints of the people was not the real one that the sailors at Shields, Yarmouth, &c. did not really want some in- crease of their wages, but were actuated by a design of overthrowing the constitution 1 Is there a man in England who believes this insinuation to be true ?" Fox next adverting to an expression of Wallace, who, in sec- onding the motion of address, adduced as a proof that there existed in this country a dangerous spirit, ' the drooping and dejected aspect of many persons, when the tidings of Dumourier's surrender arrived in Eng- land,' said " Admitting the fact in its ut- most extent, could any man who loves the constitution of England, who feels its prin- ciples in his heart, wish success to the duke of Brunswick, after reading a manifesto which violated every doctrine that English- men hold sacred; which trampled under foot every principle of justice, humanity, and true government ? It is rather extraordinary, that they should think it right to abuse re- publics, at the very moment we are called upon to protect the republic of Holland ; to spread the doctrine that kings only have divine right, may indispose your allies to re- ceive your proposed succor. They may not choose to receive into their country your ad- mirals and generals, who, being appointed by this king, in divine right, must partake of the same anger, and be sworn enemies to all forms of government not so sanctified. Surely, independent of the falsehood and the danger at home of such doctrines, it is the height of impolicy at this time to hold them in regard even to our neighbora His majesty, in the next passage of his speech," continued Fox, " brings us to the apprehen- sion of a war. I shall refrain at this time from saying all that occurs to me on this subject, because I wish to keep precisely to the immediate subject : but never surely had this country so much reason to wish for peace; never was a period so little favora- ble to a rupture with France, or with any power. I am not ready to subscribe exactly to the propriety of a resolution never to go to war unless we are attacked ; but I wish that a motion was proposed by some person to express our disapprobation of entering upon any war, if we can by any honorable means avoid it Let no man be deterred by the dread of being in a minority. A mi- nority saved this country from a war against Russia. And surely it is our duty, as it is true policy, to exert every means to avert that greatest of national calamities. In 1789 we all must remember that Spain pro voked this country by an insult, which is a real aggression ; we were all agreed on the necessity of the case, but did we go head- long to war 1 No, we determined with be- coming fortitude on an armed negotiation. We did negotiate, and we avoided a war. But now we disdain to negotiate. Why I Because we have no minister at Paris. Why have we no minister there 1 Because France is a republic ! And so we are to pay in the blood and treasure of the people for a punc- tilio ! If there are discontents in the king- dom, sir, this is the way to inflame them. It is of no consequence to any people what is the form of government with which they may have to treat It is with the governors, whatever may be the form, that in common sense and policy they can have to do, and if they should change their form and change their governors, their course would remain the same. Having no legitimate concern with the internal state of any independent people, the road of common sense is simple and direct That of pride and punctilio is as tangled as it is serpentine. Is the pre- text the opening of the Scheld ? I cannot believe that such an object can be the real cause. I doubt, even if a war on this pre- text would be undertaken with the approba- tion of the Dutch. What was the conduct of the French themselves under their de- praved old system, when the good of the people never entered into the contemplation of the cabinet ? The emperor threatened to open the Scheld in 1786. Did the French go to war with him instantly to prevent it ? No, they opened a negotiation, and prevent- ed it by interfering with their good offices. Why have not we so interfered 1 Because, forsooth, France is an unanointed republic ! Oh ! miserable, infatuated Frenchmen ! Oh ! lame and inconsiderate politicians! Why, instead of breaking the holy vial of Rheims, why did you not pour some of the sacred oil on the heads of your executive council, that the pride of states might not be forced to plunge themselves and you into the horrors of war, rather than be contaminated by your acquaintance ! The people will not be cheat- ed. They will look round, and demand where this danger is to be seen. Is it in England ? they see it overflowing in expres- sions of loyalty, and yet they libel it with imputations of insurrection. In Ireland you know there is danger, and dare not own it ; though you know that there a most respecta- ble and formidable convention (I call it for- midable, because I know nothing so formi- dable as reason, truth, and justice) will oblige you by the most cogent reasons to give way to demands which the magnanimity of the nation ought to have anticipated in justice to subjects as attached to their king, as abundantly endowed with every manly virtue, as any part of the united kingdom. GEORGE 1IL 17601820. 369 And while the claims of generous and ill- treated millions are thus protracted, there is a miserable mockery held out of alarms in England which have no existence, but which are made the pretext of assembling the parliament in an extraordinary way, in order in reality to engage you in a foreign contest What must be the fetal conse- quence, when a well-judging people shall decide, what I sincerely believe, that the whole of this business is a ministerial manceu- vre 1 A noble lord says he will move for a suspension of the habeas corpus act I hope not I have a high respect for the noble lord ; but no motive of personal respect shall make me inattentive to my duty. Come from whom it may, I shall, with my most determined powers, oppose so dreadful a measure. What, it may be asked, would I propose to do in hours of agitation like the present 1 I will answer openly. If there is a tendency in the dissenters to discontent, because they conceive themselves unjustly suspected and cruelly calumniated, what should I do? I would instantly repeal the test and corporation acts, and take from them thereby all cause of complaint If there were any persons tinctured with a republi- can spirit, because they thought that the re- pesentative government was more perfect in a republic, I would endeavor to amend the representation of the commons, and to prove that the house of commons, though not chosen by all, should have no other in- terest than to prove itself the representative of all. If there were men dissatisfied in Scotland, or Ireland, or elsewhere, on ac- count of disabilities and exemptions, of un- just prejudices, and of cruel restrictions, I would repeal the penal statutes, which are a disgrace to our law-book. If there were other complaints of grievances, I would re- dress them where they were really proved ; but above all, I would constantly, cheerfully, patiently listen I would make it known, that if any man felt, or thought he felt, a grievance, he might come freely to the bar of this house and bring his proofs. And it should be made manifest to all the world, that where they did exist they should be re- dressed ; where they did not, that it should be made manifest. If I were to issue a pro- clamation, this should be my proclamation ' If any man has a grievance, let bun bring it to the bar of the commons' house of par- liament, with the firm persuasion of having it honestly investigated.' These are the sub- sidies that 1 would grant to government What instead of this is done ? Suppress the complaint check the circulation of know- ledgecommand that no man shall read or, that as no man under one hundred pounds a-year can kill a partridge, that no man un- der twenty pounds, or thirty pounds, shall dare to read or think! I love the constitu- tion," said Fox, "as it is established : it has grown up with me as a prejudice and as a habit, as well as from conviction. I know that it is calculated for the happiness of man, and that its constituent branches of king, lords, and commons, could not be altered or unpaired, without entailing on this country the most dreadful miseries. It is the best adapted to England, because, as the noble earl truly said, the people of England think it the best ; and the safest course is to con- sult the judgment and gratify the predilec- tions of a country. Heartily convinced as I am, however, that to secure the peace, strength, and happiness of the country, we must maintain the constitution against all innovation, yet I do not think so highly and superstitiously of any human institution as to believe it is incapable of being perverted ; on the contrary, I believe that it requires an increasing vigilance on the part of the peo- ple to prevent the decay and dilapidations to which every edifice is subject I think too that we may be laid asleep to our real dan- ger by these perpetual alarms to loyalty, which, in my opinion, are daily sapping the constitution. Under the pretext of guard- ing it from the assaults of republicans and levellers, we run the hazard of leaving it open on the other and more feeble side. We are led insensibly to the opposite danger, that of increasing the power of the crown, and of degrading the influence of the house of commons. et us only look back to the whole course of the present administration, and we shall see that from their outset to the present day, it has been their invariable object to degrade the house of commons in the eyes of the people, and to diminish its power and influence in every possible way. It was not merely in the outset of their ca- reer, when they stood up against the de- clared voice of the house of commons, that this spirit was manifested, but uniformly, progressively through their whole ministry, the same disposition has been shown, until at last it came to its full undisguised de- monstration on the question of the Russian war, when the house of commons was de- graded to the lowest state of insignificance and contempt, hi being made to retract its own words, and to acknowledge that it was of no consequence or avail what were its sentiments on any one measure. The min- ister has regularly acted upon this sort of principle, to the vilification of the popular branch of the constitution. What is this jut to make it appear that the house of com- mons is in reality what Thomas Paine, and writers like him, say it is, namely, that it is not the true representative and organ of the people. Is it not wonderful, that all the rue constitutional watchfulness of England 370 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. should be dead to the only true danger that the day exhibits, and that they should be roused only by the idiotic clamor of repub- lican frenzy and of popular insurrection, which do not exist? Sir," concluded Fox, " I have done my duty. I have, with the certainty of opposing myself to the furor of the day, delivered my opinion at more length than I intended, and perhaps I have intruded too long on the indulgence of the house. I have endeavored to persuade you against the indecent haste of committing yourselves to these assertions of an existing insurrection, until you shall make a rigorous inquiry where it is to be found to avoid involving the peo- ple in the calamity of a war, without at least ascertaining the internal state of the king- dom, and prevent us from falling into the disgrace of being, as heretofore, obliged per- haps in a week to retract every syllable that we are now called upon to say." To carry this into effect, he concluded with moving an amendment, simply pledging the house, " that inquiry should be made into the facts stated in his majesty's speech." BURKE IN FAVOR OF IT. BURKE said, " that this was indeed a day of trial of the constitution. He agreed with an honorable gentleman in regarding the present as a most momentous crisis, but for different reasons from those which he had assigned. He was sensible how closely liberty and monarchy were connected in this country ; that they were never to be found asunder ; that they had flourished together a thousand years; and from this union re- sulted the glory and prosperity of the nation. What he dreaded, should French principles be introduced into this country, was the de- struction of the whole order of civil life. He would affirm, that there was a faction in this country, who wished to submit it to France, in order that our government might be re- formed upon the French system. He would likewise affirm, that the French cherished views upon this country ; that they encour- aged this faction, and were disposed to aid them in their views of overturning our con- stitution. As a proof of this, he should translate from their own gazette the follow- ing account of their proceedings. " The president You decreed, yester- day, that two deputies of Englishmen should be admitted to the bar. I am going to order it to be opened for them.' The first deputa- tion being admitted, the spokesman addressed the convention. The president answered the deputation as republicans. He said, ' royalty in Europe was in the agonies of death ; that the declaration of right, now placed by the side of thrones, was a fire which in the end would consume them ; and he even hoped that the time was not far dis- tant when France, England, Scotland, and Ireland all Europe ! all mankind ! would form but one peaceful family.' These pro- ceedings," he said, " had taken place on the same day in which there had been a discus- sion in the convention respecting the union of Savoy to France. On that occasion the president had observed, that ' nature pointed out this union ; that France and Savoy were already connected by physical and moral ties.' This gentle people, in adding the country of their neighbors to their own do- minions, only follow the mild laws of na- ture ; whenever they have a mind to make an acquisition of territory, they discover their claim to it to be established by physi- cal and moral ties: no doubt they will soon find out this physical and moral connexion subsisting between them and this country, though we unfortunately have been separat- ed from them by a violent convulsion. If Englishmen," he remarked, " had applied to Louis XVI. to reform our government, and had been favorably received by him, would not this have been considered as an aggres- sion by this country ? It was indeed a por- tent and prodigy that Englishmen should not be able to find liberty at home, and should be obliged to seek it elsewhere. What ren- dered the factious of this country particular- ly dangerous, was their connexion with the band of French robbers and assassins. The French had declared war against all kings, and of consequence against this country, if it had a king. The question now was not whether we should make an address to the throne, but whether we should have a throne at all? He concluded with recommending the unanimity so desirable upon this occa- sion, and with representing the danger which might arise from the progress of the French arms, if not speedily resisted ; their power had already become formidable to the whole of Europe, and if we would not have Europe gone from us, it was necessary that we should interpose by the most effectual means to stop their further career." After a debate of many hours, the house divided, for the amendment fifty, against it two hundred and ninety ! OPPOSITION REDUCED BY DESERTION. IN the house of lords the address was carried without a division, but not without a powerful opposition from the duke of Nor- folk, and the lords lAnsdowne, Rawdon, and Stanhope. In consequence of the late alarms created by the dreadful apprehension of plots and insurrections, the opposition or whig party had, as it now appeared, suffered a great and melancholy defection. At the head of the seceders in the upper house, were the prince of Wales, the duke of Port- land, lords Fitzwilliam, Spencer, Mansfield, and Loughborough, the last of whom, on the resignation of lord Thurlow, at this period GEORGE III. 17601820. 371 was advanced to the chancellorship. And in the lower house, Burke, Windham, Sir Gilbert Elliot, Anstruther, &c. who acquired by this means the popular appellation of Alarmists. MOTIONS FOR A NEGOTIATION WITH FRANCE AND FOR SENDING A MIN- ISTER TO PARIS. ON the bringing up the report, on the suc- ceeding day, in the house of commons, the debate was resumed with fresh vehemence. Fox most severely censured the ministers for not having interposed the mediation of Great Britain, in order to preserve the peace of Europe. Had we protested against the project concerted at Pilnitz, and armed to prevent the execution of it, England must have acquired such an ascendency in the councils of France as would have completely obviated all the subsequent causes of dissat- isfaction. " If," said Fox, " there exists a discontented or disaffected party in the king- dom, what can so much add to their num- bers, or their influence, as a war, which, by increasing the public burdens till they be- come intolerable, will give proportionable weight to their complaints! He wished, therefore, that war should be avoided, if pos- sible that negotiation should precede hos- tility. He was fully aware of the arrogant notions of ministers, who perhaps would not condescend to receive a minister from the French republic. If this were the case, let ministers fairly avow it that the people of England might know how far the essential interests of the nation were sacrificed to a punctilio. Gentlemen should recollect that it was once fashionable to talk of ' a vagrant congress,' of ' one Hancock,' and ' one Adams,' and ' their crew.' But surely the folly of this language had been sufficiently proved." He then moved an amendment, " beseeching his majesty to employ every means of honorable negotiation, for the pur- pose of preventing a war with France." The motion was opposed by Burke in a fran- tic speech, in which he affirmed, " that to send an ambassador to France would be the prelude to the murder of our sovereign." Pitt was at this time not a member of the house, having vacated his seat by the ac- ceptance of the lucrative sinecure of the Cinque ports, void by the death of the earl of Guildford, once so famous under the title of lord North. In the absence of the minis- ter, secretary Dundas entered into a long and elaborate vindication of the measures of administration ; and he concluded with a confident prediction, that " if we were forced into a war, it must prove successful and glorious." The amendment was negatived without a division. Not discouraged at the ill success of these attempts, Fox, on the fifteenth of December, moved, at the close of a speech which only served to demonstrate how incompetent are the utmost efforts of human wisdom to work conviction on minds distempered by preju- dice and passion, " that a minister be sent to Paris to treat with those persons who exer- cise provisionally the executive government of France." "This," he said, "implied neither approbation nor disapprobation of the conduct of the existing French government. It was the policy and practice of every na- tion to treat with the existing government of every other nation with which it had rela- tive interests, without inquiring how that government was constituted, or by what means it acquired possession of power. Was the existing government of Morocco more respectable than that of France 1 Yet we had more than once sent embassies thither, to men reeking from the blood through which they had waded to their thrones. We had ministers at the German courts at the time of the infamous partition of Poland. We had a minister at Versailles when Corsica was bought and ensla.ved. But in none of these instances was any sanction given di- rectly or indirectly by Great Britain to these nefarious transactions." In answer to the absurd and puerile ob- jection, that if we agreed to a negotiation, we should not know with whom to negoti- ate, Whitbread asked, with energetic ani- mation, " if we knew with whom we were going to war 1 If there was no difficulty in deciding upon that point, how could we pretend to be at a loss to know with whom we were to make peace ! Doubtless with that assembly, truly described by his majes- ty as exercising the powers of government in France." Windham had laid it down as an axiom of policy, " that to be justified in negotiat- ing with France, it should be a matter of necessity, not of choice." " Happy, digni- fied opportunity to treat!" exclaimed Sher- idan, " when necessity a necessity arising from defeat and discomfiture, from shame and disgrace shall compel us to negotiate on terms which would leave us completely at their mercy ! How consolatory, to be able to boast that we are at the same time jus- tified and undone ! But we are told," contin- ued Sheridan, "that to treat with France would give offence to the allied powers, with whom we are eventually to co-operate. Are we then prepared to make a common cause on the principles and for the purposes for which those despots have associated? Are the freemen of England ready to sub- scribe to the manifesto of the duke of Bruns- wick 1 that detestable outrage on the rights and feelings of humanity ! that impotent and wretched tissue of pride, folly, and cru- elty, which had steeled the heart and mad- dened the brain of all France ! The ques- tion is not merely whether we shall go to 372 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. war or not ! but on what principle should it be conducted, and to what end directed 1 To restore the ancient despotism of France 1 Impossible ! Disputes and causes of conn- plaint existing, how were they to be termi- nated but by some sort of negotiation ? But we were told that the dignity of the nation forbade a public and avowed communication with the present ruling powers in France. Was the dignity of the nation better con- sulted by the mean subterfuge of an indirect and underhand intercourse ? Was it sacri- ficed by a magnanimous frankness, and sus- tained only by dark and insidious disguise ? Far from recalling the ambassador of Eng- land from Paris at the late perilous crisis, a statesman-like administration would have regarded the post of minister at Paris as the situation which demanded the first and ablest talents of the country. It was a situation which afforded scope and interest for the no- blest mind that ever warmed a human bo- som. The French had been uniformly par- tial, and even prejudiced in favor of the English. What manly sense and generous feeling, and above all, what fair truth and plain dealing might have effected, it was difficult to calculate. But the policy which discarded these, and which substituted in their stead a hollow neutrality, was an error, fatal in its consequences, and for ever to be lamented." The motion was in the end neg- atived without a division. The desertion of the friends of opposition, far from dispiriting the faithful few that re- mained, seemed to animate them to still higher and more ardent exertions of patri- otic zeal. The popular odium incurred at this time by the leaders of opposition, par- ticularly by Fox, in consequence of their generous endeavors to rescue their country from the gulf of ruin, into which it was with such blind and rash precipitancy about to plunge, will appear to posterity scarcely credible. Neither professing a contempt for the public judgment, nor on the other hand yielding for a moment to the tide of popular opinion, Fox published at this period a very animated and dignified address to his consti- tuents, the electors of Westminster; stat- ing, with admirable force and perspicuity of argument, his reasons for his late parlia- mentary conduct The conclusion of thi celebrated address is peculiarly striking. " Let us not," says he, " attempt to deceive ourselves. Whatever possibility, or even probability there may be of a counter-revo- lution from internal agitation and discord, the means of producing such an event by external ftrce can be no other than the con- quest of France. The conquest of France! O calumniated crusaders, now rational and moderate were your objects ! O much in- jured Louis XIV. upon what slight grounds rave you been accused of restless and im- moderate ambition! O tame and feeble Cervantes, with what a timid pencil and (aint colors have you painted the portrait of disordered imagination!" And yet this irrational and romantic conquest has been since effected. THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR'S MEMORI- AL ON THE SITUATIONS OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. ALTHOUGH the determination of the Brit- ish court was from the first sufficiently man- ifest, the government of France left no means unessayed to accomplish an accom- modation. On the seventeenth of Decem- ber, a memorial was presented by Cuauvelin to lord Grenville, in which he informs his lordship that the executive council of the French republic, thinking it a duty which they owe to the French nation, not to leave it in the state of suspense into which it has been thrown by the late measures of the British government, have authorized him to demand with openness whether France ought to consider England as a neutral or hostile power ; at the same time being so- licitous, that not the smallest doubt should exist respecting the disposition of France towards England, and of its desire to remain in peace. In allusion to the decree of the nineteenth of November, Chauvelin says, "that the French nation absolutely reject that false interpretation, by which it might be supposed that the French republic should favor insurrections, or excite disturbance in any neutral or friendly country whatever. In particular, they declare in the most sol- emn manner, that France will not attack Holland so long as that power adheres to the principles of her neutrality." As to the navigation of the Scheld, Chauvelin affirms it to be a question of too little importance to be made the sole cause of a war ; and that it could only be used as a pretext for a pre- meditated aggression. " On tliis fatal sup- position," he says, " the French nation will accept war : but such a war would be the war not of the British nation, but of the British ministry against the French repub- lic ; and of this he conjures them well to consider the terrible responsibility." ANSWERED BY LORD GRENVILLE. To this communication lord Grenville re- turned a most arrogant and provoking an- swer. His lordship acknowledged the re- ceipt of a note from Chauvelin, styling him- self minister plenipotentiary of France. He reminds him that the king, since the unhap- py events of the tenth of August, had sus- pended all official communication with Fra/ice ; and informs him that he cannot be treated with, in the quality and under the form stated in his note. Nevertheless, " un- der a form neither regular nor official," his GEORGE HI. 17601620. 373 lordship condescends to reply, but in a mode which could only tend to inflame the differ- ences subsisting between the two nations, and which, far from accepting the conces- sions and explanations made by France, sought only to discover new pretences of cavil and quarrel. In a tone of the most decided and lofty superiority, his lordship says, " If France is really desirous of main- taining friendship and peace with England, she must show herself disposed to renounce her views of aggression and aggrandize- ment, and to confine herself within her own territory, without insulting other govern- ments, without disturbing their tranquillity, without violating their rights." The relin- quishment of her recent conquests being thus haughtily demanded of France as a preliminary of peace, it might be well sup- posed that negotiation was at an end. But the government of France, in the midst of their triumphs, discovered a degree of tem- per and moderation in their intercourse with England as surprising as it was laudable. MEMORIAL OF THE EXECUTIVE COUN- CIL OF FRANCE. 1793. IN answer to the letter of lord Grenville, a memorial was transmitted from Le Brim, minister of foreign affairs, in the name of the executive council, dated Janu- ary the fourth 1793, framed in terms of sin- gular wisdom and ability, and forming a striking contrast to the pride^ petulance, and folly displayed in the communication of the English minister. They begin with repeat- ing " the assurances of their sincere desire to maintain peace and harmony between France and England. It is with great re- luctance," say they, " that the republic would see itself forced to a rupture much more contrary to its inclination than its interest." In reference to lord Grenville's refusal to acknowledge Chauvelin in his diplomatic capacity, the council remark, " that in the negotiations now carrying on at Madrid, the principal minister of his catholic majesty did not hesitate to address M. Burgoign, the ambassador of the republic at that court, by the title of minister plenipotentiary of France. But that a defect in point of form might not impede a negotiation, on the suc- cess of which depended the tranquillity of two great nations, they had sent credential letters to Chauvelin, to enable him to treat according to the severity of diplomatic forms. The council repeat, that the decree of the nineteenth of November had been misun- derstood, and that it was far from being in- tended to favor sedition, being merely appli- cable to the single case where the general will of a nation, clearly and unequivocally expressed, should call for the assistance and fraternity of the French nation. Sedition can never exist in the expression of the gen- VOL. IV. 32 ratl will. The Dutch were certainly not seditious when they formed the generous resolution of throwing off- the Spanish yoke ; nor was it accounted as a crime to Henry IV. or to queen Elizabeth, that they listened to their solicitations for assistance. As to the right of navigation on the Scheld, the council affirm, that it is a question of abso- lute indifference to England, little interest- ing even to Holland, but of great importance to the Belgians, who were not parties to the treaty of Westphalia, by which they were divested of that right: but when that nation shall find itself in full possession 'of its lib- erty, and from any motive whatever shall consent to deprive themselves of the navi- gation of the Scheld, France will not oppose it. With respect to the charge of aggran- dizement, France, they say, has renounced and still renounces all conquest ; and its oc- cupying the Netherlands will continue no longer than the war. If these explanations appear insufficient, after having done every thing in our power to maintain peace, we will prepare for war. We shall combat with regret the English, whom we esteem, but we shall combat them without fear." LORD GRENVILLE'S REPLY. THE reply of lord Grenville to this memo- rial was couched in terms still more extra- ordinary and irritating than the first. His lordship declares, "that he finds nothing satisfactory in the result of it. Instead of reparation and retraction, his lordship com- plains, that nothing more is offered than an illusory negotiation," as if England had a right to expect that France would give up every point in dispnte previous to any nego- tiation ; or as if the offer of evacuating the Netherlands at the termination of the war, and of leaving the Belgians to settle the question relative to the Scheld, together with the positive disavowal of the offensive mean- ing ascribed to the decree of November the nineteenth, did not form a proper and suf- ficient basis of negotiation. In fact, by these great concessions, every rational object of negotiation was accomplished ; nevertheless, lord Grenville goes on to say, "that these explanations are not considered sufficient, and that all the motives which gave rise to the preparations still continue. If however, under this extra-official form you have any farther explanations to offer," says his lord- ship, " I shall willingly attend to them." In a separate note his lordship informs Chau- velin, that his majesty is not disposed to re- ceive his new letters of credence from the French republic. Chauvelin then requested a personal interview with his lordship, which was also refused. FRENCH AMBASSADOR ORDERED TO LEAVE THE KINGDOM. AT length this extraordinary business was 374 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. brought to a crisis, by a letter from lord Grenville, dated January the twenty-fourth, 1793, in which his lordship says, "I am charged to notify to you, Sir, that the char- acter with which you had been invested at this court, and the functions of which have been so long suspended, being now entirely terminated by the fatal death of his most Christian majesty, you have no longer any public character here ; and his majesty has thought fit to order that you should retire from this kingdom within the term of eight days." At this very time, Maret, a confi- dential agent of Le Brun, was on his way to England with fresh dispatches from the ex- ecutive council, and as there is good reason to believe fresh concessions of the highest importance. But on his arrival in London, being informed of the compulsive dismission of Chauvelin, he did not think himself au- thorized to open his commission. He there- fore merely announced his arrival to lord Grenville, but no advances were made to him on the part of the English. The death of the French monarch was indeed a disastrous and mournful event. It was well known that the executive council, and a great majority of the national conven- tion, were eagerly desirous to avert this fatal catastrophe ; but the violence of the Jacobin faction, and the savage rage of the populace, rendered it impossible. " We may," said Le Brun to a confidential friend, "sacrifice ourselves, without being able to save the life of the king." It was not that the moderate party entertained any doubt of the veracity of the leading charges brought against the king ; for, on this point, there was never any difference of opinion in France; but they discerned innumerable circumstances of palliation, which formed an irresistible claim to compassion and mercy, fn England no one attempted to justify the deed; "nor," says an animated writer of that time, " is it the season for extenuation now that the stream of prejudice flows strong, and the phantasm of a murdered king stalks before our affrighted imagination." KING'S MESSAGE TO THE COMMONS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. ON Monday the twenty-eighth of January, four days after Chauvelin had been ordered to leave the kingdom, the king sent a mes- sage to the house, importing, that, " his ma- jesty had given directions for laying before the house of commons, copies of several pa- pers which have been received from Chau- velin, late minister plenipotentiary from the most Christian king, by his majesty's secre- tary of state for foreign affairs, and of the answers returned thereto ; and likewise a copy of an order made by his majesty in council, and transmitted by his majesty's command to the said Chauvelin, in conse- quence of the accounts of the atrocious act, recently perpetrated at Paris. In the pres- ent situation of affairs, his majesty thinks it indispensably necessary to make a further augmentation of his forces by sea and land ; and he relies on the known affection and zeal of the house of commons to enable his ma- jesty to take the most effectual measures, in the present important conjuncture, for main- taining the security and rights of his own dominions, for supporting his allies, and for opposing views of aggrandizement and am- bition on the part of France, which would be at all times dangerous to the general in- terests of Europe, but are peculiarly so when connected with the propagation of principles which lead to the violation of the most sacred duties, and are utterly subversive of the peace and order of all civil society." PITT'S SPEECH ON MOVING THE AD- DRESS. ON the first of February, his majesty's message was taken into consideration, when an animated and interesting debate arose, the result of which precluded every hope of amicable accommodation between England and France. It was opened by Mr. Pitt, who began by saying, " that amidst the many important objects arising from the message of his majesty, which now came to be con- sidered, there was one which particularly called for their attention. That attention, indeed, could not fail to be separately direct- ed to that calamitous event, that act of out- rage to every principle of religion, justice and humanity ; an act which in this country, and the whole of Europe, had excited but one general sentiment of indignation and abhorrence, and could not fail to excite the same sentiments in every civilized nation. He should, indeed, better consult his own feelings and those of the house, could he draw a veil over this melancholy event It was in all its circumstances so full of grief and horror, that it must be a wish, in which all united, to tear it, if possible, from their memories, to expunge it from the page of history, and remove it for ever from the ob- servation or comments of mankind. Exciriat ille dies ffivo, neu postera credant Becula ? nos certe laceamus, et nbrtita inulta Nocte tegi nostrx- patiamur critnina gentis. Such," he continued, " were the words ap- plied by an author of their own, to an occa- sion (the massacre of St. Bartholomew) which had always been deemed the stand- ing reproach of the French nation, and the horrors and cruelties of which had only been equalled by those atrocious and sanguinary proceedings which load been witnessed in some late instances. But whatever might be their feelings of indignation and abhor- rence with respect to that dreadful and in- human event to which he had set out with GEORGE El. 17601820. 375 calling their attention, that event now was past ; it was impossible that the present age should not now be contaminated with the guilt and ignominy of having witnessed it, or that the breath of tradition should be pre- vented from handing it down to posterity. They could only now enter then* solemn protestation against that event, as contrary to every sentiment of justice and humanity, as violating the most sacred authority of laws, and the strongest principles of natural feeling. Hence, however, they might de- rive a useful theme of reflection a lesson of salutary warning : for, in this dreadful transaction, they saw concentrated the effect of those principles pushed to their utmost extent, which set out with dissolving all the bonds of legislation by which society were held together, which were established in op- position to every law, divine and human, and presumptuously relying on the authority of wild and delusive theories, rejected al] the advantages of the wisdom and experi- ence of former ages, and even the sacred instructions of revelation. While therefore he directed their attention to this transac- tion, he paid not only a tribute to humanity, but he suggested to them a subject of much useful reflection : for, by considering the consequences of these principles, they might be duly warned of their mischievous tenden- cy, and taught to guard against their pro- gress. Indeed he wished that this subject might on the present occasion be considered rather as matter of reason and reflection, than of sentiment Sentiment was now un- availing ; but reason and reflection might be attended with the most beneficial effects ; and while they pointed out the horrid evils which had disgraced and ruined another country, might preserve our own from ex- hibiting a scene of similar calamity and guilt No consideration indeed could be more connected with a country like this, or of greater importance, than what tended to avert such transactions as had taken place in that neighboring state. Here, where a monarch formed an essential part of the gov- ernment, clothed with that inviolability which was essential to the exercise of the sovereign power ; where the legislature was composed of a mixture of democracy and aristocracy ; and where, by the benefits of this system, we had been exempted from those mischiefs which in former ages had been produced by despotism, and which were only to be exceeded by those still more hor- rid evils which in the present time had been found to be the fruits of licentiousness and anarchy. The situation of this country, he must, indeed, compare to the temperate zone, which was the situation in every re- spect best fitted for health and enjoyment ; and where, enjoying a mild, beneficial, regu- lated influence, the inhabitants were equally protected from the scorching heats of the torrid, and the rigorous frosts of the frigid zones. Compared with this country, where equal protection was extended to all, and there existed so high a sum of national fe- licity, dreadful indeed was the contrast af- forded in the present situation of France, where there prevailed a system of the ut- most licentiousness and disorder, and anar- chy through a thousand organs operated to produce unnumbered mischiefk Such a sys- tem could surely never find its way into this happy country, unless industriously import- ed ; and to guard against the introduction of such a system was their first duty and their most important care. His majesty had declined taking any part in the internal gov- ernment of France, and had made a positive declaration to that effect. When he took that wise, generous, and disinterested reso- lution, he had reason to expect that the French would in return have respected the rights of himself and his allies, and most of all, that they would not have attempted any internal interference in this country. A pa- per on the table contained on their part a positive contract to abstain from any of those acts by which they had provoked the indig- nation of this country. In this paper they disclaimed all views of aggrandizement; they gave assurances of their good conduct to neutral nations ; they protested against their entertaining an idea of interfering in the government of the country or making any attempts to excite insurrection, upon the express ground that such interference and such attempts would be a violation of the law of nations. They had themselves, by anticipation, passed sentence upon their own conduct ; and the event of this even- ing's discussion would decide, whether that sentence would be confirmed by those who had actually been injured. During the whole summer, while France had been en- gaged in the war with Austria and Prussia, his majesty had in no shape departed from the neutrality which he had engaged to ob- serve, nor did he, by the smallest act, give any reason to suspect his adherence to that system. But what, he would ask, was the conduct of the French 1 Had they also faith- fully observed their part of the agreement, and adhered to the assurances which, on the ground of his majesty's neutrality, they had given, to reject all views of aggrandize- ment, not to interfere with neutral nations, and to respect the rights of his majesty and his allies? What had been their conduct would very soon appear from the statement of facts. They had immediately showed bow little sincere they were in their first assurances, by discovering intentions to pur- sue a system of the most unlimited aggran- 376 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. dizement, if they were not opposed and checked in their career. The first instance of their success in Savoy had been sufficient to unfold the plan of their ambition. They had immediately adopted the course to an- nex it for ever to their own dominions, and had displayed a resolution to do the same, wherever they should carry their arms. That they might not leave any doubt of their intentions, by a formal decree they had stated their plan of overturning every gov- ernment, and substituting their own ; they threatened destruction to all who should not be inclined to adopt their system of free- dom, and, by a horrid mockery, offered fra- ternization, where, if it was refused, they were determined to employ force, and to propagate their principles, where they should fail to gain assent, by the mouths of cannon. They established, in the instruc- tions to the commissioners whom they ap- pointed to enforce the decree with respect to the countries entered by their armies, a standing revolutionary order ; they institut- ed a system of organizing disorganization. And what was the reason they assigned for all this ! ' The period of freedom,' said they, ' must soon come : we must then endeavor, by all means in our power, to accomplish it now, for should this freedom be accomplish- ed by other nations, what then will become of us ! Shall we then be safe ]' It is a question indeed* which they might well put, ' What will become of us V for justly might they entertain doubts of their safety. They had rendered the Netherlands a province, in substance as well as name, entirely depend- ent upon France. That system, pursued by the jacobin societies, in concert with their correspondents, had given a more fatal blow to liberty than any which it had ever suffer- ed from the boldest attempts of the most as- piring monarch. What had been the cir- cumstances which had attended the tri- umphal entry of general Dumourier 1 De- monstrations of joy inspired by terror, illu- minations imperiously demanded by an arm- ed force. And when the primary assembly met to deliberate, in what circumstances did they assemble 1 With the tree of liberty planted amidst them, and surrounded by a hollow square of French soldiers, a situation surely equally conducive to the ease of their own thoughts, and the freedom of their pub- lic deliberations. And what had happened even since the French had professed their intention of evacuating the territories which they had entered, at the conclusion of the war 1 A deputation had been received from Hainault, requesting that it might be added as an eighty-fifth department. And how had this deputation been received 1 Had the re- quest been rejected ? No, it had onlv been prepare instructions, how those nations, who should be desirous of the same union, should je able to incorporate themselves with France in a regular and formal manner, till the preliminaries should be settled by which it should subject to its government, and add to its territories, every country which should be so unfortunate as to experience the force of its arms, and give to its wild and destruc- tive ambition, only the same limits with those of its power. It was matter of serious consideration, how far such a conduct not only ought to rouse the indignation, but might tend to affect the interests of this country. To show how the French had be- haved with respect to neutral nations, he need only refer to their decree of the nine- teenth of November, which had already been so often mentioned and so amply dis- cussed. He should read an extract from this decree. He then read that passage in which the French granted fraternity to all those people who should be desirous to gain their freedom, and offer them assistance for that purpose. And that none might be at a loss to know to whom the French nation were disposed to grant this relationship of younger brothers, they had ordered the decree to be printed in all languages, by which it might be perceived that they intended the favor to all nations who chose to accept of it Some pretended explanations had indeed been giv- en of this decree, but of all these explana- tions he should say nothing but what had already been stated by the noble secretary of state, that they contained only an avowal and a repetition of the offence. The whole of their language, institutions, and conduct, had been directed to the total subversion of every government. To monarchy particu- larly they had testified the most decided aversion, and so violent was their enmity, that they could be satisfied with nothing less than its entire extermination. The bloody sentence, which the hand of the as- sassin had lately carried into execution against their own monarch, was passed against the sovereigns of all countries. Were not these principles intended to be applied in their effects to this government ? No society in this country, however small in number, however contemptible, however even questionable in existence, had sent ad- dresses to their assembly, in which they had expressed sentiments of sedition and trea- son, which had not been received with a de- gree even of theatrical extravagance, and cherished with all the enthusiasm of conge- nial feeling. Need he then ask if England was not aimed at in this conduct, and if it alone was to be exempted from the conse- quences of a system, the profession of which was anarchy, and which seemed to aspire to postponed till a committee should be able to i establish universal dominion upon the ruin GEORGE m. 17601820. 377 of every government ! On the subject of the violation of the rights of his majesty and his allies, he had already on a former occa- sion spoken at some length. He had stated, that the only claim which the French could have to interfere in the navigation of the Scheld, must either be in the assumed char- acter of sovereign of the Low Countries, or as taking to themselves the office of the ar- biters of Europe. There were the most sol- emn engagements of treaties to protect the Dutch in their exclusive right of navigating the Scheld. An infringement of treaties more notorious and more flagrant perhaps never had occurred, than that which now appeared in the instance of their conduct with respect to the Scheld. For this in- fringement they had advanced some pre- tences, alleging that the exclusive privilege of navigating the Scheld was contrary to certain principles with respect to the rights of rivers. Capricious and wild in their the- ory, and in entire contradiction to whatever had been sanctioned by established practice, they likewise pretend, that the treaty, on which was founded the exclusive right of navigating the Scheld, was antiquated and obsolete, and had become no longer binding, though they had themselves, upon receiving the assurances of his majesty's intentions of neutrality, pledged themselves to an observ- ance of all the subsisting treaties. The pre- tences which they alleged upon this occa- sion were indeed such as equally went to weaken the force of every treaty, to remove every obligation, and destroy all confidence between nations. From what had passed in a former part of the evening, he understood that it would be urged, that the Dutch hac made no formal requisition for the support of this country, in order to resist the open- ing of the Scheld by the French, and to en- able them to maintain their right to the ex- clusive navigation of that river. He grant- ed that no such formal requisition had been made. But might there not be prudentia" reasons for not making this requisition on their part, very different from those which should induce this country to withhold its support] When the French opened the Scheld, the Dutch entered their solemn pro- test against that invasion of their rights which left them at liberty, at any time, to take it up as an act of hostility. If, from the sudden progress of the French arms, an( the circumstances of their forces being a 1 their very door, they either from prudence or fear did not think proper to take it up as an immediate commencement of hostilities because they had been timid, would Englan( think itself entitled to leave its allies, al ready involved in a situation of imminen danger, to that certain ruin to which the] were exposed, in consequence of a system 32* ;he principles of which threatened also de- struction to England, to Europe, and to the whole of mankind ? Thus, in all those three assurances which they had given of their intention to reject any system of aggran- dizement, to abstain from interfering in the government of any neutral country, and to respect the rights of his majesty and of his allies, they had entirely failed, and in every respect completely reversed that line of con- duct which they had so solemnly pledged themselves to adopt. Whatever they had offered under the name of explanations con- tained nothing that either afforded any com- pensation for the past, or was at all satisfac- tory with respect to the future. They had stated, that they would evacuate the Nether- lands at the conclusion of the war upon a promise so illusory there could not be the smallest grounds of dependence. With re- spect to the decree of the nineteenth of No- vember, they had made no apology for the manner in which they had received sedi- tious addresses from this country. They stated indeed, that it was injurious to them to suppose that they would interfere in any government without a previous express de- claration of the national will : but they had left themselves to judge what was sufficient to constitute that declaration of the national will, and thus allowed this decree, which in fact was nothing else than an advertisement for sedition in every country, to remain in full force ; and what in their opinion was to constitute a declaration of the national will, we could only judge of from the manner in which they had received seditious addresses from a minority in this country, so small, that those who were disposed t put the con- duct of the French in the most favorable point of view, held them out as too con- temptible for notice : these addresses they received as expressive of the sentiments of the people of Great Britain, the great ma- jority of whom he was, however, happy to say, detested their principles principles which, if once adopted, would involve in them the ruin of our happy constitution, and the destruction of our country, and intro- duce anarchy and all those scenes of horror with which the country which had broached them was now afflicted : but the patience of the house and his strength would fail him should he proceed to state all the facts con- nected with the propositions which he now meant to lay before them. On the twenty- seventh of December, M. Chauvelin, on the part of the executive council, had presented the note complaining of the injurious con- struction of the decree of the nineteenth of November. On the thirty-first of Decem- ber, a member of that executive council (minister of the marine) addressed a letter to all the friends of liberty in the sea-ports; 378 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. from which he would now read some pas- sages. 'The government of England is arming, and the king of Spain, encouraged by this, is preparing to attack us. These two tyrannical powers, after persecuting the patriots on their own territories, think, no doubt, that they shall be able to influence the judgment to be pronounced on the ty- rant Louis. They hope to frighten us : but no a people who have made themselves free a people who have driven out of the bosom of France, and as far as the distanl borders of the Rhine, the terrible army of the Prussians and Austrians the people of France will not suffer laws to be dictated to them by a tyrant. The king and his par- liament mean to make war against us. Will the English republicans suffer it ? Already these free men show their discontent, and the repugnance which they have to bear arms against their brothers the French Well ! we will fly to their succor ! we will make a descent on the island we wil] lodge there fifty thousand caps of liberty we will plant there the sacred tree, and we will stretch out our arms to our republican brethren the tyranny of their government will soon be destroyed.' He called the at- tention of the house to this declaration, which distinguished the English people from the king and the parliament, and to the na- ture of that present which was meant to be made them. While such declarations were made, what could be thought of any expla- nations which were pretended to be given, or what credit was due to the assertions, that they entertained no intentions hostile to the government of this country ] From all these circumstances he concluded, that the conduct and pretensions of the French were such as were neither consistent with the existence or safety of this country, such as that house could not, and he was con- fident, never would, acquiesce in. Their explanations had only been renewed insults, and instead of reverting to those assurances with which they had originally set out, they now showed themselves determined to main- tain the ground, such as it was, upon which they stood with respect to this country. In the last paper which had been delivered, they had given in an ultimatum, stating that, unless you accept such satisfaction as they have thought proper to give, they will prepare for war. Unless you then recede from your principles, or they withdraw it, a war must be the consequence as to the time, the precise moment, he should not pre- tend to fix it it would be left open to the last for any satisfactory explanation, but he should deceive them if he should say, that he thought any such explanation would be given, or that it was probable that a war could be avoided : rather than recede from our principles, war was preferable to a peace, which could neither be consistent, with the internal tranquillity nor external safety of this country." He then moved an address of thanks to his majesty! OPPOSED BY LORD WYCOMB, WHIT- BREAD, AND FOX. EARL WYCOMB said, " that he conceived it to be his most indispensable duty to use every argument in his power to avert from his country so grievous a calamity as that of entering into a war ; a calamity of such a nature, as to leave only a doubt as to the extent of ills which might probably result from it ; and he conjured the house not to agree to the proposed address, till they had well considered the consequence. This country, his lordship said, was in no danger whatever, being equally secured by its in- sular situation, its internal resources, and the strong attachment of the people to the constitution: he conceived, therefore, that we had no ground for alarm on the first point mentioned in the message from his majesty. As to the second point, the security of our allies, his lordship said it was impos- sible we could be told that Prussia had been attacked by France, and of course this part, of the message must relate to Holland. If the navigation of the Scheld was the sub- ject of dispute, it appeared to be a matter of indifference to this country ; except that in one view it would be of great advantage to our commerce and manufactures, by opening a new channel in the best and most convenient situation for sending our manu- factures into all the continent of Europe. From several circumstances it would be idle and impolitic in the Dutch themselves to meditate war, and they seem by no means disposed to do so : shall we then urge them to resistance, and menace France with war 7 With regard to the new point in his ma- jesty's message, the propagation of French principles, he thought it by no means safe to go to war against principles. If the prin- ciples alluded to were levelling principles, they should be met with contempt : but he by no means reprobated all the French prin- ciples. Great stress had been laid on the cruelties perpetrated in France; but he could not think they were a proper cause of war : in his opinion these cruelties had all originated in the famous expedition of the duke of Brunswick, which might be called a fraternity of kings for the purpose of im- posing despotism on all Europe. Another ground taken by ministers, he said, was the necessity of preserving the balance of power in Europe or, the system of Europe : but he could not see why the country should be ready, upon all occasions, to go to war for ;he benefit of other nations. This system B looked upon to be no more than a politi- :al fiction, a cover for any interference that aprice might dictate. The next thing' to GEORGE ffl. 17601920. 379 which he wished to call the attention of the house was the means of carrying on the war. When the present supposed accumu- lation, of which ministers boasted, was ex- hausted, they must have recourse to new taxes ; and if there was no absolute neces- sity for war, why burden the people to main- tain a war, of the issue of which no judg- ment could be formed; and the relative situation of France to this country was such, that the connexion of this country with her should not, he thought, be put to un- necessary hazard. The war might be car- ried on for some time without any additional duties; but when our resources were ex- hausted, taxes must follow, accompanied by the murmurs, if not execrations, of the people; and he hoped we would not fall into an error with respect to the finances of France, for it had undoubtedly resources which would be sufficient at least for some time. The death of the king of France had been pathetically lamented by ministers; but they never attempted to interfere, and while they professed peace, used every haughty irritating provocation to war. Upon the whole, he could view the war in no other light than as a revival of the system of extirpation that was the basis of the late American war. He should therefore give his negative to the motion for the address." Whitbread, junr. said, " The house was then to consider whether war was justifiable upon any grounds stated in the papers upon the table, and whether ministers had done their utmost to avert that calamity. To both these he gave a decided negative ; and before he adverted to the grounds stated in the papers, he should say something as to the real cause of the war, as he conceived it would at length appear to be, if war were undertaken. This was no less than the total overthrow of the new system of gov- ernment existing in France: for no other reason could ministers have refused to ac- knowledge the republic. They had admitted of non-official communications : this was an acknowledgment of the power residing in those persons with whom they thus commu- nicated; but they refused to acknowledge the right of those persons to the exercise of the power with which they were invested. This was securing the possibility of joining with the combined powers, whenever a con- venient opportunity might offer, for the over- throw of the new system. He deprecated such an attempt as contrary to the rights of nations. No country had a right to inter- fere with the internal arrangements adopted by another. The national will was supreme in every country ;.and that alone could con- stitute, alter, or modify forms of government. Could any man doubt that the nation willed a republic in France 1 If we attempted to interfere with the disposition of the national will, let us recollect upon what grounds the title of the king of England stood, upon the will of the nation ; and one of the most despotic sovereigns in Europe, the empress of Russia, owed her elevation to the supposed expression of the national will, at the revo- lution in 1762. She possessed the throne upon no other footing; and what form of government soever any nation willed for it- self, such it had the right to adopt He now came to the first stated ground of complaint of this country against France, the decree of November the nineteenth ; which decree he did not in itself defend ; but he contend- ed that the explanation which the French had been disposed to give of that decree, was such as to take away all well-grounded apprehensions of any injury designed to this country, and certainly would not justify us in going to war. The next object stated was the aggrandizement of France, which was likely to endanger the balance of Eu- rope. Upon the subject of the balance of Europe, which now appeared to be a matter of such signal importance, he begged to call the attention of the house, and to the general conduct of his majesty's ministers in their endeavors to maintain that balance. At the time the despotic powers had formed a combi- nation against France, which it was not con- ceivable that she could resist when it ap- peared that the country was to be overrun, and to become an easy prey to the duke of Brunswick, no apprehensions were enter- tained on account of the balance of power ; the same supineness had been visible when the empress of Russia, in the course of the last summer, had taken possession of Poland : but now that the French were victorious, and had defeated their enemies, combined to crush them, the balance of power was in danger ! But the aggrandizement of France was dangerous as connected with the prin- ciples she propagated : he begged to know whether this apprehension was not equally well founded, when applied to the case of Russia ] he conceived the principles of des- potism propagated by the sword of the one, as dangerous to the general security of Eu- rope, as the licentiousness propagated by the sword of the other. With regard to the request urged by the British government, that the French should withdraw their troops within their own territory, in order to pave the way to any negotiation with us, he thought such a demand the height of inso- lence. France had been attacked ; she had successfully repelled that attack, and gained possession of the territory of her adversary, and had a right to maintain that possession, at least till the conclusion of the war, to en- able her to make advantageous terms for herself. We had forced her to an anticipa- tion of her designs on the subject of Brabant She had declared her intentions not to add 380 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the low countries to her own territories ; but to suffer the Belgians to erect themselves into an independent sovereignty. A hard necessity, indeed, he should conceive it for Great Britain, to be forced to go to war, to maintain to the Dutch the exclusive naviga- tion of the Scheld ; but he had never said that he was against supporting the faith of treaties, where the casusfcederis was clearly defined. But was it, in this instance, a new and unexercised right of nature for which it was contended? certainly not Antwerp was a monument of the exercise of that right by her inhabitants ; and he was free to say, that it would give him joy to see the commerce of that once flourishing city re- stored ; for the exclusive navigation of the Scheld had been ' established by force, and consented to by weakness.' But a neces- sary preliminary to these investigations, would have been some precise requisition of the Dutch for the stipulated assistance of her ally. The chancellor of the exchequer had avowed that no such demand had been made ; and if the house were to judge of the dispositions of the States-General by their own declarations, he believed it would be found that they did not think it worth their while to go to war Tor the maintenance of this right He alluded to the proclamation for a general fast put forth by the States- General on January the tenth, in which they declare that they are then at peace, and that the strict neutrality they observed had hitherto protected them from aggression. A manifest token that they did not consider the free navigation of the Scheld, as assert- ed by the French, a reason for going to war. If then we did go to war on that ground, we should force our allies into it, and not ourselves be involved in it by the terms of our alliance." Whitbread said, " that having gone through the matter contained in the papers, as far as they related "to the proba- bility of war, he could find no justification of the conduct of administration. He thought the maintenance of peace, consistently with the dignity, honor, and interests of this country, was perfectly in the power of min- isters : but their conduct and words denoted war." Fox said, " that although some words had fallen from the right honorable gentleman (Pitt), which might lead him to think, that war was not absolutely determined upon, yet the general tenor and impression of his speech was such as to induce him to enter somewhat at large into the subject The crimes, the murders, and the massacres, that had been committed in France, he did not view with less horror, he did not consider as less atrocious, than those who made them the perpetual theme of their declamation, although he put them entirely out of the question in the present debate. The con- demnation and execution of the king, he pronounced an act as disgraceful as any that history recorded ; and whatever opinion he might at any time have expressed in private conversation, he had expressed none cer- tainly in that house, on the justice of bring- ing kings to trial, revenge being unjustifia- ble, and punishment useless, where it could not operate either by way of prevention or example. He saw neither propriety nor wisdom in that house passing judgment on any act committed in another nation, which had no direct reference to us. The general maxim of policy always was, that the crimes perpetrated in one independent state were not cognizable by another. Need he remind the house of our former conduct in this re- spect? Had we not treated, had we not formed alliances with Portugal and with Spain, at the very time when these king- doms were disgraced and polluted by the most shocking and barbarous acts of super- stition and cruelty, of racks, torture, and burning, under the abominable tyranny of the inquisition? Did we ever make these outrages against reason and humanity a pre- text for war ? Did we ever inquire how the princes with whom we had relative interests either obtained or exercised their power? Why then were the enormities of the French in their own country held up as a cause of war? Much of these enormities had been attributed to the attack of the combined powers ; but this he neither considered as an excuse, nor would argue as a .palliation. If they had dreaded, or had felt an attack, to retaliate on their fellow-citizens, however much suspected, was a proceeding which justice disclaimed ; and he had flattered himself, that when men were disclaiming old, and professing to adopt new principles, those of persecution and revenge would be the first that they would discard. He should now show, that all the topics to which Pitt had adverted, were introduced into the de- bate to blind the judgment, by rousing the passions, and were none of them the just grounds of war. These grounds were three ; the danger of Holland ; the decree of the French convention of November the nine- teenth ; and the general danger to Europe, from the progress of the French arms. With respect to Holland, the conduct of ministers afforded a fresh proof of their disingenuous- ness. They could not state, that the Dutch had called upon us to fulfil the terms of our alliance. They were obliged to confess, that no such requisition had been made ; but added, that they knew the Dutch were very much disposed to make it Whatever might be the words of the treaty, we were bound in honor, by virtue of that treaty, to protect the Dutch, if they called upon us to do so but neither by honor nor the treaty till then. The conduct of the Dutch was very unfbr- GEORGE III. 17601820. 381 tunate upon this occasion. In the order for a general fast by the states, it was expressly said, ' That their neutrality seemed to put them into security amidst surrounding armies, and hitherto effectually protected them from molestation.' This he by no means construed into giving up the opening of the Scheld on their part ; but it pretty clearly showed, that they were not disposed to make it the cause of a war, unless forced to do so by us. But France had broke faith with the Dutch ; was this a cause for us to go to war "? How long was it since we con- sidered a circumstance tending to diminish the good understanding between France and Holland, as a misfortune to this country? The plain state of the matter was, that we were bound to save Holland from war, or by war if called upon ; and that to force the Dutch into a war at so much peril to them, which they saw and dreaded, was not to ful- fil, but to abuse the treaty. Hence he com- plained of the disingenuous conduct of min- isters, in imputing that to the Dutch, which the Dutch wished to avoid. The decree of the nineteenth of November, he considered as an insult ; and the explanation of the executive council as no adequate satisfac- tion; but the explanation showed that the French were not disposed to insist npon that decree, and that they were inclined to peace ; and then our ministers, with haughtiness un- exampled, told them they had insulted us, but refused to tell them the nature of the satisfaction that we required. It was said, we must have security ; and he was ready to admit that neither a disavowal by the executive council of France, nor a tacit re- peal by the convention, on the intimation of an unacknowledged agent, of a decree, which they might renew the day after they repealed it, would be a sufficient security. But at least we ought to tell them what we meant by security, for it was the extreme of arrogance to complain of insult without deigning to explain what reparation we re- quired : and he feared an indefinite term was here employed, not for the purpose of obtain- ing, but of precluding satisfaction. Next it was said, they must withdraw their troops from the Austrian Netherlands, before we could be satisfied. Were we then come to that pitch of insolence, as to say to France, ' You have conquered part of an enemy's territory, who made war upon you ; we will not interfere to make peace, but we require you to abandon the advantages you have gained, while he is preparing to attack you anew.' Was this the neutrality we meant to hold out to France ? ' If you are invaded and beaten, we will be quiet spectators ; but if you hurt your enemy, if you enter his territory, we declare war against you.' If the invasion of the Netherlands was what now alarmed us, and that it ought to alarm us if the result was to make the country an appendage to France, there could be no doubt, we ought to have interposed to prevent it in the very first instance ; for it was the natu- ral consequence which every man foresaw of a war between France and Austria. The French now said, they would evacuate the country at the conclusion of the war, and when its liberties were established. Was this sufficient 1 By no means : but we ought to tell what we would deem sufficient, in- stead of saying to them, as we were now saying, 'this is an aggravation, this is no- thing, and this is insufficient.' That war was unjust which told not an enemy the ground of provocation, and the measure of atonement; it was as impolitic as unjust; for without the object of contest, clearly and definitely stated, what opening could there be for treating of peace ? Before going to war with France, surely the people, who must pay and suffer, ought to be informed on what object they were to fix their hopes for its honorable termination. After five or six years' war, the French might agree to evacuate the Netherlands as the price of peace ; was it clear that they would not do so now, if we would condescend to propose it in intelligible terms 1 Surely in such an alternative, the experiment was worth try- ing: but then we had no security against the French principles. What security would they be able to give us, after a war which they could not give now 1 With re- spect to the general danger of Europe, the same arguments applied, and to the same extent. To the general situation and secu- rity of Europe, we had been so scandalously inattentive ; we had seen the entire con- quest of Poland, and the invasion of France, with such marked indifference, that it would be difficult now to take it up with the grace of sincerity ; but even this would be better provided for, by proposing terms before go- ing to war. He had thus shown that none of the professed causes were grounds for going to war. What then remained but the internal government of France, always dis- avowed, but ever kept in mind, and con- stantly mentioned ? The destruction of that government was the avowed object of the combined powers whom it was hoped we were to join ; and we could not join them heartily if our object were one thing while theirs was another; for in that case the party whose object was first obtained might naturally be expected to make separate terms, and there could be no cordiality nor confidence. To this then we came at last, that we were ashamed to own engaging to aid the restoration of despotism, and collu- sively sought pretexts in the Scheld and the Netherlands. Such would be the real cause of the war, if war we were to have a war, which he trusted he should soon see as gen- HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. erally execrated as it was now thought to be popular. In all decisions on peace or war, it was important to consider what we might lose, and what we could gain. On the one hand, extension of territory was neither ex- pected nor eligible. On the other, although he feared not the threat of the French ma- rine minister, would any man say that our ally might not suffer ; that the events of war might not produce a change in the internal state of Holland, and in the situation of the stadtholder, too afflicting for him to antici- pate. In weighing the probable danger, every consideration ought to be put into the scale. Was the state of Ireland such as to make war desirable. 1 That was a subjecl which had been said by some honorable gen- tlemen to be too delicate to be touched upon ; but he approved not of that delicacy which taught men to shut their eyes to danger. The state of Ireland he was not afraid to mention. He thought it both promising and alarming; promising, because the govern- ment of this country had forced the govern- ment of that to an acknowledgment of the undoubted rights of a great majority of the people of Ireland, after having, in a former session, treated their humble petition with contempt, and in the eummer endeavored to stir up the Protestants against the Catholics ; alarming, because the gross misconduct of administration had brought the government and the legislature into contempt in the eyes of the people. If there were any danger from French principles, to go to war without necessity was to fight for their propagation. On these principles, as reprobated in the proposed address, he would freely give his opinion. It was not the principles that were bad and to be reprobated, but the abuse of them. From the abuse, not the principles, had flowed all the evils that afflicted France. The use of the word equality by the French was deemed highly objectionable. When taken as they meant it, nothing was more in- nocent ; for what did they say ] * all men are equal in respect T>f their rights.' To this he assented; all men had equal rights; equal rights to unequal things ; one man to a shil- ling, another to a thousand pounds ; one man to a cottage, another to a palace ; but the right in both was the same ; an equal right of enjoying, an equal right of inheriting or acquiring ; and of possessing inheritance or acquisition. The effect of the proposed ad- dress was to condemn, not the abuse of those principles, (and the French had much abused them,) but the principles themselves. To this he could not assent, for they were the principles on which all just and equitable government was founded. He had already differed sufficiently with a right honorable gentleman (Burke) on this subject, not to wish to provoke any fresh difference ; but even against so great an authority he must say, that the people are the sovereigns in every state ; that they have a right to change the form of their government, and a right to cashier their governors for misconduct, as the people of this country cashiered James II. not by parliament, or any regular form known to the constitution, but by a conven- tion speaking the sense of the people ; that convention produced a parliament and a king. They elected William to a vacant throne, not only setting aside James, whom they had justly cashiered for misconduct, but his inno- cent son. Again they elected the house of Brunswick, not individually, but by dynasty ; and that dynasty to continue while the terms and conditions on which it was elected are fulfilled, and no longer. He could not ad- mit the right of doing all this but by ac- knowledging the sovereignty of the people as paramount to all other laws. But it was said, that although we had once exercised this power, we had in the very act of exer- cising it, renounced it for ever. We had neither renounced it, nor, if we had been so disposed, was such a renunciation in our power. We elected first an individual, then a dynasty, and lastly, passed an act of parlia- ment in the reign of queen Anne, declaring it to be the right of the people of this realm to do so again without even assigning a rea- son. If there were any persons among us who doubted the superior wisdom of our monarchical form of government, their error was owing to those who changed its strong and irrefragable foundation in the right and choice of the people, to a more flimsy ground of title. Those who proposed repelling opinions by force, the example of the French in the Netherlands might teach the impo- tence of power to repel or introduce. But how was a war to operate in keeping opin- ions supposed dangerous out of this country ? It was not surely meant to beat the French out of their own opinions; and opinions were not like commodities, the importation of which from France war would prevent War, it was to be lamented, was a passion inherent in the nature of man ; and it was curious to observe what at various periods bad been the various pretexts. In ancient times wars were made for conquest. To these succeeded wars for religion ; and the opinions of Luther and Calvin were attacked with all the fury of superstition and of x>wer. The next pretext was commerce ; and it would probably be allowed that no nation that made war for commerce ever found the object accomplished, on concluding jeace. Now we were to make war about opinions : what was this but recurring again to an exploded cause ; for a war about prin- iples in religion was as much a war about opinions, as a war about principles in poli- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 383 tics. The justifiable grounds of war were insult, injury, or danger. For the first, satis- faction ; for the second, reparation ; for the third, security was the object Each of these, too, was the proper object of negotia- tion, which ought ever to precede war, ex- cept in case of an attack actually commenced. How had we negotiated ? Not in any pub- lic or sufficient form, a mode which he sus- pected, and lamented, by his proposing it had been prevented. When the triple league was formed to check the ambition of Louis the fourteenth, the contracting parties did not deal so rigorously by him, as we were now told it was essential to the peace of Europe that we should deal by the French. They never told Louis that he must renounce all his conquests, in order to obtain peace. But then it was said to be our duty to hate the French for the part they took in the American war. He had heard of a duty to love, but a duty to hate was new to him. That duty, however, ought to direct our hatred to the old government of France, not to the new, which had no hand in the provo- cation. Unfortunately the new French gov- ernment was admitted to be the successor of the old in nothing but its faults and its of- fences. It was a successor to be hated and to war against ; but it was not a successor to be negotiated with. He feared, however, that war would be the result, and from war apprehending greater evils than he durst name, he should have shrunk from his duty if he had not endeavored to obtain an expo- sition of the distinct causes : of all wars he dreaded that the most which had no definite object, because of such a war it was impos- sible to see the end. Our war with Ameri- ca had a definite object, an unjust one indeed, but still definite ; and after wading through years on years of expense and blood, after exhausting invectives and terms of contempt on the vagrant congress, one Adams, one Washington, &c. &c. we were compelled at last to treat with this very congress, and those very men. The Americans, to the honor of their character, committed no such horrid acts as had disgraced the French ; but we were as liberal of our obloquy to the former then, as to the latter now. If we did but know for what we were to fight, we might look forward with confidence, and exert ourselves with unanimity ; but while kept thus in the dark, how many might there be who would believe that we were fighting the battles of despotism. To undeceive those who might fall into this unhappy delusion, it would be no derogation from the dignity of office to grant an explanation. If the right honorable gentleman (Pitt) would but yet consider if he would but save the country from a war above all, a war of opinion, however inconsistent with his for-j mer declarations his measures might be, he would gladly consent to give him a general indemnity for the whole, and even a vote of thanks. Let not the fatal opinion go abroad that kings had an interest different from* that of their subjects ; that between those who had property and those who had none there was not a common cause and common feeling." The question being put on the motion, the address was carried with- out a division. THE FRENCH DECLARE WAR AGAINST BRITAIN AND HOLLAND. THESE debates are perhaps sufficient to convince the most incredulous that the Brit- ish ministry were determined on war that they were more solicitous to color the pre- text for hostilities against France, than to obtain satisfaction for the acts of aggression complained of, as appears from the tenor of their proceedings. If in support of these charges any additional proof is wanting, we shall find it amply supplied by a letter from lord Auckland, the English ambassador at the Hague, dated January the twenty- fifth, 1793, and presented to the States- General immediately on the departure of Chauvelin. In this letter, his lordship af- firms to their high mightinesses, in language which sets all ideas of decency and decorum at defiance, that " not four years ago some wretches, assuming the title of philosophers, had the presumption to think themselves capable of establishing a new system of civil society. In order to realize that dream of their vanity, they found it necessary to overthrow and destroy all received notions of subordination, manners, and religion, which have hitherto formed all the security, happiness, arid consolation of the human race. Their destructive projects have but too well succeeded. But the effects of the new system which they endeavored to intro- duce served only to show the imbecility and villany of its authors. The events which so rapidly followed each other since that epoch, surpass hi atrocity all which had ever polluted the pages of history. Property, liberty, security, even life itself, have been deemed playthings in the hands of infamous men, who are the slaves of the most licen- tious passions of rapine, enmity, and ambi- tion." From the conduct of the English government at home, and the very high lan- guage and sentiments conveyed through their diplomatic organs abroad, the French now saw that every hope of peace was vanished. The convention therefore came to a resolution of anticipating the designs of the English and the Dutch, and, by a de- cree unanimously passed on the first of Feb- ruary 1793, declared the republic of France at war with the king of Great Britain, and the stadtholder of Holland. 384 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XXV. Motion to ascertain the precise grounds of War Motion for Peace Barracks Mo- tion for an Inquiry respecting Sedition Message on German Auxiliaries Ways and Means Traitorous Correspondence Bill The French propose to treat for Peace, but receive no Reply Subsidy to Sardinia Numerous Bankruptcies, and Aid given for relief of Commerce Motions of Censure on Lord Auckland Pro- ceedings of British Parliament Hastings' Trial Parliament prorogued Pro- ceedings of Irish Parliament Military Transactions on the Continent Capture of Pondicherry and Tobago Insurrection of the Royalists in Brittany and Poitou The French Convention declares War against Spain Proceedings of the two leading Parties in France Death of Marat. FOX'S MOTION TO ASCERTAIN THE PRE- CISE GROUNDS OF WAR. MOTION FOR PEACE. BARRACKS, &c. As the prevailing opinion of the British public appeared to be for war, but chiefly because the friends of peace feared to be deemed abettors of revolutionary principles, Fox, on the eighteenth of February, moved a series of resolutions, stating that war with France, on the grounds alleged, was neither for the honor nor the interest of this coun- try; that ministers, in their late negotia- tions with the French government, had not taken the proper means for procuring an amicable redress of the grievances com- plained of; and that it was their duty to ad- vise his majesty against entering into en- gagements which might prevent a separate peace. He alleged that his object in making these motions was to procure a declaration of the precise grounds of the war, he being persuaded that the real objects of our minis- ters in going to war were those which they disclaimed ; and that those which they avow- ed were only pretexts. But the resolutions so proposed, and a motion by Grey for an address to his majesty, expressing the opin- ion that the differences between this country and France might have been adjusted by ne- gotiation, and requesting his majesty to em- brace the first opportunity of restoring peace ; and also a motion by Taylor, in the Rime month, " that it is the opinion of this house that the uniform and persevering op- position of our ancestors, from time to time, to the erecting barracks in this country, was founded upon a just sense of the true prin- ciples of our most excellent constitution: and that the soldiers should live intermixed with the people, in order that they might be ! connected with them ; and that no separate camp, no barracks, no inland fortresses, should be allowed ;" with a motion by Sheridan, on the fourth of March, that the house should resolve itself into a committee, to consider of the seditious practices refer- red to in his majesty's speech, were succes- sively rejected or negatived : so decided a preponderance had the advocates for a war, the course and issue of which it was in vain to conjecture. GERMAN AUXILIARIES. WAYS AND MEANS. TRAITOROUS CORRESPOND- ENCE BILL. A MESSAGE from the king was presented to parliament, on the sixth of March, stating that he had engaged a body of his electoral troops in the service of Great Britain, for the purpose of assisting his allies, the States- general, and that he had directed an esti- mate of the charge to be laid before the house. In a committee of supply, on the eleventh, Pitt brought forward his budget for the current year, estimating the total of the expenses at eleven million one hundred and eighty-two thousand two hundred and thirteen pounds, and of the ways and means at eight million two hundred and ninety- nine thousand six hundred and ninety-six pounds. The deficiency he proposed to raise by loan, and to defray the interest by making permanent the temporary taxes imposed upon occasion of the Spanish armament. He made some remarks which show how little he then contemplated the excessive in- crease of the national debt, and of the taxa- tion consequent thereon, which has since taken place. "I do not think it useless," said he, " to suggest some observations with respect to this war in which we are en- gaged." He said, that the excess of the permanent revenue was then nine hundred thousand pounds above the peace establish- ment; which, even if destroyed by war, would leave the country in possession of all its ordinary revenue. This nine hundred thousand pounds he was desirous to leave as a security against those contingencies to which war is liable. The sum borrowed was four million five hundred thousand pounds ; and the terms were, that for every seventy- two pounds advanced to the public, the lend- er should be entitled to one hundred pounds stock, bearing three per cent. He said, that he expected to have made better terms for the loan, but he had not received two offers on the occasion. Among other resources, the sum of six hundred and seventy-five GEORGE HI. 17601820. 385 thousand pounds was agreed to be raised by lottery; but several regulations were laid down to diminish the practice of insurance a species of gambling upon chances which had been very injurious to the lower classes. On the fifteenth of March, the attorney- general, Sir John Scott, introduced a bill denominated the " Traitorous Correspond- ence Bill," by which it was declared to be high treason to supply the existing govern- ment of France with military stores, to pur- chase lands of inheritance in France, to in- vest money in any of the French funds, to underwrite insurances upon ships and goods bound from France to any part of the world, or to go from this country to France, with- out a license under the privy-seal. It like- wise prohibited the return of such British subjects as were already there, unless on giving security to the government. This bill met with much opposition, and several of its more obnoxious clauses were modified in the course of its progress. In the lords it received several modifications, which were agreed to by the commons, and the bill pass- ed into a law. FRENCH PROPOSE TO TREAT FOR PEACE. SUBSIDY TO SARDINIA. BANKRUPT- CIES. AID TO COMMERCE. CENSURE ON LORD AUCKLAND. EARLY in April, Le Bruri, minister of for- eign affairs in France, addressed a letter to lord Grenville, stating that the French re- public was desirous to terminate all its dif- ferences with Great Britain, and to end a war dreadful to humanity, and requesting a passport for a person vested with full powers for that purpose to the court of London, and he named Maret as the proposed plenipoten- tiary of France ; but the British government did not take any notice of the application ; and about this time a treaty was concluded with the king of Sardinia, by which England bound herself to furnish to his Sardinian majesty a subsidy of two hundred thousand pounds per annum, to be paid three months in advance, and not to conclude a peace with the enemy, without comprehending in it the entire restitution of all the dominions be- 'longing to this monarch at the time he en>- gaged in the war. The unusual number and extent of the bankruptcies which had occurred since the commencement of the war, having engaged the notice of the house of commons, a select committee was appointed to consider of a remedy for this evil, and they recommended an issue of exchequer-bills, to the amount of five million pounds, to commissioners to be nominated for the purpose of lending the same in portions to such mercantile persons as were in temporary distress, upon proper security for the sums advanced, with inter- You IV. 38 est which operation speedily restored com- mercial credit. On the twenty-fifth of April, Sheridan moved the house of commons to address his majesty, expressive of the displeasure of the house at the memorial lately presented by lord Auckland to the States-General, and stating, that the minister who presented it had departed from the principles on which the house had concurred in the measures for the support of the war. Pitt maintained the right of Britain to repel the unjust attacks of France to chastise and punish her and to obtain indemnification for the past, and security for the future. The motion was rejected. Lord Stanhope made a similar motion in the house of peers ; but lord Gren- ville moved an amendment, declaring that the memorial was conformable to the senti- ments of his majesty, and consonant to those principles of justice and policy which it be- came the honor and dignity of the nation to express; which was carried without a division. HASTINGS' TRIAL PARLIAMENT PRO- ROGUED. On the sixth of May, Grey brought before the house the question of a reform in the re- presentation. But though the debate occu- pied two days, the motion was negatived by 282,against 41, so decidedly averse to change was the temper of the house. Dundas brought in a bill to renew the charter of the East India company for twenty years, which, with a bill to relieve the Ro- man Catholics of Scotland from certain pen- alties and disabilities, imposed upon them by acts which incapacitated them from holding or transmitting landed property, were pass- ed without opposition ; and three thousand pounds per annum was voted for the estab- lishment of a board of agriculture. During the session the counsel for Hast- ings completed his defence on the three last articles, viz. Begums, presents, and con- tracts ; after which, Hastings addressed the court, praying that their lordships would or- der the trial to continue to its final conclu- sion during the present session ; but the fur- ther proceedings were adjourned till the ensuing session. On the twenty-first of June the parliament was prorogued by his majesty. PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRISH PARLIA- MENT. THE parliament of Ireland met on the tenth of January, and the earl of Westmore- land, the lord-lieutenant, thus expressed him- self: "I have it in particular command from his majesty to recommend it to you to apply yourselves to the consideration of such measures as may be the most likely to strengthen and cement a general union of sentiment, among all classes and descrip- HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. tions of his majesty's Catholic subjects, in support of the established constitution. With this view his majesty trusts that the situation of his Catholic subjects will engage your serious attention, and in the consideration of this subject he relies on the wisdom and liberality of his parliament" Early in March the bill of relief was brought into the house of commons by secretary Hobart. Its chief enacting clause enabled the Catholics to exercise and enjoy all civil and military offices, and places of trust or profit under the crown, and also, the elective franchise, under certain restrictions, viz. that it should not be construed to extend to enable any Roman Catholic to sit or vote in either house of parliament, or to fill the office of lord- lieutenant or lord-chancellor, or judge in either of the three courts of record or ad- miralty, or keeper of the privy-seal, secre- tary of state, lieutenant or custos rotulorum of counties, or privy-counsellor, or master in chancery, or a general on the staf or sheriff or sub-sheriff of any county, &c. The bill passed with few dissenting voices; and, though it stopped short of full emancipation, it was supposed to be all that the executive government could, at that time, without too violent an exertion, effect; and upon this account it was received with gratitude and satisfactioa As a further concession to Ire- land, a libel bill, similar to that of England, was passed ; the power of the crown to grant pensions on the Irish establishment was lim- ited to the sum of eighty thousand pounds ; and certain descriptions of placemen and pensioners were excluded from the privilege of sitting in the house of commons. Also, the king declared his acceptance of a limited sum, fixed at two hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds, for the expenses of his civil- list, in lieu of the hereditary revenues of the crown. Alien and traitorous correspond- ence bills, analagous to those of England, were likewise passed ; as was a bill " to pre- vent the election or appointment of assem- blies, purporting to represent the people, or any description or number of the people, un- der pretence of preparing or presenting pe- titions, &c. to the king, or either house of parliament, for alteration of matters estab- lished by law, or redress of alleged griev- ances in church or state." MILITARY EVENTS ON THE CONTI- NENT. PON DICHERRY AND TOBAGO TAKEN. MILITARY operations upon an extensive scale were carried on in Brabant and Hol- land, during the winter of 1792, and the early part-of the ensuing spring, in which the French army at first acted offensively under Dumouriez, general Miranda, and others; but the allies, under Clairfait, the archduke Charles, and the prince of Saxe Cobourg, gained several signal advantages, which compelled the enemy to raise the siege of Maestricht, and retire precipitately to Antwerp. On the eighteenth of March a general engagement took place on the plains of Neerwinden, which continued from morning till evening, when the French were totally routed, with considerable loss ; and, on the twenty-first, general Dumouriez was posted near Louvain. Here a suspension of hostilities took place, and the French army were allowed to march back to their own frontier, without molestation, on condition of evacuating Brussels, and all the other towns of Brabant, &c. in their possession. On the twenty-seventh of March general Dumouriez held a conference with colonel Mack, an Austrian officer, to whom he inti- mated his design of marching against Paris, with a view of re-establishing the constitu- tional monarchy of 1791 ; and it was agreed that the Imperialists should concur in the accomplishment of this plan ; not advancing, except in case of necessity, beyond the fron- tier of France. The designs of Dumouriez were, however, suspected at Paris, and three commissioners from the executive power were dispatched to Flanders, under the pre- tence of conferring with the general con- cerning the affairs of Belgium. In this in- terview Dumouriez expressed himself with great violence against the Jacobins. " They would ruin France," said he ; " but I will save it, though they should call me a Caesar, a Cromwell, or a Monk." He styled the convention a horde of ruffians ; and declared that this assembly would not exist three weeks longer; that France must have a king ; adding that, since the battle of Gem- appe, he had wept over his success in so bad a cause." On the return of the commission- ers to Paris, Dumouriez was summoned to appear at the bar of the convention, and Bournonville was appointed to supersede him. Four new commissioners also were deputed to the army of the north, with pow- ers to suspend and arrest all officers who should fall under their suspicion. On their arrival at Lisle, March the twenty-eighth, the commissioners transmitted their orders to general Dumouriez, to appear before them, and answers the charges against him : the general, however, answered, that, in the present circumstances, he could not leave the army for a moment ; that, when he did enter Lisle, it would be in order to purge it of traitors ; and that he valued his head too much to submit it to an arbitrary tribunal. The commissioners resolved to proceed to the camp. On the first of April they arriv- ed, in company with Bournonville, at St. Amand, the head-quarters of Dumouriez, and explained to him the object of their mis- sion. The general, finding them inflexible in their purpose, gave the signal for a body of soldiers, who were in waiting, and order- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 387 ed Bournonville and the four commissioners, immediately to be conveyed to general Clair- feit's head-quarters at Tournay, as hostages for the safety of the royal family of France. On the morning of the third, Dumouriez repaired to the camp of Maulde, and ad- dressed the troops, amidst the murmurs of ma'ny of the battalions. On the next day he departed with his suite for Conde, which fortress, with Valenciennes, he had engaged to put into the hands of the Austrians ; but on the road he received intelligence that it would not be safe for him to enter the place ; and, in making his retreat, he fell in with a column of volunteer guards, who called to him to surrender ; but, trusting to the swift- ness of his horse, he escaped, with great * difficulty, to the quarters of general Mack His example was followed by general Lamor- liere, the duke de Chartres, son of the duke of Orleans, and some hundreds of private soldiers. On the following day appeared a proclamation from general Dumouriez, con- taining a recapitulation of his services to the French republic, an animated picture of the outrages of the Jacobins, and of the mis- chiefs to be apprehended from a continua- tion of anarchy in France, concluding with an exhortation to the French to restore the constitution of 1791, and a declaration on oath that he bore arms only for that purpose. This proclamation was accompanied by a manifesto on the part of the prince of Co- bourg, now commander-in-chief of the ar- mies of Austria, announcing that the allied powers were no longer to be considered as principals, but merely as auxiliaries, in the war ; that they had no other object than to co-operate with the general, in giving to France her constitutional king, and the con- stitution she formed for herself. By this time, however, Antwerp, Breda, and the other conquests of France on the Dutch frontier, were evacuated ; and a considera- ble change had taken place in the aspect of affairs. On the eighth of April, a council was held at Antwerp, at which were pres- ent the prince of Orange, accompanied by the grand pensionary, Vander Spiegel, the prince of Cobourg, counts Metternich, Stah- remberg, &c. also the Prussian, Spanish, and Neapolitan ambassadors. The whole plan of operations was now changed. About the same time a memorial was presented by lord Auckland to the States-General, in which his lordship stated, in allusion to the capture of the conventional commissioners, " That the divine vengeance seemed not to have been tardy. Some of these detestable regi- cides are now in such a situation, that they can be subjected to the sword of the law ; the rest are still in the midst of a people whom they have plunged into an abyss of evils, and for whom famine, anarchy, and civil war, are about to prepare new calami- ties. Everything that we see happen, in- duces us to consider as not far distant the end of these wretches, whose madness and atrocities have filled with terror and indig- nation all those who respect the principles of religion, morality, and humanity. The undersigned, therefore, submits to the en- lightened judgment and wisdom of your high mightinesses, whether it would not be proper to employ all the means in your power to prohibit from entering your states in Europe, or your colonies, all those mem- bers of the pretended national convention, or of the pretended executive council, who have directly or indirectly participated in the said crime ; and if they should be dis- covered and arrested, to deliver them up to justice, that they may serve as a lesson and example to mankind." To this memorial the Dutch government declined any reply. General Dampierre, an officer distinguish- ed by his conduct and valor, was now pro- visionally appointed to the chief command, and in a short time he was enabled to lead his troops with confidence into action. A variety of partial, though sharp and bloody engagements, took place between the two armies, in which no decisive advantage was gained. On the eighth of May, general Dampierre advanced in person to dislodge a large body of the enemy, posted near the wood of Vicoigne; but, exposing himself to the enemy's fire, his thigh was carried off by a cannon-ball, and he died the following day. In this action, the English troops were engaged in the field for the first time in this war, and behaved with intrepidity ; but, by the inexperience of the duke of York, then- commander, being ordered to the attack of a strong post in the wood, where they were exposed to the fire of some masked batte- ries, they suffered much. The siege of Va- lenciennes being contemplated, it was de- termined by the allies to attempt an attack upon the fortified camp of Famars, which protected and covered that important for- tress, Conde being already invested. At day- break, on the twenty-third of May, the Brit- ish and Hanoverians under their royal com- mander, and the Austrians and German auxiliaries, under the prince of Cobourg and general Clairfait, made a joint assault upon the advanced posts of the French. The French were worsted, and in the course of the night they abandoned their camp, re- treating towards Bouchain and Cambray. This success enabled the allies to lay siege to Valenciennes. On the first of June gene- ral Custine arrived to take the command of the armies of the North and the Ardennes; but he was not able to render effectual re- lief to that fortress. The trenches were opened on the fourteenth of that month, and about the beginning of July, the besiegers had brought two hundred pieces of heavy 388 HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. artillery to play upon it Mines and counter- mines innumerable were formed also in the course of this siego, lx>th by the assailants and the garrison; and many fierce subter- ranean conflicts were carried on with vari- ous success. On the night of the twenty- fifth of July, however, those under the glacis and horn-work of the fortress were sprung on the part of the besiegers, with complete success, and the English and Austrians seiz- ed the favorable moment for attacking the covered-way, of which they made them- selves masters. On the next day the place surrendered, and the duke of York took pos- session of it, in behalf of the emperor of Germany. Nearly at the same time the garrison of Conde yielded themselves pris- oners of war, after enduring all the rigors of famine; and Mentz submitted, after a long and resolute resistance, to the arms of Prussia. On the eighth of August, the French were driven from the strong position known by the name of Csesar's Camp, near the Scheld ; after which a council of war was held, wherein it was determined that the British, Hanoverians, Dutch, and Hessians, should form a distinct army, not dependent upon the co-operation of the Austrians. This was strongly opposed by the prince of Cobourg and general Clairfak : the British army, however, conducted by the duke of York, immediately decamped, and on the eigh- teenth of August, arrived in the vicinity of Menin, where some severe contests took B'ace, and the post of Loncelles, lost by the utch, was recovered at the point of the bayonet, with a signal display of spirit and intrepidity, by the English, though very in- ferior in force, led on by general Sir John \jik>\ His royal highness then moved to-, wards Dunkirk, and opened trenches before that fortress on the twenty-fourth. Having entertained a secret correspondence with the governor, O'Moran, the duke flattered himself with obtaining speedy possession of the place : that officer, however, had been removed, and the duke lost so much time, from the delay in the arrival of the heavy artillery, and the want of the early co-ope- ration of a naval force, that the French were enabled to make great preparations for the defence, before any progress had been made ; and the duke found himself obliged to raise the siege, leaving behind him his battering cannon, and a large quantity of ammunition. On the other side, general Clairfait invested the town of Quesnoy ; and the prince of Cobourg, who commanded the covering army, having defeated a body of troops which bad been sent to its relief, the place surrendered on the eleventh of September. The Aus- trians then laid siege to Maubeuge ; but the French, under general Jourdan, attacked them in their trenches on the fifteenth of October, and, after sustaining a great loss, forced them to raise the siege. Various in- cursions were afterwards made by the French into Maritime Flanders, but, unable to estab- lish a footing there, they were compelled, once more, to retire within their own fron- tier. In the course of the year, Pondicherry, and all the French settlements in the east, were reduced by the British arms ; and the island of Tobago, in the West Indies, be- sides some other possessions of less import- ance, were also taken from the enemy. INSURRECTION OF ROYALISTS IN BRIT- TANY AND POITOU. To effect the subversion of the republican government in France, it was proposed to excite, by a bold and simultaneous effort, the royalist party, who lay concealed in different ' parts of the country, but chiefly in the an- cient provinces of Brittany and Poitou, now termed La Vendee and La Loire. Notwith- standing the severe -decrees of the conven- tion, immense numbers of emigrants had secretly repaired thither in the winter of 1792, and the vicinity of these departments to the sea afforded every facility for receiv- ing supplies of arms, ammunition, and mo- ney, from Great Britain. The disturbances in these departments were at first consider- ed, by the convention, as arising from the dislike of the populace to the new mode which had been adopted for recruiting the army ; but before the end of March the in- surgents were formidable, and appeared to be organized by previous arrangement. They professed to act by the authority of Monsieur, the brother of the king, who had assumed the title of regent On the twenty- third of March the convention was informed that the insurgents had made themselves masters of the districts of Cholet, Montaigne, and Clisson, and had defeated general Marce, who had been sent to quell them. The city of Nantes was besieged by them, and the number of royalists encamped before the city was estimated at not less than forty thousand. In the beginning of April, gen- eral Berruyere was appointed to conftnand against the insurgents ; but, notwithstand- ing all the exertions which the French rev- olutionary government could make, they had possessed themselves, before the end of April, of more than fifty leagues of the coun- try, had defeated the republicans in two ert- gagements, and taken a great number of prisoners, with an immense quantity of ar- tillery and military stores. THE CONVENTION DECLARES WAR WITH SPAIN PARTIES IN FRANCE. DEATH OF MARAT. ON the seventh of March the convention passed a decree of war against his majesty the king of Spain, one cause of which was stated to be the zeal of that court in behalf of Louis. Ever since the deposition of that GEORGE III. 17601820. 389 ill-fated monarch, two powerful parties, the Gironde and the Mountain, had divided the convention. Brissot, Petion, Vergniaux, and their associates, almost all distinguished by their talents, formed the party of the Gironde. Republicans in principle, they had contrib- uted to weaken the constitutional throne, but they had taken no active part in its overthrow. The revolutionists of the tenth of August, Danton, Robespierre, Chabot, Barbaroux, Fabre d'Eglantine, Couthon, and Collot d'Herbois, assumed the name of the Mountain, and aspired to govern the repub- lic that had been founded on the ruins of the throne. In the month of March the revo- lutionary tribunal was established, to take cognizance of all offences against the safety of the state, and to be fixed in Paris : the judges were to be chosen by the convention, and the jury from the commune of Paris : its sentences against persons absent were to have the same effect as if they were pres- ent, and from its decision there was no ap- peal. On the seventh of April a committee of public safety was instituted by the con- vention, invested with almost unlimited pow- er a power which was soon abused to the worst of purposes, and laid the foundation of a tyranny the most sanguinary and atro- cious the world had ever witnessed. The defection of Dumouriez contributed in no small degree to the overthrow of the Gironde party, and the destruction of the members of the Bourbon family remaining in the pow- er of the republicans. On the seventh of April it was decreed by the convention that all the members of that family should be de- tained as hostages for the safety of the ar- rested deputies, and that such of them as were not already in the Temple should be removed to Marseilles : the ci-devant duke of Orleans, though a member of the conven- tion, was included in this decree. A consid- erable part of the month of April was spent in discussing and digesting the declaration of rights, which was to serve as a preface to the new constitution. On the tenth of May the convention decreed the first article of the new constitution ; viz. " the French republic is one and indivisible." In the mean time, the divisions which had so long subsisted between these two parties ap- proached rapidly to open and avowed hostil- ity. The Mountain party had secured the attachment of the populace of Paris ; and the Jacobin club, of which Marat was pres- ident, had become devoted to this faction. Even the virtues of the Girondists tended to accelerate their ruin ; their humane attempt to save the life of the devoted Louis being urged against them as an unpardonable crime, and as manifesting a culpable indif- ference to the cause of freedom. On the fifteenth of April a petition was presented 33* by the communes of the forty-eight sections of Paris, at the bar of the convention, de- manding that twenty-two of the deputies of the Gironde party should be impeached. This party, however, continued to have a preponderance in the convention ; and Ma- rat, a furious leader of the Mountain party, having put his signature to a paper of the most sanguinary tendency, was accused by the convention, and committed to the Abbey prison ; but such was his influence over the people, whose passions were continually ex- cited by his inflammatory publications, that in a few days he was acquitted by a jury, and returned to the hall of the convention in triumph. At length, on the morning of the thirty-first of May, the commotion every- where visible throughout the capital denoted an approaching crisis: Henriot, the com- mander of the national guard, a man entire- ly devoted to Robespierre, instead of taking the proper measures for the protection of the convention, was a party in the plot against it, and many of the representatives were alarmed for their own safety. After the tumult had continued a considerable time, a deputation from the revolutionary committees appeared at the bar, and de- manded the immediate suppression of the commission of twelve, which had been nom- inated on purpose to restrain anarchy ; a revolutionary army of sans-culottes ; a de- cree of accusation against twenty-two Gi- ronde deputies ; and a diminution in the price of bread. They also insisted that cer- tain deputies should be dispatched to the south, to put a stop to the counter-revolu- tion that prevailed there : and they at the same time suggested the arrest of Claviere, the minister of public contributions, and of Le Brun, the minister of foreign affairs; but the convention still refused to sacrifice the victims demanded by^the conspirators. This, however, was the last effort ; for, two days afterwards, the legislature, finding itself be- sieged and imprisoned in its own hall, was at length intimidated into compliance, and not only decreed the arrest of all the obnox- ious deputies, thirty-six in number, but pro- scribed those who endeavored to avoid death by flight The vanquished party had wish- ed for a republican form of government, founded on the immutable basis of virtue : the triumphant faction, on the contrary, con- ceding to popular opinions, still maintained all the forms of a commonwealth, but, under the veil of liberty, introduced the most terrible despotism ; and, although they im- mediately drew up a new and seductive constitution, they contrived to suspend all its benefits. These outrages against the deputies alarmed several departmenta The city of Caen resolved not to acknowledge the con- 390 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. vention, or receive any of its decrees, until the imprisoned members were restored to their functions. The departments of Cal- vados, the Rhone, and the Loire, also avowed their determination to disown the conven- tion ; and the first of these actually impris- oned three of the Jacobin deputies, who had been sent thither with a view of propagating their tenets, and supporting their cause. At this critical moment, too, a complete counter- revolution took place at Lyons ; Marseilles was threatened with commotions; Toulon exhibited manifest symptoms of disaffection ; and the cause of the Mountain for a moment appeared desperate. Several of the pro- scribed deputies, having escaped from their confinement, now sought an asylum at Nantes, Rennes, Bourdeaux, Caen, and Ev- reux. Others, abandoning an assembly in which cruelty and injustice preponderated, fled from Paris and joined them, and a gen- eral insurrection of the provinces against the capital was immediately agreed upon. Many of the cities nominated commission- ers for the purpose of concerting with the deputies from the districts, relative to the measures which the present critical state of affairs seemed to render necessary. Suc- cors of men and of money were promised by all ; and the archives of the capital of the Gironde, in which the most zealous of their partisans resided, are said to have contained decrees of adhesion and support on the part of seventy-two departments ; but after the passions of the people had subsided, few could be prevailed upon to embark in so des- perate a cause ; and a civil war soon began to appear odious and impolitic. Wimpffen, the gallant defender of Thion- ville, had been chosen as their leader, and De Puisaye was appointed adjutant-general. Conscious that the success of their plan de- pended chiefly on the celerity of their mo- tions, the Girondists wished the troops to begin their march immediately, and even proposed to advance to the capital, where they knew that their friends were both nu- merous and formidable, at the head of the Britons and Normans alone ; but the general, insisting on the advantages likely to ensue from a delay that would enable him to in- crease the number of their partisans, con- tented himself with dispersing proclama- tions ; and, on being summoned to give an account of his conduct by the faction that had assumed the reins of government, he re- plied, that he would disclose his motives and intentions at the head of sixty thousand men. On being pressed to advance directly to Paris, without waiting for the arrival of the departmental forces, Wimpffen at length marched towards Vernon, at the head of a small body of troops. The Jacobins, who had assembled some forces in that town, im- mediately sallied forth, and received them with a discharge of artillery. The whole of the insurgents betook themselves to flight, except a single battalion of four hundred men from Finisterre, which, on seeing itself abandoned, retired in good order to Evreux, where the fugitives at length rallied. Wimpflfen and De Puisaye concealed them- selves; the proscribed representatives be- took themselves to flight ; some perished by the guillotine, others by fatigue and famine; while the victorious party stained their tri- umph by a series of cruelty, injustice, and bloodshed. An insurrection broke out at Lyons, and a congress of the department was convoked at that city, in which it was resolved to march a force for the reduction of Paris ; the Mountain party was declared to be out- lawed ; and the provisions destined for the armies were intercepted. The cities of Marseilles and Toulon followed the example of Lyons, and entered into that famous con- federacy for dissolving the convention, which has since been distinguished by the name of Federalism. On the twelfth of July the Marseillois issued a manifesto to the French nation, in which they declared that the sit- uation of Paris was equivalent to the decla- ration of war against the whole republic ; and they urged the people to join their standard, and assist in reducing the faction which had usurped the powers of the re- public. On the eighth of July the commit- tee of public safety produced its report con- cerning the imprisoned deputies of the con- vention: it charged Brissot, Petion, and some others, with being the constant favor- ers of royalty ; it alleged that they had con- spired to place a new monarch on the throne, some of them in the person of Louis Capet, and others in that of the duke of York ; Petion was accused of having signed the order, on the tenth of August, to fire on the people from the Thuilleries; and Roland was accused in general terms of persecut- ing the republicans. On these charges the convention declared those who had fled from the decree of arrest traitors to their coun- try, and they were put out of the protection of the law. These outrageous proceeding.-, on the part of the Mountain junto, produced a reaction, which, in one memorable in- stance, was fatal to one of the most violent of these incendiaries. A female, of the name of Charlotte Corde, enthusiastically attached to the Gironde party, proceeded from Caen, in Normandy, to assassinate Ma- rat, which she effected at the expense of her own life. Marat was proclaimed a mar- tyr, and his death ordered to be lamented as an irreparable loss to the republic. GEORGE HI. 17601820. 391 CHAPTER XXVI. Reform Societies in Great Britain Edinburgh Convention Transportation of the Secretary and two Delegates French Affairs Trial and Execution of Queen Marie Antoinette The Port and Fleet of Toulon surrender to the English Evacu- ation of Toulon French Calendar Extraordinary Efforts to Recruit the French Armies Operations on the Frontiers of France Meeting of Parliament Aug- mentation of the Army and Navy Motion against the War Message respecting Democratic Societies, and Suspension of the Habeas Corpus State Trials Foreign Troops landed in the Isle of Wight Augmentation of the Forces Voluntary Contributions in aid of the War Enlistment of French Emigrants Supply M. la Fayette Subsidy to Prussia Prorogation of Parliament Changes in the Ministry Military Operations on the Continent Corsica annexed to the British Croum Lord Howe's Victory Other Naval Achievements Capture of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadcdoupe Loss of the latter Acquisitions in St. Domingo. REFORM SOCIETIES IN GREAT BRITAIN. "EDINBURGH CONVENTION. SECRE- TARY AND TWO MEMBERS TRANS- PORTED. SOCIETIES for promoting a reform in the house of commons were, at this period, ex- tremely active throughout the kingdom. In Scotland a party zealous for reform had projected what they termed a National Con- vention; and in October 1793, a meeting was held in Edinburgh, which was attended by delegates from the London Correspond- ing Society, and from other societies of the same description in different parts of Eng- land and Ireland. The London Correspond- ing Society restricted its delegates to the obtaining, by lawful means, universal suf- frage and annual parliaments ; but it instruct- ed them, at the same time, to enforce the duty of the people to resist any act of the legis- lature repugnant to the original principles of the constitution. The Edinburgh Con- vention foolishly adopted all the forms, names, and proceedings of the French Jacobin Clubs, with such difference and omissions only as their peculiar circumstances rendered neces- sary. The members hailed each other by the republican denomination of Citizen; they divided themselves into sections ; appointed committees of organization, of instruction, of finance, of secrecy, and of emergency ; called their meetings, sittings; granted honors of sittings ; and dated their proceed- ings in the first year of the British Conven- tion, one and indivisible. They at first as- sumed the distinctive appellation of the ' General Convention of the Friends of the People,' but they afterwards took the name of the ' British Convention of the Delegates of the People,' associated to obtain universal suffrage and annual parliaments; they adopt- ed means for assembling the delegates, at any tune when it should be deemed neces- sary for the societies to act, in consequence of any measures of precaution or coercion which the government might adopt; and they were fully prepared to carry their doc- trine of resistance into effect. When they were thus emboldened, by their increased numbers, openly to avow their designs, the government thought it time to interrupt their proceedings. On the fifth and sixth of December the magistrates of Edinburgh repaired to two of the places of meeting, where they seized the papers, and took the secretary and some of the leading members into custody. Three of these were after- wards brought to trial, William Skirving, the secretary, and two of the delegates from the London Corresponding Society, Maurice Margarot, and Joseph Gerald, before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland, and, being all found guilty, they were sentenced to be transported for fourteen years. FRENCH AFFAIRS. TRIAL AND EXECU- TION OF THE QUEEN. THE Mountain party were now become the sole rulers of France. This dreadful despotism was composed of two councils, one of which was denominated the ' Com- mittee of Public Safety,' the other the ' Com- mittee of General Safety.' The members ought to have been renewed every month ; but the convention had intrusted these com- mittees with the power of imprisoning and judging its members, and therefore no deputy was hardy enough to propose a re- newal of these committees. The prevailing faction now proceeded to atrocities of which no former despotism af- forded an example: its object appeared to be the extermination of all that was great and valuable in society : it attempted to re- duce the community to one level to degrade, that it might the more severely tyrannize over, its victims : even moderation itself be- HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. came a crime to be expiated only by death, and virtue received the reward due to atro- cious crimes. If the father afforded any support to his exiled son, if the daughter wrote to her mother from her dungeon, the revolutionary tribunal doomed them to the scaffold. The external profession of the Christian religion was abolished by public decree, and an attempt was made to substi- tute for Christianity a sort of metaphysical paganism. Those ecclesiastics who had seats in the convention publicly abjured their creed, and were not ashamed to declare that they had hitherto deceived the world : the archbishop and clergy of Paris renounc- ed the Christian religion, declaring that they owned no temple but the sanctuary of the laws, no God but Liberty, no gospel but the constitution : the revolutionary tribunal con- demned, without distinction and without in- quiry, all the victims whom the tyrants marked out for destruction: proscriptions daily increased, and France was filled with accusers, prisons, and executioners. The number of persons who perished, during this reign of terror, cannot be ascertained by any authentic documents; but the prisons were filled and emptied with a horrid ra- pidity, and the scaffolds flowed daily with blood. The most distinguished victim was the ill-fated queen Marie Antoinette. On the first of August she was suddenly re- moved to the prison of the Conciergerie, where she was treated as the meanest criminal ; and, on the fifteenth of October, die appeared before the tribunal to take her trial, or, to speak more correctly, to hear her doom pronounced. The act of accusa- tion consisted of several charges, the prin- cipal of which stated that she had directed her views to a counter-revolution. One of the most singular of them was, that, in con- junction with the Gironde faction, she in- duced the king and the assembly to declare war against Austria, contrary to every prin- ciple of sound policy and the public welfare; but the last charge was the most infamous, and the most incredible, viz. that, like Ag- rippina, she had held an incestuous com- merce with her own son. The unfortunate Marie Antoinette heard the accusation with calmness, and, as she continued silent, the president called upon her for a reply, when with great dignity she answered, " I held my peace because Nature forbids a mother to reply to such a charge ; but, since I am compelled to it, I appeal to all the mothers who hear me whether it be possi- ble." Not one of the charges was proved ; but, after consulting for about an hour, the jury found her guilty of the whole. With an unchanged countenance she heard the sentence of death pronounced, and left the hall without uttering a single word with- out addressing herself either to her judges or the audience. On the succeeding day, the 16th, at about eleven o'clock, she was taken to execution in the same manner as the other victims of this dreadful tribunal : she ascended the scaffold with a firm and unhesitating step, and her behavior at the awful moment of dissolution was decent and composed. Her body was interred like that of her husband, in a grave filled with quick- lime. PORT AND FLEET OF TOULON SURREN- DER TO THE BRITISH. THE people of Toulon, and the French vice-admiral Trugoff, entered into a nego- tiation with the British admiral, lord Hood, who then commanded in the Mediterranean, for the delivery of the port and fleet into the hands of the English, in trust for Louis the seventeenth a negotiation was completed, and on the twenty-third of August a body of men were landed from the English fleet, who immediately took possession of Fort Malgue, by means of a detachment under captain Elphinstone, as well as of the bat- teries at the mouth of the harbor. The French ships were warped into the inner road, as stipulated ; and, the Spanish admi- ral having joined the British, the combined squadrons anchored in the outer road ; after which one thousand Spaniards were sent on shore to augment the English garrison ; rear- admiral Goodall was declared governor, and rear-admiral Gravina commandant of the troops. The condition on which this valua- ble arsenal was put into the hands of a Brit- ish admiral was, that it was only to be con- sidered as a deposit to be preserved for the use of the French king, Louis the seven- teenth, the inhabitants of Toulon declaring their intention of rejecting the constitution proposed by the convention, and of adhering to that decreed by the constituent assembly of 1789. It was further stipulated, that, when peace should be re-established in France, the ships and forts which should be put into the hands of the English, should be restored to the French nation in the same state as when they were delivered. The English immediately placed Toulon in a state of defence: the adjacent hills were crowned with redoubts ; a new fort was con- structed at Malbousquet; encampments were formed at St. Roch, at Equillete, and at Balaguier, the last of which was termed Little Gibraltar by the French. A detach- ment from the Spanish army in the Rouis- sillon, two thousand Sicilian troops, under brigadier-general Pignatelli, and a detach- ment from the army of the king of Sardinia, were sent to reinforce the garrison. TOULON EVACUATED. IN November, general Dagobert was ap- pointed commander-in-chief of the besieg- GEORGE EL 17601820. 393 ing army ; and Napoleon Buonaparte, a na- tive of Corsica, then a subaltern in the artillery, by his able conduct in the siege, laid the. foundation of that military fame and power, which afterwards intimidated and oppressed the greater part of continental Europe. About this period, lieutenant-gen- eral O'Hara arrived at Toulon, as governor and commander-in-chief. He determined to destroy the new works, termed the Conven- tion Battery, and to bring off the artillery ; and accordingly sent a detachment under the command of major-general David Dun- das, who, notwithstanding considerable dif- ficulties, surprised the redoubt, and fully ef- fected all the objects of the sally ; but the troops, flushed with victory, rushed forward, and descended the hill after the enemy, but were obliged in their turn to retire with precipitation. General O'Hara, on this oc- casion, received a wound in the arm, and was taken prisoner, with several other offi- cers, who fell into the hands of the enemy whose force amounted to nearly forty thou- sand men. On the other hand, the allied troops, composed of five different nations and languages, never exceeded twelve thou- sand rank and file. With these, now greatly diminished by death and disease, a circum- ference of fifteen miles, for the defence of the town and harbor, was to be occupied and defended by means of eight principal and several intermediate posts, which alone re- quired nearly nine thousand men. The French opened two new batteries on Fort Mulgrave, and stormed the fortification by that side which was defended by the Span- iards. Another attack took place on all the posts of Mount Faron, that overlooks Tou- lon, which they occupied. As the enemy now commanded the town, as well as some of the ships, by their shot and shells, it became necessary that a re- treat should take place as speedily as possi- ble. Lord Hood accordingly gave orders for the boats of the fleet to assemble by eleven o'clock near Fort Malgue for that purpose. He had also settled a plan for de- stroying all the French men-of-war and the arsenal. That sen-ice was intrusted to Sir Sidney Smith, who, on entering the dock- yard, found that the artificers had already substituted the three-colored cockade for the white one, and that about six hundred gal- ley-slaves, who had broken their fetters, would have made a determined resistance, had he not pointed the guns of two vessels, to keep them in awe. After this he set fire to ten ships of the line, to the arsenal, to the mast-house, to the great store-house, and other buildings ; but the calmness of the evening prevented much of the effect ex- pected from the conflagration. In the mean time, the Spaniards, instead of scuttling and sinking, set fire to the powder-ships, and they, as well as the English, were foiled in the attempt of cutting the boom, and de- stroying the men-of-war in the basin, in con- sequence of repeated volleys of musketry from the flag-ship and the wall of the royal battery : the Hero and Themistocles were, however, set on fire, and the party left for this purpose, after a most desperate service, effected their retreat. By daylight next morning, all the British, Spanish, and Si- cilian ships, crowded with the unfortunate inhabitants, were out of the reach of the enemy's vengeance. Admiral Trugoflj on board the Commerce de Marseilles, with the Puissant and Pompee, two other ships of the line, and the Pearl, Arethusa, and To- paze frigates, with several corvettes, joined the English fleet, with which lord Hood pro- ceeded to Hieres Bay, and there he landed the men, women, and children. Of thirty- one ships of the line which the English found at Toulon, thirteen were left behind, nine were burnt there, one at Leghorn, and four lord Hood had previously sent away to the French ports of Brest and Rochfort, with five thousand republican seamen. Britain, therefore, obtained only three ships of the line and five frigates, which were all that the admiral was able to take off. Thus Toulon was restored to France. Here, as well as at Marseilles and Lyons, the most cruel punishments were inflicted on the royalists ; and the conquerors sullied their victory by a terrible and indiscriminate carnage : workmen were actually invited from all the neighboring departments to de- stroy the principal houses the population became visibly decreased by the daily butch- ery that took place the name of Port de la Montaigne was substituted for that of Toulon and a grand festival decreed in honor of the French army. FRENCH CALENDAREXTRAORDINARY EFFORTS TO RECRUIT THE ARMIES- OPERATIONS ON THE FRONTIERS. THE faction in power at this period, be- ing desirous of effecting the abolition of Christian observances, the convention de- creed a new calendar, by which the year was divided into twelve months, of thirty days each, with five intercalary days, which were dedicated to national festivities : each month was divided into decades, and the day of rest was appointed for every tenth day, instead of every seventh. All Frenchmen were now declared, by a solemn decree of the convention, to be at the service of their country, until its enemies should be chased from the territories of the republic. To supply the wants of the im- mense armies now about to be collected from all quarters, measures of a new and extra- ordinary kind were adopted. Assignats were 394 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. not only fabricated and expended in im- mense quantities, but when this resource began to fail, revolutionary taxes were im- posed. The system of requisition was at length recurred to, and all the necessaries of life appertaining to citizens in easy cir- cumstances, were seized upon in the name of the republic, and for the' support of its troops ; while the great cities were crowded with manufactures of saltpetre, the towns were converted into foundries, and the an- ^;ient palaces metamorphosed into a'rsenals. At the very moment that the idea of a na- tion's rising en masse was ridiculed through- out Europe, the convention, on the proposi- tion of the committee of public safety, had either augmented or created eleven distinct armies, which seemed to form a chain round the frontiers of France. All the unmarried males, from eighteen to forty years of age, were put in permanent requisition, and a draught of three hundred thousand made at one time. These immense resources enabled them to strengthen and new-model the army of the north, extending from Dunkrik to Maubeuge ; that of the Ardennes, reaching from Maubeuge to Longwy; that of the Moselle, from Longwy to Bitche ; that of the Rhine, from Bitche to Porentrui; that of the Alps, from the Aisne to the borders of the Var ; that of Italy, from the Mari- time Alps to the mouth of the Rhone ; the army of the Oriental Pyrenees, from the mouth of the Rhone to the Garonne ; the army of the Western Pyrenees, from the department of the Upper Pyrenees .to the mouth of the Gironde ; the army of the coast of Rochelle, from the mouth 01 the Gironde to that of the Loire ; the army of the coasts of Brest, from the mouth of the Loire to St Maloes ; and, lastly, that of the coasts of Cherbourg, from St Maloes to the northern department. The allies under the duke of Brunswick and general Wurmser were for some time victorious on the banks of the Rhine, but in November the French had become so much superior fti number that they were always able to outrflank their opponents. Wurmser, foiled in an attempt to gain possession of Strasburg, retired to Haguenau, where the French, after repeated attacks, obliged the Austrians to retire across the Rhine. The Prussians afterwards relinquished the siege of Landau, and the duke of Brunswick went into winter-quarters at Mentz. On the Spanish border various actions took place between the troops of Spam and France, in which the former were successful ; but the war in this quarter was of very subordinate importance. In Italy the county of Nice was the scene of some actions between the Sardinian and French troops, which were generally favorable to the former; Genoa, which had manifested a disposition to take part with the French, was overawed by the English fleet; and the duke of Tuscany was induced, by the representations of the British minister, to declare against France. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. 1794. PARLIAMENT assembled on the twenty-first of January, 1794. The king, in his speech, having mentioned the advan- tages obtained by the arms of the confed- erate powers, added, that the circumstances by which their further progress had been impeded not only proved the necessity of vigor and perseverance, but confirmed the expectation of ultimate success. Their ene- mies had derived the means of temporary exertion from a system which had enabled them to dispose arbitrarily of the lives and property of a numerous people ; but these efforts, productive as they had been of in- ternal discontent and confusion, tended rap- idly to exhaust the national and real strength of the country. He regretted the necessity of continuing the war ; but he thought he should ill consult the essential interests of his people if he desired peace on any grounds exclusive of a due provision for their permanent safety, and for the inde- pendence and security of Europe. An amendment to the address was moved by the earl of Guildford, who wished for a speedy negotiation, as we had rushed into war without necessity; but the duke of Portland justified the war as ? .rictly defen- sive, and as necessary for the preservation of the Christian religion, political and civil liberty, law, and order. On a division, the address was carried by ninety-seven against twelve. In the commons the address was moved by lord Clifden, to which Fox pro- posed an amendment, recommending to his majesty to treat for a peace with France upon safe and honorable terms, without any reference to its existing form of govern- ment. After a warm debate, which was pro- tracted to a late hour, the address was car- ried by two hundred and seventy-seven against fifty-nine. AUGMENTATION OF THE ARMY AND NAVY. DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES. SUS- PENSION OF HABEAS CORPUS ACT. LORD ARDEN moved for a supply of eighty- five thousand seamen, including twelve thou- sand one hundred and fifteen marines, for the service of the present year, and, on the third of the following month, he further moved that the land forces should consist of sixty thousand two hundred and forty-four men, including three thousand three hun- dred and eighty-two invalids, both of which motions were carried. On the twelfth of May a message was de- livered from his majesty to the two houses of parliament, referring to the seditious GEORGE HI. 17601820. 395 practices of democratic societies, and inti- mating the necessity of taking measures for baffling their dangerous designs. The pa- pers belonging to these clubs were exam- ined by a committee of the commons ; and, in a report subsequently presented by Pitt, it was affirmed, as the result of the inquiry, that the Society for Constitutional Informa- tion and the London Corresponding Society, under the pretence of reform, aimed at the subversion of the government ; that other associations, in different parts of the king- dom, pursued the same object ; that they had endeavored to promote a general con- vention of the people ; that they had pro- vided arms for the more effectual prosecu- tion of their nefarious purposes ; that meet- ings of popular delegates took place at Ed- inburgh in 1792, and the following year ; that their proceedings were regulated on the French model ; and that, after the dis- persion of this convention, the two leading societies exerted their efforts to procure a similar meeting in England, which should supersede the authority of parliament The minister, in consequence, proposed that the habeas corpus act should be suspended in cases of treason and sedition. Fox was of opinion that this stretch of power was not justified by the evidence which had been adduced against the associations ; and Sher- idan deprecated, as unconstitutional and dangerous, the grant of an arbitrary power of imprisonment Burke, however, felt con- vinced that the power in question would not be abused, and that it would be attended with salutary effects ; and Windham ad- vised the strongest measures of coercion. The bill of suspension was rapidly enacted ; and, after spirited debates, an address was voted, promising the strenuous co-operation of the two houses with the executive pow- er, for the suppression of all seditious at- tempts, treasonable conspiracies, &c. STATE TRIALS. THE state trials pending at this crisis heightened the alarm which universally pre- vailed. At the Lancaster spring assizes this year, Thomas Walker of Manchester, a strenuous advocate for parliamentary re- form, at whose house meetings for political purposes were occasionally held, was indict- ed for conspiring, with nine other persons, to overturn the constitution by force of arms, and to assist the French in case of invasion. To establish this charge, involving, in its consequences, not only the character, but the life of the accused ; the principal evi- dence adduced was a person of the name of Dunn, whose testimony was so contradicto- ry and absurd, that the prosecution was abandoned by the counsel for the crown ; and Walker was honorably acquitted, with- out being put upon his defence, while his accuser was committed to prison to take his trial for perjury. At Edinburgh, on the third of September, Robert Watt, a government spy, was tried and convicted of high treason. It appeared that he had formed a romantic project for seizing, by force, upon the castle of Edin- burgh, as well as upon the persons of the principal judicial and municipal'officers of that city, together with the bank and the excise office. This intention he had com- municated to several persons, who all refus- ed to come into his plans, except David Downie, an illiterate mechanic. That Watt had conspired to levy war against the king there could be no doubt ; but, as he bad not actually levied it, it was contended that his offence did not come within the legal con- struction of the statute of Edward the Third. The prisoner, in his defence, asserted, and produced letters in court from secretary Dundas in support of that assertion, that he had been retained as a spy in the service of government, and had received money from them for his services. The prisoner's coun- sel, therefore, contended that what their cli- ent had done was with no other view than to arrive more completely at the knowledge of the secrets of those persons whose con- duct he was to observe, and, by appearing zealous in the same cause, to cover his real intentions of betraying these counsels, and bringing to punishment the enemies of then- sovereign. The jury, however, pronounced the prisoner guilty; the judge passed the sentence of death upon him ; and he was consequently executed. Downie was also convicted ; but the jury recommended him to mercy, which he had the good fortune to obtain. The state trials of certain persons, mem- bers of the London Corresponding Society, charged with high treason, took place in October, November, and December of this year. They strongly excited popular feel- ings at the time, but proved abortive, all those persons having been acquitted ; and are chiefly remarkable from the circum- stance of Pitt, the prime minister, having been examined as a witness on the trial of the celebrated John Home Tooke, the phi- lologist, to prove that the objects of the Cor- responding Society were the same as those of the meetings for reform, which Pitt him- self had promoted and attended in the year 1782, but pursued by different means ; on which point of distinction Pitt was in a cer- tain degree contradicted by Sheridan, who had attended meetings of that nature in 1782, and was also examined upon the trial of Home Tooke. That the jury acted most conscientiously in acquitting the prisoners of the charge of high treason, there can be no doubt ; but had they been tried for a mis- 396 HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. demeanor, they would probably have been convicted. Their acquittal raised the spirits of the disaffected, who openly triumphed in the victory they had obtained ; and when the proceedings against persons charged with political crimes in France were com- pared with these trials, the comparison could not fail to excite, in the breast of every hon- est Briton, the proudest feelings of exulta- tion at the superiority of the British lawa The trials which had taken place in Scot- land, particularly those of Thomas Muir and the reverend Fysche Palmer, the former a Scotch barrister, and the latter a Unitarian preacher at Dundee, who had been convict- ed of sedition in the autumn of 1793, and sentenced to transportation, excited con- siderable alarm among their friends and as- sociates in England, and attracted the atten- tion even of some members of the British senate, who condemned their conduct while they deplored their fate. Several motions were made upon the subject in the house of commons, by Adam a barrister of some emi- nence, implying defects in the Scotch law of sedition, and that the court of justiciary had exceeded their power in substituting the punishment of transportation for that of ban- ishment ; but all these motions were nega- tived, and secretary Dundas contended that the Scottish nation was very happy under its own laws that the alterations proposed would be a violation of the articles of the Union and that the reform really wanting was to assimilate the English law of sedi- tion, in a certain degree, to that of Scotland. FOREIGN TROOPS LANDED ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT AUGMENTATION OF THE FORCES-VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS SUPPLY. WITH a view to co-operate with the loyal- ists hi Brittany and the neighboring districts, a body of Hessian troops in the pay of Eng- land, was destined for this service. When these troops arrived from the continent, it was deemed proper to put them into tempo- rary quarters at Portsmouth, in the Isle of Wight, and in other convenient places near the coast This circumstance was commu- nicated to parliament, in a message from his majesty, on the twenty-seventh of March. As many similar cases had occurred at dif- ferent periods, and as the cause and neces- sity of the measure were so perfectly ob- vious, it was concluded that the usual com- munication of the fact to parliament would be satisfactory : the opposition, however, con- tended that the minister ought to have moved for a bill of indemnity ; and he was charged with having violated the bill of rights and the act of settlement Grey, on the tenth of February, moved, as a resolution of the house, "that to employ foreigners in any situation of military trust, or to bring foreign troops into the kingdom, without the con- sent of parliament first had and obtained, is contrary to law," which motion was nega- tived ; and the subject was afterwards re- newed, in both houses, by propositions for a bill of indemnity,.but with no better success, ministers contending that it would be absurd to pretend to indemnify measures which were in themselves justifiable, and not un- constitutional. On the twenty-second of February a mes- sage from his majesty was delivered to par- liament, purporting that the avowed inten- tions of the enemy to invade this country made an increase of the land forces neces- sary ; and an address was voted by the house, assuring his majesty of their zealous con- currence in every exertion which became a brave and loyal people in the prosecution of this just and necessary war. A great aug- mentation of the militia, and an addition of volunteer fencible corps, were accordingly voted ; and the expedient of soliciting volun- tary contributions, by a formal letter written by the secretary of state to the lords-lieu- tenant of the several counties, was success- fully resorted to, though strongly opposed as highly illegal, and contrary to the spirit of the British constitution ; and on the twenty- eighth of March, Sheridan moved, that it was dangerous and unconstitutional for the people of this country to make any loan, &c. to the crown, to be used for any public pur- pose, without the previous consent of par- liament The question was considered as one which could be neither universally af- firmed nor universally denied, and the mo- tion was negatived by a considerable majori- ty, as was a similar one by lord Lauderdale in the house of peers. Very considerable discussion also arose on a bill introduced by Pitt, on the first of April, for the encourage- ment of those who should voluntarily enrol themselves for the general defence of the kingdom during the war ; and on another, the object of which was to enable French- men to enlist in his majesty's service on the continent, or, in other words, for employing the French emigrants in a military capacity. The requisite supply for the present year amounted to nearly twenty million pounds, and the ways and means included some new taxes, and a loan of eleven million pounds. Persons professing the Roman Catholic reli- gion were exempted from the customary charge of double land-tax. M. LA FAYETTE. SUBSIDY TO PRUSSIA. GENERAL FTTZPATRICK moved in the house of commons, on the seventeenth of March, for an address to the throne, beseeching his majesty to intercede with the court of Ber- lin in favor of general La Fayette and his companions. It appeared that the king of Prussia, being applied to for the release of GEORGE III. 17601820. 397 La Fayette, had answered, that he was not his prisoner alone, but that of the confede- rate powers jointly, and that he could be set at liberty only by the consent of all. Pitt denied that La Fayette's conduct had ever been friendly to the genuine cause of liber- ty ; he affirmed that the interference re- quired would be setting up ourselves as guardians of the consciences of foreign states ; and the motion was negatived by a large majority. On the twenty-eighth of April, Dundas delivered a message from the king, announc- ing a treaty of subsidy with the king of Prussia, and a convention with the States- General. Pitt stated that his Prussian ma- jesty had agreed to furnish sixty-two thou- sand four hundred troops, for which his Brit- annic majesty had agreed to pay him fifty thousand pounds per month, one hundred thousand pounds per month for forage, four hundred thousand pounds to put the army in motion, and one hundred thousand pounds on their return; of the aggregate of which sums the States-General were to pay four hundred thousand pounds as their proportion. Over the troops subsidized at this expense the direction and command were still vested in the king of Prussia. The motion of Pitt for the sum of two million five hundred thousand pounds, to be raised byway of loan on exchequer-bills, in addition to the sup- plies of the current year, for the purpose of making good this engagement, after being warmly opposed in every stage, ultimately passed by a great majority. Parliament was prorogued on the eleventh of July by a speech from the throne, in which the king urged the two houses to persevere with increased vigor and exertion in the present arduous contest against a power ir- reconcilably hostile in its principles and spirit to all regular and established govern- ments. Various alterations were made in the ad- ministration about this time. Earl Fitzwil- liam was declared president of the council, in the room of earl Camden ; earl Spencer was appointed lord privy-seal ; the duke of Portland was made third secretary of state ; and Windham secretary at war. Before the close of the year, lord Fitzwilliam was pro- moted to the vice-royalty of Ireland, in the room of lord Westmoreland ; and the ear] of Mansfield, late lord Stormont, and nephew to the celebrated chief-justice Mansfield, lately deceased, succeeded to the presidency of the council. Lord Spencer was placed at the head of the admiralty ; and lord Chat- ham, brother to the premier, who had for some years occupied that important depart- ment, was made lord privy-seal. Ten new peers were also created ; and the duke of Portland's services were still further re- VOL. IV. 34 warded with a blue riband, and the office of Chancellor of the University of Oxford. MILITARY OPERATIONS ON THE CON- TINENT. THE rulers of France having at this time acquired an absolute dominion over the per- sons of its inhabitants, and over everything which it contained, by a system of terror, her rulers resolved to extend their sway over the neighboring countries, to enlarge their own boundaries; and to obtain, by plunder, the means of supporting those gi- gantic efforts which they were thus enabled to make, they had armed, at the close of the year 1793, nearly a million of men, three hundred thousand of whom were employed on the northern frontier of the republic. To these the allies had not more than one hun- dred and forty thousand men to oppose. Be- sides the superiority of numbers, the French army had the advantage of being subject to a unity of command ; while the allies, com- posed of different nations, were commanded by various leaders, who were very far from acting with that cordial spirit of co-opera- tion which was so essentially necessary, not merely to insure success, but to prevent de- feat. The rivalry between Austria and Prussia, and the jealousy which each had conceived of the other, were so visible, that on the sixth of January, the duke of Bruns- wick addressed a letter to the king of Prus- sia, in which he announced the resignation of his command, stating, as his motive, " the unhappy experience that want of connexion, distrust, egotism, and a spirit of cabal, had disconcerted the measures adopted during the two last campaigns ;" and that " when, instead of the prevalence of an unanimous sentiment and the same principle, each army acts separate and alone, of its own accord, without any fixed plan, without unanimity, and without principles, the consequences are such as we have seen at Dunkirk, at Maubeuge, and Landau. Heaven preserve your majesty from great misfortunes ! " The resignation of the duke was soon followed by a complaint from the Prussian monarch, of the great expense of the war, and a pro- posal that the states of the empire should provide for the subsistence of his troops; a request to which that body did not accede. When the emperor desired that the Diet would order the people in the frontier cir- cles to rise in a mass, the court of Berlin strongly opposed the measure, as fruitless and dangerous ; the general levy did not take place ; and the contingents of the Ger- man princes were deficient. The king of Prussia, from the disappoint- ment of Various kinds which he had experi- enced, had already determined to withdraw himself from the confederacy. In the month of February certain commissioners from the 306 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. French republic arrived at Frankfort, under the pretext of negotiating for an exchange of prisoners; but the marked distinction with which they were treated indicated somewhat of different import, and of higher moment Field-marshal Mullendorf suc- ceeded the duke of Brunswick in the com- mand of the Prussian army ; and an intima- tion to the prince of Cobourg, that he had received orders from his court to march to- wards Cologne, was followed, on the thir- teenth of March, by a proclamation address- ed to the German empire, announcing his Prussian majesty's actual secession from the grand confederacy. This ruse d'etat ap- pears to have fully answered its intended purpose ; as it was almost immediately fol- lowed by the treaty of subsidy already men- tioned, conformably to which, the sum of nearly two million pounds was to be paid to the court of Berlin, for the service of an ar- my of sixty-two thousand men, to be com- manded by an officer of his Prussian majes- ty's own appointment A general council of war was convened at Ath, when the projected arrangements of the campaign, on the part of the court of Vienna, were brought forward by general Haddick. A main article of this plan was, that general Clairfait, an officer of great ability and experience, should be appointed to the command of the auxiliary forces, and that the duke of York should act under his 6rders, the prince of Cobourg continuing at the head of the grand imperial army. This his royal highness refused with disdain ; and the dispute was only settled by the determi- nation that the emperor himself should take the field in person, and that in him should be vested the supreme command. On the ninth of April his imperial majesty arrived at Brussels, where he was solemnly inaugu- rated duke of Brabant, and thence proceed- ed to Valenciennes, where his presence dif- fused great joy. The whole army was re- viewed by him on the heights above Cateau, on the sixteenth, and on the following day they marched in eight columns to invest I^andreci. The French assembled in force at the camp of Csar, near Cambray, from which they were driven by the confederates on the twenty-third, and the investment of Landreci immediately took place. The next day the French made a general assault upon the different posts of the allies in this quar- ter, and were in most instances repulsed ; but the post of Moucron, where Clairfait commanded, was attacked with a superior force by Pichegru in person, and carried, after a brave resistance. Courtray and Me- nin thus fell into the hands of the republic- ans. In return, the fortress of Landreci, which had repelled the utmost efforts of prince Eugene in 1712, fell, after a short siege, into the hands of the prince of Co- bourg. In the month of June, the French, under general Jourdan, who commanded on the side of the Moselle, passed the Sambre, for the third time in the space of fourteen days, and, after being twice repulsed, laid siege to the town of Charleroi. The prince of Cobourg determined to make a grand effort for its re- lief On the twenty-first he readied Ath, and on the twenty-fourth effected a junction with the hereditary prince of Orange and general Beaulieu, who commanded in that quarter. The main body of the French ar- my under general Jourdan was strongly post- ed, at this time, in the vicinity of Fleurus, to cover the siege of Charleroi. On the morning of the twenty-sixth the prince of Cobourg hazarded a general attack on this force. The battle continued with unabated fury till near the close of the day, by which time the allied army was defeated in every part, and forced, with immense loss, to re- treat to Halle, thirty miles from the scene of action. This was a great and decisive victory. Charleroi, to save which this bloody action was fought, had surrendered on the evening of the twenty-fifth; and Brussels fell, without further resistance, into the hands of the enemy. General Clairfait was equal- ly unfortunate on the opposite side. Ypres, the key of western Flanders, was besieged by fifty thousand men, commanded by gen- eral Moreau. After a series of engagements, in which the French were almost uniformly victorious, the Austrians were compelled to fall back upon Ghent, and Ypres surrender- ed on the seventeenth of June. The em- peror, with his favorite, general Mack, in utter despair of success, left the army, after having in vain issued proclamation after proclamation, calling upon the inhabitants of the low countries to rise in a mass in or- der to repel the invaders. The duke of York, who had a separate command at Tournay, was attacked, on the tenth of May, by a French force, consisting of thirty thousand men, which he drove back with great loss. The emperor immediately determined to march to his assistance, and a grand attack was concerted, in which the army of general Clairfait was ordered to co- operate ; but the movements of the different columns not being attended with equal suc- cess, the duke, after a succession of severe conflicts, was obliged to fly, and narrowly escaped being made prisoner. In company with only an Austrian general and two other gentlemen, he entered a village, supposing it to be in the hands of the allies, but, on turning a corner in full gallop, they found a column of the enemy facing them, which, supposing the duke to be at the head of a body of troops, at first fled, after firing a vol- GEORGE ffl. 17601820. 399 ley, which killed the Austrian general at his aide. Recovering, however, from their error, they pursued the duke and his two compan- ions so closely, that they arrived with great difficulty at Tournay, a position which be- came at length wholly untenable, and was therefore evacuated, the duke retreating in the direction of Antwerp. Just as the fate of the Netherlands had been thus decided, lord Moira arrived from England with a re- inforcement of ten thousand men, at Ostend, the gallant remains of that army which had been destined to re-establish royalty in Brit- tany. His situation was critical, the French being in possession of the country on all sides of him, and it was deemed necessary imme- diately to evacuate the town, and endeavor to force his way, without tents or baggage, through the enemy, to join the army of the allies, which, by great and skilful exertion, he accomplished on the eighth of July : the shipping in the harbor, amounting to one hundred and fifty sail, with the ammunition, stores, &c. on board, took their departure for Flushing. Thus Ostend, and, nearly, at the same time, Tournay and Ghent, fell into the hands of the French. In the respective en- gagements which had taken place between Pichegru and the prince of Cobourg, since the battle of Fleurus, the former had great- ly the advantage : Mons, Oudenarde, Brus- sels, and Nieuport, places widely distant, and soon after Mechlin, surrendered to the republican arms, and Antwerp itself was no longer considered as a safe retreat. The stadtholder consequently solicited the States- General to make an extraordinary levy throughout the provinces, but without ef- fect; a revolution in the government was apprehended. About the middle of July general Kleber took possession of Louvain, after defeating general Clairfait, who had possession of the famous camp of the Montagne-de-Fer. The last hope of the allies, that of forming a line of defence from Antwerp to Namur, was now relinquished, Namur being, on the night of the sixteenth, abandoned by general Beau- lieu ; and, on the twenty-fourth, the French took quiet possession of Antwerp, the allies having previously set fire to the immense magazines there deposited. Sluys made a brave resistance, but surrendered after a siege of six weeks, the garrison marching out with the honors of war. The strong towns still occupied by the allies, Landreci, Quesnoy, Conde, and Valenciennes, being now completely insulated, successively re- verted, almost without resistance, to the French. The army under the duke of York was stationed at Breda, whence, for greater se- curity, it retreated towards Bois-le-Duc. The French forces, under Pichegru, advanc- ing rapidly upon them, to the number of eighty thousand men, about the middle of September, the duke crossed the Maese, and took a fresh position near Grave ; and, at the beginning of October, he encamped under the walls of Nimeguen. The French, cross- ing the Maese, made an attack on the Brit- ish posts in front of that town, and having obliged them to change their position, invest- ed the place. Towards the end of the month his royal highness passed the Waal, leaving general Walmoden with a corps to cover the town of Nimeguen, which was evacuated in great confusion, and with much loss, on the seventh of November. Bois-le-Duc, Breda, and Grave, were also successively reduced. Whilst Pichegru was in Dutch Flanders, the Austrian general, La Tour, was totally defeated by general Jourdan near Liege, which city, and those of Aix-la-Cha- pelle and Juliers, were occupied by the French. The prince of Cobourg was at this period suddenly dismissed from his high com- mand ; and his successor, general Clairfait, was compelled, early in October, to repass the Rhine at Cologne. The French pur- sued the imperial troops to the very margin of the river ; and, as the rear of the Aus- trian army embarked, the question was loud- ly and insultingly asked, if that was the road to Paris 1 About the end of September the siege of Maestricht was formally com- menced, and lasted forty days, during which interval the attack and defence were con- ducted with heroic bravery. The atmosphere seemed filled with balls, bombs, and shells, and scarcely was a place of safety left in the whole circuit of the city. Two thousand buildings, public and private, were said to be destroyed ; and a general storm was in- tended on the fourth of November, when the governor, moved by the situation of the in- habitants, and the entreaties of the magis- trates, consented to articles of capitulation with general Kleber, who entered the place on the same day. The Prussians did not act with much vigor in this campaign, nor were they wholly inactive. Being obliged to make some show of co-operation with the Austrians, they sur- prised the French in their intrenchments at Keyserslautern, and defeated them with con- siderable loss. In 'July they were attacked by general Desaix, who carried the import- ant posts occupied by prince Hohenloe on the Platoberg, a high mountain in the terri- tory of Deux-Ponts ; and, soon afterwards, the whole chain of posts from Neustadt to the Rhine being assailed with success, both Austrians and Prussians were obliged to re- treat with precipitation. The imperial army recrossed the Rhine, and the Prussians re- tired towards Guntersbloom and Mentz. The recent acquisition of Keyserslautern was 400 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. abandoned to the republicans, who again oc- cupied the cities of Worms, Spire, and Treves. In Spain and Italy also the armies of the republic were successful. In Novem- ber 1793, they penetrated into the province of Catalonia ;" and, in the beginning of Feb- ruary following a battle was fought near St Jean de Luz, in which the French were conquerors. In May another victory was gained near Ceret ; and soon afterwards a powerful armament now under his command left no doubt relative to the result of a con- test On reaching the Lizard a signal vva^ made for the East-Indiamen to proceed on their voyage, under convoy of six sail of the line and a frigate, which were not to sepa- rate from them until their arrival off Cape Finisterre. Having received information on the nineteenth of May that the Brest fleet was at sea, lord Howe deemed it proper to third, of more importance than the former effect a junction with the squadron lately two, over the principal Spanish army, posted in the vicinity of Collioure. On the west- ern side the" towns of Fontarabia and St. Sebastian fell into the hands of the French. In Italy the Piedmontese had, at the com- mand of the Sardinian monarch, risen in a mass ; but, being destitute of the enthusiasm of liberty, they constituted a body without a soul. The French forced the famous pass of Mount Cenis, took possession of the city and territory of Oneglia, and made them- selves masters of a great part of the open country of that district. CORSICA ANNEXED TO THE BRITISH CROWN. IN the Mediterranean the progress of the English arms, subsequently to the evacua- tion of Toulon, was very flattering. Early in February 1794, lord Hood proceeded for Corsica, which was in a state of revolt against the convention, the insurgents hav- ing been excited to this resistance by the English influence, under the conduct of then- ancient and popular chief. Paschal Paoli, who had been some years since restored to his detached under rear-admiral Montague to refit and water ; but on hearing, two days after, that the enemy had been seen a few leagues further to the westward, he imme- diately altered his course and steered to- wards them. LORD HOWE'S VICTORY. JEAN BON ST. ANDRE, who had been em- ployed at Brest to infuse a spirit of democ- racy into the seamen, acted on this occasion as a national commissioner, having embark- ed on board the flag-ship, carrying one hun- dred and twenty guns, and designated La Montagne, after the ruling party in the Con- vention. On the twenty-eighth of May, at eight o'clock in the morning, in north lati- tude 47 33', W. Long. 14 10', the rival fleets descried each other exactly at the same time ; the wind blew strong from the south-west, accompanied by a very rough sea, and the French possessed the weather- gage. After the advanced frigates had given intimation of this event, earl Howe continued his course, while the French ad- miral endeavored as much as possible to as- country with honor by the Constituent As- sume a regular order of battle upon the star- sembly. Mortella, Tornelli, and St. Fioren- za, being successively surrendered or evacu- ated, the Corsicans who adhered to the French interest retreated to Bastia, which resisted the united efforts of the Anglo-Cor- sicans and English till the twenty-fourth of May, when it capitulated on honorable terms ; and the whole island, excepting Calvi, which held out till August, submitted to the Eng- lish. Letters of convocation were immedi- ately issued for the assembly of the general Consul ta, to be held at Corte, the ancient capital of Corsica, on Sunday, the eighth of June : general Paoli was elected president. The representatives of the Corsican nation immediately voted the union of Corsica with the British crown ; a constitutional act was framed accordingly : and Sir Gilbert Elliot, representative of his Britannic majesty, form- ally accepted this act on his part, and imme- diately assumed the title of viceroy. The Channel fleet put to sea in the spring in search of an enemy which had hitherto eluded pursuit. Lord Howe was particular- ly solicitous to vindicate the honor of his country, as well as to rescue his own char- acter from unmerited reproach ; and the board tack, a circumstance which greatly facilitated the approach of the English. As the conduct of the enemy, who had now hauled their wind, indicated an intention to avoid a close fight, the British commander displayed the signal for a general chase, and, to prevent their escape, he soon after de- tached rear-admiral Pasley, with a flying squadron, to make an impression on their rear : that officer accordingly, near the close of the day, attacked the Revolutionnaire, a three-decked ship of one hundred and ten guns, which happened to be the sternmost in the line, but without any decisive suc- cess on either side. The rival fleets, con- sisting of twenty-six sail of the line on the part of the French, and twenty-five on that of the British, remained within sight of each other during the whole night, on the star- board tack, and in a parallel direction, with the French still to windward ; but next morning, the twenty-ninth, admiral Villaret- Joyeuse, flushed with the hopes of a victory, wore from van to rear, and instead of flinch- ing from the action, edged down in a line ahead to engage the van of the British fleet. Taking advantage of so favorable an op- GEORGE m. 17601820. 401 portunity, lord Howe renewed the signal for passing the enemy's line, and succeeded with some difficulty in obtaining the weather- gage, while the enemy were repulsed by the Barfleur, and two other three-deckers, in an attempt to cut off the Queen and Royal George. At length Villaret tacked again by signal ; and, after a distant can- nonade, stood away in order of battle on the larboard tack, followed by the whole of the British fleet. The second day's action proved equally indecisive as the former, and a thick fog, that intervened during this night and the greater part of the succeeding day, pre- vented the renewal of the engagement In the mean time, rear-admiral Neilly joined the French commander-in-chief with a re- inforcement of three sail of the line and two frigates : this accession of strength enabled him to detach his crippled ships; and the dawn of the successive day exhibited the two fleets drawn up in order of battle, and prepared to renew the contest. The British admiral, perceiving that there was time suf- ficient for the various ships' companies to take refreshment, made a signal for break- fast, which, by procrastinating the action, induced the enemy to believe that their an- tagonists wished to decline the engagement : but they were greatly disappointed ; for in about half an hour lord Howe gave orders for steering the Royal Charlotte alongside the French admiral, which was effected at nine o'clock in the morning; and, while some of the English commanders penetrated the line of battle, and engaged to leeward, others occupied such stations as allowed them to combat with their antagonists to windward. So close and severe was the contest, that the fate of this day depended but little on the exertion of nautical skill : all was hard fighting. In about fifty min- utes after the action had commenced in the centre, admiral Villaret-Joyeuse determined to relinquish the contest : for he now per- ceived several of his ships dismasted, and one of seventy-four guns about to sink ; he at the same time found that six were cap- tured: a great slaughter had also taken place on board his own vessel, in which his captain and many of the crew 'were killed, while the national commissioner, with most of his officers, were wounded : he accord- ingly crowded off with all the canvas he could spread, and was immediately followed by most of the ships in his van that were not completely crippled: two or three of these, although dismantled, also got away scon after, under a temporary sail hoisted on the occasion ; for the enemy had, as usual, chiefly aimed at the rigging, and the victors were by this time disabled from pursuing the vanquished: the Queen Charlotte, in particular, was at this period nearly unman- 34* ageable, having lost her foretopmast in the action ; this was soon after followed by the maintopmast, which fell over the side ; while the Brunswick, which had lost her mizenmast, and the Queen, also disabled, drifted to leeward, and were exposed to con- siderable danger from the retreating fleet. Two eighty, and five seventy-four gun ships, however, still remained in possession of the victors ; but one of the latter, La Vengeur, went down soon after she was taken posses- sion of, and, though many of the French were saved on this occasion by the humanity of their adversaries, above three hundred went to the bottom. The slaughter on beard the French fleet was so great, that in the captured ships alone it amounted to one thousand two hundred and seventy. The British total loss was nine hundred and four. Admiral Montague, who had repaired to England, was immediately dispatched to join earl Howe, and sailed for Brest, partly with a view to fall in with the commander-in- chief, and partly to pick up any crippled ships, which, in case of an action, might take shelter in that port : he accordingly en- countered some of the retreating squadron, and chased them into the outer road. On the succeeding day he descried the main body under Villaret-Joyeuse ; but, notwith- standing the late fatal conflict, that com- mander formed an admirable line of battle, and gave chase ; while the fleet from Amer- ica, consisting of one hundred and sixty sail of merchantmen, supposed to be worth sev- eral millions sterling, but invaluable on ac- count of the distressed state of France, ar- rived in safety on the twelfth of June. The victory of the first of June confer- red great glory on the admiral, and was re- ceived at home with uncommon rejoicing. Large sums of money were subscribed for the benefit of the widows and children of those killed in action. Rear-admirals Bow- yer and Pasley were created baronets, and received a pension of one thousand pounds each per annum. Admirals Graves and Sir Alexander Hood had the honors of the peer- age conferred on them. Earl Howe was pre- sented with a diamond-hilted sword of great value, by the king in person, on board the Queen Charlotte, at Spithead ; and also with a golden chain, to which was suspended a medal, with Victory crowning Britannia on the obverse, and on the reverse a wreath of oak and laurel, encircling his lordship's name, and the date of the action. In De- ;ember 1796, his majesty was also pleased :o transmit gold chains and medals to the [lag-officers and captains, who were reported jy Lord Howe to have skrnalized them- selves during the battle with the French floet. On the twenty-third of April, Sir John 402 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Borlase Warren captured two French frig- ates off Guernsey, after two hours' fighting. In August he pursued five other French ships of war off Scilly, and, driving two of them under the batteries of the Gamelle rocks, would have proceeded to burn them ; but, with a generosity worthy of his cour- age, abstained from the last rigors of war against an unfortunate enemy, whose wound- ed must have perished had he set their ves- sels on fire. CAPTURE OF MARTINIQUE, &c. THE British government prepared a for- midable armament to act against the colo- nies of France in the West Indies. On the third of November, 1793, this expedition sailed ; the land forces consisted of about six thousand troops, under the command of Sir Charles Grey ; and the naval armament, consisting of four ships of war, nine frigates, a bomb-ketch, a few gun-boats, and several store-ships, under Sir John Jervis. Having rendezvoused in Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes, they sailed on the third of February, 1794, to the attack of Martinico, which surrender- ed, after a resolute resistance of seven weeks. Fort Royal was carried by escalade, with extraordinary exertions of valor, par- ticularly on the part of captain Faulknor, of the Zebra, who entered the harbor through the fire of all the batteries, and laid his sloop alongside the walls, which he scaled in de- fiance of repeated volleys of grape-shot As soon as the reduction of Martinico had been effected, the troops were reimbarked, and landed on the island of St. Lucia, which ca- pitulated on the fourth of April ; and upon the eleventh of the same month the fleet and army arrived off Guadaloupe, which, af- ter a short but brave defence, surrendered, with its dependencies, on the twentieth. After these glorious successes Sir Charles Grey returned to Martinico, leaving general Dundas to command at Guadaloupe. About this time a French squadron appeared off the island, from which a body of troops land- ing under the command of a most daring and skilful leader, Victor Hugues, attacked Fort Fleur d'Epee, which they carried by storm ; and the English retreated with con- siderable loss to Fort Louis : this was also soon evacuated, and the troops, shattered and disheartened, took refuge in Basseterre. Sir Charles Grey, on the first intelligence of this attempt, sailed from St. Kitt's with all the force he could collect, and, landing on the island of Guadaloupe, on the nine- teenth of June, made an attempt on the post of Point-a-Petre on the second of July After great efforts of valor, however, he was repulsed, with the loss of six hundred men Upon this the forces were reimbarked, and Basseterre, after a long and vigorous resist- ance, with the whole island and its depend- encies, reverted to its former possessors. Vot long after the loss of the island, the >rave captain Faulknor, who had so emi- nently contributed to the reduction of Mar- mico, lost his life in an engagement with a frigate near Marie-Galente. More than sev- enty men are said to have been killed in the French vessel, and above one hundred wounded ; while only twenty-nine suffered in the victorious ship. ACQUISITIONS IN ST. DOMINGO. ST. DOMINGO, in a remarkable degree, had suffered the mischievous effects of the French revolution. When the people in the mother country asserted their right to free- dom, the claims of the colonial subjects of France were also recognized ; and a society, ailed Les Amis des Noirs, (Friends of the Negroes,) warmly supported the pretensions of the slaves to emancipation, and of the mulattoes to all the privileges enjoyed by the white inhabitants. The declaration of rights promulgated by the National Assem- bly increased the ferment which the first in- telligence of the revolution had produced in the islands ; and violent disturbances and contests were apprehended. Deputies from ;he different districts of the French part of St Domingo met, by the king's order, to prevent tumults and reform abuses ; but their endeavors were opposed by the parti- sans of the old regime, and the governor dissolved the Assembly. Many of the repre- sentatives sailed to France to justify their conduct; and, during their absence, Oge, an enterprising mulatto, found means to ex- cite an insurrection ; but it was quickly sup- pressed, and his life was sacrificed to public justice. The claims of his brethren, how- ever, were confirmed by a decree of the ruling assembly of the parent state, which admitted them to all the privileges of French citizens, on the fifteenth of May, 1791. When a new colonial assembly deliberated on the conduct which prudence required at this crisis, the slaves in the neighborhood of Cape Francois attacked the whites, murder- ed a great number of them, and destroyed the plantations. The insurrection soon spread to other districts ; and though many hundreds of the negroes and their confed- erates were slain in battle or perished by famine, they seemed to multiply like the heads of the hydra. Commissioners were sent from France to heal the disorders of the colony ; but they produced, by their mis- conduct, a civil war among the whites, and invited to their aid a body of rebel negroes, who perpetrated a horrible series of massa- cres at Cape Francois, and in June, 1793, burnt the greater part of the town. The convulsions of the colony induced many of the planters to solicit succor from the British government ; and major-general GEORGE m. 17601820. 403 Williamson was ordered to detach an arma- ment from Jamaica, to take possession of those settlements which the people might be disposed to surrender. Lieutenant-colo- nel Whitelocke sailed in consequence to Jeremie, and received the submission of the inhabitants ; the town and harbor of St Nic- olas were also given up to the English ; and to these possessions Leogane, and other towns and districts, were soon added. An expedition was undertaken for the reduction of Cape Tiburon ; and a bribe was offered to general Lavaux for the surrender of Port de Paix. The enterprise succeeded, and the town was taken on the second of February, 1794. The fort of Acul was stormed by the English ; but at Bombard they were repelled with loss. They defended Cape Tiburon against an army of blacks and mulattoes, who were routed with considerable slaugh- ter. The arrival of a reinforcement from Great Britain, under brigadier-general Whyte, elevated the hopes of the English, and preparations were made for the con- quest of Port-au-Prince. Fort Bizotton was taken at the point of the bayonet. The un- healthiness of the climate now occasioned a great mortality among the troops, and check- ed the extension of their conquests : they soon after lost Leogane and Tiburon. 404 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XXVII. State of the French Government Sanguinary Proceedings Progress of the French in Holland Escape of the Stadtholaer Embassy to China Sweden and Denmark Disputes with America Meeting of Parliament Proceedings Earl Fitzwil- liam, ford-lieutenant of Ireland, recalled, and consequent discontents of the Catholics Marriage of the Prince of Wales Arrangement respecting his Debts Ac- quittal of Warren Hastings Prorogation of Parliament Naval Affairs Occur- rences in the West Indies The French Government concludes Peace loith Prussia, Spain, Hanover, Hesse, 6fc. Operations in La Vendee, and unsuccessful result of an Expedition to Quiberon Bay Insurrection in Paris Death of the Dauphin New French Constitution Return of the English Army from the Continent Hostile Operations on the Rhine War between England and Holland Capture of the Cape of Good Hope, and other Dutch Settlements Unpopularity of the War Outrage against the King Address in consequence Speech from the Throne Address Bills against Treason and Sedition Scarcity of Corn Supplies Birth of Princess Charlotte Dissolution of Parliament. STATE OF FJtENCH GOVERNMENT- SANGUINARY PROCEEDINGS. IN France a faction arose denominated the Cordeliers, at the head of which were Hebert, Ronsin, Anacharsis Clootz, and others, who, to conciliate the populace, adopted the wildest theories, decried all re- ligion, preached equality in the absurdest ex- tent, and recommended publicly an Agra- rian law. In the beginning of March, the table of the rights of man, in the hall of the Cordeliers, was covered with black crape ; and Hebert, from the tribune of the society, affirmed that tyranny existed in the republic. This was sufficient to arouse the jealousy of Robespierre. Virtue and ferocity were declared in the convention, by Couthon, to be the requisite order of the day. On the twenty-fifth of March, Hebert, Danton, and nineteen others, were, on a charge of con- spiracy against the constitution, brought be- fore the revolutionary tribunal, and, of course, condemned to the guillotine. These exe- cutions were followed by those of Fabre d'Eglantine, and other popular deputies of the Convention, on pretence of their having engaged in counter-revolutionary projects. It deserves notice that St. Just, in the re- port presented on this occasion, makes the profession of atheism a principal charge against Fabre d'Eglantine. ~ Danton and his fellow-sufferers, who fell under the fatal ax of the guillotine on the second of April, was followed by that of general Arthur Dillon, who had formerly commanded that division of the French ar- my which, in the campaign of 1792, had so gallantly repulsed the Prussians. The prin- cess Elizabeth, sister to Louis XVI. was charged with having conspired to restore royalty : not a witness was produced, nor a single attempt made to substantiate any one The execution of outlawed feet alleged against her; she was, never- theless, condemned to death, with twenty- four of her reputed accomplices. Barrere brought forward the infamous de- cree for allowing no quarter to the English or Hanoverian troops ; but the French offi- cers and soldiery refused to execute this abominable mandate, and the commander- in-chief of the British forces declined to re- taliate the threatened cruelty. Bourdon de L'Oise, a member of the con- ventional assembly, demanded that the de- cree which affirmed the inviolability of the national representatives should be again es- tablished, and that no member should be brought before the revolutionary tribunal but in consequence of a decree of accusa- tion passed by the assembly itself, instead of an order from the committee of safety, where Robespierre, and the vile instruments of his tyranny, Couthon and St. Just, were absolute. This was accordingly decreed, and from this time the party formed against Robespierre rapidly increased; even his celebrated colleague, Barrere, took a secret, though efficient part, in plotting his over- throw. Robespierre was not suffered to speak in his own defence ; and Tallien moved that Robespierre and his creatures be im- mediately arrested: they were soon after by the convention. These mo- tions were passed amidst tumults of ap- plause ; and on the evening of the same day, July twenty-eighth, the proscribed individ- uals, to the number of twenty-one, were exe- cuted in the Place de Revolution : Robes- pierre appeared to be petrified with' horror. After his fall the Jacobin club was en- tirely demolished ; the remains of the Girond- ist party were restored to their seats in the convention; and Dumas president of the revolutionary tribunal, Fouquier Tinville, GEORGE IE. 17601820. 405 the public accuser, Carriere, conventional commissioner, the destroyer of La Vendee ; and various others of the same description, were brought to the scaffold. Hundreds were released from prison, who, but for the death of Robespierre, would probably have fallen victims to the reign of terror ; and the infamous decree of the convention, for refusing quarter to the English and Han- overian soldiery, was annulled. PROGRESS OF THE FRENCH IN HOLLAND. ESCAPE OF THE STADTHOLDER. PICHEGRU waited till the frost should set in, in order to commence a whiter campaign on the frontiers of Holland. The duke of York endeavored in vain to rouse the Dutch to resistance, and his royal highness, there- fore, returned to England. In the course of a week, the Maese and the Waal being frozen over, on the twenty- seventh a strong column of French crossed the former of those rivers, while another corps made themselves masters of the Bom- mel. Pichegru did not make his grand movement till the tenth of January, 1795, when the main body of his forces crossed the Waal at different points, and made a general attack upon the lines of the allies, extending between Nimeguen and Arnheim, under the command of general Walmoden. The allies were defeated in every quarter, and a precipitate retreat was ordered to- wards Amersfort and Deventer. Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Dort, surrendered to the French without resistance ; the Stadtholder escaped from Scheveling : general Pichegru made his public entry into Amsterdam ; and, by order of the States-General, every other fortress in the republic opened its gates to the French. On the twenty-seventh of January the provisional representatives of the people of Holland assembled, and a de- cree passed for the total abolition of the stadtholderate, and for the establishment, under the protection of the republic of France, of a new provisional government for the united provinces, which were now denominated the Batavian republic. EMBASSY TO CHINA. THE prevailing desire of commercial ad- vantage in Great Britain, concurring with a wish to secure the friendship of a potentate whose influence extended to territories bor- dering on those of the English East India Company, induced the king to send an am- bassador to treat with the Chinese court; and earl Macartney, who had acquired repu- tation as governor of Madras, with a suite comprising several men of science and skil- ful artists, sailed under the conduct of Sir Erasmus Gower. He reached the Yellow Sea in safety, passed up the White River to Tong-Choo-Foo, and thence proceeded by land to the metropolis of China. Tchien- Lung, the aged emperor, who had already governed that vast empire with uninterrupt- ed success and reputation more than half a century, was then at the palace of Zhe-hol, beyond the celebrated wall which had been erected as a barrier against the incursions of the Tartars. There the ambassador de- livered a letter from the British sovereign, in a box of gold, adorned with jewels, which was graciously received ; but a spirit of jealousy disinclined the emperor to a trea- ty, and, after the exchange of mutual pres- ents, it was hinted that the departure of the strangers would be agreeable. On the ninth of October, 1793, his excellency and suite left Pekin, and proceeded to Tong-Tchew, whence they were conveyed by a variety of rivers and canals from the northern to the southern extremity of China, reaching Can- ton in safety, after a variety of amusing ad- ventures, on the eighteenth of December; and in January following they embarked at Macao for England. SWEDEN AND DENMARK DISPUTES WITH AMERICA. SWEDEN and Denmark still persevered in their determination of observing a perfect impartiality during the present war ; and on the twenty-seventh of March, a convention was concluded between them, by which they agreed to protect the freedom of commerce in the Baltic, on the principles of the armed neutrality of 1780, equipping jointly a fleet of sixteen ships of the line for that service ; and, by the tenth article, the Baltic was de- clared to be a neutral sea, absolutely and altogether inaccessible to the armed ships of the different and distant belligerent powers. Jay, chief justice of the United States of America, arrived about this period in Eng- land, as minister plenipotentiary, to adjust the existing differences between that repub- lic and the British government. Soon after the commencement of the war, orders were given for stopping all American vessels car- rying corn to France, and detaining their cargoes, paying for them and the freights. This proceeding, which was resented by the Americans as an infraction of their in- dependence, was followed by an order for seizing all American ships carrying provi- sions and stores to the French colonies, and also for obliging American ships sailing from the British islands, to give security to land their cargoes in British or neutral ports. This order having occasioned the seizure of six hundred American vessels within five months, that government showed its resent- ment by an embargo of thirty days on the British shipping. In addition to these griev- ances the memorial delivered by Jay to the British court complained of the severity used to American seamen, and of their being compelled to serve on board English men- 406 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of-war. Although these differences were finally attended with very serious effects, they were for the present compromised, both parties being pacifically disposed, and a trea- ty of amity and commerce between the two countries was signed in November. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT PROCEED- INGS. 1795. THE parliament assembled on the thirtieth of December ; and in the speech fiom the throne, while the disasters of the late campaign were admitted, the necessity of persisting in the war was strongly urged, as additional vigor and additional efforts were the only possible means of producing a successful result Amendments were moved in both houses to the address. On the fifteenth of January the attorney-gene- ral brought in a bill to continue the suspen- sion of the habeas corpus act for a limited time. This measure being carried in the commons by a considerable majority, the bill was transmitted to the lords, and passed that assembly also, but not without a protest against it, signed by the dukes of Norfolk and Bedford, and the earls of Lauderdale and Guilford. Pitt delivered to the house of commons a message from his majesty, intimating that a loan to the amount of four million six hun- dred thousand pounds would be wanted to aid the exertions of the emperor of Germany during the next campaign, on the credit of his hereditary dominions, which would prob- ably require the guarantee of the British government On the question that the na- tional faith be pledged for the sum required, considerable discussion arose, in the course of which Fox said that the recent defalca- tion of the king of Prussia, immediately af- ter pocketing the English gold, ought to op- erate as a caution against all advances of money to German princes ; and he had no confidence in the efficacy of the proposed loon ; Sir William Pulteney entertained a high opinion of its probable utility; lord Grenville had so much reliance on the promised exertions of his imperial majesty, that he would rather consent to make a present of the desired sum than lose the chance of expected benefit ; the marquis of Lansdowne disapproved all connexions with German princes; but the proposition was agreed to by large majorities, and the loan was shipped to the continent in sterling gold. On the twenty-third of February the min- ister submitted his annual statement of the supplies and ways and means to the consid- eration of the house. The number of men voted for the service of the year was, one hundred and fifty thousand landmen, includ- ing militia; eighty-five thousand seamen, and fifteen thousand marines ; the expendi- ture amounted to twenty-seven million five hundred and forty thousand pounds ; and the loan proposed was eighteen million pounds, being the largest sum ever voted by parlia- ment up to that period. New taxes were imposed on wine, spirits, tea, coffee, insu- rances, hair-powder, &c. which, with an abridgement of the privilege of franking, were estimated to produce one million six hundred and forty-four thousand pounds, of which three hundred and fifty-seven thou- sand pounds were to be applied to the pro- gressive redemption of the debt. As a coun- terpoise for these additional burdens, the minister mentioned the extraordinary in- crease of commerce, which, in the preceding year, had exceeded that of the most flour- ishing period of peace. EARL FITZWILLIAM RECALLED FROM IRELAND. DISCONTENT OF THE CATH OLICS. THE affairs of Ireland formed one of the most important subjects that engaged the attention of the present parliament. Some malcontents had entered into secret con- nexions with the French revolutionists, and a plan for separating the island from the British dominions was strongly suspected, when earl Fitzwilliam, a nobleman distin- guished for his mild and conciliatory con- duct, was placed at the head of the govern- ment an appointment peculiarly acceptable to the Irish nation. The Irish parliament assembled on the twenty-second of January, 1795, and, after voting to the new viceroy an address expressive of the general satis- faction, agreed, without hesitation, to the most ample supplies ever granted in that kingdom. The lord-lieutenant, finding it im- practicable to defer deciding on the demands of the Catholics for the removal of the re- maining disabilities under which they still continued to labor, employed in his transac- tions with the leading members of that body the celebrated Grattan, ui whom the Catho- lics universally confided. A bill for their further relief was consequently introduced into the Irish parliament, and the utmost joy was diffused through the country, in the ex- pectation of this enlarged toleration, when intelligence arrived in Dublin that the Brit- ish ministry avowed themselves adverse to the measure. The lord-lieutenant, after hold- ing the government only three months, was displaced, and lord Camden appointed in his stead. The recall of earl Fitzwilliam cast a deep gloom over Ireland ; and the arrival of his successor in the capital, on the thirty-first of March, was accompanied by so marked an ebullition of popular discontent, that the intervention of the military was found ne- cessary. On the thirteenth of April the Irish parliament assembled. On the twenty- fourth Grattan presented his memorable bill GEORGE HI. 17601820. 407 for Catholic emancipation ; but it was re- jected, and from this period the political association, styled the Society of United Irishmen, rapidly extended itself over the whole country. All the Catholics, and a large proportion of the Protestants of the kingdom, joined this community ; and the leaders began to entertain dangerous de- signs. Agents were sent to negotiate with the national convention ; acts of sedition, rapine, and murder, were perpetrated by the most desperate ; while, on the other hand, the violent supporters of the system of ex- clusion confederated together under the name of Orangemen. Mutual injuries soon engendered a most inveterate hatred be- tween these two descriptions of men, one of which was beyond comparison superior in number, and the other in property, in legal authority, and military force ; and these dis- sensions rapidly increased, till the whole land exhibited a scene of terror, consterna- tion, and blood. MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. HIS DEBTS ARRANGED. AN event, auspicious in its commence- ment, though unfortunate in its results, as it affected both the illustrious parties, occurred on the eighth of April, in the marriage of the prince of Wales with the princess Caro- line, daughter of the duke of Brunswick, and the dutchess Augusta of England, and niece to his majesty. Lord Malmsbury was employed to conduct the royal bride from her father's court. On her arrival in England she was received with every mark of dis- tinction due to her royal birth and illustrious alliance, and the nuptials were celebrated with great magnificence. It was generally understood, that in forming this connexion, his royal highness was influenced by the promise of an ample provision for the dis- charge of his debts, which had increased to a vast amount; aoftthis is the more proba- ble from his knowff attachment at the time to Mrs. Fitzherbert, with whom it was even stated that the marriage ceremony, though invalid by law, had taken place. On the twenty-seventh of April, a mes- sage from his majesty to the commons an- nounced the royal marriage, and expressed the king's conviction that a suitable provi- sion would be made for the establishment of the prince and princess. The message pro- ceeded to state that his royal highness was under pecuniary encumbrances, and recom- mended to parliament the gradual extinction of his debts, by applying to that purpose a part of his income, and the revenues of the dutchy of Cornwall. After some discussion, the house, on the suggestion of the chancel- lor of the exchequer, determined that one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds, together with the rents of the dutchy of Cornwall, estimated at thirteen thousand pounds, should be settled upon the prince, of which, seventy-eight thousand pounds should be applied annually to the liquidation of his debts, amounting, at this period, to- upwards of six hundred thousand pounds ; and that a law should be passed to prevent the heir apparent in future from being in- volved in similar difficulties. These propo- sitions met the concurrence of the house, and a jointure of fifty thousand pounds per annum was settled upon the princess of Wales, in the event of her surviving his royal highness. WARREN HASTINGS ACQUITTED. PAR- LIAMENT PROROGUED. THE trial of Hastings, which had lasted seven years, was now brought to a conclu- sion. After some debates on the mode of proceeding, it was resolved that the question should be separately put on sixteen points. The greatest number of peers who voted the defendant guilty in any one respect, did not exceed six : the votes of innocence, in some of the charges, were twenty-six ; in others, twenty-three ; in one, nineteen. The chan- cellor intimated the decision of the court to Hastings on the twenty-third of April, who received it in silence, bowed, and retired from the bar. The public in general seemed to be pleased with the acquittal of one who had suffered so long an arraignment, yet had conducted the affairs of his government with spirit and success ; and who, though he had not al- ways regarded the duties of morality, the dictates of virtuous policy, and the senti- ments of humanity and ipoderation, had pro- moted the interests of his employers, secured j their authority, and established their domin- ion. The East India company paid Hastings the costs of his trial, amounting to upwards of seventy thousand pounds, and likewise conferred upon him a pecuniary donation. Parliament was prorogued on the twenty- seventh of June by a speech from the throne, which breathed the air of pacification, and declared it impossible to contemplate the in- ternal situation of the enemy with whom we were contending without indulging a hope that the present circumstances of France might, in their effects, hasten the re- turn of such a state of order and regular government as might be capable of main- taining the accustomed relations of peace and amity. .NAVAL AFFAIRS WEST INDIES. IN March an engagement took place in the Mediterranean, between two squadrons, nearly equal in force ; the English command- ed by admiral Hotham, and the French by Richery, the latter of which was conveying a large body of troops to Corsica, for the re- capture of that island. The Ca Ira, of 408 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. eighty, and the Censeur, of seventy-four guns, struck to the English flag: on the other hand, the French captured the Ber- wick, of seventy-four guns, going out singly to join the fleet ; and the illustrious of the same rate, being much damaged in the fight, was driven on shore, and lost near Avenza. Soon after this another partial action took place near St. Fiorenzo ; and the Alcide, a Frencjj ship of the line, struck her colors ; but, from some fatal accident, blew up before she could be taken possession of by the Eng- lish. The skilful retreat of admiral Corn- wallis, with a small squadron of five ships of the line, from a far superior force, is entitled to be mentioned. On the sixteenth of June, near the Penmarks, the Phaeton frigate made a signal for an enemy's fleet, consisting of thirteen line-of-battle ships. At nine the next morning the French began the attack, which was vigorously repelled by the Eng- lish, who kept up a running fight the whole day, without suffering the enemy to gain the least advantage. At length, by throwing out signals as if to another British fleet in sight, the assailants were induced to sheer off. On the twenty-third, however, off Port L'Orient, the same French squadron actually fell in with another fleet, under lord Brid- port, which captured three of them, the rest of the squadron only escaping into L'Orient by keeping close in shore. On the other hand, the French made, in the month of Oc- tober, a capture of thirty merchantmen from the Mediterranean and Levant, with a ship of the line, constituting part of the convoy. They also made arize of part of a Jamaica fleet ; and, indeeflboth in this and the pre- ceding year, the ll-itish trade suffered im- mensely from their' attacks, while their own declining commerce presented few objects of reprisal for our cruisers and privateers. Notwithstanding their disparity of naval force, the French, after recovering the whole of Guadeloupe, attacked, with success, the fort of Tiburon, in St Domingo, and made themselves masters of St. Eustatius, St Lucia, after a violent and bloody conflict, was reluctantly evacuated by the governor- general, Stewart; and Grenada, Dominico, and St Vincent's, were preserved with great difficulty. In Jamaica a strife long subsisted with the Maroons, a tribe which on the sur- render of the island by the Spaniards to the English, refused to submit to the latter, and had since occupied the mountainous part of the country. After many conflicts in which they were" nearly exterminated, those who remained consented to be removed to Cana- da, where a portion of land was allotted to them. % FRENCH MAKE PEACE WITH PRUSSIA, SPAIN, Ac. ON the continent the French courted the king of Prussia into forbearance, and per- suaded him that his safety and interest re- quired peace. Having annexed two great commercial cities, Dantzic and Thorn, to- gether with some of the most fertile prov- inces of Poland, to his dominions, and de- spairing of the subversion of the French re- public, that prince seceded from the confede- racy, and concluded a treaty on the fifth of April, by which he relinquished his posses- sions on the left bank of the Rhine. By another agreement he secured the neutrality, and provided for the peace of the north of Germany. The king of Spain was also in- duced to agree to a pacification with the vic- torious republic. In the former part of the year the French met with great success over the troops of the Spanish monarch, and threatened him not only with the loss of con- siderable provinces, but with the propagation of revolutionary doctrines among his people. To avert these dangers, the king of Spain purchased peace by the resignation of that part of the island of St. Domingo which the Spaniards had possessed ever since the time of Columbus. Even the elector of Hanover, though he remained the most active member of the confederacy in his capacity of king of Great Britain, nevertheless ordered a treaty of peace to be signed with the French, as far as related to the electorate; as did also the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. The grand duke of Tuscany, brother of the em- peror, and the first of all the potentates who had joined the coalition, was likewise in- duced to recognize the French republic ; and through the intervention of his minister, count Carletti, he concluded at Paris a sepa- rate treaty of peace with the convention, and resumed openly his original system of neutrality. The regent of Sweden, follow- ing the pacific policy of the grand duke, sent the baron de Stael to Paris, to assure the French nation of tlfe friendship enter- tained for them by the Court of Stockholm. OPERATIONS IN LA VENDEE. UNSUC- CESSFUL EXPEDITION TO QUIBERON BAY. AN entire change took place in the con- duct of the civil war in La Vendee. After some preliminary negotiations in the begin- ning of February, Charette, and the princi- pal chiefs of his army, on behalf of the Ven- deans, and general Comartin on the part of the Chouans, publicly signified their inten- tion to deliver up their arms and magazines, and to live for the future in subjection to the existing government. Conferences were opened at a farm-house near Nantes be- tween the insurgent chiefs and the deputies from the convention ; and on the seventh of March a treaty of peace was concluded, signed, and ratified, at Nantes. The hopes, however, that this peace would be perma- GEORGE III. 17601820. 409 nent, were soon proved to be delusive. The republican government, on the plea of bad faith, refused to advance the sums stipulated by the treaty of the seventh of March ; and several of the chiefs having been arrested for holding a traitorous correspondence with the English government, the country was again in arms early in June, under the com- mand of Charette and Stofflet. The British government, however, appeared unwilling to adopt any decisive plan of operations on the French coast, and determined to let the royalists act for themselves, with such assist- ance of arms and money as England could dalous breach of faith, tried, condemned, and. executed as traitors: one hundred and eighty- seven royalists, including the bishop of Dol, and several of his clergy, who had accom- panied the expedition, were murdered in cold blood on this occasion. The British squadron hovered on the coast for some time, and, having failed in the attempt to take the island of Noirmoutier, succeeded in gaming possession of Isle Dieu. INSURRECTION IN PARIS DEATH OF THE DAUPHIN. THE two parties who had combined to overthrow the tyranny of Robespierre soon afford. Agreeably to this decision, a small showed that they could not exist together ; armament was prepared in the month of j and on the second of March a report was June : it consisted of all the emigrant nobil- presented to the convention, in which Bar- ity then in England, who had enlisted in rere, Collot d'Herbois, and Billaud Varennes, their service, with more zeal than prudence ; I were accused of having participated in the a number of French prisoners of war, who I enormities of Robespierre, and, after under- were republicans in heart, and who only I going the usual form of trial, it was decreed wanted an opportunity to return to their na- 1 that they should be transported to Guiana, tive country. The whole formed a body of | The proceedings against these deputies, about three thousand men, who were landed j united with the pressure of famine, which on a peninsula in the Bay of Quiberon, on at that moment was felt with peculiar se- the southern coast of Brittany, on the twenty-! verity, occasioned an insurrection in Paris, seventh of June. Here they attacked a fort which broke out on the first of April, and defended by three thousand republicans, which they speedily reduced ; and were, in a few days, joined by a body of Chouans, who increased their numbers to twelve thou- sand. In order to confine the royalists to was not suppressed till the following day. Another insurrection took place in Paris on the twentieth of May, when the rallying ex- clamation was, " Bread, and the constitution of 1793 !" This was followed by insurrections the contracted space of the peninsula which in the departments, but they were all at length they occupied, their opponents erected three \ suppressed. forts at the neck of it These the former j On the ninth of June, the only son of the attacked on the night of the fifteenth of | late unfortunate Louis the sixteenth, termi- July, and carried two of them; but being j nated his sufferings in the prison of the Tem- excessively galled by a masked battery, on I pie. where he had been confined from the their approach to the third, they were com- 1 fatal autumn of 1792. On this event the pelled to retreat ; and were indebted for committee of public safety proposed the ex- their safety to the seasonable fire from the change of his sister, who remained a pris- British ships. The failure of this attempt oner in the Temple, for the deputies Sem- produced dissensions among the royalists, onville and Maret, who had been delivered which were reported, with great exaggera- up to Austria by Dumouriez, which was, tions, no doubt, to the republican general, j after some delay, acceded to. The count de Hoche, by those French prisoners who had been enlisted in England, and who now de- serted. Through the treachery of these mis- creants Hoche obtained the watch-word of the royalists, whose camp he surprised in the night of the twentieth of July, and took or slew the greater part of them. The young count de Sombreuil, however, at the head of a gallant body of emigrants, con- tinued to make such a desperate resistance, that Hoche was induced to enter into a ca- pitulation with them, by which they were to be treated as prisoners of war, and their personal safety insured. All the stores, am- munition, and baggage, fell into the hands of the enemy. Thus ended this abortive at- tempt, in which some of the best blood of ancient France was shed. Sombreuil and hie gallant associates were, by a most scan- VOL. IV. 35 Provence, the legitimate heir to the throne of the Bourbons, was now styled Louis the eighteenth. NEW FRENCH CONSTITUTION. THE plan of a new constitution was drawn up by a committee appointed for that pur- pose, and on the twenty-third of August de- clared complete. The legislative power was vested in two councils, the one consisting of five hundred, and the other of two hun- dred and fifty members ; to the former of which, styled the Legislative Council, be- longed the proposing, and to the latter, the Senate, or Council of Elders, the confirming of laws. The executive power was dele- gated to a directory of five persons. On this constitution two decrees were ingrafted, which, in their consequences, plunged the metropolis of France into another of those 410 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. scenes of horror that had so often been ex- hibited during the revolution: by the first of these decrees, passed on the fifth Fructi- dor (August the twenty-second), it was en- acted that the elective bodies should, in ap- pointing the deputies to the legislative body, choose two-thirds from among the members of the present convention ; and, by the sec- ond, that, in default of such election, the convention should fill up the vacancies them- selves. The forty-eight sections of Paris, while they unanimously accepted the con- stitutional act, firmly rejected the law for the re-election of the two-thirds, and proceeded to acts of open hostility. On the fourth of October, the sections, having drawn out their forces, marched them to the hall of the con- vention, and a sanguinary battle took place in the streeta The command of the troops was confided to Barras by the convention ; and on this occasion Napoleon Buonaparte first distinguished himself, as a commander, on that stage on which he afterwards became so prominent an actor. The different ave- nues of the Thuilleries being planted with cannon, great slaughter was made among the insurgents, who were driven from all their posts, with the loss of about eight hun- dred men ; and the convention, now triumph- ant, declared the majority of votes in the departments in favor of the law of the fifth of Fructidor. On the thirtieth of Septem- ber the convention solemnly decreed the incorporation with the republic of France of all the countries which the house of Aus- tria, previously to the war, had possessed on the French side of the Rhine : on the twen- ty-seventh of October it was decreed that the punishment of death should be abolished at the peace, and a general amnesty grant- ed; and the president, then rising, said, " The convention is dissolved !" The mem- bers of the new legislature proceeded to the choice of the directory, and the election fell upon men not distinguished as favorites of the people, but most of whom bore charac- ters free from reproach. At the head of the list stood Reveillere Lepaux, a lawyer by profession, and of the Gironde party: the next was Reubel, a moderate man, also an attorney : Letourneur de la Marche, an offi- cer of engineers, and rather more attached to the Mountain party, was the third : the fourth was Barras, formerly a viscount, a sol- dier by profession, and a man of pleasure in habits : Sieyes, the subtle statesman, was at first nominated as the fifth, but he declined the office; and Carnot, a member of the committee of safety under Robespierre, but who had attended almost exclusively to the business of the military department, and of whom it was said, " that he organized Victory, and rendered her permanent," filled up the number. Thus constituted, the new government, in all its departments, entered upon the active exercise of its functions, and the palace of the Luxembourg was ap- pointed fir the residence of the executive power. RETURN OF THE ENGLISH ARMY FROM THE CONTINENT. OPERATIONS ON THE RHINE. THE English army, under the command of general Sir Ralph Abercrombie, pursued by a far superior force, moved towards the German frontier; and on the twelfth of Feb- ruary they crossed the Ems at Rheine, much harassed by the advanced parties of the en- emy. At Groningen the division command- ed by lord Cathcart was refused admission ; but, after a long series of disasters, the shat- tered remains of this fine body of troops, supposed, at their departure from England, to amount to thirty-five thousand men, now reduced to about a fifth part of that number, reached the city of Bremen on the twenty- seventh and twenty-eighth of March, and soon afterwards embarked on board the transports lying ready to receive them in the Elbe for England. The allied powers were not in a situation to take the field till the month of May ; and it was not till the seventh of June that the fortress of Luxembourg was attacked by the French troops. After its surrender, nothing seemed wanting to complete the glory of the French arms, and to secure their recent acquisitions, but the subjection of Mentz, which had then been fruitlessly besieged for several months, the Austrians, commanded by generals Clairfait and Wurmser, main- taining an uninterrupted intercourse with the garrison from Cassel, on the opposite bank. It being at length perceived that the city could not be reduced until a perfect in- vestment was formed, a large* body of the French troops, under Jourdan, passed the Rhine at Dusseldorf, which surrendered without resistance, the Austrians retiring to a strong position on the Lahn. Another body, commanded by Pichegru, effected the passage of the river at Manheim, of whicli city they took immediate possession, on terms very favorable to the inhabitants. The investment of Mentz was thus at last accomplished, and a confident hope was en- tertained of its speedy capitulation ; but a division of Pichegru's army, being ordered to the attack of a post necessary to prevent the junction of the forces of Clairfait and Wurmser, now marching to the relief of Mentz, was overpowered, and compelled to retreat with precipitation to Manheim ; and Jourdan, thus deprived of the expected co- operation of Pichegru, found his position no longer tenable. The Austrians also had taken part of his heavy artillery : Jourdan was therefore obliged to raise the siege, and GEORGE m. 17601820. 411 he repassed the Rhine at Dusseldorf, much harassed by Clairfait in his retreat The Austrians even pursued the enemy across the river, and beat up the quarters of the French, spreading terror over the country as far as Luxembourg. General Wurmser, on the other side, proceeded to the attack of Manheim. He immediately began a bombardment, which in a short tune de- stroyed the principal buildings of that beau- tiful city, reducing it to a scene of desola- tion; and the garrison surrendered them- selves prisoners of war. The campaign was at length terminated by an armistice of three months. WAR WITH HOLLAND. CAPTURE OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, &c. FRANCE having entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with Holland, a proc- lamation was issued by the British govern- ment, on the nineteenth of January, con- taining peremptory orders to seize whatever Dutch vessels were found in the ports of Great Britain ; in consequence of which five ships of war were secured, lying in Ply- mouth Sound, nine East-Indiamen, and about sixty sail of other vessels. On the ninth of February a third proclamation was publish- ed, authorizing the capture of all Dutch ships and property ; and letters of marque and re- prisal were also, after an interval of some months, granted ; so that war against Hol- land was virtually declared ; and before the end of the summer, the famous settlement of the Cape of Good Hope surrendered with little resistance. The conduct of the expe- dition was intrusted to vice-admiral Sir George Keith Elphinstone and general Sir Alured Clarke. On the fourteenth of July a landing was effected at Simons-Town, and possession obtained of that place, which had been previously evacuated, with the suppos- ed intention of being burnt. The troops, advancing towards the Cape-Town, carried the strong post of Muysenberg, where gen- eral Craig waited for a reinforcement from St. Salvador. After some weeks of inaction, an attempt to surprise the most considerable of the out-posts failed ; and, though the Eng- lish repelled a fierce attack, their efforts did not deter their adversaries from preparing for a general engagement At this crisis, the appearance of the expected reinforce- ment checked the eagerness of the enemy : the government proposed a cessation of hos- tilities, and terms of capitulation were ad- justed on the sixteenth of September, by which it was agreed that the troops in gar- rison should be prisoners of war, and that the property of the Dutch East India com- pany should be delivered up to the captors of the settlement; but private possessions and civil rights were left inviolate. In the course of the year, Trincomale, Columbo, and other Dutch settlements in Ceylon , Malac- ca, situated on the peninsula of that name ; Chinsura, in the Bay of Bengal, and Cochin, on the coast of Malabar, were taken by the British forces. Early in 1795, lord Amherst retiring from public life, the duke of York was appointed commander-in-chief and field-marshal gen- eral of the forces of Great Britain ; the duke of Richmond was removed from his post of master of the ordnance, in which he was succeeded by earl, recently created marquis Cormvallis; and Sir William Howe was nominated, in the place of the latter noble- man, governor and lieutenant of the tower of London. UNPOPULARITY OF THE WAR. OUTRAGE AGAINST THE KING ADDRESS. A SPIRIT of discontent pervaded the coun- try at this period, and petitions for peace from London, York, Norwich, Hull, Man- chester, &c. were presented ; but they were not sufficiently general to produce any ma- terial impression, and their influence was counteracted by other petitions, expressive of a reliance in the wisdom of government, and in their readiness to enter upon negotia- tions for peace whenever the proper period should arrive. In the autumn great appre- hensions were excited by large assemblages of the populace, convened by the Corres- ponding Secretary, which still continued its meetings ; and on the twenty-sixth of Octo- ber not less than forty thousand persons as- sembled in a field near Copenhagen house, in the vicinity of the metropolis, for the pur- pose of voting a number of resolutions ex- pressive of then* views of the measures of government ; and a petition, praying that the bill recently introduced into the house for the restriction, or rather the utter preven- tion of popular assemblies, for the purpose of political investigation, might be dismiss- ed with that marked disapprobation it so justly deserved. To increase the agitations produced by the conflicts of parties, a scar- city, arising almost to famine, prevailed throughout the kingdom. This scarcity was occasioned (in part, at least) by an alarming deficiency in the year's crop, which had suf- fered extremely by incessant rains. The state of the nation from these circumstances appeared so critical, that it was judged ex- pedient to assemble parliament at an earlier period than usual. On the twenty-ninth of October, the day fixed for the meeting, an unusual concourse of people assembled in the Park ; and, as his majesty passed to the house, violent excla- mations were heard of " Peace ! Bread ! No Pitt! No war!" The clamor increasing, stones were thrown at the royal carriage as it proceeded through the streets of West- minster ; and from a house near the Abbey, 412 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. a bullet was supposed to be discharged from an air-gun, as no noise was heard, though something passed through the glass of the coach with great force and velocity. On entering the nouse of peers his majesty, in some perturbation, addressing the lord chan- cellor, said, " My lord, I have been shot at" The rage of the misguided populace was not yet exhausted ; for, on his return from the house, the king was again assailed in the Park ; and to such a pitch did the mob carry their resentment, that one party of them at- tacked and nearly demolished the state car- riage as it returned empty from St. James's ; while another attempted to stop the private carriage of the king, in which he had seat- ed himself for the purpose of joining his family at the queen's house, and even to force open the carriage doors. At this crit- ical moment the arrival of a party of the life-guards dispersed the populace, and the king, with great difficulty, reached the queen's house. So gross an outrage as this had never been offered to any other monarch of Great Britain since the days of Charles the first A reward of one thousand pounds was immediately offered, to be paid on con- viction of any person concerned in this da- ring and criminal assault ; but no one who had been guilty of any actual violence was ever discovered. The only person brought to punishment was Kidd Wake, a journey- man printer, who was found to have been among the hissers and disturbers of the king's peace, of which crime he was con- victed, and sentenced to five years' solitary confinement in the penitentiary-house at Gloucester, and to stand in the pillory. The outrage committed upon the sover- eign excited great consternation in the house of lords ; and, as soon as the king withdrew, the ministers had a short consultation as to the proper mode of proceeding on so extraor- dinary an occasion. It was at length determin- ed to postpone the consideration of the speech from the throne to the following day, and im- mediately to form the house into a commit- tee of privileges. This being done, lord Gren- ville apprized the peers of the attack which the king had sustained on his way to the house. Some witnesses were next exam- ined, who proved that, after the royal car- riage had passed the gate-way at the horse- guards, there were frequent exclamations of " Down with George ! No King !" and many stones were thrown at the coach by the mob. When all the facts had been es- tablished, a conference was proposed with the commons, and a joint address was pre- sented to the kiner, in which the two houses avowed their indignation and abhorrence at the daring outrage offered to his majesty, and requested that h? would be pleased to direct the most effectual measures to be taken, without delay, for discovering the authors and abettors of crimes so atrocious. KING'S SPEECH BILLS AGAINST TREA- SON. IN the speech from the throne the king expressed his satisfaction at the improved state of public affairs, arising from the mea- sures which had been adopted for prevent- ing the invasion of Italy and Germany by the French ; the crisis brought about by the prevalence of anarchy at Paris was repre- sented as likely to produce consequences highly important to the interests of Europe ; and, should that crisis terminate in any order of things affording a reasonable expectation of security and permanence in any treaty which might be concluded, the appearance of a wish to negotiate for a general peace on just and suitable terms would not fail to be met by the king with an earnest desire to give it the fullest and speediest effect The speech notified that treaties of defensive al- liance had been concluded with the two im- perial courts, and that a commercial treaty had been ratified with America. The ad- dress having been proposed by lord Dalkeith, Fox moved an amendment asserting the abil- ity of the French government to maintain the accustomed relations of peace and amity with other nations, and praying his majesty to give directions to his ministers to offer such terms to the French republic as would be consistent with the honor of his crown, and with the security and interests of his people. But the amendment was negatived by a large majority. Two bills were brought into parliament, one " for the safety and preservation of his majesty's government against treasonable and seditious practices and attempts," and the other " for the more effectually prevent- ing seditious meetings and assemblies." These bills had for their object the restric- tion of the right hitherto possessed by the people of assembling for the purposes of pe- titioning the crown and legislature, and of discussing political subjects : they materially extended the law of high treason, and ag- gravated the punishment of sedition ; and were warmly opposed in each step of their passage through both houses, as violent and unnecessary encroachments on the privileges granted by the constitution ; but were car- ried by more than the usual majority, such was the impression made by the intemper- ate proceeding which had taken place. Their duration, however, was limited to three years. SCARCITY OF CORN. SUPPLIES. BIRTH OF PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. PARLIAMENT was not unmindful of the critical state of the country, owing to the scarcity of corn. It appeared, from the in- formation laid before a committee of the GEORGE III. 1760-1820. 413 house appointed to inquire into this subject, that the principal failure in the late harvest had been the crop of wheat, arid a bounty of twenty shillings per quarter was in con- sequence ordered to be paid on the importa- tion of wheat from the Mediterranean ; fif- teen shillings per quarter on that from America ; and five shillings per quarter on Indian corn. Bills were also passed for pro- hibiting the manufacture of starch from wheat; for prohibiting the distillation of spirits from grain ; and for facilitating the cultivation of waste lands ; and a considera- ble number of inclosure bills passed the house in the course of this session of parlia- ment. On the fourth of November lord Arden moved that one hundred and ten thousand seamen, including eighteen thousand ma- rines, should be voted for the service of the year 1796 ; and Windham, on the same oc- casion, proposed that two hundred and seven thousand men should be employed in the land service. These motions being carried, Pitt brought forward, on the seventh of De- cember, a proposal to negotiate a loan of eighteen million pounds, and stated the sum of twenty-seven million five hundred thou- sand pounds to be the estimated expenses of the approaching year. A message was delivered to the house of commons by Pitt, on the eighth of Decem- ber, announcing the establishment of such a form of government in France as appeared capable of maintaining the relations of peace and amity, and expressive of a readiness on the part of the British government to meet any proposal for negotiation, on the part of the enemy, with a desire to give it the then could be the objection to declaring that she would treat with France 1 To this rea- soning ministers observed, that it was highly proper and expedient that the executive government should be left unfettered, and the amendment was negatived without a di- vision. 1796. The only child of the prince and princess of Wales, was born on the seventh of January, and baptized Charlotte, in com- pliment to her august grandmother, the queen of England. PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED. ON the tenth of May an address to the king was moved, in the upper house, by the earl of Guildford, and in the lower house by Fox, declaring that the duty incumbent on parliament no longer permitted them to dis- semble their deliberate opinion, that the dis- tress, difficulty, and peril, to which this country was then subjected, had arisen from the misconduct of the king's ministers, and was likely to exist and increase as long as the same principles which had hitherto guided these ministers should continue to prevail in the councils of Great Britain. Fox enlarged much on " that most fatal of all the innumerable errors of ministers," their rushing into a ruinous and unnecessary war, instead of mediating between France and the allied powers. Had they, said he, counselled his majesty to accept the grate- ful office of mediator, it would have added lustre to the national character, and placed Britain in the exalted situation of arbitress of the world. Pitt insisted that his majesty could not have interposed his mediation without incurring the hazard of involving himself in a war with that power which speediest effect in producing a peace. On j should have refused his terms. The mo- the following day Pitt moved an address of tions of both Fox and lord Guildford were thanks to his majesty. This address gave rise to a debate, in which Sheridan proposed an amendment, disclaiming the idea of con- sidering any change of government in France as affecting the principle of negotia- tion, and praying that a treaty might imme- diately be entered upon. This amendment was said to be perfectly consistent with the spirit of the message, which admitted that lost by immense majorities. The public business being now concluded, his majesty terminated the session of parliament, on the nineteenth of May, with a speech from the throne, expressive of the highest approba- tion of the uniform wisdom, temper, and firmness, which had appeared in all their proceedings since their first meeting in that place ; and on the following day the parlia- Great Britain might now safely treat : where | ment was dissolved by proclamation. 414 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XXVIII. Hostile Operations in Italy and Germany Disturbances in La Vendee terminated Success of the British in the West Indies Capture of a Dutch Squadron in Sal- danha Bay Evacuation of Corsica by the British Invasion of Ireland attempted by the French Naval Operations Differences between France and America /Spain and Holland declare War against Great Brtiain State of France Measures against British Commerce Opening of the New Parliament Negotiations for Peace Unsuccessful result Increase of the National Force Financial Measures Suspension of Cash Payments by the Bank Alarming Mutiny in the Navy Discontents in Ireland Naval Operations Admiral Jervis's Victory off" Cape St. Vincent Admiral Duncan's Victory off 'Camperdown Bombardment of Cadiz Cap- ture of Trinidad Failure at Porto Rico Unsuccessful Attempt on Teneriffe French Troops land in Wales Surrender of Mantua, and Expulsion of the Aus- trians from Italy The French advance into the hereditary dominions, and compel the Emperor to make Peace Treaty of Campo Formio Internal Affairs of France. OPERATIONS IN ITALY AND GERMANY. THE French government determined to make a powerful diversion in Italy, under the command of Buonaparte. In the month of April he entered the territory of the Genoese republic, and quickly evinced, on different occasions, those extraordinary tal- ents for war which afterwards elevated him to the summit of power and fame. In the space of five days, Buonaparte, with the aid of Berthier and Massena, gained three vic- tories ; Mondovi and other towns were re- duced ; and the king of Sardinia was so dis- couraged, that to procure a cessation of hos- tilities, he delivered up some of his principal fortresses to the victorious army. A peace was soon concluded between him and the French, to whom he ceded the dutchy of Savoy and county of Nice for ever. Ad- vancing to Lodi, on the tenth of May, the French encountered general Beaulieu ; but they were opposed by such strenuous efforts, and so tremendous a fire, that victory seem- ed to promise itself to the Austrian battal- ions. At length, however, after a most san-l guinary conflict, the bridge was forced, and the republican army bore down all before it. The success of this action, commenced in opposition to all the rules of tactics, by no means justified the attempt When the first column had advanced half-way across the bridge, a single discharge of the Austrian artillery mowed down seven hundred men ; and the darkness in which the smoke en- veloped the French, alone enabled them to gain the opposite extremity. It is the un- doubted duty of a commander to expose his troops to the least possible danger ; and the necessity of crossing the Adda at Lodi, when it might have been effected at some other point, does not appear sufficiently im- perative to rescue Buonaparte from the im- putation of having wantonly sacrificed the lives of his men. By this victory he gained possession of the greater part of the Milan- ese ; and, after having quelled an insurrec- tion of the new subjects of France at Pavia, he entered the ecclesiastical states, and took possession of Bologna, Urbino, and Ferrara. Alarmed in the highest degree at the ad- vance of an enemy, now become formidable to all Italy, both the pope and the king of Naples sued for an armistice, which was granted to his Sicilian majesty on the easy condition of withdrawing all assistance from the allied army ; but the pope was obliged not merely to cede to the French the towns already in their possession, but to add to their number the city and fortress of Ancona, on the Adriatic, together with a contribu- tion of twenty-one million francs by instal- ments, and a present of one hundred pic- tures, statues, busts, and vases, to be-selected by competent judges of the arts, from the galleries at Rome, to adorn the museums of France. Similar terms were also exacted from the dukes of Parma and Modena. On the twenty-eighth of June a detachment of French troops took possession of Leghorn, though belonging to a neutral power, on pre- text of dislodging the English, the whole of whose property found in that city was con- fiscated to the use of the republic : the fac- tory, however, had removed the greater part of their effects to the Isle of Elba. The Austrians being pursued by the French into the Venetian territory, the senate, whose policy it had always been to pay the great- est deference to power, after manifesting a partiality to the cause of the allies, found it necessary to bend before the genius of the Gallic democracy, and the count de Prov- ence (Louis the XVIIL), who had taken refuge in their territory, was desired to with- draw. The command of the Austrian army in GEORGE III. 17601820. 415 Italy, was conferred on field-marshal Wurm- ser, a warrior, who, in his eightieth year, combined all the energy and ardor of youth with the experience of age. Having col- lected the shattered remains of Beaulieu's army, and strengthened them with large re- inforcements, he crossed the Adige towards the end of July, and obliged the French to raise the siege of Mantua. On the fifth of August the two armies came in conflict, and the battle was continued for several succes- sive days ; but victory at length declared in favor of the French general, and Wurmser was obliged to take refuge in Mantua. The emperor immediately assembled another army, at the head of which was placed Al- vinzi, a member of the Aulic council, who commenced his operations with some suc- cess at the head of fifty thousand men, ex- pecting to be able to form a junction with the army of the Tyrol, and raise the block- ade of Mantua ; but his progress was inter- cepted by Buonaparte, who, crossing the Adige on the fourteenth of November, ad- vanced to the village of Arcole, a position equally strengthened by nature and art; and, after a most obstinate and bloody con- flict, which lasted three days, was at length successful, through the stratagem before practised, of taking the enemy in the rear. In the mean time the left wing of the French army had been forced by general Davido- wich, who advanced within eight leagues of Mantua : but Buonaparte, taking advan- tage of his late victory, ordered general Massena to repass the Adige, and attack the successful division, which was forced to retire behind the Arisio, on the twenty-sec- ond of November, while Alvinzi took refuge on the other side of the Brenta, after losing six thousand men in killed and wounded, eighteen pieces of cannon, and four stand- ards. Thus ended one of the most memo- rable campaigns recorded in history. The French armies on the Rhine were under the command of Jourdan and Moreau. Three battles won successively at Renchen, Rastadt, and Etlingen, not only enabled the invaders to gain possession of the passes of the Black Forest, but to invest Mentz, Man- heim, Philipsburg, and Ehrenbreitstein, at the same time. The engagement at Etlin- gen, where the archduke Charles, brother of the emperor, a gallant and popular prince, now at the head of the Austrian army, con- tended against Moreau in person, was long and obstinate ; and, when at length the Aus- trians were forced to retire, it was rather before the enthusiasm than the superior skiL of their adversaries. In this victorious ca- reer, Moreau forced the elector of Bavaria, the duke of Wurtemburg, and the margrave of Baden, to sue for peace ; while Jourdan, seizing on Nuremberg, Ingoldstadt, an< Amberg, menaced Austria on his right, as well as Bohemia in his front The retreat of the imperial forces in Germany was con- temporary with the dreadful losses which ;hey were sustaining from Buonaparte in Italy ; but their strength, though overpow- ered, was not broken. The archduke Charles, laving received considerable supplies, de- termined to throw himself between the in- vaders and Ratisbon ; but before his arrival the army of Wartensleben had fought a suc- :essful battle, and driven the French from the heights before Amberg. The archduke arrived in person, and, after defeating the memy under Bernadotte, drove them back to Newmark. Jourdan, finding his left wing and rear thus exposed to a superior force, was driven as far as Wurtzburg, where they were again overtaken, and, being once more defeated, they were seized with a panic, and immediately disbanded. The conquests of Moreau were now be- ome useless, in consequence of the defeat of Jourdan. The former, after conducting his victorious troops from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Danube and the Isere, and proving successful in five pitched bat- tles, was now obliged to commence his cel- ebrated retreat, which he executed with great skill and extraordinary judgment. Having completely deceived the Austrians relative to the route he intended to take, he crossed the Lech, on the eleventh of Sep- tember, and retired in an ordinary maimer, defeating all the Austrian corps which at- tempted to oppose him. Having at length forced the passes of the Black Forest, and penetrated through a defile called the Val- ley of Hell, the name of which sufficiently expresses the nature of the country, Moreau, at the head of an army fatigued by the length of its march through a hostile coun- try of more than three hundred miles in extent, destitute of shoes, and rendered sickly by continual rains, passed the Rhine at Huningen without molestation, and re- turned to Strasburg, the point whence he set out, on the twenty-sixth of October, leaving a strong garrison in Kehl, which, after a brave resistance, surrendered to the archduke. DISTURBANCES IN LA VENDEE TER- MINATED. IN La Vendee, Stofflet, the insurgent lead- er, who in the course of two years had de- feated his opponents in more than a hundred actions, was surprised and taken by two re- publican officers in the village of Langre- niere, and executed at Angers on the twen- ty-third of February. The Vendeans and Chouans still, however, remaining attached to the cause of royalty, Charette continued to embrace every opportunity of annoyance, until, at length, being totally defeated, and 416 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. his followers completely dispersed, after wan- dering some time in the disguise of a peas- ant, he was discovered and taken, and, on the twenty-eighth of April, executed at Nantes. On the fall of these chiefs, all the insurgent departments readily submitted ; and Hoche, who at Quiberon had acquired some distinction ae a warrior, was empower- ed by the directory to adopt lenient methods for bringing over the remaining malcon- tents, and hailed as the pacificator of La Vendee. BRITISH SUCCESSES IN THE WEST IN- DIES. DUTCH SQUADRON CAPTURED. THE conquests of the French in Europe did not prevent the English from persevering in their intention to capture all their remain- ing colonies, as well as those of their allies, between the tropics; and they were noVv enabled, by their strength, to obtain success- es in that quarter unknown in any former period of the war. Demerara, Issequibo, and Berbice, surrendered to the British com- manders. A debarkation was effected on St Lucia ; and the enemy retired to Morne Chabot, one of the strongest positions of the island, which was carried by the gallantry of a small body under the orders of Sir Ralph Abercrombie. Morne Fortune was next in- vested and taken ; two thousand French sol- diers were made prisoners, the insurgent negroes disarmed, and the island ceded to Britain. An expedition under general Knox, to St Vincent's, undertaken on the twenty- fifth of May, was no less successful, where the French surrendered to the number of seven hundred: the dispersion of the Ca- ribbs immediately followed. An attack was afterwards made on Grenada, which succeed- ed, with little bloodshed. A body of seven thousand troops arrived early in the spring at the Mole in St. Domingo ; but the mor- tality of the yellow fever was so great, and the numbers of the free blacks and niulat- toes so formidable, that the war was waged with few advantages on our side. Toussaint with his negro army, and Regaud at the head of the mulattoes, maintained a fierce, though desultory, warfare ; and the British with difficulty retained their extensive chain of posts, occupying a coast three hundred miles in extent The Dutch government, determined not to suffer the loss of the Cape of Good Hope without a struggle to regain so important a settlement fitted out an expedition, consist- ing of two sail of the line, three smaller ships of war, and three armed vessels, which anchored on the second of August in the Bay of Saldanha. Just at the critical mo- ment when general Craig, with his small army, was marching down to the -coast to meet the invaders, they perceived a British fleet of two ieTenty-foure, five sixty-fours, a fifty-gun ship, and six other vessels, advanc- ing with a fair wind to the mouth of the har- bor. The English admiral, aware of his su- periority, anchored within cannon-shot of the Dutch vessels, and sent a written summons to their commander to surrender. Rear- admiral Eiigelbartus Lucas, knowing that resistance must be unavailing, obeyed the summons, and on the seventeenth of August he surrendered his whole fleet without firing a gun. THE BRITISH EVACUATE CORSICA. THE FRENCH ATTEMPT TO INVADE IRELAND THE turbulent spirit of the inhabitants of Corsica, and the arrival of a body of French under general Gazette, to co-operate with internal revolt, rendered the possession of that island no longer possible to the Brit- ish. Seizing on the heights above Bastia, the invaders captured the city: Fiorenzo, Bonifacio, and the tower of Mortella, were retaken on the twentieth of October, and considerable spoils fell into the hands of the victors on the retreat of the English fleet from the adjoining bay, and on the final evac- uation of the island. The island of Elba, however, which had been seized some months before, was still retained, and form- ed a useful arsenal and a convenient station. The state of Ireland encouraged the French government to strike a blow of no common importance. On the twentieth of December, fifteen thousand chosen troops, under the command of Hoche, were embark- ed at Brest, intended to act on their arrival, with a body of the disaffected Irish, who were known to be considerable in numbers, and organized for insurrection. Admiral Villaret Joyeuse sailed from Brest with eigh- teen ships of the line, besides frigates and transports : the wind at first was favorable, but scarcely had the expedition left the out- er harbor, when a storm arose, which dis- persed the fleet, and separating the frigate which carried Hoche, obliged him to escape into the harbor of Rochelle, after being chased by two British vessels. Of the whole fleet only eight two-deckers reached the coast of Ireland, under admiral Bouvet, who appeared off Bantry Bay, but was forced from that station in a few days by tempestu- ous weather, and obliged to return to France without effecting a landing. In this expe- dition the French lost three ships of the line and three frigates, by stress of weather ; but thev had the singular good fortune to escape lord Bridport and admiral Colpoys, the former of whom, with a British fleet under his command, arrived in Bantry Bay immediately after the departure of the en- emy. Such was the determined courage of Brit- ish seamen at this period, that scarcely any inferiority of force could deter them from a GEORGE HL 17601820. 417 contest at sea ; and even in port the enemy's vessels were frequently boarded and cut out, under the incessant fire of the batteries, and discharges of musketry. One of the most gallant actions during the war was fought by captain Trollope, in the Glatton, of fifty-four guns, on the sixteenth of July, with six French frigates, which he beat off, though surrounded in such a manner as to be attacked at the same time on the lee- quarter, the weather-bow, and the stern. On the other hand, the French made a success- ful expedition to Newfoundland, where ship- ping and merchandise to a large amount were captured or destroyed in August, by a squadron under admiral Richery, who re- turned to France without the loss of a sin- gle vessel. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FRANCE AND AMERICA. SPAIN AND HOLLAND DE- CLARE WAR AGAINST BRITAIN. SCARCELY had the new government of France, under the directory, commenced its operations, when a difference arose be- tween that country and America, originating in the treaty of amity and commerce re- cently executed between Great Britain and the United States. This treaty was said to discover a disposition altogether inimical to France, and its provisions to be wholly in- compatible with the idea of neutrality. By the treaty of 1778, still in force, the United States guarantied to France the possession of their West India colonies; but by the treaty of 1796 they consented that even sup- plies of provisions sent to those islands from America should be treated as illegal com- merce. The directory, regarding the Ameri- cans in the light of secret enemies, made such depredations on their trade, under various pretences, as almost amounted to a commercial war ; and an arr^t was issued on the third of July, enjoining French ships of war to observe the same conduct towards the vessels of the neutral nations as they had hitherto suffered with impunity from the English. Thus began that oppressive sys- tem, by which neutral nations were doomed to be persecuted in the future progress of the war, under the designation of Berlin and Milan decrees, and British orders in council. Towards the close of the summer, Monroe, the American ambassador at Paris, was re- called from his embassy, to the great dissat- isfaction of the French government, who refused to receive his successor, Pinckney, in the same capacity : and M. Adet, the French resident in Philadelphia, notified to the American government, on the twenty-third of November, that the directory had sus- pended him from the exercise of his func- tions. Such was the situation of the foreign relations of the United States, when general Washington resigned his government, and again retired to his paternal estate on the tanks of the Potowmac. When French influence, aided by the fears of the Spanish monarch, had produced a peace between those nations, there was rea- son to apprehend that the artful republicans would lead that passive prince into a close alliance, and endeavor to render his arms subservient to the views of France ; but the Spaniards were not very eager to commence hostilities against their late allies ; a treaty of confederacy, however, was at length con- cluded, and on the fifth of October his Cath- olic majesty declared war against Great Britain, on frivolous and absurd pretences. In Holland, a national convention of the inhabitants of the United Provinces met at the Hague on the first of March, and form- ed a constitution on the model of the French republic. One of the first acts of the new government was to declare war against Eng- land. STATE OF FRANCE-MEASURES AGAINST BRITISH COMMERCE. AT Paris the Jacobins, who had hitherto filled the principal places under government, enraged at witnessing the return of mode- rate principles, manifested their hostility by exercising then- power, where they still re- mained in office, in the most cruel and op- pressive manner ; and insurrections in vari- ous parts of the country took place, but they were all quickly suppressed. The directory next determined to submit to the operation of the law the sanguinary perpetrators of the massacres of September, 1792 ; and, of a great number brought to trial, some were executed, and others imprisoned, but a large majority were acquitted. The direc- tory then turned their attention to the sub- ject of finance, the rapid decline of the credit of the assignats having rendered that species of paper altogether useless; and as gold and silver had disappeared, it was judged expedient to employ some other means to replace the debased currency. A law was accordingly passed to sell the re- mainder of the national domains, for which the nation was to receive, in payment, a new paper fabrication, under the name of man- date, to be issued to the amount of four hun- dred millions of livres; but in a very few months they sunk so low as one fifth of the price affixed by the national treasury. In the midst of these difficulties, the committee of finance presented a report, containing a general statement of the public revenue, from which it appeared that the expenditure during the last year amounted to a thousand millions of livres, and that the ordinary an- nual revenue was barely five hundred mil- lions. To make up this enormous deficiency, various resources were pointed out ; but the principal expedient was to be found in the 418 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. sale of the church lands in the newly united provinces of the Netherlands. Various had been the plans of annoyance against this country projected by the French government ; but all had hitherto been de- layed or set aside, as inadequate and imprac- ticable, till it was suggested that the most effectual mode of opposing England with advantage was to attack her commerce, by shutting out her manufactures from every port inEurope subject to French control, or under French influence. This new species of hostility was carried into execution with as much dispatch as the jarring interests of the continental powers would allow ; and British manufactures soon found no legal entrance into any port on the continent, from the Elbe to the Adriatic, with the ex- ception only of the ports of the Hans Towns, of Portugal, and of Russia. Catherine the second, empress of Russia, died on the evening of the sixth of Novem- ber. Her reign will always rank among the most splendid periods of Russian history : but its most glorious actions were blended with injustice and stained by cruelty ; and in the accomplishment of her ends she never hesitated with respect to means. She was succeeded by her son, the emperor Paul, who, having the most despotic notions of kingly right, considered the Bourbon family as iniquitously ejected from a possession which they derived from heaven. About the same time also died Victor Amadous, king of Sardinia, at an advanced age, and his son, the prince of Piedmont, succeeded to his throne. NEW PARLIAMENT. NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE UNSUCCESSFUL. To counteract the impression that the contest was as interminable in its duration as it wag indefinite in its objects ; his ma- jesty, in his speech at the opening of the new parliament, on the sixth of October, 1796, declared that he had omitted no en- deavors for restoring peace to Europe; in consequence of which, a way was now opened to an immediate negotiation, which must produce an honorable peace for us and our allies, or prove to what cause alone the prolongation of the war was to be ascribed. For this purpose his majesty said he would immediately send a person to Paris, with full powers to treat for this object, and it was his anxious wish that the negotiation might lead to the restoration of general peace. But it waa evident that nothing could so much contribute to give effect to the negotiation as a manifestation that we possessed both the determination and the resources to oppose, with increased activity and energy, an ene- my who had openly professed a design to attempt a descent upon these kingdoms. On the propriety of entering upon a negotiation with republican France, some difference of opinion existed between ministers and their supporters; some of whom adhered to the published opinion of Burke, viz. that the restoration of monarchy and the ancient or- ders, under certain modifications, ought to be the sole and avowed purpose of the war ; that no peace could be secure until that ob- ject was effected ; and that we must either conquer the .revolution, or the revolution would conquer us. In conformity to these sentiments, earl Fitzwilliam entered on the journals of the house of lords a protest, as- signing reasons for refusing to concur in an address of thanks for his majesty's speech. In the month of March, Wickham, the British ambassador to the Helvetic States, was directed to apply to Barthelemi, diplo- matic agent for France at Basle, to inquire if the government of France were disposed to enter into a negotiation with his majesty and his allies. Barthelemi was instructed to answer, that the government of France ardently desired to procure for the republic a just, honorable, and solid peace; but an indispensable condition of any treaty entered into for that purpose was the retention of those conquests which had actually been an- nexed to the territory of the republic. This reply, expressing a decided resolution not to surrender the Austrian Netherlands to the emperor of Germany, displayed, in the opin- ion of the British ministry, a temper so re- mote from any disposition for peace, that the correspondence between the two ministers ceased, and both parties proceeded to open the campaign. In September lord Grenville addressed a note to count Wedel Jarlsberg, the Danish ambassador in London, request- ing that he would transmit, through the Danish envoy at Paris, a declaration expres- sive of his Britannic majesty's desire to con- clude a peace on just and honorable condi- tions, and demanding the necessary passports for a person of confidence, whom his majes- ty would send to Paris with a commission to discuss, with the government there, all the measures most proper to produce so de- sirable an end. The directory replied, that the executive government would not notice any overture from the enemies of the French republic transmitted through an intermediate channel ; but that, if England would send persons furnished with full powers, they might, upon the frontiers, demand the pass- ports necessary for proceeding to Paris. Passports were accordingly obtained ; and lord Malmsbury, being nominated plenipo- tentiary to the French republic, repaired to Paris on the twenty-second of October. Two days after his arrival the negotiations were opened by a memorial from his lordship, stat- ing that, from the uninterrupted success of her naval war, Great Britain found herself GEORGE HI. 1760 1820. 419 in a situation to have no restitution to de- mand of France ; from which, on the con- trary, she had taken establishments and colo- nies of the highest importance, and of value almost incalculable ; but she was willing to restore her own conquests in lieu of the ac- quisitions which France had won from her allies, as a basis for a treaty, and therefore proposed a general principle of reciprocal restitution. The executive directory re- plied, that considering the British ambassa- dor to be the agent of Great Britain only, they could not now enter into the concerns of the other states, which could tend only to multiply the combinations and increase the difficulties of the negotiation ; but that, as soon as he should procure sufficient powers from those allies, they would hasten to give an answer to the specific propositions which should be submitted to them. To these ob- servations they thought proper to add an opinion, that the British government was in- sincere in its overture ; that its object was to prevent, by general propositions, the par- tial propositions of other powers, and to ob- tain from the people of England the means of continuing the war, by throwing the odium of a refusal to negotiate a peace upon the republic. The British minister, disdaining to reply to these insinuations, stated that he had not been commissioned to enter into a separate treaty, but that Great Britain pro- posed to make common cause with her allies. The directory rejoined, that, in a question of reciprocal restitution, the chief object of con- sideration was the relative condition of the respective parties ; that, of the original con- federates, some were become the friends of France, and others observed a strict neu- trality ; that the remaining allies of Great Britain were weakened by their losses and the desertion of their associates ; and that France could not, in a negotiation for terms, forget the circumstances in which she was placed. Having thus admitted the principle of compensation, de la Croix, the French negotiator, in a note to lord Malmsbury, again requested him to point out expressly, and without delay, the objects of reciprocal compensations which he had to propose. His lordship was now obliged to consult his court, and the negotiation was suspended till the seventeenth of December, on which day his lordship submitted, in two formal and confidential memorials, that France should restore all her conquests made in any of the dominions of the emperor of Germany, or in Italy ; and that Great Britain should render back all her acquisitions gained from France in the East and West Indies ; that Russia and Portugal should be included in the treaty ; that no obstacle would be interposed, on the part of his Britannic majesty, against Spain becoming a party in the negotiation ; and that in case Holland was reinstated, in all respects, in the same political situation in which she stood before the war, the colonial possessions captured by Great Britain might be restored, and the status ante helium, with respect to territorial possessions, re-estab- lished in her favor ; but if, on the contrary, Holland should remain a republic, their Britannic and imperial majesties would be obliged to seek, in territorial acquisitions, those compensations, and that security, which such a state of things would render indis- pensable. At the time that these memorials were delivered, a long and animated conver- sation took place between the negotiators, in the course of which the French minister in- quired, whether, in placing the memorials before the directory, he was to state the dis- uniting of the Belgium from France as a sine qua won, from which his majesty would not depart. Lord Malmsbury replied that it most certainly was, and that any proposal which would leave the Netherlands annexed to France, would be attended with much greater benefit to that power, and less to the allies, than the present relative situation of the belligerent powers could entitle the French government to expect. In the course of conversation, de la Croix repeatedly said, that this difficulty was one which could not be overcome; and, two days after, lord Malmsbury received a letter, requiring him to deliver, within twenty-four hours, his ul- timatum, signed by himself. His lordship replied, that to demand an ultimatum, in so peremptory a manner, before the two powers had communicated to each other their re- spective pretensions, was to shut the door against all negotiation ; but he repeated that he was ready to enter into the discussion of the proposals of his court, or of any centre projet which might be delivered to him on the part of the executive directory. The directory rejoined, in a note of the nineteenth of December, that they would listen to no proposal contrary to the constitution, to the laws, and to the treaties, which bound the republic ; and as lord Malmsbury announced, at every communication, that he was in want of the opinion of his court (from which it resulted that he acted a part merely passive in the negotiation), his presence at Paris was rendered useless, and he was required to depart therefrom within two days, with all the persons who had accompanied and followed him ; and to quit, as expeditiously as possible, the territory of the republic ; but that, if the British cabinet was desirous of peace, the executive directory was ready to follow the negotiations, according to the basis laid down in the present note, by the reciprocal channel of couriers. Lord Malms- bury replied, that he was preparing to quit Paris on the morrow, and demanded the ne- 420 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. cessary passports for himself and suite : on the twentieth, he quitted the French capital, and repaired to England. Thus terminated the first negotiation for peace between Great Britain and the repub- lic of France. The British ministry, con- .-idt'ring its abrupt conclusion as arising to- tally from France, published a manifesto, on the twenty-seventh of December, enlarging upon the pacific dispositions of the British government, and setting forth the malignant hostility of the enemy. This manifesto was laid before parliament: Pitt insisted that the rupture of the late ne- gotiations was wholly imputable to the gov- ernment of France. The enemy demanded, not as an ultimatum, but as a preliminary, to retain all those territories of which the chance of war had given them a temporary possession, and respecting which they thought proper, contrary to the law of nations, to pass a constitutional decree, declaring that these should not be alienated from the re- public. But this perverse and monstrous claim, in virtue of which territories acquired by force of arms were annexed to a state during the continuance of the war in which such acquisitions were made, could never be supposed to supersede the treaties of other powers and the known and public obligations of the several nations in Europe. Yet this had been the pretension to which the French government laid claim, and the acknowledg- ment of which they held out as a prelimi- nary of negotiation to the king of Great Britain and his allies : and, not content with setting up this claim to abrogate treaties previously concluded, they had offered a studied insult to his majesty, by ordering his ambassador to quit Paris, and proposing that the negotiation should be carried on by means of couriers. " The question then is not how much will you give for peace ; but how much disgrace will you suffer at the outset ? how much degradation will you submit to as a preliminary 1 In these circumstances, then, are we to persevere in the war, with a spirit and energy worthy of the British name, and of the British character ? or are we, by send- ing couriers to Paris, to prostrate ourselves at the feet of a stubborn and supercilious government, to yield to what they may re- quire, and to submit to whatever they may impose ? I hope there is not a hand in his majesty's councils which would sign the pro- posal ; that there is not a heart in this house that would sanction the measure : and that there is not an individual in the British do- minions who would act as the courier." Fox, in reply, maintained that the whole amount of the minister's oration was, to ad- mit that we had been four years engaged in a war, unprecedented in expense, both in men and in money, and that we had done nothing ; that, in fact, the enemy, instead of being humbled and ruined, as had been so often and so confidently foretold, had now become more unreasonable and dictatorial in their pretensions than ever. Fox then moved an address to the throne, recommending that his majesty's faithful commons should pro- ceed to investigate the conduct of his min- isters, who had involved this nation in her present misfortunes, and produced the failure of the late negotiations. This amendment was negatived by a great majority ; and a similar fate attended a similar motion made by the earl of Oxford in the house of lords. INCREASE OF THE NATIONAL FORCE. FINANCES. IN addition to the naval force now actually employed, and which the premier declared to be more formidable than had fiver existed at any former period of our history, the min- ister proposed, first, a levy of fifteen thousand men from the different parishes for the sea service, and for recruiting the regular regi- ments of the line : his second proposal was to raise a supplementary militia, to consist of sixty thousand men, not to be immediately called out, but to be enrolled, officered, and completely trained, so as to be ready in a moment of danger ; and his third military project was to raise a force of twenty thou- sand irregular cavalry. These propositions were passed into laws early in the session ; but the plan for raising the irregular cavalry force being found difficult of application, the measure was superseded, in a great degree, by the numerous volunteer corps of yeoman- ry cavalry which pressed forward in the ser- vice of their country. During this session, also, a bill was introduced, for raising and embodying a militia force in Scotland, which was much resisted in that part of the king- dom. One hundred and ninety-five thou- sand men were voted for the land service for the year 1797, and, soon afterwards, one hundred and twenty thousand seamen and marines for the navy. By the annual financial statement, it ap- peared that eighteen million pounds would be wanted by way of loan, exclusive of five million five hundred thousand pounds of ex- chequer-bills, and about thirteen million five hundred thousand pounds of victualling, transport, and navy bills, which he proposed to fund. This loan was followed by a second during the same session of parliament, amounting also to eighteen million pounds, comprehending a great variety of deficien- cies, and including a vote of credit for three million pounds, to be remitted to the empe- ror of Germany. The terms of the loan were highly advantageous to the moneyed interest, being funded at less than the price of fifty pounds for each hundred pounds, of three per cents. To defray the interest on GEORGE IIL 17601620. 421 these loans, permanent taxes were imposed to the amount of three million four hundred and sixteen thousand pounds, and the pres- sure of the war was now severely felt by many classes. Pitt having admitted, on moving the vote of credit, that one million two hundred thousand pounds had been ad- vanced to the emperor without the previoui consent of parliament, Fox observed, that if the measure was not reprobated, he should think that man a hypocrite who pretended to see any distinction between this govern- ment and an absolute monarchy ; and the ma- jority in favor of ministers, on the motion for a vote of censure, was smaller than usual SUSPENSION OF CASH PAYMENTS BY THE BANK. 1797. THK rapid and enormous increase of the national debt had created an alarm among many of the proprietors of the public funds, and, under this impression, sums to a great amount were sold out of the stocks, and vested hi other securities. The bank had, in the course of the war, advanced im- mense sums to the government, far beyond its usual aid to the" public treasury ; and as a considerable part of these advances con- sisted of remittances to foreign powers, es- pecially to the emperor of Germany, made in coin, the gold and silver in the bank were greatly diminished. The consequences of this had been long foreseen by the directors, and, so early as the year 1795, they had ex- pressed to Pitt their expectations that he would arrange his finances for the year in such a manner as not to depend on any fur- ther assistance from them. This remon- strance they repeated in October of the same year, and again in 1796, but they still con- tinued to afford accommodation to the trea- sury. In the beginning of 1797 the minister requested still further advances, and intima- ted, at the same time, that a loan amounting to the sum of one million five hundred thou- sand pounds, beyond the accommodation to the- English treasury, would be wanted for Ireland. On the ninth of February the gov- ernor of the bank informed Pitt that, under the present state of their accommodation to government here, to agree with his request of making a further advance of one million five hundred thousand pounds as a loan to Ireland, would threaten ruin to the bank, and most probably bring the directors to shut up their doors. Another cause powerfully co-operated to produce an alarming derange- ment in the affairs of the national bank. The dread of invasion had induced the cap- italists, as well as the more opulent farmers and traders, at- a distance from the metropo- lis, to withdraw their money from the hands of the country bankers, with whom they had been accustomed to deposit it; and the run upon the provincial banking-houses soon ex- VOL. IV. 36 tended to the capital. On the twentieth of February an unusual demand was made by the holders of notes upon the bank of Eng- land for specie ; and this run, which increas- ed on the twenty-first, became so rapid and urgent on the four following days as to ex- cite the most serious alarm, and to oblige the directors to submit their situation to the consideration of the chancellor of the ex- chequer. On the twenty-sixth government found it necessary to interfere ; and on that day an order of the privy-council was issued, prohibiting the directors of the bank from issuing any cash in payment till the sense of parliament should be taken. The con- sideration of this important subject was brought, with as little delay as possible, be- fore the two houses of parliament, and the first step taken was to appoint two secret committees to ascertain the assets of the .bank. The public apprehension was mate- i rially allayed by their reports, delivered early in March, from which it appeared that on the fifteenth of February, the last day of paying gold and silver at the bank, the amount of the demands upon the company was thirteen million seven hundred and sev- enty thousand three hundred and ninety pounds ; that their assets, exclusive of the permanent debt due from government, amounted to the sum of seventeen million five hundred and ninety-seven thousand two hundred and eighty pounds, so that there remained a surplus of three million eight hundred and twenty-six thousand eight hun- dred and ninety pounds ; to which must be added the sum of eleven million six hundred and sixty-six thousand eight hundred pounds three per cent, stock, lent at different times to government on parliamentary security, which being estimated at fifty per cent agreeably to the actual price at that tune of the three per cent consols, the whole of the capital vested in the corporation of the bank, after the payment of all demands, amount- ed, at its then current value, to the enor- mous sum of nine million six hundred and sixty thousand two hundred and ninety pounds. On these reports Pitt grounded a bill, enabling the bank to issue notes in pay- ment of demands upon them instead of cash, agreeably to the late order of council to that iffect ; and a clause of the utmost import- ance was introduced into the act, for pre- venting any person from being held to bail who offered bank of England notes in dis- charge of a debt ; though this law, by leav- ing the creditor the option of demanding cash in payment instead of notes, did not actually constitute them a legal tender. From this time the circulation of gold coin in a great measure ceased ; and notes, from twenty shillings and 'upwards, became the general medium of circulation. 422 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ALARMING MUTINY IN THE NAVY. THE alarm caused by the stoppage of cash payments at the bank was not much abated when a spirit of mutiny and disaffec- tion broke out among the fleet at Spithead. Great dissatisfaction had for some time pre- vailed respecting the pay and provisions of the sailors ; and, in the month of February, several anonymous letters were received by lord Howe from the fleet, praying for his lordship's influence towards obtaining an in- crease of the seamen's pay, and an improve- ment in the quality and quantity of their provisions; at the same time a correspond- ence was going on, by letter, between the crews of the different ships, and a committee of delegates was appointed to obtain a re- dress of grievances. These proceedings were conducted with so much secrecy, that it was not till the fifteenth of April, when lord Bridport made a signal to prepare for sea, that they began to be suspected among the superior officers of the fleet Instead of weighing anchor, as the signal imported, the seamen of the admiral's ship all ran up the shrouds, and saluted the crews of the adjoining ships with three cheers, which be- ing instantly answered in the same manner, it became manifest that the spirit of disobe- dience was general. The delegates then assembled in the cabin of the admiral's ship, and placed the officers in custody. A peti- tion to the admiral was drawn up, and pre- sented on the spot, accompanied with an in- timation that, till the prayer of the petition for an increase of wages and a regulation in the ratio of provisions took place, they should not quit their present station " unless the enemy was known to be at sea." A com- mittee of the admiralty, with earl Spencer at their head, immediately repaired to Ports- mouth to induce the refractory seamen to resume their duty ; and the admiral return- ed to his ship, when, after hoisting his flag, he informed the crew that he had brought with him a redress of all their grievances, accompanied by his majesty's pardon for the offenders. After some deliberation these offers were cheerfully accepted, and it was now supposed that all cause of dissatisfaction was removed ; but when lord Bridport made the signal to put to sea, every ship at St Helen's refused to obey. This second mu- tiny arose, it appeared, from a groundless apprehension on the part of the seamen that government did not mean to accede to their demands. A meeting of the delegates was again convened, to be held on board the London; but vice-admiral Colpoys, having determined to prevent the illegal assembly from being held on board his ship, ordered the marines to fire upon the boats as they approached, and five seamen were killed in the skirmish which ensued. The crew of the London, irritated by this resistance on the part of the admiral, now turned their guns towards the stern, and threatened to blow all aft into the water, unless the com- mander submitted; and admiral Colpoys and captain Griffiths were both taken into custo- dy by their crew, and confined for several hours in separate cabins. In this state of mutiny the sailors at Portsmouth remained till the fourteenth of May, when lord Howe arrived from the admiralty with plenary powers to settle all differences ; and as his lordship was the bearer of an act of parlia- ment which had passed on the ninth, grant- ing an additional allowance of pay to the seamen, and also of his majesty's proclama- tion of pardon, the flag of insurrection was struck, and the fleet prepared to put to sea to encounter the enemy. The public saw with infinite satisfaction the extinction of this dangerous spirit of disaffection ; but a new mutiny in another quarter, which for boldness and extent is without a parallel in the naval history of Britain, soon converted their pleasure into alarm and consternation. The concessions made to the seamen were unfortunately enforced, not granted, and the same method lay open for obtaining further claims. The north sea fleet, as well as the ships lying at the Nore, imitating the dan- gerous conduct of the crews at Spithead, but greatly exceeding them in the extent of their demands, chose delegates from every ship, and appointed Richard Parker, a bold and enterprising seaman, as their president. The demands of these mutineers compre- hended a greater freedom of absence from ships in harbor, a more punctual discharge of arrears of pay, a more equal distribution of prize-money, and a general abatement of the rigors of discipline. On the twenty-third of May the flag of admiral Buckner was struck on board the Sandwich, and the red flag, the symbol of mutiny, hoisted in its stead. Each man-of- war sent two delegates, and there was a committee of twelve in every ship, who de- termined not only all affairs relating to the internal management of the vessel, but in- structed their delegates, and decided upon then* merits. The delegates went on shore daily, and, after holding their meetings, pa- raded the streets and ramparts with music and flags. The arrival of lord Keith and Sir Charles Grey at Sheerness at length put an end to these audacious processions. The mutiny had then risen to the most alarming height, and it was intimated to the seamen that no further concessions than what had already been made by the legislature would be granted. Some of the most desperate of then- number suggested the idea of carrying the ships into an enemy's port ; but the ma- jority revolted at so treacherous a proceed- GEORGE m. 17601820. 423 ing, alleging that a redress of grievances, as it was their primary, so it should be their ultimate object. For the purpose of extort- ing compliance with their demands, they proceeded to block up the Thames, by re- fusing a passage either up or down the river to the London trade ; and, to supply then- present wants, they took from a vessel three hundred sacks of flour, which they distribut- ed through the fleet On the fourth of June the whole fleet at the Nore celebrated his majesty's birth-day by a royal salute; and on the sixth they were joined by four men-of-war and a sloop, which had deserted from the fleet of admiral Duncan, then in Yarmouth roads. This ac- cession of strength swelled the mutinous fleet to twenty-four sail, consisting of eleven ships of the line and thirteen frigates. The appearance of such a fleet under the com- mand of a set of common sailors, in a state of insubordination, formed a singular and awful spectacle. Government, in the mean time, were not inattentive to the obligations imposed upon them by the perilous situation of the country, and a proclamation was is- sued, offering his majesty's pardon to all such of the mutineers as should immediately re- turn to their duty. This was speedily fol- lowed by two acts of parliament, the former for more effectually restraining the inter- course from the shore with the ships in a state of mutiny, and the latter for punishing with the utmost severity of the law any at- tempt to seduce seamen or soldiers into mu- tinous practices; but the master-stroke of policy was in the removal of all the buoys from the mouth of the Thames, and the neighboring coast, by which any large ship that should attempt to sail away would be exposed to the most imminent danger of run- ning aground ; while furnaces and red-hot balls were kept in readiness at Sheerness, to repel any attack that might be made on that place by the mutineers. The last attempt at reconciliation by treaty was made through the earl of Northesk, who commanded the Monmouth, to whom the delegates commu- nicated the terms on which alone they would give up the ships, and requested that he would submit them to the king, and return on board with a clear and positive answer within fifty-four hours ; intimating that the whole must be complied with, or they would immediately put the fleet to sea. These terms, which were submitted the next day to the king in council, were rejected, and the intelligence of their refusal was com- municated by captain Knight, of the Inflexi- ble. All hopes of accommodation being thus at an end, preparations were making to en- force obedience to the laws, from the works at Sheerness; but the defection of several of the ships, on the ninth, with other symp- toms of disunion amongst the mutineers, rendered the application of force unneces- sary : on the tenth several of the mutinous ships, being reduced to great exigencies for want of fresh provisions and water, struck the red flag : on the twelfth all but seven of the ships hoisted the union flag, to signify their wish to return to obedience ; and, on the following morning, five out of the seven re- maining vessels ran away from the mutinous ships, and sought protection under the guns of the fort of Sheerness. All further re- sistance was now in vain, and, after a fruit- less attempt to obtain a general pardon, the crew of the Sandwich steered that ship on the following morning into Sheerness, where Parker was arrested by a picket guard of soldiers, with a person of the name of Davies, who had acted as captain under him, and about thirty other delegates. One of the delegates, of the name of Wallace, more desperate than the rest, being determined neither to outlive his power, nor to submit to the ignominy of a public execution, shot himself dead on the appearance of the sol- diers. Thus all resistance to the authority of the officers ceased, and the public mind recovered its former composure, by the en- tire extinction of this alarming revolt. The trial of Parker commenced on the twenty-second of June before a court-martial, of which Sir Thomas Pasley was president. The prisoner was charged with various acts of mutiny, committed on board his majesty's fleet at the Nore ; of disobedience of orders ; and of contempt of the authority of his offi- cers. The facts being clearly established, the courts adjudged him to death ; on which, with astonishing composure, he addressed them as follows : " I bow to your sentence with all due submission, being convinced I have acted under the dictates of a good con- science. God, who knows the hearts of all men, will, I hope, receive me. I hope that my death will atone to the country ; and that those brave men who have acted with me will receive a general pardon : I am satis- fied they will all then return to their duty with alacrity." He was executed on board the Sandwich, and met his fate with forti- tude. A great number of the other muti- neers received sentence of death, and seve- ral of the ringleaders were executed; but a pardon was granted to the far greater num- ber of those who were condemned. The French, whose revolutionary principles had certainly some weight in producing these commotions, exulted at the intelligence of the mutiny, and, while they lamented its extinction, conceived hopes of the eruption of future discontent in the same branch of the service, or in the military department ; but the true-hearted seamen resumed their habits of order and submission, and the 424 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. soldiers, who also received an augmenta- tion of pay, preserved their loyalty unim- paired. Ever since the recall of earl Fitzwilliam from Ireland, the discontents of that country had continued to increase ; and several par- ishes, baronies, and even counties, were de- clared to be out of the king's peace, and subject to martial law. The earl of Moira, on the twenty-first of March, moved in the house of lords for an address to his majesty, praying that he would be graciously pleased to interpose his paternal interference, to re- move the discontents which prevailed in Ireland, and created the most serious alarm for that country, and for the dearest inter- ests of Britain. Lord Grenville, in reply, insisted that the present motion could not be adopted, without tearing asunder every bond of union, and breaking the solemn con- tract subsisting between the two countries. Instead of remedying discontents, the mo- tion now submitted to the house would in- crease them, and induce the Irish to imagine that their own legislature was regardless of their welfare. The motion was negatived ; and a similar one, made two days after- wards in the. house of commons, by Fox, was also lost On the twentieth of July, parliament was prorogued by a speech from the throne, in which his majesty intimated that he was again engaged in a negotiation for peace, which nothing- should be wanting on his part to bring to a successful termination, on such conditions as were consistent with the security, honor, and essential interests of his dominions. NAVALOPERATIONS.-JERyiS'S VICTORY. THE French republic, having at her dis- posal the navy of Spain as well as that of Holland, proposed to her confederates, that the greatest part of the Spanish navy should sail in the early part of the year to Brest, where, being joined by the French ships of war in that port, they should afterwards form a junction with the Dutch fleet; and that this armada, then swelled to upwards of seventy sail of the line, should bear down upon England, and having humbled the lofty pretensions of her naval power, should lay the foundation for her future subjugation. To frustrate this design, a fleet under Sir John Jervis was appointed to blockade the port of Cadiz, and admiral Duncan was sta- tioned ofT the coast of Holland, to watch the movements of the Dutch fleet in the TexeL Sir John Jervis having received in- telligence, that the fleet under admiral Don Joseph de Cordova was at sea, immediately set sail in quest of it At the dawn of the fourteenth of February, the enemy was de- scried oft* Cape SL Vincent, but, as the weather happened to be extremely hazy, it was not until ten o'clock that a signal from a British frigate announced the enemy's fleet to consist of twenty-seven sail of the line. The British commander, though his squadron comprised no more than fifteen ships, resolved to bring them to action, and at half past eleven o'clock formed in the most complete order of sailing in two lines. By carrying a press of sail the British came down upon the enemy before they had time to form in order of battle; and, notwith- standing their immense superiority, the ad- miral ordered the fleet to bear directly through them, which was gallantly perform- ed. They then tacked, and, by this bold and skilful manoeuvre, separated about one third of the Spanish ships from the main body, which, by a partial cannonade, were pre- vented from a rejunction, and obliged to fall to leeward. By the great exertions of the ships which had the good fortune to come up with the main body of the enemy on the larboard tack, four of their ships of the line were captured. by the British, and the action ceased about five o'clock in the evening. This brilliant victory ranks among those which have most conspicuously illustrated the superior skill and courage of British seamen, and much to the credit of the com- mander-in-chief, to whom the Salvador del Mundo, of one hundred and twelve guns, struck. Only a few English ships were en- gaged in the contest Commodore Nelson, in the Captain, of seventy-four guns, distin- guished himself greatly, by boarding the San Nicolas and San Josef in succession, in which he only lost one officer, twenty seamen, and three marines; and although the slain and wounded in the Spanish ships could not be less than twelve hundred, more than half that number being diminished in the crews of the captured ships only, the loss of the British did not exceed three hun- dred. Great rejoicings took place through- out the nation on the intelligence of this well-timed victory; the fleet was honored with the thanks of both houses of parlia- ment ; the king conferred the title of earl St Vincent, with a pension of three thou- sand pounds a-year, on the admiral-in-chief; vice-admiral Thompson, and rear-admiral Parker, were created baronets; commodore Nelson was invested with the order of the Bath ; captain Robert Calder was knighted ; and gold medals and chains were presented to all the commanders. DUNCAN'S VICTORY. THE French directory having embarked a body of troops on board the Dutch fleet in the Texel, a powerful squadron was sent to the North Sea, under the command of ad- miral Duncan, to intercept the enemy. In October, when the British admiral had re- turned to Yarmouth to refit, the Dutch fleet GEORGE III. 17601820. 425 put to sea, on which the English commander suddenly returned to his station. The com- mand of the enemy's fleet, which was some- what inferior in weight of metal to that of the British, was confided to admiral de Win- ter, who had distinguished himself in the army under general Pichegru ; and," on his receiving orders to risk an engagement, the troops were disembarked. No sooner had De Winter quitted the Texel than Captain Trollope, who had been stationed with a light squadron of observation at the mouth of that river, gave notice of his approach ; and, on the eleventh of October, admiral Duncan gave orders for a general chase, and the Dutch ships were soon discovered drawn up in a line of battle on the larboard tack, between Camperdown and Egmont, the land being about nine miles to leeward. Admiral Duncan, whose fleet consisted of sixteen sail of the line, exclusive of frigates, finding there was no tune to be lost, made the signal to bear up, break the enemy's line, and engage them to leeward, each ship her opponent, by which the British squadron placed itself between the enemy and the land, whither they were fast approaching. The admiral's signal being obeyed with promptitude, vice-admiral Onslow, in the Monarch, bore down on the enemy's rear in the most gallant manner, his division follow- ing his example ; and the action commenced about forty minutes past twelve o'clock. The Venerable, which was admiral Dun- can's flag-ship, soon got through the enemy's line, and a close action was begun on their van, which lasted nearly two hours and a half, when all the masts of the Dutch ad- miral's ship were observed to go by the board : she was, however, defended for some time longer in a most gallant manner ; but, being overpowered by numbers, her colors were at length struck, and admiral de Win- ter was brought on board the Venerable; soon after the ship bearing the vice-admiral's flag was also dismasted, and surrendered to vice-admiral Onslow ; and these, with three of sixty-eight guns, two of sixty-four, two of fifty-six, and two frigates, were taken possession of by the English. In the early part of the action, rear-admiral Storey, who commanded the centre division of the Dutch fleet, fled for the Texel, in the States-Gene- ral, of seventy-four guns, with part of his division, and afterwards made a merit of having saved part of the fleet. The British squadron suffered much in their masts, yards, and rigging, and many of the ships lost a great number of men, but in no proportion to that of the enemy : the carnage on board the two ships that bore the admirals' flags was beyond all description, and did not amount to less than two hundred and fifty men killed and wounded on board each ship. 36* The total loss of the British was one hun- dred and ninety-one killed, and five hundred and sixty wounded, while the loss of the enemy must have been more than double. When the battle ended, the English fleet was within five miles of the shore, from whence thousands of Dutch spectators wit- nessed the destruction of their navy, every manoeuvre being distinctly seen. The votes of both houses of parliament greeted the ar- rival of the gallant sailors ; many of the captains were gratified by medals ; the ven- erable admiral was rewarded by the king with the dignity of viscount Duncan, of Camperdown, and a pension of three thou- sand pounds per annum; vice-admiral On- slow was created a baronet, and captains Trollope and Fairfax knights banneret. Rear-admiral Nelson bombarded Cadiz on the twenty-third of June, and on the fifth of July, but without materially advancing the objects of the war. CAPTURE OF TRINIDAD. FAILURE AT PORTO RICO AND SANTA CRUZ. THE Spanish island of Trinidad capitu- lated to an expedition consisting of six sail of the line, and a number of troops fitted out at Port Royal, in Martiniqo, under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie and ad- miral Harvey. On the approach of the Eng- lish, the Spaniards, who had a squadron of four ships of the line and one frigate lying at anchor in the gulf of Paria, set fire to their ships ; and one line-of-battle ship only, escaping the conflagration, fell into the hands of the victors : the governor and the garrison were made prisoners of war. The same commanders made an attempt, in the month of April, on Porto Rico ; but this island being found too strong to be carried by a coup-de-main, the enterprise totally failed. On the fifteenth of July, a British expe- dition arrived before the port of Santa Cruz, commanded by rear-admiral Nelson, and having effected a landing, took possession of the town ; but they learned, when too late, that the force under their command was ut- terly unequal either to carry the fort of Santa Cruz, or to contend with the military force of the island now assembled to oppose them. They prepared for a retreat, but had the misfortune to find that the violence of the surge on the beach had staved their boats, and reduced them to a mere wreck. In this situation they were summoned by the Spanish commander to surrender, which was disdainfully refused by captain Troubridge, who commanded on shore after rear-admiral Nelson had been severely wounded ; but he added, that if he were allowed to reimbark, the squadron before the town would not in- jure it To this the captain received a po- lite answer, stating that, for the purpose of L28 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. sparing the effusion of blood, facilities would j be afforded to himself and his followers to return to their ships. The loss of lives in this attempt was equal to that sustained in the battle off Cape St Vincent FRENCH LAND IN WALES. THE French government now menaced the territory of Britain itself, by assembling troops on the coasts of the channel, under the designation of the army of England; and Buonaparte was appointed to its com- mand. In the early part of this year, an attempt, of a nature quite incomprehensible, was made on the coast of Wales, by an ex- pedition fitted out at the port of Brest On the twenty-second of February, an enemy's force, which entered the small port of Ilfra- combe, in Devonshire, scuttled some mer chant-vessels, and made an unsuccessful ef- fort to destroy all the ships in the harbor. This invading squadron, which consisted of two frigates and two sloops, next steered its course for the bay of Cardigan, where, on the following day, they disembarked about fifteen hundred criminals, attired as French troops, and provided with a proportionable quantity of arms and ammunition, but with- out field-pieces. On receiving information of this event, the Welsh peasantry, animated by the gentry of the country, seized their scythes, sickles and pitch-forks, and marched forth to meet the invaders. Lord Cawdor . had assembled, in the course of a single day, a local force, consisting of seven hundred militia, fencibles, and yeomanry cavalry ; and the French commander, perceiving his situation to be desperate, after having dis- patched a letter to his lordship, proposing a capitulation, surrendered himself and his followers prisoners of war on the twenty- sixth. The two frigates which accompanied the expedition were captured on their return to Brest, and the whole proved as unfortu- nate in the execution as it was unaccounta- ble in its plan. SURRENDER OF MANTUA. EXPULSION OF THE AUSTRJANS FROM ITALY. AT the commencement of the year, the Austrian general Alvinzi, at the head of fifty thousand well-appointed troops, and a formidable train of artillery, formed the de- termination to raise the blockade of Mantua, and, having attacked and carried the French position, suddenly passed the Brenta, stormed the town of Cortona, and obliged a body of troops under Joubert to fall back upon Ri- voli. Buonaparte, who had been for some time at Bologna, was no sooner apprized of this irruption, than he repaired to the heights of San Marco, and made such judicious dis- positions that Alvinzi, who expected an easy conquest, soon found himself surprised and defeated. The garrison of Mantua, now despairing of succor, capitulated, after a long and brave resistance, on the second of February ; and on the fall of this important fortress, by which the imperial arms were expelled from Italy, Buonaparte published a proclamation to his army, in which he stated that they had proved victorious in fourteen pitched battles, and in seventy engagements ; that they had taken from the enemy more than one hundred thousand prisoners, five hundred field-pieces, and two thousand large cannon ; that the contributions raised in the countries conquered by them had supported, maintained, and paid the army, during the whole campaign; while thirty million of livres had been sent to the minister of finance for the increase of the public trea- sure ; and, after glancing at their achieve- ments against the kings and princes of Italy, he declared it to be his intention to carry the war into the hereditary states of Austria, and requested them to recollect that it was liberty they were about to present to the Hungarians, whose sovereign had disgraced himself by submitting to be in the pay and at the disposal of England. The pope had imprudently resumed hos- tilities against the French, and was now menaced with sudden ruin. Buonaparte pub- lish'ed a proclamation, in which, after re- proaching the holy father with subterfuge and perfidy, he threatened all who opposed the progress of the republican columns with the most exemplary vengeance. General Victor immediately entered Imola, and the pontifical army, abandoning the fertile plains of Romagna, took refuge on the summits of the Apennines, towards the sources of the Arno and the Tiber ; the towns of Cesena, Forli, Ravenna, and the March of Ancona submitted. When the French general ar- rived at Tolentino, and began to establish a republican form of government, his holiness, apprehensive lest he should march to the capital, at length determined to negotiate. He was consequently obliged to renounce all claim to Avignon and the Venaissin ; to relinquish the three legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna ; to furnish the stat- ues, pictures, and treasure stipulated in the former convention ; and to pay a large sum of money towards the expenses of the war. THE FRENCH COMPEL THE EMPEROR TO MAKE PEACE. TREATY OF CAMPO FORMIO. A GREAT and last effort was, however, made by the emperor, in collecting a power- ful body of troops between the Tagliamento and the Paive ; while the French, who oc- cupied the right bank of the latter river, and the left border of the Arisio, were prepared to oppose their progress. A variety of move- ments and minor actions having taken place, general Joubert penetrated to the banks of the Arisio, where he engaged the Austrians, GEORGE HI. 17601820. 427 and after a long and bloody action, during which he took four thousand prisoners, ob- tained possession of the bridge of Neumark: a second battle, equally unfortunate, was fought soon after at Trames, and the French now rushed into the hereditary dominions of the emperor : Massena seized the fort of Chiusa, the bridge of Carasola, and the town of Tarvis, while Bernadotte took possession of Gradisca, the capital of the Frioul, the capture of which rendered the French mas- ters of all the Austrian possessions from the Alps to the sea. Goritz submitted without resistance ; Trieste, the only port in the Adriatic appertaining to the emperor, fol- lowed its example ; and, while scaling the Norick Alps, still covered with snow, Buona- parte endeavored to conciliate the minds of the inhabitants by proclamations, in which he declared that the French armies were fighting for peace, and that they would not fail to extend protection to the peaceable Tyroleans. On the twenty-sixth of March the Austrians were again beaten, and on the thirtieth the whole of the French army ar- rived in the capital of the dutchy of Carin- thia. The greatest consternation now pre- vailed in Vienna, which was the avowed ob- ject of the French arms : on the other hand, though Buonaparte had beaten the Austrians in six different engagements, and destroyed one-half of their army, during a campaign that had lasted only twenty-one days, his situation was highly critical. The natives of the mountainous districts were attached by habit to the dominion of the house of Austria ; and the offer of liberty, which ex- hibited so many charms to the fascinated in- habitants of the valleys, possessed but few blandishments for a people whose patriarchal manners were as yet unchanged. The numerous denies of those dreary regions; the marked enmity of the peasantry ; the difficulty of obtaining supplies ; the danger of being surrounded ; all operated power- fully on the mind of the conqueror, and he found it necessary to affect the language of moderation. He accordingly, on the thirty- first of March, addressed a letter to the archduke, making overtures of peace, to which the Austrian commander replied that he was not rarnished with any powers to negotiate ; he, however, immediately trans- mitted Buonaparte's letter to Vienna, and in a few days received full powers from the emperor ; a suspension of arms took place ; and on the eighteenth of April a preliminary treaty of peace was signed at the castle of Eckenwald, in Styria, which has'since been known by the appellation of the treaty of Leoben, and which served as the foundation of the definitive treaty of Campo Formio. The intelligence of the preliminaries of peace being signed put a stop to the progress of the French armies on the Rhine, where they had also been victorious. After this treaty, Augereau, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, marched into Venice, and, seizing on the arsenal and forts, demanded the three inquisitors, and ten principal mem- bers of the senate, who were accused of having instigated their countrymen to an assassination of the French soldiery. In a few days a democratical municipality was installed ; and the members of the govern- ment, finding neither commiseration nor re- spect from the people, were happy in being allowed to retire from their native country. In Genoa, also, the nobles were friendly to the Austrian cause, but the people were de- sirous of a popular government Buonaparte, in consequence, soon after the revolution of Venice, established a democratical govern- ment in Genoa ; but as the nobles had never shown an active hostility, and made no ma- terial resistance to the change, they escaped exactions. By the definitive treaty the emperor re- nounced all right and title to the Austrian Netherlands ; and consented that the French republic should possess in full sovereignty the ci-devant Venetian islands, viz. Corfu, Zante, Cephalonia, and the other islands de- pendent thereon, together with their settle- ments in Albania. The French republic consented that the emperor should possess in full sovereignty, Istria, Dalmatia, the Venetian islands in the Adriatic, the mouths of the Cataro, the city of Venice, the Vene- tian canals, and the countries lying between the hereditary estates and the Adriatic seas ; the emperor acknowledging the Cisalpine republic, founded on the union of the Cispa- dane and Transpadane commonwealths, as an independent power, which republic com- posed the cirdevant Austrian Lombardy, the Bergamesque, the Brescian, the Cremon- esque, the Venetian states to the east and south of the Legner, the Modenese, the principalities of Massa and Carara, and the three legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna. This treaty, which was concluded with the emperor only as king of Hungary and Bohemia, the pacification of the empire with the French republic being referred to a congress, to be held at Rastadt, was imme- diately promulgated, but fourteen secret ar- ticles, highly important in their nature, were for a time concealed. By one of these it was agreed, on the part of the emperor, to use his influence that the French republic should, by the peace to be concluded with the German empire, retain as its boundary the bank of the Rhine, from the confines of Switzerland, below Basle, to the branching of the Nette, above Andernach, including the head of the bridge of Manheim, the town and fortress of Mentz, and both banks HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of the Nette, from whence that river falls into the Rhine, to its source near Bruch. His imperial majesty also agreed to use his good offices to obtain for France the free navigation of the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Mouse : while, on the other hand, the republic was to endeavor to acquire for the house of Austria the archbishopric of Saltz- burg, and part of the circle of Bavaria. On the injustice of the contracting parties, in combining to appropriate to themselves the territories of independent states, over which they possessed no other right or power than that which always appertains to the strong- est, no censure can be too severe. INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF FRANCE. SOON after the appointment of the direc- tory, the two councils coalesced for a time with the terrorists, in order to crush their mutual enemies, the men of moderate prin- ciples ; but the success of this plan was de- feated by the still greater enmity which sub- sisted between those terrorists who adhered to Robespierre to the last, and those who brought him to the scaffold. After the con- spiracy of May 1796, the directors were more circumspect in their conduct and lan- guage ; and no difference occurred between them and the councils till the new election, which took place in the spring of 1797, when, notwithstanding all the intrigues of the directory, and all the manoeuvres of the Jacobins, nearly the whole of the new depu- ties were adverse to the present system. At length the time came for one of the direc- tors also to go out by lot ; and, by dint of management, it was contrived that the lot should fall upon Letourneur, one of the weakest characters amongst them. He ac- cordingly received a large sum of money, was appointed to the post of ambassador, and Barthelemi was chosen to succeed him in the directory. From this time there was a majority in the two councils opposed to the directory, and, during the summer of 1797, a regular warfare was carried on between them, in messages and in speeches. The majority of the nation sided with the coun- cils, and, if their energy had been equal to the goodness of their cause, there could have been little doubt that they would have suc- ceeded in their efforts to give a better con- stitution to France and peace to Europe: their opponents, however, were better versed in the revolutionary tactics, and were mas- ters of the army, and of the executive power of the state. An article of the constitution expressly prohibited the army from delibe- rating on any subject whatever ; but in con- sequence of applications from the directory, who had connived at all their plunder and extortion, they loudly declared themselves in their favor. Buonaparte made all the di- visions of the army of Italy present peti- tions, of a threatening nature, against the councils : Moreau and Hoche did the same with their armies on the Rhine, and the lat- ter was pitched upon by the directory to command a body of troops, which they had ordered to Paris to destroy their enemies in the councils. Another article of the con- stitution prohibited the approach of troops to within a certain distance from the place at which the legislative body held its sittings ; but this article was disregarded by the di- rectory. Hoche, alarmed at the state in which he found the public mind on his ap- proach to the capital, was induced to decline the commission ; and Augereau, who was originally a private soldier in the Neapolitan army, but now a favorite general with Buo- naparte, was employed in his stead. Auge- reau had no sooner taken the command of the troops, than he moved forward, and pass- ed the limit prescribed by the constitution : had the councils acted with firmness and de- cision, they might still have succeeded ; but while they wasted time in ascertaining with precision, whether the troops had really passed the constitutional limit, the hall in which they sat was suddenly surrounded, and most of the. chiefs of the party in oppo- sition to the directory, together with the new director, Barthelemi, were arrested without the smallest resistance or difficulty, and, being placed in carriages, resembling iron cages, previously prepared for the pur- pose, were sent to Rochefort, where a frigate waited to transport them to the pestilential deserts of Guiana. The remains of the two councils, who no longer constituted a legiti- mate body of representatives, and who were not competent to perform any one act of legis- lation, now assembled at the Odeon, and conferred on the directory, by a formal deci- sion, that absolute power which they had usurped in breach of the constitution. The immediate consequence of this event was the triumph of Jacobinism, and the re-estab- lishment of a revolutionary government. The princess royal of England, Charlotte Augusta Matilda, eldest daughter of the sovereign, was married on the eighteenth of May, to Frederic William, hereditary prince of Wirtemburgh, on which occasion a por- tion of eighty thousand pounds was voted by parliament for the royal bride. On the eighth of July, Burke, whose talents as a political writer and parliamentary orator were of the first order, died at his seat at Beaconsfield, in the sixty-eighth year of his age : and on the tenth of November also died, after a reign of eleven years, Frederic William the Second, king of Prussia, in his fifty-fourth year. He was succeeded by his son Frederic William the Third, who, on his accession, adopted such measures of jus- tice and prudence, as inspired confidence in his subjects, and augured a happy reign. GEORGE HL 17601820. 429 CHAPTER XXIX. Negotiations for Peace renewed and broken oJf-^-Meeting of Parliament Address on the King's Speech On the late Negotiation Finance Triple Assessment Vol- untary Contributions Redemption of the Land Tax Plans for National Defence Duel between Pitt and Tierney Second Estimate of Supplies Slave Trade Tender of extended Service by the Militia Volunteer Corps Origin and Progress of the Rebellion in Ireland Severe Contests between the Military and Insurgents Suppression of the Rebellion Trials and Executions for Treason Lord Cornwal- lis appointed Viceroy Act of Amnesty Objects of the Rebellion French land at Kttlala, and surrender Naval Victory of Sir J. B. Warren Close of the Insurrec- tion in Ireland. NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE RENEWED AND BROKEN OFF. BY the treaty of Campo Formio, Great Britain was left alone in her contest with France ; and, on the first of June, an official note from lord Grenville to de la Croix, the French minister for foreign affairs, commu- nicated the desire of the British govern- ment to negotiate preliminaries, which might be definitely arranged at a future con- gress. The French government replied, that the directory would receive with eager- ness the overtures and proposals which should be made to it by the court of Eng- land, but required, for the purpose of avoid- ing delay, that the negotiations should be rather for a definite than for a preliminary treaty. The British government rejoined, that it would depend upon the progress and turn of the negotiations, whether prelimina- ry or definitive articles should be signed. The directory, in three days after the date of lord Grenville's last note, transmitted the necessary passports for a minister, furnished with full powers from his Britannic majesty, for the purpose of negotiating and conclud- ing a definitive and separate treaty of peace ; and fixed upon the city of Lisle as the place of meeting for the respective plenipotentia- ries. On the seventeenth of June, lord Gren- ville informed de la Croix, by letter, that his majesty had again made choice of lord Malmsbury to represent him ; to which the French minister assented, intimating, how- ever, that another choice would have ap- peared to the directory more favorable for the speedy conclusion of peace. On his ar- rival at Lisle, his lordship was met by the French plenipotentiaries Letourneur, late member of the directorial council, Pleville le Pelley, and Hugues Maret, when he open- ed the business by submitting the plan of pacification which he had received from the British ministry. This projet required the cessidfl of the colony of Trinidad, on the part of Spain ; and of the Cape of Good Hope, Cochin, in the East Indies, and the Dutch possessions in Ceylon, on the part of Holland ; in return for which it was propos- ed that Great Britain should cede all the other settlements taken from France and her allies in the course of the war: our minister further required the restoration of his personal property to the prince of Or- ange, or an equivalent in money ; and that France should engage to procure for him, at the restoration of peace, an indemnity for the loss of the United Provinces ; that Por- tugal should be included in the treaty, and that no demand should be made upon that country by France. To these proposals the French answered, that, previously to entering on the main business, it was necessary that three con- cessions should be made : first, that his Brit- annic majesty should resign the title of king of France ; secondly, that the ships taken and destroyed at Toulon should be restored, or restitution made for them ; and, thirdly, that any mortgage which England might have upon the Low Countries, in conse- quence of the money lent to the emperor of Germany, for the purpose of carrying on the war against France, should be given up. On the first of these points lord Malmsbury observed, that on all former occasions a sep- arate article had been agreed to, which ap- peared to answer every purpose they requir- ed, and which it was his intention, as the treaty advanced, to have proposed as proper to make a part of this : on the second, he replied, that the claim of restoring the ships was so perfectly unlocked for, that it was impossible for him to have been provided for it in his instructions : and, on the third, that, if the French republic had taken the Low Countries as they stood, charged with all their encumbrances, there could be no doubt what these words meant, and that, if no ex- ception was stated in the first instance, none could be made with a retro-active effect. These were the observations that occurred to him on the first mention of the subjects to which they had adverted, but he would 430 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. transmit the claims to his government for consideration. On the fifteenth of July the French plenipotentiaries addressed a note to lord .Malmsbury, in which it was stated that the French government, unable to detach itself from the engagements which it had contracted with its allies, Spain and the Ba- tavian republic, established, as an indispen- sable preliminary of the negotiation for the peace with England, the consent of his Brit- annic majesty to the restitution of all the possessions which he occupied, not only from the French republic, but, further and formal- ly, of those of Spain and the Batavian re- public. Lord Malmsbury replied, that this was, in effect, to declare the intention of France to put an abrupt termination to the treaty, as it proposed cessions on one side without any compensation on the other : if this were the resolution of the directory, the negotiation was at an end ; and it only remained for Great Britain to persevere in maintaining, with an energy and spirit pro- portioned to the exigency, a war that could not be ended but by yielding to terms at once disgraceful and unjust. It was then, however, notorious to all Eu- rope, that the members of the directory were at this period tottering in their seats ; and that, during the delay of the negotia- tion, their attentions were confined to their own preservation. During this crisis, an- other revolution, as has already been relat- ed, took place in France, which expelled two of its members, Barthelemi and Carnot, from the office of directors. These events led to the recall of the French ambassadors, then at Lisle, and to the appointment of cit- izens Treilhard and Bonneir d'Alco, as their successors; a change not more unpleasant to the feelings of lord Malmsbury than in- auspicious to the progress of the negotiation. Immediately after their first interview, on the thirteenth of September, lord Malmsbu- ry was required to inform them whether he was empowered to concede, as a prelimina- ry, that England should surrender all the possessions she had gained from France and her allies since the beginning of the war : and his lordship was further required to re- turn an explicit answer in the course of the day. On the sixteenth his lordship address- ed a note to the French plenipotentiaries, in which he intimated that he neither could nor ought to treat upon any other principle than that of reciprocal compensation, a principle which had been formally recognized as a ba- sis equally just, honorable, and advantageous to the two powers. On the same day the French ministers apprized his lordship of a decree of the executive directory, purport- ing, that in case lord Malmsbury should de- clare himself not to have the necessary pow- ers for agreeing to all the restitutions, which the laws and the treaties that bind the French republic make indispensable, he shall return in four and twenty hours to his court, to ask for sufficient powers. The ob- vious answer to this imperious mandate was returned by his lordship in a note, demand- ing the necessary passports : previously to his departure, however, another meeting took place, in which his lordship urged every consideration that might induce the French ministers to recall their late unwarrantable proposals, but without effect; he therefore took his departure from Lisle on the morn- ing of the eighteenth of September. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. ON the second of November parliament assembled, and his majesty expressed his firm conviction that the papers laid before the two houses would prove to them, and to the world, that in the late negotiations at Lisle every step had been taken on his part which could tend to accelerate the conclu- sion of peace ; and that he still retained an ardent desire for the attainment of that blessing. When the king's speech came to be taken into consideration by the commons, the house presented an extraordinary ap- pearance ; the benches on the left of the speaker's chair no longer exhibited their usual occupants. Finding their counsels re- jected, and their opposition unavailing, the opponents of ministers, with some few ex- ceptions, had determined to withdraw for a time from their places in parliament, and to leave the members of administration to pur- sue their own system of policy without con- trol, alleging that they were wearied with attending merely to be outvoted, and re- proached by the ministerial hirelings as enemies of their country. Under these circumstances, the address on the king's speech was voted in both houses without a division. An address passed both houses by an al- most unanimous vote, highly applauding the conduct of government, and expressing a firm determination to support his majesty to the utmost, and to stand or fall with our re- ligion, laws, and liberties. It was consider- ed by the nation at large that the concessions offered by England at Lisle were as great as it was proper to make, and that the claims of France were highly unreasonable and unjust ; a great portion of the people conse- quently evinced a renewal of ardor in the prosecution of the war ; and the secession of the opposition from parliament being dis- approved of by many, the ministry acquired some increase of popularity. FINANCE TRIPLE ASSESSMENT. RE- DEMPTION OF THE LAND-TAX. THE existing restrictions on cash pay- ments by the bank of England, were con- tinued by an act of this session, and on the GEORGE m. 17601820. 431 twenty-second of November Pitt brought forward his annual statement relating to the public finances. The whole expense of the year amounted to twenty-five million five hundred thousand pounds, and, for the pur- pose of furnishing a supply equal to this im- mense demand, Pitt declared it to be his in- tention to have recourse to a perfectly new and solid system of finance. Of this sum, six million five hundred thousand pounds would arise from the unappropriated pro- duce of the sinking fund, exchequer-bills, and unmortgaged taxes. Of the nineteen million pounds then remaining to be pro- vided for, he proposed to raise seven within the year, by a new impost, under the desig- nation of a triple assessment, which should be regulated by the existing assessed taxes, in a triplicate proportion to their actual amount, limited, however, to the tenth of each person's income ; and from the appli- cation of this principle of taxation arose, at subsequent periods, the income and property taxes. Of the remaining twelve million pounds, four might be borrowed without creating an additional debt, the produce of the sinking fund, old and new, appropriated to the purpose of liquidating the national debt, being equal to that amount; the re- maining eight million pounds he proposed to pay by continuing the triple assessment till the principal and interest were discharged, which would be the operation of little more than another year. This plan, he said, would greatly damp the hopes of the enemy, and show to him, and to all Europe, that our na- tional resources rose in proportion to the exigencies of our situation. He acquiesced in what had been so often said, that it would have been fortunate if the practice of fund- ing had never been introduced, and affirmed that the period had arrived when an abso- lute necessity existed for some changes of system. Fox, at the request of his constitu- ents, now again appeared in parliament, and made* the severest animadversions on the new scheme of finance, which was also op- posed by Tierney, Sheridan, Curwen, and others. During the progress of this bill, a clause was introduced, on the motion of the speaker, to admit of voluntary contributions towards the general defence of the country, now menaced with invasion by a powerful and enraged enemy ; and the sum thus raid- ed, under the sanction of parliament, amount- ed, to one million five hundred thousand pounds, to which the bank of England con- tributed two hundred thousand pounds, the king twenty thousand pounds, and the queen five thousand pounds, out of their private purses. 1798. The redemption of the land-tax was brought forward on the second of April. The revenue at that time derived from the tax amounted to two million pounds. This Pitt proposed to sell at twenty years' pur- chase, when the three per cent consols were at fifty, subject to a rise in the price to pur- chasers, according to the rise of stocks. Forty millions sterling, the present amount of the land-tax at twenty years' purchase, would amount to eighty million pounds three per cent stockf affording an interest of two million four hundred thousand pounds, and leaving, by this operation, a clear annual gain to the public revenue of four hundred thousand pounds. The person who purchased his share of the land-tax, would obtain a landed security of his property, and at a rate so favorable as to render it a very desirable object What was of much more conse- quence to the interests of the state, eighty million pounds of capital would be taken out of the market The proprietor of the land was of course to have the right of pre-emp- tion ; and, to simplify the operation, the pur- chase was to be made in stock, not in mo- ney. The bill further provided, that, if the owner of the land should not be able to make the purchase within a time to be lim- ited, a further period should be allowed. In the absence of the leading members of op- position, this bill passed into a law, without encountering any considerable difficulties ; but, from the radical defects of the plan, not more than about one-fourth part of the land- tax was, within the space of the three suc- ceeding years, bought up, and the advan- tage to the public, in point of revenue, did not within that period exceed fifty thousand pounds a-year. At the same time that the land-tax at four shillings in the pound was made perpetual, certain duties to the amount of that tax, on sugar and tobacco, were ren- dered annual, in order that the control which parliament previously possessed over the public purse might suffer no diminution. DUEL BETWEEN PITT AND TIERNEY. DUNDAS moved for the introduction of a bill, to enable his majesty to call out a por- tion of the supplementary militia; and a second bill was introduced for the encour- agement of voluntary associations in de- fence of the country. This call was promptly obeyed; and no period in the history of Great Britain was ever distinguished by more striking manifestations of patriotic feeling and military ardor. A third bill was brought into the house by Dundas, for the revival of the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act, which, when a rebellion was impending in one kingdom, and another was in daily expectation of an invasion, could not with propriety experience any opposi- tion. The alien bill, for removing all sus- picious foreigners out of the realm, was also renewed ; and on the twenty-fifth of May, Pitt, convinced that the dangers of the coun- 432 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. try were continually increasing from the vast preparations accumulating on the coast of France, moved for a bill for more effectu- ally manning the navy. The chief object he had in view was the temporary suspen- sion of the protections of seamen, and he expressed an earnest wish that the bill should pass that day through its different stages, with a suitable pause at each if required, and that it should be sent to the lords for their concurrence. Tierney expressed his belief that the augmentation of the navy might be provided for in the usual way. The very extraordinary manner in which the house was called upon to adopt this measure could not fail, he said, to create great and unnecessary alarm ; and, indeed, from all he had lately seen, he must view the measures of ministers as hostile to the liberty of the subject Pitt, with consider- able warmth, said that, if every measure adopted against the designs of France was to be considered as hostile to the liberties of this country, his idea of liberty differed widely from that of the honorable gentle- man. As a notice of the intended measure would enable those on whom it was meant to operate to elude its effects, how, he asked, could the honorable gentleman's opposition be accounted for, but from a desire to ob- struct the defence of the country 1 Tierney then rose, and called him to order; on which the speaker observed, that whatever had a tendency to throw suspicion on the senti- ments of a member, if conveyed in a lan- guage that clearly marked that intention, was certainly irregular : of this the house would judge from the right honorable gen- tleman's explanation. Pitt said that, if the house waited for his explanation, he feared it would wait a long time. He knew very well that it was not parliamentary to state the motives that actuated the opinions of members ; but it was impossible to go into arguments in favor of a question, without sometimes hinting at the motives that in- duced an opposition. He submitted to the judgment of the house the propriety of what he had urged, but he would not depart from anything he had advanced by either retrac- tion or explanation. Tierney immediately left the house, and the next morning sent Pitt a challenge. On Sunday afternoon, the twenty-seventh, at three o'clock, the parties met on Putney-Heath, when two cases of pistols being discharged without effect, Pitt firing his second pistol in the air, the sec- onds interfered, and the matter was accom- modated. SECOND ESTIMATE OF SUPPLIES. VOL- UNTEERING. THB chancellor of the exchequer found himself obliged, as in the last session, to lay before the house a second estimate of supplies, when he took occasion to state that the loan must be fifteen instead of twelve million pounds ; and tkat the triple assessment, which was calculated at seven million pounds, would, it was apprehended, from the numerous modifications and abate- ments, be reduced to four million five hun- dred thousand pounds. The interest of the increased loan and deficiencies he estimated at seven hundred and sixty-three thousand pounds, which he proposed to provide for by additional duties on salt, tea, dogs, horses and carriages, and by a tax on armorial bearings. The various duties on houses and windows were, at the same time, consolidated into one table. A bill for regulating the shipping and car- rying of slaves in British vessels from Afri- ca, passed by a great majority. On the nineteenth of June, a message from the king announced that various regi- ments of militia had made a voluntary ten- der of their services, to be employed in aid of the regular and militia forces in Ire- land, for the suppression of the rebellion un- happily existing in that country. In both houses, an address, empowering his majesty to accept any such offers, was carried after animated debates; and bills, founded upon the message, were passed, previously to the prorogation of parliament on the twenty- ninth of June. England being thus deprived of about twelve thousand of its constitutional de- fenders, though still under the imminent apprehension of an invasion, a spirit of military ardor, equal to any exigency, at once seized and pervaded the whole king- dom ; and all ranks and orders of men eager- ly formed themselves into volunteer corps, commanded by officers of their own choice, acting under temporary commissions from the king. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE IRISH REBELLION. BEFORE the rebellion of Ireland broke out into a flame, it had been some time evident that a dark and dangerous connexion was carrying on between the society of United Irishmen and the French government, hav- ing for its aim nothing less than the dissolu- tion of the connexion between the two king- doms. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the changes which occurred in the royal dynasty, civil government, and reli- gion of England, had involved Ireland, which had adhered to the ancient lineage and authorities, in the imputed guilt of re- bellion, and subjected her to religious pro- scription, and the estates forfeited on the sup- pression of these insurrections were granted to English settlers, who generally differing in religious principles, and engrossing politi- cal power, were always regarded by the GEORGE HI. 17601820. 433 native Irish as intruders and plunderers, from whence arose a jealousy and antipathy which time has not yet been able to eradi- cate. The British government, having seen the fatal effects of coercive measures in the case of America, had since adopted towards Ireland a more liberal and enlightened sys- tem of policy. The penal statutes against the Roman Catholics were in a great degree repealed ; they held their land on the like terms with the Protestants ; they enjoyed, in short, every right and franchise in com- mon with the former, saving the offices of state, the privilege of sitting in parliament, the necessity of supporting the Protestant church besides their own clergy, and the partiality with which, notwithstanding the late mitigation of the penal code, the gov- ernment of Ireland continued to be admin- istered. The society of United Irishmen, projected and organized by Theobald Wolfe Tone, an Irish lawyer of distinguished tal- ents, proposed to connect the whole Irish nation together, for the purpose of obtain- ing a general melioration of their condition, by a reform of parliament, and an equaliza- tion of Catholic with Protestant privileges, without any exception, civil or political. The Protestants, persuaded that, whatever their real purpose might be, the ferment they were agitating must be inimical to the existing establishments, formed counter as- the leaders of the malcontents rather to en- trap the unwary, than as the true object of those under whose banners the great mass of the disaffected were preparing to shed their blood. In the year 1794, the French government had sent an agent, named Jackson, a cler- gyman of the established church of England, and a native of Ireland, into these king- doms, to acquire intelligence; and he at first .took up his residence at the house of a merchant of the name of Stone, at Old- ford, near London; but finding that the project of an invasion of England was hope- less, he repaired to Ireland, whence he car- ried on a correspondence with his friend, the English merchant. They were both, however, soon afterwards apprehended and tried on a charge of high treason, when Stone was pronounced not guilty, but Jack- son was convicted ; and at the moment when upon him, he fell down suddenly, and ex- pired in the court On this conviction, Tone, Hamilton Rowan, and some other dis- tinguished members of the society of United Irishmen, absconded to France ; but, soon after the departure of earl Fitzwilliam from Ireland in 1795, that society received an important accession of men of talents and influence, among whom were Arthur O'Con- nor, late a member of the Irish parliament, the nephew and presumptive heir of lord sociations, and assumed the name of Orange- Longueville ; Dr. M'Niven, chairman of the men, in honor of king William, whom they I Catholic committee ; Oliver Bond, an opu- consider as the vindicator of Protestant se- lent Dublin merchant; and a barrister named curity, and the establisher of Protestant Emmet all of whom, except M'Niven, property and power in Ireland, although that were Protestants. About the close of that monarch was more liberal and tolerant to | year, a regular communication was opened the Irish Catholics, than his ministers and! by the leaders of the society with the some of his successors. The Orangemen French directory, through the medium of proposing to disarm the Catholics, bodies of Tone and other Irish refugees ; and early these associated to resist the attempt, and in the following year a proposition was re- assumed the name of Defenders, and va- ceivef 1 . from the French government, and rious feuds took place, accompanied with gr^at disorder and some bloodshed. The United Irishmen did not immediately amal- gamate with the Defenders, who were rather violently outrageous than systematically de- signing; in them, however, they saw will- accepted by the secret committee of the society of United Irishmen, to send over an army to Ireland, to assist in the projected effort to subvert the monarchy, and to sepa- rate Ireland from the British connexion. The first agents of the insurgents demand- ing instruments when their own deep-laid j ed from France any number of troops, not schemes should be ripe for execution, j more than ten or less than five thousand ; Whether the designs of these associates but the French showed a decided inclina- were originally to effect a complete separa- tion of Ireland from Britain has not been ascertained as a fact, but that in .the pro- gress of their concert they had formed such tion to send an army sufficient to conquer and "to retain possession of the country fifty or sixty thousand at least. Three ar- maments, one from Spain, a second from a project is beyond all doubt; and in justice France, and a third from Holland, were to the Catholics it must be observed, that destined to sail for the coast of Ireland in the conspirators were not exclusively, or i the same year; but the defeat of the Span- even originally, of that community : the so-j ish fleet by earl St. Vincent, and that of the ciety of United Irishmen having been in- stituted chiefly among Protestants, reform and Catholic emancipation were used by VOL. IV. 37 Batavian fleet by lord Duncan, entirely dis- concerted this plan of invasion. These dis- asters by no means discouraged the insur- 431 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. gents, who had their expectations buoyed up by an assurance, on the part of the French directory, that such succors as cir- cumstances would admit should arrive in Ireland from France, in the month of April or May, 1798. At the commencement of this year a grand effort was resolved upon : in the month of February, a military com- mission was appointed by the executive council of the insurgents, and nocturnal as- semblies were held in various parts of the kingdom, where the people were trained to the use of arms. At the same time, Arthur O'Connor, one of the pretended executive directory, repaired to London with an inten- tion of proceeding to France, in company with Binns, a very active member of the London corresponding society, Coigley, an Irish priest, and two attendants of the names of Allen and Leary. Attempts had like- wise been recently made, with some suc- cess, to form a society of United English- men on the model of the United Irish, and Coigley and Binns were the chief promoters of this design, which also extended itself to Scotland. O'Connor and his associates were taken into custody at Margate, in an attempt to ob- tain a passage to France, on the twenty- eighth of February. After being confined some time in the Tower, they were remov- ed to Maidstone, where they were tried by a special commission on the twenty-first and twBnty-second of May, two days before the breaking out of the rebellion in Ireland ; and Coigley, on whose person was found a paper, purporting to be an address " from the secret committee of England to the executive di- rectory of France," was capitally convicted, and died with heroic fortitude in what he considered the cause of his country. No evidence appearing against Allen and Lea- ry, they were immediately set at liberty; but O'Connor and Binns were detained >n an- other charge of high treason, preferred against them by the British government On the twelfth of March, thirteen members of the provincial committee of Leinster, with other principals of the conspiracy, were ar- rested at the house of Oliver Bond in Dublin. This arrest was grounded on the information of Thomas Reynolds, of Kilkea Castle, in the county of Kildare, who had associated with the conspirators, and was colonel of a regi- ment of United Irishmen, and provincial delegate for Leinster. In these arrests were included the most active and efficient lead- ers of the union, Emmet, M'Niven, and Bond, being among the number. A warrant was issued against lord Edward Fitzgerald, and a thousand pounds offered for his apprehension; but his lordship re- mained for several weeks concealed in the city of Dublin : however, he was discovered on the nineteenth of May ; and, in arresting trim, he wounded Justice Swan dangerously, and captain Ryan mortally ; he was himself so desperately shot in the shoulder, that, af- ter languishing till the third of the following month, he died in extreme agony. This young nobleman, who was brother to the duke of Leinster, and married to a daugh- ter of the late duke of Orleans, was emi- nently qualified for the excitement and di- rection of revolutionary commotions, being a man of daring courage, a most active pirit, considerable powers of mind, and of a family highly respected for its ancient greatness by the lower classes of the Irish. The vacancies created in the directorial and other departments, by these arrests, were sup- plied without difficulty, but with men much less fit for the arduous task of overturning a settled government Among the members of the new directory were two brothers, bar- risters, of the name of Sheares, to whom captain Armstrong, a government agent, found ready access, and, by a show of great zeal hi the cause, obtained the confidence of the leaders, from whom he learned that a general rising must immediately take place; that the impatience of the people, since the criminal prosecutions, could no longer be restrained ; and that it was be- come necessary to make a great and imme- diate national effort, without waiting for French succors. The plan proposed was to seize the camp of Loughlin's town, the ar- tillery at Chapelizod, and the castle of Dub- lin, all on the night of the twenty-third of May : and it was further determined, that a simultaneous rising should take place at Cork : on the twenty-first, however, the two brothers, John and Henry Sheares, with some others of the principal conspirators, were apprehended ; the city and county of Dublin were declared, by the lord-lieutenant and council, to be in a state of insurrection ; the guards at the castle, and at all the great objects of attack, were trebled; and the whole city was, in fact, converted into a garrison. Amongst the precautions taken on this occasion by government was the augmentation of the several corps of armed yeomanry, a species of force that was first embodied in the month of October 1796, in a kind of independent companies. These yeomanry corps were mostly cavalry, and were generally commanded by a captain and two lieutenants ; the infantry being armed like a regular army, and the cavalry furnish- ed with a pistol and sword each, to which sometimes a carbine was added. In six months from their first establishment, the numbers increased to thirty-seven thousand ; and, during the rebellion, the yeomanry force exceeded fifty thousand. Of the means accumulated bv the disaf- GEORGE III. 17601820. 435 fected, for carrying their revolutionary en- terprises into effect, some estimate may be made from the following facts : A paper, in his own hand-writing, was given by lord Edward Fitzgerald to Reynolds, the inform- er, which purported to be a return made by a national committee, on the twenty-sixth of February 1798, from which it appeared, that the number of armed men in Ulster, Leinster, and Munster, amounted to two hundred and sixty-nine thousand eight hun- dred and ninety-six, and that the sum of one thousand four hundred and eighty-five pounds four shillings and nine pence, was in the hands of the treasurer. Another return made by a meeting of colonels, held on the twenty-eighth of March 1798, reported, that their adherents, even among the king's troops, were in the proportion of one in every three, and that the insurgents were in suf- cient force to disarm all the military within the bounds of their own counties. Sir Ralph Abercrombie having been ap- pointed, on the twelfth of December 1797, commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland, his first step in the discharge of his public duty was to make a tour of observation throughout the island. The excesses com- mitted by the military in the provinces, call- ed down severe reprehension; and on his return to the capital he caused it to be noti- fied, in general orders, " that the irregular- ities of the troops in Ireland had too unfor- tunately proved the army to be in a state of licentiousness, which must render it formi- dable to every one but the enemy." The general, after the publication of his general orders, and under the influence of the obser- vations he had made in his recent view of the country, endeavored to impress the minds of those in power with his own opinions, that coercive measures to the extent deter- mined upon were by no means necessary in Ireland. But not having succeeded in pro- ducing the effect he intended by these re- presentations, and unwilling to tarnish his military fame, or to risk the loss of his hu- mane and manly character by leading troops to scenes of civil desolation, he resigned the chief command of the army in Ireland on the twenty-ninth of April, after holding that appointment little more than four months, and was succeeded by general Lake. In the month of March orders were issued to the army by the lord-lieutenant to proceed into the disturbed counties ; and a manifesto, dated from head-quarters at Kildare, was on the third of the ensuing month addressed to the inhabitants, requiring them to surrender their arms in the space of ten days from the notice, on pain of large bodies of troops be- ing distributed among them to live at free quarters ; promising at the same time to re- ward such as would give information of con- cealed arms or ammunition, but denouncing exemplary severities if the country should continue in a disturbed state. On the ad- vance of the military into the other coun- ties, a similar notice was given to the inhab- itants, and the troops in the county of Kil- dare, and part of those in the counties of Carlow and Wicldow, were quartered in the houses of the disaffected or suspected, in numbers proportioned to the supposed guilt and ability of the owners. Great numbers of houses with their furniture were burnt, where concealed arms were found, or whose occupants had been guilty of the fabrication of pikes, or other illegal practices for the promotion of the conspiracy. Many irregu- larities were of course committed by com- mon soldiers, without the approbation or knowledge of their officers, and many other acts of severity by persons not in the army ; some from an unfeigned zeal for the service of the crown, and others to promote sinister purposes, or to gratify a spirit of personal animosity. The rebel chiefs had decided on open war, and the twenty-third of May was the day appointed for the generalising of the country. The command of the rebel army after the arrest of lord Edward Fitzgerald, devolved upon Samuel Neilson, who meditated an at- tack upon Newgate, in the city, of Dublin, for the purpose of rescuing his lordship. With this view he assembled fifteen of the insurgent colonels on the night of the twen- ty-second of May, and, having produced a map of the city, he assigned to each of them the post which they and their regiments were to occupy. The prison and the vice- regal residence were marked out as the first objects of attack, and the latter edifice was to be assailed in front and rear by different parties, while a select band was to ascend by ladders into the apartments of the prin- cipal members of government, and to secure their persons. Nor was it intended that the insurrection should be confined merely to the metropolis ; the plan embraced the whole kingdom, and the signal for the general rising was to be the stoppage of the mail- coaches. This part of the project was in- deed carried into effect, for, on the twenty- third, the Belfast mail-coach was detained and burnt at Santry, the Cork mail at Naas, and that travelling in the direction of Ath- lone at Lucan ; but the rebels, not satisfied with detaining the Limerick mail, barba- rously murdered both the guard and coach- man near the Curragh of Kildare. Early in the morning of the twenty-third, all the yeo- men in the city, amounting to about three thousand five hundred, and the few military in the garrison, were ordered by general Lake to repair to the respective alarm-posts, 436 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. while the lord-mayor placed the Cork mili- tia, with two battalion guns, at the north side of St Stephen's green. It fortunately happened that the royal canal and the grand canal, each fifty feet broad and eight feet deep, formed a complete fortification on the north and south sides of the city ; and all the bridges being occupied by military, the communication with the disaffected from without was in a considerable degree cut off CONTESTS BETWEEN THE MILITARY AND INSURGENTS. THIS operation was not, however, carried into complete effect, as nearly three thou- sand men entered the city to the north, on the evening of the twenty-third, for the pur- pose of joining the insurgents. A large body of rebels, armed with pikes and mus- kets, assembled in Eccles-street, and its en- virons, as well as in various other parts of the city, and great numbers were advancing towards Dublin, with an intention of rush- ing into the city, as soon as the insurgents had carried the castle. At this crisis, Neil- son, the rebel chief, was apprehended in the streets, by one Greig, after a desperate struggle ; and on then- leader being com- mitted to prison, several thousand rebels, who were waiting with impatience the sig- nal of attack, dispersed in various directions. The plan of the rebels was, it appeared, to assemble by beat of drum ; and it is well known, observes Sir Richard Musgrave, in his Memoirs of the Rebellion, that, in an- other hour, the fate of the city and its loyal inhabitants would have been decided ; for the mass of the people, armed with pikes ;md other weapons, were lurking in lanes and by-places, ready to start forth on the first beat of their drums, and would have occupied all the streets, and assassinated the yeomen, before they could have reached their respective stations. On the night of the twenty-third, and during the following day, several skirmishes were fought hi the counties adjoining the seat of government, and the towns of Naas, Clane, Prosperous, Ballymore, Eustace, and Kilcullen, were at- tacked by the insurgent force ; and Carlow, Hacketstown, and Monastereven, had to withstand similar assaults on the two follow- ing days. These feeble and unconnected ef- forts were not countenanced by a general rising ; for Ulster, in which province alone one hundred and fifty thousand United Irish- men are said to have been enrolled and mus- tered, declined the contest, in consequence of the unpromising state of their affairs : and the progress of rebellion, unsanctioned even by the formality of a manifesto, had hitherto rather resembled the capricious freaks of a discontented mob, than the united efforts of a large portion of the nation. War being openly commenced by the conspirators, the lord-lieutenant issued a proclamation on the twenty-fourth, giving notice that orders were conveyed to all his majesty's general officers in Ireland, to punish according to martial law, by death or otherwise, all per- sons aiding the rebellion ; and the following day presented an opportunity for carrying into effect these heavy denunciations. On the twenty-fourth of May, an unusually large assemblage of the insurgents in the neighborhood of Carlow, forty miles south- west of Dublin, indicated that an attack on that place had been decided upon, and, on the day following, the garrison, consisting of about four hundred and fifty men, under colonel Mahon, was assailed by a body of one thousand or one thousand five hundred insurgents. On their advance into the town, they received so destructive a fire from the garrison, that they recoiled, and endeavored to retreat, but, finding their flight intercept^ ed, numbers took refuge in the houses, which being immediately fired by the soldiery, they met a miserable fate. The loss of the rebels on this occasion could not be estimated at less than five hundred, while not an individ- ual on the side of the loyalists was even wounded ; and, after the defeat, about two hundred insurgents were hanged or shot On the night of the twenty-sixth of May, the standard of rebellion was hoisted be- tween Gorey and Wexford, and father John Murphy, a Romish priest, of Boulavogue, placed himself at the head of the insurgents, two large bodies of whom, both men and women, were collected on the following day, being Whit-Sunday, one on the hill of Ou- lart, the other on Kilthomas hill, the latter of which, amounting to from two to three thousand, and commanded by Michael Mur- phy, another Romish priest, were attacked by about three hundred yeomen, who ad- vanced intrepidly up the hill, when the rebel force, notwithstanding their superior num- bers, retreated- in disorder, leaving one hun- dred and fifty of their companions dead on the field. The assailants, not satisfied with a victory so honorable to their skill and cour- age, tarnished the laurels of the day by burning two Romish chapels, and about one hundred cabins and farm-houses belonging to persons of that community, in their line of march. Very different from the battle of Kilthomas was the result of another action fought on the same day, on the hill of Ou- lart, where father John Murphy commanded in person. The insurgents, finding their re- treat cut off, attacked their opponents with an impetuosity that overthrew all opposi- tion ; and so successful were their efforts, that a whole picked detachment of one hun- dred and ten men, from the north Cork mili- tia, was slain, with the exception of colonel Foote and four of his men ; while the loss GEORGE m. 17601820. 437 of the rebels was only three killed and six i in the rear, while he attacked them in front, wounded. Father John, flushed with victo- ry, advanced to Enniscorthy, and that place was attacked on the twenty-eighth by a reb- el force amounting to seven thousand, of which about eight hundred were armed with muskets. Victory, which fluctuated for three hours, at length took her stand in the rebel ranks, and the military, having no cannon to support them, were driven to the necessity of sounding a retreat The next position of the insurgents was at Vinegar-hill, near Enniscorthy. While sallied forth from the town on the following morning, taking with him the principal part of the regular force at that time in the gar- rison ; but this operation proved altogether unsuccessful. On the return of the troops a council of war was hastily assembled, when it was determined to evacuate the town, into which the insurgents poured by thousands, shouting, and exhibiting every mark of ex- travagant exultation. Their first step was to proceed to the prison, whence they in- stantly liberated Harvey, and insisted that they halted at this place on the twenty-ninth, ! he should become their commander. John Henry Colclough, of Ballyteig, and Edward Fitzgerald, of Newpark, who, with Beauchamp Bagnel Harvey, of Bargycastle, had previously been committed by the loyal- ists to the prison at Wexford, on suspicion of having favored the rebel cause, were dis- patched with a commission to endeavor to prevail on them to disperse. This unprom- ising mission entirely failed ; and Colclough was ordered to return to Wexford, while Fitzgerald was detained. So prompt were the rebels in their movements, that before the evening of the same day their advanced guard was pushed forward to Three Rocks, within three miles of Wexford, and that eminence fixed upon as one of their future military stations. On their approach the consternation of the inhabitants of Wexford inhabitants, rendered hospitable by The their fears, entertained them with great profusion, and, after various scenes of disorder, natu- rally attendant on such an occasion, parties were dispatched in boats to bring on shore all the men, arms, and ammunition they could find on board the vessels in the harbor : and those who were recognized as having rendered themselves obnoxious to these san- guinary wretches were pierced with pikes upon the beach. The night of the thirtieth passed in com- parative tranquillity ; but early on the morn- ing of the thirty-first the streets were again crowded, and the confusion and plunder of the preceding day recommenced. After much entreaty, the insurgent force was in- duced to move out of the town, and encamp became extreme ; suspicion haunted every : on Windmill-hills, where they divided into bosom ; and, as a measure of precaution, or- j two bodies; there remained, however, a kind ders were issued to extinguish all the fires, i of rebel authority in the place, which as- even those of the bakers, and to unroof all ; sumed the office of supplying the camps, and the thatched houses in the town, to prevent ! issuing proclamations, the incendiary operations of the disaffected, i By this time the insurrection had become In this extremity multitudes repaired for j general throughout the county, except where refuge on board the ships in the harbor ; the j the people were kept down by the presence shop were all shut, and many of the affright- of the military ; all the forges, both in town ed inhabitants sought security in flight. The and country, were in consequence continu- military force at this time in Wexford amounted to about one thousand two hun- dred men, whilst the rebels were at least fifteen" thousand. It was announced to the garrison, in the course of the evening, that general Fawcett was marching from the fort of Duncannon, and that his arrival with a strong reinforcement might be hourly ex- pected. The general, having arrived in the night at Taghmon, pushed forward a small detachment, which was unfortunately inter- cepted on the morning of the thirtieth, near the camp at Three Rocks, and after a sharp engagement, in which a majority of their number was killed, the survivors fell into the hands of the enemy. The general, on receiving the account of this disaster, re- treated precipitately towards Duncanncn, with which the troops in Wexford were un- acquainted for several hours; and colonel Maxwell, acting upon the supposition that the general would be able to take the rebels 37* ally employed in fabricating pike-blades ; and four oyster-smacks were fitted out in the harbor, to cruise off the bay, and to bring in vessels laden with provisions, to supply the markets, which were totally deserted by the farmers. All specie seemed to have van- ished during the insurrection ; and bank notes were held in such low estimation, that great quantities of them were destroyed in lighting tobacco-pipes, and in wadding for firelocks. So much indeed was the value of paper money depreciated, and of specie advanced, that a pound of beef was regularly sold in the market of Wexford for one penny in cash, when a bank note of the nominal value of twenty shillings would not purchase the same weight of that commodity. Whilst the southern part of the county of Wexford was in this horrible state of commotion, the northern baronies towards Gorey were all frightfully agitated. On the morning of the first of June, the garrison of Buaclody, three 438 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. miles from Enniscorthy, consisting of five hundred men, was attacked by a detachment of rebels, from the camp at Vinegar-hill, amounting to about five thousand, and com- manded by father Kern, a man of extraordi- nary stature, strength, and ferocity. After a sharp engagement, during which the loyal- ists were at one time obliged to quit the town, the assailants were at length defeated, with the loss of about two hundred slain, while that of the victors amounted only to two privates. This victory was of no small importance, as a different result would have opened a way for the Wexford rebels into the county of Carlow, the rising of whose inhabitants to co-operate with those of Wick- low and Kildare, already in arms, must have given great embarrassment to government A division of the Wexford rebels, under Beauchamp Bagnel Harvey, advanced to the south-west, for the purpose of attacking New Ross ; but the capture of the town was an object of considerable difficulty, as the gar- rison consisted of one thousand two hundred effective men, exclusive of one hundred and fifty yeomen, who had been for some time prepared for the attack, and were all judi- ciously stationed. About five o'clock in the morning of the fifth of June, thirty thousand insurgents, about one-fourth armed with muskets, and the remainder with pikes, marched up to the place with great bravery, drove in the advanced guard, and took pos- session of the alarm post. The first onsel was furious, but they were repulsed by a de- tachment of the fifth dragoons ; they, how- ever, instantly rallied, ana notwithstanding cannon were planted at the cross lanes, so as to sweep the streets as they advanced, such were the weight and impetuosity of the col- umn formed by the assailants, that the main body of the garrison fled over the bridge with great precipitation. The commanding officer, however, having reanimated his men, contrived to turn the rear of the assailants, who were now dispersed and overcome ; and, as raw troops can never be rallied, they re- treated with the utmost speed, after a con- test of several hours, first to Corbet, and then to Carrickbyrne-hills. The slaughter of the rebels was prodigious : the king's troops lost about ninety men killed, among whom was lord Mountjoy, colonel of the Dublin militia, and the wounded and missing amounted to about one hundred and thirty. Enraged at this defeat, some dastardly rebels turned their fury against objects incapable of resistance, and more than one hundred Protestant loyalists were wantonly and bar- barously massacred in cold blood. The army under father Michael Murphy, about twenty thousand strong, advanced against Arklow on the ninth of June. The attack, which continued for upwards of two hours, was fierce and irregular ; but the in- cessant fire of the troops rendered all their efforts abortive, and they were never able to penetrate into the place. At length father Michael, after haranguing his followers, ad- vanced with a standard on which a cross had been emblazoned ; but, though he had repre- sented himself to be invulnerable, he was killed by a cannon-shot, on which his troops instantly retreated in disorder towards Cool- grency. The insurgent army, now under the command of general Byrne, next medi- tated an attack on Hacketstown ; but the approach of general Lake compelled them to abandon that design, and to commence their retreat, on the twentieth, for Vinegar- hill. The division of the army under gene- ral Needham moved from Arklow to Gorey on the nineteenth, and from thence towards Enniscorthy on the twentieth, for the pur- pose of co-operating in a plan formed by general Lake for surrounding the rebel sta- tion at Vinegar-hill. For this purpose differ- ent divisions of the army moved at the same time from various quarters that under lieu- tenant-general Dundasfrom Baltinglass ; an- other, under majors-general Sir James DufF and Loftus, from Tullow ; that from Arklow under general Needham ; and a fourth from Ross, under majors-general Johnson and Eus- tace. On the march of the army from Ross, the rebel bands under father Philip Roche, on Lacken-hill, fled in the utmost confusion, and separated into two bodies, one of which directed its march to Wexford, and the other to Vinegar-hill. This famous eminence, with the town of Enniscorthy at its foot, and the country for many miles in circum- ference, had been in the possession of the rebels ever since the twenty-eighth of May, during which period continual appre- hension of death had attended the hapless loyalists who had not succeeded in effecting their escape. The army commanded to march from different quarters to surround this post consisted, in the whole, of about thirteen thousand effective men, with a for- midable train of artillery ; and with such a strength, judiciously directed, the whole in- surgent army, estimated at twenty thousand, might have been taken or destroyed. The troops, being divided into four distinct col- umns, advanced, early in the morning of the twenty-first, against the insurgents; while a fifth, under general Johnson, having car- ried the town of Enniscorthy, scaled the heights in different directions ; but, notwith- standing these formidable preparations, the revolters were enabled, from the strength of their position, to defend the line during an hour and a half; and it was not until they were outflanked, and nearly surround- ed, that they gave way, leaving behind them thirteen light field-pieces. The slaughter GEORGE IIL 17601820. 439 was immense, for no quarter seems to have been given upon this occasion; and those who escaped the musket, when overtaken, perished by the bayonet ; whilst the king's troops had not above one hundred either killed or wounded. The action was less bloody than might have been supposed, as the troops under general Needham, being unable to reach the position assigned them, left an opening through which the rebels re- treated, and which, from that circumstance, was ludicrously called Needham's gap. Through this opening an immense column retreated by the east side of the Slaney, part of which entered Wexford ; while an- other and more numerous detachment, head- ed by the chiefs, Murphy and Roche, reached the Three Rocks, and, having held a hasty council of war, marched across the moun- tains to the county of Kilkenny. Wexford was relieved on the same day as Enniscor- thy ; brigadier-general Moore, whose troops had, on the preceding day, vanquished a rebel force of five or six thousand men at Goffs- bridge, near Hore-town, having, on the morn- ing of the twenty-first, received a proposal from the inhabitants to surrender the town, and to return to their allegiance, provided he would guaranty their lives and property. This proposal general Moore felt it his duty to transmit to general Lake, and, marching directly for Wexford, he stationed his army within a mile of that place, the loyalists of which, like those of Enniscorthy, had, since it fell into the hands of the insurgents, been in a state of incessant apprehension and suf- fering. SUPPRESSION OF THE REBELLION. THE Wexford insurgents, in the hope that their offer of surrender would be acceded to by general Lake, and conscious that it was impossible to oppose any effectual re- sistance to the overwhelming force brought against them, liberated lord Kingsborough, who had been some time a prisoner, and on the'twenty-first surrendered the town into his hands. Contrary to their hopes, general Lake insisted upon the unconditional sur- render of the place ; and, in his answer to their proposal, informed the inhabitants that no terms could be granted to rebels in arms against their sovereign. On the evacuation of the town by the main body of insurgents, part of them, under Fitzgerald, Perry, and Edward Roche, passed over the bridge to the eastern side of the river Slaney, and the rest, under father Philip Roche, in an oppo- site direction, into the barony of Forth. The body of rebels which had retreated from Vinegar-hill, and penetrated into the county of Kilkenny by the Scullagh-gap, which separates the counties of Carlow and Wexford, burned the village of Killedmond, and proceeded to Goresbridge, under the command of father John Murphy, of Boula- vogue. Having advanced in column, they were opposed by lieutenant Dixon, who in vain endeavored to maintain his post against their overwhelming disparity of force ; but their success was of short duration, for they were pursued by general Dunn and Sir Charles Asgill, and totally defeated, on the twenty-sixth of June, at Kilcomney-hill, with a loss of from two to three hundred slain, and ten light pieces of cannon taken, with seven hundred horses, and all the rest of their plunder. Murphy, the commander- in-chief, who fled from the field of battle, was taken soon after, and, being conducted to the head-quarters of general Sir James Duff, at Tullow, was hanged the same day, and his head placed on the market-house. In the south the spirit of rebellion was now happily approaching to its termination ; and in the north the disaffected Protestants, shocked at the enormities perpetrated and the intolerance displayed, and scandalized by the pretended miracles wrought by the blood-stained priests, Roche and Murphy, de- termined to resist the seduction. They in- deed found means to keep possession of An- trim fora few days, though, on being attack- ed with cannon and musketry on the seventli of June, they were driven out of the town with the loss of about two hundred slam, but not until lord O'Neill, who commanded a regiment of Irish militia, had been mortal- ly wounded. They were also repulsed in an ill-concerted attack on Carrickfergus ; and at Ballynahinch they received a total overthrow. On the subsiding of this minor rebellion in Ulster, another local rising took place in Munster, which was easily sup- pressed. After the signal defeat of the rebels at Vinegar-hill, and their consequent expulsion from Enniscorthy, Wexford, &c., a consider- able number dispersed, and returned to their usual occupations. The more desperate re- tired to the mountainous parts of Wexford and Wicklow counties, where, for a while, they waged a desultory warfare, but in the course of a few weeks were completely sub- dued ; and those who still resisted might rather be considered as small companies of banditti, who lurked in the woods and moun- tains, and committed nocturnal depredations, than as an embodied force. At length the insurgent chiefs, Fitzgerald and Byrne, sur- rendered to generals Dundas and Moore ; and this sanguinary insurrection, which broke out on the twenty-third of May, and raged with intense fury till the twenty- second of the following month, was finally extinguished on the twelfth of July. TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS FOR TREASON. DUBLIN, having escaped the horrors of insurrection, now became the theatre of pub- 440 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. lie justice. The first person brought to trial was a rebel chief of the name of Bacon, in an extensive line of business in the metrop- olis, and of the Protestant persuasion, who, being 1 found guilty of high treason, was ex- ecuted ; Esmond, a Roman Catholic, of good estate and respectably connected, who convicted of heading the rebel forces, also suffered about the same time; Henry and John Sheares, the sons of a banker at Cork, and educated for the bar, were condemned on the clearest evidence, and executed in the front of Newgate. The trial of John M'Cann, secretary to the provincial com- mittee of Leinster, followed on the seven- teenth of July, and he suffered with Michael William Byrne, delegate for the committee of Wicklow. Oliver Bond, a man of con- siderable fortune, and one of the principal conspirators, at whose house the Leinster delegates had been arrested on the twelfth of March, was arraigned for high treason on the twenty-third of July, and his trial con- tinued till seven o'clock on the morning of the twenty-fourth, when he was convicted. These trials were all by jury ; but in Wex- ford, and other parts of the country, the more summary tribunals of courts-martial were resorted to. On the twenty-fifth of June Matthew Keugh, the rebel governor of Wexford; the Rev. Philip Roche, the general ; and seven others, having been pre- viously convicted, were brought to the bridge at Wexford, and executed. Among the per- sons who suffered for high treason on the same bridge were Beauchamp Bagnel Har- vey, John Henry Colclough, and Cornelius Grogan. The two former, who had quitted the rebel army soon after the battle of Ross, disgusted, as they declared in their last mo- ments, with the cruelties and oppression which had been exercised on those who fell into the hands of the rebellious mob, were discovered and taken in a cave on one of the Saltee islands, or rather rocks, which lie in the entrance of Wexford harbor : Grogan, a penurious bid gentleman, died possessed of an estate of eight thousand pounds a-year. In the town of Wexford alone, not fewer than sixty-five persons were executed for the crimes of rebellion and murder. LORD CORN WALLTS APPOINTED VICEROY ACT OF AMNESTY. OBJECTS OF THE REBELLION. THE marquis Cornwallis was appointed to succeed earl Camden, and made his entrance into the capital on the twentieth of June. He united conciliation with firmness; and, whilst displaying a system of moderation and mercy to the infatuated rabble, did not fail to make example of those who had mis- led them. On the third of July a procla- mation from the new viceroy appeared in the Dublin gazette, authorizing his majesty's generals to afford protection to such insur- gents as, having been simply guilty of re- bellion, should surrender their arms, abjure all unlawful engagements, and take the oath of allegiance. To give the full sanction of law to this measure, a message was de- livered from his excellency to the Irish par- liament, on the seventeenth, on which was grounded an act of amnesty to all who, not being leaders, had not committed man- slaughter, except in the heat of battle, and who should comply with the conditions of the proclamation. This act was followed by a treaty between the government and the chiefs of the United Irishmen, negotiated by Mr. counsellor Dobbs, a member of the house of commons, bearing date the twenty- ninth of July, and expressed in the follow- ing terms: "That the undersigned state prisoners, in the three prisons of Newgate, Kilmainham, and Bridewell, engage to give every information in their power of the whole of the internal transactions of the United Irishmen; and that each of the prisoners shall give detailed information of every transaction that has passed between the United Irishmen and foreign states ; but that the prisoners are not, by naming or de- scribing, to implicate any person whatever ; and that they are ready to emigrate to such country as shall be agreed on between them and government, and give security not to return to this country without the permis- sion of government, and not to pass into an enemy's country, if, on so doing, they are to be freed from prosecution; and also Mr. Oliver Bond (then under sentence of death) be permitted to take the benefit of this pro- sal. The state prisoners also hope .that the benefit of this proposal may be extended to such persons in custody as may choose to benefit by it" Arthur O'Connor, Thomas Eddis Emmett, Dr. M'Nevin, Samuel Neilson, and other principals of the conspiracy, gave details on oath, in their examinations before the se- cret committees of the two houses of par- liament, from which it appeared that the re- bellion originated in a system formed, not with a view of obtaining either Catholic emancipation, or any reform compatible with the existence of the constitution, but for the purpose of subverting the government, sep- arating Ireland from Great Britain, and form- ing a democratic republic ; that the means resorted to for the attainment of these de- signs was a secret systematic combination, artfully linked and connected together, with a view of forming the mass of the lower ranks into a revolutionary force, acting in concert, and moving as one body ; that, for the further accomplishment of their object, the leaders of the conspiracy concluded an alliance with the French directory in 1796, GEORGE m. 17601820. 441 by which it was stipulated that an adequate force should be sent for the invasion of Ire- land, subsidiary to the preparations that were making for a general insurrection ; that in pursuance of this design, measures were adopted by the chiefs of the conspiracy for giving to their societies a military form; that, for arming their adherents, they had recourse to the fabrication of pikes ; that, from the vigorous and summary expedients resorted to by government, and the conse- quent exertions of the military, the leaders found themselves reduced to the alternative of immediate insurrection, or of being de- prived of the means on which they relied for effecting their purpose ; and that to this cause was to be attributed the premature breaking out of the rebellion, and probably its ultimate failure. The principal prisoners, however, being found to abuse the lenity of government, by secretly laboring to revive the expiring flame of rebellion, were not liberated, but sent to Fort George, in the north of Scot- land, where they continued in confinement till the conclusion of the war. They were then permitted to enjoy their liberty, on con- dition of withdrawing from his majesty's dominions. Oliver Bond died, by a stroke of apoplexy, in prison. Robberies and assassinations would prob- ably have ceased on the granting of protec- tions, if some desperate marauders, rein- forced by deserters from several regiments of Irish militia, had not remained in arms in the mountains of Wicklow, and the dwarf woods of Killaughrim, near Enniscorthy. The banditti continued for many months to infest these parts of the country ; but, after a little time, the woods, being scoured by the army, were cleared of their predatory inhabitants, who had ludicrously styled them- selves The Babes in the Wood. The party in the Wicklow mountains continued, under two chiefs of the names of Holt and Hacket, to annoy the country for a longer time, and in a more formidable degree. FRENCH LAND AT KILLALA, AND SUR- RENDER. THOUGH the French directory had con- templated the progress of the civil war in Ireland with tranquillity ; yet when only the faint sparks of expiring rebellion could be perceived, an expedition under general Humbert, consisting of about eleven hun- dred men, embarked from Rochelle, in three frigates, and landing on the twenty-second of August, in the bay of Killala, in the county of Mayo, took up their head-quarters at the bishop's palace. Although a green flag was erected, accompanied by the emblem of a harp, encircled with the motto of Erin go Bragh, (Ireland for ever,) but few of the peasantry could be prevailed on to join the invaders. Having left a small garrison under colonel Charost at Killala, to keep up the communication, and receive supplies, general Humbert clothed and armed those who repaired to his standard, and immedi- ately marched towards Castlebar, experi- encing no obstacle in his route. The army collected there, under general Lake, com- mander-in-chief of the forces in Connaught, consisted of from two to three thousand reg- ulars ; and Humbert, relying chiefly for suc- cess on his own troops, contrived to post his new levies on the flanks in such a manner as to protect his column from the fire of the enemy. The field of battle, to which he advanced on the morning of the twenty- seventh, consisted of a hill, at the north- west extremity of the town, where the Eng- lish forces were drawn up in two lines, which crowned its summit : a small reserve was stationed in the rear, in a valley ; and some guns posted in front, commanded a rising ground, over which the enemy must necessarily pass. By an unfortunate pre- cipitancy, the fire of the English lines, in- stead of being reserved, was expended be- fore it could be available a mistake of which the enemy taking advantage, rush- ed forward with his main body; and the sharp-shooters evincing a design to penetrate into the rear, the detachment posted for the purpose of supporting the guns abandoned their charge in a panic. The earls of Or- mond, Longford, and Granard, endeavored to rally their men, and so far succeeded as to impede the progress of the assailants, but they were pursued with alacrity ; and the royal Irish artillery, who had gallantly de- fended the bridge by means of a single gun, were nearly cut off! The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded exceeded two hun- dred, and that of the British was still more considerable. Castlebar, a place of some importance, on account of its situation, now became the head-quarters of the invaders. Aware of the danger that might arise to the country from the presence of an invading army, lord Cornwallis determined to take the field in person, and, quitting Dublin on the twenty- fourth of August, arrived on the twenty- eighth at Athlone, where he received the unwelcome intelligence of the defeat of general Lake ; and, after a halt of two days, proceeded in the direction of Holly-mount, where he arrived on the fourth of Septem- ber:, but on finding that the invader had quitted Castlebar, his lordship repassed the Shannon at Carrick ; and the French forces, being surrounded by a British army amount- ing to twenty thousand men, surrendered after an ineffectual resistance. The rebel auxiliaries, now accumulated to about fifteen hundred, who had accompanied the French 442 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. to this fatal field, being excluded from quar- ter, fled in all directions, and about five hun- dred of their number were slain in the pur- suit, exclusive of about one hundred taken prisoners; among whom were found Teel- ing, Blake, and Roach, three of their chiefs. The number of French troops who surren- dered on this occasion amounted to ninety- six officers, and seven hundred and forty- eight non-commissioned officers and privates ; having sustained a loss of two hundred and eighty-eight since their first landing at Kil- lada. Previously to the march of general Hum- bert from Castlebar, on the fourth of Sep- tember, he had called in all his forces, with the exception of three officers left at Killala, and one at Ballina, in command of the rebel garrisons at those places. At length, on the twenty-second of September, the king's forces arrived at Ballina, and obliged the garrison to retreat to Killala, where a large body of troops under general Trench arrived on the following day, and a contest ensued, in which about four hundred of the rebel forces were slain. The courts-martial as- sembled the day after the battle of Killala, and were not dissolved till they had disposed of one hundred and eighty-five prisoners: among others general Bellew, of an ancient Irish family, who had served eighteen years in Germany, was found guilty of treason, and executed. The French officers taken at Killala were sent to Dublin, and thence to London, where three of their number, Cha- rost, Boudet, and Ponsen, were, on the fa- vorable report of Dr. Stock, the bishop of Killala, set at liberty, and sent home with- out exchange. In other parts of the coun- try, also, a number of rebel chiefs and infe- rior insurgents were tried and executed ; among whom were two Irishmen by birth, who had been in the military service of France before the invasion, and had come to Ireland in the French fleet The little army landed at Killala had been intended, it appears, only as a van-guard to a much more formidable force, which was in a short time to follow: providentially, however, for the safety of the British em- pire, the French government had been as tardy in seconding the operations of Hum- bert as they had been in sending succors to the support of the rebel force in the south of Ireland. The want of money is assigned as the cause of delay in the equipment of the second fleet, and, in the interim, before its appearance on the Irish coast, the Ana- creon brig from France arrived at the little island of Rutland, from which were landed three boats full of men, and a number of of- ficers, among whom was James Napper Tandy, one of the Irish emissaries to the French directory, and who had attained to the rank of general of brigade in the French service. This brig was full of arms and accoutrements, and contained a train of ar- tillery ; but when the adventurers found that the people, instead of joining them, fled to the mountains, and that the rebellion in Ire- land was entirely suppressed, they reimbark- ed, after distributing a number of inflamma- tory papers. Some time afterwards, Napper Tandy, and two other Irish rebels, were ap- prehended by the agents of Great Britain at Hamburgh, and conveyed to Ireland, where Tandy was indicted for high treason, in the year 1801, when, having pleaded guilty, by previous arrangement, he was suf- fered to leave the kingdom, and take up his residence in France. SIR J. B. WARREN'S NAVAL VICTORY- CLOSE OF THE INSURRECTION. ANOTHER attempt of the French to revive a lost cause was equally unsuccessful. A squadron from Brest, consisting of one ship of the line, eight frigates, a schooner, and a brig, with a strong reinforcement, intended to co-operate with the force under general Humbert in Ireland, was fallen in with on the eleventh of October, off the north-west- ern coast of that island, by Sir John Borlase Warren, who was cruising with seven sail of the line off Lough SwUly. The British admiral instantly threw out the signal for a general chase, and gave orders to form in succession as each ship of war reached her antagonist ; but it was found impossible to commence the action before the next morn- ing, at which time it was discovered that the enemy's large ship had lost her main- top-mast Still confident in their own strength, the French squadron bore down, and formed a line of battle in close order ; on which an action of three hours and forty minutes ensued, when the enemy's three- decker, the Hoche, and three of the frigates, hauled down their colors after a gallant re- sistance : five of the frigates, the schooner, and the brig, escaped, but three of the for- mer were afterwards captured. The whole squadron, it appeared, was entirely new, and full of troops, stores, and every other equip- ment for the support and establishment of the invading force in Ireland. Amongst the prisoners taken in the Hoche was Theobald Wolfe Tone, the projector of the society of United Irishmen, long considered as the most active and able negotiator among the Irish fugitives at Paris, and as the great ad- viser of most of the measures pursued by his rebellious countrymen. He was no sooner landed in Ireland than he was conveyed to Dublin, and put upon his trial by a court- martial, before which he defended himself with considerable ability and firmness, not attempting either to deny or to palliate his offence. The plea on which he rested was GEORGE m. 17601820. 443 that of being a denizen of France, and an officer in the service of the republic ; but, when he found that this defence was una* vailing, he requested that he might die like a soldier, and not as a felon ; and be shot, according to military usage, rather than hanged. The court, however, did not judge it proper to accede to his request, and the unhappy culprit attempted to escape the ig- nominy that awaited him, by cutting his throat in the prison. The wound was at first supposed not to be mortal, but, after lan- guishing a short time, it terminated his ex- istence. Holt, the last of the rebel chiefs, obtained the boon of his forfeited life, by exiling himself for ever from his native country. Thus ended the insurrection in Ireland, in which it is estimated that not less than thirty thousand lives were sacrificed, and property was destroyed to an amount of which it is difficult to speak with accuracy ; but some idea may be formed from the con- flagrations that took place in different towns, and from the compensation claimed by one class of sufferers. The towns of Carnew, Tinealy, Hacketstown, Donard, Blessington, and Killedmond, were all destroyed by fire ; in Ross about three hundred houses, mostly those of the laboring classes, were consumed ; the greater part of Enniscorthy was laid in ashes ; and in the open country a vast num- ber of cabins, farm-houses, and gentlemen's seats were destroyed. By a message deliv- ered to the house of commons by lord Cas- tlereagh, on the seventeenth of July, it was proposed to afford compensation to the suf- fering loyalists, on their claims being duly verified before commissioners; and an act of parliament soon after passed, under which the claims of the loyalists alone amounted to upwards of a million pounds a sum of great magnitude, but, it is supposed, not equal to more than one-third of the entire property destroyed by a rebellion, in sup- port of which it is believed that seventy thousand men were at one time in arms. 444 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XXX. Hostile Movements of the French against Switzerland They enter Berne, after several Contests New Constitution Revolution at Rome, and Subversion of the Papal Government Grand Expedition to Egypt under Buonaparte Malta taken Alex- andria and Rosetta subdued Severe Engagements with the Mamelukes Cairo taken Victory of the Nile New Coalition against the French Turkey, Russia, and Naples, severally declare War against France The Neapolitan Troops, after advancing to Rome, signally defeated, and Ferdinand IV. compelled to quit the Con- tinent Expedition against Ostend Capture of Minorca Evacuation of St. Do- mingo Meeting of Parliament Finance Income Tax first imposed Union with Ireland proposed Proceedings thereon. FRENCH MOVE AGAINST SWITZERLAND. ENTER BERNE. NEW CONSTITU- TION. ST. DOMINGO EVACUATED. THE congress of Rastadt, in which it was proposed to discuss and settle all the disputes between the French republic and the Ger- man empire, assembled at this period ; the emperor, as the head of the Germanic body, in his capacity of king of Hungary and Bo- hemia, had acceded to the demands of the directory, to render the Rhine the boundary of the commonwealth, and surrender Ehren- breitstein and Mentz ; and it was imagined that the system of sacrifices and indemnities might be speedily adjusted. But, whilst the French plenipotentiaries were giving the most solemn assurances that their govern- ment panted for tranquillity, a war was sud- denly declared against Switzerland, which, after a peace that had lasted for ages, was now condemned to experience all the hor- rors of hostility. Towards the end of the year 1797, certain menacing demands had been made by the French directory on the Swiss cantons, under some alleged pretexts of insults or injuries, and the government of Berne, in particular, was accused of having publicly enrolled emigrants, and given shel- ter to French deserters. The Helvetic diet, assembled at Arau, showed an intention of resistance, by ordering a levy of twenty-six thousand men, while the armed force of two cantons, under the command of colonel de Weiss, was sent, on the fourteenth of Jan- uary 1798, into the Pays de Vaud, to sup- press a popular tumult, which had for its ob- ject the establishment of a democratic gov- ernment As soon as the French executive learned that Berne and Friburg had dispatch- ed a body of soldiers and a train of artillery into the Pays de Vaud, a division of French troops just returned from Italy was put in motion, and general Menard appeared upon the Genevan frontier. The Vaudois in the mean time adopted a democratical form of government, and assumed the appellation of the Republic of Leman: the cantons of Basle, Zurich, and Soleure, followed their example ; but the senates of Berne and Fri- burg persisted in maintaining their ancient form of government. The management of the war being con- fided to the French general Brune, he enter- ed the territories of Berne on the twenty- fifth of January, and published a proclama- tion, containing professions which appear to have been made only to be violated. Some unsuccessful attempts were made to obtain a truce ; but a body of the invaders, having advanced against the castle of Dornach, seized that little fortress, while thirteen thousand troops summoned Soleure, which immediately opened its gates. Friburg, bet- ter prepared for resistance, determined to oppose the French ; but Brune, having ad- vanced at the head of a column, took it by assault, and on the fifth of March, after sev- eral well-contested actions, the French army entered Berne. The ruling families were immediately displaced, the nature of the government was changed, the most respect- able of the senators were sent into exile, and, although the French professed to come in the character of protectors and deliver- ers, the treasuries of the state were confis- cated, and large military contributions ex- acted for the supply of the invading army. The directory, determined on the subjuga- tion of Switzerland, resolved to change the government from the federal into an united republic, which, by means of a close and intimate union with France, might be kept in continual dependence. After some op- position from the smaller states of Uri, Schweitz, Underwalden, Claris, and Appen- zel, all Switzerland subscribed to the new- constitution ; Lucerne was chosen as the seat of government ; and an alliance, offensive and defensive, entered into between the French and Helvetic republics : the French directory, however, still continued to levy contributions and impose exactions to an enormous extent. GEORGE IIL 17601820. 445 REVOLUTION AT ROME. PAPAL AU- THORITY SUBVERTED. THE same thirst of dominion prompted the French to erect the territories of the pope into a commonwealth dependent on their power. On the twenty-eighth of De- cember, 1797, a mob, consisting of about one hundred persons, assembled at the palace of the French ambassador, Joseph Buonaparte, and demanded the assistance of France, for the purpose of overthrowing what they term- ed the papal tyranny, and establishing a re- public in its stead. The ambassador dis- patched general Duphot to disperse the in- surgents, and to prevail upon the papal troops to retire from the precincts of his court ; but in the affray he was shot by a Roman fusi- leer, and Joseph Buonaparte retired into Tuscany. This outrage, for which every possible satisfaction was offered, afforded a pretext for sending general Berthier to Rome with a large body of troops; and on the eleventh of February, 1798, the castle of St. Angelo, containing the pope and the greater part of his cardinals, surrendered on the first summons. The inhabitants, encour- aged by the presence of the French army, assembled in the Campo Vaccino, the ancient Roman forum, planted the tree of liberty in the front of the capitol, proclaimed their in- dependence, and instituted the Roman re- public. All the splendor and magnificence of which the Catholic worship is susceptible were employed to celebrate this memorable victory over the head of its faith; every church in Rome resounded with thanks to the Supreme Disposer of events for the glo- rious revolution that had taken place ; and, while the dome of St. Peter's was illumina- ted without, fourteen cardinals, dressed in the gorgeous apparel appertaining to func- tions they were fated soon after to abdicate, presided at a solemn Te Deum within the walls of that superb temple. The deposed pontiff was conveyed, by order of the direc- tory, first to Briancon, and afterwards to Va- lence, in France, where he terminated his existence, on the twenty-ninth of August, 1799, in the eighty-second year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his pontificate. EXPEDITION TO EGYPT UNDER BUONA- PARTE. MALTA TAKEN, AND ALEX- ANDRIA. THE directory, eager to find employment for armies which the plunder of Piedmont and Lombardy had sharpened rather than satiated, and for a general in whose pres- ence and by whose talents and popularity, all their power seemed to be eclipsed, com- mitted to general Buonaparte the conduct of a vast and romantic expedition, to attempt the subversion of the British dominion in Hindostan, to which the invasion and occu- VOL. IV. 38 pation of Egypt was deemed necessary, al- though the Sublime Porte had kept its faith with the French republic inviolate. The ports of Marseilles and Toulon were busied in refitting and launching ships, the fabrica- tion of cordage, and the preparation of mil- itary stores ; and while all Europe was con- templating the extent and destination of the armament, general Buonaparte, accom- panied by a few of his chief officers, and a multitude of artists and men of learning, hastened from Paris to the borders of the Mediterranean. He set sail from Toulon on the twentieth of May, with a formidable veteran army, and an immense quantity of artillery and military stores, and, leaving Sicily on the left, was joined by a squadron of Venetian men-of-war ; rear-admiral -Brueys was in- trusted with the command of the fleet. This armament, consisting of about threj hundred sail, including ships of the line, frigates, and transports, descried Malta on the ninth of June, and at break of day the next morning commenced a general landing of troops and artillery upon the coast, with- out encountering any very formidable oppo- sition. At the dawn of the succeeding morning the enemy had encircled the city of Valetta, and on the twelfth the French entered the city, and became masters of the whole island, this almost impregnable place surrendering with so little resistance as to furnish reason to suspect a previous concert between the captors and the Knights. The grand master, Hompesch, who had ranked as a sovereign prince, quitted the island, and received a sum of money at his depar- ture, with an engagement for a pension from the French treasury, no part of which was ever paid. Thus Buonaparte contrived to obtain possession of the island of Malta, containing a population of sixty thousand souls, and affording one of the most advan- tageous stations in the Mediterranean sea ; while the ancient order of St John of Je- rusalem beheld itself bereaved of its terri- tories, after possessing them nearly three centuries. Having appointed a provisional government, and intrusted the care of his new acquisition to general Vaubois, the fleet again put to sea, and in the evening of the thirtieth of June anchored in the roads of Alexandria. As soon as the French admiral had cast anchor on the coast of Egypt, Buonaparte disembarked his troops, and attacked and en- tered Alexandria on the fifth of July. Gene- ral Desaix was dispatched towards Cairo, and Buonaparte, in the mean time, issued orders for the fleet to shelter itself from the enemy in the old port of Alexandria ; but on sound- ing the channel, it was found that there was 446 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. not sufficient depth of water for the Orient, and the road of Aboukir was therefore cho- sen as the fittest anchorage. Buonaparte having defeated the Beys, Mamelukes, and Fellahs in several actions, which he skilfully exaggerated into heroic exploits, basely conciliated the confidence of the sheiks and the principal inhabitants, by proclamations in which he distinctly pro- fessed himself a Mahometan, asserting that he reverenced, more than the Mamelukes themselves, God, his prophet Mahomet, and the Koran ; that having thrown down the cross in the west, he was come to establish the true religion ; and having organized a provisional government, Buonaparte march- ed against Murad Bey, whom he forced to take refuge in Upper Egypt, while Ibrahim Bey, taking a contrary direction, fled towards Syria. VICTORY OF THE NILE. THE object of Buonaparte's expedition appears to have been altogether unknown in England at the time of its sailing ; but instructions were in consequence sent to earl St Vincent, then stationed off Cadiz, to select a sufficient number of line-of-bat- tle ships to defeat his armament, whatever might be its destination ; and a detachment of ten sail of the line, under captain Trou- bridge, was ordered to join Sir Horatio Nel- son, who had been dispatched to the Mediter- ranean with a flying squadron. Rear-admiral Nelson, thus invested with the command of a fleet of fourteen ships, thirteen of which carried seventy-four, and one fifty guns, steered his course towards Malta, and ar- rived oflf that island on the twenty-second of June, when he found that the enemy had quitted that place five days before, taking an eastward direction. Conjecturing that Egypt must be the place of their destination, he sailed for the port of Alexandria, where he arrived on the twenty-eighth; but as they had not been seen on that coast, he shaped his coarse northward for Caramania, and thence returned to Sicily. After ob- taining supplies in the bay of Syracuse, he once more sailed for Alexandria, and, on the first of August, discovered the enemy's fleet, moored in a strong and compact line, in the bay of Aboukir, the headmost vessel being close to the shoals on the north-west, and the rest forming a kind of curve along the line of deep water, so as not to be turned on the south-west The advantage of num- bers, both in ships, guns, and men, was in favor of the French ; they had thirteen ships of the line, and four frigates, carrying eleven hundred and ninety guns, and ten thousand eight hundred and ten men. The English had the same number of ships of the line, and one fifty-gun ship, carrying in all ten hundred and twelve guns, and eight thou- sand and sixty-eight men. The English ihips of the line were all seventy-fours ; the French had three eighty-gun ships, and one three-decker of one hundred and twenty s ; and the enemy's squadron was, in the opinion of the French commissary of the fleet, moored in such a situation as to bid defiance to double their force. Nelson de- cided for an immediate attack, and at six o'clock in the evening of the first of August the engagement commenced. Captain Foley, who led the British van in the Goliath, darted ahead of the enemy's foremost ship, Le Guerrier, doubled her lar- board side, and, having poured a destructive fire into the Frenchman, moved on to the Conquerant, whom he charged with tre- mendous fury, and in ten minutes shot away her masts ; next followed the Zealous, cap- tain Hood, which attacked the Guerrier on the side next the shore, and in twelve min- utes totally disabled her: the Orion. Sir James Saumarez, took her station between the enemy's fifth and sixth ships : the The- seus, captain Miller, following the same example, encountered the third ship of the enemy : the Audacious, captain Gould, mov- ed round to the fifth: then advanced the Vanguard, carrying the heroic Nelson, and his no less heroic captain, Berry, and an- chored on the outside of the enemy's third ship, with six colors flying in his rigging, lest they should be shot away. Having veered half a cable, he instantly opened a tremendous fire ; under cover of which the other four ships of his division, the Mino- taur, Bellerophon, Defence, and Majestic, sailed on ahead of the admiral. In a few minutes every man stationed at the first six guns, in the forepart of the Vanguard's deck, was killed or wounded ; and three times in succession did the destructive fire of the enemy sweep away the seamen that served these guns. Captain Louis, in the Mino- taur, nobly supported his commander, and, anchoring next ahead of the Vanguard, took off the fire of the Aquilon, the fourth in the French line. The Defence, captain Peyton, took her station ahead of the Mino- taur, and engaged the Franklin, of eighty guns, the sixth ship of the enemy, which bore the flag of admiral Blanquet de Che- lard, the second in command. Thus, by the masterly seamanship of the British com- manders, nine of our ships were so disposed as to bear their force upon six of the enemy. The seventh of the French line was the Orient, the admiral's ship, a vessel of im- mense size, bearing one hundred and twen- ty guns : this stupendous adversary was un- dertaken by the Bellerophon, captain Darby ; while the Majestic, captain Westcott, who engaged the Heureux, the ninth ship on the starboard bow, received also at the same GEORGE IIL 17601820. 447 time the fire of the Tennant, which was the eighth in the line. The other four ships oi the British squadron, having been detachee previously to the discovery of the French were at a considerable distance when the ac tion commenced, and the shades of night be- gan to close in upon them before they reach ed the scene of action. Captain Troubridge in the Culloden, took the lead of these ships but the increased darkness having greath augmented the difficulties of the navigation that vessel suddenly grounded on a shoal, am could not be got off in time to share in the danger and the glory of the action. It was, however, some satisfaction to captain Trou bridge, that his ship served as a beacon to the Alexander and Swiftsure, which woul( otherwise have gone considerably further in on the reef, and have been inevitably lost These ships took their stations in a manner that commanded general admiration; ant at this juncture the Bellerophon, overpow- ered by the huge Orient, her lights extin- guished, nearly two hundred of her crew killed or wounded, and all her masts ant cables shot away, was drifting out of the line towards the lee side of the bay, when the Swiftsure, which at first mistook her for a ship of the enemy, but was soon unde- ceived, came up, and taking her station, opened a steady fire on the quarter of the Franklin, and the bows of the French admi- ral. At the same instant, captain Ball, with the Alexander, passed under the stern of the Orient, and, anchoring within-side of his larboard quarter, raked him, and kept up a severe fire of musketry on his decks. The last ship which arrived to complete the destruction of the enemy was the Leander, captain Thompson, who took his station in such a position as to rake both the Franklin and the Orient. The conflict was now carried on in the darkness of the night, and the only light to guide the operations of the fleets was deriv- ed from the flashes of their cannon. The two first ships of the French line had been dismasted within a quarter of an hour from the commencement of the action, and others had suffered so severely that victory was al- ready certain its extent was the only re- maining question. The third, fourth, and fifth ships of the enemy, were taken posses- sion of at half-past eight. While the battle raged with its utmost fury, the British admi- ral received a wound on the head from a piece of langrage shot, which cut a large flap of the skin of the forehead from the bone, and, falling over his only remaining eye, left him in total darkness. The great effusion of blood occasioned an apprehension that the wound would be mortal : Nelson himself thought so, and desired his chaplain to deliver his dying remembrances to lady Nelson ; but the surgeon, on examining the wound, pronounced it to be merely super- ficial The French admiral Brueys, who sus- tained the honor of his flag with undimin- ished firmness, and had been three times wounded during the engagement without quitting his station, now received a shot which almost cut him in two. Soon after nine o'clock the Orient struck her colors, and appeared in flames, which spread with astonishing rapidity, and by the prodigious light of which the situation of the two fleets could be distinctly seen from the minarets of Rosetta, a distance of fifteen miles. About ten o'clock the ship blew up with a tremen- dous explosion, which was succeeded by a silence not less awful. The firing instantly ceased on both sides, and the first sound which broke the portentous stillness was the dash of shattered masts and yards falling into the water from the vast height to which they had been cast by the explosion. Only about seventy of the crew could be saved by the English boats. The Orient had on board money to the amount of six hundred thou- sand pounds. After a lapse of about ten minutes the fire recommenced with the ships to the leeward of the centre, and continued without inter- mission till three o'clock the next morning. It then grew very faint till about five, when it was resumed with redoubled fury ; but it was, on the enemy's part, the resistance, not of hope, but of despair. At daybreak, the Guilliaume Tell and the Genereux, the two rear ships of the enemy, were the only French ships of the line that had their colors flying, and in the forenoon they cut their cables and stood out to sea, taking along with them two frigates. The Zealous, worthy of her name, instantly commenced the pur- suit, but, as there was no other ship in a con- dition to support captain Hood, he was re- called. The firing continued in the bay with some intermission till two o'clock in the afternoon, when it entirely ceased. Thus ended an engagement which will ever rank amongst the most distinguished achievements in naval annals. The result was, that, out of a fleet of thirteen sail, the admiral's ship of a hundred and twenty guns, and the Timoleon of seventy-four, were burnt ; while two eighty-gun ships, and sev- en seventy-fours, were captured : and it was the firm persuasion of the British admiral, that, had he been more amply provided with frigates, all the enemy's transports and smaller vessels in the bay would have shared ;he fate of the ships of the line. Thus de- iciency of frigates he deeply regretted, and in his usual forcible way of expressing him- self, said " Should I die at the present mo- ment, want of frigates would be found writ- ten on my heart." The British loss in kill- 448 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ed and wounded amounted to eight hundred and ninety-five. Of the French, three thou- sand one hundred and five, including the wounded, went on shore by cartel, and five thousand two hundred and twenty-five per- ished ! constituting a loss, during that glo- rious, but fatal night, of upwards of five hundred human beings an hour ! One Brit- ish officer of the rank of captain only fell ; this was the brave captain Westcott, who was killed early in the action. Throughout England the victory was cel- ebrated with every mark of rejoicing. His majesty conferred the dignity of baron, with a pension of three thousand pounds a-y ear, on the admiral, who was called to the house of peers by the style and dignity of Baron Nelson of the Nile. The Grand Seignior also transmitted a superb diamond chelerigk, or plume of triumph, taken from one of the imperial turbans ; and the king of Naples, at a later period, granted the title of duke of Bronte, with an estate in Sicily. Cap- tains Berry and Thompson received the hon- or of knighthood, and the other commanders were presented with gold medals. The Turkish sultan sent a purse of two thousand sequins to be distributed among the wound- ed, and the English nation raised, by public subscription, a considerable sum for the widows and children of those who fell in the action. NEW COALITION AGAINST THE FRENCH. AT It :i>t, -ult the effect of this victory be- came evident The deputation of the em- pire had already agreed to a plan of indem- nities, by means of which forty-four of the secular and ecclesiastical states were to make immense sacrifices to obtain peace ; but the attack on Switzerland and Rome, and the expedition of Buonaparte into Egypt, joined to the opposition he had there encountered, and the recent disaster of the French navy, encouraged the congress to delay the negotiations, and evidently ren- dered a new contest unavoidable. At this juncture too, and partly from the same causes, the Turks declared war against France ; and Russia became an efficient member of the new coalition preparing against the French nation, the co-operation of the emperor Paul being secured by a sub- sidy, stipulated in a treaty concluded in De- cember between him and the king of Great Britain, wherein each party engaged not to make a peace or armistice without includ- ing the other. This alliance was extended rather than strengthened by the activity of the king of Naples, who, after issuing a de- claration of war against the republic on the twenty-second of November, put his army in motion against the French on the twenty- third of that month, and on the twenty- ninth succeeded in making himself master of the Roman capital. This success, how- ever, was of short duration ; for on the fif- teenth of December the Neapolitan troops suffered a signal defeat at Civita Castillana, and this disaster was followed by the imme- diate evacuation of Rome. After a series of defeats, during a continued retreat, Ferdi- nand IV. was obliged, on the last day of the year, to abdicate all his continental domin- ions, and to take refuge on board an English man-of-war. EXPEDITION AGAINST OSTEND. CAP- TURE OF MINORCA. AN expedition was fitted out in England against Maritime Flanders, early in this year, for the express purpose of blowing up the basin, gates, and sluices of the Bruges canal, as well as destroying the internal naviga- tion, by means of which transport-schuyts, instead of risking a sea voyage, were ena- bled to keep an internal intercourse between Holland, France, and Flanders. An arma- ment accordingly sailed for the purpose from Margate Roads, on the eighteenth of May, under captain Popham, with a body of troops, consisting of twelve hundred men, com- manded by major-general Coote. Having landed on the following day without opposi- tion, they proceeded to burn several boats, demolish the sluice-gates, and effect a grand explosion, by which it was intended to de- stroy a great national work, which had cost the States of Bruges an immense sum of money, and had not been completed with a labor of five years. Thus having, as was supposed, rendered the Bruges canal unser- viceable, the commander-in-chief attempted about noon to return on board the shipping, but the wind was so high, and the surf so much increased, as to render it impractica- ble. Upon this it was deemed proper to oc- cupy a position upon the sand-hills, at a little distance from the beach, and, by way of gaining time, the governor of Ostend was summoned to surrender ; but this fate was unhappily reserved for the invaders them- selves, as that officer found means in the course of the night to assemble a great force, with which he hemmed in the Eng- lish early in the morning; and, all resistance being in vain, they surrendered, after a gal- lant defence, in the course of which the ma- jor-general was wounded. Captain Popham endeavored, without effect, to obtain an ex- change of prisoners ; and it appears at first to have been the intention of the French government to oblige the British troops to labor at the reparation of the works they lad destroyed, but it was found on inspec- tion that the damage was but trifling. A small armament was dispatched against Minorca, under the command of admiral Duckworth and general Stuart, and a de- scent was made near the creek of Addaya. GEORGE HI. 17601820. 449 As the invaders had few of the requisites of a siege, their adversaries might, with a small share of spirit, have made a considerable re- sistance : intimidated, however, by the move- ments of the troops, and the appearance of the squadron, the garrison capitulated on the fifteenth of November, and the whole island was reduced without the loss of a single man. About the same time the isle of Goza, near Malta, capitulated to a detach- ment of admiral Nelson's squadron. In St Domingo disease made such alarm- ing havoc among the English troops, that at length major-general Maitland was instruct- ed to surrender Port-au-Prince and St. Marc to Toussaint L'Ouverture, a negro com- mander, who had nearly annihilated the dominion of the French in the island ; and in the course of the year they evacuated every other post. Such were the chequered scenes of the campaign of 1798 ; but the balance of victory, of disinterested policy, and of success in arms, (the affairs of Egypt taken into the scale,) certainly preponderat- ed in favor of England. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. INCOME TAX. ON the twentieth of November parliament assembled. The great and continually in- creasing expense of the war had induced the minister, in the course of the last session of parliament, to bring forward, for the sanc- tion of the house, a new system of finance, the principle of which was to raise within the year a large proportion of the necessary supplies, which, aided by the operation of the sinking fund, should prevent any mate- rial addition being made to the public debt. The tax proposed for this purpose, called the triple assessment tax, was, however, found so inadequate to the object, that the minister determined to substitute in its stead a tax on income. Accordingly, on the third of December, the house having formed itself into .a committee, Pitt stated that the sup- plies which would be necessary for the ser- vice of the present year amounted to about thirty million pounds, towards which the usual ways and means would produce six million one hundred thousand pounds. It remained then to be considered in what way the deficiency should be raised. Here two leading principles occurred for the guidance of the house either to raise the whole by loan upon the old funding system, or to raise a considerable part of the supplies within the year upon the principle adopted in the last session of parliament. Pitt then proceeded to state his new plan of finance, which was a tax on income. The commissioners, who should be vested with the power of deter- mining upon the rate of every one's income, should be persons of respectable situations in life, removed from any suspicion of par- 38* tiality ; and, in case the party was dissatis- fied with their decision, another body of commissioners should be formed, to whom an appeal might be carried. The next point for consideration was the mode of contribu- tion that should be adopted. Under this head it was his intention to propose that no income under sixty pounds a-year should be called upon to contribute, and that the scale of modification, up to two hundred pounds a- year, as in the assessed taxes, should be in- troduced with restrictions. The quota which should then be called for should amount to a full tenth of the contributor's income. The returns to be made by the person assessed, subject to the inspection of a surveyor, who should lay before the commissioners such grounds of doubt as might occur to him on the fairness of .the rate at which a party might have assessed himself. The party, however, should not be compelled to answer ; his books should not be called for, nor his confidential clerks or agents examined ; but, if he declined to submit to such investiga- tion, it should be competent for the commis- sioners to fix the assessment, and their deci- sion should be final. The national income, after deducting one-fifth for modifications, he calculated at one hundred and two mil- lion pounds, on which amount a tax of ten per cent, would produce ten million pounds a-year. The unfairness and inequality of the pro- posed assessment having been ably contend- ed by several members, Pitt observed that an honorable gentleman had said, that if two persons had each five hundred pounds per annum, one of whom derived his income from land, and the other from industry, they ought not both to be taxed equally at fifty pounds : but to complain of this inequality was to complain of the distribution of prop- erty it was to complain of the constitution of society. The consequence of this tax would be to all alike ; and whoever contrib- uted a tenth of his income, under the bill, would have a tenth less to spend, to save, or to accumulate. The house then divided: for the further consideration of the report, one hundred and eighty-three ; against it, seventeen ; majority, one hundred and sixty- six. After undergoing several amendments, the bill was passed into a law, on the eigh- teenth of March 1799, and the fifth of April was fixed as the time for making the re- turns. The remaining supplies were to be made up from the new imposts on sugar, coffee, and stamps, aided by the recently imposed convoy-tax. About two hundred and fifty thousand land forces, of different descriptions, and a hundred and twenty thousand seamen and marines, were also voted. A bill to enlarge the time prescribed by an act of the last session, for the redemp- 450 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. tion of the land-tax, and to make certain regulations respecting ecclesiastical prop- erty, and the property devised for lives and for long terms, was also carried into a law. UNION WITH IRELAND PROPOSED. PROCEEDINGS THEREON. 1799.__pj, the twenty-second of January the following important message was de- livered by secretary Dundas: "His majesty is persuaded, that the unremitting industry with which our enemies persevere in their avowed design of effecting the separation of Ireland from this kingdom, cannot fail to engage the particular attention of parlia- ment; and his majesty recommends it to this house to consider of the most effectual means of finally defeating this design, by disposing the parliaments of both kingdoms to provide, in a manner which they shall judge most expedient, for settling such a complete and final adjustment as may best tend to improve and perpetuate a connex- ion essential to their common security, and consolidate the strength, power, and re- sources of the British empire." This mes- sage was taken into discussion on the fol- lowing day, when Dundas moved an address, .importing that the house would proceed, with all due dispatch, to the consideration of the several interests recommended to their serious attention. The chancellor of the exchequer contend- ed that a permanent connexion between Britain and Ireland was essential to the true interests of both countries, and that, unless the existing connexion should be improved, there was, he had strong reason to believe, great risk of a separation. The same day on which the message on the Union was delivered to the British senate, the session of the Irish parliament commenced at Dublin ; and a speech on this occasion was made by the lord-lieutenant, which concluded with a hope that the par- liaments in both kingdoms would be dis- posed to provide the most effectual means of maintaining and improving a connexion essential to their common security; anc of consolidating, as far as possible, into one firm and lasting fabric, the strength^ the power, and the resources, of the British em- pire. The address in the house of peers was opposed chiefly by the lords Powerscourt and Bellamont, who severally moved amend- ments, expressive of their disapprobation of a legislative union with Great Britain. On the first division the numbers were forty-six to nineteen, and on the last thirty-five to seventeen, in favor of the court But in the house of commons, after a debate of twenty hours, the contest was so close, that only a majority of one appeared against the amend- ment ; the numbers being, on the division one hundred and six and one hundred and ive; and, when the question was put for agreeing to the address, the ministry had in their favor only one hundred and seven against one hundred and five voices. The address was reported two days afterwards, when Sir Lawrence Parsons strenuously op- josed its being received, and, after a violent debate, his motion was carried by a majority of one hundred and eleven to one hundred and six voices. The exultation of the Irish metropolis at the defeat of the ministry was unbounded : the unionists were insulted and calumniated by every possible mode of at- tack; and the chief speaker of opposition acquired a sudden and extraordinary increase of popularity. The vehement enthusiasm of the capital, nevertheless, did not extend to the nation at large ; the weight of the landed interest was in favor of the measure ; and Cork, the second city of the kingdom, and the commercial towns in general, though greatly agitated and divided, were, upon the" whole, rather friendly than hostile to it On the thirty-first of January the subject was again brought under consideration by Pitt, who said that, when he proposed to the house to fix that day for the further con- sideration of his majesty's message, he in- dulged a hope that the result of a similar communication to the parliament of Ireland would have opened a more favorable pros- pect than at present existed of the speedy accomplishment of the measure then in con- templation: he had, however, been disap- pointed by the proceedings of the Irish house of commons. He admitted that the parliament of Ireland possessed the power to accept or reject a proposition of this na- ture ; a power which he by no means meant to dispute ; but he felt it his duty to express his general outline of the plan, which, in his estimation, would tend to insure the safety and the happiness of the two kingdoms. Should parliament be of opinion that it was calculated to produce mutual advantages, he should propose it, in order to its being re- corded on the journals, leaving the rejection or adoption of the plan to the future consid- eration of the legislature of Ireland. Pitt remarked that the union with Scotland was as much opposed, and by nearly the same arguments, prejudices, and misconceptions ; creating the same alarms as had recently taken place in respect to Ireland : yet, could any man now doubt of the advantages which Scotland had derived from it? One of the greatest impediments to the prosperity of Ireland was the want of industry and the want of capital, which were only to be sup- plied by blending more closely with that country the industry and capital of this. In GEORGE ffl. 17601820. 451 the present state of things also, and while Ireland remained a -separate kingdom, no reasonable person would affirm that full con- cessions could be made to the Catholics without endangering the state, and shaking the constitution of Ireland to its centre. At the conclusion of a very able speech, he proposed a series of resolutions, and moved that the house resolve itself into a commit- tee to discuss the same. The plan proposed that the two islands should be united into one kingdom, by the name of "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ;" that the succession to the crown should be limited and settled as at present; that the united kingdom should be represented in one and the same parliament, and that such a number of lords and commons as shall be hereafter agreed upon shall sit and vote on the part of Ire- land; that the churches of England and Ireland be preserved as now by law estab- lished; that the king's subjects in Ireland be entitled to the same privileges, in respect of trade and navigation, with those of Great Britain, subject to certain regulations, to be agreed upon previously to the union, and regulated from time to time by the united parliament; that the charge arising from the payment of the interest, or sinking fund for the reduction of the principal, of the debt incurred in either kingdom before the union, shall continue to be separately de- frayed by Great Britain and Ireland re- spectively ; that, for a number of years to be limited, the future ordinary expenses the united kingdom in peace or war should be defrayed by Great Britain and Ireland jointly, according to such proportions as shall be established by the respective par- liaments previously to the union ; and that all laws in force at the time of the union, and all the courts of civil or ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the respective kingdoms, shal^ remain as now by law established within the same, subject only to such alter- ations or regulations, from tune to time, as circumstances appear to the parliament the united kingdom to require. Sheridan avowed his utter disapprobation of the measure, and stated his intention of moving two resolutions, declaring that no measures could have a tendency to improve and perpetuate the ties of amity, which had not for their basis the fair and free approba- tion of the parliaments of the two countries ; and that whoever should endeavor to obtain such approbation, by employing the influ- ence of government, was an enemy to his majesty and the constitution. The house divided on the question of the speaker's leaving the chair; ayes, one hundred and forty, noes fifteen ; and, after some further debates on the subject, Pitt's resolutions were carried by large majorities. On the fourteenth of February, the report of the committee was brought up, when it was or- dered that a message be sent to the lords, requesting a conference respecting the means of perpetuating and improving the connexion between the two kingdoms. The subject had previously been intro- duced into the house of peers by a message from the king, delivered by lord Grenville. The address in answer to this message was voted unanimously by the house, which then adjourned. From this period the business remained dormant in the upper house till the eighteenth of February, when the mes- sage from the commons was delivered by earl Temple. A conference accordingly taking place in the painted chamber, the lords deputed on this occasion soon returned with a copy of the resolutions moved by the house of commons. On the nineteenth of March, their lordships having been summon- ed, lord Grenville moved that the house do agree with the same; and this motion, though strenuously opposed, was agreed to without a division. On the eleventh of April, the house hav- ing been again summoned, Jord Grenville moved an address to the throne, which was also carried without a division ; but a pro- test was signed against it by the lords Hol- land, Thanet, and King. A committee was then named, consisting of lord Grenville, lord Minto, lord Auckland, and the bishop of) of LJandaff, to draw up an address con- formable to the motion ; which having been effected, the commons, in a second confer- ence on the following day, were invited to join in the same, and to agree that it should be presented to his majesty as the address of both houses of parliament, which was ac- cordingly done in the most solemn manner. In Ireland the further consideration of the bill was postponed till the first of Au- gust It was, however, manifest that the court were determined to persevere; and of|the lord-lieutenant, on the termination of the session, announced that a joint address of the two houses of parliament of Great Britain had been laid before his majesty, ac- companied by resolutions proposing and re- commending a complete and entire union between Great Britain and Ireland ; and he further declared that his majesty, as the common farther of his people, must look forward with earnest anxiety to the moment when, in conformity to the sentiments, wishes, and real interests of his subjects in both kingdoms, they may all be inseparably united in the full enjoyment of the blessings of a free constitution. Wilberforce's annual motion for the abo- 452 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. lit ion of the slave trade, had in this session to encounter an additional opposition, arising from the existence of a negro army in St. Domingo, and the efforts made to propagate democratical principles through the West India islands. It was consequently nega- tived by a majority of eighty-four to fifty- four. Parliament was prorogued on the twelfth of July, 1799, when his majesty was pleas- ed to declare that the decision and energy which distinguished the councils of his ally, the emperor of Russia, and the intimate union and concert so happily established between them, would enable him to employ, to the greatest advantage, the powerful means intrusted to him by parliament, for establishing, on permanent grounds, the security and honor of this country, and the liberty and independence of Europe. On this occasion he also expressed his satisfac- tion in seeing that internal tranquillity was in some degree restored to Ireland, the ul- timate security of which could alone be in- sured by its intimate and entire union with Great Britain. GEORGE HI. 17601820. 453 CHAPTER XXXI. Affairs of Egypt Capture of Jaffa Siege of Acre Gallant Defence The French raise the Siege and return from Syria to Egypt Tippoo Saib, at the instigation of Buonaparte, concerts measures against the India Company, who declare war in con- sequence Seringapatam taken by General Harris ; Death of Tippoo Partition of the Mysore Territory Buonaparte returns to France Naples proclaimed a Repub- lic The Austrian and French Forces take the Field Encounters on the Rhine Campaign in Italy and Switzerland Retreat of the Russians under Suworow Expedition to North Holland Capture of Surinam Party Contentions in France The Directory overthrown, and Buonaparte nominated First Consul He proposes a Negotiation for Peace, which is rejected by the British Government Meeting of Parliament Debate on Buonaparte's Pacific Overture Subsidiary Treaties Finance Subsidy to the Emperor Union with Ireland completed Scarcity of Corn Attempt on the King's Life. AFFAIRS OF EGYPT. CAPTURE OF JAFFA. BUONAPARTE, being separated from France, by the total defeat of the French fleet at Aboukir, exerted himself to secure the af- fection of the Egyptians by flattering their religious prejudices ; by recalling their an- cient greatness, and asserting that he wish- ed to restore them to their pristine grandeur; by professions of regard for his ally, the grand seignior ; and by pretending that the invasion of Egypt, and the expulsion of the beys, were measures which merited or had obtained his assent These arts, however, failed to produce the desired effect, and his arms alone could insure the obedience which he courted, or avert the danger which he dreaded. An insurrection at Cairo had near- ly proved fatal to his cause ; and some hun- dreds of the French, including general Du- puis, their commander, were killed before it could be suppressed : a much larger number of the insurgents of Course perished, and not a few afterwards fell by the hands of the executioner; for Buonaparte, wherever he went,"treated all who opposed him as traitors and rebels. Various skirmishes and some sharp actions took place between the inva- ders and the Mamelukes, under the com- mand of the beys, in different parts of the country, particularly in Upper Egypt, in all of which the superior discipline and tactics of the French baffled the rude courage and desultory attacks of their opponents. It could not, however, be supposed that the Porte would leave them in quiet possession of a portion of her territory, or that England would make no effort to wrest it from their hands : Buonaparte was aware that if an army was sent from Europe to attack him on one side, while a Turkish force from Asia assailed him on the other, he might not be able to extricate himself from the difficulties with which he would be surrounded, and he therefore resolved to attack the Turks in the first instance, in the hopes of subduing them before they could receive assistance from other quarters. He accordingly made pre- parations for an expedition against Acre, and sent his train of artillery, destined for the siege, by sea. The army, in four divisions, under the command of Kleber, Bon, Regnier, and Lannes, proceeded to El-Arisch, where an action was fought, in which the French were successful. They then moved forward to Jaffa, anciently called Joppa, a seaport town on the coast of Palestine, which was carried by assault, with great loss, after a vigorous defence. Numbers of the garrison were put to the sword ; but the greater part having taken refuge in the mosques, and implored mercy from the French, their lives were spared. Being encumbered with nearly four thou- sand prisoners, from the care and mainte- nance of which, it is said, Buonaparte found it necessary to relieve himself, he ordered them to be marched to a rising ground near Jaffa, where volleys of musketry and grape- shot were played upon them by a division of French infantry, and such of the Turks as were not killed by the shot were put to death by the bayonet (1). The accumulation of unburied bodies occasioned the visitation of the plague, by which a great number of the French soldiers were soon infected, the hos- pitals crowded, and the medical staff embar- rassed. In this crisis Buonaparte found an apothecary who consented to administer poison to the sick. A sufficient quantity of opium was accordingly mixed with pleasant food, of which the unsuspecting victims freely partook ; and in a few hours five hun- dred and eighty soldiers, who had suffered so much for the tyrants of their country, thus miserably perished (2). SIEGE OF ACRE. GALLANT DEFENCE. BUONAPARTE then marched at the head of 454 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. his troops for Acre, which at this moment contained within its walls two men, who, with the romantic heroism of the days of chivalry, united all the knowledge apper- taining to the modern art of war Sir W. Sidney Smith, a British naval officer of dis- tinguished enterprise, and colonel Phillip- peaux, an emigrant officer of engineers. After rescuing his friend, Sir Sidney, from bondage in the Temple, and restoring him to liberty at the hazard of his life, Phillippeaux accompanied him in a small squadron to which he had been appointed, and, after cruising with him in the Levant, had em- barked for Syria to afford assistance to the Pacha. On the thirtieth of March, 1799, the trenches were opened, about one hun- dred and fifty fathoms from the wall ; and soon after the enemy advanced to storm the fortress. It was soon discovered, however, that a ditch of fifteen feet was to be passed, while the counterscarp was almost untouch- ed ; and the breach, which was not large, had been effected upwards of six feet above the level of the works. Notwithstanding these obstacles a body of grenadiers descend- ed into the ditch, and attempted to scale the wall ; but nothing could be achieved. The garrison was at first seized with terror, and many of the Turkish soldiers ran towards the harbor ; but no sooner did they discover that the opening in the wall was several feet above the rubbish, than they returned to the charge, and showered down stones, grenades, and combustibles upon the assailants, who were obliged to retire, after losing two adju- tants-general, and a great number of men. This event afforded so much encouragement to the troops of the pacha, that they made a sally, in which they killed several of the be- siegers. In the interim the English squadron discovered, in the neighborhood of Mount Carmel, a corvette and nine sail of gun- boats, laden with artillery and ammunition, intended to assist in the reduction of Acre, seven of which, containing all the battering train, were captured ; and this fortunate in- cident contributed greatly to save the city. At this period of the siege Ghezzar Oglou, the pacha, dispersed his firmauns among the Naplouzians, as well as into the towns in the Said, requesting the true believers to rise and overwhelm the infidels. The British squadron, which had been driven from the unsheltered anchorage of St Jean d'Acre by the equinoxial gales, had no sooner resumed its station than another sortie was determin- ed upon, for the purpose of destroying a mine made by the enemy below the tower. In this operation, the British marines and seamen were to force their way into the mine, while the Turkish troops attacked the enemy's trenches on the right and left. The sally took place just before daylight; and lieutenant Wright, who commanded the seamen-pioneers, notwithstanding he receiv- ed two shots in his right arm as he advanced, entered the mine with the pike-men, and proceeded to the bottom of it, where he veri- fied its direction, and destroyed all that could be destroyed in its present state. The Samaritan Arabs having made incur- sions even into the French camp, Buona- parte proceeded against them in person; and he found Kleber's division, consisting of two thousand Frenchmen, who had previ- ously been detached as a corps of observa- tion, fighting at the foot of Mount Tabor, and nearly encircled by a large body of horse, which he obliged to retire behind the mount, where a great number were drown- ed in the river Jordan. Buonaparte hastened to return to the camp before Acre, and the invaders at length com- pleted the mine destined to destroy the tower, which had so long withstood all their efforts ; but, although one of the angles was carried away, the breach remained as difficult of ac- cess as before. About this period the gar- rison sustained the loss of Phillippeaux, who died of a fever, contracted by want of rest, and extraordinary exertion. On the first of May, after many hours' heavy cannonade from thirty pieces of artillery, brought by the enemy from Jaffa, a fourth attempt was made ; but the Tigre, moored on one side, and the Theseus on the other, flanked the town walls; and the gun-boats, launches, and other row-boats, continued to flank the enemy's trenches to their great annoyance, till at length they were obliged to desist from the attack. Notwithstanding their various repulses the enemy continued to batter in breach with progressive success, and made nine several attempts to storm, but had as often been beaten back. The garrison had long been in expectation of a reinforcement, under Hassan Bey, who had originally received orders to advance against Alexandria, but was afterwards directed to proceed to the relief of Acre : it was not, however, till the fifty-first day of the siege that this fleet made its appearance. The ap- proach of so much additional strength was the signal to Buonaparte for a vigorous as- sault, in hopes to get possession of the town before the reinforcement could disembark ; and on the night of the eighth of May he succeeded in making a lodgment in the second story of the north-east tower. Day- light on the ninth showed the French stand- ard unfurled on the outer angle; and at this most critical point of the contest Hassan Bey's troops were still in their boats, not having advanced more than half-way to- wards the shore. Sir Sidney Smith, whose mergy and talents gave effect to every ope- ration, landed the crews of the gun-boats on GEORGE ffl. 17601620. 455 the mole, and marched them to the breach, each man being armed with a pike. A heap of ruins between the besieged and besiegers served as a breast-work for both ; the muzzles of the muskets touched, and the spear-heads of the standards locked. Ghezzar Pacha, hearing that the English were on the breach, quitted his station, where, according to the ancient Turkish custom, he was sitting to reward such as should bring him the heads of the enemy, and distributing cartridges with his own hands. This energetic old man, coming behind his British allies, pulled them down with violence, saying, " if any harm happen to our English friends, all will be lost." The whole of the reinforcements being now landed, the Pacha, with some difficulty, so far subdued his jealousy as to admit the Chifflick regiment of one thou- sand men, into the garden of his seraglio, from whence a vigorous sally was made with an intention to obtain possession of the ene- my's third parallel, or nearest trench ; but the Turks, unequal to such a movement, were driven back into the town with loss ; and although the sortie did not succeed, it had the effect of obliging the enemy to ex- pose themselves above their parapets, and the flanking fire of the garrison, aided by a few hand-grenades, dislodged them from the tower. Determined to persevere, the enemy effected a new breach by an incessant fire directed to the southward, every shot knock- ing down whole sheets of a wall,' much less solid than that of the tower, on which they had expended so much time and ammunition. At the suggestion of the Pacha the breach was not this time defended, but a certain number of the enemy was let in, and then closed upon according to the Turkish mode of war, when a sabre in one hand and a dagger in the other, proving more than a match for the bayonets, the survivors has- tened to sound a retreat. Thus ended a con- test, .continued with little intermission for five-and-twenty hours; and in which na- ture, sinking under the exertion, demanded repose. Chagrin began to be visible in the con- duct of Buonaparte, who, for the first time in his life, beheld himself foiled, and that too by a town scarcely defensible according to the rules of art ; while the surrounding hills were crowded with spectators, await- ing the result of the contest, to declare for the victor. The plague also found its way into the French camp, and seven hundred men had already fallen martyrs to that ter- rible malady. In this deplorable situation the French commander-in-chief determined to make a last effort, and general Kleber's division was recalled from the fords of Jor- dan, to take its turn in the daily effprts to mount the breach at Acre, in which every other division in succession had failed, with the loss of their bravest men, and about three-fourths of their officers. Before this reinforcement could commence its opera- tions, another sally was made on the night of the tenth of May by the Turks, who suc- ceeded in making themselves masters of the enemy's third parallel, and advanced to the second trench; but after a conflict of three hours they were driven back, leaving everything in statu quo, except the loss of men, which was considerable on both sides. SIEGE RAISED. FRENCH RETURN FROM SYRIA TO EGYPT. DETERMINED, at length, to raise the siege, Buonaparte first ordered his sick and wound- ed to be sent away, and, to keep the besieg- ed in check, increased the fire of his cannon and mortars. Ghezzar, remarking these dis- positions for retreat, made frequent sallies, which were repulsed with vigor. The as- pect of the field of carnage was horrible : the ditches and the reverses of the parapets were filled with the slain ; the air was in- fected, and the proposition for a suspension of arms to bury the dead remained unan- swered. After sixty days' continuance, Buonaparte, in a proclamation, announced to his army the raising of the siege, and resolved to return to Egypt, to defend its approach in the season of landing against the force assembled at Rhodes. On the twentieth of May, the very day on which the army began its march, general Le Grange repulsed two sallies, and forced the Turks back into the town. General Lannes' division led the march ; Regnier's evacuated the trenches ; Kleber formed a strong rear- guard ; whilst Junot covered the left flank. Buonaparte threw into the sea the artillery, which he could not carry back through the desert ; and his battering train, amounting to twenty-three pieces, fell into the hands of the English. After blowing up the fortifi- cations of Jaffa and Gaza, and inflicting a terrible vengeance on those who had defend- ed their country against the invaders, the French passed over the desert, and were re- ceived by the inhabitants of Cairo, ignorant of recent events, as victors. TIPPOO SAIB'S HOSTILE PREPARATIONS. SERINGAPATAM TAKEN, AND DEATH OF TIPPOO. BUONAPARTE, after his arrival in Egypt, apprized Tippoo Saib of his arrival on the shores of the Red Sea, and requested him to send some confidential person with whom he might confer on the subject of their mu- tual plans for expelling the English from their Indian possessions. This sovereign had negotiated with Zemaun Shah, a native prince of great power and influence, in or- der to concert such a formidable attack upon the English, as, it was hoped, they would be tot; HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. unable to resist: but the governor-general, the earl of Mornington, afterwards marquis Wellesley, having assembled an adequate force, communicated to Tippoo the know- ledge which he had acquired of his hostile designs, and offered, if he would forego those projects, to send an officer to treat with him for the establishment and preser- vation of a friendly intercourse between him and the British government The sul- tan sent an equivocal answer to this commu- nication, and sought to elude the vigilance of the English policy ; but lord Mornington did not suffer the least abatement of the spirit of naval or military preparation, and at the commencement of the year 1799 he ordered the British army to take the field. It was commanded in chief by lieutenant- general Harris, who, after a series of suc- cessful operations, set himself down before the capital of Tippoo's dominions at the lat- ter end of April ; and on the fourth of May, a practical breach having been effected, Se- ringapatam was taken' by assault. Tippoo himself, and several of his chiefs, perished in the action. The East India company obtained addi- tional territory by this conquest ; other parts were allotted to the Nizam and the Mahrat- tas, and the remaining portion of the Mysore was conferred on a descendant of the ancient Rajahs, who had been dispossessed by Hyder. The British dominion in the east, by annihi- lating the most dangerous of all the native powers, was now established on a permanent foundation. BUONAPARTE RETURNS TO FRANCE. BUONAPARTE, ruminating on his repulse at Acre, where he had, for the first time, ex- perienced defeat and disgrace, resolved to repair to a country more congenial with his disposition and pursuits. This resolution to abandon his post, and to desert those gallant men who had braved every danger at his command, was only equalled by the mode in which it was accomplished. Leaving a sealed packet addressed to general Kleber, nominating that officer to the command of the army in Egypt during his absence, he embarked suddenly, on the twenty-fourth of August, with generals Berthier, Lannes, Murat, and Andreossi, accompanied by Monge, Beutholet, and Arnaud, members of the Egyptian Institute, and attended by sev- eral Mamelukes, the future guards of his person. He communicated his design to none but those whom he intended to accom- pany him ; and he left the army in a deplora- ble state. He was a deserter too, in every sense of the word ; for he quitted his com- mand without orders, and even without per- mission. That singular good fortune, how- ever, to which he was so often indebted, at- tended him on this occasion; for, after re- peatedly escaping the vigilance of the Eng- lish cruisers, he landed, first at Ajaccio, and then at Frejus ; and on his arrival at Paris, on the sixteenth of October, he was courted by all parties, and invited by the directory to a grand festival. NAPLES MADE A REPUBLIC. ENGAGE- MENTS BETWEEN THE AUSTRIAN AND FRENCH ARMIES ON THE RHINE. THE late expedition into the Roman ter- ritory having proved eminently disastrous to the king of Naples, now an exile from 'his kingdom, an armistice was signed by prince Pignatelli, on behalf of the Neapolitan gov- ernment, on the seventh of January, 1799, by which the French forces under Chair.- poinnet obtained possession of the city of Capua, and then advanced to the capital, which they entered on the twenty-third, af- ter a gallant but unavailing resistance. Na- ples was then proclaimed a republic, under the designation of the Parthenopean com- monwealth ; and the provisional government was confided to twenty-one citizens, chosen by the French general Championnet. At the same time, the fortress of Ehrenbreit- stein, in front of Coblentz, was obliged, after a memorable defence, to capitulate, on the twenty-fourth of January, to the French general D'Allemagne. The emperor Paul, of Russia, entered into the new confederacy against the French republic with all zeal. An appearance of negotiation was still kept up at Rastadt ; but the emperor of Germany, dissatisfied with the provisions of the treaty of Campo For- mio, and certain of powerful co-operation in the event of a renewal of the contest, no longer concealed his sentiments. The French, by their unbounded encroachments on the rights of other nations, gave him a plausible pretence for re-arming ; and in a short time a powerful force was in the field. The archduke Charles assembled fifty-five thousand men between the Inn and the Lech ; generals Starray and Hotze headed about twenty thousand more in the Palati- nate and the country of the Grisons ; general Bellegarde occupied the Tyrol with about twenty-five thousand ; and an army of about sixty thousand, under general Kray, prepar- ed to enter Italy, and reconquer Lombardy. The command of the French " Army of the Danube" was confided to general Jourdan, who, on the first of March, crossed the Rhine in three places ; and, whilst general Berna- dotte blockaded the fortress of Philipsburg, Manheim opened its gates to another body of French troops : on the twentieth, how- ever, the archduke determined to give them battle, and the day was contested with great bravery on both sides, Jourdan maintaining his position until night put an end to the ac- tion, when, under cover of darkness, he re- GEORGE m. 17601820. 457 treated to a station near Engen. On the twenty-fifth a second battle was fought on the plain of Lieblingen, in the midst of woods ; and such was the eagerness on both sides, that the two commanders-in-chief, after reconnoitring in person, instead of as- suming, as usual, a centre position in the rear, fought at the head of their respective troops. Night, which again put an end to the combat, left the victory undecided ; and on the ensuing morning the invaders renew- ed their attack ; being, however, once more foiled, general Jourdan, after sustaining a loss of about four thousand men, retreated before the archduke, and recrossed the Rhine at Lauttemburg and Strasburg. Mas- sena, to whom the command of the army of Switzerland was confided, had taken the field for the purpose of driving the Austri- ans from the mountainous regions inhabited by the Grisons ; but the defeat of the grand army in Suabia checked his career. CAMPAIGN IN ITALY AND SWITZER- LAND. GENERAL SCHERER, to whom the chief command of the French armies in Italy had been transferred, directed his first efforts against Tuscany. Having obtained posses- sion of the capital, the port of Leghorn was at the same time seized by general Miollis, and all the property appertaining to the sub- jects of Britain, Portugal, Austria, Russia, the Ottoman Porte, and the states of Barba- ry, subjected to sequestration ; while the grand duke and his family were furnished with a guard of honor, and allowed to pro- ceed to the German capital. Scherer then marched to Mantua, where it was determin- ed to attack the enemy before they could re- ceive any reinforcements from Suabia, or ef- fect a junction with the Russians. The Austrians, under general Kray, at this time occupied Verona and its vicinity. On the twenty-sixth of March the action commenc- ed 4n the neighborhood of Castel Nuovo, when, after a most severe contest, the French were .driven across the Adige. Three days after this sanguinary conflict, Scherer again attacked the Austrian posts, and was again defeated. The Russian general Suworow arrived at Verona in April, and took upon himself the command of the Austro-Russian army, now estimated at one hundred thousand men. Scherer resigned to Moreau the command of his reduced and dispersed army ; and, a retreat having become absolutely necessary, the fortresses of Peschiera and Mantua were abandoned to their fate, and generals Kray and Klanau blockaded them with twenty- five thousand men. Suworow hastened to avail himself of the advantages he enjoyed over a retreating foe ; the town and citadel VOL. IV. 39 of Brescia, with a garrison of a thousand men, capitulated to the troops under his com- mand ; and an engagement, fought on the twenty-seventh of April, determined the fate of the Cisalpine republic : on the following day the conquerors entered the city of Mil- an, and ab6ut the same time, count de Belle- garde obtained an uninterrupted series of successes in the mountainous regions of the Engadine ; while Hotze dislodged the French troops in the Grison country from all their positions between Luciensteig and Coire. In Switzerland several partial insurrections against the French authorities took place ; the canton of Uri was in arms ; the Valais had risen in mass ; and a great part of the Valteline was in possession of the imperial- ists. Peschiera also surrendered, after a short siege, to count St. Julien ; and Moreau, yielding to superior numbers, was obliged to abandon his strong position between the Po and Tenaro, after defeating general Vukas- sowich on the banks of the Bormida, The disasters of the French in Italy were pro- ductive of extraordinary changes in the southern part of that peninsula, and subject- ed those who had taken part in the revolu- tions in Naples and Rome to the most terri- ble responsibility. In Calabria, cardinal Ruffo, on receiving information that the French troops had re- treated from Naples, raised a number of new levies round the royal standard, collected the wreck of general Mack's army, and, be- ing joined by a body of English and Rus- sians, marched against the capital, when the executive directory, and all those who had countenanced the Parthenopean republic, were obliged to take shelter within the for- tresses, which fell in succession into the hands of the royal forces ; and, on the thir- teenth of July, fort St. Elmo, the strongest of them, was obliged to capitulate to the allies, as- sisted by a body of British seamen under cap- tain Troubridge. In Tuscany, forty thousand of the inhabitants, on learning the disasters of Moreau and Macdonald, attacked the repub- licans on every side ; the garrison of Florence abandoned the capital ; and the ancient magis- trates resumed their functions. A few days after, a column of Austrians obliged the in- vaders to abandon Lucca ; and Leghorn was evacuated by capitulation : Rome, however, remained unconquered, but the most vigor- ous measures were now taken to subdue that city ; and, while a body of Tuscan and Neapolitan troops invested the ancient cap- ital of the world, captain Tronbridge, who had appeared off the mouth of the Tiber, summoned general Grenier, the commander of the garrison, to surrender. On the twen- tieth of September a convention was con- cluded, by which it was agreed to evacuate 458 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Rome, Civita Vecchia, and the poets adja- cent, on condition that the troops should be sent to France. General Macdonald, having reached Flor- ence, collected the scattered French forces throughout Tuscany; and, finding himself at the head of thirty-eight thousand troops, he determined immediately to act on the offensive. After forcing the allies to raise the -siege of Fort Urbino, he dispatched Olivier against Modena, of which he obtain- ed possession on the twelfth of June, and drove the Austrians beyond the Po ; while general Kray, alarmed at the progress of the enemy, drew off his heavy artillery from be- fore Mantua, and posted himself in such a situation as to prevent that city from being relieved. Macdonald continued to advance ; and having arrived at Piacenza, and formed a junction with general Victor, he obliged general Ott to fall back on the castle of Gio- vanni. As soon as Suwbrow had obtained cupied his formidable position in the neigh- borhood of Genoa, and prevented the ad- vance of the allies by threatening to fall upon their rear. The young men of the re- quisition were, at the same time, put in mo- tion on the frontier, and Championnet was employed in assembling an army of forty thousand men in the vicinity of Grenoble. Supplies were also sent to the army of Italy, and the chief command of that force was transferred from general Moreau to general Joubert, who advanced at the head of thir- ty-six thousand men, and encamped on the fifteenth of August, upon the heights of Novi. The allies were superior in numbers ; Suworow and Melas were at the head of thirty-five thousand troops, of their respec- tive nations ; fifteen thousand'Piedmontese, who had formerly obliged the garrison of Cevi to surrender, now acted as light troops ; while general Kray entered the camp on that very day with eighteen thousand men, intelligence of the victorious career of the I set at liberty by the fall of Mantua. Suwo- French general, he proceeded to Alexandria, leaving general Kaim to prosecute the siege of Turin ; and advanced to the support of general Ott, who was in full retreat At a village, six miles from Piacenza, a general engagement took place on the seventeenth, which, having been continued through the following day, terminated in favor of the al- lies. The vanquished army took advantage of the approach of night to retire in two columns to Piacenza, where four French generals, with several field officers, and be- tween four and five thousand soldiers, who had been wounded in the late murderous actions, fell into the hands of the enemy. General Moreau, taking advantage of Su- worow's absence, left Genoa at the head of twenty-nine thousand men, and on the twen- tieth of June attacked and beat field-marshal Bellegarde, who had been left to superintend the blockade of Alexandria. The Russian field-marshal immediately abandoned the pursuit of Macdonald, and endeavored by a rapid countermarch to overtake Moreau, who, after fighting another battle, retreated within the Ligurian territory. Suworow, however, was consoled in this disappoint- ment by the intelligence of the surrender of Turin on the twenty-second of June, and with the capture of Bologna, which fell into the hands of the allies eight days after- wards. Macdonald then entered the Geno- ese territory, and formed a junction with Moreau. The surrender of Fort Urbino, St Leon, and Alexandria, was followed by the capture of the almost impregnable fortress of Man- tua, on the twenty-eighth of July. Suwo- row, having now conquered the greater part of Italy, began to menace the southern de- partments of France ; but Moreau still oc- row, determined to anticipate the French, whom he knew to be most formidable when they were the assailants, attacked their left wing. General Joubert, in advancing at the head of his staff, was struck with a ball, which pierced his heart ; but the loss of their general diminished not the ardor of the soldiers : thrice did Suworow charge the enemy in person, at the head of his gal- lant veterans, and thrice was he repulsed by the French legions, of which Moreau again took the command ; but, in the mean time, general Melas succeeded hi turning the right flank of the French army, which de- cided the victory. The danger of being sur- rounded compelled the French general to abandon the field of battle to the allies, who took four generals and four thousand pris- oners ; and night alone enabled him to rally his scattered forces, and once more to occu- py his former position near Genoa. No sooner did the French cease to be for- midable than the fatal effects of jealousy be- gan to be visible, both in the councils and in the camps of the two nations ; and the suspicion and distrust of the armies had at length attained such an alarming height, that it was deemed impolitic to confine their exertions to the same theatre : it was conse- quently resolved that Melas should continue the war in Italy, while the Russians, under Suworow, should enter Switzerland, and, after defeating Massena, penetrate the ter- ritories of the French republic. The com- mencement of the campaign in Switzerland was peculiarly auspicious to the French, but their successes were of short duration ; for in April, Schaffhausen and Peterhansen fell into the hands of the Austrians, who, after a succession of engagements, established their head-quarters at Zurich on the seventh GEORGE m. 17601820. 459 of June, and obliged Massena to retreat to Mount Albis. That general, however, hav- ing received fresh supplies of men and pro- visions, recommenced operations against the archduke ; and a column of republicans, de- tached across the Limmat, penetrated the Austrian camp on the fourteenth of August. To relieve Massena, general Muller estab- lished his head-quarters at Manheim, and pushed his advanced guard as far as Heidel- berg, while Baraguay d'Hilliers imposed a contribution upon Frankfort, passed the Maine, and joined his countrymen in the territories of Darmstadt. When the arch- duke learnt that a body of French troops, after entering Suabia, was levying contribu- tions, and seizing on the rich harvests of Germany, he conferred the command of the Austrian army in Switzerland on general Hotze, and recrossed the Rhine in person. Massena, availing himself of the absence of the prince, and determined to obtain a supe- riority in Switzerland before the arrival of Suworow, approached Zurich on the twen- ty-fourth of September, and on the following morning the battle commenced. General Hotze, however, received a mortal wound early in the engagement ; and general Pe- trasch and prince Koraskow were obliged to give way ; on which the French troops car- ried Zurich by assault, and captured a con- siderable body of Russians posted in that city. SUWOROW RETREATS. SUWOROW, having crossed the plains of Piedmont, and possessed himself of the heights of St. Gothard, was now about to enter the canton of Uri, when he received an imperfect account of the defeat of the allies at Zurich ; and this disastrous intelli- gence was speedily confirmed by the ap- proach of the retreating troops. Unaccus- tomed to see the Russian legions fly before their adversaries, he intimated to prince Ko- raskow that he should answer with his head if h made another retrograde step. Eager to vindicate his character to so gallant a chief, the prince immediately reassembled the wreck of his troops ; and, having been joined by a body of Austrians, the corps of Conde, and the Bavarian contingent, deter- mined to attempt a diversion in favor of his commander, by reassuming his former posi- tion before Zurich, during the absence of Massena ; but the latter proved his superi- ority by securing all the intermediate passes. At length, amidst incessant toils and contin- ual combats, the Russians arrived, on the third of October, in the valley of Mutten, and took possession of the bridge after a most obstinate resistance. The post of Brun- nen was also carried the next day : but here ended the progress of the Russian hero. Suworow, after penetrating into the canton of Schweitz, was so conscious of his critical situation, that he determined, for the first time hi his life, on a retreat, and effected it in a masterly manner. The emperor Paul, indignant that the Ger- manic states were not actuated by a zeal ardent as that with which he was inspired, issued an official notification, addressed to all the members of the Germanic empire, calling upon them to unite their forces with his, arid expressing his determination, if properly supported, never to sheath the sword till he had seen the downfall of the monster which threatened to crush all legal authorities. Scarcely had this declaration reached those to whom it was addressed, than Suworow, alike discontented with his allies and his colleagues, and tired of inces- sant combats, where valor was unavailing, and even victory was unattended with its usual advantages, collected the wreck of his army at Cloire, ordered the remains of Ko- raskow's troops and the corps of Conde to form a junction with him at that place, and, after some delay, proceeded to Bohemia, where he spent the winter. Of one hundred thousand men, who had either left Russia with him eight months before, or joined his army within that period, scarcely fifty thou- sand reached the banks of the Lech. Thus the co-operation of Russia terminated, and Suworow, overwhelmed with grief and dis- appointment, retired to his native country, where he did not long survive the frowns of fortune. He was coldly received by the emperor, and died on the eighteenth of May, 1800, aged seventy-one. The French had become once more mas- ters of Switzerland, had retaken St. Gothard, and begun to menace the country of the Grisons. General Muller again penetrated into Germany, seized on Frankfort, Man- heim, and Heidelberg, and threatened to lay all that portion of the empire under contri- bution. No sooner had the Austrian army, under Melas, advanced into the neighborhood of Coni, and prepared to lay siege to that for- tress, than general Championnet, collecting his whole force, marched to Savigliano to give him battle ; but on the fourth of No- vember a furious attack, directed against the column of general Grenier by general Ott, forced the republicans to retreat towards Genola, and the approach of night again saved the French army from ruin. The siege of Coni was now prosecuted with vigor, and on the second of January, 1800, the French commander agreed to capitulate, when two thousand five hundred republicans became prisoners of war. The success of the allied arms in Italy served to compen- sate the sovereigns of Europe for the losses they had this year sustained in other quar- ters ; but, on the whole, the campaign was 460 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. less auspicious in its conclusion than at its commencement; and the defection of the emperor of Russia damped the future ex- pectations of the court of Vienna. EXPEDITION TO NORTH HOLLAND. CAP- TURE OF SURINAM. THE English government, after a long course of preparation, caused a descent to be made, on the twenty-seventh of August, 1799, to the south-west of the Helder point, on the coast of North Holland. A body of seven thousand men, French and Dutch, en- countered the English, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who with difficulty gained the advantage. Above one thousand of the enemy were killed or wounded, and of the British about four hundred and fifty. It was the intention of Sir Ralph to attack the Helder fort the next morning; but it was evacuated in the night, and he found in it a considerable train of artillery. Vice-admi- ral Mitchell then made arrangements for entering the harbor of the Texel. Having summoned the commander of the Dutch fleet to hoist the flag of the prince of Or- ange, and accept the friendship of Great Britain, he received an answer from rear- admiral Story, promising to deliver up his squadron, as the men refused to fight. The ships were twelve in number, and eight of them mounted from fifty-four to seventy-four guns. While the invading army waited for the arrival of reinforcements, about twelve thou- sand French and Dutch attacked them with vigor on the tenth of September : but so strong was the post of the Zuyp, and so firmly did the English defend it, that about eight hundred of the assailants were killed or wounded, while only two hundred suffer- ed on the part of their opponents. TRie duke of York now landed with three brigades, and a Russian army also disembarked. As the allied army amounted to thirty-five thou- sand men, the duke and general d'Hermann ventured upon a speedy action. The Rus- sians, by an impetuous onset, September the nineteenth, made great havoc, and pushed forward to Bergen; Abercrombie's column penetrated to Hoorn ; and the two other col- umns were successful in their attacks ; but the rash confidence of the Russians exposed them to such danger, that the retreat of the whole force soon became necessary. The battle of Egmont, on the second of October, was severe, but indecisive. The evening put an end to the engagement, and the troops rested upon their arms. At day- break the retreat of the enemy gave the English and Ruwiiars an opportunity of ta- king several posts ; but, though they pushed forward for that purpose, they were pre- cluded by fatigue from effectually harassing the republican troops. The killed and wounded of the British amounted to about fifteen hundred and fifty ; of the Russians, about six hundred suffered or were captured, and of the French and Dutch the loss ex- ceeded three thousand. The English offi- cers seemed to be marked out, as an unusual proportion received wounds. The enemy having taken a very strong position, and being in expectation of a rein- forcement, the duke of York resolved upon another attack before the erection of new works, and when he had no knowledge of the arrival of fresh troops to oppose him. The Russians had a greater share in this action of the sixth of October than in the preceding ; and they were so vigorously re- sisted, that Sir Ralph Abercrombie was obliged to advance with a strong body to their relief. The whole hostile force then put itself in motion, and the action, which became general along the line, from Lim- men to the sea, terminated to the honor of the invaders, as they were left masters of the field ; but the loss on both sides was very severe, and the enemy, who soon after re- ceived a reinforcement of six thousand troops, maintained their position between Bever- wyck and Wyck-op-Zee. The allied army now found itself placed in a situation so critical as to require the greatest military talents, united with the most mature experience, to direct its future operations. Directly opposite lay the enemy, in a position almost impregnable, and ren- dered confident by the accession of strength just received. A naked, barren, and ex- hausted country, scarcely affording shelter for the wounded, extended all around. The right wing of the allied army was indeed protected by the ocean ; but a considerable body of troops, occupying an almost inac- cessible position, threatened the left. The weather, too, since the evening of the sixth of October, had set in with increased in- clemency ; and it was with extreme diffi- culty that the urgent necessities of the troops could be supplied. To these compli- cated evils the whole army lay exposed on the unsheltered sand-hills of North Holland, while the stadtholderian party remained in- active, and apparently indifferent to the suc- cess of the common cause. Under these circumstances, the duke of York, in the evening of the seventh, the night being ex- tremely dark, and the rain descending in tor- rents, issued an unexpected order for the troops to assemble, and at ten o'clock the whole army was in full retreat towards Pel- len and Alkmaar. As they could not, how- ever, be embarked in the face of a superior army without considerable loss, the duke of York and admiral Mitchell entered into a negotiation with general Brune, and on the seventeenth of October an armistice was GEORGE in. 17601820. 461 agreed upon, in which it was stipulated that the combined English and Russian army should evacuate the territories of the Bata- vian republic by the thirtieth of November ; that the Dutch admiral, De Winter, should be considered as exchanged ; that the mount- ed batteries at the Helder should be restored in then- present state ; that eight thousand prisoners of war, French and Batavians, ta- ken before the present campaign, and now detained in England, should be restored with- out conditions to their respective countries ; and that major-general Knox should remain with the French, to guaranty the execution of this convention. The proposition of re- storing the Batavian fleet surrendered by admiral Story, which was advanced by gen- eral Brune, was received with indignation ; and the duke threatened, in case of perse- verance on this point, to cut the sea-dikes, and inundate the whole country. Nearly four thousand Dutch deserters were brought to England with the British troops, who were embarked without delay : and the Rus- sians were landed and quartered in Guern- sey and Jersey. In this year, the flourishing settlement of Surinam was wrested from the Dutch by a body of troops, collected in the islands of Grenada, St Lucia, and Martinico, by lieu- tenant-general Trigge, and embarked on board two line-of-battle ships and five frig- ates, under the command of vice-admiral lord Hugh Seymour. On their arrival off the mouth of the river Surinam, governor Frederici capitulated, on the twentieth of August, without firing a gun. The British navy, during the whole of this year, did not lose a eingle vessel of war ; while twenty frigates, corvettes, and luggers, belonging to France, and ten to Spain, were either taken or run on shore. The Dutch navy may be said to have been annihilated. In addi- tion to the ships of war seized by admiral Mitchell in the Nieuve Diep and the Texel, the Batavian republic lost a forty-gun ship, the Hortog Van Brunswick, in the straits of Sunda ; and as the sailors were obviously disaffected to the new government, all fur- ther exertions by sea, on the part of that power, were interdicted. THE FRENCH DIRECTORY OVERTHROWN. BUONAPARTE MADE FIRST CONSUL. THE French directory, which had long been in the enjoyment of supreme power, was rapidly verging towards its dissolution, when Buonaparte arrived from Egypt, and was received in Paris with every possible demonstration of public favor. The Abbe Sieyes, constantly intriguing, was secretly gratified with the popularity enjoyed by Buonaparte, and, after disclosing to him cer- tain projects which he entertained, solicited his powerful aid, for the purpose of carrying 29* them into execution. At five o'clock in the morning of the eighteenth of Brumaire, (November the ninth,) by a manoeuvre of the conspirators in the council of Ancients, it was proposed, without communicating with the directory, that the assembly should ad- journ to St. Cloud ; that general Buonaparte should be charged to put the decree in exe- cution ; and that for that purpose he should be appointed commander of all the forces ; which being passed by a great majority, the sitting was then dissolved. Buonaparte in- stantly issued two proclamations, announcing his appointment to the command of the city guard and of the army, and inviting them to support their general in his endeavors to restore to the public the blessings of liberty, victory, and peace. He then marched ten thousand troops to the Thuilleries, and guarded every avenue to that place so effec- tually, that no one was permitted to pass. Three of the directors, and all the citizens of Paris, were, for the first time, acquainted with the proceedings that had taken place, by the proclamations with which the walls of the capital soon became placarded. The director, Barras, who had refused to give in his resignation, was exiled to his country- seat under a guard of cavalry, while Goheir and Moulins remained almost passive spec- tators of the events which deprived them of power, and imposed a new form of govern- ment upon their country. In the mean time the council of Five Hundred had assembled, filled with astonishment and distrust; and although Lucien Buonaparte, brother to the general, was at this time its president, an uproar arose on the entrance of the latter, in which even his life was endangered, until general Lefebvre at length rushed into the hall with a body of armed grenadiers, and rescued their chief from the dangers with which he was environed. The members in- stantly decreed that the council of Ancients had no power to invest Buonaparte with the command, as that authority could be confer- red by the directory alone, and an outlawry was proposed ; but the president refused to pronounce the decree against his brother, and quitted the chair. Immediately pistols and poniards were presented to his breast to compel him to resume his office, but he re- mained inflexible until the military arrived to his protection. The chamber was soon cleared of the members of the council, and cries of "Long live the republic!" "Long live Buonaparte !" sent forth by the military, announced the event and the means by which it was accomplished. The first imperfect intelligence of these events, had filled the metropolis with apprehension ; but no sooner were the circumstances attending this mili- tary usurpation made known, than the Paris- ians appeared overjoyed at the final subver- 462 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. sion of the jacobin power, and cherished the hope of a new and better government. The existing constitution being dissolved, a provisional government was appointed, consisting of three consuls, Sieves, Ducos, and Buonaparte, who were invested with the full powers of the directory, and, on the fol- lowing day, entered upon their public func- tions at the palace of the Luxembourg. The legislative commissioners at the same time commenced their sittings. In forming the new administration, Lucien Buonaparte was constituted minister of the interior, and M. Talleyrand reinstated in his office of minister for foreign affairs. A new constitution was shortly after submitted to the French nation, and almost unanimously approved. It con- sisted of an executive composed of three consuls, one bearing the title of chief, arid in fact possessing all the authority ; a Conser- vative Senate, composed of eighty members, appointed for life, and nominated by the con- suls ; and a Legislative Body of three hun- dred members, with a tribunate of one hun- dred. Buonaparte was nominated first or chief consul for a term of ten years. BUONAPARTE MAKES PROPOSALS OF PEACE. REJECTED BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. THE new sovereign of France, as he had now in effect become, finding himself quietly placed in possession of supreme power, and of the palace of the Bourbons, addressed a letter to the king of Great Britain, on Christ- mas day, for the purpose of entering on a negotiation for peace. " Called by the wishes of the French nation," said he, " to occupy the first magistracy of the republic, I think it proper, on entering into office, to make a direct communication of it to your majesty. The war which has for eight years ravaged the four quarters of the world, must it be eternal 1 Are there no means of coming to an understanding ! How can the two most enlightened nations of Europe, powerful and strong beyond what their safety and inde- pendence require, sacrifice, to ideas of vain grandeur, commerce, prosperity, and peace 1 How is it that they do not feel that peace is of the first importance, as well as the high- est glory 1 These sentiments cannot be for- eign to the heart of your majesty, who reigns over a free nation with the sole view of ren- dering it happy. Your majesty will see in this overture my sincere wish to contribute efficaciously, for the second time, to a gen- eral pacification, by a step speedv, entirely of confidence, and 'disengaged from those forms which, perhaps necessary to disguise the independence of weak states, proves, in those that are strong, only the desire of de- ceiving each other. France and England, by the abuse of their strength, may still for a long time, for the misfortune of all nations, retard the period of their being exhausted ; but, I will venture to say it, the fate of all civilized nations is attached to the termina- tion of a war, which involves the whole world." 1800. On the fourth of January, 1800, a letter was sent by lord Grenville to Talley- rand, containing an official note, in which it was observed, that the king had given fre- quent proofs of his sincere desire for the re- establishment of secure and permanent tran- quillity in Europe. He never was, nor had been, engaged in any contest for a vain and false glory. He had no other view than that of maintaining, against all transgression, the rights and happiness of his subjects. For these he had contended against an unpro- voked attack, and, for the same objects, he was still obliged to contend ; nor could he hope that this necessity would be removed by entering, at the present moment, into ne- gotiation with those whom a fresh revolution had so recently placed in the exercise of power in France ; since no real advantage could arise from such negotiation to the great and desirable object of general peace, until it should distinctly appear that those causes had ceased to operate which origin- ally produced the war, and by which it had since been protracted, and, in more than one instance, renewed. The same system, to the prevalence of which France justly as- cribes all her present miseries, was that which had also involved the rest of Europe in a long and destructive warfare, of a-, nature long since unknown to the practice of civil- ized nations. For the extension of this sys- tem, and for the extermination of all estab- lished governments, the resources of France had, from year to year, and in the midst of the most unparalleled distress, been lavished and exhausted. To that indiscriminate spirit of destruction the Netherlands, the United Provinces, the Swiss Cantons, (his majesty's ancient friends and allies,) had successively been sacrificed. Germany had been ravag- ed ; Italy, though then rescued from its in- vaders, had been made the scene of unbound- ed rapine and anarchy. His majesty had himself been compelled to maintain an ar- duous and burdensome contest for the inde- pendence and existence of his kingdom. Nor had these calamities been confined to Europe alone; they had been extended to the most distant quarters of the world, and to countries so remote, both in situation and interest, from the present contest, that the very existence of such a war was perhaps unknown to those who found themselves suddenly involved in all its horrors. While such a system continued to prevail, experi- ence had shown that no defence, but that of open and steady hostility, could be availing. Greatly, indeed, would his majesty rejoice, GEORGE III. 17601820. 463 whenever it should appear that the dangers to which his own dominions, and those of his allies, had been so long exposed, had really ceased ; whenever he should be satisfied that the necessity of resistance was at an end ; that, after the experience of so many years of crimes and miseries, better principles had ultimately prevailed in France; and that all the gigantic projects of ambition, and all the restless schemes of destruction, which had endangered the very existence of civil society, had, at length, been finally relin- quished ; but the conviction of such a change could result only from experience, and from the evidence of facts. The best and most natural pledge of its reality and permanence would be the restoration of that line of princes which, for so many centuries, maintained the French nation in prosperity at home, and in .consideration and respect abroad ; such an event would at once have removed, and would at any time remove, all obstacles in the way of negotiation for peace. His ma- jesty made no claim to prescribe to France what should be the form of her government, or in whose hands she should vest the au- thority necessary for conducting the affairs of a great and powerful nation : he looked only to the security of his own dominions, and those of his allies, and to the general safety of Europe. Whenever he should judge that such security could, in any man- ner, be obtained, he would eagerly embrace the opportunity to concert with his allies the means of immediate and general pacification. In the reply to this answer of the British cabinet, dated the fourteenth of January, Buonaparte renewed the assertion that France was not the aggressor in the war ; that, so far from having provoked it, she had, from the commencement of her revolution, solemnly proclaimed her love of peace, her disinclination to conquests, and her respect for the independence of all governments; and it was not to be doubted that, occupied entirely at that tune with her own internal affairs, she would have avoided taking part in those of Europe, and would have remain- ed faithful to her declarations : but, from an opposite disposition, as soon as the French revolution had broken out, almost all Europe had entered into a league for its destruction. Assailed on all sides, the republic could not but extend universally the efforts of her de- fence ; and it was only for the maintenance of her own independence that she had made use of those means which she possessed in her own strength, and the courage of her citizens. In the answer which lord Grenville for- warded on the twentieth of January, the king expressed his concern hi observing that the unprovoked aggressions of France, the sole cause and origin of the war, were sys- tematically defended by her present ruler, under the same injurious pretences by which they were originally attempted to be dis- guised. His majesty refused to enter into the refutation of allegations then universal- ly exploded, and, in so far as they respected his conduct, not only in themselves utterly groundless, but contradicted both by the in- ternal evidence of the transactions to which they related, and also by the express testi- mony (given at the time) of the government of France itself. The French minister was referred to the first note of the British gov- ernment for his majesty's opinion of the present overtures. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. FINANCE- SUBSIDIES. DEBATES ON THE WAR. AFTER the adjournment, the first subject of importance that engaged the attention of parliament was the correspondence which had recently taken place between the Brit- ish and French governments. Ministers in- quired what possible advantage could result from a negotiation with France at this mo- ment, and asked whether the consular gov- ernment presented a greater certainty of a favorable termination of a treaty than any of the revolutionary governments which had preceded it : the minority, on the other hand, animadverted on the precipitation of minis- ters in closing the door at once to all hopes of pacification. The rejection of the over- tures made by the first consul was, how- ever, approved by decided majorities in both houses ; and it was accordingly determined to carry on the war on an extensive scale. To enable the allies to bring the greatest, possible number of troops into the field, ne- gotiations were immediately entered into with the emperor, the duke of Wirtemburg, and the elector of Bavaria : the army of Conde, and the Swiss regiment of Rovera, were also taken into the pay of England ; and it was proposed, and agreed to by parlia- ment, to enable the treasury to advance the sum of five hundred thousand pounds until the subsidiary treaties had been signed and adjusted. The military and naval forces deemed necessary for the service of the year 1800 were nearly the same as in 1799. Pitt, in detailing the means for raising the supply, estimated the income tax at five million three hundred thousand pounds, exclusive of one million seven hundred thousand pounds, appropriated to the payment of in- terest for thirty-two million five hundred thousand pounds ; but he expressed the strongest expectation that it would turn out to better account. He had negotiated a loan of eighteen million five hundred thousand pounds ; the surplus of the consolidated fund he reckoned at about four million pounds ; exchequer-bills three million pounds; and 464 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. an advance of three million pounds, bearing no interest for six years, from the bank, as a premium for the renewal of the charter for twenty-one years, with the incidental sources of revenue, made up the required sum of thirty-nine million five hundred thou- sand pounds. These financial proposals, which underwent a variety of strictures from the vigilant observation of Tierney, were ultimately carried. Pitt having moved, on the seventeenth of February, for an advance of five hundred thousand pounds to the emperor of Germany, it was opposed with great energy by Tier- ney, who conjured the house to recollect that the war had now continued seven years, at the expense of two hundred million pounds, on the pretext of its being just and necessary. Just it could not be, if the ob- ject of it were to force upon the French na- tion the restoration of the Bourbons ; nor necessary, because we had refused to nego- tiate when the opportunity was presented to us. If this sum were granted, much larger demands would follow; and .thus we were to lavish our blood and treasure in a cause for which no satisfactory or intelligible rea- son could be assigned, and he defied the ministers to name one. Pitt found no diffi- culty in stating the object of the war in a single word security; security against a danger the greatest that had ever threatened the world a danger which never existed before in any period of society which had been felt and resisted by all the nations of Europe, but by none so successfully and uni- formly as our own. Our resistance had not been confined to external force ; it .had join- ed internal policy and wise legislative mea- sures to oppose jacobinism in the bosom (he was sorry to have found it there) of our own country. How was it discovered that jaco- binism had disappeared in France 7 It was now centred in one man, nursed in its school, who had gained celebrity under its auspices, and was at once the child and the champion of its atrocities. Granting that two hundred million pounds had been expended for the words " just and necessary," they had been expended, he said, for the best of causes, to protect the dearest rights, to defend the most valuable privileges, the laws, the lib- erties, the happiness of our country ; and, for such objects, as much more would we spend, and as much more could we find. On the fifteenth of January, 1800, the Irish parliament met at Dublin ; and, on the fifth of February, a message from the lord- lieutenant intimated the king's desire that the resolutions passed by the parliament of Great Britain should be submitted to the at- tentive consideration of the Irish legisla- ture; and expressed his hope that the great object to which they related might be ma- tured and completed by the wisdom of the two parliaments, and the loyal concurrence of the people. On this occasion the secre- tary of state, lord Castlereagh, to whose management the business was intrusted, en- tered into a comprehensive view of the measure proposed, recommending it by ar- guments analogous to those of Pitt, and other advocates of the Union in the British parliament On moving the first resolution, after a vehement debate, the numbers were, in favor of the measure, one hundred and fifty-eight, against it one hundred and fif- teen. The tumults of the populace of Dub- lin were, upon this occasion, very alarming ; and a military guard was found necessary to preserve the advocates of the Union from personal violence. In the house of peers the earl of Clare, late lord Fitzgibbon, chan- cellor of Ireland, on moving the first resolu- tion, declared himself satisfied, from an at- tentive observation of what had passed in Ireland for the last twenty years, that the existence of her independent parliament had gradually led to her recent and bitter calami- ties ; and avowed that he had, for the pre- ceding seven years, pressed upon ministers the urgent necessity of union. Lords Dil- lon, Powerscourt, Farnham, and Bellamont, declared their disapprobation of the mea- sure, which was defended by the law-lords Carleton and Kilwarden, and various other peers; after which the question upon the first resolution was put, and carried by sev- enty-five against twenty-six voices. The succeeding resolutions were in the course of a few weeks passed through this house with the same or greater facility. In the course of these debates, three different pro- tests, drawn with vigor and ability, were entered upon the journals, signed by the duke of Leinster, the marquis of Downshire, lords Pery and Moira, the bishop of Down, and about twenty other peers, expressive of their highest indignation at these proceed- ings. On the seventeenth of February, tho house of commons being in a general com- mittee, Corry, chancellor of the exchequer, made an able speech in vindication of the measure, blended, however, agreeably to the too frequent custom of the Irish parliament, with virulent party and personal reflections. The reply of Grattan, who had opposed the measure throughout with all the powers of eloquence, was so pointed and severe, that the chancellor thought proper to resent it by a challenge, and a duel ensued, in which five shots were exchanged ; and Corry was wounded, though not dangerously. On the twenty-seventh of March, the whole busi- ness being completed, lord Castlereagh moved an address to his majesty from the commons, declaring their approbation of the resolutions transmitted to them, which they GEORGE IE. 17601820. 465 considered sa wisely calculated to form the basis of a complete and entire union of the two legislatures ; that by those propositions they had been guided in their proceedings ; and that the resolutions now offered were those articles, which, if approved by the lords and commons of Great Britain, they were ready to confirm and ratify, in order that the same might be established for ever by the mutual consent of both parliaments. This address, being agreed to by the two houses, was immediately transmitted to Eng- land by lord Cornwallis. UNION OF IRELAND COMPLETED. ON the second of April the joint address of the Irish legislature was the subject of a message from his majesty to both houses of the British parliament The measure was opposed, in the house of peers, by lord Hol- land ; but, on a division, only the earl of Derby, and the lords Holland and King, voted against the motion, whilst eighty-two sup- ported it In the commons Pitt discussed the particular manner of carrying the mea- sure into effect As to the propriety of al- lowing one hundred Irish members to sit in the imperial parliament, though the particu- lar number might not be of the first import- ance, he thought it sufficiently suited to the proportional contribution of the two coun- tries to the public exigencies of the empire, and the selection was rather calculated to favor the popular interest. The members for counties and principal cities would be sixty-eight ; the rest would be deputed by towns the most considerable in population and wealth, thus providing at once for the security of the landed interest, and for the convenience of local information; and, as the proposed addition would make no change in the internal form of British representa- tion, it would not expose us to the dangers of political experiments, under the specious name of reform ; experiments which, what- ever hjs opinion respecting reform might once have been, he was now convinced would be hazardous in the present circum- stances. As it might be wished that very few of the members thus sent from Ireland should hold places under the crown, he pro- posed that the number entitled to be place- men should be limited to twenty, and that the imperial parliament should afterwards regulate this point as circumstances might suggest. The number of peers who should represent the whole body of the Irish no- bility was fixed at thirty-two. Four would suffice to inform the parliament of the state of the church ; and the rest would form a fair proportion, considered with reference to the case of Scotland, and the number of the Irish commoners. The election of the tem- poral peers for life he recommended, as more conformable to the spirit of nobility than that which was settled at the Scottish union. The right reserved for Irish peers to sit in the house of commons, as representatives for Great Britain, would render them fitter to serve their country when called to a higher assembly. The permission of creating new peers for Ireland he also justified ; for, though in Scotland the peerage might long maintain itself without any accession, from the great extent of inheritance allowed by the patents, there was a risk of the Irish peerage fast diminishing, on account of the very limited nature of the successions. In the article respecting the church, he noticed the clause introduced by the parliament of Ireland, providing for the presence of the clergy of that country at convocations which might be held in this island, and the pro- priety of leaving to the imperial legislature the discussion of the claims of the Catholics to future emancipation. The next article, he observed, would grant a general freedom of trade, with only such exceptions as might secure vested capital, and prevent a great shock to any particular manufacture, or to popular fears and prejudices : almost all pro- hibitions would be repealed, and only pro- tecting duties to a small amount imposed on some few articles. Grey strenuously opposed the plan of the union. His principal objections were found- ed on its unpopularity among the Irish peo- ple ; on the means of corruption and intimi- dation which had been used to accomplish the measure ; and the great dissimilarity be- tween the case of Ireland and that of Scot- land, with respect to incorporating with England. He concluded by moving that the number of Irish placemen who should sit in the united parliament be limited to nineteen, instead of twenty, which was negatived without a division. Early in May, the remaining articles having been severally investigated and approved by decisive ma- jorities, Pitt moved that an humble address be presented to his majesty, acquainting him that the house had proceeded through the great and important measure of a legisla- tive union, which they had the satisfaction to see was nearly in strict conformity with the principle laid down in his majesty's mes- sage. This was carried without a division; and, the address and resolutions being forth- with transmitted to the house of peers, the assent of that assembly was obtained with- out any material alteration. A joint ad- dress, as usual on great occasions, was pre- sented to the throne ; and a bill, grounded upon the resolutions, to take effect from the first of January, 1801, the first day of the nineteenth century, immediately passed through both houses. On the second of July the royal assent was given to this important bill; and on the twenty-ninth the session 466 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. was terminated by a speech from the throne, in which his majesty expressed the peculiar satisfaction with which he congratulated the two houses of parliament on the suc- cess of the steps they had taken for effect- ing an entire union between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, declaring that he should ever consider this measure as the happiest event of his reign. The Irish ses- sion, also, which had been prolonged till the union bill passed in England, in order to its ratification with the several alterations and additions made by the British parliament, with other necessary regulations respecting the election of the Irish representatives to the imperial legislature, was terminated on the second of August, and with it the ex- istence of the parliament of Ireland. GREAT SCARCITY. ATTEMPT ON THE KING'S LIFE. THE harvest of the two preceding years had been very unproductive ; and the evil being enhanced by the consumption and waste of war, a prodigious rise on every article of provision took place, the conse- quence of which was very wide-spread and real distress. The interference of the legis- lature, in attempting to remedy, or at least to palliate, the public calamity, was judici- ously confined to recommendatory, rather than coercive measures. The committee appointed to deliberate upon the subject sug- gested such methods of relief as appeared most effectual for diminishing the consump- tion of corn by economy and substitution, and held out encouragement to the extended growth of potatoes at home, and the import- ation of corn from foreign countries. The committee at the same time suggested the granting of bounties for the encouragement of fisheries, and proposed the temporary but entire disuse of corn in the distilleries. To give effect to the proceedings of the legis- lature on this important subject, his majesty issued a proclamation towards the close of the year, recommending the greatest fru- gality in the use of every species of grain, and exhorting and charging all masters of families to reduce the consumption of bread, in their respective families, by at least one- third of the quantity consumed in ordinary times, and in no case to suffer the same- to exceed one quartern loaf for each person in each week. Another insane attempt on the life of the king was made this year, from which he providentially escaped. On the fifteenth of May, just at the moment when he had en- tered the royal box at Drury-lane theatre, and while bowing to the audience with his usual condescension, a person in the pit fired a horse-pistol apparently at his majesty. For some seconds the house remained in silent suspense; but no sooner had they begun to recover from their surprise, than the man who fired the pistol, and who prov- ed to be a discharged soldier of the name of Hadfield, was secured. On the twenty- sixth of June he was arraigned for high trea- son ; but it was clearly proved that he had for some years labored under a degree of insanity, in consequence of several despe- rate sabre wounds in his head, which he had received when acting as a serjeant in the British army in Holland, in 1794 : he was therefore pronounced " Not guilty, be- ing under the influence of insanity at the time the act was done;" but he was, of course, ordered to be kept in custody. NOTES TO CHAPTER XXXI. I TRC writer of this heard a confirmation of this dreadful massacre, from the lips of chef d' brigade D'Armagnac, an eye-witness. 2 See Buonaparte's remarks on this accusation, as given by Mr. O'Meara and count Las Casas, in their respective works. GEORGE III. 17601820. 467 CHAPTER XXXII. Recall of the Russian troops Genoa evacuated by the French Buonaparte crosses the Alps, and gains the battle of Marengo Armistice concluded in Italy Campaign in Germany, and Armistice Preliminaries signed Disavowed by the Emperor Na- val Armistice proposed to England by France, and rejected Armistice, with Austria prolonged Hostilities resumed Treaty of Peace concluded at Liunevitte, between Austria and France Affairs of Egypt Assassination of General Kleber Naval operations Unsuccessful attempt on Ferrol and Cadiz Reduction of Malta War with Russia Confederacy of the Northern Powers Parliament assembled, on ac- count of the Scarcity of Corn Population Bill New Royal Title Meeting of the Imperial Parliament King's Speech, and Debates on the Address Dispute in the Cabinet on the Catholic Question New Ministry The King's return of Illness Parliamentary Proceedings Prorogation Embargo on Russian, Danish, and Swedish vessels Measures of the Northern Powers, and Occupation of Hanover Nelson's Victory at Copenhagen Armistice Death of the Emperor Paul Final adjustment with the Northern Powers Invasion of Portugal by Spain, and subse- quent Pacification Madeira occupied by the English Expedition to Egypt, and final expulsion of the French Projected Invasion of England Convention between Buonaparte and the Pope Naval Actions Attack on the Boulogne Flotilla Peace between Great Britain and France. RECALL OF THE RUSSIAN TROOPS. GE- NOA EVACUATED. BATTLE OF MA- RENGO. THE Russian emperor, Paul, little inclin- ed to listen to a calm investigation of facts, and easily led away by the hasty impulses of passion, conceived an insuperable disgust at the unexpected disasters which had be- fallen his troops in Switzerland and in Hol- land, at the close of the last campaign, and recalled his whole army from the scene of action. The archduke Charles, too, who gave fair promise of emulating the example of the most renowned warriors, had, by the crooked policy and ruinous influence of the Aulic council, which had controlled his op- erations and thwarted his views, been de- prived of the command of the Austrian troops ; *and they were now led by the vete- ran general Kray in Germany, while Melas continued to command the imperial force employed in Italy. The first operation of any consequence was the siege of Genoa by the Austrians, who were assisted by an Eng- lish squadron under the command of lord Keith. Massena defended the city with a vigor and resolution which have seldom been surpassed ; and, after the loss of many thousand lives on both sides, famine alone induced him to enter into a treaty, which was concluded on terms honorable to the de- fenders, and, on the fourth of June, Genoa was evacuated. In the mean time Buona- parte collected a powerful army of reserve in the plains of Burgundy, of which he took the command early in May, and immediate- ly prepared for crossing that formidable mountain the Great St. Bernard. Having effected the passage, although a design so vast had not been attempted since the days of Hannibal, he pursued his march into Ita- ly, and, clearing all obstacles, obtained pos- session of Milan and Pavia. Crossing the Po, he defeated the Austrians at Montobel- lo ; and on the sixteenth of June, on the plain between Alessandria and Tortona, was fought the famous battle of Marengo. Here the vigor of the Austrians seemed long to promise victory to their efforts. They turned the wings of the French, and forced the cen- tre to fall back ; and Melas even flattered himself with the hope of cutting off the re- treat of the disordered troops. But when the chief consul, who was in the heat of ac- tion, almost despaired of success, general Desaix appeared with a corps de reserve, and changed the fortune of the day ; he fell, however, in the attempt. A new line was formed ; the Austrians, were checked in their career; and, though they still exhibited marks of obstinate courage, they were at length totally routed. In this memorable battle, which might well decide the fate of Italy, about ten thousand of their number were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, but not without a loss equally severe on the part of the conquerors. This defeat ruined the hopes of the emperor, and was followed by a proposal from the vanquished general for an armistice', which he purchased by the restitution of Genoa, and the surrender of the citadels of Milan, Turin, Tortona, and other fortresses. Buonaparte then went to Milan to re-establish the Cisalpine republic, which he declared a free and independent nation. 4H HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. The French army under Moreau had en- tered Suabia at the latter end of April, where it was opposed by general Kray, and, after various movements of little importance, they at length compelled the Austrians to retire, took possession of Munich, levied contributions on the elector of Bavaria, and threatened the hereditary states of the em- peror. Thus pressed, the Austrians deemed it expedient to consent to an armistice (that in Italy not extending to Germany), which was concluded with Moreau on the fifteenth of July. Count St Julien was sent to Paris by the Austrian court, where he signed pre- liminaries of peace with France on the basis of the treaty of Campo Formio ; but the em- peror, having entered into a new compact with Great Britain, by which it was agreed that neither party should conclude a peace which did not comprehend the other, formal- ly disavowed it, and refused to conclude any treaty, unless England was included in it. At the beginning of September a proposal was made through M. Otto, the French com- missary, residing in London, to the British ministers, for concluding a naval armistice, on which condition alone the first consul would consent to prolong the one with Aus- tria, and a long correspondence took place on the subject; but it evidently appearing that the only object of Buonaparte was to obtain an opportunity of sending supplies to Malta and Alexandria, both of which were strictly blockaded by an English squadron, and as a new armistice was, during the ne- gotiation, concluded with Austria, on condi- tion of the surrender of the three important fortresses of Philipsburgh, Ulm, and Ingold- stadt, by which the French secured an open- ing into the hereditary states of Austria, the proposal was ultimately rejected on the ninth of October. This armistice termi- nated on the twenty-ninth of November, when Moreau resumed offensive operations, and the archduke John at first obtained some advantage ; but in a general attack on the lines at Hohenlinden, on the third of De- cember, the Austrians were entirely defeat- ed, and in consequence the French gained possession of Saltzburg. In the space of twenty days from the recommencement of hostilities, the Austrians lost forty thousand men, killed, wounded, and prisoners, while that of the French was comparatively small. PEACE BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND FRANCE. THE archduke Charles, who now took the supreme command, seeing "no hope of an effectual resistance, proposed another armis- tice, which was agreed to ; and, the alarm- ing situation of the emperor having induced the British government to release him from the terms of his alliance, a definitive treaty of peace was signed at Luneville on the ninth of February, 1801, by which France obtained a cession of all the German terri- tories on the left bank of the Rhjne, making that river, from the place where it leaves Switzerland to that where it enters Hol- land, the boundary of the new republic; thus realizing the original projects of the first revolutionists. The acquisition of this territory destroyed one of the chief barriers against the encroachments of France in the north of Europe. But, that no doubt might be left of the determination of France to overawe the empire, by the continual fear of hostile incursions into Germany, the res- titution of Dusseldorf, Ehrenbreitstein, Phi- lipsburgh, Cassel, Kehl, and Brisac, on the right bank of the Rhine, were rendered of little value, by a stipulation that they should remain in the same state in which they were at the moment of their evacuation, that is, in ruins. France, therefore, retain- ed the power of interposition in the affairs of Germany, by the right which she had re- served to herself, by this treaty, to settle the indemnities to be secured to the German princes, who were proprietors of the territo- ry ceded to her on the left bank of the Rhine, and by her ability, in consequence of these cessions, to make sudden irruptions into the heart of the hereditary states of Austria. Istria, Dalmatia, and the Venetian isles in the Adriatic, were secured to Aus- tria, together with Venice, the Bocca di Cat- taro, the canals and the country included between the hereditary states of Austria, the Adriatic sea, and the Adige, from the Tyrol to the mouth of that sea ; the towing- path of the Adige to form the line of limit- ation. France took to herself, and for her vassal, the Italian republic, or kingdom, as it was soon destined to be, the dominions of the grand duke of Tuscany, and the Moden- ese, whose sovereigns were to be indemni- fied, for the territory thus wrested from them, by other territories, to be wrested, in like manner, from the sovereign princes of Germany. AFFAIRS OF EGYPT. NAVAL OPERA- TIONS. MALTA TAKEN. AFTER Buonaparte's flight from Egypt, general Kleber entered into a convention, at El Arish, with the commander of the Turk- ish forces, by which he agreed to evacuate that country, on the condition of the unmo- lested return of the French troops to Europe. This convention, which was signed on the twenty-fourth of January, having been re- ferred to Sir Sidney Smith by the Turks, it received his sanction ; but the British cabi- net, without being aware of Sir Sidney's share in the transaction, considered that it would be highly impolitic to suffer such a French force to arrive in Europe, to act against the emperor, their ally, and there- GEORGE III. 17601820. 469 fore instructed lord Keith, the commander of the British fleet in the Mediterranean, not to ratify it. That admiral accordingly sent a letter to Kleber, acquainting him that he had received positive orders not to agree to any capitulation with the troops under his command, unless they should consent to sur- render themselves prisoners of war, not to go to France until exchanged, and to deliver up all the ships and stores in the port of Al- exandria. Kleher, indignant at this unex- pected turn of affairs, apprized the Turks that there was an end to the convention; after which hostilities were renewed, and some considerable advantages were gained by the French. After dispersing the army of the grand vizier, and quelling an insurrec- tion in Cairo, he was assassinated by a Turkish emissary, and was succeeded in his authority by general Menou. In the course of the summer, the western departments of France were frequently men- aced by the appearance of hostile arma- ments. Sir Edward Pellew, in the Impe- tueux, with a flying squadron, and three troop-ships, made an attack on Quiberon on the fourth of June, in which some batteries were destroyed, but Fort Penthievre proved too strong to be reduced. The same com- mander also, in an attempt upon the Morbi- han, seized several sloops and gun-vessels, and burnt a corvette. Sir John Borlase Warren likewise succeeded in an attack on a convoy at anchor near a fort within the Penmarks, and in the destruction of fifteen sail of merchantmen and four armed vessels within the sands of Boverneuf Bay. These exploits, combined with many others of a similar nature, put an actual stop to the coasting trade of the enemy, and intercepted" the supplies intended for the fleet at Brest. In August an expedition was fitted out, under the command of Sir James Murray Pulteney and Sir John Borlase Warren, whose first destination was against the Span- ish port of FerroL After the troops were landed, however, the place was found too strong to be attacked with any prospect of success, and the attempt was therefore re- linquished. A more formidable force, both naval and military, was sent against Cadiz, under lord Keith and Sir Ralph Abercrom- bie ; but as a pestilent disorder raged in the city, which was nevertheless capable of making a long resistance ; and as the army had another and more important object in view, the expulsion of the French from Egypt, the intention of attacking Cadiz was also abandoned. Malta, so unjustly seized by Buonaparte, in his voyage to Egypt, had now experienced a blockade of two years both by sea and land, during which time general Vaubois, the French governor, had been summoned no VOL. IV. 40 less than eight times. At length, all hopes of receiving supplies from France having vanished, a part of the garrison left the port with two French frigates, one of which was taken, but the other escaped the vigilance of the British squadron. A few days after this, the magazines of provisions being exhausted, general Vaubois assembled a council of war, when it was determined to capitulate, and on the fifth of September the island was sur- rendered into the hands of the British. In April the island of Goree, on the coast of Africa, surrendered to commodore Sir Charles Hamilton, without resistance ; and in September the island of Curac,oa, in the West Indies, one of the few remaining col- onies of the Batavian republic, voluntarily placed itself under the protection of his Britannic majesty. WAR WITH RUSSIA. NORTHERN CON- FEDERACY. NOTWITHSTANDING these successes, the close of the eighteenth century was marked by circumstances of a gloomy and discourag- ing nature to England. France had reduced the continent of Europe to that situation which enabled her, almost without the fear of opposition, to parcel out its various states at her pleasure, a very large portion of the territory included between the Texel and the Bay of Naples being occupied by her tributaries and vassals, or by princes who trembled at her frown. Prussia, indeed, and Russia, had not yet bent beneath the weight of her arms, nor sunk before the machina- tions of her intriguing spirit ; but the em- peror Paul, forsaking his alliance with Eng- land, had become her enemy, and complain- ing of her maritime encroachments, he stopped all the British vessels in his ports, on the idle allegation of the detention of Malta, to which he claimed a right, in con- sequence of the assumed authority of grand- master of the order of knights of St John of Jerusalem. He even sent the seamen into confinement, sequestered all British property on shore, and put seals on all ware- houses containing English goods. The Prus- sian monarch, who had for some time held the scale of victory in his hands, indulged his ancient jealousy of the house of Austria, contemplated her humiliation with pleasure, and passively looked on while France was trampling on the institutions of surrounding states, vainly imagining that he possessed the ability to stop her career whenever her efforts should be directed against himself, and, more effectually to favor her views, joined a hostile confederacy of the northern powers, which had been recently formed against England. The principles of this compact had been adopted and acted upon by Denmark and Sweden ; the right of search had been ao 470 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. lively resisted ; and all the communications which had taken place between Great Britain and the northern powers only seemed to de- monstrate the firm resolution of the latter to persist in a line of conduct, which must reduce this country to the necessity of either submitting to a violation of her acknowledged rights, or of resisting the assertion of those hostile principles by arms. This confede- racy, aiming a deadly blow at the maritime power of Great Britain, at a period of severe pressure, when forsaken by her continental allies, and threatened with famine at home, was a counterpart of the memorable armed neutrality of 1780, which had the same ob- ject in view. An acquiescence in such claims, which went the length of maintain- ing the right of a neutral power, however insignificant, to carry on, in time of war, the trade of a belligerent, and to supply her with whatever was necessary for the support of the contest in which she was engaged, would have been equally dangerous and dishonor- able ; for if the principle were once admit- ted, that free bottoms made free goods, and that no merchantmen could be subjected to search which were under the protection of a ship of war, a Danish or a Swedish frigate might cover the whole trade of France, and exempt her from the expense of insurance, and the risk of capture. It was a claim which took from maritime superiority all its lawful advantages sheltered weakness be- neath the flag of fraud and contravened all the principles which, for a century, had regulated the conduct of naval powers. It was, therefore, resolved to resist this combi- nation to the utmost ; and every attempt at procuring redress by negotiation having fail- ed, the most active preparations were made to extort it by arms. GREAT SCARCITY POPULATION RE- TURNS. THE British parliament assembled for the last time on the eleventh of November, 1800, previously to which the increased price of provisions had been productive of a degree of public distress almost unequalled. The crop of this year* like that of the preceding, had been generally deficient in every coun- try in Europe, and the scarcity bore every symptom of long continuance. The sober and industrious classes of the laboring poor sustained their hardships with laudable pa- tience ; and though there were some riots in the metropolis, and various parts of the country, no general ebullition burst forth that required to be suppressed by bloodshed To alleviate the public distress, the danger ous measure of a maximum was, on the fifth of December, brought forward in parliamen by the earl of Warwick, who proposed to fix the highest value of wheat at ten shillings per bushel, although the actual price was a hat time more than twenty shillings ; but he false and mischievous notion of an arti- icial scarcity, upon which this proposal pro- ceeded, was exploded by the calm wisdom of parliament ; the motion was rejected with marked disapprobation ; and the legislature confined its efforts to suggesting expedients or diminishing the consumption and encour- aging the foreign supply. High bounties were granted on importation ; the baking of mixed and inferior flour was enforced by act of parliament ; the distillation of spirits from rain was prohibited ; and, to the honor of ;he wealthier part of the community, the land of charity was also liberally opened. Among other causes of dearth, the great ncrease of the population was repeatedly mentioned ; and in the course of the session a bill was brought into parliament, by Ab- K)t, for ascertaining the fact, when it ap- jeared, upon an actual enumeration of the people of Great Britain, that they amounted 'jo nearly eleven million, a result exceeding the highest previous conjecture ; and it is probable that the aggregate population of Great Britain and Ireland amounted at this period to seventeen millions. The discussion of the late negotiations, which occupied a part of this short session, produced no debates of importance ; and, the supplies having been granted, parlia- ment was prorogued on the last day of the year by the king in person. His majesty, before he retired, ordered the chancellor to read a proclamation, declaring that the indi- viduals who composed the expiring parlia- ment should be members, on the part of Great Britain, of the new or imperial par- liament. NEW ROYAL TITLE. 1801. ON the first of January, 1801, a royal declaration was issued concerning the style and titles appertaining to the imperial crown of Great Britain and Ireland, and also to the ensigns, armorial flags, and ban- ners thereof In the new heraldic arrange- ment the fleur-de-lis was omitted, the title of king of France was expunged, and the royal dignity was in future to be expressed in the Latin tongue by these words: " Georgius Tertius, Dei Gratia, Britanni- arum Rex, Fidei Defensor" and, in the vernacular language, "George the Third, by the Grace of God, of the United King- dom of Great Britain and Ireland King, De- fender of the Faith." On the same day the great seal of Britain was delivered up and defaced, and a new seal for the empire was given to the lord chancellor. A new stand- ard also, combining the three crosses of St. George, St Andrew, and St Patrick, was hoisted, amidst the discharge of artillery, in each of the three capitals of England, Scot- land, and Ireland. GEORGE HI. 17601820. 471 MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. DEBATE! ON THE ADDRESS. CATHOLIC QUES- TION OCCASIONS A CHANGE OF MIN ISTRY. RETURN OF THE KING'S ILL NESS. THE imperial parliament of Great Brit ain and Ireland assembled on the twenty second of January, and proceeded to elect a speaker, when Aldington, who had long am ably filled the chair of the lower house, wa again placed in that elevated situation. On the second of February, the king, in t speech from the throne, congratulated par liament on the Union which had been sc happily effected ; the other topics were th state of the continent, and the dispute wit! the northern associated powers relative tc the maritime code. The debates on the ad dress were highly interesting. In the peers earl Fitzwilliam, who had hitherto contend ed strenuously for the continuance of tin war, and the restoration of the Bourbons treated the contest as hopeless; he, how ever, insisted on the propriety of an inquir into the causes of the failure, when sue! large and almost unbounded powers hat been intrusted to ministers, and when thei had the aid of all Europe in the common cause ; it was also necessary to be informet why, instead of succeeding against an an cient enemy, they had at once plunged the nation into a contest with her allies. The new conflict in which we were about to en- gage was, he added, as far as Sweden ane Denmark were concerned, one of our own seeking, as we had it in our power to sus- pend the discussion of the question relative to the neutral code, in the same manner as in 1780, when this country was in a less difficult situation than at present Lord Grenville defended the conduct of minis- ters, and maintained that the claim of searching neutral vessels originated in the law of nations and the rights of nature ; and that the assertion of this right consti- tuted the foundation of our commerce and our wealth, and was the bulwark of the na- val and military glory of Great Britain. On a division the address was carried. In the commons, Pitt insisted that our very existence as a nation depended on the right of searching neutral vessels ; he main- tained that our claims on the present occa- sion arose not only out of positive treaties, but out of the law of nations ; and he ask- ed, if we were to permit the navy of our enemy to be supplied and recruited to suf- fer blockaded ports to be furnished with stores and provisions, and allow neutral na- tions, by hoisting a flag on a sloop or a fish- ing-boat, to convey the treasures of South America to Spain, or the naval stores of the Baltic to Brest or to Toulon ? When the house divided, there was a large majority in favor of ministers. The union of Great Britain and Ireland was regarded by Pitt as the transaction which reflected the greatest lustre upon his administration ; and, although he had uni- formly opposed the claim of Catholic eman- cipation during the existence of the separate legislature of Ireland, he had, it was under- stood, to facilitate this favorite object, given assurances to the Irish Catholics of a com- plete participation in all political privileges, as soon as the Union should have taken place. When this proposition was submitted to the cabinet council, some of its members expressed opposite sentiments, and the king took a decided part in the dispute, alleging that the oath taken by him at his coronation precluded his assent to a scheme which might, in its consequences, endanger the re- ligious establishment. As this repugnance obstructed the recommendation of the mea- sure to parliament, and diminished the prob- ability of its success, Pitt declared that he conceived himself bound to resign a situa- tion in which he was not at full liberty to pursue his ideas of equity and public bene- fit : unquestionably, however, this circum- stance alone did not induce him to retire, such a step being forcibly inculcated by the situation of the country, which was now left, without a single ally, involved in an apparently interminable war, and in the hands of a ministry, who, by their decided hostility to the existing government of France, had almost precluded the possibility of engaging in amicable negotiations. The prime minister was accompanied in his re- signation by lord Grenville, and other mem- bers of the cabinet The offices of first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer were conferred upon Addington, the speaker of the house of commons; to which high office he had been appointed by the influence of Pitt, with whom lie continued on terms of intimate friendship. The post next in dignity, that of secretary for foreign aifairs, hitherto held by lord Gren- ville, was given to lord Hawkesbury. Earl St. Vincent was placed at the head of the admiralty, in the place of earl Spencer ; lord Eldon, chief justice of the common pleas, formerly Sir John Scott, succeeded lord Loughborough in the court of chancery ; lords rlobart and Pelham were nominated secreta- ries of state, in the room of Dundas and the duke of Portland; York succeeded Wind- lam as secretary at war ; his brother, the earl f Hardwicke, was destined to the vice-regal office in Ireland ; lord Lewisharn was placed at the head of the board of control ; and in his general change the duke of Portland and lord Westmoreland alone retained their tations in the cabinet, the former as presi- lent of the council, and the latter as lord privy-seal On the tenth of February Ad- 472 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. dington resigned his office as speaker of the house of commons; and on the following day Sir John Mitford was chosen in his stead. The agitation of the king's mind had, how- ever, so materially affected the state both of his bodily and mental health, that the new arrangements, although nearly completed, were not formally announced, and a total in- terruption of the regal functions ensued, du- ring which the former ministers continued to discharge the duties of their respective of- fices. On the same day that Addington re- signed his office of speaker, the earl of Darn- ley moved for an inquiry into the state of the nation, when lord Grenville acquainted the house that his majesty's servants, not be- ing able to carry into effect a measure which they deemed essential to the tranquillity.and prosperity of the empire, had tendered the resignation of their several employments, which had been accepted ; and on this re- presentation the earl postponed his motion. The routine of parliamentary business went on as usual, until the recovery of the king, when the appointments of the new ministers were announced in the accustomed form, and on the seventeenth of March Addington was sworn into the two offices which Pitt had so long enjoyed. The first measures of the new ministry were directed towards the securing of inter- nal tranquillity. Ireland being still in a dis- turbed state, the act for the suppression of rebellion in that country was renewed, as was that for the suspension of the habeas corpus. The act was also suspended in Great Britain, and the bill for preventing seditious meetings was revived, in consequence of a report from a select committee of the house of commons, stating the existence of socie- ties of disaffected persons in Great Britain, particularly of one in London, entitled the United Britons. These measures were fol- lowed by the introduction of a bill of indem- nity in favor of the late administration, which also passed both houses. An act to remove doubts respecting the eligibility of persons in holy orders to sit in the house of commons, by which they were henceforth excluded, passed in this session, in consequence of John Home Tooke's having been returned for Old Sarum by its proprietor, lord Camelford ; and on the second of July, parliament was" pro- rogued by commission. EMBARGO ON RUSSIAN, DANISH, AND SWEDISH VESSELS. OCCUPATION OF HANOVER. THE late ministry, determined to over- awe or to dispel the northern confederacy, had issued an order in council dated the fourteenth of January, imposing an embargo on all Russian, Danish, and Swedish vessels in the ports of Great Britain; but the court of Berlin, although a party to the league, was treated upon this occasion with pecu- liar deference, probably because its hostility would endanger the king's German domin- ions. Preparations were also made to send a fleet into the Sound, and to hazard all the evils likely to result from a war, which threatened to exclude the British flag from the navigation of the Baltic, and her com- merce from the shores of the Elbe, the Ems, the Vistula, and the Weser. On the other hand, the utmost exertions had for some time past been made in all the ports of Rus- sia, Sweden, and Denmark. Their combined navy, if fitted out by a simultaneous move- ment, would have amounted to nearly eighty sail of the line; and these, together with the numerous gun-boats and floating batteries which they either possessed already, or could have easily constructed, might have rendered their narrow seas and difficult coasts imper- vious to attack. In the course of the spring the Danes took possession of Hamburgh, for the alleged pur- pose of stopping the British trade to that port ; and the king of Prussia, after an un- successful negotiation with the British go- vernment, occupied the bailiwick of Ritze- buttle and the port of Cuxhaven. On the thirtieth of March, a body of his troops en- tered the electorate of Hanover, and, as the military establishment was not sufficient to justify resistance, a conventional declaration was issued, submitting to his Prussian ma- jesty. NELSON'S VICTORY AT COPENHAGEN- ARMISTICE. As no hopes could be entertained of the pacification of Europe, on terms honorable to Great Britain, until the dissolution of this confederacy, a British fleet, consisting of eighteen ships of the line, and four frigates, with a number of gun-boats and bomb-vessels, in all fifty-four sail, proceeded from Yar- mouth roads for the Baltic, under the com- mand of admiral Sir Hyde Parker, assisted by vice-admiral lord Nelson and rear-admiral Totty, the last of whom was so unfortunate as to lose his flag-ship on a sand-bank off the coast of Lincolnshire. It was supposed that Denmark, whose trade and prosperity had increased considerably during the war, might be prevailed upon to sue for forbearance, and the first efforts of this armament were therefore directed against her capital, while Vansittart, a new minister plenipotentiary, was instructed to endeavor to detach the court of Copenhagen from the northern alli- ance ; the Prince Regent of Denmark, how- ever, who had governed many years in the name of his father, declared that he was de- termined to adhere to his engagements. On the thirtieth of March the English squadron GEORGE IH 17601820. 473 passed the Sound with little or no resistance, and, after anchoring about four or five miles from the island of Huen, Sir Hyde Parker, in company with lord Nelson and rear-admi- their vessels, whose crews were reinforced from the shore, was dreadful The Danish commodore's ship was now on fire, and drift- ing in flames before the wind, spreading ter- British boats rowed in every direction for the purpose ; and about half-past three, she blew up with a terrible explosion. The ships ahead, and the Crown batte- ries, as well as the prizes made by the Brit- ish, continuing to fire after the Dannebrog was in flames, lord Nelson dispatched a let- ter, addressed " to the brothers of English- men, the brave Danes," saying, that if the fire were continued on the part of Denmark, he must be obliged to destroy all the float- ing batteries he had taken, without having the power of saving the brave Danes who had defended them, shore, through the This was conveyed on contending fleets, by ral Graves, surveyed the formidable line of ror and dismay throughout their line ; few ships, rideaux, galleys, fire-vessels, and gun- boats, flanked and supported by extensive batteries on the two islands called the Crowns ; these were supported by two ships of seventy guns, and a large frigate in the inner road of Copenhagen, while two sixty- four gun vessels, without masts, were moored on the flat towards the entrance of the arse- nel. Lord Nelson, who had made an offer of his services to conduct the attack, and had for that purpose shifted his flag from the St. George to the Elephant, a vessel of smaller size, immediately gave directions for buoying the channel of the Outer Diep and the middle ground, after which the detach ment, consisting of twelve sail of the line, with frigates, bombs, and fire-ships, selected for the assault, passed in safety and anchored off Draco. On the morning of the second of April the vice-admiral made the signal to weigh and engage the Danish line of defence, which was found to consist of six sail of two-deck- ers, eleven floating batteries, mounting from eighteen to twenty-six cannon each, one bomb-ketch, and several schooner-rigged gun- vessels ; these were supported by the Crown islands, mounting eighty-eight cannon, and four sail of the line moored in the harbor's mouth, together with some batteries thrown up on the island of Amak. The shallowness of the water and the intricacy of the naviga- tion prevented the complete execution of the projected plan, for the Bellona and Russel] grounded before they had reached the sta- tions assigned to them, while the Agamem- non, being unable to weather the shoal of the Middle, was obliged to anchor. The Elephant's station was in the centre, oppo- site to the Danish commodore Fischer, who commanded in the Dannebrog, a sixty-two gun ship ; and the average distance at which the action was fought was scarcely a cable's length. It commenced soon after ten o'clock ; before half-past eleven, it became general ; and at one p. m. when few, if any, of the enemy's ships had ceased to fire, the Isis, Monarch, and Bellona had received serious injury ; while the division of the command- er-in-chief could only menace the entrance to the harbor. In this posture of affairs, the signal was thrown out on board the Lon- don, admiral Parker's ship, for the action to cease ; but Lord Nelson, nevertheless, con- tinued the attack with unabated vigor. About two p. m. the greatest part of the enemy's line had ceased to fire ; some of the lighter ships were adrift ; and the carnage on board 40* captain Sir Frederic Thesiger, who found the prince near the sally-port, animating his people, and sharing their dangers. It de- serves to be remarked, that this letter, which exhibited a happy union of policy and cour- age, was written at a moment when lord Nelson perceived, that, in consequence of the unfavorable state of the wind, the admi- ral was not likely to get up to aid the en- terprise ; that the principal batteries of the enemy, and the ships at the mouth of the harbor, were yet untouched ; that two of his own division had grounded ; and that others were likely to share the same fate. The firing from the Crown batteries, and from the leading ships of the British, did not cease till past three o'clock, when the Danish adjutant-general, Lindholm, return- ing with a flag of truce, directed it to be suspended. The signal for doing the same was then made to the British ships, and the action closed after five hours' duration, four of which were warmly contested, and du- ring which the whole of the Danish line, to the southward of the Crown islands, amount- ing to seventeen sail, were sunk, burned, or taken. The battle of Copenhagen was, by lord Nelson's own account, the most dread- ful that he had ever witnessed. Captain Riou, who. particularly distinguished him- self, was severed in two by a raking shot ; captain Mosse, commander of the Monarch, was also killed ; and the total loss of the British, in killed and wounded, amounted to one thousand ; while that of the Danes was considerably greater.- Notwithstanding the long peace they had enjoyed, the Danish batteries, both afloat and ashore were man- ned, and the guns served, with a degree of. promptitude and valor that would have con- ferred credit on veteran troops. A negotia- tion was entered upon, which terminated in 474 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. an armistice of fourteen weeks, during which the treaty of armed neutrality, as far as re- lated to Denmark, was to be suspended. DEATH OF THE EMPEROR PAUL. WHEN the disabled vessels were refitted, the British squadron sailed to Carlscrona, and on the eighteenth of April arrived off that port. Sir Hyde Parker lost no time in acquainting the governor that an armistice had been concluded, by which the disputes between the courts of Copenhagen and St. James's had been accommodated; and he required an explicit answer from the court of Sweden, relative to its intention to aban- don the hostile measures adopted, in con- junction with Russia, against the rights and interests of Great Britain. To this vice- admiral Cronstedt replied, that it was the unalterable resolution of his Swedish ma- jesty not to feil for a moment in fulfilling, with fidelity and sincerity, the engagements he had entered into with his allies ; but that he would not refuse to listen to equitable proposals for the accommodation of disputes, provided they were made by plenipotentia- ries, sent on the part of the king of Great Britain to the united powers. On receiving this answer, the admiral left the bay with- out firing a gun ; and all future hostilities with the northern slates were happily pre- vented by the death of the emperor Paul, who fell by the hands of his courtiers on the twenty-second of March. As soon as Alexander I. son of the de- posed emperor, succeeded to the throne of his father, he published an ukase, revoking several of the acts of the late government, and restoring the British seamen to liberty. Baron Lisakeewitsch, the Russian minister at the court of Denmark, having notified those events to Sir Hyde Parker, the admi- ral immediately returned to Kioge bay, to await the orders of his court in consequence of this new and interesting change ; and in the mean time the benefits of the armistice were extended to the court of Stockholm. About the same period lord St Helen's ar- rived at the court of St Petersburgh, in quality of minister plenipotentiary for Eng- land; and, by a convention signed in the Russian capital on the seventeenth of June, the emperor on the one hand allowed the right of search, under certain restrictions, by ships of war, but not by privateers ; while, on the other hand, the merchandise of the produce, growth, and manufacture of the countries engaged in war, might be pur- chased and carried away by the neutral powers; but, by a subsequent explanatory declaration, the commerce between the mother country of a belligerent and her colonies was expressly excluded from the benefit of this arrangement. It was also stipulated by one of the articles that Swe- den and Denmark should receive back their ships and settlements on acceding to this treaty, and with these terms they both very readily complied. Thus Great Britain, partly by the sudden demise of the emperor Paul, and partly by the thunder of her navy, saw a confederacy dissolved which aimed at the decrease of her maritime greatness, and was calculated to involve her in a new and dis- astrous war. SPAIN INVADES PORTUGAL. BRITISH OCCUPY MADEIRA. THE attachment of Portugal to England again excited the attention of the French government ; and its ally, the king of Spain, was induced to declare war against that country in March. A counter-declaration from the court of Lisbon was issued on the twenty-first of April, worthy of the most, prosperous days of the Portuguese monarchy, and accompanied by preparations for de- fence. A Spanish army, however, entered the province of Alent'ejo in May, and, hav- ing advanced to the Tagus almost without opposition, a treaty of peace was signed at Badajos on the sixth of June, by which Spain obtained possession of the province of Olivenza, and the harbors of Portugal were shut against the English. The French gov- ernment refused to concur in the treaty un- less certain places in Portugal were occu- pied by French troops ; and general St Cyr, who had been invested with the character of ambassador to the court of Madrid, en- tered Portugal at the head of twenty-four thousand troops, and invested the fortress of Almeida, within thirty leagues of the capi- tal. No sooner was this event known at Lisbon, than the court became alarmed for its safety, and, as the subsidy of three hun- dred thousand pounds voted to that state by the British parliament was unaccompanied by a body of troops, as had been originally intended, a treaty was signed at Madrid on the twenty-ninth of September, highly fa- vorable to France. During this contest the British ministry, apprehensive lest the island of Madeira should be delivered up to the enemy, sent a squadron thither, with a small body of land forces under colonel Clinton, who took possession of the forts which com- mand the bay of Funchal. EXPEDITION TO EGYPf. EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH. THE force which had been destined against Egypt in the preceding year, after having repaired to Gibraltar, to recover from the inconveniencies of a long cruise in a bois- terous season, proceeded from Malta in De- cember, in two divisions, for Marmorice, on the coast of Caramania, where they were landed for refreshment. Being reimbarked, they sailed for Aboukir bay; and on the eighth of March, 1801, the first division ef- GEORGE m. 17601820. 475 fected their landing in the face of a body of Frenc"h, who were aware of their intention, and were posted in force with considerable advantages of position. The front of the disembarkation was narrow; and a hill, which commanded the whole, appeared al- most inaccessible ; yet the British troops as- cended it, under the fire of grape-shot, with the utmost intrepidity, and forced the French to retire, leaving behind them several pieces of artillery and a number of horses : in this service seven hundred of our men, sailors included, were killed or wounded. On the twelfth the whole army came within sight of the French, who were formed advanta- geously on a ridge, and on the following day marched in two lines with an intention of turning then- right flank : the attack, how- ever was anticipated by the enemy : the British troops were therefore obliged to change their position, and the advanced- guard suffered considerably; but, after a severe conflict, which lasted several hours, the French retreated nearer to Alexandria. Fort Aboukir capitulated on the nine- teenth; and on the twentieth, general Menou arriving from Cairo, the whole of the French disposable force was concen- trated at Alexandria. The memorable con- flict which decided the fate of Egypt took place on the following day, at a small dis- tance from that city. It commenced before daylight in the morning, by a false attack on the left of the English, which general Craddock commanded ; but their most vig- orous efforts were directed to the right, where the contest was remarkably obstinate : they were twice repulsed, and their cavalry were repeatedly mixed with the British in- fantry. An attempt at the same time to penetrate the centre of the British army with a column of infantry was also repulsed ; another body which advanced against the left ef the English was likewise unsuccess- ful, and the British forces remained masters of the field. The loss on our side, in killed, wounded, and missing, amounted to fifteen hundred ; that of the French, who lost the greatest part of a famous corps which Buo- naparte had arrogantly called the Invin- cibles, and whose standard was taken, was estimated at double that number. Imme- diately after this defeat the French general in chief began to detach troops to strengthen the garrisons of the interior. In this action major-general Moore and Sir Sidney Smith were wounded, and three French generals died of their wounds. Sir Ralph Abercrombie was vigorously engaged in the heat of action on the right, when he received a mortal wound in the thigh by a musket-ball, which he concealed from the army till the period for exertion was past, when his strength failed him : he was carried off the field, and conveyed on board the admiral's ship, where he died on the twenty-eighth. His death was uni- versally and most deservedly lamented, for his mind was stored with every great and. good quality ; his military talents were un- doubtedly great ; his services had been long and brilliant; and, whilst regarded as a strict disciplinarian, he still conciliated the esteem of all whom he commanded. On the death of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, the command devolved on general Hutch- inson, with whom it was for some time a matter of doubt whether he should lay siege to Alexandria, or proceed up the left bank of the river Nile into the country, and, after forming a junction with the Turkish army, which was hastening to join him by the way of Syria, endeavor to reduce Grand Cairo, and to cut off all communication be- tween the French on the coast, and every part of the interior. The inadequacy of his force to form the siege of Alexandria, and the expectation of being joined by forces sent from Bombay up the Red Sea, induced him to adopt the latter plan of operations : the junction between the English and Turk- ish armies was effected in the beginning of June ; and on the fifteenth general Hutchin- son wrote to general Beiliard, who com- manded at Cairo, offering him the most hon- orable terms to induce him to surrender the place ; he at first peremptorily refused : but shortly after he sent a flag of truce to the English camp; and on the twenty-seventh of June the French engaged to evacuate Cairo, on being allowed to return with their arms to Europe. This capitulation was car- ried into effect on the tenth of the following month, when the English and Turkish flags were hoisted on the citadel. The total amount of persons included in the capitula- tion exceeded fourteen thousand, exclusive of women and children ; previous to which the town and castle of Rosetta were taken by a division of the British army, under colonel Spencer. General Hutchinson, hav- ing received some reinforcements in the month of July, which swelled his army to sixteen thousand men, resolved to commence the siege of Alexandria. The approaches to the town were made under circumstances highly honorable to the valor and good con- duct of the besieging army, who drove the enemy from post to post, till the French commander Menou, finding no prospect of relief from Europe, and no hopes of ultimate success from further resistance, agreed, on the first of September, to surrender the place on condition of being sent to Europe. The whole force in Alexandria, at the period of this capitulation, was ten thousand five 476 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. hundred and twenty-eight men ; the last of which sailed from the harbor on the eigh- teenth of September. Thus, with a force far inferior to that of their opponents, did the British army wrest this important country from their enemies, and restore it to their allies; but, as the conventions were concluded on grounds simi- lar to that signed at El Arish, the philan- thropist will not consider the glory acquired by the British arms as an equivalent for the effusion of blood with which the protrac- tion of the contest was attended. Intelli- Ssnce of the event reached Paris before the ritish cabinet could be apprized of it. In consequence of the knowledge thus obtained, the first consul of France derived an im- portant advantage in a treaty of peace which he hastily concluded with the Turks, and which contained many provisions highly fa- vorable to the French, who had grossly vio- lated every agreement which they had en- tered into with the Porte ; and greatly preju- dicial to the English, who, from the import- ant assistance which they had rendered to the Turks, and from their honorable conduct towards them on all occasions, were entitled to every return which justice, generosity, and gratitude, could suggest. The evacua- tion of Egypt (the Turkish ambassador not knowing that it had actually taken place) was the consideration held out by the French for the benefits which they claimed and the privileges which they acquired by this new treaty. PROJECTED INVASION OF ENGLAND- BUONAPARTE'S CONCORDAT WITH THE POPE. WHILST the possession of Egypt was un- certain, Buonaparte determined to point all his efforts against the only enemy either unsubdued or unhumbled by the arts and arms of France. Large bodies of troops were accordingly collected on the northern coasts of France ; ships, guns, and flat-bot- tomed boats, were built and equipped ; the ports of France, Belgium, and Holland, were crowded with armed vessels; camps were formed at Bruges, Gravelines, Bou- logne, Brest, Granville, Cherbourg, and St. Maloes ; and the deeds about to be perform- ed by those armies which had forced the passage of the Bormida, the Danube, the inn, and the Salza, and gained the battles of Marengo and Hohenlinden, were vaunt- ed in the consular proclamations and mani- festoes. Buonaparte affected to consider the English as a nation rendered effeminate by wealth, and unwarlike by commerce; and it was confidently predicted that the steel of the French would prove more than a match for the gold of the Britons. On the other hand the whole island was in motion ; and one uniform spirit of patriotic defiance was breathed by the inhabitants. The vol- unteer battalions and companies were in- creased ; a numerous and respectable body of yeomanry cavalry was formed ; the fen- cible regiments were disciplined into a knowledge of the military art ; and the mi- litia, many regiments of which had served in Ireland, received a considerable augmen- tation by means of the supplementary levy. From the votes of supply for this year, it ap- pears that the total land and sea force ex- clusive of volunteers, amounted to nearly five hundred thousand. Buonaparte, surrounded by a brilliant as- semblage of troops, affected to blend all the state of the ancient kings of France with that of the emperors of the west. By a convention with the pope, ratified on the tenth of September, he was not only ac- knowledged to possess all the privileges of the ancient monarchy so far as concerned public worship, but new and essential immu- nities were obtained for the Gallican church. His holiness agreed to procure the resigna- tion of the prelates who had adhered to the old establishment, and the chief magistrate was to nominate to the vacant sees. A new formula of prayer was introduced ; and the holy father covenanted that those who had acquired the alienated property of the church should not be disturbed. By a concordat, the apostolical and Roman faith was declar- ed to be the religion of the state, and the Catholics were to defray the expenses of public worship. NAVAL ACTIONS. ATTACK ON THE BOU- LOGNE FLOTILLA. BRITISH seamen thia year displayed their accustomed zeal and devotion in the cause of their country. In March admiral Duck- worth made an easy capture of the Swedish island of St. Bartholomew, as well as the Danish settlements of St. Thomas and Santa Cruz, which were of course restored to those powers, in virtue of the treaty of St Peters- burgh; the islands of St Martin and SL Eustatia were also reduced; while in the east the Batavian settlement of Ternate, the chief of the Molucca Islands, surrendered on the twenty-first of June, after a vigorous resistance, to a small squadron, under the command of captain Hayes. In the Medi- terranean two severe actions took place ; the former of which proved unfortunate. Rear- admiral Sir James Saumarez was blockading the port of Cadiz, when he received intelli- gence that three French line-of-battle ships and a frigate were lying at anchor in the road of Algesiras, under cover of the batte- ries on shore, and immediately conceived the bold design of attacking them in that situation. On the sixth of July he proceed- ed with six sail of the line, under a favora- ble breeze, and a great impression was made GEORGE IIL 17601820. 477 on the flag-ship of the French commander, rear-admiral Linois, by captain Stirling in the Pompee, till a change of wind prevented him from acting: as soon, however, as it again favored, the Hannibal, captain Ferris, pushed forward in the hope of passing be- tween the French ships and the shore, an attempt which he thought might lead to a complete triumph; but his ship happened to take the ground under one of the batteries, and, as no effort could extricate her, he was obliged to give her up, after considerable loss on both sides. A breeze having enabled two other ships to approach the enemy, they kept up for a time a heavy fire ; but the im- practicability of a close action at length in- duced Sir James to withdraw his force, when above three hundred and sixty of his men had been killed or wounded. This disap- pointment served only to stimulate the ea- gerness of the British seamen for another contest The ships were repaired with great expedition; and when the French, joined by a Spanish squadron, were sailing towards Cadiz, the rear of the united fleet was attacked, on the night of the twelfth of July, by the Superb, captain Keats. This vessel having fired between the Spanish ad- miral's ship and another of a hundred and twelve guns, and then retired, a mutual er- ror, arising from the darkness of the night, occasioned a conflict between these two en- emy's ships, when one of them suddenly took fire ; the flames rapidly extended to the other ; and both blew up with the loss of about two thousand men. This melancholy accident discouraged Linois and his asso- ciates, and tended to accelerate their retreat. The San Antonio, of seventy-four guns, was taken ; but the Formidable baffled a severe attack from captain Hood, whose ship struck upon a rock, and was with difficulty towed off in a disabled state. The enemy reached Cadiz without further molestation ; and the English admiral sailed with his prize to Gib- raltar. Thus ended an action in which the superiority of the enemy was immense ; and Sir James Saumarez was gratified with the thanks of the two houses of parliament, and rewarded with a pension of twelve hundred pounds per annum. In the course of this year captain Rowley Bulteel, in the Belliqueux, with a convoy of East-Indiamen, captured two French frigates in the neighborhood of Brazil, forming a part of a squadron which had committed great depredations on the coast of Africa. The fleet under vice-admiral Rainer in the East Indies seized a number of valuable prizes, particularly two Dutch ships in the neigh- borhood of Java. Captain T. Manby in the Bourdelois, belonging to rear-admiral Duck- worth's detachment in the West Indies, near- ly about the same time dispersed a small ar- mament fitted out by Victor Hughes for the purpose of intercepting the outward-bound convoy. In the Mediterranean a most severe action was fought, on the tenth of February, between the Phoebe, captain R. Barlow, and the French frigate L'Africaine, the com- mander of which, though incapable of con- tending with the British vessel, would not yield until his ship became a mere wreck, and his decks were crowded with the dying and the dead; the number of the latter amounted to two hundred, and the wounded to one hundred and forty-three, while the loss of the Phcebe was only one killed and twelve wounded. Lord Cochrane, in the Speedy sloop, of fourteen four-pounders, and fifty-four men and boys, performed a brilliant exploit, by boarding and capturing a Spanish polacre frigate, of thirty-two guns, and three hundred and nineteen men, off Barcelona. On the second of August lord Nelson hoisted his flag as vice-admiral of the blue on board the Medusa, and proceeded with two sail of the line, two frigates, and several smaller vessels, to Boulogne, where the French had assembled a great number of gun-boats, armed brigs, and lugger-rigged flats. Perceiving that twenty-four of these were anchored in a line in front of the har- bor, a signal was hoisted, on which the bombs weighed with a favorable wind, and threw their shells with such effect, that in the course of a few hours, three of the flats and brigs were sunk, and six driven on shore. Lord Nelson, being of 'opinion that the re- mainder of the flotilla might be captured by the boats of his squadron, directed an expe- dition to be undertaken on the night of the fifteenth of August, by five divisions, one of which carried howitzers, under the com- mand of captains Somerville, Cotgrave, Parker, Jones, and Conn, of the royal navy. Parker's division first approached the enemy, and began the attack with undaunted brave- ry; but an unforeseen obstacle baffled his exertions : a very strong netting was traced up to the lower yards of the French vessels, which were firmly fastened with chains to each other, as well as to the ground ; and so invulnerable was the foe, thus guarded, that two-thirds of the crew of the boat in which he acted were repelled, in attempting to board a large brig by a tremendous discharge of cannon and musketry ; the gallant cap- tain afterwards died of his wounds. The other divisions not arriving at the same time, only the lugger was brought off, while several boats of the assailants were sunk or taken, with a considerable loss in killed and wounded. PEACE BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE. WHILST every shore re-echoed with the thunder of hostility, the inhabitants of both 478 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. France and England had become heartily tired of the war. For some time past an active intercourse had taken place between the two governments. Flags of truce and of defiance were actually displayed at the same time, and in the same strait; so that while Boulogne and Dunkirk were bom- barded and blockaded by hostile squadrons, the ports of Dover and Calais were frequently visited by the packet-boats and the messen- gers of the courts of St. James and the Thuilleries. The negotiation had been car- ried on in London, between lord Hawkes- bury, on the one hand, and Louis William Otto, who had been some time resident in this country as a commissary for the ex- change of prisoners, on the other ; the for- mer, by a departure from the established rules of diplomatic etiquette, having con- sented to reduce himself to a level with a private citizen of France. It had continued during the whole of the summer; and in its progress many impediments arose, and some curious discussions took place, relative to the liberty of the press in this country, which Buonaparte, fearful that it might be em- ployed to expose his own character, wished to restrain; but with every disposition to concede, as far as possible, lord Hawkesbury resisted every attempt to encroach on that freedom of discussion, to which much of the excellence of the British constitution may fairly be ascribed. At length the cabinet of Paris, having received Menou's dispatches from Egypt, hastened the conclusion of the business ; and on the first of October the preliminaries were signed by lord Hawkes- bury and M. Otto. This intelligence was immediately communicated in a note to the lord-mayor, and diffused general satisfaction throughout the kingdom. At the end of eleven days the ratification of the prelimi- nary treaty on the part of the first consul was brought from Paris by colonel Lauris- ton, who, as well as the French plenipoten- tiary, was drawn through the streets of the metropolis in his carriage by the populace. By this treaty Great Britain restored to France and her allies every possession or colony taken from them during the war, with the exception of the Spanish island of Trin- idad, and the Dutch settlements at Ceylon. The Cape of Good Hope was to become a free port, and Malta was to be restored to the order ; but under the express guarantee and protection of a third power, to be fixed upon in the definitive treaty. In order to bring that treaty to a speedy conclusion, lord Cornwallis was dispatched to France. Amiens was the scene of negotiation ap- pointed by the first consul ; and his brother, Joseph Buonaparte, received the full power to treat with the British plenipotentiary. In the course of the discussion which ensued fresh difficulties were started by France, and fresh demands preferred, which occasioned so much delay that it was supposed by many that war would be renewed. On the twenty- fifth of March, 1802, however, matters were finally arranged, and the seal was put to the treaty of Amiens, which differed from the preliminaries only in the following points : A part of Portuguese Guiana was given up to the French by a new adjustment of bound- aries : with regard to Malta, it was stipula- ted that no French or English language, or class of knights, should be allowed; that one half of the soldiers in garrison should be natives, and that the rest should be furnished for a time by the king of Naples ; that the independence of the island, under the sway of the knights, should be guarantied by France, Great Britain, Austria, Spain, Rus- sia, and Prussia ; and that its ports should be free to all nations. It was agreed that the prince of Orange should receive compensa- tion for his loss of property and of power. Persons who might hereafter be accused of murder, forgery, and fraudulent bankruptcy, were to be surrendered to the demands of each of the respective powers. Thus ended the revolutionary war, in the defeat of all the hopes and expectations which had been formed of indemnity for the past and of security for the future ; and hi the accomplishment of all those gigantic plans of subversion and conquest, which had been conceived by the first founders of the French republic, and pursued with unremit- ting activity by all her successive rulers. By the peace of Amiens a great part of the continent of Europe was laid prostrate at the feet of France; and French influence re- mained predominant from the German Ocean to the Bay of Naples; In short, Jacobinism triumphed ; her child and champion estab- lished his ascendency ; her firmest advocates were honored and rewarded ; and the stamp of success was given to her boldest projects. Not one of the objects which the princes originally confederated against France pro- fessed to have in view was attained ; on the contrary, her power was extended, her ter- ritories were enlarged, her influence was increased, and her principles had surmount- ed every obstacle opposed to their progress. Her government, it is true, had assumed a new form, less terrific in appearance than the murderous system of Robespierre and his sanguinary associates, but in reality more despotic. A military tyranny, formed out of the elements of Jacobinism, destroyed every vestige of civil liberty, and imposed the most galling and odious fetters on the minds, as well as the persons, of the people. England, indeed, had escaped the yoke to which the powers of the continent had, in a greater or lesser degree, submitted. She GEORGE HI. 17601820. 479 had secured her constitution and her gov- ernment from the effects of that revolution- ary poison which had destroyed so many ancient institutions, and had subverted so many thrones. She had even enlarged her dominions by the acquisition of an important settlement in Asia, which afforded her the long sought for advantage of a safe and commodious harbor in the Eastern ocean, and by an island in the West Indies, of consequence more from its relative situation to the Spanish Main, than from its produce or probable revenue. She had also kept inviolate her faith with her allies, and had preserved her national character pure amidst surrounding corruption: but here ends the catalogue of her advantages; in every other point she had completely failed. None of the objects which she had pursued in common with the other powers of Eu- rope had she been able to attain : she had bounteously opened her treasures to those who fought against revolutionary anarchy ; she had made every exertion which her spirit could suggest and her resources command ; and, had all her allies but dis- played equal vigor and resolution, their united efforts must have been crowned with success. 480 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XXXIII. Meeting of Parliament Address Sentiments on the Peace Debts of the Civil List Claim of the Prince of Wales to arrears of Cornish Revenues Repeal of the In- come Tax Loan New Taxes Sinking Fund Abbot elected Speaker Debates on the definitive Treaty of Peace Militia Augmentation Vaccine Inoculation Parliament dissolved trench Expedition to St. Domingo and Gaudaloupe Muti- ny in Bantry Bay Affairs of Switzerland Annexation of Piedmont to France Seizure of the Maltese property in Spain Buonaparte elected First Consul for life New Constitution in France Legion of Honor Affairs of France in the West Indies Despard's Conspiracy New Parliament Symptoms of hostility between France and England The British Ambassador leaves Paris Grant to the Prince of Wales Messages respecting France, and the Militia, and announcing hostilities Military Preparations Levy en masse Finance Volunteer Associations Prepa- rations for Invasion by France Act to relieve Catholics Attempt to murder made capital Vote of thanks to the Volunteers The Prince of Wales is refused Military Promotion Rebellion in Ireland, and Murder of Lord Kilwarden Ireland placed under Martial Law, and Habeas Corpus Act suspended Emmett and others exe- cuted for Treason Capture of St. Lucia, Tobago, &c. The French expelled from St. Domingo Movements in Europe Invasion of Hanover Blockade of the Elbe and Weser War with Holland Exactions of Buonaparte Sale of Louisiana English Travellers in France made Prisoners of War-~Naval Operations. MEETING OF PARLIAMENTSENTI- MENTS ON THE PEACE. THE imperial parliament of Great Britain and Ireland was opened on the twenty-ninth of October 1801, by the king in person, who, in a speech from the throne, announced the conclusion of the negotiation for peace, and declared his satisfaction, that the difference which existed with the northern powers had been adjusted by a convention with the em- peror of Russia, to which the kings of Den- mark and of Sweden had expressed their readiness to accede, and by which the essen- tial rights for which we contended were secured. He then proceeded to state that preliminaries of peace had also been ratified between himself and the French republic ; and he trusted that this important arrange- ment, while it manifested the justice and moderation of his views, would also be found conducive to the substantial interests of this country, and honorable to the British char- acter. In the upper house the address was moved by lord Bolton ; and the duke of Bed- ford, in a speech containing much censure of the late, and praise of the present admin- istration, declared his cordial concurrence in the address, which was agreed to without a dissentient voice. In the house of commons Fox expressed the same sentiments of approbation respect- ing the peace, in which he was warmly sec- onded by Pitt, who described it as glorious and honorable. After the continental alli- ance had been dissolved, he said, nothing remained for us but to procure just and hon- orable conditions of peace for ourselves and the few allies who had not deserted us. When it became a mere question of terms, he was much more anxious as to the tone and character of the peace, than about any particular object which should come into dispute. As long as the peace was honora- ble, he should prefer accepting terms even short of what he thought the country enti- tled to, to risking the result of the negotia- tion by too obstinate an adherence to any particular point On the other hand, Wind- ham, the late secretary at war, avowed his entire disapprobation of the treaty, and de- clared himself to be a solitary mourner in the midst of public rejoicings. Sheridan said he could not agree that the conditions were glorious and honorable. It was, in his opinion, a peace of which every one was glad, but no one proud. A similar address was moved in the house of commons ; which, after considera- ble discussion, was agreed to without a division. On the thirteenth of November the arti- cles of the treaty with Russia having been laid before the house of peers, the earl of Damley moved an address of thanks and approbation to the throne. This address was vehemently opposed by lord Grenville, who condemned the treaty in almost all its provisions ; and, from the tenor of his lord- ship's remarks, it was obvious that no ac- commodation with the northern powers could have taken place under the adminis- tration which had recently been dissolved. The question was carried in both houses without a division. GEORGE III. 17601820. 481 DEBTS OF THE CIVIL-LIST PRINCE OF WALES'S CLAIMS FOR ARREARS. WHEN parliament assembled, after the Christmas recess, the chancellor of the ex- chequer called the attention of the house to certain papers before them, relative to the civil-list, by which it appeared that the pe- cuniary affairs of the sovereign were again deeply in arrear ; and a committee was ap- pointed to examine the accounts now pre- sented to the house. In the course of the discussion, Manners Sutton, solicitor to the prince of Wales, advanced a claim on the part of the prince for the amount of the rev- enues of the dutchy of Cornwall received during his minority, and applied to the use of the civil-list. Fox declared strongly in favor of the equity of this claim, but admit- ted that the sums voted for the payment of the prince's debts ought to be deducted from the balance accruing to the prince. On the twenty-ninth of March, 1802, the report of the committee was taken into consideration, when it appeared that a debt amounting to no less than nine hundred and ninety thou- sand pounds had been contracted since the passing of Burke's reform bill, exclusive of the arrears discharged in the years 1784 and 1786, and since that time the provisions of the bill had been wholly neglected. After a long and animated discussion this sum was voted by the house : but the chancellor of the exchequer allowed that measures ought to be taken to prevent in future any such accumulation of debt. Two days after, Man- ners Sutton moved for the appointment of a committee, to inquire what sums were due to the prince of Wales from the arrears of the revenues arising from the dutchy of Cornwall. The chancellor of the exchequer considered it as inconsistent with his duty to concur in this motion. As to the legal ques- tion, he did not pretend to decide upon it : but he thought the discussion ought not to be entertained in that house ; not at least till it appeared in proof, that on application for redress, supposing the wrong to exist, relief could not be obtained elsewhere. INCOME TAX REPEALED. FINANCES. ON the same day the chancellor of the exchequer gave notice of his intention to re- peal the tax upon income. He acknowledg- ed the burden of it to be very grievous, though the necessities of the state had ren- dered its adoption necessary; but, as this impost was originally proposed as a war tax, it should cease with the occasion that had given it birth. On the fifth of April the plan of finance for the year was brought forward. The income-tax had been mortgaged by Pitt for the sum of fifty-six million four hundred and forty-five thousand pounds, three per cents, for which the present minister, in consequence of the repeal of this tax, was VOL. IV. 41 obliged to make provision. The loan for Great Britain he stated at twenty-three mil- lion pounds ; the capital in the different funds, created by the conversion of eight million five hundred thousand pounds of ex- chequer-bills into stock, previously to the Christmas recess, was eleven millions two hundred and thirty-eight thousand and sixty- two pounds, and the aggregate sum appear- ed to be no less than ninety-seven million nine hundred and thirty-four thousand one hundred and thirty-seven pounds, the inter- est of which was stated at three million one hundred and sixty-two thousand pounds. To defray this enormous demand, very heavy additional duties were imposed on beer, malt, and hops. A considerable increase was also made to the assessed taxes ; and the last article to which ministers had re- course at this crisis was a tax on imports and exports, being a modification of the con- voy duty. The produce of the new duties combined he estimated at four million pounds, an excess which compensated for the deficiency of divers of the taxes imposed in the course of the war. In the progress of the business of the revenue, the chancel- lor of the exchequer proposed and carried into effect several important alterations in the sinking-fund bills of Pitt. The last, or new fund, provided for liquidating the debt contracted since the year 1786, was much larger than the original fund established for the liquidation of the old debt. These two funds he proposed to consolidate, and to per- petuate, till the whole of the debt, both old and new, should be completely liquidated. The original fund had now arisen to two million five hundred and thirty-four thou- sand one hundred and eighty-seven pounds, and the new to three million two hundred and seventy-five thousand one hundred and forty-three pounds, making together five million eight hundred and nine thousand three hundred and thirty pounds. The debt contracted previously to the year 1786 amounted to something more than two hun- dred and fifty-nine million pounds, and the new debt amounted to nearly three hundred million pounds ; something less than forty million pounds having been redeemed by the old, and upwards of twenty million pounds by the operation of the new fund. The whole of the existing funded debt, including the loan of the present year, was conse- quently about five hundred and forty million pounds, and the interest amounted annually to the vast sum of upwards of seventeen million pounds. ABBOT ELECTED SPEAKER. DEBATE ON THE PEACE. MILITIA. VACCINATION. SIR JOHN MITPORD, the speaker of the English house of commons, having vacated his chair by accepting the office of lord 482 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. chancellor of Ireland, in the room of lord Clare, deceased, with the title of lord Redes- dale, the speaker's chair was conferred on Charles Abbot, Esq. a lawyer of eminence and activity in business, and who had the merit of possessing an intimate acquaintance with the forms and usages of the house. On the thirteenth of May the grand de- bate relative to the definitive treaty of peace came on in both houses of parliament, when it was attacked and defended with more than ordinary ability. In respect to Malta, lord Grenville observed, that few tilings could be more absurd than to place that isl- and under the guarantee of six powers, who could not be expected to agree on any one point relating to it ; and as to restoring it to the order of St. John, that was still more ab- surd ; for how could it be said that such an order was in existence, when almost all their funds had been confiscated 1 Of the revenues which supported the order, France, at the time of the suppression of the French langue, had confiscated fifty-eight thousand pounds annually, Spain twenty-seven thou- sand pounds, and of their former income of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds, only twenty-seven thousand pounds was now left, a revenue evidently insufficient to keep up the fortifications, or maintain the security of the island. The order of Malta was therefore extinct as a power, and must necessarily come under the. influence and into the pay of France. In adverting to other points of the treaty, he observed, that our sovereignty in India had not been re- cognized, while the Cape of Good Hope, a station of the first importance to that sove- reignty, had been ceded. In the Mediterra- nean, where our naval superiority was most important, we had dispossessed ourselves, not only of Malta, but of Minorca, and even of the isle of Elba, which France wanted, merely to exclude us from the port of Leg- horn. He concluded a most severe and elab- orate investigation of the terms of the trea- ty, by moving an address to his majesty, ac- knowledging his prerogative to make peace and war, but declaring it impossible for the house to see without alarm the circum- stances that had attended the conclusion of the present treaty, by which sacrifices had been made on the part of this country, with- out any corresponding concessions on that of France ; that in the moment of peace France had exhibited indubitable proofs of the most ambitious projects ; that these con- siderations imposed on government the ne- cessity of adopting measures of precaution ; and that, whilst that house relied on his ma- jesty's wisdom to be watchful of the power of France, they thought it necessary to as- sure him of their ready and firm support in resisting every encroachment on the rights of the British empire. The treaty was cen- sured also by the duke of .Richmond, earl Darnley, and lord Caernarvon ; and defend- ed by lords Auckland, Pelham, and Hobart, the lord chancellor, and the earls of V^est- moreland and Rosslyn. The motion of lord Grenville was at length negatived. The terms of the definitive treaty under- went a discussion equally animated in the house of commons. Windham attacked the stipulations of the treaty in all their parts, concluding by moving an address similar to that proposed in the house of peers by lord Grenville. The debate was prolonged to a very late hour, in the course of which Sher- idan remarked that the discussion of the ne- cessary though disgraceful treaty of peace, furnished the best defence of the conduct of those who had uniformly opposed the war. For his part he supported the peace, because he supposed it the best that ministers could obtain. Their predecessors had left them to choose between an expensive, bloody, fruit- less war, and a hollow, perilous peace. The late minister told us that the example of a jaco- bin government in Europe, founded on the ruins of a holy altar, and the tomb of a mar- tyred monarch, was a spectacle so dreadful and infectious to Christendom, that we could never be safe while it existed, and it was our duty to put forth our last effort for its destruction. For these fine words, which had at last given way to security and indem- nity, we had sacrificed nearly two hundred thousand lives, and expended three hundred million pounds of money and had gained Ceylon and Trinidad, which might hence- forth be named the Indemnity and Security Islands. He admitted the splendid talents of the late minister, but he had misapplied them in the government of this country. The house at length divided against Wind- ham's address by an immense majority. An important act was passed for consoli- dating the existing militia laws, and for augmenting that force to seventy thousand men, the proportion for Scotland being fixed at ten thousand. The sum of ten thousand five hundred pounds was voted to Dr. Ed- ward Jenner, for the promulgation of his in- valuable discovery of the system of vaccine inoculation, by which it was hoped ultimate- ly to extirpate the small-pox. A reward of twelve hundred pounds was also voted to Henry Greathead, for the invention of the life-boat ; and five thousand pounds to Dr. James Carmichael Smith, for his discovery of the nitrous fumigation, for preventing the progress of contagious disorders. On the twenty-ninth of June parliament was dis- solved by proclamation. EXPEDITION TO ST. DOMINGO. MUTINY IN BANTRY BAY. THE French government determined to GEORGE IE. 17601820. 483 attempt the recovery of their colonies of St. Domingo and Guadaloupe from the arm- ed negroes by whom they were at present held. For this purpose, a strong military and naval force had been for some time pre- paring at the ports of Brest, Rochefort, and L'Orient, and the British ministry consented to the sailing of the armament before the conclusion of the definitive treaty, on re- ceiving Buonaparte's express assurances that its purpose was to take possession of the col- onies, and suppress the insurrection. He sought to quell the revolutionary spirit which his democratic predecessors had prop- agated in that quarter, and which had ani- mated the negroes of St. Domingo under Toussaint L'Ouverture, and those of Gua- daloupe under Pelagie, to assert and vindi- cate their claims to liberty and equality, as members of the indivisible French republic. He was desirous to put an end to a state of anarchy, which was pregnant with the most appalling dangers, not only to the French colonists, but to those of every other Euro- pean power; and the fleet, consisting of eighteen French and five Spanish ships of the line, having on board twenty-five thou- sand troops, under general Le Clerc, put to sea on the fourteenth of December. Admi- ral Mitchell, who was then stationed at Baji- try Bay, with seven sail of the line, was ordered to follow them, and observe their motions ; but, on learning whither they were destined, a mutiny broke out in some of the vessels, which, however, was soon suppress- ed, and the squadron proceeded to the West Indies, to reinforce the protecting fleets on that station. Fourteen of the ringleaders were capitally condemned and executed. AFFAIRS OF SWITZERLAND MALTESE PROPERTY IN SPAIN SEIZED. IN Switzerland, a new constitution was ac- cepted by one party and resisted by the other, and bloodshed having ensued, the Hel- vetic government was induced to solicit the mediation of France; when Buonaparte, availing himself of so plausible a pretext, sent an army into the country, and issued an arrogant proclamation, commanding the senate to assemble at Berne, and to send deputies to Paris ; ordering at the same time all authorities constituted since the com- mencement of the troubles to cease to act, and all armed bodies to disperse. The diel of Schweitz, however, as the supreme re- presentative body of the Swiss union, re- mained at their post, hoping for the inter- ference of foreign powers ; but Great Britain alone manifested an interest in their behalf. An English resident was sent to Constance, empowered to promise pecuniary assistance if the people were determined to defend their country ; but the approach of the French troops had compelled the diet to dissolve; Aloys Reding, and other patriots, were ar- rested and imprisoned; and the indepen- dence of Switzerland, which had been guar- antied in the treaty of Luneville, was an- nihilated by the power whose mediation she had solicited. In September Piedmont was formally annexed to France, and Turin, its capital, was degraded into a provincial city of the republic. In October the king of Spain annexed to the royal domains all the property of the knights of Malta in his do- minions, and declared himself grand master of the order in Spain. This step was sup- posed to have been taken at the suggestion of the French government. Thus the order of St. John was diminished by the suppres- sion of three leagues, those of Arragon, Cas- tile, and Navarre ; and thus was the treaty of Amiens vitiated, because that order was now no longer the same body to whom the island of Malta was to be ceded in fiill au- thority. BUONAPARTE FIRST CONSUL FOR LIFE- NEW FRENCH CONSTITUTION.-LEGION OF HONOR WEST INDIES: BUONAPARTE, anxious to strengthen his power at home, caused a proposal to be made in the conservative senate that he should be declared first consul for life ; the question was referred to the people, and carried by an immense majority. A second question, whether he should have the power of ap- pointing his successor, was decided in the affirmative, and he was now an hereditary monarch in everything but the name. He imposed a new constitution on France, by which he invested himself with the right of making war or peace ; of ratifying treaties ; of pardoning in all cases; of presenting the names of the other two consuls to the sen- ate ; of nominating all inferior officers ; of appointing, by his own authority, forty of the one hundred and twenty members composing the senate ; and of prescribing to that body the subjects on which alone it was compe- tent to deliberate. The other departments of the state were equally subservient to his will ; so that, having utterly destroyed the liberty of the press, he might be said to govern the republic by means of an enor- mous standing army, and a numerous inqui- sitorial police. Aware that to the former he was indebted for his present elevation, he had for some time contemplated the forma- tion of a military order of nobility, under the designation of the Legion of Honor, and the legislature decreed its establishment. The legion was to be composed of fifteen cohorts, and a council of administration ; each cohort to consist of seven grand officers, twen- ty commandants, thirty subordinate officers, and three hundred and fifty legionaries ; the first consul always to be the chief, and the members to be appointed for life, each with 484 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. proportionate salaries. Joseph Buonaparte, the brother of the first consul, was elected grand master. In the West Indies Buonaparte recovered Guadaloupe, after a sanguinary resistance, and had at first met with some success in St Domingo, Toussaint L'Ouverture having been induced to submit under promise of par- don : scarcely, however, had he signed the capitulation, when, on a vague and improb- able charge of conspiring against the French government, he was seized in the midst of his family, and with them immediately sent to France. On his arrival he was, without trial or examination, thrown into prison, where in the following year he died, and it has been asserted that he was privately put to death by order of the first consul. On the seizure of Toussaint, the negro generals Des- salines and Christophe, who had also surren- dered, justly fearing the fete of their unfor- tunate colleague, saved themselves by flight ; the insurgents again everywhere assembled; the climate effectually aided their efforts, and general Le Clerc himself at length fell a victim to its malignity. General Rocham- beau succeeded to the command early in No- vember, when a furious and bloody conflict recommenced ; the negro generals recovered possession of the whole island excepting a few maritime towns, of which the French with extreme difficulty maintained posses- sion ; and a country of inestimable value, which, by measures of moderation and con- ciliation, might in all probability have been preserved to France, appeared irrecoverably lost In Tobago, when intelligence arrived that the island was to be restored to France, the people of color flew to arms, and deter- mined to attack the British troops under brigadier general Carmichael, who had under his command only two hundred men ; but, having gained intelligence of the plot, he seized thirty of the ringleaders, and the French took possession of the island, in vir- tue of the treaty of Amiens. In Dominica a serious alarm was created by the mutiny of an entire regiment of blacks, who put to death captain Cameron and several other officers; but they were at length totally routed. Whilst these contests prevailed, the French legislative body abrogated the decree of the national convention, abolishing sla- very, and the inhuman traffic was renewed with all the encouragement which it enjoyec under the old French government DESPARD'S CONSPIRACY. IN October of this year a treasonable plot was discovered, of which colonel Edwarc Marcus Despard, who had distinguished him- self in the service of his country, was the head, and indeed the only individual of any consideration in the conspiracy. The object was the death of the king, and the subver- sion of the constitution ; but the means by which these traitorous designs were to be effected were so little adapted to the magni- tude of the enterprise, that it seemed scarcely jossible that the design should have origin- ited with any man in a sane state of mind. On the sixteenth of November the colonel and twenty-nine laboring men and soldiers were apprehended at the Oakley Arms in Lambeth ; and on the seventh of February, L803, the former was arraigned before a spe- cial commission for high treason. After a ;rial which lasted nearly eighteen hours, and in which very honorable testimony was given to the conduct of the colonel, while in the army, by lord Nelson, Sir Alured Clarke, and Sir Evan Nepean, he was found guilty, but earnestly recommended to mercy, on ac- count of the high testimonials to his charac- ter and eminent services. On the ninth, the court proceeded to the trials of twelve other prisoners, and, after an investigation which continued till the following morning, the jury returned a verdict of guilty against nine ; two were acquitted, and the charge against the other was abandoned. On the twenty-first, colonel Despard and the six ac- complices not recommended to mercy were executed with the usual forms in cases of high treason. NEW PARLIAMENT. ON the twenty-third the new parliament was opened by a speech from the throne, in which the king observed that, in his inter- course with foreign powers, he had been ac- tuated by a sincere desire for the mainte- nance of peace ; but that it was nevertheless impossible to lose sight of that established and wise system of policy by which the in- terests of other states are connected with our own ; and that he could not be indiffer- ent to any material change in the relative condition and strength of those states. He expressed his conviction that parliament would concur in the opinion that it was ne- cessary to adopt those means of security which were best calculated to afford the prospect of preserving the blessings of peace. The presage conveyed in this intimation was soon afterwards confirmed by proposals for augmenting the naval and military force of the country. The attention of parliament until the Christmas recess was chiefly occu- pied by financial arrangements, and by a bill introduced into the house of peers by lord Pelham, for appointing commissioners to in- quire into frauds and abuses existing in the naval departments. SYMPTOMS OF HOSTILITY WITH FRANCE. BRITISH AMBASSADOR QUITS PARIS. THE extent of Buonaparte's authority at home only served to render him more im- patient of contradiction abroad ; and as he had succeeded in subduing all opposition in GEORGE m. his own territories, he imagined that he could as easily silence the reproaches of foreign countries. Having brought his ne- gotiations in Germany, consequent on the peace of Luneville, to a successful termina- tion, he had plundered at his pleasure the ecclesiastical princes of the empire, to in- demnify those whose territories he had seiz- ed on the French side of the Rhine, and taken care amply to reward those wretched potentates who had displayed the most cow- ardly subserviency to his interests. Among these the petty sovereigns of Baden and Wirtemberg were raised by him to the dig- nity of electors, as preparatory to their sub- sequent elevation to the rank of kings. He had been equally successful in reviving the ancient jealousy between the Prussian mon- arch and the emperor of Germany ; the for- mer *of whom was imprudently seduced, by hopes of personal aggrandizement, to en- large the influence and power of an impla- cable enemy, and thus prepared the way for his own destruction. In Italy, also, Buona- parte had assumed the sovereignty under the denomination of President of the Italian Re- public ; for such was the title now adopted by the Cisalpine republic. He had united the kingdom of Sardinia and the dutchy of Parma to France ; and he had taken effec- tual means for riveting the chains of Swit- zerland. Little solicitous to afford proofs of a pa- cific disposition to the only enemy who had resisted him with effect, Buonaparte betray- ed, in all his communications with the Brit- ish cabinet, an overbearing and insupporta- ble pride. First to Otto, and afterwards to his ambassador, general Andreossi, he sent instructions to complain of the freedom of those animadversions which the public wri- ters of Great Britain passed on his charac- ter and conduct ; and those complaints were n (iterated as well by Talleyrand, as by the first consul himself, to lord Whitworth, who, hi November, 1802, repaired to Paris as am- bassador to the French court He could not be persuaded that the British government was unable to exercise over the press the same unlimited power, the same boundless tyranny, which he himself exercised over every public writer throughout his vast do- minions. It was impossible to make him understand that, in England, the ministers were subject to the same legal restraints as the lowest subject of the realm ; that they could proceed only according to the forms of law ; and that, if what the law deemed a libel should be uttered or written against the first potentate in Europe, he must, in order to punish the offender, have recourse to the same modes of proceeding which are prescribed to Englishmen themselves, under similar circumstances. In the autumn of 41* 17601820. 485 1802, he directed his agent, Otto, to prefer charges against certain English public wri- ters ; and against Peltier, who conducted a journal in the French language, entitled ISAmbigu. Although, as lord Hawkesbury had pertinently observed, in his instructions to Mr. Merry, who was then at Paris, the French press poured forth constant libels against the English government ; libels, too, authorized by the French cabinet ; although Rheinhardt, the Jacobin representative of Buonaparte at Hamburgh, had violated the neutrality of the senate, and had compelled them to insert a most virulent attack upon the English government in the Hamburgh paper ; although Buonaparte himself had publicly uttered similar libels ; and although, to use the words of lord Hawkesbury, it might, indeed, with truth be asserted, that the period which had elapsed since the con- clusion of the definitive treaty had been marked with one continued series of aggres- sion, violence, and insult, on the part of the French government; so averse were the British ministers from any conduct which could have even a tendency to produce a renewal of hostilities between the two coun- tries, that they -instructed the attorney-gen- eral to file a criminal information against Peltier. The cause was tried on the twenty- first of February, 1803, and the defendant was convicted ; but the renewal of hostili- ties was allowed to secure him from punish- ment. At the very time when this trial was pending, the difference between the two governments was such as to render hostili- ties unavoidable. At the latter end of Feb- ruary lord Whitworth had an interview with Buonaparte, in which the latter so far for- got himself as personally to insult the Brit- ish ambassador, and to threaten his govern- ment in the presence of other diplomatic characters. On this occasion he openly avowed his ambitious designs, and clearly developed his views upon Egypt, whither he had dispatched Sebastiani, a Corsican offi- cer, in the ostensible character of a com- mercial agent, to seize every opportunity for promoting the French interest in the Le- vant; he boldly justified his unprincipled usurpations in Switzerland, Piedmont, and Italy ; and peremptorily insisted on the im- mediate evacuation of Malta, as the sine qua non of continued peace. By the treaty of Amiens, the king had stipulated to re- store the island within a given time to the order of St. John, under the express guar- antee of its independence and neutrality by the principal powers of Europe. Circum- stances, however, tending to destroy the in- dependence of the order itself, by depriving it of a considerable portion of its revenue, had subsequently arisen, which rendered it highly imprudent to carry that article of the 486 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. treaty into effect. Besides, the stipulation had been made with a reference to the rela- tive situation of the contracting parties at the time of concluding the treaty. That situation had experienced a material change by the fresh acquisitions of territory which Buonaparte had afterwards made, and by the consequent addition of power which he had secured. His intentions, too, to dismember the Turkish empire, and to monopolize the commerce of the Levant, objects against which specific provisions were made in the treaty, were too notorious not to call for measures of adequate precaution on the part of Great Britain, whose ministers, indeed, were almost to blame for having carried a system of conciliation and concession to so great a length. At last the inutility of every attempt to induce Buonaparte to listen to the claims of justice became so obvious, that the British ambassador received orders to return to England ; and he accordingly left Paris on the twelfth of May, 1803. GRANT TO THE PRINCE OF WALES. MES- SAGE RESPECTING FRANCE. WAR ON a message from the king, recommend- ing the embarrassed state of the prince of Wales to the consideration of parliament, a proposition was moved by Addington for granting to his royal highness, out of the consolidated fund, the annual sum of sixty thousand pounds, for three years and a half. This sum, though the prince expressed his gratitude for the liberality of parliament, was not sufficient to meet all his engage- ments, and Calcraft moved that he should be enabled immediately to resume his state and dignity; but it was rejected, and the original proposition passed unanimously. On the eighth of March his majesty sent a message to parliament, announcing that very considerable military preparations were carrying on in the ports of Prance and Hol- land ; and that he had therefore judged it expedient to adopt additional measures of precaution for the security of his dominions. It was added that, though the preparations referred to were avowedly directed to colo- nial service, yet, as discussions of great importance were then subsisting between his majesty and the French government, the result of which must be uncertain, it was necessary to make such provision as circum- stances might require. An address was unanimously voted, and a resolution was afterwards passed for raising ten thousand additional seamen, including three thousand four hundred marines. A subsequent mes- sage to parliament announced the king's in- tention to call out the militia; and, after some succeeding weeks of suspense, it was stated in another, on the sixteenth of May, that the king had recalled his ambassador ftr>m Paris; that the French minister had left London ; and that his majesty had given directions for laying before the house of com- mons, with as little delay as possible, copies of such papers as would afford the fullest information at this important conjuncture. The message was taken into consideration in the house of lords on the twenty-third of May, when lord Pelham moved the address. The only question was, he observed, whether a distinct and legitimate ground of war was established by the correspondence now on the table. Without going minutely into these documents, he should briefly advert to the principal points in dispute between the two governments ; and, first, with respect to Malta. It would be seen from the papers on the table, that up to a given period his majesty's ministers had taken every step to carry into effect the provisions of the treaty relating to this island. It was about the twenty-seventh of January that the French government began to press, in a very per- emptory manner, for its evacuation ; and it was about that period that ministers thought themselves bound to demand some satis- factory explanation of the pretensions ad- vanced, and the views disclosed, by the French government Circumstances then existed which rendered it necessary to refer back to what had been the conduct of the First Consul from the period when the treaty was concluded ; and in the course of this view the plain and intelligible inference was, that he had pursued one constant series of acts totally inconsistent with a sincere desire to preserve the peace of the two countries. The answers returned by minis- ters to the complaints of the French gov- ernment regarding the liberty of the press, the residence of the Bourbons, and the countenance afforded by this country to French emigrants, would be found in the correspondence; and he entertained a con- fident expectation that that language on those subjects was of a nature to meet with universal support and approbation. They had shown, his lordship said, the ut- most reluctance to resort to any measure which might hasten a renewal of hostili- ties; but the conduct of the French govern- ment could no longer be tolerated, consist- ently with the honor, dignity, and safety of this country. War, then, had become in- evitable ; and it was a war in which the na- tional spirit ought to be exerted in every way which would demonstrate, to a proud and insolent foe, that, while the people of England were not anxious for an oppor- tunity of taking offence, they were sensibly alive to the least imputation of dishonor, and determined on punishing insults with the most exemplary vengeance. The existing administration appeared at this time to be highly obnoxious to what GEORGE IIL 17601820. 487 was called the Grenville party; and Pitt and his friends began- to manifest towards them unequivocal marks of coldness. MILITARY PREPARATIONS. FINANCE. PARLIAMENT was chiefly occupied by sub- jects of finance, and with devising the means of providing for the defence of the country against the threatened invasion. The first and most obvious measure was to render the militia, the constitutional defence of the country, as effective as possible, and a bill for that purpose was brought into the house of commons, by the secretary at war, on the twentieth of May, which passed through its several stages without any ma- terial opposition. But the militia being con- sidered inadequate to the defence of the realm, a message from the crown was sent to parliament on the eighteenth of June, stating that his majesty considered it im- portant for the safety and defence of the nation that a large additional military force should be forthwith raised and assembled, and it was recommended to both houses to take such measures as should appear to be most effectual for accomplishing this pur- pose with the least possible delay. A bill was immediately brought into parliament for embodying a new species of militia, under the denomination of the army of re- serve, to consist of fifty thousand men for England, and ten thousand for Ireland, to be raised by ballot, and confined te the de- fence of the united kingdom : the officers to be appointed from the regular army and the half-pay list: all persons from the age of eighteen to forty-five to be liable to serve, with the exception of those who were ex- empt from the militia ballot, and such volun- teers as were enrolled previously to the date of the last message of his majesty : all poor persons having more than one child under ten years of age were also exempt: the per- sons composing this force to be allowed to volunteer into the regular army. On the sixth of July, this bill obtained the royal as- sent. But these measures of defence, how- ever important, were only the precursors of one of the most gigantic magnitude, be- ing no less than arming and training the whole effective male population of Great Britain. This project was presented to the consideration of parliament on the eighteenth of July, and passed into a law, by receiving the royal assent on the twenty-seventh of the same month. This general enrolment, denominated the levy en masse, was divided into four different classes : the first compre- hended all unmarried men between the ages of seventeen and thirty ; the second, unmar- ried men between thirty and fifty; the third, all married m$n between seventeen and thirty, not having more than two children under ten years of age ; and the fourth, all under the age of fifty-five, not comprised in the other descriptions. The different classes, who were to be trained and taught the use of arms in then- respective parishes, were, in case of actual invasion, liable to be called out by his majesty, in the order specified, to co-operate with the regular army in any part of the kingdom, and to remain embodied until the enemy should be exterminated or driven into the sea. On the thirteenth of June the chancellor of the exchequer proposed to raise, by an in- crease of the customs' duties on sugar, ex- ports, cotton, and tonnage, about two million pounds annually ; and by new duties on the excise of tea, wine, spirits, and malt, six million pounds more. He then presented a plan of a tax on income, imposing a duty on land of one shilling in the pound, to be paid by the landlord, and nine-pence in the pound to be paid by the tenant, together with a tax of one shilling in the pound on all other species of income from one hundred and fifty pounds upwards. The net produce of this revived property-tax was calculated at four million seven hundred thousand pounds, and the whole product of the war taxes at twelve million seven hundred thousand pounds annually, to expire six months after the return of peace. In addition to these grants the other taxes were continued, and the whole of the supplies voted by parlia- ment for the service of the year 1803, amounted to upwards of forty-one million pounds. VOLUNTEER ASSOCIATIONS. PREPARA- TIONS FOR INVASION BY FRANCE. AT this time the preparations for invading Britain, made by France, called forth a si- multaneous burst of loyalty and patriotism from all classes : and in a very brief inter- val- upwards of four hundred thousand men in arms appeared ready to defend their na- tive coasts. So numerous, indeed, were these voluntary armed associations, that it rendered the act for raising the levy en masse perfectly superfluous. Buonaparte viewed with astonishment this extraordinary display of national energy ; and though his preparations for invasion were continued, the intention of carrying them into effect is thought to have been secretly abandoned. In addition to the grand fleet at Brest, which was supposed to be destined for the invasion of Ireland, an immense number of transports and gun-boats had been ordered to be built, with the greatest expedition, in the French ports, under the idea that some thousands of them might force their way across the channel, in spite of the British navy ; and. in the course of the year, a suf- ficient flotilla was assembled at Boulogne, to carry over any army that France might 488 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. think proper to employ in this desperate en- terprise. ACT FOR RELIEF OF CATHOLICS AT- TEMPT TO KILL MADE CAPITAL- VOTE OF THANKS TO VOLUNTEERS PRINCE OF WALES REFUSED MILITA- RY PROMOTION. Is the course of the session just termi- nated, an act was passed to relieve the Ro- man Catholics from certain penalties and disabilities to which they were before sub- ject, on subscribing the declaration and oath contained in the act of the tfflrty-first of the reign of his present majesty. An important addition was also made to the criminal law of the country : by an act introduced into the house of lords by lord Ellenborough, and on that account called the Ellenborough Act, any person guilty of maliciously shoot- ing, cutting, or stabbing, with an intent to commit murder, although death should not ensue, was made subject to the punishment of death. The same penalty was also at- tached to all attempts to discharge loaded fire-arms with an intent to kill or wound. In the house of commons, Windham had taken occasion to express himself in terms of great asperity and contempt towards the volunteer corps of the country, whom he termed the " depositaries of panic." To ob- viate any supposition that these sentiments were generally concurred in, Sheridan, on the tenth of August, moved the thanks of the house to the volunteer and yeomanry corps of Great Britain, for the zeal and promptitude with which they had associated for the defence of the country. He also moved that returns of the different volun- teer corps be laid before the house, in order that they may be handed down to posterity, by being entered on the journala Both these motions were agreed to unanimously ; and on the twelfth of August this session was closed by a speech from the throne, on which occasion his majesty expressed his satisfaction at the energy and promptitude which had been displayed in providing for the defence of the country, and for the vig- orous prosecution of the war ; assuring the house, at the same time, that as strict a re- gard would be paid to economy in the public expenditure as was consistent with the ex- ertions necessary to frustrate the designs of the enemy. At this interesting period the prince of Wales addressed a fetter to the prime minister, urging upon him the propri- ety of investing him with an efficient mili- tary rank, and of placing him in a situation where his example might contribute to ex- cite the loyal energies of the nation. In re- ply to repeated applications on this subject, his royal highness was informed, that should the enemy so far succeed as to effect a land- ing, he would have an opportunity of show- ing his zeal at the head of his regiment ; but, upon public grounds, his majesty could never permit the prince of Wales to consid- er the army as a profession, or to allow of his being promoted in the service. REBELLION IN IRELAND MURDER OF LORD KILWARDEN. IRELAND once more became the theatre of rebellion, the instigators of which were a band of political enthusiasts, whose director and principal mover was Robert Emmett, a young man of specious and promising tal- ents, the brother of Thomas Eddis Emmett, who took a prominent part in the rebellion of 1798. He had been so unguarded in his conduct, while the late disturbances existed, as to become an object of the vigilance of government, and had found it prudent to re- side abroad so long as the habeas corpus act was suspended ; but on the removal of that obstacle he returned to Ireland, and arrived there in December, 1802. The death of Dr. Emmett, his father, one of the state physi- cians in Dublin, had placed the sum of two thousand pounds at his disposal ; and with this exchequer he proposed to himself the subversion of the government of Ireland. Though the persons immediately connected with Emmett, Russell, Dowdall, and Coig- ley, the principals in the plot, did not ex- ceed one hundred, yet these infatuated men were so sanguine as to suppose that the spirit of rebellion would, at their bidding, pervade the whole kingdom ; and the usual intimation, the stoppage of the mail-coaches, was to be the signal of revolt in the country, while the first object of the insurgents in the metropolis was to secure the seat of gov- ernment, and the principal persons engaged in its administration. For some days previ- ous to the fatal explosion, information had been conveyed to government of threaten- ing assemblages of the people ; and other indications tended to awaken a suspicion that a rising, as it was termed, was in agita- tion. On Saturday the twenty-third of July, towards evening, the populace began to as- semble in vast numbers in St. James's street and its neighborhood, without having any visible arrangement or discipline. To arm the body thus collected, pikes were delib- erately placed along the sides of the streets, for the accommodation of all who might choose to equip themselves. About nine o'clock the concerted signal that all was in readiness was given by a number of men riding furiously through the principal streets ; but general alarm was not excited until Clarke, the proprietor of a considerable manufactory in the neighborhood of Dublin, and who had that afternoon apprized gov- ernment of the intention of the insurgents, was shot at and dangerously wounded. About this period a small piece of ordnance, GEORGE m. 17601820. 489 which had been in readiness for the pur- pose, was discharged, and a sky-rocket let off at the same moment, so as to be observed throughout the whole city. Emmett, at the head of his chosen band, now sallied forth from the obscurity of his head-quarters in Marshalsea lane, and excited his followers to action. Before they had reached the end of the lane in which they were assembled, one of the party discharged his blunderbuss at colonel Browne, who was passing along the street, when the ball unhappily took effect From this period, it is remarkable that nothing more is heard of Emmett, or .any of his brother conspirators, till we find them beneath the power of the offended laws. The dreadful assassination of the chief- justice of Ireland, Lord Viscount Kil warden, was the most important and lamented event of this rash and criminal commotion. This unfortunate nobleman had, on the day of the insurrection, retired to his country-seat, near four miles from Dublin, as was his custom after having passed the week in fulfilling the duties of his exalted situation. On the first intimation of the circumstances which denoted disturbance being conveyed to him, his lordship, who, ever since the period of the outrages in 1798, had been in perpetual apprehension of being surprised and assas- sinated by rebels, ordered out his carriage, and taking with him his daughter and his nephew, the Rev. Richard Wolfe, set off in- stantly for Dublin. Unfortunately the car- riage appeared in Thomas street immediate- ly after the opening of the depot, and was surrounded by a mob of armed persons. His lordship announced his name, and earnestly prayed for mercy, but i vain. Both he and his nephew fell to the ground, pierced with innumerable wounds ; but the lady was per- mitted to pass through the whole rebel col- umn to the castle without molestation. About half-past ten o'clock the rebels were in their turn attacked, and their mighty projects were all discomfited, in less than an hour, by about one hundred and twenty soldiers. MARTIAL LAW. EMMETT AND OTHERS EXECUTED. THE privy-council issued a proclamation, calling on the magistrates to unite their ex- ertions with those of the military power, and offering a reward of one thousand pounds for the discovery and detection of the miscreants who murdered lord Kilwar- den. A reward was also offered to those who should discover the murderer of col. Browne ; and a notice was issued by the lord-mayor, requiring all the inhabitants of Dublin, except yeomen, to keep within doors after eight in the evening. At the same time, bills for suspending the habeas corpus act, and for placing Ireland under martial law, were passed with uncommon rapidity through their different stages, in the parlia- ment of the united kingdom. Arrangements were also made for sending large bodies of troops from England, and every measure which prudence could suggest was immedi- ately adopted, for the preservation of the public tranquillity. On this occasion, the Roman Catholics, with lord Fingal at their head, came forward in the most loyal and patriotic manner, and, after expressing their utmost abhorrence of the enormities com- mitted on the twenty-third of July, made an offer to government of their assistance and co-operation. By these and similar exertions the flame of rebellion was completely ex- tinguished. A special commission being issued for the trial of the rebels, Edward Kearney, a cal- enderer, and Thomas Maxwell Roche, an old man nearly seventy years of age, were executed in Thomas street, the focus of the insurrection, and several others experienced a similar fate ; but the most important of these judicial proceedings was the trial of Robert Emmett, Esq. who was arraigned on the nineteenth of September, and found guilty on the clearest evidence. On the fol- lowing day this misguided young man, only in the twenty-fourth year of his age, was executed on a temporary gallows in Thomas street. In the ensuing month, Thomas Rus- sell also expiated his offences under the hands of the executioner. Coigley and Staf- ford were arraigned on the twenty-ninth of October ; but, in consideration of their hav- ing made a full disclosure of all the circum- stances connected with the conspiracy, no further proceedings were had against them, or any of the remaining prisoners. CAPTURE OF ST. LUCIA, &c. FRENCH DRIVEN FROM ST. DOMINGO. AN expedition dispatched from Barbadoes on the twentieth of June, under lieutenant- general Grinfield and' commodore Hood, cap- tured the islands of St. Lucia and Tobago ; and in September the Dutch colonies of Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice, also sur- rendered. The islands of St Pierre and Miquelon likewise contributed to swell the conquests of Britain ; and to these successes may be added that of compelling the French to abandon the valuable colony of St. Do- mingo. The war with the insurgent ne- groes had been attended with horrid cruel- ties on both sides ; but so long as the French fleet was master of the sea, their posts on the coasts were effectually defended : on the rupture with England, however, they were reduced to great difficulties; several places successively fell into the hands of the insurgents ; and Fort Dauphin was taken by the English. The Cape was soon afterwards completely invested by Dessaline, with 490 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. whom Rocbambeau at length entered into a negotiation, proposing to give up the place on being allowed to carry off the garrison. At this juncture the blockading squadron entered the roads, and a capitulation was signed, by which all the ships of war and merchant vessels belonging to France were to be surrendered to the British, who were to receive the garrison as prisoners of war. Thus the French lost all their possessions in the island, except the city of St. Domingo, the capital of that part which formerly be- longed to Spain; and the negro chieftains issued a proclamation, declaring the island free and independent MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. INVASION OF HANOVER IN Europe the French armies were imme- diately put in motion, and the consular gov- ernment, anxious to justify their conduct to the French nation and to Europe, published a declaration, dated the twentieth of May, on the causes which led to the renewal of the war with Great Britain. Orders were issued to increase the forces of the republic to four hundred and eighty thousand men ; the army of Italy was considerably aug- mented ; and large detachments were push- ed forward upon Tarentum, and on all the strong posts in the kingdom of Naples which lay on the Adriatic. During the protracted negotiations, reinforcements were ordered into Holland, and a powerful army was col- lected on the frontiers of Hanover. On the twenty-fifth of May, general Mortier sum- moned the electorate to surrender to the re- publican army, Buonaparte formally profess- ing that he should occupy that country merely as a pledge for the restoration of Malta, and that this violation of the consti- tution of the Germanic empire was only for the purpose of compelling the king of Eng- land to maintain the peace of Amiens. Al- though it was impossible that the electorate could oppose any effectual stand against the power of France, the duke of Cambridge was sent over from England as commander- in-chief in that country, and proclamations were issued, calling upon all the inhabitants capable of bearing arms to rally round their standard. At the latter end of May, how- ever, a body of ten thousand French troops passed the river Ems at Mippen, and entered the principality of Osnaburgh, which had been previously evacuated. General Wal- moden, to whom the command of the Hano- verian troops was intrusted, having collected an army of eighteen thousand men, deter- mined to make a stand, first on the Hunte, and afterwards on the Weser ; but at the moment when general Mortier had advanced into the vicinity of Nieuborg, a deputation arrived from the civil and military authori- ties of Hanover, entreating him to suspend his march ; to which he consented, on con- dition that the invaders should be put in pos- session of all the*fortresses in the electorate, and that the Hanoverian army should en- gage not to serve against France or her al- lies during the war, or until regularly ex- changed. On the fifth of June the French took possession of the city of Hanover, where they found a prodigious quantity of artillery and ammunition. Besides the absolute value of the electorate as a conquest, which ena- bled the enemy to remount their cavalry and recruit their finances, they were now masters of the navigation of the Elbe and the Weser, and, being in the immediate neighborhood of the commercial Hanse towns of Hamburgh and Bremen, were en- abled to levy considerable sums of money on those opulent cities, under the shape of loans. In consequence of these events, the British government blockaded the mouths of the Elbe and Weser, which was in some de- gree a retaliation on Germany for permitting die violation of its territory. This measure occasioned such distress to Hamburgh and Bremen, that they appealed to the king of Prussia, as protector of the neutrality of the northern part of the empire ; but he declined to interfere, and the French were thus left to pursue their exactions with impunity. WAR WITH HOLLAND. BUONAPARTE'S EXACTIONS. BRITISH TRAVELLERS IN FRANCE MADE PRISONERS OF WAR CONTRARY to her wishes and her inter- ests, Holland was compelled to take part with France. On the seventeenth of June it was announced to parliament that the king had communicated to the Batavian government his disposition to respect their neutrality, provided the French government would do the same ; but as this had not been complied with, and their forces still occu- pied the Dutch territory, he had judged it expedient to recall his minister from the Hague, and to issue letters of marque and reprisal against the Batavian republic. Buo- naparte also compelled the Italian republic to take part in the war ; and he drew pecu- niary assistance from Spain and Portugal in so open a manner, that it rested entirely with the generosity of Great Britain whether they should not be considered as involved in direct acts of hostility. The supplies to his treasury derived from these sources were augmented by the sale of Louisiana to the United States for fifteen million dollars. Early in the year he made a singular over- ture to Louis the XVIIIth at Warsaw, for the resignation of that monarch's claim to the throne of France ; which was met by a most decided refusal. After the declaration of war by England, a step which had never before been resorted to among civilized nations, and which must GEORGE IE. 17601820. 491 always be regarded as an act of atrocious barbarity and injustice, savoring more of malice than mere political hostility, was taken by the French government It appear- ed from an article published in the Moni- teur, the official organ of the French gov- ernment, that two English frigates had cap- tured two merchant vessels in the bay of Audierne, without any previous declaration of war, and in manifest violation of the law of nations ; in consequence of which, a de- cree, signed by the First Consul, was issued, directing that all the English, from the age of eighteen to sixty, or persons holding any commissions from his Britannic majesty, then in France, should immediately be con- sidered prisoners of war, to answer for those citizens of the republic who had been ar- rested and made prisoners by the vessels or subjects of his Britannic majesty, previously to any declaration of war. In virtue of this decree, all the nobility, commercial travel- lers, and others, subjects of the king of Eng- land, who had incautiously put themselves within the reach of Buonaparte in France, or were engaged in travelling through any of those countries occupied by the French armies, were either shut up in prisons, or confined to particular limits as prisoners of war upon their parole ; which violation of the law of nations, and of neutral hospitality, was further aggravated by a perfidious prom- ise previously made to the English visitors, that they should enjoy the protection of the government, after the departure of the Brit- ish ambassador, as extensively as during his residence at Paris. The naval campaign of the present year, in Europe, was not particularly distinguish- ed. On the fourteenth of September, how- ever, the port and town of Granville were successively attacked by Sir James Sauma- rez ; on which occasion the pier was demol- ished, and a number of vessels, intended for the invasion of England, destroyed. On the same day the town and fort of Dieppe were bombarded by captain Owen, in the Immor- talite frigate, with the Theseus and Sulphur bombs. The Dutch ports, from the Zand- voort, in the vicinity of Haarlem, to Sche- veningen, were also severely bombarded on the twenty-eighth of September, and many vessels destroyed. 492 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XXXIV. Meeting of Parliament Speech and Address Martial Law in Ireland Indisposition of the King Extension of Irish Militia Service Motions for Investigation into the Naval and Military Force Formidable Opposition to Ministers Finance Change of Administration Slave Trade Additional Force Act Corn Bill Civil-Ltst Augmentation India Budget Parliament prorogued War in India Loss and Recapture of Goree Capture of Surinam Naval Operations Attack on the Bou- logne Flotilla Failure of the Catamaran Project Repulse of Admiral Linois Rupture with Spain, anct forcible detention of Treasure Ships Murder of the Duke D'Enghien Complaints against British Envoys Seizure of Sir George Rumbold Buonaparte elected Emperor of the French The Emperor of Germany declared Emperor of Austria Dispute between France and Russia Preparations for hos- tilities Convention between France and Genoa. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. MARTIAL LAW IN IRELAND. PARLIAMENT assembled on the twenty- second of November, 1803 ; when his ma- jesty, after alluding to the measures adopted for the vigorous prosecution of the war, and adverting to the successes in the West Indies, and the suppression of the Irish rebellion, stated that a convention had been concluded with the king of Sweden, for the purpose of adjusting the differences which had arisen with that power. In reference to the threat of invasion, the king declared that, as he and his people were embarked in one com- mon cause, it was his fixed determination, if occasion should arise, to share their exertions and their dangers in defence of the consti- tution, religion, laws, and independence of the kingdom. The usual addresses were agreed to without opposition. In the com- mons it was stated by the chancellor of the exchequer, in reply to some observations from Fox, that the offices of mediation offered by the court of Russia had been accepted with readiness and gratitude on the part of his majesty's servants : but, although discussions of the greatest moment were commenced in consequence, yet they had not assumed such a shape as to lead to any probability of an amicable arrangement with France. Secretary Yorke brought in a bill to con- tinue two acts ; the one for suspending the habeas corpus act in Ireknd, and the other for the re-enactment of martial law in that country. This measure, though it excited much discussion, was carried through both houses without producing a single division. The debate which arose on the ninth of De- cember, on the motion of the secretary at war to refer the army estimates to a com- mittee of supply, embraced an extensive view of the general defence of the country. The regular force proposed to be voted for the public service amounted to one hundred and sixty-seven thousand men ; the embodied militia of Great Britain and Ireland to one hundred and ten thousand ; and the volunteer corps to upwards of four hundred thousand rank and file in the united kingdom. For the volunteer force of the country, of which about forty-five thousand served without pay, it was proposed to vote the sum of seven hundred and thirty thousand pounds for one year. On this occasion Windham inveighed with great acrimony against the military system adopted by ministers; and pointed out the inferiority of volunteer associations and bodies of reserve to a regular army of genuine soldiers, disciplined for offensive as well as defensive warfare. Pitt, in a very spirited and argumentative manner, defend- ed the system ; but he was desirous that all the volunteer companies should be brought to act in battalions, and, whenever it could be accomplished, in brigades: he proposed to give to every battalion the assistance of a field-officer and an adjutant ; such officers still retaining their rank and pay in the army: and with respect to the number of days for which the corps should be exercised, he was of opinion that about fifty would be sufficient for the next year, and forty for each succeed- ing one. The expense arising from the field- officers and adjutants he estimated at about one hundred and sixty thousand pounds ; and that of the allowance to such volunteers as might, from their circumstances, be obliged to accept of pay, at between three and four hundred thousand pounds more, making an aggregate of about five hundred thousand pounds ; and if, for that sum, a force of nearly four hundred thousand men could be main- tained in gradual and efficient improvement, he affirmed that this would be the cheapest item in the whole of the public expenditure. As to the sea fencibles, he looked upon them as one of the most valuable parts of our force ; and this description of service brought into activity a body of men, who, being chiefly GEORGE III. 17601820. 493 pilots and fishermen, could neither be em- ployed in the navy, nor permanently taken from their families. Lord Castlereagh also made an animated reply to the objections urged by Windham against the army of reserve and the volun- teer system. Out of the thirty-five thousand already raised for the army of reserve, seven thousand five hundred, he said, had entered for general service. The military force of the united kingdom was naturally divided into troops on permanent pay, and those lia- ble to service in the event of invasion. Of the first description, there were in Great Britain, and in the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, one hundred and thirty thousand men; and in Ireland fifty thousand. The effective rank and file of the militia in Great Britain and Ireland amounted to eighty-four thousand men ; the regular force to ninety- six thousand, of which twenty-seven thou- sand were for limited service, and sixty-nine thousand disposable for general service. The next grand feature of our military strength consisted in the volunteer force, of which three ' hundred and forty thousand men, ac- cepted and arrayed, were at present in Great Britain; and in Ireland it amounted to sev- enty thousand ; to which were to be added twenty-five thousand sea fencibles. The total amount of the whole military force at this crisis stood, therefore, at six hundred and fifteen thousand rank and file ; and if, to this number, officers of every description were added, the whole amount would not be less than seven hundred thousand men. The number of ships of war amounted to four hundred and sixty-nine ; and, in aid of the regular navy, and for the purpose of defend- ing the coast, an armed flotilla, consisting of eight hundred craft of all descriptions, wai nearly completed. Since the commence- ment of hostilities there had been issued three hundred and twelve thousand muskets, sixteen, thousand pistols, and seventy-seven thousand pikes. The field-train also, in Great Britain alone, was increased from three hundred and fifty-six to four hundred and sixty pieces of ordnance, completely ap- pointed ; and the stores had been nearly doubled. rFox applauded the zeal and pa- triotism of the volunteers ; but he could never bring himself to believe that they were sus- ceptible of anything like the efficiency of a regular force. The chancellor of the ex- chequer, on the other hand, stated that lord Moira, the commander-in-chief in Scotland, and lord Cathcart, the commander in Ireland, were so highly satisfied with the steadiness and discipline of the volunteers of Edinburgh and of Dublin, that they had given them an unconditional assurance that they would conduct them with confidence against an invading host VOL. IV. 42 INDISPOSITION OF THE KING. OPPO- SITION TO MINISTERS. CHANGE OF ADMINISTRATION. 1804. ON the 14th of February it was announced, by an official bulletin, that the king was much indisposed, and the public sympathy was excited by an apprehension of the return of the malady by which he had been -formerly afflicted. The attack, however, was so slight, that there was no necessary suspension of the royal functions ; and on the ninth of March all apprehension was dissipated by the assurance of the lord chancellor, that he had conceived it proper and necessary to have a personal interview with the sovereign, at which due discussion had taken place with respect to the bills sub- mitted for the royal assent ; and he had no hesitation to aver that the result of all that took place on that occasion fully justified him in announcing his majesty's assent to the bills specified in the royal commission. A message from the king, on the twenty- sixth of March, announced a voluntary offer of the Irish militia to extend their services to Great Britain ; and bills passed both houses to enable his majesty to accept the offer, and to raise ten thousand additional militia in Ireland. A systematic attack on the ministry was at this time pursued by all the parties in op- position, through the medium of investiga- tions on the military and naval affairs of the empire. This opposition was particularly displayed in the progress of the bill to con- solidate and explain the laws relative to vol- unteers : the course of debate on this sub- ject, however, was interrupted by a motion, of which Pitt had before given notice, on the naval defence of the country ; a ques- tion which was expected more than any other to try the strength of ministry, and even to shake their power to its foundation. On the fifteenth of March, after expressing his expectation that part of the documents which it was his intention to call for would be granted by ministers without resistance, Pitt moved for an address, requesting that his majesty would order to be laid before parliament an account of the number of ships in commission on the thirty-first of De- cember, 1793, on the thirtieth of Septem- ber, 1801, and on the thirty-first of Decem- ber, 1803, specifying the service in which they were respectively employed. He made his motion from a conviction, that, if the pa- pers were granted, it would appear that our naval force was, at the present moment, much inferior, and less adequate to the exi- gency of the danger, than at any period in former times. If these documents were granted, his next motion would be for a copy of the contracts made, and the orders given, by the lords of the admiralty, in 1793, 1797, 494 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. and 1803, with respect to the number _ of gun- vessels to be built. The board of admi- ralty had considered gun-boats peculiarly serviceable for resisting invasion; yet, in the course of a year, they had built only twenty-three ; while the enemy, in the same period, had constructed nearly one thousand. From the period when hostilities were re- newed, our navy ought to have been in- creasing instead of diminishing; notwith- standing which, government had only con- tracted for the building of two ships of the line in the merchant-yards, when it was well known that, during a war, the building of ships was always nearly suspended in the king's yards, which were then wanted for repairing the damages sustained in the ser- vice. It was also worthy of remark, that in the first year of the late war, our naval establishment was increased from sixteen thousand to seventy-six thousand seamen; whereas, having begun the present war with an establishment of fifty thousand, we had augmented them in the course of the first year to only eighty-six thousand men. Tierney, treasurer of the navy, objected strongly to the production of the papers re- quired, and was -at a loss to .conceive how the measure could, for a single instant, be entertained by the house, when no cause, no single fact, was brought forward to sup- port it; when every possible energy per- vaded that branch of the public service; when naval skill, vigilance, and activity, were displayed in every quarter ; and when the best officers were employed in every di- rection with the highest honor to themselves, and the most decided advantage to their country. Sheridan delivered a warm eulogy on the character and conduct of earl St Vincent, the first lord of the admiralty ; whilst Fox and others, taking a different side, supported the motion for inquiry, de- claring that it would terminate to the honor of the admiral. The debate was continued for several hours, when, on a division, the numbers were, for Pitt's motion, one hun- dred and thirty ; against it, two hundred and one. On the twenty-third of April, Fox moved for a committee to revise the several bills which had been proposed for the defence of the country, when Pitt again took a com- prehensive view of its actual state. There was but one point on which he and Fox dif- fered on this occasion ; the power vested in the king by the constitution of calling out all the subjects of his realm to defend the country in case of invasion. Fox was, per- haps, the first statesman who ever ventured to question the royal prerogative in mis par- ticular; for nothing is more clearly laid down by our law-writers than that the power of calling on every description of his sub- jects to repair to his standard, when the country is about to be invaded, is vested in the king. Pitt asserted and maintained this principle against Fox, but on other points those rival statesmen agreed ; and the re- sult of this concurrence of sentiment was a strong division, in which the ministers had a majority of only fifty-two ; two hundred and four having voted for the motion of Fox, and two hundred and fifty-six against it. Two days after this discussion, another de- bate took place on the same subject, in con- sequence of a motion by secretary Yorke, for the house to resolve itself into a com- mittee on a bill for the suspension of the army of reserve act This motion was re- sisted by Pitt ; and, on a division, there ap- peared, in support of the ministerial plan, two hundred and forty ; against it, two hun- dred and three ; leaving to ministers a ma- jority of only thirty-seven. Addington then determined on retiring from administration, after he had adjusted the financial concerns of the year. The supplies were estimated at thirty-six million pounds for Great Britain alone; and the ways and means consisted of certain additions to the war taxes, a loan of ten million pounds, and a vote of credit of two million five hundred thousand pounds. On the twelfth of May it was announced that Addington had resigned the office of chancellor of the exchequer, and that Pitt was nominated his successor. It was understood to be his wish to unite, in the public service, as large a portion as possible of the weight, talent, and charac- ter, to be found in public men. Whether he was sincere in his desire to secure the aid of lord Grenville and Mr. Fox may be doubted, because it has been said that he could bear " no rival near his throne," and that he preferred the aid of good second- rate man of business talent ; but he cer- tainly professed to wish for their co-opera- tion, and the personal objection of the king to Fox appeared alone to prevent it : lord Grenville refused to come into office with- out him, but Pitt did not make it the ground of withholding his own services. Under the new arrangement the following mem- bers of Addington's administration retained their stations ; the duke of Portland, presi- dent of the council ; lord Eldon, chancellor ; the earl of Westmoreland, lord privy-seal ; the earl of Chatham, master-general of the ordnance; and lord Castlereagh, president of the board of control. Lord Hawkesbury passed from the office of foreign affairs to the home-department. The new members were Pitt, first lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer ; lord Melville, first lord of the admiralty ; lord Harrowby, secretary for foreign affairs; lord Camden, secretary for the department of war and GEORGE 1IL 17601820. 495 colonies ; and lord Mulgrave, chancellor of the dutchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the cabinet The government of Ireland re- mained unchanged, with the exception of Wickham, chief secretary, who was suc- ceeded by Sir Evan Nepean. The follow- ing new appointments took place in the sub- ordinate offices of government: William Dundas, secretary at war; Canning, trea- surer of the navy ; George Rose and lord Charles Somerset, joint paymasters of the forces; the duke of Montrose and lord Charles Spencer, joint paymasters-general ; Huskisson and Sturges Bourne, secretaries to the treasury. SLAVE TRADE. CORN BILL. CIVIL-LIST. PROROGATION. WrLBERFORCE, on the thirtieth of May, pressed the consideration of the abolition of the African slave trade. After an animated debate, the motion, which was supported by Fox and Pitt, was carried by one hun- dred and twenty-four to forty-nine voices. A bill was consequently brought into parlia- ment, limiting the latest period at which ships were to be allowed to clear out from an Eng- lish port for this traffic to the first of Octo- ber, 1804; and the third reading was car- ried, on the twenty-eighth of June, by sixty- nine against thirty-three. In the house of lords, however, the bill was rejected on the thirtieth of July, on the ground that the late period of the session would prevent the par- ties interested from obtaining complete jus- tice. A plan for raising and supporting a per- manent military force, and for the general reduction of the additional militia, was intro- duced into parliament on the fifth of June, by Pitt, under the designation of the addi- tional force act. This measure aimed at an establishment not merely to meet the pre- sent circumstances of the country, but to serve as an instrument for the immediate improvement of the existing system, and to supply a sufficient resource to the regular force, should an opportunity offer of employ- ing our troops in foreign warfare. The bill was strenuously opposed by Windham, Fox, Addington, and others, but it was ultimately carried through the lower house by small ministerial majorities ; there appearing, on the last division for the bill, two hundred and sixty-five ; against it, two hundred and thirty-three. In the upper house, the mea- sure was sanctioned by one hundred and fifty-four against sixty-nine. On the twentieth of June, the corn-laws came under discussion. It has been main- tained that the whole system is prejudicial to the public weal, and that these laws should be altogether repealed, leaving the trade free, and the prices to find their own level ; but in consequence of a report of the house of commons, it was deemed expedient to have recourse to new legislative regulations. From this report it appeared that the price of corn, from 1791 to 1803, had been irregular, but had, upon an average, yielded a fair price to the grower. The high prices had produced the effect of stimulating industry, and bring- ing into cultivation large tracts of waste land ; which, combined with the two last productive seasons, had occasioned such a depreciation in the value of grain, as would, it was said, tend to the discouragement of agriculture, unless immediate relief were af- forded ; and for this purpose, although within the period of the last thirteen years, no less than thirty million pounds had been paid to foreign countries for supplies of grain, it was proposed to have recourse to a bounty upon exportation a measure that had not been resorted to for nearly thirty years. With this view a bill was brought into par- liament, allowing exportation when the price of wheat was at or below forty-eight shillings per quarter of eight Winchester bushels, and importation when the average price in the twelve maritime counties of England should exceed sixty-six shillings. The bill passed through the house of commons with- out any formidable opposition, but in the lords some few petitions were presented against it Earl Stanhope called it " A Bill to starve the Poor," and moved that it be rejected. The measure, however, passed into a law. The house of commons, on the second of July, on the motion of the chancellor of the exchequer, resolved itself into a committee of supply, to wiich several accounts relative to the augmentation of the civil-list were referred : when the arrears thereof were found to amount to five hundred and ninety thousand pounds. This excess of expendi- ture, it was stated, had arisen from a variety of expenses incurred by services which could not be foreseen in the year 1802, when the house voted the discharge of arrears then due, amounting to about two hundred and thirty thousand pounds. With respect to the future state of tie civil-list, it was proposed that several charges upon it should be annu- ally discharged by parliament. These charges amounted to one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds, and related to fluctuating expenses: many of them arose from the war; others from increased law expenses. The house assented to the propositions of the chancellor of the exchequer almost with- out opposition. Parliament was prorogued on the thirty- first of July, when the king expressed a hope that the exertions of this country might, by their influence on other nations, lead to the re-establishment of a system that would op- pose an effectual barrier to those schemes HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of unbounded ambition which threatened to overwhelm the continent of Europe. SUCCESSFUL WAR IN INDIA. THE events of the war in the peninsula of Hindostan must now be adverted to. The peishwa, or Mahratta sovereign of Poonah, having been expelled from his dominions by Holkar in 1802, concluded a subsidiary treaty with the English company on the last day of the yar ; and to effect his restoration a detachment of troops was placed under the command of major-general Arthur Welles- ley, afterwards duke of Wellington, who en- tered the Mahratta territories in March, 1803, and advanced rapidly to Poonah, which was re-ente'red by its sovereign on the thir- teenth of May. Scindia and the Rajah of Berar were in the mean time negotiating an alliance with Holkar, of which the governor- general, the marquis Wellesley, having ob- tained evidence, it was resolved to employ the whole military force to break so danger- ous a confederacy. General Wellesley, who was opposed to the two latter chieftains, marched against the fortress of Ahmednughur, which he re- duced on the twelfth of August, and then advanced to Aurungabad. On the twenty- third of September, he gained a complete victory at Assaye over a greatly superior force: the Bombay army had also been suc- cessful in the Guzzerat, and gained posses- sion of the territories of Scindia in that province. In September and October, the town and province of Cuttack were wrested from the Rajah of Berar, by a force under lieutenant-colonel Harcourt; and in the north, general Lake, at the head of the Ben- gal army, reduced the strong fortress of Ally Ghur, after driving to a precipitate retreat the forces commanded by Perron, a French officer in the service of Scindia, who in con- sequence lost his reputation and influence in India. The British general then advanced towards the city of Delhi, and gave battle to the army of Scindia, commanded by Louis Bourquien, over which, after a severe con- flict, ho obtained a complete victory, and released the Mogul Emperor, Shall Aulum, who put himself under the protection of the English. General Lake next reduced the fort of Agra, and on the first of November defeated the remainder of Scindia's forces at Laswaree. Meantime general Wellesley entirely defeated the Rajah of Berar on the twenty-eighth of November, in the plains of Argauin, which victory was 'followed by the capture of the strong fortress of Gamil Ghur. These successes compelled the Rajah to sue for peace ; nn-1 a treaty was concluded on the seventeenth of December, by which he ceded the province of Cuttack, with some other territories, and engaged never to take into his sen-ice the subject of any state at war with the English. A treaty with Scindia also speedily followed, in which he agreed to cede all his forts, territories, and rights in the Douab, and in the districts northward of the dominions of the rajahs of Jeypoor and Judpoor, together with Baroach in the Guz- zerat, and Ahmednughur in the Deccan. Thus was the French interest in India anni- hilated, a powerful confederacy against the English dissolved, and the dominion of the company consolidated. The thanks of par- liament were voted to his excellency, and to all who had shared in the dangers and glo- ries of the contest ; while the king conferred upon general Lake the title of lord Lake, and on general Wellesley the order of the Bath Goree, on the coast of Africa, was taken by a French force, under the command of chevalier Mahe, in January, and recaptured in March by a small expedition under cap- tain Dickson. On the fifth of May, the rich and important colony of Surinam surrendered to major-general Sir Charles Green; and although the capture was an enterprise of considerable difficulty, this valuable acquisi- tion was obtained with little loss. ATTACK ON THE BOULOGNE FLOTILLA. FAILURE OF THE CATAMARAN PRO- JECT. THE British naval operations of this year consisted almost entirely of exertions rigor- ously to enforce the system of blockade; and in attacks upon the enemy's boats, which either ventured out of the harbor of Boulogne, for the purposes of exercise or menace, or were proceeding from other ports to that depot ; it was, however, impossible to obviate the effects of occasional rumors of invasion. In the month of August a gene- ral movement on the opposite coast exhibit- ed every appearance of an approaching at- tack upon some part of the British empire ; and at Boulogne, in particular, an extraor- dinary degree of activity prevailed. Of the various armed vessels collected in that im- mense depdt, a greater number was brought out into the bay than on any former occasion. Disposed in hostile array, under the protec- tion of their numerous batteries on shore, they were vigorously attacked by the Brit- ish squadron upon that station: the firing was tremendous, and its duration favored the belief that the long threatened inva- sion was at this time to be certainly attempt- ed. Under the influence of this impression, the greatest exertions were made for the public safety ; in the early part of Septem- ber the alarm began to subside.: but in the beginning of October, about one hundred and fifty of the enemy's vessels again ven- tured outside the pier. At this period min- isters were induced to sanction a scheme which had been submitted to them by some American projector, and was principally to GEORGE m. 17601820. 497 be carried into effect thrdugh the medium of copper vessels filled with combustibles, and so constructed as to explode in a given time, by means of clock-work. These ves- sels, called catamarans, were to be fastened to the bottom of the enemy's gun-boats by the aid of a small raft, rowed by one man, who, being seated up to the chin in water, might possibly, in a dark night, escape de- tection. Fire-ships of different constructions were also to be employed in the projected attack. The most active officers were dis- tributed in different explosion vessels, and the whole was placed under the orders of admiral lord Keith, commanding in the Downs, with instructions to cover the small- er force by his powerful squadron. On the second of October his lordship, with a for- midable fleet, anchored at about a league and a half from the north to the west of the port of Boulogne ; and so strongly did min- isters feel interested in the result, that Pitt, and several other members of the cabinet, were induced to witness the scene from Walmer Castle. At a quarter past nine at night, the first detachment of fire-ships was launched, but the vessels of the flotilla opened a passage as they approached, and so effectually avoided them, that they sailed to the rear of the enemy's line without doing any damage. At half-past ten the first ex- plosion-ship blew up, but not the slightest mischief was done either to the ships or bat- teries. A second, a third, and a fourth suc- ceeded, but with no better effect : at length, after twelve of these ships had exploded, the engagement ceased about four o'clock in the morning, when the English smaller vessels withdrew, without the loss of a man. The enemy's loss, according to their own ac- count, was twenty-five killed and wounded. Thus terminated the catamaran project, on which much time, expense, and ingenuity, had been fruitlessly bestowed. REPULSE OF ADMIRAL LINOIS. As soon as intelligence of the renewal of the war between Great Britain and France arrived in the East Indies, the French ad- miral, Linois, withdrew from the roads of Pondicherry, and for some time carried on a predatory warfare against the English in that part of the globe : he captured several East-India ships, and, after making a suc- cessful descent on Fort Marlborough (Ben- coolen), plundered that settlement He next collected his force, consisting of the Marengo, of eighty guns ; the Semillante and Belle- poule, of forty ; a cutter and brigantine, of eighteen ; and a corvette, of twenty-eight guns ; and stationed his squadron in the In- dian seas, near the entrance of the straits of Malacca, with the determination to cruise in that latitude till the arrival of the home- ward-bound fleet from Canton. On the fifth 42* of February this fleet, consisting of fifteen of the East-India company's ships from China, twelve country ships, a Portuguese East-Indiaman, and a brig, passed Macao roads, under the command of captain Dance, the senior .officer, when the Portuguese ves- sel and one of the China ships parted com- pany. On the fourteenth the squadron under admiral Linois was discovered by the India fleet, when the commodore instantly hoisted the signal for his fleet to form a line of bat- tle in close order. At sun-set the enemy was close upon the rear of the company's- ships, but he desisted from any hostile ope- ration during the night At daybreak on the fifteenth he was seen about three miles to windward, when the vessels under the command of captain Dance hoisted their colors and offered him battle. At one o'clock in the afternoon, the commodore, apprehen- sive that his rear might be cut off, made the signal to attack each of the hostile ships in succession, which was correctly performed. The Royal George, from her advanced situ- ation, sustained the brunt of the action, and got as near the enemy as he would permit ; the Ganges and Earl Camden both opened their fire as soon as their guns could take effect ; but, before any other ship could get into action, the enemy stood away to the eastward, and captain Dance pursued them for two hours, when, fearing that a longer pursuit might endanger the property confided to his care, he anchored in a situation to pro- ceed for the entrance of the straits on the following day. Thus did the gallantry of a fleet of British merchantmen put to flight a French admiral, commanding ships of war superior in force and in men, and preserve from capture a property estimated at one million five hundred thousand pounds. On the arrival of the fleet in England, rewards were distributed with a liberal hand, by the East India company, to the various com- manders and their brave crews; and the wounded, as well as the representatives of the few who fell in the engagement, were munificently rewarded ; while the sovereign conferred upon the commodore the honor of knighthood. RUPTURE WITH SPAIN. DETENTION OF TREASURE SHIPS. WHILE a negotiation was pending be- tween the courts of Madrid and London, admiral Cochrane acquainted the admiralty that preparations on a large scale were making in the port of Ferrol, so that in a few days a formidable squadron would be ready for sea ; and that he had no doubt but the Spanish government waited only for the arrival of a fleet of frigates, containing trea- sures, from South America, to commence open hostilities. On receipt of this informa- tion, captain Moore, with four frigates under 408 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. his command, was ordered to cruise off Cadiz for the purpose of detaining such Spanish ships of war, homeward bound, as contained bullion or treasure; and on the fifth of October he fell in with four large frigates, which, on finding themselves pur- sued, formed in line of battle, and continued to steer in for Cadiz without regarding his summons to shorten sail. He fired a shot across the bows of the second, which hod the desired effect of bringing them to a par- ley, when the Spanish commander was in- formed that captain Moore had orders to de- tain his squadron ; that it was his wish to execute that duty without bloodshed, but the determination to surrender must be made instantly. The answer being unsatisfactory, a close battle ensued; in less than ten minutes the Spanish ship La Mercedes blew up, and the others struck in succession, after sustaining a considerable loss. Except the second captain of the Mercedes, and forty- five men, who were picked up by the boats of the Amphion, all on board perished. An affecting calamity attended the loss of this vessel. A gentleman of rank, who was going to Spain in that ship with his whole family, consisting of his lady, four daughters and five sons, had passed with one of the latter on board another frigate before the action commenced, and they had there the horror of witnessing the dreadful catastrophe, which in an instant severed from them their dearest relatives, and de- prived them of a fortune, the accumulation of five and twenty years. The squadron was from Monte Video, Rio de la Plata, and contained upwards of four millions of dollars, of which about eight hundred thou- sand were on board the Mercedes; and the merchandise on board the frigate was also of great value. The admiralty was much blamed for not having sent such a force to intercept these vessels as would have allowed their commander to submit at once, without impeachment to his honor; whereas the equality of strength rendered a san- guinary combat inevitable. The negotia- tions at Madrid were not immediately broken off in consequence of this event ; but after some time spent in fruitless attempts, on the part of Great Britain, to obtain a full disclosure of the existing engagements be- tween France and Spain, his Catholic ma- jesty declared war against England on the twelfth of December. In this year, a British naval officer, captain Wright, died in the prison called the Tem- ple, at Paris, under circumstances which gave rise to the suspicion that his death pro- ceeded from the hands of violence. He had been the fellow-prisoner of Sir Sidney Smith, and, after escaping with that officer from the Temple, had served with him in Egypt and Syria, and was the person who effected the landing of Georges, Pichegru, and their com- panions, on the coast of France. On the fifteenth of May, while cruising in the Bay of Quiberon, he was becalmed and made prisoner by the French gun-boats, and did not long survive his captivity. MURDER OF DUKE D'ENGHIEN. COM- PLAINT AGAINST BRITISH ENVOYS. SEIZURE OF SIR GEORGE RUMBOLD. THE duke D'Enghien, the. worthy repre- sentative of the house of Conde, had, since the continental peace, lived in retirement at the town of Ettenheim, in the electorate of Baden. In this neutral territory Buonaparte resolved to seize him; for which purpose general Caulincourt, with a body of cavalry, entered the electorate on the fifteenth of March, and coming unawares upon the des- tined victim, secured him and several of his friends without difficulty, and even without opposition. The duke was immediately con- veyed to Strasburg, and thence, without any interval of repose, to Paris, where he was conducted to the same prison, the Temple, which had been the last scene of his sove- reign's miseries : he was not, however, per- mitted to remain here, but was hurried away to the castle of Vincennes, where he arrived on the twentieth; and that same evening, exhausted with fatigue, he was dragged be- fore a military commission, when a pretend- ed trial ensued, and in two hours, without any evidence being produced, the illustrious prisoner was found guilty of having borne arms against the French republic, of having conspired to restore the monarchy, and of being an accomplice in the late conspiracy. In the night, Buonaparte's brother-in-law, Murat, with four other general officers, among whom were his own brother, Louis Buonaparte, and Duroc, the consul's secre- tary, arrived at the castle, under an appro- priate escort of Mamelucs and the duke was shot by nine Italian grenadiers. He died with the spirit of a Christian soldier, expressing his satisfaction that his execu- tioners were not Frenchmen. This event was first made known in pa- pers printed out of France ; for it was not until after several days that the Paris news- papers contained any narrative on the sub- ject. In private, where men could venture to express an opinion, every Frenchman de- clared his abhorrence of the act. In foreign countries the murder was stigmatized in be- coming terms ; and, in some, solemn funeral obsequies were performed in honor of the victim. Several notes on the illegal seizure of the duke D'Enghien, and the violation of the neutrality of the German empire, were delivered to the diet of Ratisbon, and ad- dressed to the French minister for foreign affairs, among which the most spirited were GEORGE m. 17601820. 499 those presented by the Russian, Swedish, and Hanoverian ministers. To divert public attention from this atro- city, the French government announced the discovery of another plot, in which they im- plicated the British minister at the court of Munich, Drake, and the envoy to the elector of Wirtemburg, Spencer Smith : a mass of documents and intercepted letters were pro- duced, from which it appeared that Drake had incautiously given some attention to the representations and projects of Mehee de la Touche; who, having obtained access to him, and made a tender of his services, reported to the French government the result of his intrigues. The correspondence was com- municated to the elector of Bavaria, who declared it impossible for him to have any communication with Drake, or to receive him at his court, and the British envoy of course quitted the Bavarian territories: Spencer Smith was also under the necessity of leav- ing Stutgard. As the papers respecting this transaction were widely distributed, it be- came necessary for the British government to vindicate itself, and a circular letter was addressed by lord Hawkesbury to the foreign ministers in London, which, hi repelling the imputation of countenancing projects of as- sassination, maintained the right of bellig- erent powers to avail themselves of any dis- contents existing in the countries with which they may be at war. The exercise of this right was fully sanctioned by the actual state of the French nation, and by the conduct of its government, which had, ever since the commencement of the war, maintained a communication with the disaffected in his majesty's dominions, and had assembled, on the coast of France, a body of Irish rebels for the purpose of aiding their designs. And if any accredited minister at a foreign court had held correspondence with persons in France, with a view to obtain information of the projects of the French government, he had done no more than ministers, under sim- ilar circumstances, had uniformly been con- sidered as having a right to do. These ar- guments were combated in a circular note, authorizing the French envoys to declare to the governments where they resided, that Buonaparte would not recognize the English diplomatic body in Europe, so long as they were not restrained within the limits of their functions. Shortly after this attempt to place the British diplomatic corps out of the protection of the law of nations, the French govern- ment most daringly infringed that very law. On the twenty-fifth of October, Sir George Rumbold, the English charge d'affaires in the circle of Lower Saxony, was seized at his country-house near Hamburgh by a party of French troops, and conveyed to Paris, im- prisoned in the Temple, and released only on signing a parole not to return to Ham- burgh, or reside within a certain distance of the French territories. The senate of Ham- burgh appealed to the courts of Berlin, Vien- na, and Petersburgh, on this vioktion of their territory, and an application was made by the British minister for foreign affairs to the Prussian cabinet ; but a remonstrance from that quarter had already been made with success for the liberation of the envoy, and he was conveyed from Cherbourg, by a flag of truce, on board the Niobe frigate, which carried him to Portsmouth, after in vain ap- plying for the restitution of his papers. BUONAPARTE ELECTED EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. EMPEROR OF GER- MANY DECLARED EMPEROR OF AUS- TRIA. BUONAPARTE, encouraged by the general state of things, proceeded to ascend the last step on the ladder of ambition, and, when all the previous preparations had been made, addresses were presented to him by the legislative and municipal bodies, and by the different armies, in the months of March, April, and May, beseeching him to become emperor of the French. No extreme of adulation could exceed that by which these addresses were marked : a man whose hands were stained with the blood of an innocent and virtuous prince, was held up as a model of virtue ; and the people, over whom a mil- itary tyranny held despotic sway, were re- presented as supremely happy under his mild and free government. On the eighteenth of May a decree- was finally passed by the senate, abolishing the constitution which the senators and consuls themselves had so re- cently sworn to observe and maintain invio- late; and declaring Napoleon Buonaparte emperor of the French, and the imperial dignity hereditary in his family. The new emperor then addressed a letter to his bish- ops, in which he ascribed his elevation to Providence, and ordered a Te Deum to be sung in all the churches on the glorious oc- casion. The bishops kept pace in their ad- ulation with the military and civil bodies, and framed prayers adapted to the new order of things ; while, to crown the whole, the Pope was ordered to attend the ceremony of the coronation, and to place the crown on the head of his " dearest son in Christ, Na- poleon, emperor of the French, who has sig- nified his strong desire to be anointed with the holy unction." This ceremony took place on the nineteenth of November, in the cathedral of Notre Dame, at Paris, the same church in which, with more zeal, the Parisians had, a few years before, worship- ped a naked prostitute, as the Goddess of 500 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Reason, in obedience to the command of Buonaparte's friend and predecessor, Maxi- milian Robespierre. The assumption of the imperial dignity by Buonaparte gave a new interest to the political concerns of Europe ; and the time had now arrived when the Germanic body was no longer to be considered as united , under one head. In the month of August, the emperor Francis issued a decree, by which his title of emperor of Germany was changed for that of Austria. The council of state de- clared the object of this measure to be " the preservation of that degree of equality which should subsist between the great powers, and the just rank of the house and state of Austria among the nations of Europe." The emperor further urged, that, in conferring upon his family an hereditary imperial title, he was following the example of Russia in the last century, and of France in the pres- ent day. This event was hailed with undis- sembled joy by France and Prussia; and when it was announced to the diet of Ratis- bon, it excited no animadversion, except from the king of Sweden, who considered this change so inseparably connected with the. composition of the German empire, that it should be laid before the diet as a subject for deliberation. No tribute could have been more flattering to Buonaparte than this con- cession, which not only made the sovereign, hitherto considered as the first in Europe in point of dignity, more recent in the crea- tion of title than himself, but even recorded his example as one of the motives of the conduct of the emperor Francis. DISPUTE BETWEEN FRANCE AND RUS- SIACONVENTION BETWEEN FRANCE AND GENOA. THE renewal of the war on the continent had been some time confidently expected, and the appointment of lord Granville Leve- son Gower, as ambassador to the court of St. Petersburgh, served to strengthen the opinion that another continental alliance was on the. tapis. On the fifth of May the em- peror of Russia presented an energetic note to the diet of Ratisbon, on the seizure of the duke D'Enghien, expressive of his astonish- ment and concern at the event ; to which the French minister replied, that the firef consul felt himself in no way responsible to the emperor on a point which did not con- cern his interest ; and that if his majesty intended to form a new coalition in Europe, and to recommence the war, there was no need of empty pretences. Two months elapsed before a reply was made to this pa- per; but on the twenty-first of July, M. D'Oubril, the Russian charge d'affaires, complained that it was by no means an an- swer to the note he had deli vered. An im- portant correspondence ensued, during which the king of Sweden appeared to be ani- mated with a resolution to support the prin- ciples of the laws of nations, and to make common cause with the emperor Alexander. The emperor of Russia's appeal to the diet of Ratisbon had little effect on the Ger- manic body. The king of Prussia evinced no disposition to resist the aggressions of Buonaparte ; and the majority of the other states were fearful of the renewal of a con- test, in which they might risk more than they could hope to gain. The emperor Al- exander, in warmly remonstrating against the usurping spirit of France, had insisted upon the evacuation of the kingdom of Na- ples and the north of Germany by the French, and the indemnification of the king of Sardinia. The refusal of compliance oc- casioned the Russian resident to demand his passports; ajid both parties made prepara- tions for a renewal of hostilities. Austria, in the mean time, was employed in repair- ing the losses which her armies had sus- tained in the late war, and in improving the condition of her military establishments. Buonaparte spared no effort to acquire the means of meeting the British navy on equal terms. He had now at his disposal the fleets of Spain ; and, by a convention concluded on the twentieth of October, he obtained from Genoa, in return for some commercial advantages, the service of six thousand sea- men during the war, and the use of the har- bors, arsenals, and dock-yards. Thus the port of Genoa was virtually ceded to him, under an engagement that the Ligurian re- public should, at its own expense, enlarge the basin for the reception of ten sail of the line, which were to be immediately con- structed. GEORGE m. 17601820 501 CHAPTER XXXV. Letter from Buonaparte to His Majesty The Answer Addington raised to the Peer- age, and joins the Ministry Other Appointments Opening of Parliament King's Speech Supply Budget Catholic Claims Vote of Credit Proceedings against Lord Melville Resignation of Lord Sidmouth and the Earl of Buckinghamshire Illness of Pitt New Coalition against France Commencement of Hostilities Surrender of General Mack Buonaparte enters Vienna Advances into Moravia Movements in Italy The Archduke Charles falls back towards Vienna State of the Russian Forces Battle of Austerlitz Armistice Return of the Russians The Archduke Ferdinand defeats a Corps of Bavarians Treaty of Presburg Treaty between France and Prussia French Fleets put to Sea Attempts on the West India Islands Lord Nelson's Pursuit Sir Robert Calder's Engagement with Vil- leneuve Victory of Trafalgar, and Death of Lord Nelson War in India Its Termination Marquis Cornwallis appointed Governor- General His Death. LETTER FROM BUONAPARTE. PITT was employed in laying 1 the founda- tion of a new confederacy against France, as soon as an opportunity should occur for carrying it into effect, when ministers re- ceived a letter, written by Napoleon's own hand, and addressed to his Britannic majesty. This unusual mode of communication, which he had before adopted upon his accession to the office of first consul, was chosen from a professed desire to disengage so important a transaction from the intrigues of cabinets, and the perplexities and delays of diplomacy. After adverting to his recent elevation to the throne of France, and lamenting the un- necessary effusion of blood, he said he con- sidered it no disgrace 1 to take the first step towards conciliation ; for, though peace was the wish of his heart, war had never been inconsistent with his glory. As it had never been customary for the English sovereign to communicate directly with a foreign poten- tate, an answer was returned by lord Mul- grave, addressed to the French minister, in- timating- his majesty's wish to procure the blessings of peace on terms compatible with the permanent security of Europe ; but stat- ing the impracticability of more fully meeting the overture now made, until he had com- municated with the powers of the continent with whom he was engaged in confidential connexions and relations. APPOINTMENTS IN THE MINISTRY- OPENING OF PARLIAMENT. SUPPLY. 1805. PITT found it expedient to renew his connexion with Addington; and that gentleman having been called up to the house of peers by the title of viscount Sidmouth, was, on the fourteenth of January, 1805, ap- pointed to succeed the duke of Portland, as president of the council. At the same time lord Mulgrave was appointed secretary for foreign affairs in the place of lord Har- rowby, and the earl of Buckinghamshire chancellor of the dutchy of Lancaster. On the fifteenth, the session of parliament was opened by his majesty in person. The speech from the throne announced that the prepara- tions for invasion were still carried on by France with unremitting activity; that Spam, under the control of the French gov- ernment, had issued a declaration of war against this country ; and that the pacific communications from France had been met by a corresponding disposition on the part of his majesty. The usual addresses passed unanimously in both houses. On the twenty-third of January, one hun- dred and twenty thousand men, including marines, were voted by the house of com- mons for the service of the navy, for the year 1805 ; and a sum not exceeding two million eight hundred and eighty-six thou- sand pounds for the payment of the men. At the same tune, the sum of two million nine hundred and sixty-four thousand pounds was granted for victualling, and four million six hundred and eighty thousand pounds for wear and tear of shipping, &c. The num- ber of men actually employed in the navy at this time amounted to one hundred and eight thousand. On the fourth of February, the secretary at war moved the army esti- mates of the year, which amounted to twelve million three hundred and ninety-five thou- sand four hundred and ninety pounds seven shillings and sixpence, for three hundred and twelve thousand and forty-eight men, under the different heads of service. In the budget, which was opened on the eighteenth, the minister stated the joint charge of supplies for Great Britain and Ireland at forty-four million five hundred thousand pounds. Among the ways and means were a loan of twenty million pounds for England, and two million five hundred thousand pounds for Ireland; several new war taxes were imposed ; an augmentation of one-fourth was laid on the 502 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. property tax, and of one-half on the duty on salt This being strongly objected to, as likely to be injurious to the fisheries, considerable modifications were made in then- favor. Petitions from the Roman Catholics of Ireland, praying relief from civil disabilities, gave rise to very interesting discussions ; but the minister declared that existing circum- stances were unfavorable to then* claims, and they were rejected by considerable ma- jorities. On the nineteenth of June, in con- sequence of a royal message, relative to ne- gotiations pending with some of the conti- nental powers, a sum not exceeding three million five hundred thousand pounds was granted to his majesty, to enable him to en- ter into such engagements, and to take such measures, as the exigencies of affairs might demand. On the twelfth of July parliairient was prorogued by commission. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST LORD MEL- VILLE. IN the course of this session proceedings were instituted against a member of admin- istration, which strongly engaged the atten- tion of the public. Amongst the measures for the reformation of the public expendi- ture, meditated or resolved upon by the Ad- dington administration, an inquiry into the abuses of the naval department was one of the most prominent ; and a bill was passed in 1803, appointing commissioners for that purpose. This bill originated in a great de- gree with earl St Vincent, first lord of the admiralty, a situation to which, on Pitt's re- turn to power, lord Melville was appointed. In the meanwhile, the commissioners had produced several successive reports, one of which, the tenth, appeared to implicate the new first lord of the admiralty, who had, while he filled the office of treasurer of the navy, retained in his hands large sums of the public money, contrary to law. This report Whitbread brought under the consideration of the house of commons in April, observing that the commissioners had done their duty to the public, and it fell to his lot to bring to justice. those whom they had exposed. The report involved not only lord Melville, but Alexander Trotter, his paymaster, Mark Sproot, a stock-broker, and others. In ex- hibiting a charge against lord Melville, he did not accuse a mere unprotected indi- vidual : that nobleman had, for a period of thirty years, been in the uninterrupted pos- session of some lucrative office, and had ex- ercised a most extensive influence ; he had many individuals attached to him by the consciousness of obligation ; and, though not personally present, he had, no doubt, power- ful friends in the house who would be found ready to undertake his defence. Whitbread then referred to the act of 1785, of which lord Melville (then Dundas) was the sup- porter, for regulating the department of treasurer of the navy ; and to the order of council, by which his salary was advanced from two thousand pounds to four thousand pounds a-year, in lieu of all profits, fees, or emoluments, which he might before have derived from the public money lying in his hands. The charges were classed under three heads: first, the having applied the money of the public to other uses than those of the naval department, with which he was connected, in express contempt of an act of parliament ; second, conniving at a system of peculation in an individual, for whose conduct he was officially responsible ; and, third, his participation in that system. To the honor of public men, said Whitbread, charges like this have seldom been prefer- red ; and it is a singular circumstance that the only instance of a similar charge, for a great number of years, was brought against Sir Thomas Rumbold by the noble lord him- self, on the ground of malversations in India. With respect to the first charge, it appeared from the report that there had been, for a number of years, deficiencies in the trea- surer of the navy's department to the amount of upwards of six hundred thousand pounds a-year. When lord Melville was asked a plain question as to the appropriation of this money, he, as well as Trotter, professed total ignorance of the deficiencies; but by-and-by the paymaster began to recover his recollec- tion, and confessed, that from the year 1786 down to the period at which he was exam- ined, he had been in the habit of drawing out public money, and placing it in the hands of his own bankers. When the commis- sioners inquired a little further, he had the assurance to tell them that they had no right to interfere in his private affairs. Lord Melville, in a letter to the commissioners, acknowledged the fact of advances having been made to him ; but said that he could not give the other information required, be- cause he could not disclose state secrets, and because he was not in possession of the ac- counts of advances made to other depart- ments, having himself committed them to the flames ; and not only had the noble lord destroyed the papers, but he had actually lost all recollection of the whole affair ! The second charge against' lord Melville was, that he connived at the appropriation of pub- lic money to private purposes. Trotter did not deny that he had large sums in the hands of Courts, his private banker ; but said it was more convenient for the money to be there than in the bank of England, and more secure : and for the truth of this opinion he appealed to lord Melville to lord Melville, who framed and sanctioned the bill of 1785 ! to lord Melville, who, not satisfied with the regulations of the act of 1785, proposes still GEORGE ffl. 17601820. 503 stricter limitations in 1786 ! For what pur- pose, however, Whitbread asked, was there so constant a fluctuation in Trotter's account at Coutts's 1 and why such perpetual drafts for money, in the name of Trotter 1 At the time that he was anxious for the safety of what was passing through his hands, was it always lodged at Coutts's, altowing that to be the place of fittest security'? No, it was employed in discounting bills, in forming speculations, in gambling on the stock ex- change. No less than thirty-four million pounds of the public property had passed through lord Melville's paymaster's hands ; and, had Trotter's speculations failed, it was not to him, but to has lordship, that the pub- lic had to look for redress. While the people were struggling with the heaviest burdens ever laid upon them, Trotter, and his silent discreet broker^Mark Sprott, were placing their heads together to lay out the public money to the greatest advantage ; and lord Melville never once inquired into his pay- master's proceedings. On the third part of the subject (the suspicion of criminal parti- cipation) Whitbread said that lord Melville had found Trotter clerk to the navy pay- office ; he made him his paymaster, and in a short time his agent. In this situation lord Melville had pecuniary concerns with him to a considerable amount, but was unable to tell the commissioners whether the advances made to him by Trotter were from his own or the public money. The truth was, that lord Melville knew, when he first patronized him, that, though a man of good family, he had no property but what was derived from his salary: it was absolute equivocation, then, to pretend that his lordship could be ignorant of the source whence Trotter was enabled to supply him with advances. Whit- bread concluded by moving thirteen resolu- tions, founded on the circumstances which he had developed. Pitt, in a long and able speech, remarked that there was no allegation in the report, or even in the speech of Whitbread, that any loss to the public had been sustained by the transactions under consideration. He ad- mitted that the subject was of a grave and solemn nature, and that, if, in a great money department^ irregularities had been commit- ted, though unattended with loss, it might be the duty of the house to set a mark upon such proceedings ; but all the circumstances of this case were not before them in the re- port, and, till they were investigated, the house could not be in a situation to come to any vote. On the face of the accounts, one hundred thousand pounds was the whole amount of the advances to lord Melville. It was known that, of all the sums of one hun- dred and sixty million pounds which had passed through the hands of his lordship, every farthing had been regularly accounted for ; and it would be found that, of the one hundred thousand pounds, which, on the face of the account, was paid to lord Melville, many of the drafts were, in reality, payments for public services. If this could be made out, as he was informed it could, it was of itself a conclusive argument for further in- quiry ; he therefore moved that a select com- mittee be appointed to consider the tenth report of the commissioners of naval inquiry, and the documents therewith connected ; that they examine the same, and report their opinion thereon to the house. At the sug- gestion of Fox, Pitt consented, in the first instance, to move the previous question. Tieraey said, that, during the time he was treasurer of the navy, he felt no-inconveni- ence from a compliance with the act of par- liament, and held that the report of the com- missioners should be taken as conclusive evidence against lord Melville. After a number of observations from the attorney- general, Canning, the master of the rolls, and lord Castlereagh, in favor of a select committee, and from lord Henry Petty, Pon- sonby, Fox, and Mr. Wilberforce, in support of the resolution, the house divided, when there appeared two hundred and sixteen votes for, and two hundred and sixteen against, Whitbread's motion, and the speaker gave his casting vote in its favor. On the tenth of April the chancellor of the exchequer announced to the house of commons that lord Melville had tendered his resignation of the office of first lord of the admiralty, which his majesty had accepted. Whitbread said that, had the issue of the debate on Monday been merely of a personal or party nature, he might have been satisfied with lord Melville's removal from the re- sponsibility, dignity, and emolument, attach- ed to the situation which he had resigned ; but he thought it so necessary that his lord- ship should be prevented from ever again polluting with his presence the councils of his sovereign, that, before any other pro- ceeding, he should move an address to the throne, praying his majesty to deprive the noble lord of every civil office held during the pleasure of the crown, and to dismiss him from the councils of the kingdom for ever. Whitbread asked whether Pitt was prepared to give a pledge to this effect, and whether Trotter had been dismissed 1 Can- ning replied that he had, but he did not think that the case of lord Melville, which, at the most, amounted to no more than a bare sus- picion, warranted the severity of the pro- ceedings now proposed; and, after a very animated conversation, Whitbread agreed to withdraw his motion, in lieu of which he moved that the resolutions of the former night be laid before his majesty by the whole 504 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. house, and on the following day they were presented accordingly. On the sixth of May, Whitbread moved for the erasure of lord Melville's name from the list of privy-counsellors, when Pitt said he had reason to believe that the measure was considered, generally, as expedient; and he had therefore felt it his duty to recom- mend it. He had not given this advice without a bitter pang, but he could not suffer feelings of private friendship to inter- fere with what he found to be the declared sense of a majority of the house. Whit- bread then inquired whether lord Melville held any place of profit during the pleasure of the crown ? and, being answered none but for life, he withdrew his motion. The commissioners of naval inquiry had, in the early progress of these discussions, been sedulously occupied in the researches arising out of the tenth report ; and Whit- bread now gave notice of an intention finally to move for an impeachment, which was met on the part of Robert Dundas, son of lord Melville, by a requisition that the noble lord should be previously admitted and heard by the house. Leave having been obtained from both houses, his lordship, es- corted by the serjeant-at-arms, advanced within the bar on the eleventh of June, and entered upon his defence. He solemnly as- serted that he never knew that Trotter had drawn any money for the purposes of specu- lation, and declared that he had felt highly indignant at the charge that such transac- tions had been conducted with his privity, and that Trotter had enjoyed the advantage of his (lord Melville's) knowledge of the confidential secrets of government. His lordship as positively denied his participa- tion in the profits of Trotter : he admitted that, when the money was drawn for naval purposes, he had suffered him to place it in the house of Coutts and Co. until it should be wanted ; but that he had ever given him power to draw money from the bank indis- criminately, was untrue. He certainly did suppose the paymaster derived a profit from the sums invested in Coutts's hands, but he had never considered it as a clandestine or unlawful proceeding ; and the reason he had not directly disclaimed any share in those profits, when examined before the commit- tee, was because he had that moment been informed of the confusion in which his pay- master's accounts stood, and there was a doubt in his own mind whether he might not unintentionally have received what was his own property from unlawful profits. His lordship referred to two sums of about ten thousand pounds each, the circumstances relative to which he felt equally bound, by private honor and public duty, never to dis- close ; though he affirmed that those sums were neither used nor meant to be employ- ed for any object of profit by him. He had certainly directed his agent to procure for him the loan of twenty thousand pounds, for which he had paid regular interest ; but it was not till within the last six weeks that he knew Trotter was the lender of the money. After explaining the nature of his transactions with respect to the loyalty loan, to which he subscribed the sum of ten thou- sand pounds, his lordship said, when he de- stroyed all vouchers, it was because he con- sidered them useless, and not from the most remote apprehension of danger from their existence. He could scarcely believe that an impeachment was intended; he was equally incredulous with respect to an in- dictment ; and he did not yet despair of re- ceiving justice from his deluded country. Whitbread then said, the excuse offered by lord Melville for not directly answering questions, in consequence of the mixed state of Trotter's accounts, was strange and in- credible. He argued on the suspicious cir- cumstance of refusing to give any account of the two sums of ten thousand pounds, and declared that if his lordship would refer the matter to a jury of honor, consisting of the chancellor of the exchequer, Windham, and any other person of equal integrity, he should, in case they acquitted him, feel sat- isfied. Whitbread concluded by moving that Henry lord viscount Melville be im- peached of high crimes and misdemeanors. A long debate ensued, in the course of which Bond objected to an impeachment as cum- brous and expensive, and moved, as an amendment, that the attorney-general be directed to prosecute lord Melville for the several offences which appeared to have been committed by him. The motion for impeach- ment was rejected by a majority of seventy- seven, and Bond's amendment adopted by two hundred and thirty-eight to two hun- dred and twenty-nine voices : it was, how- ever, ultimately determined, on the twen- ty-fifth of June, that the mode of prosecu- tion by impeachment should be resorted to ; and Whitbread was appointed manager, with directions to acquaint the lords on the following day therewith. On this occasion Pitt delivered his last speech in the senate, and argued strongly in favor of a trial by impeachment, in preference to proceedings by a criminal prosecution. CHANGES IN THE CABINET. ILLNESS OF PITT. NEW COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. THE British cabinet was still in a divided state ; and the conflicting sentiments of its members threatened to produce a partial change in the ministry, had no subject of paramount interest arisen to call them more strongly into action. It appears that, soon GEORGE El. 17601820. 505 after the Easter recess, lord Sidmouth sug- gested the propriety of removing lord Mel- ville from the privy-council ; but Pitt, wish- ing to avoid that measure, conceived that both parliament and the country would be satisfied with the noble lord's resignation of his office as first lord of the admiralty. Neither party was disposed to yield, and lord Sidmouth, the earl of Buckinghamshire, and Mr. Vansittart, expressed their deter- mination to throw up their several appoint- ments ; but this extremity was for the pres- ent averted by the erasure of lord Melville's name from the list of the privy-council, and the vote of impeachment which afterwards passed against that nobleman. However, on the fifth of July, lord Sidmouth went out of office; and his example was followed by the earl of Buckinghamshire. These noblemen were succeeded by earl Camden and lord Harrowby, while lord Castlereagh was appointed to the foreign department, the office of first lord of the admiralty hav- ing been previously conferred on Sir Charles Middleton, who was called to the upper house under the title of lord Barham. For more than four years Pitt had labor- ed under all the inconveniencies resulting from a weak stomach, and the consequent failure of appetite ; and it will be easily conceived that mental anxiety is peculiarly calculated to aggravate the effects of such a disorder. This anxiety the unprosperous state of affairs on the continent tended fur- ther to increase. The continued encroach- ments of Buonaparte, who had crowned him- self king of Italy at Milan, and annexed Genoa to France, had roused the powers of the continent to resistance, and a treaty be- tween Russia and England had been signed at St Petersburgh on the eleventh of April, to which Austria and Sweden soon acceded, and of which the object was to restore, in some degree, the balance of power in Europe, by driving the French out of Han- over and the north of Germany ; by estab- lishing the independence of Holland and Switzerland ; by restoring the king of Sar- dinia to his throne ; and by compelling the French to evacuate the kingdom of Naples, and the whole of Italy. This great object it was promised to accomplish by an army of five hundred thousand men, in addition to the forces to be employed by Great Britain, who herself engaged to contribute to the common efforts both by sea and land, and to assist the different powers by subsidies. SURRENDER OF GENERAL MACK. BUO- NAPARTE ENTERS VIENNA. MOVE- MENTS IN ITALY. WHILST two Russian armies of fifty thou- sand men each were advancing towards the Danube, Buonaparte, in whose plans prompt- itude was always the leading feature, deter- VOL. IV. 43 mined to strike a decisive blow at the Aus- trians. Towards the close of August he or- dered the Boulogne flotilla to be dismantled, and the troops to march to the Rhine ; the bulk of his force in Holland and Hanover was also directed to proceed to the banks of the Danube : and, as soon as he received in- telligence that the Austrians had entered Bavaria, he convened the senate, stating, in a speech from the throne, that he was about to place himself at the head of his army. On this occasion two important decrees were proposed : the one for the immediate levy of eighty thousand conscripts, and the other for reorganizing the national guard. Having crossed the Rhine at Kehl, Buona- parte, at the head of one hundred and fifty thousand men, by a series of bold and rapid movements, gained a position between Vi- enna and the Austrian army under general Mack. That army, consisting of nearly ninety thousand men, dispersed over a wide extent of country, was beaten in de- tail, and reduced to thirty thousand, who, with their commander, were blocked up in Ulm. On the seventeenth of October Mack agreed to surrender, and on the twentieth the whole of the Austrian troops in that city laid down their arms before the French em- peror, and, with the exception of the field- officers, who were permitted to return home on their parole, surrendered themselves pris- oners of war, with all their artillery and magazines. Buonaparte, having sent for the Austrian generals, and kept them near his person while the troops defiled, complained of the injustice and aggression of the em- peror : " I desire nothing," said he, " on the continent, France wants only ships, colo- nies, and commerce ; and it is as much your interest as mine that I should have them." The king of Prussia had been provoked to some show of indignation by the march of French troops through part of the Prus- sian neutral territory of Anspach without asking permission, and was disposed to re- sent the insult ; but, on learning the fate of Mack's army, he relapsed into passive neu- trality. Buonaparte, immediately after the capitulation of Ulm, made the most active exertions for the further prosecution of the campaign. The first division of Russians, under general Kutusoff, had already arrived upon the banks of the Inn, and united itself to the Austrians in that quarter : it was of importance, if possible, to attack this force before the arrival of the second division, and with this view the French army, having been joined by the contingents of Bavaria, Baden, and Wirtemburg, advanced by rapid marches towards the Inn, which they passed in the face of the allies, who retreated step by step on the road to Vienna, to effect a junction with the second Russian division, 506 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. which was advancing under general Bux- hovden. In this situation of affairs, the em- peror of Austria, desirous of averting the evils with which he was menaced, by ne- gotiation, proposed an armistice, in order that negotiations might be commenced for a general peace. Buonaparte demanded that the Russian forces should return home, that the Hungarian levies should be disbanded, and that the Austrian troops should with- draw from the dutchy of Venice and the Tyrol ; but as these terms would place the imperial crown at his mercy, the emperor resolved still to struggle with his difficul- ties, and, perceiving the danger which threat- ened his capital, retired with his court to Brunn, in Moravia, Vienna was entered by the French on the thirteenth of November, and Buonaparte, on the second day after that event, proceeded to join the main army in Moravia, which was advancing with such rapidity that the Austrian court found it necessary to remove to Olmutz. The Russians, who had crossed the Danube at Krems, were retiring through that country to unite with the forces under the command of the emperor, and, after suf- fering severely in two spirited actions at Hollbrunn and Guntersdorf, they retreated through Znaim to Brunn, which they were compelled to evacuate on the eighteenth, leaving large quantities of ammunition and provisions. Buonaparte established his head- quarters there on the twentieth, and his main army took up a position at Withau, in face of the Austro-Russian army posted on the plains of Olmutz. The Italian campaign was opened upon the Adige on the eighteenth of October. The Austrian army was strongly posted near Verona, on the left bank of the river; while the French troops, under marshal Massena, occupied the city upon the opposite bank. The communication was by means of two bridges, and both parties had guarded against the passage of them by strong works, raised at the opposite extremities. The archduke Charles, however, was not in a condition to undertake offensive operations: the attack was therefore begun by the French, who forced the Austrian intrenchments ; and the archduke, having obtained information of the disaster at Ulm, fell back towards Vienna. The archduke John, severely pressed in the Tyrol, adopted the same resolution, and, after encountering many difficulties, the two brothers effected a junction at Laybach, in Carniola. Massena, who had advanced closely in pursuit, established a communica- tion with the corps of Ney and Marmont, who, after the reduction of the Tyrol, ap- proached the Danube to support the main body of the French army. t BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ ARMISTICE- TREATY OF PRESBURGH TREATY BE- TWEEN FRANCE AND RUSSIA. MARSHAL DAVOUST, leaving the principal part of the French army at Vienna, pro- ceeded with his division towards Presburgh, when he received overtures from count Palfy, the governor, in the name of the archduke Palatine, proposing that the mili- tary preparations in Hungary should be dis- continued, on condition that the French gen- eral would guaranty the neutrality of that kingdom. To this proposal the marshal readily acceded, and the principal resources of the house of Austria were thus reduced to the army of the archduke Charles, and to the small force of prince John of Lichten- stein, which had united itself to the Russian division under Kutusoff, who, perceiving the difficulties of his situation, sent the baron de Winzingerode to Murat, to propose terms of capitulation ; and a convention was con- cluded, which permitted the Russian army to retire into their own territory ; but Buo- naparte, conceiving them to be in his power, refused to ratify it In the mean time, gen- eral Kutusoff had retired with the utmost expedition to Znaim, leaving the division under prince Bagration, consisting of six thousand men, opposed to thirty thousand of the enemy, by whom he was surrounded, when he bravely cut his way through them, and arrived with comparatively little loss at the head-quarters of Wischau. The French pursued their advantages in every direction: on the twentieth of November Buonaparte arrived at Brunn, and received a deputation Trom the Moravian states, with a bishop at their head; Ney was already master of Brixen ; and Bernadotte occupied Iglau, on the confines of Bohemia. Many prisoners and much baggage fell into their hands in the various encounters ; and, on the twenty- third, they had pushed their reconnoitring sarties to the gates of Olmutz. The com- bined forces at that place amounted to nearly one hundred thousand men, of which the Russians formed the greater part ; but they were harassed by constant exertions, and en- 'eebled by continual privations. The prov- inces to a great distance around them were wasted, and no alternative remained but to ommit the fortunes of the campaign to the ast desperate valor of their troopa On the arrival of the emperor of Russia in his camp, Buonaparte sent his aid-de-camp, general Savary, to compliment that prince, and to propose an interview, which he declined, jut in return dispatched prince Dobgoruski x> explain his sentiments. In the mean time Savary, who had been indiscreetly suffered to remain within the Russian lines for three successive days, had returned to the French GEORGE HI. 17601820. 507 camp, and reported that, in spite of the de- plorable state of their troops, presumption, imprudence, and indiscretion, reigned in their military councils. Availing himself of this intelligence, Buonaparte issued or- ders for his army to retire under cover of the night, as if apprehensive of an engage- ment with so formidable an enemy, and to take up a strong position in the rear, where the troops were throwing up intrenchments, and forming batteries, when prince Dobgo- ruski made his appearance. These disposi- tions appear to have been attended with the desired effect. The head-quarters of the emperors of Russia and Germany were re- moved to Austerlitz, and a general attack was commenced at daybreak, on the second of December, in which Buonaparte suc- ceeded in completely insulating the centre of the allies, and, by possessing himself of the heights of Pratzen, decided the fate of the day. The Russians made many brave but fruitless efforts, and at night-fall retreat- ed upon Boscovitz, covered by the Austrian cavalry. The loss of the allies was esti- mated at a fourth part of their force ; and this tremendous conflict, which was styled by the French soldiers, The battle of the three emperors, and by Buonaparte, The bat- tle of Austerlitz, terminated the campaign and the war. The Austrian emperor, dis- mayed by his loss, solicited an immediate armistice ; and on the fourth an interview took place, at the French advanced posts, between Napoleon and the emperor of Aus- tria, when a suspension of arms was agreed upon, the terms of which were, that the French should remain in possession of all their conquests until the conclusion of a de- finitive peace, or the rupture of negotia- tions ; and that, in the latter case, hostilities should not recommence until the expiration of fourteen days. It was further stipulated that the Russian army should evacuate the Austrian states within a limited time ; that there should be no extraordinary raising of troops; and that negotiators should meet, without delay, to form a definitive treaty. The emperor Alexander refused to become a party to these conditions, and on the sixth of December caused his army to withdraw from the Austrian states. Before the arri- val of intelligence announcing the armis- tice, the archduke Ferdinand, who com- manded a corps of twenty thousand Austri- ans in Bohemia, defeated a corps of Bava- rians under general Wrede, and was rapidly advancing in the rear of the French army. Almost at the same period, the archduke Charles advanced from Hungary, within a day's march of Vienna, with a powerful force ; and, on summoning the city to sur- render, was greatly mortified to find him- self reduced to a state of inaction by the suspension of hostilities, and his country prostrate at the foot of a man, who, in the hour of triumph, suffered no generous im- pulse to soften his political resolves. A definitive treaty was signed at Pres- burg on the twenty-sixth of December, the provisions of which were, that the Venetian territory should be united in perpetuity to the kingdom of Italy ; that the royal title assumed by the electors of Bavaria and Wir- temburg should be acknowledged ; that the margraviate of Burgau, the principality of Eichstadt, part of the territory of Passau, the country of the Tyrol, and the lordships of Voralberg, should be ceded to the king of Bavaria ; that the Austrian emperor's pos- sessions in Franconia, Suabia, and Bavaria, should be divided between the kings of Ba- varia and Wirtemburg, and the elector of Baden ; that the county of Saltzburg and of Berchtoldsgaden, belonging to the archduke Ferdinand, should be incorporated with the Austrian empire, and that the archduke should receive from the king of Bavaria, in compensation, the territory of Wurtsburg. By this treaty it was estimated that the em- peror lost in subjects more than two million seven hundred thousand souls, and in reve- nue sixteen million of florins, about one mil- lion six hundred thousand pounds sterling ; but the diminution of power and influence which he sustained " "*"fr' i "if-^'s pos- sessions on the si eminently brilliant/-, quishing the line $fe h and SS?* he formerly maintained* his vSmWxMi with Switzerland, was a severe stroke upon his political consequence. A treaty between France and Prussia was also concluded at Vienna, which stipulated that Buonaparte should send no more troops into Hanover, and that the forces of the al- lies should be withdrawn, and replaced by those of Prussia, who, in exchange for Han- over, ceded Anspach and Bayreuth in Fran- conia, Cleves in Westphalia, and Neufchatel and Valengin in Switzerland. ATTEMPTS ON THE WEST INDIES BY FRENCH FLEETS. SIR ROBERT CAL- DER'S ENGAGEMENT. WHILST Buonaparte was thus successful on the continent, Great Britain was not less triumphant on her natural element. As early as the eleventh of January, a French squadron, consisting of six sail of the line and two frigates, after having been blockad- ed for more than two years in Rochefort, ventured out to sea, with the view to unite itself with the more formidable force at Brest ; and on the fifteenth the Toulon fleet, comprising eleven sail of the line, and hav- ing on board nine thousand troops, also push- ed out to sea, without being perceived by the blockading squadron under lord Nelson ; but after a short cruise was obliged again to 508 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. put into port through stress of weather. On the twenty-second of February, the force which had escaped from Rochefort, having proceeded to the West Indies, made a de- scent on the island of Dominica, and the town of Roseau was obliged to capitulate : the governor-general Prevost, however, re- treated to St Rupert's, where he was in vain summoned to surrender ; and the French commander at length abandoned the island, after levying a heavy contribution on the inhabitants of Roseau. He next visited the islands of Nevis and St. Kitt's, both of which were also laid under contribution ; but, on the arrival of admiral Cochrane in the West Indies, this marauding squadron precipitately sailed for France, where it ar- rived in safety. The alarm created in the public mind re- specting the proceedings of the Rochefort squadron had scarcely subsided, when intel- ligence was received that the Toulon fleet, under admiral Villeneuve, was again at sea. On the thirtieth of March this officer sailed to Carthagena ; but, not finding the Spanish ships in that port in readiness, he continued his course unmolested to Cadiz ; and, being there joined by one French and six Spanish sail of the line, he steered to the West In- dies with an accumulated force of eighteen sail of^the K^e t qarrying, beside their full cortfnlg large quantities Sen thousand vete- Tcovisions. Buonaparte e; triers there p*n f metal than in numbers. Admiral Villeneuve was a skilful seaman ; and his plan of de- fence was as well conceived, and as original, as the plan of attack. The Spaniards were commanded by admiral Gravina; and four thousand troops were embarked on board the fleet, under the command of general Con- tamin, among whom were several skilful sharp-shooters and Tyrolese riflemen. The British fleet bore up in two columns as they formed in the order of sailing ; and as the mode of attack was unusual, so the structure of the enemy's line was new ; it formed a crescent convexing to leeward, so that, in leading down to their centre, lord Colling- wood had both their van and rear abaft the beam. As the mode of our attack had been previously determined on, few signals were necessary, and none were made, except to direct close order as the lines bore down. The last telegraphic signal issued by the great commander on going into action was, " England expects every man to do his duty ;" and nobly indeed was it performed on this glorious day, for the battle of Trafal- gar is without a parallel in the annals of British victory. The conflict began about noon, when ad- miral Collingwood, in the Royal Sovereign, gallantly cut through the enemy's line about the twelfth ship from his rear, leaving his van unoccupied ; the succeeding ships broke through in all parts astern of their leaders, and engaged their antagonists at the muzzles of their guns. Lord Nelson, on board the Victory, directed his attack on the enemy's line between the tenth and eleventh ships in the van; but, finding it so close that there was not room to pass, he ordered his ship to be run on board the Redoubtable, op- posed to him ; his second, the Temeraire, engaged the next ship in the enemy's line, and the others singled out their adversaries according to the order of battle. During nearly four hours the conflict was tremen- dous, particularly in that part of the line where the commander-in-chief had com- menced the onset. The guns of his ship repeatedly set fire to the Redoubtable ; and the British seamen, apprehensive that both ships might be involved in destruction, were employed at intervals during the heat of the fight in throwing buckets of water on the spreading flames. About three in the after- noon the Spanish admiral, with ten sail of the line, joining the frigates to leeward, bore away for Cadiz ; and ten minutes afterwards five of the headmost ships of the enemy's van, under admiral Dumanoir, tacked, and stood to windward of the British line : the sternmost was taken, but the others escaped, The heroic exertions of the British were 43* rewarded by the capture of nineteen ships of the line, with the commander-in-chief, Villeneuve, and two Spanish admirals ; but, a gale of wind coming on from the south- west after the action, only four of the prizes could be saved, which were carried into Gibraltar. The Achille, a French seventy- four y blew up, after her surrender : but two hundred of her men were saved. Admiral Villeneuve was sent to England, and after- wards permitted to return to France, where, as was stated by the French government, he destroyed himself, dreading the conse- quences of a court-martial. In such a battle the loss on both sides must be severe ; that of the victors amount- ed to fifteen hundred men killed and wound- ed : but the deep regret which the effusion of so much brave blood cannot fail to excite was absorbed in the greater sorrow caused by the fall of the commander-in-chief, who was mortally wounded by a musket-shot from the ship with which he was closely en- ged. He survived the battle about two hours; and the pain of his last moments was soothed by the glad tidings that the hostile flags were striking around him; when, after breathing his thanks to Heaven for being enabled once more to do his duty to his country, he expired without a groan. Such was the end of this great man, whose career had been eminently brilliant, and whose fate was glorious and triumphant. Before the battle began he entertained a presentiment that this would be the last day of his life, and seemed to look for death with almost as sure an expectation as for victory ; but although this gloomy foreboding occu- pied his mind, and though he had more than once observed that the enemy would endeavor to mark him out as one of their victims, yet his lordship, on the morning of the twenty- first, put on the stars of the different orders with which he had been invested. His sec- retary and chaplain, apprehensive that these insignia might expose his person to unneces- sary danger, endeavored, but in vain, to pre- vail upon him to take them off: to all their entreaties he replied "In honor I gained them, and in honor I will die with them." The survivors were gratified with the thanks of both houses of parliament ; gold medals were awarded to those who had par- ticularly distinguished themselves on this memorable day ; and, besides the honors and rewards showered upon the family of the fallen hero, the dignity of Baron, with an annuity of two thousand pounds a-year to himself and his two next heirs, was con- ferred upon vice-admiral Collingwood. The four French ships under rear-admiral Dumanoir, which escaped to the southward towards the close of the action off Trafalgar, soon shared the fate of their companions. 510 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. On the night of the second of November, rear-admiral Sir Richard Strachan, cruising off Ferrol with four ships of the line and three frigates, fell in with what he thought the Rochefort squadron; but they proved to be the fugitives from the combined fleet, to which he immediately gave chase. A little before noon on the fourth, Dumanoir, finding an engagement unavoidable, came to close action ; and, after a well-supported contest, continued for nearly three hours and a half, all the four ships struck to the English, but not till they had become quite unmanage- able. Thus was the naval power of France and her ally reduced to insignificance ; the phantoms of" ships, colonies, and commerce," which had floated before the imagination of Buonaparte, were chased from the regions of probability; and Britain was confirmed in her paramount dominion of the seas. WAR IN INDIA. DEATH OF LORD CORN- WALLIS. IN India a new war was occasioned by the intrigues and aggressions of Jeswunt Rao Holkar, the Mahratta chief, who had usurped the dominions of his brother, and renounced his allegiance to the Peishwa. After a fruitless negotiation, the troops in the Deccan, under general Wellesley, re- duced the fortress of Chandore ; while lord Lake, by a series of skilful and rapid move- ments, compelled him to risk encounters which ultimately led to his discomfiture. On the thirteenth of November, 1804, a large force was totally routed near Deeg ; and on the seventeenth his cavalry was sur- prised and defeated near Feruckabad, Holkar himself escaping with great difficulty from the field. This splendid success would have decided the contest, had not the unexpected defection of the rajah of Bhurtpore enabled the fugitive to repair his desperate fortunes. Early in 1805 lord Lake made several at- tacks on the town of Bhurtpore, in all of which he was repulsed with considerable loss ; but at length the rajah made proposals for peace, which was granted to him, and subsequently to Holkar, on terms favorable to the company. In July lord Cornwallis arrived at Madras, as successor to the mar- quis Wellesley, but in such a reduced state of health that he died in the October fol- lowing. GEORGE EL 17601820. 511 CHAPTER XXXVI. State of Europe Meeting of Parliament Death of Pitt Change of Ministry New Military Arrangements finance Prevention of Abuses Corn Trade with Ireland Intercourse between the West Indies and America Slave Trade Impeachment of Lord Melville India Affairs Prorogation of Parliament Negotiation for Peace Death of Fox Ministerial Appointments Dissolution of Parliament Admiral Sir J. T. Duckworth's Victory Other Naval Successes Capture of the Cape of Good Hope Unauthorized Expedition to Buenos Ayres Court-Martial on Sir Home Popham Dispute with America Elevation of Joseph Buonaparte to the Throne of Naples Resistance to the French Arms Battle of Maida Occupa- tion of Hanover by Prussia Consequent Hostility with England and Sweden Revolution in her Politics Confederation of the Rhine Louis Buonaparte declared King of Holland Titles conferred by Buonaparte on his Followers Murder of Palm Fourth Coalition against France Movements of the French and Prussian Forces Battle of Auerstadt, or Jena Its Consequences Seizure of British Prop- erty at Hamburgh Buonaparte's Berlin Decree Negotiation for an Armistice Advance of the Russians Their Repulse Levies Operations in Silesia Battle ofEylau Surrender of Dantzic Success of the French in Swedish Pomerania Battle of Friedland Treaty of Tilsit War with Turkey and Russia, followed by Hostilities between England and the former Expeditions to Constantinople and Egypt Capture of Monte Video Attack on Buenos Ayres Its Failure General Whitelock tried by Court-Martial and cashiered Capture of Curaqoa Insurrec- tion of the Sepoys in India. STATE OF EUROPE. 1806. AT the commencement of the year 1806, the French and English nations had acquired an absolute and uncontrolled do- minion, the one over the land, and the other over the seas. The battle of Austerlitz had confirmed the military superiority of France, and left her without a rival on the continent; while the victory of Trafalgar had decided the naval pre-eminence of England: she was, however, unable to make any serious impression on the power of Buonaparte, who, after the treaty of Presburg, no longer de- terred by the fear of a continental coalition, was at liberty to direct his whole force and energy to her subjugation. If Great Britain had nothing to apprehend from the number of troops Buonaparte might be able to land on the shores of England, other parts of the empire were not equally invulnerable to his attacks. In Ireland, exposed by her griev- ances to the seduction of his emissaries, and accessible by her situation to the invasion of his army, rebellion had been put down, but discontent still existed : the fire which had lately blazed with such fury, was smoth- ered, but not extinguished ; and though the more moderate of the Catholics were ready to postpone the discussion of their claims till the chief obstacle to the redress of their grievances was removed, and the prudent and considerate were disinclined to those violent counsels from which they had already suffered so much, it was not to be supposed that all the Irish Catholics were moderate and prudent, but that many of that body would join themselves to a French army whenever it might make its appearance hi their country. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT DEATH OF PITT. CHANGE OF MINISTRY. AFFAIRS were hi this posture when par- liament was opened by commission on the twenty-first of January. After suitable con- gratulations on the late naval successes, mixed with regret for the lamented death of the hero by whom they were achieved, the speech stated that his majesty had directed the treaties concluded with foreign powers to be laid before the two houses ; and, while he lamented the late disastrous events on the continent, he congratulated them on the as- surances which he continued to receive from the emperor of Russia. The speech then stated that one million pounds, accruing to the crown from the droits of admiralty, would be applied to the public service of the year ; and concluded by recommending vigilance and exertion against the enemy. An amend- ment to the address was read in both houses, but was not proposed as a motion, on account of the dangerous indisposition of Pitt, who was at that moment on his death-bed. This distinguished statesman had been compelled, at the close of the former session of parliament, to relinquish all active share in public business, and retire to Bath, whence fie returned, on the eleventh of January, to his residence on Putney Heath, in a state of debility and exhaustion, augmented by anxi- 512 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ety and disappointment His constitution, originally delicate, sunk rapidly ; and on the twenty-third of January he expired, in the forty-seventh year of his age, after hating enjoyed greater power and popularity, and held the first place in the government of his country for a longer course of years, than any former minister of England. On a mo- tion of the honorable Henry Lascelles, made in the house of commons on the twenty- seventh of January, and carried hy a ma- jority of two hundred and fifly-eightto eighty- nine, his remains were interred at the pub- lic expense in Westminster Abbey, by the side of his father. A sum not exceeding forty thousand pounds was voted for the payment of his debts without opposition. He pos- sessed no particular advantages of person or physiognomy; but as a speaker he was thought to be without a rival. His integrity was unimpeached; his conduct moral ; and, so far was he from making use of his oppor- tunities to acquire wealth, that he died in- solvent As a financier, he displayed great ability in augmenting the public revenue, and in raising money on public faith; but whilst he was thus adding to the burdens of the people, and entailing a heavy load on posterity, the wealth so acquired was dis- tributed with lavish profusion. Such was his dread of the revolutionary principles which desolated France, that, considering no price too great for the means of opposing them, he carried the practice of subsidizing foreign states toan unprecedented and almost ruinous extent But, whatever may have been his errors, his exertions in the public service, during a period of unexampled difficulty, were unwearied; and the emphatic words pronounced by the herald over his corpse, " non sifri sed patricE vixit" were not less just than honorable. Either from confidence in his own powers, or from the love of sway, Pitt seldom asso- ciated himself with men of superior talent and his death at this critical juncture was considered as a virtual dissolution of the ex- isting administration. His colleagues, be- sides the want of public confidence, were disunited and without a head ; and the loss of their patron dissolved the only tie that bound them. In circumstances so discourag- ing, the surviving members of Pitt's admin- istration resigned to their opponents the reins of government, without a struggle; and even refused to retain charge of them, when urged to that duty by the solicitations of the court Lord Hawkesbury was offered the post of premier, but he deemed it too arduous, and on retiring from office received the wardenship of the cinque ports. Every attempt to form an administration from the wreck of the late cabinet having proved unsuccessful, his majesty called in the assistance of lord Grenville, and on the third of February the new ministerial ar- rangements were finally settled, embracing the leading members of the three parties, designated by the appellation of the old and new opposition, and the Sidmouth party. The cabinet was composed of the following members: earl Fitzwilliam, president of the council ; lord Erskine, lord chancellor ; vis- count Sidmouth, lord privy-seal ; lord Gren- ville, first lord of the treasury ; lord Ho- wick (late Mr. Grey), first lord of the ad- miralty ; earl Moira, master-general of the ordnance ; earl Spencer, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Windham, secretaries of state for the home, foreign, and war departments; and lord Henry Petty, chancellor of the exchequer. Lord chief justice Ellenborough was also admitted to a seat in the cabinet. The duke of Bedford went to Ireland as lord-lieuten- ant, accompanied by Elliot as chief secreta- ry. Ponsonby was appointed chancellor and keeper of the seals in Ireland, and Sir John Newport chancellor of the Irish exchequer ; lord Minto was appointed president of the board of control ; Sheridan, treasurer of the navy ; general Fitzpatrick, secretary at war ; Sir Arthur Pigott and Sir Samuel Romilly, attorney and solicitor general. In the sub- ordinate offices, likewise, so complete a change had not been effected since the com- mencement of Pitt's first administration. Lord Grenville's holding the office of au- ditor of the exchequer, which is incompati- ble with that of first lord of the treasury, rendered it necessary to bring a bill into parliament, to enable him to accept the lat- ter office, without forfeiting the former; and, to palliate the objections that might be made to this equivocal union, his lordship was empowered to name a trustee to hold the office of auditor, so long as he should continue in the situation of first lord of the treasury ; which trustee should be responsi- ble to the auditor for the salary, and to the public for the due execution of his office. The appointment of lord chief justice El- lenborough to a seat in the cabinet was a measure of still more doubtful policy. MILITARY ARRANGEMENTS. FINANCE. SLAVE TRADE. ON the third of April, Windham submit- ted to the house of commons some important military arrangements. Instead of an en- gagement to serve for life, he proposed that the soldiers in future should be enlisted for a term of years only ; this term to be divi- ded into three periods, of seven years each, for the infantry; and, for the cavalry and artillery, the first period to be ten ; the sec- ond, six ; and the third, five years. At the end of each period the soldier to have a right to claim his discharge, and be entitled to certain advantages proportioned to his GEORGE III. 17601820. 513 length of service. Desertion might be pun- ished by the loss of so many years' service ; and though corporal punishments could not, he said, be entirely banished from the army, they might be diminished both in number and severity. The volunteer corps ought only to be formed of persons who would serve at their own expense, and the peasant- ry should be loosely trained to harass and impede an enemy. This training he meant to be compulsory; and that two hundred thousand should be annually liable to that duty. The bills necessary for effecting these arrangements were strongly opposed in eve- ry stage, but finally passed hi both houses. On the twenty-eighth day of March the budget was opened by lord Henry Petty, who stated the unredeemed debt of Great Brit- ain and Ireland at nearly five hundred and fifty-six million pounds, and the redeemed at one hundred and twenty-seven million pounds, of which the annual charge was nearly twenty-seven million five hundred thousand pounds. The supplies on account of Great Britain were estimated at forty- three million six hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and seventy-two pounds ; and among the proposed ways and means the most considerable were a loan of eighteen million pounds, and an augmenta- tion of the war taxes to nineteen million five hundred thousand pounds, to be effected principally by raising the property tax from six and a half to ten per cent. It was also proposed to raise the war duties on the cus- toms, with certain modifications, from one fourth to one third ; and, in order to cover the interest of the loan, the duty on wine was to be made permanent, and two pounds per ton imposed on pig-iron; the duty on tea was to be equalized ; and a tax on ap- praisements imposed. The property tax bill encountered great opposition, but was pass- ed with some modifications. The tax on iron excited such opposition that it was abandoned, and a tax on private brewers substituted, but this raised a still greater outcry, and the interest of the loan was pro- vided for by an addition of ten per cent, to the assessed taxes. The budget for Ireland was opened by Sir John Newport on the seventh of May, when it appeared that the supply voted for that country was eight million nine hundred and seventy-five thou- sand one hundred and ninety-four pounds; and the ways and means, including a loan of two million pounds, were estimated at nine million one hundred and eighty-one thousand four hundred and fifty-five pounds. Some salutary regulations were adopted in various departments. The balances of the treasurer of the ordnance were ordered to be deposited at the bank of England, and the payments to be made by drafts upon that establishment : the same principle was also extended to the excise and customs, to the stamp and post offices, and to the office of surveyor-general of the woods and for- ests ; an act was passed for increasing the salaries and abolishing the fees of the cus- tom-house officers of the port of London; and judicious measures were adopted for the settlement of public accounts. The corn trade between Great Britain and Ireland was placed on the same footing as that between the different counties of England, by an act which judiciously allow- ed the free interchange of grain without any bounty, duty, or restraint whatever. An act was also passed for regulating the inter- course between the West Indies and the United States, which vested a discretionary power in his majesty to permit, under cer- tain restrictions, the trade in lumber and provisions carried on by neutrals with the British colonies, with the proviso that no commodities, staves and lumber only ex- cepted, should be imported, which were not of the growth and produce of the countries to which the neutral vessels belonged, and that they should not export the indigenous products of the colonies. The abolition of the slave trade, which had for so many years engrossed the atten- tion of the friends of humanity in this coun- try which had been supported by the elo- quence of the late prime minister whenever it was brought before parliament, but had as constantly been defeated by the prevalence of interests which, as minister, he did not choose to oppose was pursued by the new administration with so much earnestness, that in the present session considerable pro- gress was made towards its accomplishment. A bill was passed, prohibiting the exporta- tion of slaves from the British colonies after the first of January, 1807, and interdicting all subjects of this country from being ac- cessory to the supply of foreign countries with slaves after that period. Another bill soon after passed without opposition, for preventing the increase of the British slave trade, by prohibiting any vessels from em- barking in that traffic which were not al- ready employed therein. The next mea- sure was a resolution moved by Fox on the tenth of June, and which being his last mo- tion, may be said to have closed the parlia- mentary career of that great statesman. The words of the resolution were, "that this house conceiving the African slave trade to be contrary to the principles of jus- tice, humanity, and sound policy, will, with all practicable expedition, take effectual measures for abolishing the said trade, in such manner and at such period as may be deemed advisable." He declared that he was so fully impressed with the vast im- 514 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. portance of attaining the object of his mo- tion, that if, during the almost forty years that he had enjoyed a seat in parliament, he had been so fortunate as to accomplish that, and that only, he could retire from public life with the conscious satisfaction that he had done his duty. The motion was opposed by lord Castlereagh, the members for Liver- pool, and a few in the West India interest ; but, on a division, they were only fifteen against one hundred and fourteen, leaving a majority of ninety-nine in favor of the abo- lition. In the lords the same resolution was adopted, on the motion of lord Grenville, by forty-one against twenty. The last step taken on this subject, during the present session, was a joint address from the two houses, beseeching his majesty to take mea- sures for obtaining the concurrence of for- eign powers in the abolition. IMPEACHMENT OF LORD MELVILLE- PARLIAMENT PROROGUED. THE house of commons having resolved to exercise its power of impeachment against lord Melville, managers were duly appoint- ed ; Westminster hall was appropriately fitted up ; and on the twenty-ninth of April the court was opened with the usual forms. The articles, which were ten in number, contained three principal charges. The first was, that, before the tenth of January, 1786, he had applied to his private use and profit various sums intrusted to him as treasurer of the navy. The second was, that he had permitted Trotter, his paymaster, illegally to take from the bank of England large sums issued on account of the treasurer of the navy, and to place those sums in the hands of his private banker. The third was, that he had fraudulently permitted Trotter to apply the said money to purposes of private use and emolument, and had himself de- rived profit therefrom. Lord Melville aver- red that he was not guilty, when Whitbread addressed the court in an elaborate speech, and the solicitor-general recapitulated the evidence. The counsel for lord Melville occupied three days in the defence : on the two following days the managers delivered their reply on the part of the commons : the further proceedings were deferred till the twenty-eighth of May. A motion of thanks to the managers was made on the twenty- third, in the commons, by general Fitzpat- rick, and agreed to with only one dissentient voice. At the appointed period the peers assembled ; the assistance of the judges on certain points of law was resorted to ; and on the twelfth of June their lordships pro- ceeded to deliver their verdict The result was, that his lordship was acquitted of all the charges ; but on four of the articles the majority in his favor did not amount to dou- ble the number of those who gave a con- trary judgment The whole number of peers voting was one hundred and thirty-five, and, considering the nature of the proceeding, the trial was conducted with unusual dis- patch. On the twenty-third of July, after a long and busy session, parliament was prorogued by commission. NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. IN February, a project for assassinating Buonaparte was communicated by a foreigner to Fox, who immediately sent a statement of the circumstances to Talleyrand. The French minister, in reply to this letter, took occasion to introduce, unofficially, an extract from Buonaparte's speech to the Legislative Body, expressive of his wish for peace with England, and his readiness to negotiate, without a moment's delay, agreeably to the treaty of Amiens. Fox considered this com- munication as a distinct overture, and pro- ceeded to answer it in that frank and direct style which is the characteristic of all his public dispatches. He stated the impossi- bility of concluding any treaty unless in con- cert with Russia ; but suggested the practi- cability of some previous discussion of the principal points, and some provisional ar- rangements. A correspondence of some length ensued, in which Talleyrand endea- vored to represent Russia as interposing its authority between two nations fully compe- tent to adjust their own differences: Fox. however, stated explicitly that his majesty was willing to negotiate conjointly with Russia, but not separately ; to which Talley- rand re-urged the former objections, and thus the correspondence closed. Early in June, however, lord Yarmouth, son of the marquis of Hertford, who had been among those detained in France at the commencement of hostilities, arrived in London, and communicated the substance of a conversation with Talleyrand, which had passed at the desire of that minister, for the purpose of conveying the outlines of the terms on which peace might be restored. Three specific offers were held out as in- ducements to Great Britain to treat, viz. the restoration of Hanover; the possession of Sicily, as a consequence of the principle of the uti possidetis ; and a facility in the ar- rangement of the form of treating, which, without recognizing the claim of a joint negotiation, would not impair the advantages which Great Britain and Russia might de- rive from their alliance. Talleyrand, in the first interview with lord Yarmouth after his return to Paris, not only departed entirely from his offer of Sicily, but indulged him- self in vain allusions to further demands, and in peremptory representations of the necessity of negotiating with some persons duly empowered to treat This deviation GEORGE HI. 17601820. 515 from the original overtures was viewed by the British ministry as an indication of the little reliance that could be placed on the sincerity of the French negotiators; lord Yarmouth was therefore directed to insist generally on the recurrence to the original overtures, and to make the readmission of Sicily the sine qua non of the production of his full powers, which, to avoid all pre- tence of cavil, were conveyed to him with- out delay. In the mean time the Russian plenipotentiary, M. D'Oubril, who had ar- rived at Paris on the tenth of July, had signed a separate peace with the French government, and returned to St. Petersburgh without communicating to lord Yarmouth some of its most material articles. In this posture of affairs lord Lauderdale was dis- patched to Paris. The health of Fox began at this period to decline, and the nomination of his personal friend, and tried political ad- herent, was a pledge that the cabinet con- tinued to promote his views, and consult the spirit of his policy. The first endeavor of lord Lauderdale was to bring back the French government to the basis of the uti possidetis ; but the negotia- tors, Champagny, minister of the interior, and general Clarke, contrived, under vari- ous pretences, to procrastinate, till it be- came the policy of Britain, as well as of France, to await the decision of the court of St Petersburgh on the treaty which M. D'Oubril had carried thither. On the third of September, a courier brought the intelli- gence to Paris that the emperor of Russia had refused to ratify it; and Talleyrand communicated this information to the Brit- ish negotiator the day after its arrival, as- suring him that France was now prepared to make peace with England on more favor- able terms than she otherwise would have been disposed to admit ; but, as the abandon- ment of Russia was to be the price, the British" cabinet determined not to listen to any such projects. A series of unsatisfac- tory discussions ensued, which lasted unti 1 Buonaparte left Paris for the army on the Rhine, accompanied by Talleyrand, and one of the plenipotentiaries, general Clarke Champagny, who remained to conduct the negotiation, was neither authorized to relin quish the claims of Joseph Buonaparte upon Sicily, nor to acquiesce in such an arrange- ment as would have satisfied the court oi St Petersburgh ; the negotiation was there- fore at an end, and lord Lauderdale returned to England. His passports were accompa- nied by a note, insinuating that the princi- ples of Fox had been abandoned by his col- leagues and successors ; to which lord Lau- derdale delivered a spirited reply. That the English ministers were sincere in their desire for peace is unquestionable ; mt that the commercial part of the nation, at least, did not participate in this wish, is upon which the discussions had broken off were unknown, the intelligence of lord l&uderdale's departure from Paris was re- ceived at the Royal Exchange in London with triumphant shouts of applause. DEATH OF FOX. MINISTERIAL APPOINT- MENTS. DISSOLUTION OF THE PAR- LIAMENT. Fox's accession to power, while laboring under indisposition, whatever political hopes t might excite, was a circumstance preg- nant to himself of inconvenience and dan- ?er. The business of the house of commons ic was, in a few months, obliged to aban- don ; but, with this deduction from his larassing employments, the remainder press- ed too heavily upon him, and it was not long aefore the most decided indications of dropsy appeared. After a series of increasing lan- , this great man closed his connexion with all mortal scenes at Chiswick, at the seat of the duke of Devonshire, on the thir- teenth of September, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. The public regret for his loss subdued for a time the conflicting prejudices of party, and an unanimous homage was paid to those great and amiable qualities which won the cordial affection of his friends, and the generous admiration of his adversa- ries. His funeral, though performed at pri- vate expense, was attended by the most dis- tinguished characters in the country, and an immense assemblage of the general popula- tion. In person, he was about the middle size, and, as he advanced in life, very cor- pulent. The independence of his mind and frankness of his manners were unalloyed by any portion of asperity : he was the firm and consistent advocate of liberty, civil and religious; and the powerful and frequent application of his talents to popular purposes procured him the general appellation of "the man of the people." As a public speaker, his manner was not graceful, but it was peculiarly animated and impressive. As a minister, he displayed the same noble sim- plicity and plain dealing which character- ized his conduct in private life. Peace was the darling wish of his heart, though he would have scorned to purchase that bless- ing by the slightest sacrifice of national honor. Having commenced a negotiation, he was spared the pain of seeing the intri- cate policy of modern times triumph over his favorite object ; and with the satisfaction of leaving the old associates of his public career in the employment of the state, and in the consequent possession of rewards and honors, " I die happy" were nearly the last words he uttered. On the death of Fox, lord Howick was 516 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. appointed to the foreign office; Grenville, first lord of the admiralty, took the place of lord Howick ; Tierney, president of the board of control, in the place of Grenville, who had succeeded to that office, with a seat in the cabinet, on the appointment of lord Minto to the government of India ; lord Sidmouth to succeed to the presidency of the council, from which earl Fitzwilliam, on account of ill health, was desirous to withdraw; and lord Holland, the nephew of Fox, to succeed lord Sidmouth as lord privy-seal. A disso- lution of parliament, after a remarkably short duration, immediately and unexpectedly fol- lowed ; and, though the returns to the new one were such as to add to the weight and influence of the friends of administration in the house of commons, the experiment was not, on the whole, attended with much success. ADMIRAL DUCKWORTH'S VICTORY. CAPTURE OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. SIR HOME POPHAM'S EXPEDI- TION TO BUENOS AYRES. AT the close of the preceding year, ad- miral Villaumez, accompanied by Jerome Buonaparte, succeeded in escaping from port, with eleven sail of the line, and a number of frigates. After continuing in company for ten days, the fleet separated into two squadrons, one of which, consisting of five ships of the line, two frigates, and a cor- vette, under the command of admiral Le Seigle, steered for St Domingo, where a body of troops and a supply of ammunition were disembarked for the use of the colony. On the sixth of February, admiral Sir J. T. Duckworth, with seven ships of the line and four frigates, discovered the enemy to wind- ward of Ocoa bay, and, after a furious action, three ships of the line struck; the other two were driven on shore and burnt, and the smaller vessels got off. The other squadron of Villaumez, amounting to six sail of the line, with three frigates, was originally des- tined for the Cape of Good Hope ; but hav- ing been informed of the capture of that settlement by the English, they steered to the coast of Brazil, and thence to the West Indies. In June, admiral Cochrane, who had only four sail of the line and three frigates, discovered them near Barbadoes, but did not consider it safe to hazard an engagement with such a disparity of force ; their ruin, however, was soon after accomplished by the fury of the elements, being separated by a tremendous gale of wind on the eighteenth of August The French admiral's vessel reached the Havannah with extreme difficul- ty, three were destroyed on the American coast, another escaped into Brest, and the Veteran, seventy-four, commanded by Jerome Buonaparte, was stranded on the coast of Brittany. The captain and crew got on shore. Admiral Linois had long carried on a pre- datory warfare in the Indian seas, and the Isle of France had been the grand depot of the plunder he had collected, whence, in dif- ferent bottoms, k had been transferred to France ; and thither the admiral's ship, the Marengo, of eighty guns, and the Belle Poule, of forty, were this year bending their course, looking forward to the splendid en- joyment of the produce of their toil. These hopes, however, were frustrated by Sir J. B. Warren, with one of the squadrons which had been dispatched in pursuit of Jerome Buonaparte. On the morning of the thir- teenth of March, the French ships were seen to windward, and, after a running fight cf three hours, were compelled to strike, thus affording some atonement for their depreda- tions on our commerce. Five large frigates and two corvettes, with troops on board for the West Indies, having escaped from Rochefort in September, were met at sea by a British squadron under Sir Samuel Hood, who, after a running fight of several hours, captured four of them. The loss of the English was small, but Sir Samuel unfortunately lost his arm. Several distin- guished actions of a minor nature occurred in the course of the year. An expedition against the Cape of Good Hope, consisting of about five thousand troops, under Sir David Baird, with a naval force, commanded by Sir Home Popham, sailed from England in August, 1805, and arrived on the fourth of January following. On the eighth the army moved forward, and, having dislodged the enemy's light troops, their main body, estimated at five thousand men, was discovered in motion, to anticipate the approach of the British ; they, however, forced the Batavians to a precipitate retreat. The governor-general, Jansens, seemed dis- posed to maintain himself in the interior ; but general Beresford being sent against him, he was prevailed upon to surrender, on condition of his forces being conveyed to Holland at the expense of the British gov- ernment, and not considered prisoners of war. Sir Home Popham, who in 1804 had been appointed to confer with the insurgent gen- eral Miranda, concerning his views on South America, had long entertained an idea that an expedition should be sent against the Spanish settlements on the Rio de la Plata ; and having been successful at the Cape, he turned his thoughts to the conquest of Bue- nos Ayres, taking upon himself a high and extraordinary degree of responsibility. Hav- ing persuaded Sir David Baird to furnish a small body of troops, under general Beres- ford, he directed his course to St. Helena, where he obtained a small reinforcement to hie little army, which, after all, did not ex- GEORGE IH. 17601820. 517 ceed sixteen hundred men, including ma- rines. With this inadequate force he arriv- ed at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, in the beginning of June, and on the twenty-fourth landed the troope without resistance, about twelve miles from Buenos Ayres. After dispersing a body of Spaniards, who fled at the first fire, general Beresford entered the city on the twenty-seventh, the viceroy hav- ing retreated to Cordova with the small body, of troops under his command. While the army was thus employed, the line-of-battle ships of the squadron made demonstrations before Monte Video and Maldanado, in which were stationed the regular troops of the col- ony, while the defence of Buenos Ayres, supposed, from its situation, to be less liable to attack,' had been committed to the militia. Favorable terms were granted to the inhab- itants, and the property of individuals on shore was respected, but a great booty was made of the public money and commodities, and of the shipping in the river. The Spaniards were at first taken by sur- prise ; but, on recovering from their panic, they collected the few troops they had in the neighborhood, under the direction of Liniers, a French colonel in the Spanish service, who crossed the river in a fog, on the fourth of August, with about one thou- sand men, unobserved by the English cruis- ers. On the twelfth a desperate action took place in the streets and great square of the town, when the English were ultimately compelled to surrender themselves prisoners of war ; but, contrary to the articles of ca- pitulation, they were marched up the coun- try. Their loss amounted to one hundred and sixty-five killed, wounded, and missing, besides thirteen hundred made prisoners. Sir Home Popham blockaded the river till October, when the arrival of troops from the Cape enabled him to attempt Monte Video, in which he was unsuccessful. On the twenty-ninth a body of troops was landed at Maldanado, and the Spaniards were driven from thence and from the isle of Gorriti. Lord Howick, on the nineteenth of De- cember, announced the recall of Sir Home Popham in terms of severe reprehension; and on the seventeenth of February follow- ing, that officer arrived in London, when he was put under a formal arrest, preparatory to trial by a court-martial, for acting with- out orders, and for leaving the Cape in an unprotected state. After an able defence, the court adjudged him to be severely re- primanded. DISPUTE WITH AMERICA. DIFFERENCES had existed, for a consider- able time, between the United States of America and Spain, arising out of the ill-de- fined boundaries of Louisiana, and the Span- Voi. IV. 44 iards had made inroads on the district of New-Orleans and the Mississippi, even in those parts which had been unequivocally ceded to the United States. Some disputes be- tween America and the English government also assumed an important character. The complaint of the United States involved three points : first, The practice of impressing Brit- ish seamen found on board American mer- chant vessels on the high seas ; second, The violation of their rights, as neutrals, by seiz- ing and condemning their merchantmen, though engaged hi what they considered a lawful commerce ; and, third, The infringe- ment of their maritime jurisdiction upon their own coasts. On the first point, it was urged that native Americans were impressed on pretence of their being Englishmen, and forced to serve in the British navy ; and the public mind in the United States was in- flamed with exaggerated reports, stating that thousands of then- citizens were in this situation. The second ground of complaint arose from a desire, on the part of the Amer- icans, not only to trade with the colonies of a belligerant, in a manner that would not be allowed in a time of peace, but to become the carriers of their produce to the mother country, protecting it, at the same time, un- der their neutral flag. The third point, which merely required that the extent of their maritime jurisdiction should be defined, admitted of easy arrangement. An amicable adjustment of these differ- ences being equally desirable to both parties, a special mission was appointed to England, and conferences were opened in London by lords Holland and Aukland on the part of Great Britain, and by Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney on that of America. After some deliberations respecting an efficient substi- tute for the practice of impressment, the latter consented, though in opposition to their instructions, to pass to the other subjects of negotiation, .on receiving an assurance that the right should be exercised with great caution, and immediate redress afforded on representation of any injury. On the subject of intercourse with the colonies of the ene- my, a rule was established for defining the difference between a continuous and an interrupted voyage; and it was expressly stipulated that upon re-exportation there should remain, after the drawback, a duty to be paid of one per cent, ad valorem, on all European articles, and not less than two per cent on colonial produce. The maritime jurisdiction of the United States was guar- antied, and some commercial stipulations were framed for the reciprocal advantage of the two countries; but the American president, Mr. Jefferson, refused to ratify the treaty. 518 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. squadron of liant JOSEPH BUONAPARTE MADE KING OF NAPLES. BATTLE OF MA1DA. THE king of Naples, by a treaty con- cluded at Paris, in September, 1805, had engaged to repel, by force, every encroach- ment on his neutrality : scarcely, however, had six weeks elapsed, when a English and Russian vessels was permitted to land a body of forces in Naples and its vicinity. This being considered by Buona- parte as an act of perfidy deserving the se- verest punishment, he issued a proclama- tion, on the morning after the signature oi the treaty of Presburg, declaring that the Neapolitan dynasty had ceased to reign ; and a French army, under Joseph Buonaparte, who assumed the sovereignty, immediately marched into Naples, when all the fortresses, except Gaeta and another, surrendered by capitulation. The new king was received with those acclamations and addresses which can always be procured by power ; and the heir-apparent retired into his dukedom of Calabria, where general Damas, a French emigrant, was endeavoring to organize a levy en masse : the province, however, was speedily reduced by general Regnier. Sir James Craig, with the English army, accom- panied the royal family to Sicily, and in April was succeeded in his command by Sir John Stuart. Sir Sidney Smith took the command the English squadron destined for the de- fence of Sicily. After throwing succors into Gaeta, which was gallantly defended by the prince of Hesse Philipstal, he took possession of the isle of Capri, and proceeded along the coast, exciting alarm, and keeping up a communication with the Calabrese. At the urgent solicitation of the court of Palermo, the English general consented to employ a part of his force in Calabria, and, on the first of July, landed in the gulf of SL Eufemia, near the northern frontier of Lower Calabria, with about four thousand eight hundred men. The French general, Regnier, made a rapid march from Reggio, and on the third encamped at Maida, about ten miles distant from the English army, with a force nearly equal, and in daily ex- pectation of reinforcements. Being deter- mined to give battle without delay, Sir John Stuart advanced the next morning, and found the French in a strong position below the village, their force augmented to seven thousand men, the expected detachments having joined. Regnier, confident in his superiority, quitted his post to meet the as- sailants on the plain, when the English, not dismayed at the unexpected increase of his numbers, advanced with alacrity to the at- tack ; and, after some firing, both sides pre- pared for close combat; but the French gave way when the bayonets began to cross, and, the English receiving a reinforcement at this critical juncture, the French precipitately abandoned the field, with the loss of about seven hundred killed and a thousand prisoners. The British loss was forty-five killed and two hundred and eighty-two wounded. This bril- action, though it did not lead to the re- covery of Naples, preserved Sicily from inva- sion, and compelled the French to evacuate Calabria. General Stuart, however, aware that his small force would be inadequate to the permanent defence of the country, retired to Sicily, leaving a garrison in the stron^ fort of Scylla, The fall of Gaeta, which took place soon after the battle of Maida, set at liberty a force of sixteen thousand men, which, in conjunction with the powerful ar- my under Massena, who was sent to subdue the Calabrese, slowly effected that purpose. OCCUPATION OF HANOVER BY PRUSSIA- CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE. THE court of Prussia, which still vacilla- ted greatly in its politics, addressed a procla- mation on the twenty-seventh of January to the inhabitants of Hanover, in which it was observed, that, after the events which ter- minated in the peace of Presburg, the only means of preserving the country from the flames of war consisted in forming a con- vention with Buonaparte, in virtue of which the states of his Britannic majesty in Ger- were to be occupied and governed by Prussia till the return of peace. This pro- ceeding called forth an official note from Fox, addressed to baron Jacobi, the Prussian minister in London, desiring him explicitly it) inform his court that no convenience or political arrangement, much less any offer of equivalent or indemnity, would ever in- duce his majesty to consent to the alienation of the electorate. The disposition shown by Prussia to hold Hanover conditionally, did not, however, please Buonaparte, who dic- tated new terms; and another treaty was signed on the fifteenth of February, by which Prussia was bound, not only to annex it to her dominions, but to exclude British ves- sels and commerce from her ports. The in- dignity offered to Great Britain by these proceedings demanded prompt retaliation : the rivers Ems, Weser, Elbe, and Trave, were accordingly blockaded ; a general em- bargo was laid on all Prussian vessels in British harbors; and the English mission at Berlin was recalled. These measures were announced to parliament, on the twenty-first of April, in a message which was answered by unanimous addresses of thanks from both houses ; and the strongest animadversions were directed against Prussia for her abject submission to the will of Buonaparte. In addition to her war with England, the subserviency of Prussia to France involved her in hostilities with Sweden. The troops of many GEORGE IH. 17601820. 519 of that power, who occupied Luneburg on behalf of the king of England, having op- posed the entrance of the Prussians, were compelled, after a slight resistance, to retreat into Mecklenburg; on which the king of Sweden laid an embargo upon all Prussian vessels in his harbors, and blockaded her ports in the Baltic. To counteract these measures, Prussia was preparing to expel the Swedes from Pomerania, when a new revolution in her politics took place, which gave a different direction to her arms. The feelings of the Prussian nation were hostile to France ; and the queen, young, beautiful, and persuasive, indignant at the usurpations and insults of Buonaparte, joined in the same cause. The first public act of the cabinet of St Cloud, which gave serious alarm to the court of Berlin, was the investiture of Murat with the dutchies of Berg and Cleves, the latter of which was one of the three prov- inces obtained from Prussia in exchange for Hanover; the other two, Anspach and Bayreuth, being transferred to Bavaria for the dutchy of Berg. But a deeper injury awaited the Prussian government : while La- forest, the French resident at Berlin, was urging the ministers of that court to persist in the measures they had adopted for the retention of Hanover, Lucchesini, the Prus- sian minister at Paris, discovered that the French government had offered to Great Britain the complete restitution of the elec- toral dominions. Fortunately, however, as Prussia then thought, the negotiation be- tween France and Russia was broken off by the refusal of the court of St. Petersburgh to ratify the treaty concluded by M. D'Oubril. But this event, while it opened to Prussia the prospect of assistance, in case she should be driven to a war with France, disclosed to her further proof of the secret enmity of the cabinet of St. Cloud ; it now appearing, for the first time, that distinct hints had been given J M. D'Oubril, that, if his court was desirous of annexing any part of Polish Prussia to its dominions, no opposition would be interposed by France. The peace of Presburg had left the forms of the Germanic constitution entire: the residence of the French troops in Germany, however, in consequence of the protracted occupation of Cattaro by the Russians, ma- tured the establishment of a new confede- ration of princes, at the head of which Buo- naparte should himself be placed. This project was arranged with extraordinary promptitude ; and on the twelfth of July the act of confederation was executed at Paris. The members were, the emperor of the French, the kings of Bavaria and Wirtem- burg, the archbishop of Ratisbon, the elec- tor of Baden, the duke of Berg, the land- grave of Hesse Darmstadt, and several mi- nor German princes, who, separating them- selves from the Germanic empire, appointed a diet to meet at Frankfort to manage their public concerns, and settle their differences; and chose Buonaparte for their protector. They established among themselves a fede- ral alliance, by which, if one of them enga- ged in a continental war, all the others were bound to take part hi it, and to contribute their contingent of troops in the following proportions: France, two hundred thou- sand; Bavaria, thirty thousand; Wirtem- burg, twelve thousand ; Baden, three thou- id ; Berg, five thousand ; Darmstadt, four thousand ; Nassau, Hohenzollern, and others, four thousand ; making a total of two hun- dred and fifty-eight thousand men. A num- ber of petty princes were deprived of their ancient rights of sovereignty, and these were transferred, without equivalent or in- demnity, to the members of this federal union. The imperial city of Nuremberg was given to the king of Bavaria, and that of Frankfort on the Maine to the archbishop of Ratisbon, formerly elector and arch-chancel- lor of the empire, and now prince primate of " the confederation of the Rhine." The house of Austria, thus stripped of its honors, was compelled to lay down the title of Emperor of Germany, which, by a formal deed of renunciation, was resigned by Fran- cis the second, retaining only the more hum- ble one of Emperor of Austria. The acqui- escence of Prussia in these arrangements was purchased by the delusive hope that she would be permitted to form a confederation of states in the north of Germany, under her protection, as the confederation of the Rhine was under that of France; but no sooner had the submission of Austria been secured than Prussia was told that Buona- parte could not permit her to include the Hanseatic towns in her plan, being deter- mined to take them under his own protec- tion ; and, as the elector of Saxony was un- willing to contract the new obligations which Prussia wished to impose on him, France could not see him forced to act against the interests of his people. The elector of Hesse Cassel was invited to join the confederation of the Rhine, and some territorial addition was offered him, but he rejected the proposal, and a resolution was passed, by which he was cut off from access to part of his own states. TITLES CONFERRED BY BUONAPARTE ON HIS FOLLOWERS. MURDER OF PALM. BUONAPARTE had no sooner abolished the name of republic in France, than he sought to extinguish that appellation in the other states of Europe. Amongst other transform- ations, his younger brother, Louis, was se- lected to be king of Holland, and unwill- 520 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ingly dragged from the gaieties, of Paris, to rule over a laborious and impoverished people. The new constitution which ac- companied the king had no guarantee but the will of its author, nor did he attempt to disguise that he considered Holland as virtu- ally a province of France. Buonaparte also strengthened his connexion with Bavaria, by the union of a princess of that house with his step-eon, Eugene Beauharnois, whom he adopted as his successor in the kingdom of Italy. He created a number of dutchies in the countries conquered by France, and chiefly in Italy, which he con- ferred on those who had distinguished them- selves in his service. Berthier was created prince of Neufchatel ; Bernadotte, prince of Ponte Corvo; and Talleyrand, prince of Benevento. Many of the marshals and gen- erals were raised to the rank of dukes. Buonaparte's sister, Paulina, the wife of the prince Borghese, received the principality of Guastalla ; and his uncle, cardinal Fesch, was appointed coadjutor and successor the archbishop of Ratisbon. Whilst Buonaparte was carrying these projects into effect, the pressure of the French armies upon Germany was extreme, and a spirit of resistance was excited in a variety of publications, which soon attract- ed the notice of the French government Orders were in consequence given for the apprehension of various booksellers, among whom the fate of John Palm, a resident of Nuremberg, an imperial town of Germany, possessing laws and tribunals of its own, at- tracted particular notice. This person, the publisher of a pamphlet, entitled "Germany in the lowest state of degradation," was ar- rested by order of the French government, and dragged to Braunau, charged with the publication of a libel against the French emperor. A court-martial was immediately summoned, and, after sitting for three days, M. Palm was sentenced to be shot, which was carried into execution on the following day. FOURTH COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. BATTLE OF JENA. BERLIN DECREE. AT length the court of Berlin assumed a tone of firmness; the king of Sweden cher- ished the prospect which seemed thus to be afforded of checking the power of Buona- parte ; the Prussian vessels detained in Brit- ish ports were speedily liberated ; and lord Morpeth was dispatched to Berlin, with of- fers of assistance in the fourth coalition that was at this time forming against France. On the twenty-fourth of September Buona- parte quitted Parip, to join the armies: so late, however, as the fifth of October, a dis- patch was delivered from the Prussian out- posts to the French army, which still afford- ed an opening for amicable adjustment Within a few days after, a declaration, stating the grounds of the war, was pub- lished by the Prussian cabinet The French, who had for some time been concentrating their forces at Bamberg, ad- vanced in three divisions against the Prus- sian army, which had taken a strong posi- tion along the north of Frankfort on the Maine. The campaign opened on the ninth of October, when the left of the Prussians was turned, and they were compelled to re- treat with considerable loss : on the tenth, the left wing of the French army, under marshal Lannes, was successful at Saalfield, where prince Louis of Prussia was killed. The main body of the Prussians occupied Eysenach, Gotha, Erfurt, and Weimar, but the arrangements of the duke of Bruns- wick, to whom, at the advanced age of sev- enty-one, the chief command was confided, were suddenly changed, in consequence of his right wing being unexpectedly turned by the French, who gained the eastern bank of of the Saal, and cut him off from his re- sources. On the morning of the fourteenth the great battle of Auerstadt or Jena commenc- ed, in which two hundred and fifty thousand men, with seven hundred pieces of artillery, scattered death in every direction. The courage and discipline on each side were perhaps equal ; but the military skill was greatly superior on the part of the French, and after a most dreadful conflict the Prus- sians were finally defeated in every quarter. Their loss in killed and wounded exceeded twenty thousand ; from thirty to forty thou- sand were made prisoners ; and three hun- dred pieces of cannon, with immense maga- zines, were taken : among the prisoners were more than twenty generals ; marshal Mollendorf was wounded, and the duke of Brunswick and general Ruchel were killed. The French stated their loss at from four to five thousand men : the victory, however, was complete, and decided the fate of the campaign. All the principal towns in the electorate of Brandenburg, though strongly garrison- ed, surrendered almost without resistance. Spandau and Stettin opened their gates on being invested, and Magdeburg, with a gar- rison of twenty-two thousand men, capitu- lated to Ney, after a few bombs had been thrown into the city. Berlin was entered on the twenty-fifth, and the king of Prussia retreated toKoningsberg, where, with scarce- ly fifty thousand men, he awaited the arrival of whatever assistance might be afforded by Russia. Mecklenburg was also taken possession of by the French ; and Hanover was occu- pied by general Mortier. Their next object was the possession of Hamburgh, where all GEORGE m. 17601820. 521 British property was placed under sequestra- tion ; the merchants and bankers were re- quired to exhibit their accounts, summary punishment, by martial law, being denounc- ed against those who should make false re- turns; and the English who remained in the city were put under arrest. These proceedings were the prelude to a decree issued by Buonaparte at Berlin on the twentieth of November, which after- wards became so memorable under the de- signation of the " Berlin decree." This edict alleged that England had violated the laws of nations, in considering every individual belonging to a hostile state as an actual en- emy, whether found on board vessels of mer- chandise, or otherwise engaged in commer- cial occupations ; that she had extended her right of blockade beyond all reasonable lim- its to places where, with all her naval su- periority, it was impossible for her actually to maintain it ; that the monstrous abuse of this right had no other object but to aggran- dize England by the ruin of the continent ; that all who dealt in English commodities, might, therefore, be justly regarded as her accomplices ; and that, as it was a right con- ferred by the laws of nature and of nations, to oppose to an enemy the weapons he em- ploys against his adversary, it was decreed, that till the English government should abandon this system, the British isles should be placed in a state of blockade, and all cor- respondence with her interdicted. This vio- lent decree, and the apprehension of retali- atory measures on the part of England, oc- casioned great dismay in the commercial cities of the continent. OPERATIONS IN SILESIA AND SWEDISH POMERANIA. TREATY OF TILSIT. AFTER the battle of Jena, Buonaparte ob- tained further success over the detached and broken forces of the king of Prussia, and over sweral bodies of Russian troops which crossed the Vistula to assist Prussia ; he thus was enabled to overrun all Silesia, to take Breslau and other fortresses, and to lay siege to the city of Dantzic ; but that im- portant place did not surrender till the twenty-seventh of May. He then penetrated into Poland, and after a series of severe con- flicts the French and Russian armies fought on the fourteenth of June the sanguinary and decisive battle of Friedland, which the French classed among their most splendid victories. One of its immediate conse- quences was the capture of Koningsberg, containing large stores of grain, and one hundred and sixty thousand English mus- kets, which had not yet been landed. The Russians retreated towards the Niemen, crossed that river at Tilsit, burned the 44* bridge, and continued their march to the eastward. The emperor Alexander and the king of Prussia, who had been there during the last three weeks, retired to Memel, that town and its territory being all that remain- ed in the possession of the latter sovereign. Buonaparte entered Tilsit on the nine- teenth of June ; and on the twenty-second an armistice was concluded, by which it waa agreed that there should be an immediate exchange of prisoners, and that plenipoten- tiaries should be instantly appointed to ne- gotiate a peace. Three days afterwards an interview took place between the emperor Alexander and Buonaparte, on a raft which had been constructed upon the Niemen. The conference lasted two hours, and was attended with mutual expressions of regard. On the seventh of July the arrangements of pacification were completed. Prussia was deprived of all her territories on the left bank of the Elbe, and of all her Polish prov- inces, except those situated between Pome- rania and the Newmarke, and ancient Prus- sia, to the north of the little river Netz. The elector, now king of Saxony, took also the title of duke of Warsaw, and was to have free communication by a military road through the Prussian territory, with his new dominions, which were to consist of Thorn, Warsaw, and the rest of Prussian Poland, except that part to the north of the Bug, which was incorporated with the dominions of the emperor Alexander. Dantzic was in future to be an independent town ; East Friesland was added to the kingdom of Hol- land ; a new dominion, under the designa- tion of the kingdom of Westphalia, was formed of the provinces ceded by Prussia, and others in the possession of Buonaparte ; and the recognition of Jerome Buonaparte as its sovereign, also of the kings of Hol- land and Naples, and of all the present and future members of the confederation of the Rhine, was stipulated. Prussia consented to become a party in the maritime war against England ; the emperor of Russia and Buo- naparte mutually guarantied to each other the integrity of their possessions, and of those of the other powers included in the treaty ; the offer of a mediation to effect a peace between France and England was ac- cepted, on the condition that England should, within one month, admit it ; and the em- peror of Russia agreed to accept the media- tion' of Buonaparte for the conclusion of peace with the Ottoman Porte. The king of Sweden refused to accede to the treaty of Tilsit, and attempted the defence of Pomerania ; but his efforts were unavailing. He, however, succeeded in withdrawing his forces from Stralsund, and returned into Sweden. 522 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. WAR WITH TURKEY AND RUSSIA. EX- PEDITION TO CONSTANTINOPLE AND EGYPT. TOWARDS the close of the year 1806, war had been declared by Turkey against Rus- sia ; and to oblige the Turks to accede to terms of accommodation, by which a force would be released from this southern war- fere, and enabled to swell the Russian army in Poland, a British fleet, under the com- mand of Sir J. T. Duckworth, advanced through the Dardanelles on the nineteenth of February, with orders to bombard Con- stantinople, if certain terms were not ac- ceded to. In passing between Sestos and Abydos they sustained a heavy fire, which they retaliated very severely, and the Turk- ish squadron was driven on shore and burnt by Sir Sidney Smith. The English then an- chored near the Prince's Isles, about eight miles from Constantinople ; and a proposal was made to spare the city on condition that the Turkish fleet should be surrendered, which was of course rejected, and defensive measures being pursued with the greatest activity, Sir J. T. Duckworth prepared for his departure while the passage of the Dar- danelles was still practicable. On the first of March he repassed the castles, in which he sustained considerable loss, and thus, in- stead of producing accommodation between Russia and the Porte, a new power was added to the list of England's enemies. The British agents and settlers in the Turkish territories were exposed to considerable an- noyance; the seizure and sequestration of English property at Smyrna, Salonica, and other places, were ordered by the Porte, with a promptitude which precluded all op- portunity for precaution ; the power of France over the divan became materially strengthened ; and Sebastiana, the French ambassador at Constantinople, was consulted on almost every emergency. In this war between Russia and the Porte, the former was, however, generally successful ; and, to add to the disasters of the Turks, an insur- rection arose during its progress, owing to some new regulations in the dress and dis- cipline of the troops, which terminated in the deposition of the grand seignior, Selim the third, and the proclamation of Mustapha the fourth. By sea, the Russians were equally successful as by land ; and in an en- gagement between the Russian and Turkish fleets, fought on the 1st of July, near the entrance to the Dardanelles, the latter, con- sisting of eleven sail of the line, was nearly annihilated. The failure of the weak and injudicious attempt on Constantinople was followed by the disappointment of another expedition which was sent against another seat of the Ottoman power. On the sixth of March, a force of five thousand men, under the com- mand of major-general Mackenzie Fraser, sailed from Messina, and having effected a landing near Alexandria, speedily compelled that city to capitulate. Ulterior operations against Rosetta and Rhamanie were unsuc- cessful, and the troop retreated, fighting all the way to Alexandria, where they remained till September, when general Fraser, unable to cope with the enemy, entered into a ne- gotiation ; and having obtained the restora- tion of the British prisoners, consented to evacuate Egypt CAPTURE OF MONTE VIDEO UNSUC- CESSFUL ATTACK ON BUENOS AYRES. GENERAL WHITELOCKE CASHIERED. SOME hopes were entertained that the reverses in the Mediterranean would be compensated by successes in South America. In October, 1806, ministers had sent out a reinforcement to the river Plate, under the command of Sir Samuel Auchmuty, and convoyed by Sir Charles Stirling, who was appointed to supersede Sir Home Popham in the naval command on that station. On arri- ving at Maldanado, Sir Samuel determined to attack the strong fortress of Monte Video, the key of the river Plate; and on the eighteenth of January the troops, amounting to about four thousand men, were landed near the place, and repulsed a superior force which had been ordered out against them. A battery was erected, which, though ex- posed to the incessant fire of the enemy, effected a practicable breach on the second of February; and orders were issued that the assault should be made next morning, an hour before daybreak. The enemy, in the mean time, had so barricaded the breach with hides, that the head of the assailing column could not in the darkness distinguish it from the untouched wall ; and the men remained under a galling fire for a quarter of an hour, when it was at length discovered by captain Renny, who fell gloriously as he mounted it ; the gallant soldiers then forced their way into the town, overturning the cannon which had been placed at the head of the principal avenues, and clearing the batteries and the streets with their bayonets. By sunrise all was in possession of the British except the citadel, which soon surrendered ; and early in the morning, highly to the credit of the troops, all was perfectly quiet When intelligence arrived in England of the recapture of Buenos Ayres by the Spaniards, orders were sent by a fast-sailing vessel to direct general Craufurd, who had been sent against Chili with four thousand two hundred men, accompanied by a naval force under admiral Murray, to proceed with his armament to the river Plate. On the fourteenth of June, he reached Monte Video, where he found general Whitelocke, GEORGE III. 1760-1820. 523 who had arrived on the ninth of May from England, with a reinforcement of sixteen hundred men, and to whom was intrusted the chief command of the British forces in South America, with orders to reduce the whole province of Buenos Ayres. Having, after fatiguing marches, nearly surrounded the town, he ordered a general attack to be made on the fifth of July, each corps to enter by the streets opposite to it, and all with unloaded muskets. The service was exe- cuted with great intrepidity, but with the loss of two thousand five hundred men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners. No mode of attack could have been so ill adapted against a town consisting of flat-roofed houses, disposed in regular streets, intersecting each other at right angles. Volleys of grape-shot were poured on our columns in front and in flank as they advanced ; and they were as- sailed also from the house-tops with hand- grenades and other destructive missiles. Sir Samuel Auchmuty succeeded in making himself master of the Plaza de Toros, where he took eighty-two pieces of cannon and an immense quantity of ammunition. General Craufurd with his brigade was cut off from all communication with the other columns, and was obliged to surrender ; as was also lieutenant-colonel Duff, with a detachment under his command. On the following morn- ing, general Liniers offered to deliver up the prisoners taken on this occasion, and also those taken from general Beresford, on con- dition that the attack on the town should be discontinued ; and that within two months from that date, Monte Video, and the other stations on the river Plate, occupied by the English troops, should be evacuated. He added that the exasperation of the populace against the English prisoners was unbounded ; and that if hostilities were continued, it would be impossible to insure their safety. These terms were no sooner proposed than they were yielded to by general White- locke, whose conduct called forth the most severe reprehension ; and on his return to England he was tried by a court-martial, cashiered, and declared totally unfit and un- worthy to serve his majesty in any military capacity. CAPTURE OF CURACOA. INSURRECTION IN INDIA. AGAINST these misfortunes, the solitary acquisition of the Dutch island of Curacoa is to be recorded. On the first of January, 1807, the capture was effected with incon- siderable loss, by a squadron of four frigates under the command of captain Brisbane. The tranquillity of British India was in- terrupted in July, 1806, by an insurrection of the sepoys' or native troops in the pay of the company, who attacked the European barracks at Vellore, and massacred one hundred and sixty-four men before they were quelled. A rumor, that it was the wish of the British government to convert the sepoys by forcible means to Christianity, was the cause of this disaffection. 524 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XXXVH. A new Parliament The late Negotiations Finance Abolition of the Slave Trade Change of Administration Dissolution of Parliament New Election New Mili- tary Plan Bill respecting Ireland Reversions Prorogation Expedition against Copenhagen Capture of the Danish Fleet War with Denmark With Russia Restrictions on Commerce Action between a British and American Frigate Cap- ture of the Danish West India Islands The French enter Portugal The Royal Family embark for Brazil Affairs of Spain Buonaparte's efforts to place his Brother on the Throne Expedition to Portugal Convention of Cintra Advance of the British forces into Spain, under Sir John Moore His retreat Battle of Corunna, and death of Sir John Moore. NEW PARLIAMENT. THE LATE NEGO- TIATIONS. FINANCE. AT the meeting of the new parliament on the fifteenth of December, 1806, the royal speech animated the nation to exertions against the enemy. On the second of Jan- uary, 1807, the subject of the late negotia- tion with France for the restoration of a general peace was brought under considera- tion. On this occasion Canning condemned the policy of breaking with Prussia for the sake of Hanover. Prussia had, in the first instance, accepted the transfer of that elec- torate from France, on condition that the possession should not be considered as valid until a general peace should be concluded, or until the consent of the king of Great Britain should be obtained. Buonaparte ac- quiesced for a time ; but no sooner was he relieved from anxiety respecting the Russian armies, than he insisted that the occupation should be absolute, and Prussia had then no choice but war, or compliance at the risk of war with England : she saw this risk, but could not avoid it ; and we fell into the snare. Buonaparte had apprehended the union of Prussia with the two great surviving powers of the confederacy, and wished to have her at his mercy. In the space of three months he beheld her at war with England, and England and Russia separately negotiating for peace. He found means to continue this state of things until the arrangements for the overthrow of Prussia were matured : then the farce was ended, and he hastened to the field of battle. Parliament, after providing for an aug- mentation of the sea and land forces, direct- ed its attention to the improvement of the revenue. Lord Henry Petty, having stated the total amount of the supplies for the year 1807 at forty million five hundred and twen- ty-seven thousand sixty-five pounds eleven shillings and eight pence, and the ways and means at forty-one million one hundred thousand pounds, brought forward a perma- nent plan of finance, which professed to have for its object to provide the means of main- taining the honor and independence of the British empire during the necessary contin- uance of the war, without perceptibly in- creasing the burdens of the country, and with manifest benefit to the interest of the public creditor. This plan was adapted to meet a scale of expenditure nearly equal to that of 1806; and assumed that, during the war, the annual produce of the permanent and tem- porary revenue would continue equal to the produce of that year. Keeping these prem- ises in view, it was proposed that the war loans for the years 1807, 1808, and 1809, should be twelve million pounds annually ; for 1810, fourteen million pounds ; and for each of the ten following years, sixteen mil- lion pounds. Those several loans were to be made a charge on the war taxes, which were estimated to produce twenty-one million pounds annually : this charge to be at the rate of ten per cent, on each loan ; five per cent, for interest, and the remainder as a sinking fund, which, at compound interest, would redeem any sum of capital debt in fourteen years. The portions of war taxes thus successively liberated, might, if the war should still be prolonged, become applicable in a revolving series, and be again pledged for new loans; it was, however, material, that the property-tax should, in every case, cease on the sixth of April next, after the ratification of a definitive treaty of peace. In the result therefore of the whole mea- sure, there would not be imposed any new taxes for the first three years from this time. New taxes of less than three hundred thou- sand pounds, on an average of seven years, from 1810 to 1816, both inclusive, were all that would be necessary, in order to procure for the country the full benefit of the plan here described, which would continue for twenty years ; during the last ten of which again no new taxes would be required. After repeated discussions the plan was agreed to, and the funds advanced considerably, which gave the minister an opportunity of negoti- GEORGE m 17601820. 525 ating a loan on terms highly advantageous to the public, and yet not unproductive to the contractors. ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. AT this period the total abolition of the African slave trade was finally accomplished. On the second of January lord Grenville introduced a bill for effecting this glorious object, which was read a first time, and printed. On the fourth of February, coun- sel were heard at the bar of the house, in favor of the continuance of the trade, and on the following day lord Grenville conclu- ded an elaborate speech on the subject, by moving the second reading of the bill, which was principally opposed by the duke of Clar- ence, earls Westmoreland and St. Vincent, and lords Sidmouth, Eldon, and Hawkes- bury. At four o'clock in the morning the house divided, when there appeared for the motion one hundred, and against it thirty-six voices. On the tenth the bill was read a third tune, and ordered to the commons for the concurrence of that assembly. On the twenty-third lord Howick moved for its com- mitment, when the opponents of this humane law were so much diminished that there ap- peared, on a division, for the question two hundred and eighty-three, and against it only sixteen voices. The bill, which was debated with great animation in all its stages, en- acted, that no vessel should clear out for slaves from any port within the British do- minions after the first of May, 1807, and that no slave should be landed in the colo- nies after the first of March, 1808. On the sixteenth of March, on the motion of lord Henry Petty, the bill was read a third time, and passed without a division. On the eighteenth the bill was carried to the lords for their concurrence in some amendments, when lord Grenville instantly moved that it should be printed, and taken into considera- tion on the twenty-third, on which day the alterations were agreed to. The reason of this haste was, that his majesty, displeased with the introduction of a bill for granting some concessions to Roman Catholic officers, had resolved to displace the existing admin- istration. Though the bill had passed both houses, there was an awful fear, lest it should not receive the royal assent before the ministry was dissolved. On the twenty- fifth of March, at half-past eleven o'clock in the morning, his majesty's message was delivered to the different members of admin- istration, command ing them to wait upon him, to deliver up the seals of their respec- tive offices. It then appeared, that a com- mission for the royal assent to this bill, among others, had been obtained. This commission was instantly opened by the lord chancellor (Erskine), and as the clock struck twelve, this important bill became, after a struggle of twenty years, a part of the law of the land ! Thus did Great Britain set an example to the world, which neither the philanthropists of the French republic, nor those of the United States of America, had been sufficiently magnanimous to exhibit. CHANGE OF THE MINISTRY. DISSOLU- TION OF PARLIAMENT. A BELL, styled the Roman Catholics' Army and Navy Service Bill, occasioned the dis- missal of the ministry. Its object was to secure to all his majesty's subjects the privi- lege of serving in the army and navy, upon their taking an oath prescribed by act of parliament, and for leaving to them, as far as convenience would admit, the free exer- cise of their respective religions. Without having for its aim what was called the eman- cipation of the Catholics, this bill was adapt- ed to afford them great satisfaction, being doubtless intended as the precursor of a sys- tem of enlarged toleration : it soon, however, became a matter of notoriety, that the king regarded it as contrary to the obligations of his coronation oath, and, under such circum- stances, ministers immediately abandoned it : but being also required to give a written obligation, pledging themselves never more to propose anything connected with the Catholic question, they resisted the demand, as incompatible with then- honor and duty. Some portion of irritation now operated on both sides the breach had extended too far to admit of being closed confidence was mutually impaired and the necessary con- sequence, the resignation of ministers, al- most immediately ensued. The new ministers announced on the twenty-fifth of March, were lord Eldon, chancellor; the earl of Westmoreland, privy- seal ; the duke of Portland, first lord of the treasury; earl Camden, president of the council; lord Mulgrave, first lord of the admiralty; lord Chatham, master of the ordnance; lord Hawesbury, secretary for the home department; Canning, secretary for foreign affairs ; lord Castlereagh, secre- tary for the department of war and colo- nies'; and Perceval, chancellor of the ex- chequer. A justification of the late ministry was sought by a motion made by Brand, that it was contrary to the first duties of the confi- dential servants of the crown, to restrain themselves by any pledge, express or im- plied, from offering to the king any advice that the course of circumstances might ren- der necessary. The majority in favor of the new ministers, in a house of four hundred and eighty-four members, only amounted to thirty-two ; and Canning intimated, that in the event of administration finding any im- pediment from the number of their oppo- nents, a dissolution of parliament would be 526 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. resorted to. This threat was soon after car- ried into effect, and on the twenty-seventh of April, the session and the parliament were brought to an end by a speech from the throne, in which the commissioners were charged to state that his majesty was anxious to recur to the sense of his people, while the events which had recently taken place were yet fresh in their recollection. NEW ELECTION. MILITARY PLANBILL RESPECTING IRELAND. PARLIAMENT PROROGUED. THE general election which succeeded the dissolution of parliament was, in many places, very violently contested, the cry of No Popery, and The Church is in danger, being used for political purposes; and so successfully was it exerted, that of the late ministry Thomas Grenville was the only commoner in the cabinet who resumed his seat for the place he had before represented. The new parliament assembled on the twenty-second of June, when Abbot was unanimously re-elected speaker of the house of commons. The king's speech, which was delivered by commission, stated that, since the events which led to the dissolution, he had received the warmest assurances of sup- port in maintaining the just rights of the crown, and the true principles of the consti- tution. In the lords the address was carried by one hundred and sixty against sixty- seven, and in the commons by three hun- dred and fifty to one hundred and fifty-five, being the fullest house ever known on a similar occasion; and thus the solidity of the present administration was fully estab- lished. A new military plan was introduced by lord Castlereagh, for increasing the regular army from the militia, and for supplying the deficiencies arising from such a transfer by a supplementary militia. Two bills were accordingly passed, through the operation of which it was calculated that thirty-eight thousand men would be added to the military force of the country. A bill was introduced by Sir Arthur Wellesley for suppressing in- surrection in Ireland, and for preventing the disturbance of the peace in that country ; and another bill was also passed to prevent improper persons frpm keeping arms. An address was likewise carried in the com- mons, on the motion of Bankes, praying his majesty not to make any grant of an office in reversion, until six weeks after the commencement of the ensuing sessioa On the fourteenth of August parliament was prorogued. EXPEDITION AGAINST COPENHAGEN- CAPTURE OF THE DANISH FLEET. THE efforts of Buonaparte to exclude the commerce of England from every part of the continent, and to promote a maritime confederacy against her, rendered it certain that no power which he could control would be permitted to enjoy a free trade ; and hav- ing succeeded in closing the ports of Russia and Prussia against the British flag, Den- mark became involved in a distressing di- lemma. The Berlin decree of Buonaparte, and the British orders of council issued by way of counteraction, placed all inferior powers in a state of submission to the bel- ligerants ; and between the dread of France, to whom all her continental territories lay open, on the one hand, and of the English navy on the other, Denmark, though anxious rigidly to preserve her neutrality, was se- verely visited with the calamities of war. Persuaded that sooner or later she must be absorbed in that vortex of domination, from which nearly all the continental powers had been unable, to extricate themselves, the British government dispatched to the Baltic an armament of twenty thousand troops, un- der the command of lord Cathcart, with a powerful fleet under admiral Gambier, one of the lords of the admiralty. When the intelligence of this expedition first reached Copenhagen, it was universally supposed, in that city, that the English army was intend- ed to co-operate wrth the Swedes in Pome- rania; the illusion, however, was speedily dissipated by the arrival of a British envoy in the Danish capital, early in August with instructions to demand the delivery of the fleet into the possession of the British ad^ miral, under a solemn stipulation that it should be restored at the conclusion of the war between England and France ; but in case the prince-royal refused to comply, he was to be informed that the British com- manders would forthwith proceed to hostili- ties. The prince argued upon the proposals made to him with dignity, and finally de- clared his determination to reject them, and to adhere to the line of policy which he had hitherto pursued. The English army landed without oppo- sition on the sixteenth of August, and after some ineffectual attempts to impede its pro- gress, Copenhagen was closely invested on the land-side, the fleet forming an impene- trable blockade by sea, A proclamation was at the same time issued by the com- manders, notifying to the inhabitants of Zea- land the motives of their undertaking ; the conduct that would be observed towards them; and an assurance that at any time when the demand of his Britannic majesty should be acceded to, hostilities should cease. Sir Arthur Wellesley was dispatched on the twenty-sixth with a force to disperse troops which were collecting with great rapidity under general Cartenchield which he effec- tually performed. On the evening of the second of September, the land batteries, and GEORGE IE. 17601820. 527 the bomb and mortar vessels, opened a tre- mendous fire upon the town, and in a very short time a general conflagration appeared to have taken place. No proposals for ca- pitulation being sent on the two ensuing days, the firing, which had been considerably slackened, was vigorously renewed on the evening of the fourth, and next morning the commandant of the garrison sent out a flag of truce. A capitulation having been settled on the eighth, the British army took possession of the citadel, dock-yards and batteries, under an engagement of restoring them, and of evacuating the island of Zea- land, at the expiration of six weeks, or sooner if possible: no requisitions were made, no contributions were levied, no mili- tary excesses were committed, and the police of the city was regulated by the Danish magistrates. The British admiral immedi- ately began rigging and fitting out the ships that filled the spacious basins where they were laid up in ordinary, sixteen of which were of the line, fifteen were frigates, six brigs, and twenty-five gun-boats ; and at the expiration of the term limited in the capif- ulation, they were all, together with the stores, timber, and every article of naval equipment found in the arsenal and store- houses, conveyed to England, except one line-of-battle ship that grounded on the isle of Huen, and was destroyed. The English fleet had scarcely quittec the road of Copenhagen, when a number of small armed vessels commenced depreda- tions on our traders in the Baltic with con- siderable success. British property was con- fiscated throughout the Danish dominions, and correspondence with England strictly prohibited. Under these circumstances a declaration was published in justification of the motives which dictated the expedition wherein it was stated that " his majesty hac received the most positive information of the determination of the ruler of France to oc- cupy "with a military force the territory of Holstein, for the purpose of excluding Grea' Britain from her accustomed channels of communication with the continent, or in- ducing or compelling the court of Denmark to close the passage of the Sound agains 1 British commerce and navigation, and of availing himself of the aid of the Danish marine for the invasion of Great Britain anc Ireland ;" and further, that " rjolstein once occupied, Zealand would be at the mercy of France, and the navy of Denmark at her disposal." The expedition was therefore justified as an act of self-preservation. RUSSIA PROCLAIMS WAR WITH ENG LAND. RESTRICTIONS ON COMMERCE. THE emperor of Russia strongly resentec the conduct of England towards Denmark and as the treaty of Tilsit had already tendec considerably to relax the bond of union be- ;ween the courts of London and St Peters- )urgh, it was far from improbable that Rus- sia might soon join the league against Brit- ain. Apprehension was at length converted into certainty the British ambassador was ordered to leave St Petersburgh and on the thirty-first of October a declaration of war was issued against England. The em- peror proclaimed anew the principles of the armed neutrality, and engaged that there should be no re-establishment of peace be- tween Russia and England until satisfaction should have been given to Denmark. Buonaparte's efforts to exclude English commerce, and to establish his continental system, were this year continued with rigor- ous perseverance. To embarrass the trade and finances of Great Britain, Europe was obliged, in a great degree, to abandon those luxuries which long habit had almost ren- dered necessary ; and these restrictions were followed, on the part of England, by a sys- tem of retaliation, which deprived multi- tudes in France of the means of honest in- dustry, and even of relief under disease and pain. The distress of the West India plant- ers, in consequence of the exclusion of their produce from the usual markets, excited particular attention; and, to remedy this evil, a committee of the house of commons, appointed to inquire into the means of afford- ing them relief, recommended a decrease of duty upon colonial produce, an advance of bounty upon its importation, and the inter- ruption of the intercourse carried on by American ships between Europe and the colonies of Cuba, Porto Rico, Martinique, and Guadaloupe, through the medium of the United States. An order of council, issued on the seventh of January, which prohibited neutral vessels from trading to any port in the possession, or under the control of the enemy, not having answered the desired purpose, additional orders were issued on the eleventh of November, declaring every port from which Great Britain was excluded, to be in a state of blockade ; all trade in the produce and manufactures of these countries was pronounced illegal ; and the vessels employed therein were liable to seizure. Thus was the communication along the coasts of France and her allies, by means of neutral vessels, completely prohibited ; and, though the Americans might still freely trade with the enemy's colonies for articles of their own consumption, the double re- striction was imposed upon the intercourse by them between France and her colonies, of calling at a British port, and paying a British duty. To avoid the losses and hos- tilities which were to be apprehended from the measures respectively adopted by Eng- land and France, the American congress, 528 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. on the twenty-second of December, laid a strict embargo on all the vessels of the Uni- ted States, by which they were prohibited from quitting any of their ports ; and ships from all other nations were commanded to leave the American harbors, with or with- out cargoes, as soon as the act was notified to them. This intelligence created a gene- ral feeling of alarm among commercial men; and the merchants of Liverpool, considering that this act of congress proceeded from our orders in council, petitioned for their speedy removal, but parliament did not think proper to comply with their request. Buonaparte, aware that all restrictions on commerce would, from the situation and pursuits of England, fall upon this country with a much heavier pressure than on France, felt no dis- position to relax in this new species of war- fare ; and accordingly, on the twenty-third of November, a decree was issued from Mil- an, enacting, " that all vessels which, after liaving touched at England from any nation whatever, shall enter the ports of France, shall be seized and confiscated as well as their cargoes, without exception or distinc- tion of commodities or merchandise." This interdict was, on the nineteenth of the fol- lowing month, succeeded by a rejoinder to the orders in council of the eleventh of No- vember, by which it was declared that every neutral which submitted to be searched by an English ship, or paid any duty whatso- ever to the English government, should be considered as thereby denationalized ; and having forfeited the protection of its own government, should in consequence be liable .to seizure as a lawful prize, by French ships of war. Neutral powers were thus placed between confiscation and confiscation. If they proceeded to a French port without first paying a duty upon their cargoes in England, they were liable to be captured by British cruisers ; and if they came to Eng- land and paid the duty, they then became subject to confiscation in the ports of the enemy. The case was one of extreme hardship; and in this country, where war had not obliterated all sense of moral obli- gation, the justice and the policy of the or- ders in council underwent a severe scru- tiny, and called forth the most animated discussions. ACTION BETWEEN A BRITISH AND AMER- ICAN FRIGATE DANISH WEST INDIA ISLANDS SURRENDER. WHILST the orders of council increased the differences between Great Britain and the United States, an unfortunate occurrence created another ground of dispute. On the twenty-third of June an English man-of- war, the Leopard, captain Humphries, act- ing under the orders of admiral Berkeley, fell in with the Chesapeak, American frig- ate, off the Capes of Virginia, and demanded some British deserters, whom she was known to have on board. Her captain refusing to admit the search, the Leopard fired a broad- side, which killed and wounded several of his men : after which the American struck his colors. In consequence of this transac- tion, the president of the United States is- sued a proclamation, ordering the immediate departure of all British ships of war from the harbors and waters of the Union, and, in his message to congress on the twenty- seventh of October, relative to the pending negotiation with Great Britain, he stated that satisfaction had been demanded for the outrage. An investigation in the mean time took place at Halifax, and one of the desert- ers taken on board the Chesapeak was con- demned by a court-martial, and executed. The British ministry hesitated not to declare in parliament their readiness to make every reparation for whatever might appear an un- authorized act of hostility ; and, in a pro- clamation issued for recalling British sea- men, it was stated that force might, if ne- cessary, be exercised for recovering desert- ers on board the merchant-vessels of neu- trals ; but that, with respect to ships of war, a requisition only should be made. By this proclamation the conduct of admiral Berke- ley was tacitly disavowed ; and an envoy was soon after dispatched on a special mis- sion to America, with overtures of concilia- tion, which, however, proved abortive. The Danish West India islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix, surrender- ed in December, without resistance, to a squadron commanded by Sir Alexander ^ochrane. FRENCH ENTER PORTUGAL. THE French armies entered Spain ; and Buonaparte having publicly declared that :he house of Braganza should cease to reign, a large force, under general Junot, entered Portugal ; and on the evening of the twenty- sixth of November had reached Abrantes, within three days' march of Lisbon. At :his alarming crisis the prince regent, hav- ing hastily concerted measures with lord Strangfbrd, the English minister at Lisbon, adopted the resolution of transferring the royal family and the seat of the Portuguese government to Brazil. No time having seen left for delay, the embarkation was ex- 3editiously performed ; and, on the morning of the twenty-ninth, the Portuguese fleet, consisting of eight ships of the line, four frigates, three brigs and a schooner, sailed out of the Tagus, having on board the prince of Brazil, with the whole of the royal fami- ly, and a number of persons attached to its brtunes. The French troops, who, from the icights in the vicinity of Lisbon, viewed the fleet as it dropped down the river, en- GEORGE III. 17601820. 529 tered the city without opposition, and treat- ed it as a conquest of the French arms. The migration of the Braganza family, which has no example in modern, and scarcely any in ancient history, was per- formed under the protection of the British navy, Sir Sidney Smith having accompani- ed the royal emigrants to Rio de Janeiro, where they arrived on the ninth of Janua- ry ; and a direct intercourse being thus es- tablished between England and Brazil, a new epoch was formed in the history of commerce. The valuable island of Madei- ra was committed by the Portuguese go- vernment to the protection of the British until the conclusion of a general peace. BUONAPARTE PLACES HIS BROTHER ON THE THRONE OF SPAIN INSURREC- TION AT MADRID. AFTER Buonaparte had, in the pretended character of a friend and ally, introduced his armies into Spain, the reigning mon- arch, Charles the fourth, perplexed and har- assed by court intrigues, was induced or compelled to resign his crown to his son, the prince of Asturias. The new sovereign, Ferdinand the seventh, with the whole of the royal family, and some of the principal grandees, were, in a mysterious manner, al- lured to take a journey to Bayonne, for the purpose of an interview with Buonaparte, who, haying thus secured the two kings, obliged them to sign a formal abdication, and the infants Don Carlos and Don Anto- nio renounced all claim of succession to the Spanish crown. By the French, these abdications and renunciations were repre- sented as voluntary acts ; but by Spain, and the rest of Europe, they were contemplated in a very different light ; an imperial decree was issued by Buonaparte, declaring the throne of Spain to be vacant, by the abdica- tion of the reigning family ; a junta, princi- pally composed of the partisans of France, was convened to meet at Bayonne. Among the -deputies chosen by the notables to re- present them in the junta was Pedro, bishop of Orense, who excused himself from ac- cepting the trust in a letter to Murat, then grand duke of Berg, and provisional vice- roy. It was fraught with pure morality and accurate reasoning, covered with a veil of exquisitely fine irony. The bishop of St. Andero's letter on the same occasion, though quite in another style, was as much admi- red : he replied, " I cannot make it conveni- ent to attend, and if I could, I would not" Buonaparte conferred the crown of Spain on his brother Joseph, who resigned the crown of Naples in favor of the grand duke of Berg, Murat, The circumstances of the time induced a belief that the new government would! meet with little opposition: the French oc-j VOL. IV. 45 cupied all the most commanding positions ; the main body of their army was stationed in Madrid, and the principal cities and for- tresses were garrisoned by their detach- ments. At that time the French could not have fewer than one hundred thousand troops hi Spain, and twenty thousand in Portugal ; but notwithstanding the presence of so formidable a force, the news of the compulsory renunciations of the Bourbon dynasty formed the signal for a general in- surrection. On the morning of the second of May, 1808, immense crowds collected in the principal streets of the capital, and, ren- dered confident by their numbers, attacked the French troops with great vigor and reso- lution, forced them to retreat, and obtained possession of their cannon, with which they succeeded in driving them out of the city. The alarm was no sooner given than the French repaired to their posts, and the re- inforcements which poured into the city overwhelmed the insurgents. About two o'clock the firing ceased, and the inhabit- ants flattered themselves that the carnage was at an end ; but in the afternoon Murat issued orders for the immediate formation of a military tribunal, of which general Grou- chy was appointed president; and, after a summary trial, three groups of forty each were successively shot. In this manner was the evening of the second of May spent by the French at Madrid ; the inhabit- ants were commanded to illuminate their houses; and through the whole night the dead and dying were lying in heaps upon the blood-stained pavement The numbers slain on both sides must have been immense. This effort of the citizens of Madrid, which ought to have aroused the Junta to a sense of their duty, produced directly the opposite effect, and bent them completely to the will of Murat. Through his influence, the holy inquisition addressed a circular to all the courts of the kingdom, in which they accused the Spanish people of having occa- sioned, by their factious disposition and outrageous violence, the disturbances and bloodshed of the second of May. MADRID EVACUATED BY THE FRENCH. A PROVINCIAL junta assembled at Ovie- do published a formal declaration of war against France, and, having appointed the marquis of Santa Cruz general of the pa- triotic army, sent a deputation to solicit the assistance of England, which was readily granted, and the British government decla- red itself at peace with the Spanish nation. The defence of Arragon was committed to general Palafox, whose bold and animated addresses had contributed to rouse his coun- trymen to arms ; and Saragossa, the princi- pal city, was considered by the French as a place of so much importance, that they 530 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. made repeated attacks upon it with all the forces they could spare; but though they more than once obtained possession of some parts of the town, they were never able to preserve what tfaey with so much difficulty acquired. Another point of great import- ance to both the contending parties was the possession of the principal road between Bayonne and Madrid, and Cuesta was the Spanish general appointed to secure that important object: the French general dis- patched for the same purpose was Lesolles. The hostile forces met on the fourteenth of July at Rio Seco, near Vallacolid, and the Spaniards were compelled to retreat, on which the French took possession of Rio Seco, and afterwards of St Andero ; their triumph, however, was of short duration, the advance of general de Ponti, with a division of ten thousand men from the Aus- trian army, obliging the French to evacuate the town precipitately. Buonaparte remained at Bayonne, direct- ing or receiving the deliberations of the junta which he had convened, and drawing up a constitution for Spain. Murat, under plea of ill-health, having previously quitted Madrid, Joseph Buonaparte, accompanied by his principal ministers, set out for the capital of his yet unconquered kingdom, where he arrived, under the protection of ten thousand men, on the twentieth of July ; but on that very day general Dupont, with fifteen thousand men, surrendered himself and his army prisoners to Castanos, the chief of the Andalusian army ; and as soon as this news reached Madrid, Joseph and his court sought their safety in flight, mean- ly consoling themselves, however, by carry- ing off the regalia, plate, and other valua- bles in the royal palaces. The council of Castile immediately resumed the govern- ment, with professions of ardent attachment to the cause of their deposed monarch ; but these professions were received with dis- trust by the patriots, and the the country still continued to be adminis- tered by the junta of Seville. It was also judged expedient to form a military junta at Madrid, composed of five generals, in- cluding Castanos and Morla. EXPEDITION OF THE BRITISH TO POR- TUGAL. IN England, an expedition which had been fitted out under Sir Arthur Wellesley, for the purpose, it was supposed, of proceeding against Spanish America, was countermand- ed on the arrival of the news of the insur- rection in Spain. This army, consisting of about ten thousand men, sailed from Cork on the twelfth of July ; and Sir Arthur, hav- ing arrived at Corunna on the twentieth, offered the assistance of the force under his command to the junta of Galicia ; but that government of considerabl body, though the defeat at Rio Seco had taken place a few days before, and the Span- iards were retreating in every direction, un- intimidated by their late reverses, replied, that they wished for nothing from the Brit- ish government except money, arms, and ammunition : they expressed their firm con- viction, however, that the armament might be of infinite service if it were employed in driving the French from Lisbon, and to that point it accordingly proceeded. The Eng- lish government next turned its thoughts to the Spanish troops which Buonaparte had drawn, under the pretence of securing Han- over, to the northern parts of Germany ; and a negotiation being entered into between their commander, the marquis de la Romana, and the British admiral, Sir Richard Keats, ten thousand men were, by a well-concerted plan, rescued from the power of Buonaparte, and landed on the northern coast of Spain, to support the patriotic cause. Buonaparte returned to Paris on the fifth of September, when one hundred and sixty thousand men were ordered to be raised for the augmentation of his army, which, com- bined with the report of the French minis- ter for foreign affairs, stating that two hun- dred thousand men were to be placed at the service of the war in Spain, sufficiently in- dicated that the insurrections in that country had not shaken his purposes. Having ar- ranged his military operations, Buonaparte set out from Paris to meet the emperor Alexander, and the dependent German princes, at Erfurth. The proceedings of this meeting were never suffered to transpire ; but it cannot be doubted that one of its ob- jects was to overawe Austria, and to ar- range the co-operation of Russia and the confederate states of the Rhine against her, if she attempted to avail herself of the war in Spain. On his return to Paris, he assured the legislative body that the emperor of Rus- sia and himself were determined to make e sacrifices in order to procure, for the hundred millions of men whom they represented, an early enjoyment of the com- merce of the seas ; and he announced his resolution to depart in a few days to put himself at the head of his armies, to crown the king of Spain at Madrid, and to plant his eagles on the forts of Lisbon. He ar- rived at Bayonne on the third of November, when the progress of the campaign became unfavorable to the patriotic cause. Having fully succeeded in the north-west of Spain, Buonaparte suddenly and unexpectedly di- rected his efforts against the forces under Castanos, on the Ebro, whom he defeated at Tudela on the twenty-third ; and, in the short space of three weeks, the grand ar- mies of Blake, Castanos, and count Belve- der, on which the principal hopes of the GEORGE IE. 17601820. 531 Spanish nation rested for the defence of the capital and the north of Spain, were defeat- ed, and, in a great measure, dispersed. On the twenty-second of November, eleven days after the battle of Tudela, Buonaparte re- moved his head-quarters from Burgos, and marched against Madrid by the direct road of the Castiles. The Puerto, a passage of the Somo Sierra, was defended by a division of from twelve to fifteen thousand Span- iards, and by a battery of sixteen pieces of cannon ; but the powerful army to which they were opposed compelled them to seek safety in flight, leaving their cannon in the hands of the enemy. On the second of De- cember, Buonaparte arrived on the heights which overlook the capital of Spain, and summoned it to surrender ; but the bearer of the proposal narrowly escaped being torn to pieces by the inhabitants, who evinced a resolution to defend themselves, which was feebly seconded by their leaders ; and, after an obstinate resistance, the French forces took possession of the city on the fourth, the Spanish troops being withdrawn during the preceding night. BATTLES OF ROLEIA AND VIMIERA. CONVENTION OF CINTRA. THE news of the Spanish insurrection soon reached Lisbon; but the inhabitants, kept in awe by the army of Junot, were pre- vented at first from manifesting their joy at the intelligence : at Oporto, however, cir- cumstances were more favorable. A body of Spanish troops, which occupied that city, on learning that their services were required in their own country, determined to join the patriotic ranks ; but, before their departure, they took the French general and his staff prisoners, and delivered up the government of the city to Louise d'Oliveda, who imme- diately opened a friendly communication with an English frigate which was cruising off that port. The conduct of Oporto served as an^ example for the other parts of Portu- gal : nearly the whole of the north rose in arms against the French ; the authority of the prince regent was re-established ; and provincial Juntas, similar in their character and functions to those in Spain, were form- ed. These assemblies turning their atten- tion towards England for assistance, the army of Sir Arthur Wellesley, which had, in the first instance, been offered to the Spaniards, was destined for Portugal, and subsequently augmented by reinforcements from the south of Spain, under generals An- struther and Ackland, and from the Baltic under Sir John Moore. On the arrival of the expedition at Oporto, the bishop stated that the Portuguese force in that quarter was sufficient to repel the attacks of the en- emy, on which Sir Arthur Wellesley deter- mined to effect a landing in Mondego bay, having previously given orders to general Spencer to join him at that place : and on the ninth of August their united forces ad- vanced on the road, to Lisbon. On the fif- teenth the advanced guard of the British army came up, for the first time, with a par- ty of the French at Oviedas, when a slight action took place, called the action of Lou- rinka. On the seventeenth Sir Arthur de- termined to attack general Laborde, whose force, strongly and advantageously posted at Roleia, consisted of about six thousand men. A desperate battle ensued, attended with very considerable loss on the side of the British ; but, at the close of the day, the en- emy was completely repulsed, and his re- treat might have been cut of had the Brit- ish army been supplied with the usual pro- portion of cavalry. Junot, having been in- formed of the reinforcements which the British army expected, resolved, notwith- standing the defeat of his troops at Roleia, to anticipate their arrival, for which purpose he left Lisbon with nearly the whole of his disposable force, amounting to about four- teen thousand men, and on the morning of the twenty-first came up with the army un- der Sir Arthur Wellesley, at Vimiera. The French commenced the attack on various points with their usual impetuosity, but met with a resistance to which they had been long unaccustomed. After repulsing them at the point of the bayonet, the British be- came the assailants, and general Anstruther, advancing for the purpose of occupying his position on the left, attacked their flank, and threw them into complete confusion. Nearly at the same time the enemy assailed gene- ral Ferguson's brigade, and again he gave way before the rampart of British bayonets with which he was resisted. Having failed in every quarter the French commenced a retreat, after sustaining a loss of three thou- sand men, and thirteen pieces of cannon. In this decisive victory the whole of the French force in Portugal was employed, under the command of Junot, the duke of Abrantes, in person ; the enemy was certainly superior in cavalry and artillery, and not more than half of the British army was actually en- gaged. Sir Harry Burrard, who arrived on the morning of the battle, declined assuming the command till Sir Arthur Wellesley should have completed his operations ; and on the following day Sir Hew Dalrymple, who had been ordered from his situation as lieutenant-governor of Gibraltar, for the pur- pose of taking the command of all the dif- ferent corps sent by the British government into Portugal, reached Cintra, to which the British army had moved. A few hours after his arrival a flag of truce came in from Ju- not, with a proposal for a cessation of hostil- ities, that a convention, by which the French 532 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. should evacuate Portugal, might be agreed upon ; and an armistice was accordingly consented to, which formed the basis of the convention of Cintra. Its essential articles were, that the English government should be at the expense of transporting the whole of the French army to any of the ports in France, between Rochefort and L'Orient; that they were to be at liberty to serve again immediately ; and that all the proper- ty of the French army, as well as of indi- viduals, was to be sacred and untouched, and might either be sold in Portugal, or car- ried off into France. The embarkation was to take place in three divisions, the first to sail within seven days ; no native of Portu- gal was to be molested on account of his political conduct during the French occupa- tion, and such as were desirous of withdraw- ing into France were to have full liberty to dispose of their property. When the insur- rection in Spain first broke out, Junot had ordered a number of Spanish troops, serving in his army, into confinement in the ships in the harbor ; and, in return for the delivering up of these men, the British commander en- gaged to obtain the release of such French subjects as were detained in Spain without having been taken in battle. Sir Charles Cotton concluded a separate convention with admiral Siniavin, for the surrender of the Russian ships in the Tagus. In Portugal, as well as in England, the terms of the convention produced universal discontent General Freire, commander of the Portuguese troops, entered a formal pro- test against it ; and the coolness which had already unfortunately taken place- was by this means greatly aggravated. On the fif- teenth of September the French troops com- pleted their embarkation, and Portugal was entirely freed from the presence of an ene- my, who, for ten months, had inflicted upon her the most severe calamities. The Brit- ish, however, did not begin their march to- wards Spain till two months after the ratifi- cation of the convention of Cintra; and even then, upwards of ten thousand were left behind. This fatal convention drew after it a long train of disaster and disgrace. One of its first effects was to suspend all the operations of the army ; and Sir Hew Dal- rymple, Sir Harry Burrard, and Sir Arthur Wellesley, were all summoned to England, in consequence of the inquiry which was in- stituted into that proceeding, and of which the result was a formal declaration, commu- nicated officially to Sir Hew Dalrymple, strongly disapproving the terms of both the armistice and convention. ADVANCE OF THE BRITISH INTO SPAIN UNDER SIR JOHN MOORE. THE command of the British army was now vested in Sir John Moore, who had dis- tinguished himself in the West Indies, in Holland, and in Egypt, and had recently re- turned from Sweden, whither he had been sent, at the head of ten thousand men, to assist the king, against whom war had been declared by Russia, Prussia, and Denmark ; but, through the capricious conduct of that monarch, he had been constrained to bring back his troops without landing them. The force destined to act in favor of the Span- iards marched from Lisbon on the twenty- seventh of October, under the command of Sir John Moore, with whom Sir David Baird, who had been sent from England with a re- inforcement of ten thousand men, was di- rected to form a junction wherever he should appoint. Sir David arrived at Corunna on the thirteenth of October, and to his aston- ishment, the Junta of Galicia at first refused him permission to land his troops ; and when their tardy acquiescence was at length ob- tained, his reception was extremely cold and dispiriting. Sir John Moore, also, when he arrived at Salamanca, on the fourteenth of November, found it necessary to write to the British minister at Madrid, desiring him frankly to inform the Spanish government, that if they expected his army to advance, they must pay more attention to its wants ; and the farther he went, the more strongly was he impressed with the conviction, that the information, upon the faith of which he had crossed the frontiers of Portugal, was destitute of foundation. He had been of- ficially informed that his entry into Spain would be covered by sixty thousand men ; but he had now advanced within three marches of the French army, and not even a Spanish picket had appeared to protect his front. All their principal armies were beaten and dispersed ; Burgos was in posses- sion of the French; and even Valladolid had been occupied by their cavalry. Under these circumstances, Sir John resolved to retreat ; but before he could put this deter- mination into effect, he received a commu- nication from Don P. Morla, member of the supreme junta, who proved to be a traitor, and another from Frere, the British ambas- sador at Madrid, which induced him to ad- vance. If Sir John Moore had not possessed in an extraordinary degree, circumspection, penetration, and firmness, these solicitations would have thrown him and his army into the power of the French. SIR JOHN MOORE'S RETREAT. BEFORE he had proceeded a day's march on his route, Sir John Moore learnt, by an intercepted dispatch, that Buonaparte, who had entered Madrid on the fourth of Decem- ber, was advancing towards Lisbon, and that a body of eighteen thousand men, under Soult, duke of Dalmatia, was posted at Sal- dana, on the banks of the Carrion. Sir GEORGE EL 17601820. John, anxious to meet the wishes of hie troops by leading them against the enemy effected a junction with Sir David Baird, and proceeded, by rapid marches, to the Carrion. Here the advanced posts of the two armies first met, and the superiority of the British cavalry, under lord Paget, was eminently displayed in a successful skir- mish ; but just as Sir John Moore had issued his orders for a general attack, and had re- quested the marquis of Romana to co-operate with his forces, he received information that Buonaparte, hi person, was advancing in his rear ; that the force which had been station- ed at Talavera had moved forward to Sala- manca ; and that Soult himself had received strong reinforcements. Retreat was now indispensable. The corps of Soult, before it was reinforced, consisted of eighteen thousand men; the right flank of the British was threatened by Junot, who, liberated by the convention of Cintra from his perilous situation in Portugal, had again advanced into Spain, with fifteen thousand men ; while Buonaparte, who had quitted Madrid on the eighteenth, with forty thousand troops, was advancing with his usual rapidity. At Ben- evente another skirmish took place, which terminated greatly to the honor of the British cavalry, and in which the French general Lefebvre, at the head of his chasseurs, was taken prisoner. Finding that his main forcg could not come up with Sir John Moore be- fore he had quitted Benevente, and his pres- ence being required in France, Buonaparte committed the further prosecution of the pursuit to marshal Soult. The situation of the British army was, at this time, dispirit- ing in the extreme. In the midst of winter, in a dreary and desolate country, the sol- diers, chilled and drenched by deluges of rain, and wearied by long and rapid marches, were, almost destitute of fuel to cook their victuals, and it was with extreme difficulty that they procured shelter. Their provi- sions were scanty, irregular, and difficult of attainment; the wagons, in which were their magazines, baggage, and stores, were often deserted in the night by the Spanish drivers, terrified by the approach of the French. Thus baggage, ammunition, stores, and even money, were frequently obliged to be destroyed, to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy ; and the weak, the sick, and the wounded, were necessarily left behind. In the midst of these distresses, the Spanish peasantry offered no assistance, and showed no sympathy ; on the contrary, though armed, they fled at the approach of the English, carrying with them everything that could alleviate their distress, or con- tribute to their preservation or comfort. The difficulties and anxiety of the British com- mander were increased by the relaxation 45* which took place in the discipline of his army. The disappointment which they ex- perienced in not being allowed to measure their strength with the enemy, and the sufferings of a retreat which they consider- ed as a disgraceful and unnecessary flight, contributed to weaken their habits of order and subordination, and compelled Sir John Moore to issue such orders as should unequi- vocally express his sense of so great an evil, and his unalterable determination to punish, in the most severe and exemplary manner, every future offender. The enemy was now pressing Sir John Moore so much, that he resolved to halt at Lugo, where he arrived on the fifth of January, 1809, and to offer battle ; but Soult did not think it safe to at- tack him hi the strong position which he had taken up near this place ; and Sir John, not judging it prudent either to act offen- sively, or to delay his retreat, quitted his ground in the night of the nintli, leaving his fires burning. On the llth, the whole of the British army reached Corunna, with the exception of general Crawford's division, consisting of tliree thousand men, which had embarked at Vigo; but, unfortunately, the transports had not yet arrived, and the next morning Soult's army occupied an extensive line above the town, in readiness to make an attack as soon as the troops should begin to embark. BATTLE OF CORUNNA, AND DEATH OF SIR JOHN MOORE. ON the fourteenth, in the evening, the transports hove in sight; and on the six- teenth, when orders had been issued for the embarkation of the whole army, general Hope reported from his post that the ene- my's line was getting under arms. This was about noon, at the moment that Sir John Moore was visiting his outposts, and explain- ing his plans to the general officers ; but as soon as he was informed of this hostile indi- cation, he flew to the field, where the pick- ets were already engaged, and beheld the French descending from the hills in four columns, two of which threatened Sir David Baird's division, on the right of the British line. This effort was met by Sir John Moore and Sir David Baird, at the head of the forty-second and fiftieth regiments, and the brigade under lord W. Bentinck, by whom the enemy was charged and driven back with great slaughter, though not till Sir David had received a severe wound in his arm, and was obliged to retire from the scene of action. At this period of the action Sir John Moore received his death-wound. Un- dismayed by the loss of their commander, the British soldiers maintained the advan- tages they had gained on the right, and, with the most determined bravery, continued 534 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. to repel the attacks of the enemy on their centre and left, till they actually forced him to retire, although he had brought up fresh troops in support of those originally engag- ed ; and, on the close of the day, the British were left mastere of the field. Not more than fifteen thousand British were engaged, of whom between seven and eight hundred were killed or wounded. The French ex- ceeded twenty thousand, and their loss was estimated at about two thousand. In consequence of the death of Sir John Moore, and the wound of Sir David Baird, the command-in-chief had devolved upon general Hope, who lost no time in carrying into effect the embarkation of the troops, according to the arrangements already made by his predecessor ; they accordingly quitted their position about ten o'clock at night, and marched -into Corunna, where everything was so well concerted, that during the night, and in the course of the following day, the whole army embarked without further mo- lestation. When the French found the British were gone, they fired on the trans- posts, which so alarmed the masters of sev- eral of them, that they cut their cables, and four of the ships ran aground ; the troops, however, were removed, and the vessels de- stroyed. The body of Sir John Moore was hastily interred on the ramparts of Corunna, where a monument was afterwards raised to his memory. In this retreat the British army lost all its ammunition, all its magazines, above five thousand horses, and five or six thousand men. The expedition, however, calamitous as it proved, was not destitute of advantage to the cause it was intended to support, as it drew Buonaparte from the south, which at that time lay entirely open to his enter- prises, and afforded time to the Spaniards to recover in some degree from the terrors of their enemy. GEORGE HI. 17601820. 535 . CHAPTER XXXVIII. Parliamentary Proceedings Expedition against Denmark Droits of Admiralty Enlistment Local Militia Finance Criminal Law Administration of Justice Distilleries Spanish Cause Prorogation Austria declares against England Efforts of the Swedes against Russia and Denmark Affairs of Italy Militia Convention of Cintra Charges against Duke of York Traffic in East India Ap- pointments Corrupt Practices respecting Seats in Parliament, and Bill for their Prevention Budget Dutch Commissioners Rupture between Austria and France Campaign in Germany Overthrow of Austrians Treaty of Peace Efforts of Tyrolese Annexation of Rome to France Divorce of Buonaparte and Josephine Affairs of Sweden- Expedition to Walcheren Attack on a French Fleet French Convoy destroyed Martinique, Cayenne, and Bourbon taken Differences with America Ministerial disputes and changes Jubilee Campaign in Spain Battle of Talavera Siege of Cadiz Attempt to rescue Ferdinand Operations in Por- tugal. PROCEEDINGS OF PARLIAMENT. DROITS OF ADMIRALTY. ENLISTMENT. FI- NANCE. AT the opening of the British parliament, on the thirty-first of January, 1808, the con- duct of ministers in the expedition against Denmark met decided approval; the feel- ings of the English people, still, however, prompted them to wish that the odium of coercing a neutral power had been left to France, and that the capture of the Danish fleet had been reserved as another triumph for our navy, in defensive war. The orders of council were made valid by an act passed on the twenty-fifth of March, which was accompanied by a bill for regulating the commercial intercourse with America, until amicable arrangements should be concluded with that country. Sir Francis Burdett, observing that the proceeds of the droits of admiralty amount- ed to so considerable a sum that he was con- vincecTparliament could never endure that it should be left as the private property of the king, moved in the house of commons, with a view to an ulterior inquiry, for an account of the net proceeds, paid out of the court of admiralty to the receiver-general of droits, of all property condemned to his majesty since the first of January, 1793, with the balances now remaining; which was agreed to. When the mutiny-bill came under con- sideration in the commons, lord Castlereagh, referring to Mr. Windham's system, said that he had no objection to limited service under certain modifications, but he thought it ought not to be enforced to the exclusion of unlimited service, and therefore moved that a clause be introduced, allowing the option of enlisting for life, which was car- ried by one hundred and sixty-nine against a hundred. Another measure relating to internal defence was the creation of a local militia, amounting to sixty thousand men, to be balloted for in the different counties, in proportion to the deficiency of volunteers of each, from among persons between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. Volunteer corps might, if they chose, transfer them- selves, with the approbation of his majesty, into this local militia. The period of ser- vice during the year to be twenty-eight days, for which pay was to be allowed. This measure encountered strenuous opposition, but was ultimately carried. The chancellor of the exchequer did not this year find himself under the necessity of adding much to the public burdens. By an arrangement with the bank of England, five hundred thousand pounds of the un- claimed dividends were obtained for imme- diate use ; a reduction in the charges of the bank for superintending the pecuniary con- cerns of the public was effected to the amount of sixty-four thousand pounds ; and a loan of three million pounds was granted by the directors to government, without in- terest, till six months after the termination of the war. The supplies voted amounted to about forty-three million pounds for Eng- land, and five million seven hundred thou- sand pounds for Ireland, and the ways and means included a loan of eight millions of pounds, to provide for the interest of which new taxes were only found necessary to the amount of three hundred and twenty-five housand pounds. A new financial plan was introduced by the chancellor of the exche- quer to accelerate the reduction of the na- ;ional debt It was to enable proprietors of three per cent, consolidated or reduced bank annuities, to exchange with the commission- rs for the reduction of the national debt, such bank annuities, for a life annuity during the continuance of one or two lives. To 536 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. prevent impositions, the power of transfer was to be limited to persons under thirty- five years of age, and the amount of the transfer to sums not less than one hundred pounds; the stock not to be transferable when the funds were above eighty pounds. The effect would be to secure to the nation the redemption of the funds so transferred, at the price at which they were when the transfer was made. A biH for preventing the grant of offices in reversion, or for joint lives, with benefit of survivorship, was brought in by Bankes, and carried through the commons; but in the lords, though supported by several of his majesty's ministers, it was opposed by the lord-chancellor, lord Arden, lord Redesdale, and the duke of Montrose, and thrown out by a majority of eighty voices. Conceiving, however, that it was incumbent upon the house of commons not to abandon a measure so connected with retrenchments, Bankes introduced another bill, similar in its object, but limited as to duration, and the bill, thus modified, passed the upper house. CRIMINAL LAW. DISTILLERIES. SPAN- ISH CAUSE. PROROGATION OF PAR- LIAMENT. SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY, who, in common with many other enlightened men, had long lamented that in the criminal law of the country so many crimes were subject to capital punishment, introduced a bill into parliament for the repeal of so much of an act of Elizabeth as related to taking away the benefit of clergy from offenders con- victed of stealing privately from the person. A clause was introduced by the solicitor- general, to provide that privately stealing, as distinguished from robbery, should be pun- ished by transportation for life, or for a term of years, at the discretion of the judge, at whose option the punishment might be com- muted into imprisonment for any period not exceeding three years. A bill was also passed, framed by the lord chancellor, for the better administration of justice in Scot- land, the object of which was to divide the court of session into two chambers of seven or eight judges, to give those courts certain powers of making regulations with respect to proceedings, and to executions in pend- ing appeals, and also of issuing commissions to ascertain in what cases it might be proper to establish a trial by jury. An act for pro- hibiting, for a limited time, the distillation of spirits from corn or grain, was strongly opposed in all its stages, as tending to check that demand which, by encouraging agricul- turists to grow more than was necessary for the ordinary support of the people, in- sured a supply in seasons of scarcity. It was defended as a temporary measure, on the ground that the supply of grain from the continent was cut off, and no prospect left of a sufficient resource in the last year's crop of this country. The cause of the Spanish patriots had awakened the zeal, and animated the en- thusiasm of the people of this country, to a degree almost unexampled; and Sheridan seemed only to be the organ of the public voice, when he rose in the house of com- mons, on the fifteenth of June, to direct the attention of the legislature to the affairs of Spain, and to demand their utmost exertions in favor of the Spaniards. Canning, in re- ply, declared that his majesty's ministers saw, with a deep and lively interest, the no- ble struggle which a part of the Spanish na- tion was now making to resist the unex- ampled atrocity of France, and to preserve the independence of their country ; and as- sured the house, that there existed the strongest disposition, on the part of the British government, to afford every practi- cable ajd in a contest so magnanimous. On the fourth of July parliament was prorogued, and the commissioners declared, in his ma- jesty's name, that he would continue to make every exertion in .his power for the support of the Spanish cause. AUSTRIA DECLARES AGAINST ENG- LAND. EFFORTS OF THE SWEDES. AT the commencement of 1808, Austria, hitherto 'the principal ally of Britain, de- clared against her; the alleged cause of which was a refusal, by the English cabinet, to accept the mediation of the emperor for a peace between England and France, on the ground that the overtures appeared too vague and indeterminate to authorize the opening of a negotiation ; Stahremberg, die Austrian ambassador, presenting no authen- ticated document from the French ruler, nor giving any intimation of the basis on which it was proposed to treat. The real cause, however, lay in the predominating influence of France, which was also appa- rent in the north of Europe. In February a Russian army entered the Swedish prov- ince of Finland, and war was respectively declared by the courts of St. Petersburg!! and Stockholm. Christian the seventh, king of Denmark, died about the same time ; and the crown prince, who, from the imbecility of his father, had long conducted the af- fairs of government, assumed the sceptre by the name of Frederic the sixth. His accession was followed by a declaration of war against Sweden, whose sovereign, with some qualities of heroism, wanted the sound- ness of mind necessary for the management of public affairs, and acted more from the impulse of passion than the conclusions of reason. Already involved in a war with France and Russia, he immediately pre- pared to meet the combination of dangers GEORGE m. 17601820. 537 by which he was threatened ; and as his re- sources were inadequate to the contest, the English government granted him a subsidy of one hundred thousand pounds per month, and dispatched ten thousand troops to afford such aid as the circumstances of the war might demand. Unfortunately, however, a disagreement between the Swedish monarch and Sir John Moore, the English general, respecting then- military plans, prevented their co-operation, and the armament was ordered to the aid of the Spanish patriots. A British squadron, under Sir Samuel Hood, was also sent to the Baltic, to act in concert with the Spanish admiral, and a Russian ship of seventy-four guns was taken and destroyed, in consequence of her having grounded. AFFAIRS OF ITALY. BUONAPARTE, this year, effected conside- rable changes in Italy. He adopted his son- in-law, Eugene Beauharnois, as his own son, and settled that kingdom upon him in tail male; expressly stating, however, that the right which Eugene received by adop- tion should never, in any case, authorize him or his descendants to bring forward any claim to the throne of France, the succes- sion of which was, he declared, " irrevoca- bly" fixed : he incorporated with the crown of Italy the dominions of the pope, stating in a decree, as the sole reason for this act of undisguised despotism, that "the sove- reign of Rome had refused to make war against England." Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, were also annexed to that king- dom, as were Kehl, Wesel, Cassel, and Flushing to France. The crown of Naples was transferred to Joachim Murat, who had married a sister of Buonaparte ; and, to ren- der his domestic policy still more subservi- ent to his schemes of foreign subjugation, he instituted an imperial university, decla- red himself the head, and decreed that no school -or seminary of education should be free from its control. An order of heredita- ry nobility was also created. MILITIA. CONVENTION OF CINTRA. 1809. THE British parliament assembled on the nineteenth of January, 1809. On the twenty-fifth the thanks of parliament were voted to the officers and men under Sir John Moore, by whose gallantry and good conduct the victory of Corunna was achieved ; and a monument to the memory of the deceased general was also agreed to. This was succeeded by a motion for thanks to Sir Arthur Wellesley, and the officers and men under his command, for the bril- liant victory of Vimiera, which was carried with the sole dissentient voice of lord Folk- stone, who thought such a tribute greater than the service could claim. A bill, which was introduced into the house of commons by lord Castlereagh, for augmenting the disposable force of the country, called forth a very animated oppo- sition, but ultimately passed into a law. It was agreed that the militia should be re- duced to about three-fifths of its present force by volunteering into the line, and that twenty-four thousand men should be raised to supply the deficiency. The convention of Cintra, and the cir- cumstances which led to the conclusion of that treaty, were brought under the conside- ration of parliament, on the twenty-first of February, by lord Henry Petty, who moved resolutions directly censuring the conven- tion, and attributing the causes to the mis- conduct of ministers; -and although it was- strenuously contended that to have expell- ed, in the course of a short campaign of three weeks, an army of twenty-five thou- sand French from Portugal, was a brilliant addition to the military glory of the coun- try, the previous question was only carried by two hundred and three against one hun- dred and fifty-eight CHARGES AGAINST DUKE OF YORK. COLONEL WARDLE, on the twenty-seventh of January, stated in the commons, that the power of disposing of commissions in the army had been exercised to the worst of purposes, though it had been placed in the hands of a person of high birth and exten- sive influence, for the purpose of defraying the charges of the half-pay list, for the sup- port of veteran officers, and for increasing the compassionate fund for the aid of offi- cers' widows and orphans; but he could bring positive proof that such commissions had been sold, and the money applied to very different objects. He then proceeded to state, that Mary Anne Clarke, who had lived under the "protection" of the duke of York, with a splendid establishment in Gloucester Place, had been permitted by his royal highness to traffic in commissions ; that she in fact possessed the power of mili- tary promotion ; and that the duke partici- pated in the emoluments which were de- rived from this scandalous, corrupt, and ille- gal traffic. Colonel Wardle concluded by moving for a committee of inquiry into the conduct of the duke of York, in respect to the disposal of military commissions, which, after a long debate, was agreed to; the chancellor of the exchequer observing that publicity had been mentioned as desirable, he was of the same opinion; and it was therefore determined that the investigation should be conducted before a committee of the whole house. In the course of the cross-examinations much important evidence was adduced, and the charges derived additional strength from the means taken by the advocates of 538 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the commander-in-chief to refute them ; as the numerous letters brought to him by their means, of which the prosecutor at first was totally ignorant, placed Wardle, for a time, on high ground. At the close of the evidence, on the twenty-second of Febru- ary, the opinion of the general officers, who were members of the house of commons, was asked with respect to the improvement of the army in discipline and condition, and whether the system of promotion had not been improved under the administration of the duke of York. Generals Norton and Fitzpatrick, the secretary at war, Sir Ar- thur Wellesley, and general Grosvenor, all answered these questions affirmatively, and pronounced high eulogiums on the charac- ter and conduct of his royal highness. Du- ring this inquiry, which was continued un- interruptedly for three weeks, Mary Anne Clarke was repeatedly examined at the bar, and, by the readiness and smartness of her answers to the infinite number of questions proposed, gave a degree of relief to the protracted examinations. On the twenty- third of February the duke addressed a letr ter to the house of commons, through the medium of the speaker, in which his royal highness, in the most solemn manner, upon his honor as a prince, distinctly asserted his innocence, and claimed from the justice of the house that he should not be condemned without a trial. Wardle, however, moved an address to his majesty, stating, that after a diligent and laborious inquiry, it had been proved to the satisfaction of the house, that corrupt prac- tices had existed to a very great extent in the different departments of the military ad- ministration, and praying that his majesty would be graciously pleased to remove the duke of York from the command of the ar- my. The chancellor of the exchequer pro- poised an amendment, substituting two reso- lutions ; the first, stating that an inquiry had been instituted into the conduct of the com- mander-in-chief; and the second, that it was the opinion of the house that there was no just ground to charge his royal highness with personal corruption or criminal connivance. To this amendment another was moved by Bankes, acquitting the duke of personal cor- ruption or criminal connivance, but express- ing an opinion that abuses could scarcely have existed to the extent proved, without exciting some suspicion in the mind of the commander-in-chief; and suggesting that, after the exposures made by the recent in- quiry, a regard to the public happiness and tranquillity required the removal of the duke of York from the command of the army. The motion and amendments gave rise to many long and animated discussions, in the course of which it was urged, in favor of the original motion, that whatever might be due to the rank of his royal highness, the members of that house should always bear in mind that it was their duty to protect the public interests, and to watch over the se- curity and welfare of the state. By the supporters of the duke of York, it was con- tended that Mary Anne Clarke was wholly unworthy of credit, and 'that there was no evidence to establish the corrupt participa- tion or criminal connivance of the duke. If it could once be supposed that he was a party in such a conspiracy, how was any distress for money possible, when there was a mint constantly at work! There were then in the army upwards of ten thousand officers; and such was the eagerness for promotion, that there were always persons ready to give ample premiums above the regulated price. Had not his royal highness felt secure in conscious innocence, was it to be supposed that he would have ventured to discard Mary Anne Clarke, to withdraw her annuity, to irritate her to the utmost, and to set all her threats at defiance 1 It ought to be recollected, that the person against whom the charge was directed, was not only high in office and in rank, but one whose birth placed him so near the crown, that events might one day call him to the throne itself; and yet, by the proceeding now proposed, the house was called upon, on the most ques- tionable evidence, to disgrace itself by pro- nouncing the duke guilty of the lowest and most infamous species of corruption. In favor of Bankes's amendment, it was urged that one case, that of doctor O'Meara, rested on the duke's own letter as much as on the evidence of Mary Anne Clarke ; that it was astonishing that the constant applications of this woman did not create some suspicions in the mind of the duke ; and that it was necessary, as a reparation to public morals and decency, to remove him from the com- mand of the army. On the question, whether the house should proceed by address or by resolution, there appeared for proceeding by address, one hundred and ninety-nine; by resolution, two hundred and ninety-four; leaving a majority against Bankes's address of ninety-five. A second division then took place on Wardle's motion, which was supported by one hundred and twenty-three, and opposed by three hundred and sixty- four. On the seventeenth of March the chan- cellor of the exchequer brought forward his resolution, modified in these terms : " that this house having appointed a committee to investigate the conduct of the duke of York, as commander-in-chief, and having carefully considered the evidence which came before the said committee, and finding that per- sonal corruption, and connivance at corrup- GEORGE Itt 17601820. 539 tion, have been imputed to his said royal highness, find it expedient to pronounce a distinct opinion upon the said imputation, and are accordingly of opinion that it is wholly without foundation." This motion was carried by two hundred and seventy- eight against one hundred and ninety-six. Previously to the divisions it was generally understood that the duke had come to the determination to resign his ofiice of com- mander-in-chief ; and on the twentieth the chancellor of the exchequer informed the house that his royal highness, having obtain- ed a complete acquittal of the charges, was desirous of giving way to that public senti- ment which, however ill-founded, they had unfortunately drawn down upon him ; t that, under these circumstances, he had tendered to his majesty his resignation of the office of Commander-in-chief, which the king had been graciously pleased to accept. General Sir David Dundas was appointed his succes- sor; and one of the first consequences of the investigation, was the enactment of a law declaring the brokerage of offices, either in the army, the church, or the state, to be a crime highly penal. TRAFFIC IN INDIA APPOINTMENTS. CORRUPT PRACTICES IN PARLIAMENT. IN the course of the investigation into the duke's conduct, it was ascertained that there was a systematic and almost avowed traffic in East India appointments, as well as in subordinate places under government. These discoveries led to the appointment of a com- mittee of the house of commons, to inquire into the abuse of East India patronage, when it appeared that a vast number of cadet- ships and writerships had been disposed of illegally. Thellusson, one of the directors, deeply implicated in these transactions, was in consequence rejected at the next elec- tion ; and the court determined that all those young men named by the committee of the house of, commons, as having obtained their appointments by corrupt practices, should be deprived of their employments, and recalled from India. The inquiry developed transac- tions intimately connected with the character of the house of commons, and the proceed- ings of some of its most distinguished mem- bers ; and on the twenty-fifth of April, lord Archibald Hamilton submitted a motion grounded on the conduct of lord Castle- reagh, who, in the course of the inquiry, admitted that he, in 1805, delivered into the hands of lord Clancarty a writership, of which he had the gift, for the purpose of exchanging it for a seat in parliament. This negotiation, which was finally broken ofi; was carried on, it appeared, between lord Castlereagh and one Reding, an advertising place broker, who was a perfect stranger to his lordship. Lord Castlereagh expressed his sorrow that any motives of private friend- ship or of public zeal should have induced him to do anything requiring the cognizance of that house. If he had erred, it was un- intentionally, and he would submit with patience to any censure which he might be thought to have incurred : his lordship then bowed to the chair, and retired ; when lord A. Hamilton moved, that lord Castlereagh had been guilty of a dereliction of his duty, as president of the board of control, a gross violation of his engagements as a ser- vant of the crown, and an attack on the purity and constitution of the house. A long debate ensued, at the close of which the motion was rejected by "two hundred and thirteen against one hundred and sixty-seven. A motion was afterwards carried, to the effect, that it was the duty of the house of commons to maintain and guard the purity and independence of parliament; but that the intended charge not having been carried into effect, no criminatory proceeding appear- ed to the house to be necessary. The recent exposures led to the intro- duction of a bill by Curwen, which ulti- mately passed into a law, for better securing the purity and independence of parliament, by preventing the procuring or obtaining seats by corrupt practices, and also for the more effectual prevention ofbribery. While this bill was before the house, Madocks charged the chancellor of the exchequer and lord Castlereagh with corrupt and crimi- nal practices to procure the return of mem- bers to parliament. He affirmed that Quintin Dick purchased a seat for Cashel, in Ireland, through the hon. Henry Wellesley, who act- ed on behalf of the treasury.; that on the question brought forward by colonel Wardle, lord Castlereagh intimated the necessity either of his voting with government or of resigning his seat; and th&t Dick, rather than vote against his conscience, did vacate it Perceval, in his defence, declined putting in the plea which he said he conscientiously could adduce, until the house should have decided on the propriety of entertaining the charge; and he would then come before them prepared to meet it, and vindicate his own honor. Madocks's motion was nega- tived. BUDGET DUTCH COMMISSIONERS. THE supplies voted for the year amounted to about fifty-four million pounds ; and among the ways and means were war-taxes nine- teen million pounds, and a loan of eleven million pounds for Great Britain ; three mil- lion pounds were also borrowed for Ireland, and six hundred thousand pounds for the prince of Brazil, for the, liquidation of which the revenues of the island of Madeira had been assigned, together with a consignment of such produce of Brazil as belonged to the 540 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. prince. The whole loan had been contracted for at the low interest of four pound twelve shillings and one penny per cent per an- num. The fourth report of the committee of public expenditure exhibited disclosures regarding the conduct of the commissioners appointed to manage, sell, and dispose of the Dutch ships detained or brought into the ports of Great Britain, which excited con- siderable surprise. It appeared that the ap- pointment of the five commissioners took place in 1795 ; that their transactions were nearly brought to a close in 1799 ; and that, as no fixed remuneration had been assigned to them, they charged a commission of five per cent on the gross proceeds of their sales, amounting to one hundred and thirty-two thousand pounds ; and not satisfied with this enormous allowance, employed the nioney intrusted to their hands in discounting pri- vate bills for their own emolument After an animated discussion, the house resolved that the commissioners had been guilty of a flagrant violation of public duty. WAR BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND FRANCE. CAMPAIGN IN GERMANY. AUSTRIA, after humbling herself to .the French emperor, found it impossible to have peace on terms compatible with independ- ence, and therefore, from the period of the conferences at Erfurth, till Buonaparte cross- ed the Pyrenees for th.>s HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. as regent, took place on the sixth of Febru- ary ; and no arrangements for a new ministry had been made. The malady of the king, after undergoing frequent and great varia- tions, assumed a much more mild and favor- able form, and the physicians again pro- nounced his recovery as not far distant This circumstance, combined with others, deter- mined the prince to retain the present min- isters, which he communicated to Perceval, in a note dated the fourth of February ; at the same time stating that the irresistible impulse of filial duty and affection made him unwilling to do a single act which might retard his father's recovery; and that this consideration alone had dictated his decision. He added, that it would not be one of the least blessings which would result from the restoration of his majesty, that it would res- cue the regency from a situation of unexam- pled embarrassment, and put an end to a state of affairs ill calculated, he feared, to sustain the interests of the kingdom in this awful and perilous crisis, and most difficult to be reconciled to the genuine principles of the British constitution. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS. ON the twelfth of February, the session was opened with the usual formalities ; and a speech was delivered by commission, in the name of the regent, which, after express- ing the most unfeigned sorrow on account of the calamity that had imposed upon him the duty of exercising the royal authority, congratulated parliament on the success of his majesty's arms, both by sea and land, and trusted that he would be enabled to con- tinue to afford the most effectual assistance to the brave nations of the peninsula. It was his earnest wish to bring the discussions with the United States of America to an amicable termination, and he trusted to the zeal of parliament for adequate supplies in order to bring the great contest in which the country was engaged to a happy issue. The usual address was carried in both houses. A proof of the manner in which the prince-regent regarded his temporary au- thority was afforded by a communication made to the house of commons on the twen- tv-first of February, when the chancellor of the exchequer stated that his royal high- ness, on being informed that a motion was in- tended to be made for a provision for the royal household, declared that he would not add to the burthens of the people by accept- ing of any addition to his public state as re- gent Adam stated that the prince had put into his hand a letter from the chancellor of the exchequer, relating to the intended pro- vision, accompanying it with written instruc- tions, that should any proposition for an es- tablishment be made, he should inform the house that his royal highness wished to dis- charge the duties of the temporary regency without an increase. In case, however, of such circumstances occurring as might lead to a permanent regency, he conceived that the question would then be opened anew to the consideration of his royal highness. The commercial distresses of the nation were now so seriously felt, that the atten- tion of government was necessarily fixed upon them ; and on the first of March a committee of twenty-one members was ap- pointed to investigate the state of the com- mercial credit of the country, and to make their report thereon. On the eleventh, the report was taken into consideration, and an act was passed, whereby the sum of six mil- lion pounds was to be advanced to certain commissioners, for the assistance of such persons as should apply for the same, on giving sufficient security for repayment It might naturally have been supposed that, in the midst of so much embarrassment and dis- tress, the money voted by parliament at the recommendation of the committee would have been eagerly sought after, and soon exhausted. Such was the case in 1793: the reverse, however, happened now, and the sums applied for were to a less amount than the provision made. Yet the commer- cial distresses continued to increase during the year, and displayed themselves by fright- ful lists of bankrupts in every gazette, amounting to an aggregate of which no for- mer year in the annals of the country afforded a parallel ; and they were mainly attributa- ble to the effects of the American embargo, to the operation of the Milan and Berlin de- crees, and to the sequestration and confis- cation of British property on the continent. The report of the bullion committee was brought under consideration on the sixth of May, when Horner, the chairman, moved a series of resolutions grounded upon the re- port, and contending that the standard valne of gold, as a measure of exchange, could not possibly fluctuate under any change of circumstances, though its real price was un- questionably subject to all the variations arising from the increase or diminution of the supply ; that bank paper, measured by this standard, was depreciated ; and that the consequence was to render our exchanges with the continent unfavorable, to advance prices, to occasion immense losses to credit- ors, and materially to injure all moneyed incomes. Vansittart, secretary of the trea- sury, who took the lead in opposing the bul- lionists, moved a number of cgunter-resolu- tions, in which it was declared that bank notes were not depreciated ; that the politi- cal and commercial relations of this country with foreign states were sufficient to account for the unfavorable state of the foreign ex- change, and the high price of bullion ; that GEORGE it was highly important that the restrictions on cash payments at the bank should be removed, whenever it was compatible with the public interest ; but that to fix a definite period earlier than that of six months after the conclusion of peace, which was already fixed, would be highly inexpedient and dan- gerous. These discussions occupied the house of commons no less than seven nights, when the resolutions moved by Horner were re- jected, and those presented by Vansittart adopted by a large majority. Before the ses- sion closed, however, a practical illustration was adduced by lord King, that the question was not set at rest by this decision. His lordship, in a notice sent to his tenants, re- minded them that they had agreed to pay their rents in good and lawful money of Great Britain, and as he would no longer ac- cept of bank notes at their nominal value, he called upon them to pay either in guineas or in equivalent weight in Portuguese gold coin, or in bank notes sufficient to purchase, 17601820. 559 had universally prevailed that the prince was favorable to their claims ; and on his invest- ment with power, their activity and zeal in promoting their object greatly increased. Among other measures, they had proposed to establish a committee in Dublin, composed of delegates from each county, for the man- agement of their affairs, which being deemed unlawful, Wellesley Pole, secretary to the lord-lieutenant, addressed a circular to the sheriffs and chief magistrates of the counties, requiring them to arrest all persons con- cerned in the election of such delegates ; and this letter, being brought before parliament, excited considerable discussion. On the third of March, Pool, having returned from Ireland, stated, in explanation, that the Cath- olic committee of 1809 had confined their deliberations to the business of petitioning ; whereas the delegates of 1810 were empow- ered to manage the Catholic affairs general- ly ; and that a committee of grievances, which met weekly, imitated all the forms of at the existing market price, the weight of the house of commons. The lord-lieutenant as much standard gold as would be sufficient to discharge the rents. Lord Stanhope thought this proceeding so mischievous, that he in- troduced a bill into the house of lords, on the twenty-seventh of June, for preventing the current gold coin of the realm from being paid for more than its mint value, and for preventing bank notes from being received for any smaller sum than that for which they were issued. The fate of this bill was very extraordinary : on its first reading, ministers opposed it, on the ground that such a mea- sure was unnecessary; but on the second reading they had discovered their error, and the prorogation of parliament was actually delayed for the purpose of passing it into a law. The practice of flogging in the army had frequently been a subject of animadversion, both in and out of parliament ; but though government had hitherto strenuously oppos- ed th*e motions which had been made to abolish it, Manners Sutton, the judge advo- cate, wh_en the mutiny-bill came before the house of commons on the fourteenth of March, introduced a clause by which a dis- cretionary power was given to courts-martial of sentencing to imprisonment, instead of cor- poral punishment A bill was also passed for effecting an interchange of militias between Great Britain and Ireland. The attention of parliament was likewise called, by Brough- am, to the enormities practised by captains of vessels and others, who still carried on the African slave-trade. His proposition, which passed into a law, was to render any British subject who might engage in this traffic liable to transportation, for any period not exceeding fourteen years. Among the Catholics of Ireland an opinion had taken the opinion of the great law offi- cers, and the attorney-general had drawn up the circular. letter which was issued. The Catholic petitions were this session rejected. Not discouraged by this defeat, the Irish Catholics held a meeting on the ninth of July, at Dublin, for the appointment of dele- gates to the general committee of Catholics, when five persons were apprehended for a breach of the convention act, one of whom, Dr. Sheridan, was tried and acquitted. A new committee of delegates met on the nine- teenth of October, at a theatre, and having placed lord Fingal in the chair, dispatched their business before the magistrates arrived to disperse them. On the twenty-sixth the aggregate meeting was held, when it was resolved to present an humble address to the prince-regent, as soon as the restrictions on his authority should cease. The sensation excited by a bill introduced by lord Sidmouth, for altering the toleration act, can scarcely be described. In forty- eight hours, three hundred and thirty-six pe- titions against it were poured into the house of lords ; and when the bill came to be read a second time, on the twenty-first of May, it was encountered by five hundred more. Such an expression of the public feeling was not to be resisted : ministers themselves, and even the dignitaries of the church, now op- posed the further progress of the measure ; and under these circumstances it was re- jected without a division. On introducing the bill, lord Sidmouth stated, that, till with- in the last thirty or forty years, the tolera- tion act had been construed in such a man- ner as to exclude all persons unqualified, by the want of the requisite talents and learn- ing, and unfit from the meanness of their 560 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. situation, or the profligacy of their character, from exercising the functions of ministers of religion : but since that period, all who of- fered themselves at the quarter-sessions, pro- vided they took the oaths, and made the de- claration required by law, obtained the re- quisite certificates, not only as a matter of course, but as a matter of right In order to remedy this evil, he proposed, that, to en- title any man to obtain a license as a preach- er, he should have the recommendation of at least six respectable householders of the con- gregation to which he belonged ; and that such congregation should be actually willing to listen to his instructions. Those who were itinerants were to bring a testimonial, stating them to be of sober life and character, to- gether with the belief that they were quali- fied to perform the functions of preachers. The effects expected from this bill were, that improper and unaccredited men would have been prevented from assuming the most important of all duties, that of in- structing their fellow-creatures in the prin- ciples of religion and virtue. As it might, however, have been occasionally perverted to purposes of intolerance, it is better, per- haps, that it was lost On the twentieth of May, Perceval opened the budget for the year. The supply voted for the public service amounted to about fifty-six million pounds, including a sum of two million pounds granted to the govern- ment of Portugal, and one hundred thousand pounds as an eleemosynary aid to the dis- tressed Portuguese. The loan for the pres- ent year, he stated at twelve million pounds, the interest on which he proposed to dis- charge by an additional duty on British and foreign spirits. He further stated it to be his intention to impose an additional duty on timber, pearl and pot ashes, and foreign lin- ens, which, with a tax of one penny per pound on cotton wool, imported from the United States of America, he estimated at eight hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred pounds. Owing, however, to the opposition made to the principle of taxing a raw material, the proposed duty on cotton wool was abandoned ; and a tax upon hats, which had long operated as a burdensome and vexatious impost on the fair trader, while it sunk into insignificance as a sub- ject of revenue, shared the same fate. One of the earliest acts of the prince-re- gent, after his assumption of the royal func- tions, was the restoration of his brother, the duke of York, to the post of commander-in- chief of the army a measure which induced lord Milton to propose a vote of censure on the advisers of it. The chancellor of the exchequer acknowledged the responsibility of his majesty's servants in recommending the measure in question. Sir David Dundas, who had lately filled the office, was obliged, by illness, to retire from its arduous duties, and there was not the slightest hesitation in the minds of ministers, whom they should recommend to supply the vacancy : the eminent services rendered to the army by the duke of York left them no choice ; and as to the proceedings on a former occasion, alluded to by the noble lord, they pledged the house to nothing. On this occasion, several gentlemen who had, during the pro- ceedings in the year 1809, taken part against the duke of York, did not hesitate to avow, either that they had been formerly carried away by the current of public opinion, or that they considered the case, as it now pre- sented itself, in a different point of view. The votes for lord Milton's motion were for- ty-seven; against it, two hundred and ninety- six ; constituting a majority of two hundred and forty-nine in favor of the reappoint- ment. The nation at large seemed to have been affected with a similar change of opin- ion, and the duke resumed his post with all the facility of a public functionary who had quitted his office without imputation. His majesty's health, in the early part of the year, underwent several variations ; but in the report of the queen's council, made on the sixth of July, a few days before the prorogation of parliament, which took place on the twenty-fourth, it was stated that his health was not such as to enable him to re- sume the personal exercise of the royal functions. AMERICAN DISPUTES. THE orders in council not being repealed on the second of February, Pinkney, the American minister in London, was recalled, and had his audience of leave of the prince- regent on the first of March, from which time the American ports were open to the ships of France, and closed against those of England. An encounter which took place between a British sloop of war, the Little Belt, commanded by captain Bingham, and the American frigate called the President, under commodore Rodgers, had nearly proved the signal of open war between the two nations ; but their respective govern- ments disavowed the issue of any hostile or- ders to the commanders, and were disposed to take no further notice of the affair. In the spring, an envoy extraordinary was sent to the United States on the subjects in dis- pute, but he found it impossible to effect an adjustment without exceeding his instruc- tions, by holding forth an expectation that the orders of council would be repealed. On the meeting of Congress of November, the president recommended vigorous mea- sures of preparation, both by sea and land, in consequence of the hostile inflexibility of the British cabinet : the finances of the GEORGE IIL 17601820. 561 American government, however, seemed but little suited to meet the expense of a war ; and the friends of peace, though outvoted in the legislative assemblies, put some confi- dence in the prospect of loans and taxes to cool the martial ardor of a people unaccus- tomed, like those of Europe, to acquiesce in euch burdens. CAPTURE OF JAVA. NAVAL ACTIONS. THE Dutch settlements in the island of Java, from which the mother country had, in the days of her prosperity, derived great wealth and consequence, were now destined to augment the preponderating power of Britain in the East, a formidable expedition being fitted out against them by lord Minto, governor-general of India, who intrusted the command of the troops to Sir Samuel Auch- muty, and accompanied them in person. On the fourth of August, a landing was effected about twelve miles eastward from the city of Batavia ; and on the eighth, the city of Batavia surrendered without resistance. The garrison retreated first to Welterzeede, and then to a fortified position or intrenchment which surrounds Fort Cornelis. On the twenty-sixth a general assault of the works was ordered, when the lines were forced the fort was stormed and the whole of the hostile army was killed, taken, or dispersed : General Jansens fled with a few cavalry, but he was soon compelled to capitulate, and the whole island of Java surrendered to the British arms, which after this event had neither an enemy nor a rival, from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn. In the Italian seas a brilliant achievement was performed by four frigates, under cap- tain Hoste, against a French force of five frigates, and several smaller vessels, with five hundred troops on board, destined to garrison the island of Lissa. Confiding in their superiority, the French attacked the English with more than their accustomed skill, following up that skill with a consider- able share of activity and bravery. The un- conquerable spirit of British seamen, how- ever, was most brilliantly displayed on this occasion ; and the result was, that the ship of the French commander, who fell in the action, was destroyed, and two were cap- tured.. A fourth escaped after striking her colors. In the Indian sea, three French frigates, with a reinforcement of troops for the Mauritius, having appeared off that isl- and after its capture, they were pursued by three frigates and a sloop, when one was taken ; another escaped after having struck; and the third, having proceeded to Tamata- va, which had been repossessed by the French, was there captured, with the fort and the vessels in the harbor. In every di- rection the enemy's coast was kept in con- tinual alarm ; and in none could his vessels, armed or unarmed, move in safety. MEASURES AGAINST BRITISH COM- MERCE. A SON was born to Napoleon on the twen- tieth of April. The ancient title of King- of Rome, which had long lain dormant, was immediately revived for the young prince, and he was welcomed with all the extrava- gant adulation usually bestowed on the heirs of absolute monarchy or extensive dominion. Nothing, however, could for a moment di- vert the attention of the ruler of France from his favorite object, the exclusion of English commerce from the continent ; and while the French people were substituting horse-beans for coffee, and extracting sugar from beet-root and palm sea-weed, they were called upon to applaud the wisdom and good- ness which dictated the exclusion of colonial produce, and the burning of British mer- chandise. The conscription law was applied to the levying of seamen in the thirty mari- time departments, and the quotas liable to serve in the years 1813 to 1816, were placed at the disposal of the minister of marine. At Antwerp twenty ships of the line were ordered to be built, and the basin was ren- dered capable of containing fifty sail. Span- ish prisoners were employed in the dock- yards and fortifications ; and men of all countries were collected to man the fleet About this time it began to be apparent that no great cordiality subsisted between Buo- naparte and the emperor Alexander ; and in an answer to an address from a council of commerce, he complained that Russia had not caused his decrees to be respected ; add- ing, " I am, and always will be, master of the Baltic." 562 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XL. Surrender of Tortosa and Olivenca Battles of Barossa and Albuera, and various Operations of the contending Armies Loss of Tarragona and Valencia Capture of Ciudad Radrigo and Badajoz Lord Wellington enters Spain Battle of Sala- manca Capture of Madrid Retreat of Allies to Portuguese frontier Parliament assembled The King and Regent Overtures to Lords Grey and Grenville Assas- sination of Perceval Ministerial Negotiations Riots in Manufacturing Districts Repeal of Orders in Council War by Americans Proceedings in Parliament Invasion of Russia by Buonaparte Battles of Smolensko and Borodino De- struction of Moscow Disastrous Retreat of the fYench Invasion of Canada Actions at Sea Meeting of Parliament Charges against Princess of Wales Appointment of Vice-Chancellor Declaration on the American War Treaty with Sweden Proceedings and Prorogation of Parliament. SURRENDER OF TORTOSA. BATTLES OF BAROSSA AND ALBUERA. ON the second of January Suchet made himself master of Tortosa, the siege of which was truly honorable to the Spanish name; and on the twenty-second Olivenca was taken possession of by Soult, almost without being defended. On the latter day died the gallant and truly patriotic marquis de la Romana, in a fit of apoplexy, at Bada- joz. Within a month afterwards, his corps, the command of which had devolved on general Mendizabel, was totally defeated by Soult An expedition sailed from Cadiz, under the command of lieutenant-general Graham and Don Manuel La Pena, to attack the French who were employed in the siege of that city, and to open a communication with the Isle de Leon, in the absence of a con- siderable part of the besiegers' force. On the morning of the fifth of March, this force, comprising a body of English, Spaniards, and Portuguese, arrived on the low ridge of Barossa, about four miles from the mouth of the river Santi Petri. A spirited and successful attack on the rear of the enemy's lines at Santi Petri, opened the communi- cation with the Isle of Leon; after which general Graham moved down from the po- sition of Barossa to the Torre de Bermesa, about half-way to the Santi Petri, to secure the communication across that river, over which a bridge had been recently thrown ; but the general, when he advanced into the middle of the wood through which his route lay, received notice that the enemy was advancing towards the heights of Ba- rossa, and, considering that position as the key to Santi Petri, he immediately made a counter-march, to support the troops left for its defence: before this corps, however, could wholly disentangle itself from the woods, the Spanish troops on the ridge of Barossa were seen retiring, whilst the left wing of the enemy was rapidly ascending. To retreat in the face of an enemy superior in numbers, and so advantageously posted, would have exposed the allies to great danger : relying, therefore, on the courage of his troops, an immediate attack was de- termined on by the English commander, which was executed with the utmost bravery, and in an hour and a half the French were in full retreat ; but after so unequal a con- test, the allies found pursuit impracticable. The enemy lost about three thousand in killed, wounded, and prisoners, including general Bellegarde, and many other officers, killed, and generals Rupin and Rousseau taken, with six pieces of cannon. The Eng- lish loss in killed and wounded amounted to twelve hundred and forty-three, amongst whom were several officers high in estima- tion. Admiral Sir Richard Keats ably sec- onded the operations of the army, and a small body of seamen and marines stormed and dismantled the works of the enemy at the mouth of the Gaudalete. General Gra- ham, finding it impossible to procure sup- plies, withdrew the next day across the Santi Petri, and afterwards returned to the Isle of Leon. La Pena, who was blamed for not having more effectually co-operated with the British, returned with his forces to Cadiz; and the French resumed the blockade. General Massena began his retreat from Santarem, where he had never found an op- portunity to engage lord Wellington with any favorable prospect. The van-guard of his lordship, however, attacked his rear near Pombal, and drove it from its position, on the eleventh of March ; but this advantage was much more than counterpoised by the loss of Badajoz, which, after a vigorous re- sistance, surrendered to marshal Soult on the same day. Massena, continuing his re- treat through Portugal, was closely pursued by lord Wellington, having been attacked GEORGE ffl. 17601820. 563 on the fourteenth, and forced to abandon a strong position near Cazac Nova; he was also obliged to change the line of his retreat, in which he was harassed by the militia under colonels Trant and Wilson, and was driven* from the Tierra di Moira, with the loss of six thousand prisoners. General Beresford, on the twenty-fifth of March, at- tacked the advanced-uard of marshal Mor- tier, and pursued it to the gates of Badajoz ; and on the fifteenth of April he forced Oli- venca to capitulate. On the tenth of the same month the Catalonians took Figueras by surprise, having maintained intelligence with the Italian troops in that place. Lord Wellington attacked the rear of Massena's army on the third of April, near Sabergal on the river Coa ; and after a spirited con- test, the French position was carried by the bayonet His lordship was in turn attacked by Massena, in his position of Fuente de Honore, on the third of May, and the French gained some advantage at the commence- ment of the action, which was retrieved by the British before night; the battle was re- newed next day by the enemy, but they were at length obliged to recross the Agueda, without accomplishing the object of throw- ing a body of troops into Almeida. The garrison of that fortress, however, succeeded in evacuating the place, and blowing up the works, on the night of the tenth of May. These events established the fame of the British general-in-chief. Massena, rapidly pursued by the English, conducted his re- treat in the most able manner ; but his route was tracked by the most horrible desolation ; and he and his followers were accused, by the British commander, of acts of cruelty and wanton mischief which would have disgraced a horde of barbarians. By the eighth of May general Beresford had invested Badajoz, and repelled, though with some loss, the sorties of the garrison : scarcely, however, had he commenced the siege.'when intelligence arrived that mar- shal Soult had left Seville, with fifteen thou- sand men, and was marching to its relief. This information was confirmed on the night of the twelfth of May ; in consequence of which the English commander immediately suspended his operations, removed the bat- tering cannon and stores to Elvas, and, hav- ing been joined on the fourteenth by the Spanish generals Castanos and Blake, he prepared to meet the enemy. Soult, in the afternoon of the fifteenth, appeared in front of the allies with a force of about twenty thousand men, having been joined in his march by a corps of five thousand, under Latour Maubourg. The allied army com- pleted its dispositions for receiving the ene- my on the morning of the sixteenth: it was then formed in tWo lines, on a rising ground, running nearly parallel to the little river Albuera. Several of the Spanish corps, al- though they made forced marches, were un- able to join the army till the middle of the preceding night The French began the attack, in which they attempted, after push- ing across the river, to turn the right flank of the allies, and to carry the village and bridge of Albuera in front ; and they suc- ceeded so far as to drive from their ground the Spanish troop, who were posted on the heights to the right of the line, and to oc- cupy their place. In this situation they were enabled to keep up a raking fire upon the whole position of the allies, so that it be- came necessary to recover it; and the most vigorous efforts were made with that view, at the point of the bayonet A dreadful carnage ensued, by which some regiments were nearly annihilated; occasioned, prin- cipally, by a body of Polish lancers, who broke in, unperceived, upon the rear of the right division, commanded by lieutenant- colonel Colbourn. One regiment, the thirty- first, alone escaped the fury of this attack, and kept its ground till the arrival of the third brigade under major-general Houghton, who fell, pierced with wounds, as he was cheering his men to advance. At length, however, the enemy was driven back, with great slaughter, across the river. The main attack being thus frustrated, that of the village, upon which no impression had been made, was relaxed, and the remainder of the day was spent in cannonading and skir- mishing. Soult retired to the ground he had previously occupied ; and on the night of the seventeenth he commenced his retreat towards Seville, leaving Badajoz to its own defence, and relinquishing the care of many of his wounded to the allies. In this battle, though it ended so honorably to the allies, the British sustained a greater loss than in any action previously fought in the Peninsula, and its influence was seriously felt on sub- sequent occasions: but the steadiness and gallantry of the troops obtained the highest commendations, as well from their com- mander as from both houses of parliament ; though the generalship displayed was not equally applauded, as it was known that lord Wellington was of opinion, that the heights on the right should have been occupied by British troops. Shortly after this engagement lord Wel- lington joined general Beresford, leaving his army, in the north of Portugal, under the command of general Spencer, and the siege of Badajoz was recommenced. The French army opposed to general Spencer was now commanded by marshal Marmont, Massena having been recalled to Paris. It soon ap- peared that the French were resolved that Badajoz should not fall, if they could possi- 564 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN- bly prevent it ; and, in order to enable Soult again to advance to its relief, Marmont de- tached fifteen thousand men, under Drouet, to reinforce him. Lord Wellington there- fore resolved, if possible, to gain possession of Badajoz, before the French army, thus reinforced, should advance for its relief; and, for this purpose, two different attacks were made against it But both attempts were unsuccessful, and the siege was soon after raised. LOSS OF TARRAGONA AND VALENCIA. ON the twenty-eighth of June, Suchet took Tarragona by assault, when a most in- human slaughter of the inhabitants took place ; on the first of August general Blake was repulsed in an attack on Niebla ; and on the ninth Soult defeated the army of Mur- cia, in the vicinity of Baza. On the four- teenth the Spaniards surprised the French in Santander ; on the nineteenth Figueras was retaken by the French general Macdon- ald, after a tedious blockade ; and on the twenty-fifth the Spanish general Abudia was defeated by Dorsenne, in the neighbor- hood of Astorga. Lord Wellington formed the blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo on the fourth of September ; but the French hav- ing collected all their troops from the north and from Navarre, to that which had retreat- ed from Portugal, on the twenty-fifth lord Wellington retired, and his rear was attack- ed by the advanced-guard of Marmont. The infantry, however, forming a square, and presenting a firm front, retreated without being broken. It is in such contests of man to man, that the superiority of mind and manhood is decided ; and happily the deci- sion was uniformly in favor of British troops in the sharp contests on the frontiers of Por- tugal. General Hill, with a division of the allied army, by a series of bold and skilful manoeuvres, surprised and completely routed a French column, commanded by general Girard, on the twenty-eighth of October, taking one thousand four hundred prisoners, the whole of Girard's artillery, baggage, and commissariat, together with the contribution of money which he had levied at Merida. Suchet having taken the town of Murviedro, and invested the castle, which is built on the ruins of the ancient Saguntum, general Blake attacked him on the twenty-fifth of October ; but the former was victorious, and the castle capitulated on the twenty-sixth. Suchet passed the Guadalquiver on the twenty-sixth of December, defeated the pa- triots, and compelled Blake to retire within the walls of Valencia. The baron d'Eroles, on the other hand, had defeated the French near Perigeorda, on the twenty-sixth of Oc- tober. 1812. On the ninth of January, the im- portant city of Valencia capitulated, with an army of eighteen thousand men ; by which event three hundred and seventy-four pieces of cannon, and immense magazines, also fell into the hands of the enemy. The com- mencement of this year was distinguished by the raising of the siege of Tariffa, which had been bravely defended, by a small gar- rison of English and Spaniards, from the twentieth of December to the fourth of Jan- uary, against eleven thousand men, under marshal Yictor. On the nineteenth of Jan- uary, lord Wellington, who was now in a condition to resume offensive operations, car- ried Ciudad Rodrigo by assault, after a fort- night's siege, where he captured the heavy train of the French army. Major-genertl M'Kinnon fell, mortally wounded, in the breach ; and the loss of men was considera- ble. On this occasion a vote of the cortes conferred on lord Wellington the rank of a grandee of Spain of the first class, with the title of duke of Ciudad Rodrigo. In the eastern parts of the kingdom the patriotic generals carried on the war against the common enemy with considerable spirit The French commander, Montbrun, was compelled to retire from before Alicant, af- ter an ineffectual cannonade of the fortress. The French attacked general Lacy, who was posted on the heights of Atafalla, near Tarragona, on the twenty-fourth of January, when the patriots eminently distinguished themselves ; but, overwhelmed by the num- bers and discipline of the enemy, they were ultimately obliged to retreat to the moun- tains. By the treachery of its governor, the town of Peniscola, a place of great strength, seated on a bold promontory overlooking the Mediterranean, was soon afterwards sur- rendered to the French. CAPTURE OF BADAJOZ. GENERAL BALLASTEROS defeated, near Malaga, a French corps under general Mar- ausin, on the sixteenth of February. On the sixteenth of March lord Wellington again invested Badajoz ; on the thirty-first he opened his fire ; and, on the sixth of April three practicable breaches were made, when an assault in the night was determined upon. Simultaneous attacks on different parts of the works were planned, of which that on the castle, by escalade, conducted by lieutenant-general Picton, was the only one that succeeded ; and his third division was established in it by about half-past elev- en. In the mean time the breaches in the bastions were vigorously assailed by other divisions ; but the assailants, after six hours' hard fighting, and considerable loss, were obliged to retire, the garrison having em- ployed every imaginable contrivance for re- pelling the assault. The possession of the castle, however, which commanded all the GEORGE m. 1760-1820. 565 works, decided the fate of the town ; and at daylight, on the seventh, general Philippon, the commandant, surrendered, with the whole garrison, which, at the beginning of the siege, had consisted of five thousand men ; but about twelve hundred had been killed or wounded during its progress, be- sides those who perished in the assault. This triumph compelled the French, who had ad- vanced into Portugal as far as Castello Bran- co, for purposes of plunder, to draw off the besieging army from Badajoz, and to com- mence a precipitate retreat. On the south of the Tagus, the British cavalry under Sir tion which they had taken up, near Sala- manca, an error which was instantly per- ceived and improved by his opponent. On army being brought opposite to the enemy's left, an attack was commenced upon fhat wing. Three divisions, under generals Leith, Cole, and Cotton, charged in front, while general Pakenham formed another across the enemy's flank. This single movement decided the victory. The left wing made no resistance ; the British troops overthrew everything opposed to them. In the cen- tre the contest was more obstinate. The Ul U1C -La"UO, L11C >11L13I1 \sCLVO.iiy UllUCl *^LL HC V11C ^UlltCDL WOO 111U1C VJUOtllltlLC. J. 11C Stapylton Cotton, defeated the cavalry of I fourth division was compelled to retreat, Soult at Villa Franca, on the eleventh of April. WELLINGTON ENTERS SPAIN. BATTLE OF SALAMANCA. ALL the frontier towns having thus fallen into his hands, lord Wellington determined no longer to delay the expedition into Spain which he had long meditated. As a pre- liminary, he directed Sir Rowland Hill, who still commanded in the south, to en- deavor to destroy the bridges of Almarez, which formed the only communication low- er than Toledo, which the French consider- ed a most important station, by which a great army could cross the Tagus ; and, af- ter a difficult march of seven days, the en- terprise was effected in the most brilliant style. Such, indeed, was that general's suc- cess on services of this nature, that he kept the enemy in continual alarm. On the thir- teenth of June the allied army broke up from their cantonments on the Agueda, and on the sixteenth entered Salamanca. The French had erected in this place three forts, which lord Wellington hoped speedily to reduce: his first attack, however, was un- successful; and it was found necessary to wait for some days the arrival of a batter- ing train. The enemy hovered round, en- deavoring to" communicate with the garri- son, and to throw in supplies ; but all their attempts were frustrated by the activity of Sir Thomas Graham. On the twenty-sev- enth the principal fort was stormed, when the rest immediately surrendered', and the French army took a position behind the Douro, breaking down the bridges over that river, the passage of which lord Wellington was not provided with the means of forcing. Here Marmont was joined by Bonnet, which, with other reinforcements, rendered his force equal or superior to that of the Eng- lish commander, and he consequently de- termined to act on the offensive. After a great variety of skilful manoeuvres on both sides, Marmont, inspired with the extrava- gant hope of destroy ing, at one blow, the whole English army, extended his line, in order to inclose the allies within the posi- VOL.IV. 48 and general Beresford was wounded, and obliged to leave the field ; these troops, how- ever, being reinforced by those which had routed the French left wing, victory declar- ed alike in their favor. TThe right wing soon shared the fate of the two others ; and as the evening closed, the whole force of the enemy was in total rout. Although the darkness of the night favored their retreat, seven thousand prisoners, eleven pieces of cannon, six stands of colors, and two eagles, fell into the hands of the allies. Marmoni lost an arm, Bonnet was severely wounded ; and the care of saving the wrecks of the army devolved on general Clausel. In kill- ed, wounded, and missing, the loss of the allies amounted to five thousand two hun- dred and twenty, and that of the enemy must have been still greater. The Portu- guese displayed great bravery, and sustain- ed a heavy loss, their killed and wounded amounting to eighteen hundred and fifty- six. Thus in the course of four years lord Wellington had defeated seven of the most celebrated French marshals. CAPTURE OF MADRID. RETREAT. JOSEPH BUONAPARTE marched from Mad- rid, on the twenty-first of July, with about fourteen thousand troops, to join Marmont ; but, receiving intelligence of his defeat at Salamanca, he marched towards Segovia. The allies pushed forward, and, as the first consequence of their important victor} 7 , ob- tained possession of Madrid on the twelfth of August; where they took twenty-five hundred prisoners, one hundred and eighty- nine pieces of cannon, nine hundred barrels of gunpowder, twenty-three thousand two hundred and fifty-four muskets, and large magazines. Lord Wellington next advanc- ed towards Burgos, and made himself mas- ter of some of the outworks ; but all his at- tempts against the castle failed, and he at length raised the siege, after sustaining considerable loss, and commenced a retro- grade march towards the Douro, the French army having been reinforced by all the dis- posable troops in the north of Spain, and ad- vices having also been received that Soult, 566 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Suchet, and Joseph Buonaparte, with seven- ty thousand men, were fast approaching the passes against Sir Rowland Hill, who had no adequate force to oppose them. Having recalled his troops from Madrid, and direct- ed general Hill to proceed northward to join him, lord Wellington moved upon Sala- manca, where he hoped to establish himself; but Soult having united his forces with those of Souham, which had advanced from Burgos, obliged him to continue Bis retreat. On the twenty-fourth of November he fixed his head-quarters at Freynada, on the Por- tuguese frontier, after a masterly retreat before an army of ninety thousand men, including a most efficient cavalry, against which he could only oppose fifty-two thou- sand. Though unable to maintain himself in the centre of the peninsula, lord .Wel- lington's advance had the effect of obliging the invaders to break up the lines of Cadiz, and evacuate Seville, Grenada, Cordova, and all the south of Spain. The patriotic corps had numerous skir- mishes with the French, in which they were frequently successful ; and the gueril- las also carried on their desultory operations with wonderful enterprise and effect. By a decree of the regency and the cortes, lord Wellington was constituted generalissimo of the Spanish armies, which excited a re- monstrance from Ballasteros, the Spanish general, who was therefore superseded by the regency, in the command of the fourth army. His lordship had previously been created earl, and afterwards marquis, of Wellington titles which he had nobly ac- quired by his conduct of the peninsular war. PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED. THE KING AND REGENT. OVERTURES TO LORDS GREY AND GRENVILLE. PARLIAMENT assembled on the seventh of January ; and the speech of the prince-re- gent, after lamenting the disappointment of the hopes so confidently entertained of his majesty's speedy recovery, congratulated parliament on the skill and valor displayed by the British army in the peninsula of Spain and Portugal, as well as upon the ex- tinction of the colonial power of the enemy in the east; and concluded with an assu- rance, on the part of the regent, that he would continue to employ all such means of conciliation, for adjusting the existing dif- ferences between Great Britain and Amer- ica, as might be consistent with the honor and dignity of his majesty's crown. The king's symptoms had gradually be- come more discouraging, until, in the be- ginning of the present year, there remained little hope of his restoration. As separate establishments for the regent and the king were now necessary, the chancellor of the exchequer proposed that an addition of sev- enty thousand pounds per annum should be made to the civil-list out of the consolidated fund ; that the king's establishment, the an- nual expense of which was estimated at one hundred thousand pounds, should be placed under the control of the queen, who would have the care of his person ; that ten thou- sand pounds per annum be added to her ma- jesty's income ; and that a commission of three persons should be appointed for the management of the king's private property. These propositions were agreed to, as was a bill, by which the sum of one hundred thousand pounds was voted to the prince-re- gent to meet the expenses consequent on nis assumption of the royal authority. A grant of nine thousand pounds per annum was likewise voted to each of the princesses, in addition to four thousand pounds payable from the civil-list. On the thirteenth of February, when the regency restrictions were on the eve of their termination, the prince addressed a letter to the duke of York, expressing his approbation of the conduct of ministers, but intimating a wish that some of those per- sons with whom the early habits of his pub- lic life were formed would strengthen his hands, and constitute a part of his govern- ment. Two days after the date of this let- ter, lords Grey and Grenville, to whom the duke of York had, in compliance with the request of the prince-regent, communicated his sentiments, addressed a reply to his royal highness, in which they expressed, on pub- lic grounds alone, the impossibility of their uniting with the existing government, their differences of opinion embracing almost all the leading features of the actual policy of the empire. On one subject their senti- ments were especially at variance: they were so firmly persuaded of the necessity of a total change in the system of govern- ing Ireland, and of the immediate repeal of those civil disabilities under which so large a portion of the people labored, on account of their religious opinions, that to recommend to parliament that repeal would be the first advice which they would feel it their duty to offer to his royal highness. All hope of forming an extended adminis- tration was therefore at an end. The ministry now consisted of two par- ties ; at the head of one of which was Per- ceval, and of the .other the marquis of Wel- lesley. The differences between these states- men were partly personal, and partly po- litical : the high and aspiring views of the marquis would not permit him to serve under Perceval, though he had no objection to serve with him, or to serve under either the earl of Moira or lord Holland ; and when it appeared that the regent intended to con- tinue Perceval at the head of his councils, GEORGE m. 17601820. 567 the marquis resigned his office, and the seals of the foreign department were transferred to lord Castlereagh, On the nineteenth of March, lord Borington moved an address to the prince-regent, beseeching him to form such an administration as might most effec- tually call forth the entire confidence and energies of the united kingdom, and afford to his royal highness additional means of conducting to a successful termination, a war, in which were involved the safety, honor, and prosperity of the country. Earl Grey stated the points on which lord Grenville and himself had declined a union with the existing administration, which, he said, was formed on the express principle of resistance to the Catholic claims; a principle loudly proclaimed by the person at its head, from the moment he quitted the bar to take a share in political life ; and where he led, the rest were obliged to follow. With respect to the disputes with America, he wished to bear in mind the principle so well expressed by the late Edmund Burke, that, " as we ought never to go to war for a profitable wrong, so we ought never to go to war for an unprofitable right" On making bank notes a legal tender, an impassable line of separation existed between him and the present ministry ; and as to the war in the Peninsula, it was his wish that we should not proceed on the present expensive scale, without having some military authority as to its probable result. He complained of an unseen and separate influence behind the throne ; the existence of which was denied by lord Mulgrave, who avowed the hostility of ministers to the Catholic claims, which was assumed, by the earl of Moira, as a suf- ficient reason why they ought to be removed. The motion was negatived. ASSASSINATION OF PERCEVAL. THE power of the administration appeared now more firmly established than ever, when it was deprived of its leader by a tragical and extraordinary event. On the eleventh of May, as Perceval, chancellor of the exchequer, was entering the lobby of the house of commons, a man, named John Bel- lingham, shot him through the heart He staggered, fell, and in a few minutes expired The assassin, who made no attempt to es- cape, was examined at the bar of the house of commons, where it was apprehended thai this was only the first act of a deep and ex- tensive conspiracy ; but it soon appearec that the act was merely in revenge of a sup- posed private injury. Bellingham having- in a commercial visit to Russia, undergone imprisonment for debt unjustly, as he as- serted, and for which he thought the British government was bound to procure him re- dress, its refusal to take any cognizance of his case, made such an impression on his mind, constitutionally disposed to dark mel- ancholy, that he resolved to make a sacri- ice of some conspicuous member of the overnment. On his trial, which took place Pour days after the commission of the deed, tie displayed great self-possession, yet his sanity was involved in doubt ; he discovered intellectual powers capable of discerning all the tendencies of human actions, but stimu- lated to the confines of madness by an acute sense of real or Supposed wrongs which he claimed the right of avenging. After admit- ting the act, denying malice towards Perce- val, declaring he would rather have shot lord Gower, the late ambassador to Russia, and attempting a palliation rather than a de- fence, he was found guilty, and executed on the Monday following. The day after the assassination of Perce- val, a message was sent down to parliament by the prince-regent, expressing the wish of his royal highness that a suitable provision should be made for his family. A grant of two thousand pounds a-year was accordingly conferred on his widow, and the sum of fifty thousand pounds voted to her twelve chil- dren. It was afterwards proposed, and agreed to, that the annuity of Mrs. Perceval should, at her demise, descend to her eldest son. In private life, few men were more de- servedly respected than Perceval. On quit- ting Cambridge, he pursued the study of the law as a profession, and on entering parlia- ment, in 1796, he attached himself to the politics of Pitt; but he was not distinguished as a public speaker till he became prime minister. His talents were not splendid ; but, as a chancellor of the exchequer, he displayed considerable skill in augmenting the public burdens, at a time when the war was con- ducted on a scale of unprecedented expendi- ture. His advancement, however, can only be attributed to his inflexibility on the Cath- olic question, at a time when a majority of parliamentary talent, though a minority in number, was in favor of some concession. MINISTERIAL NEGOTIATIONS. In consequence of the vacancy occasioned by the death of Perceval, overtures were made by lord Liverpool to the marquis Wel- lesley and Canning; but they declined to associate themselves with government, as- signing, as their reason, the avowed senti- ments of ministers on the Catholic question. Stuart Wortley moved an address to the prince-regent, praying that he would take such measures as might be best calculated to form an efficient government. The motion having been carried, the address was pre- sented; and in answer, his royal highness said that he would take it into his serious and immediate consideration. The marquis Wellesley, who was first applied to, pro- posed, as the chief conditions on which the 568 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. new cabinet should be formed, the early consideration of the Catholic question, and the more vigorous prosecution of the war in Spain ; and, on failing with lords Liverpool and Melville, he communicated with lords Grey and Grenville, but they also declined his proposals. Lord Moira was afterwards empowered to negotiate with them, and it was expected that the treaty would be brought to a favorable issue. This, however, was also broken off; and at length, on the eighth of June, lord Liverpool acquainted the house of lords that the prince-regent had that day appointed him first commissioner of the treasury, and authorized him to complete the arrangements for the ministry. Lord Sid- mouth was appointed secretary of state for the home department ; the earl of Harrowby president of the council, and Vansittart chan- cellor of the exchequer. RIOTS. REPEAL OF ORDERS IN COUN- CIL. WAR DECLARED BY AMERICA. TOWARDS the close of 1811, a spirit of riot and insubordination had manifested itself in the county of Nottingham, which in the course of the present year extended to the neighboring counties, and in some degree pervaded all the manufacturing districts of England. The avowed and immediate ob- ject of the insurgents, who assumed the name of Luddites, was the destruction of certain articles of machinery, the use of which had superseded or diminished manual labor. In consequence of the report of the secret com- mittee, appointed by parliament on the sub- ject, a bill was brought into the house of commons, which made it a capital offence to administer illegal oaths ; and the power of the magistrates, in the disturbed districts, was considerably enlarged. In the interval between the spring and the summer assizes, special commissions were issued to try the offenders, when numerous convictions took place for every gradation of offence ; and, of the capital convicts, eight of Lancaster, and two at Chester, suffered the penalty of the law. In the metropolis, some most bar- barous murders and other atrocities, com- mitted during the winter, excited general alarm ; and a more efficient system of nightly watch was established than had hitherto existed. In consequence of the distress of the com- mercial and manufacturing classes, the new ministers at length consented to the repeal of the orders in council ; and on the twenty- third of June a declaration from the prince- regent appeared in the London Gazette, ab- solutely and unequivocally revoking these orders as far as they regarded American ves- sels; with the proviso, that if, after the no- tification of this repeal by the British minis- ter in America, the government of the United States should not revoke its inter- dictory acts against British commerce, that revocation on our part should be null and void. It afterwards appeared that, five days before the declaration was published in Lqii- don, the American government had declared war against Great Britain. On the seventeenth of June, Vansittart, the new chancellor of the.exchequer, brought forward the budget, which had been nearly arranged by Perceval before his death. The amount of the charges he stated at seven million twenty-five thousand seven hundred pounds for Ireland, and fifty-five million three hundred and fifty thousand six hun- dred and forty-eight pounds, for Great Britain. This sum certainly was an enormous, he might say a terrible extent of charge ; but great as it was, the resources of the country were still equal to it; and, by an enumera- tion of the ways and means, he produced a result of fifty-five million three hundred and ninety thousand four hundred and sixty pounds, including a loan of fifteen million six hundred and fifty thousand pounds. In the course of the year a former loan had been obtained to the amount of six million seven hundred and eighty-nine thousand six hundred and twenty-five ' pounds, which, added to the new one, and to the exchequer- bills funded in 1812, created an annual in- terest of one million nine hundred and five thousand nine hundred and twenty-four pounds ; to provide for which, he proposed to discontinue the bounty on the exportation of printed goods, and to increase the duties on tanned hides and skins, glass, tobacco, sales by auction, postage of letters, and as- sessed taxes, the aggregate annual product of which he estimated at one million nine hundred and three thousand pounds. That on leather was strongly opposed, but the en- tire budget received the sanction of the par- liament. The advocates of the Catholic cause re- solved to appeal again to the legislature; and Canning, on the twenty-second of June, proposed a resolution, that the house, e'arly in the next session of parliament, would take into consideration the laws affecting his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects in Great Britain and Ireland, with a view to a final and conciliatory adjustment This motion, which was supported by lord Ca'stlereagh. was carried by a majority of two hundred and twenty-five against one hundred and six; and a similar resolution, moved in the lords by the marquis Wellesley, on the first of July, was supported by one hundred and twenty- five, and opposed by one hundred and twenty- six voices. Of the royal dukes, two voted on one side, and three on the other ; even the bench of bishops was divided, three of them voting for, and fifteen against, the pledge to consider the subject. A bill to extend and GEORGE IE. 17601820. 569 secure the privileges of the dissenters was introduced by lord Castlereagh on the tenth of July, and carried ; by which it was pro- posed to repeal certain intolerant statutes, and to amend others, relating to religious worship and assemblies, and to persons preaching or teaching therein. A bill for improving the ecclesiastical courts in Eng- land also received the sanction of the legis- lature. Returns under the population act passed in the last session were laid before parlia- ment, from which it appeared that, in Great Britain, the total population, in 1801, was ten million four hundred and seventy-two thou- sand and forty-eight, and, in 1811, eleven million nine hundred and eleven thousand six hundred and forty-four; making an in- crease of one million four hundred and thirty- nine thousand five hundred and ninety-six residents, which, added to the number serv- ing in the army and navy abroad, made a total increase of one million six hundred and nine thousand, four hundred and ninety-eight persons. These results revived the import- ant question of subsistence compared With population. By accounts produced about this time, it appeared that, during eleven years, from 1775 to 1786, the average quan- tity of grain imported was five hundred and sixty-four thousand, one hundred and forty- three quarters ; from 1786 to 1798 one mil- lion one hundred and thirty-six thousand one hundred and one quarters ; from 1799 to 1810, including three years of scarcity, one million four hundred and seventy-one thou- sand and three quarters. The average prices were thirty shillings per quarter in the first period, forty shillings in the second, and sixty shillings in the third; and during the last year, not less than four million two hundred and seventy-one thousand pounds went out of the country to purchase sustenance for its inhabitants. The act for prohibiting the grant of offices in reversion was renewed for two years. A bill was also introduced for abolishing sine- cure offices executed by deputy, by which the office of paymaster of widows' pensions was done away ; and the regent's confiden- tial servant, colonel M'Mahon, on whom it had been recently conferred, although the commissioners of public accounts and mil- itary inquiry had long since reported the place as one of those sinecures which ought to be abolished, was appointed keeper of the privy purse, and private secretary to his royal highness. Strong animadversions were made on the latter office ; and the suggestion of Wilberforce, that the salary should be paid out of the regent's privy purse, was adopted. An act likewise passed, by which payments of bank notes, in or out of court, were declared legal, to the effect of stayino 1 48* an arrest, and its provisions were extended to Ireland. In April, when Buonaparte was meditat- ing a war against Russia, he made overtures for peace with England, and a correspond- ence took place upon the subject, which ter- minated unsuccessfully, after the interchange of a single dispatch, Buonaparte having de- manded as a preliminary, the recognition of the Corsican dynasty in Spain. No notice of this correspondence was taken in parlia- ment before the seventeentli of July : on the thirtieth parliament was prorogued ; and on the twenty-ninth of September a proclama- tion was issued announcing its dissolution. INVASION OF RUSSIA BY BUONAPARTE- DESTRUCTION OF MOSCOW. RETREAT OF THE FRENCH. TOWARDS the close of the year 1810, Russia by a public ukase altered her com- mercial system, which, in the opinion of the despot of France, was equivalent to a decla- ration of war against him. In February 1811 five divisions of the Russian army moved from the Danube to Poland : Alexander, who had been provoked by the seizure of the dutchy of Oldenburgh, on no other pretence than that of convenience, published a protest which annihilated the treaty between France and Russia: Napoleon, therefore, prepared to invade Russia. The object of the invader was great ; and the army which he assem- bled for the achievement of that object was in full proportion to its magnitude. The con- federation of the Rhine furnished one hun- dred and eighteen thousand six hundred and eighty-two men ; Prussia was compelled to allow her whole military force to be employ- ed in this war against her own independence ; and a contingent of thirty thousand men was furnished by Austria. According to a state- ment of the earl of Liverpool, the number of the French army, previously to its entrance on the Russian territory, was not less than three hundred and sixty thousand men ; and in assembling this immense force, much time was necessarily employed. Buonaparte left Paris and arrived at Dresden in May : he declared war against Russia on the twenty- second of June; and having crossed the Niemen without opposition, he entered Wil- na, the capital of Russian Poland, on the eighteenth. The Russian plan was that of gradual retreat before the invaders, making a stand only in favorable positions, and trust- ing to the increasing difficulties of advance, and the inclemencies of the seasons, to stop their career. On the twenty-ninth of July, after various movements, Buonaparte entered Witepsk ; on the sixteenth of August he ad- vanced towards Smolensko, where the Rus- sians were posted in great force ; and, after a furious contest, in which the invaders were three times repulsed, they entered the city, 570 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. which they found burning and in ruins. About this period the veteran general Kut- usoff was called from retirement to take the chief command, instead of general Barclay tie Tolli, who had incurred censure for re- treating from Smolensko : on the other hand, Buonaparte omitted to attack the Russians on their march from Smolensko to repass the Dnieper. On the seventh of September, he fought the bloody battle of Borodino, otherwise of Moskwa, in which two hundred and twenty-five thousand men were engaged. The Russians remained master of the field, but the victory was claimed by both armies. On each side the loss in killed and wounded was not less than forty thousand. Notwith- standing this severe check, the French suc- ceeded, after a little skirmishing, in enter- ing Moscow, where they hoped to have found quarters for the winter ; but the gov- ernor, count Rostopchin, had determined on one of the greatest sacrifices recorded in history ; and, after the painful operation of withdrawing from their homes two hundred thousand human beings, the only measure which could disappoint the enemy was re- sorted to, and the destruction of the ancient capital of Russia by fire was so completely effected, that scarcely a tenth part of that extensive city escaped. The French troops entered Moscow on the fourteenth of Sep- tember, before the flames had reached their height, and continued to occupy the ruins until the assemblage of fresh bodies of Rus- sian troops, and the approach of winter, be- gan to prove the danger of prolonging their stay during which Buonaparte endeavored to impose on Europe by lying bulletins. Buonaparte, after having in vain offered peace to the emperor of Russia, commenced a retrograde movement on the nineteenth of October; from which period the retreat cember, and was the herald of his own dis- comfiture, intimating that France would now be more in need of him than he of France. His name and presence, however, were still terrible ; and he proceeded, with- out fear or mercy, to drain the population and resources of France, in order to appear again in the field. Russia exerted herself in the cabinet as well as in arms : in the course of the year she effected peace with Britain, with Swe- den, with Spain, and with Turkey. To Brit- ain she gave the most substantial proof of her sincerity, by charging her with the pro- tection of her naval force, which was sent to winter in the English ports. INVASION OF CANADA-ACTIONS AT SEA AMERICA, as already stated, declared war against England on the eighteenth of June, but the British government did not resort to the same measure till the thirteenth of Oc- tober, in the hope that the repeal of the or- ders in council would have induced the Americans to revoke their hostile declara- tion ; their conduct, however, betrayed so much partiality for the French, and so much dislike of the British and of their naval pre- eminence, that, although the latter govern- ment displayed as much conciliation as the extraordinary measures of Buonaparte would allow, the different spirit in which the most equivocal concessions of the French were received, betrayed such a decided feeling of hostility towards England, that war could no longer be averted. By land the first efforts of the Americans were directed against Canada, which was invaded by general Hull, with so little skill, that on the sixteenth cf August he surrendered his entire army, con- sisting of two thousand five hundred men, with thirty-three pieces of ordnance, to an inferior force of British and Indians, under of his army towards the frontiers of Poland | general Brock; and on the thirteenth of Oc- was only an unbroken series of defeats and ! tober, a second army, repeating the attempt disasters, miseries and deaths, without a par- allel in the annals of the world. From the time of his crossing the Niemen to that of the arrival of the wretched remnant of his on Canada, was completely defeated, nine hundred prisoners being taken, and the re- mainder either killed or wounded. The loss of the English was very slight, with the ex- army at Molodetschino, three hundred thou- j ception of general Brock, who was killed sand human beings, French and Russians to- while cheering his troops, before the engage- getlier, not including sick and wounded, ment actually commenced. At sea the Amer- were sacrificed to the guilty ambition of one man ! Of the immense French force which invaded Russia, not one hundred thousand could be mustered at the close of the cam- paign ! in reality, at Moscow, where Buo- naparte declared the campaign to be termi- nated, it was only beginning on the part of Russia. Buonaparte did not remain to wit- ness the last scenes of the tragedy; but leaving his men to perish by the sword of the enemy, by famine, or by frost, he liter- ally fled in disguise from Smorgony to Paris, where he arrived on the eighteenth of De- icans were more successful ; a circumstance to be ascribed chiefly to the great superiori- ty of their frigates, in size, weight of metal, and number of men. Their advantage, in the capture of the Guerriere by the Consti- tution, consisted only in an accession of fame, for the Guerriere was burnt : but, in their subsequent capture of the Macedonian, the prize was carried, in a sound state, into an American port. Their privateers also made numerous captures in the West Indies. Ministers were much censured by the oppo- sition for a want of foresight in not being GEORGE IE. 17601820. 571 prepared with a more efficient naval force to contend with the Americans ; and several ships of the line were afterwards ordered out The naval force of France was in so re- duced a state, that scarcely anything re- mained to be done. In February, however, the Victorious, of seventy-four guns, captain Talbot, took the Rivoli, of seventy-four guns, in the Adriatic. In March, the Rosario sloop, captain Harvey, in company with the Griffon, defeated a French flotilla of thirteen sail, six of which were destroyed or taken off Boulogne ; and in May, the Northum- berland, captain Hotham, destroyed two French frigates and a brig, under the bat- teries of the Isle of Groa. In the East Indies, the strong fortress of Bundelcund capitulated to a British force, under colonel Martindell; an expedition, fitted out at Batavia, against Palambang, was completely successful ; the military force employed in it afterwards subdued the sultan of Djojocarta ; and a treaty of alli- ance was concluded between Great Britain and Persia. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. CHARGES AGAINST PRINCESS OF WALES. THE new parliament assembled on the twenty-fourth of November, when the house of commons unanimously re-elected Abbot for their speaker ; and on the thirtieth the prince-regent, for the first time, delivered a speech from the throne, the topics of which were principally the political and military occurrences of the year. Alluding to the peninsular war, his royal highness expressed his firm reliance on the determination of parliament to continue every aid in support of a contest, which had first given to the continent of Europe the example of perse- vering and successful resistance to the pow- er of France. On the usual motion for an address, in the house of lords, the marquis Wellesley took a review of the past Spanish campaign, and argued that the system adopt- ed by ministers was timid without prudence, and narrow without economy ; profuse with- out the fruits of expenditure, and slow with- out the benefits of caution. Lord Liverpool, in reply, dwelt on the great exertions which had been made, and the addresses were voted in both houses without a division. One of the first measures of the new par- liament was the grant of two hundred thou- sand pounds to the sufferers in Russia by the invasion of that country. The sum of one hundred thousand pounds was also granted to lord Wellington. For a long period no subject of a domestic nature had fixed upon the public mind with so much force as the discord and alienation which had, for years, subsisted between the prince-regent and his illustrious consort. The cause of these dissensions it would be perhaps impossible to trace ; but that they originated at a period so early as the first year of the residence of the princess of Wales in this country, and that they were of such a nature as almost to dissolve the marriage contract, is clear from a corre- spondence which took place between those illustrious personages in the year 1796. The marriage was solemnized on the eighth of April, 1795 ; the birth of their only child was on the seventh of January following ; and in April, in the same year, the princess was informed; by a message from the prince, conveyed through the medium of lord Chol- mondeley, that the intercourse between them was, in future, to be of the most re- strictive nature in fact, that a separation as to all conjugal relations was, from that time and for ever, to take place. In this ar- rangement the princess expressed her ac- quiescence, but she considered the subject of too important a nature to rest merely on verbal communication ; and, in compliance with her request, the pleasure of his royal highness was communicated in writing. In 1805, when the royal pair had been for some years living in a state of separation, the duke of Sussex informed the prince, that Sir John Douglas had made known to him some circumstances respecting the behavior of the princess, which might, if true, not only affect the honor and peace of mind of his royal highness, but also the succession to the throne. Sir John and lady Douglas having made a formal declaration of the charges they thought proper to advance against the princess of Wales, this declara- tion was submitted by the prince to lord Thurlow, who gave it as his opinion that the matter must be referred to the king. In con- sequence of this opinion, and some further examinations, a warrant was issued by his majesty, dated the twenty-ninth of May, 1806, directing and authorizing lord Erskine, as lord chancellor, lord Grenville, as first lord of the treasury earl Spencer, as one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state and lord EUenborough, as chief-justice of the court of king's bench, to inquire into the truth of the said allegations, and to re- port to him thereon. These commissioners first examined on oath the principal inform- ants, Sir John Douglas, and Charlotte, his wife ; who both positively swore, the former to his having observed the fact of the preg- nancy of her royal highness ; and the latter, not only that she had observed it, but that her royal highness had not made the least scruple of talking about it with her, and de- scribing the stratagems she meant to resort to in order to avoid detection. Lady Douglas further deposed that, in the year 1802, the princess was secretly delivered of a male child, which had been brought up in her 572 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. own house, and under her own inspection. On this part of the inquiry the commission- ers reported, that there was no foundation whatever for believing that the child living with the princess was the child of her royal highness; nor had anything appeared to them that could warrant the belief that she was pregnant at any period within the com- pass of their inquiries. That child was, beyond all doubt, born in the Brownlow- street hospital, on the eleventh of July, 1802, of the body of Sophia Austin, and was first brought to the princess's house in the month of November following. As the de- clarations on which the commissioners had been ordered to inquire and report contain- ed other particulars respecting the conduct of her royal highness, which must necessa- rily give occasion to very unfavorable im- pressions, they proceeded to state that seve- ral strong circumstances of this description had been positively sworn to, by witnesses who could not, in their judgment, be sus- pected of any unfavorable bias, and whose veracity, in this respect, they had no ground to question. "It appears, therefore," con- tinued the commissioners, " that as, on the one hand, the fact of pregnancy and delive- ry are, to our minds, satisfactorily disproved, so, on the other, we think that the circum- stances to which we now refer, particularly those stated to have passed between her royal highness and captain Manby, must be credited until they shall receive some de- cisive contradiction ; and, if true, are justly entitled to the most serious consideration." Immediately on the receipt of a copy of this report, the princess of Wales addressed a letter to his majesty, in which, in the face of the Almighty, she asserted not only her innocence as to the weightier parts of the charge preferred against her, but her free- dom from all the indecorums and improprie- ties which had been imputed to her by the lords commissioners, upon the evidence of persons who spoke as falsely as Sir John and lady Douglas themselves. On the sev- enteenth of August she again wrote to the king, requesting that she might have au- thenticated copies of the report, and of the declarations and depositions on which it proceeded. Having received these papers, the princess submitted them to her legal ad- visers, lord Eldon, Perceval, and Sir Thom- as Plomer; and on the second of October she transmitted to his majesty an elaborate letter on the subject. Nine weeks having elapsed without any reply, the princess again wrote, expressing her anxiety to learn whether she might be admitted to the royal presence ; in reply to which her royal highness was informed, that her vindication had been referred to his majesty's confiden- tial servants, who had given it as their opinion that it was no longer necessary for his majesty to decline receiving the prin- cess into his royal presence; but at the same tune he hoped that such a conduct would be in future observed by her, as might fully justify those marks of paternal regard and affection which the king always wished to show to every part of his royal family. The princess no sooner received this communication than she named a day, on which, if agreeable to his majesty, she would have the happiness to throw herself, in filial duty and affection, at his feet. The day, however, was at first postponed by his majesty, who afterwards informed the prin- cess that, at the request of the prince of Wales, he declined to see her until her vin- dication had been examined by the lawyers of the prince, and until his royal highness had been enabled to submit the statement which he proposed to make thereon. The princess remonstrated in strong terms against this interposition, and trusted that his majesty would recall his determination not to see her till the prince's answer re- specting her vindication was received. After a lapse of three weeks the prin- cess informed his majesty that, having re- ceived no intimation of his pleasure, she was reduced to the necessity, in vindication of her character, to resort to the publica- tion of the proceedings upon the inquiry into her conduct : and that the publication alluded to would not be withheld beyond the following Monday. To avoid this pain- ful extremity she had taken every step in her power, except that which would be abandoning her character to utter infamy, and her station in life to no uncertain dan- ger, and possibly to no very distant destruc- tion. This letter was dated the fifth of March, soon after which Perceval and his friends were intrusted with the seals of of- fice; and when the ministerial arrange- ments were completed, a minute of council was made, dated the twenty-second of April, 1807, wherein it was humbly submitted to his majesty, that it was essentially necessa- ry, in justice to her royal highness, and for the honor and interest of his majesty's il- lustrious family, that the princess of Wales should be admitted into his presence, and be received in a manner due to her rank and station. Notwithstanding this advice, it does not appear that she was ever restored to complete favor, and her intercourse with her daughter also became subject to great restraint. Nothing, however, occurred, that is publicly or officially known, till January, 1818, at which time the princess was so much debarred from the society of her daughter, that she determined to write to the prince-regent on the subject In this letter, which was transmitted to ministers GEORGE III. 17601820. 573 on the fourteenth, she dwelt with great force upon the injustice of widening the separation between mother and daughter, which she considered as not only cutting her off from one of the few domestic en- joyments which she still retained, but as countenancing those calumnious reports which had been proved to be unfounded. In consequence of this letter, which shortly appeared in a daily journal, the prince-re- gent directed that the whole of the docu- ments relating to the investigation of 1806, (inappropriately called the " delicate inves- tigation,") should be referred to the privy- council, to report whether the intercourse between the princess and her daughter should continue under restriction. In virtue of this appointment, the members of the council assembled on the twenty-third of February, when they reported that, in their opinion, it was highly fit and proper that the intercourse between the princess of Wales and the princess Charlotte should continue to be subject to regulation and re- straint. 1813. On the first of March the princess of 'Wales addressed a letter to the speaker of the house of commons, in which she complained that the tendency of this report, a copy of which had been transmitted to her by lord Sidmouth, was to cast aspersions upon her honor and character. Thus as- sailed by a secret tribunal, before which she could not be heard in her own defence, she was compelled to throw herself upon the house, and to require that the fullest inves- tigation might be instituted into the whole of her conduct during her residence in this country. On the fifth of March C. John- stone, after avowing that he had no concert with, or authority from, the princess, sub- mitted to the house of commons a motion for an address to the prince-regent, request- ing him to order that a copy of the report made to nis majesty on the fourteenth of July, 1806, touching the conduct of her royal highness, the princess of Wales, 'be laid before the house, with a view to an in- quiry now, while the witnesses on both 'sides were still living, into all the allegations, facts, and circumstances, appertaining to that investigation ; a proceeding, which, in his opinion, was due to the honor of her royal highness, the safety of the throne, and the tranquillity of the country. Lord Cas- tlereagh, in opposing the motion, said that the house could not consider the papers called for at all necessary to remove any apprehension as to the successor to the throne. The innocence of the princess of Wales had been established on the report of the members of two successive adminis- trations ; and, if a prosecution had not been instituted against her accusers, it arose only from a wish to avoid bringing such subjects before the public. It may suffice to add, that the document called for was not pro- duced ; the princess was declared free from imputation ; and addresses of congratulation poured in upon her from all quarters of the kingdom. VICE-CHANCELLOR APPOINTED. DECLA- RATION ON AMERICAN WAR. IN consequence of the great accumula- tion of business in the court of chancery, a bill, proposed by lord Redesdale, was passed this session for the appointment of a vice- chancellor of England, with full power to determine all cases of law and equity in the court of chancery, to the same extent as the chancellors had been accustomed to deter- mine ; and his decrees were to be of equal validity, but subject to the revision of the lord-chancellor, and not to be enrolled until signed by him. On the ninth of January, a declaration was issued, in which the prince-regent sta- ted that he could never acknowledge any blockade which had been duly notified, and which was supported by an adequate force, to be illegal, merely upon the ground of its extent, or because the ports or coasts were not at the same time invested by land ; nei- ther could he admit that neutral trade with Great Britain could be constituted a public crime, subjecting the ships of any power to be denationalized ; that Great Britain could be debarred of her just and necessary retalia- tion through the fear of eventually affecting the interests of a neutral ; or that the right of searching neutral merchant-vessels in time of war, and the impressment of Brit- ish seamen found therein, could be deemed any violation of a neutral flag. PROCEEDINGS OF PARLIAMENT. ON the twenty-fifth of February, a mo- tion for referring the Catholic claims to a committee of the whole house, was carried in the commons by two hundred and sixty- four votes against two hundred and twenty- four ; and, on the thirtieth of April, Grattan presented a bill for the removal of the civil and military disqualifications under which his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects labor- ed. On its passage through a committee, Abbot, the speaker, divided the house on the clause by which Roman Catholic members were to be admitted to a seat in parliament ; and, on its being rejected by a majority of two hundred and fifty-one against two hun- dred and forty-seven, the bill was abandoned by its friends. The extensive principles of religious toleration professed in the discus- sions on this question, rendered the time fa- vorable for relieving persons impugning the doctrine of the Trinity from the pains and penalties to which they were by law subject, and William Smith moved for leave to bring 574 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. in a bill for this purpose. As the law stood, he said, any one denying the existence* of any of the Persons of the Trinity was dis- abled from holding any office, civil, ecclesi- astical, or military ; and, if a second time convicted, he was disabled to sue or prose- cute in any action or information, or to be the guardian of any child, and was liable to im- prisonment for three years. The bill under- went no opposition in either house. It may also be here mentioned that an act was pass- ed, during this session, for establishing some proportion between the stipends of curates and the value of. the livings which they served ; the necessitous condition of many who performed the duty of non-resident clergymen having too long been a reproach to the church of England. The heavy expenses of the war rendered a new plan of finance necessary; and, in submitting his propositions to a committee of the whole house, Vansittart said, that further measures might be taken for pro- moting and facilitating the redemption of the land-tax, the produce of which should be applied to the reduction of the national debt. In the second place, he proposed that, on all loans hereafter to be contracted, there should be a provision made for discharging the debt; and his third proposition was a measure for the repeal of part of the act of 1802, regard- ing the sinking fund, probably in conse- quence of its having been demonstrated about this time, that the sinking fund had added as much to the public debt as it had redeemed, besides heavy expenses. This fund, he said, should be sacredly supported to a certain amount; but he believed it might be shown that its enormous increase, by throwing into the market immense sums of money at one time, would produce injuri- ous effects. When the establishment of a sinking fund was proposed by Pitt, in 1786, the national debt amounted to nearly two hundred and forty million pounds a sum of which few then living ever hoped to see the redemption, but which, he said, had already been effected ; while, within the same period two hundred million pounds of war taxes had been paid by the unexampled exertipps of the country. By the original constitution of the fund, the stock purchased by the commissioners was not cancelled, but was still considered to be their property; and the interest was regularly applied by them to the further discharge of the national debt. This arrangement, securing an accumula- tion by compound interest, was now abolish- ed. Till the complete redemption of the debt, Vansittart proposed to make good to the sinking fund the annual sum of eight hundred and seventy thousand pounds, which would have been appropriated to the differ- ent sums provided for in 1802, if that con- solidation had not taken place, and if those sums had been accompanied by the usual redeeming fund of one per cent. If this plan were adopted, no fresh taxes would be required for four years, except about one million pounds for 1813. In submitting the proposed ways and means for the year, in case his plan with respect to the sinking fund should not be adopted, the chancellor of the exchequer stated that the sum to be raised was one million one hundred and thirty-six thousand pounds, for which he meant to provide by an additional duty on tobacco, in lieu of the proposed auction duty of last year; additional duties on the consoli- dated customs, with some exceptions; an addition of one shilling one penny per bottle on French wines ; an increase of two-thirds on goods imported from France and her de- pendencies ; an increase generally of one- half the present amount of the war duties on exports; and an additional duty of a penny per pound on the export of foreign hides. The various resolutions were agreed to without material opposition. The renewal of the charter of the East India company, concerning which innumera- ble petitions had been presented, came be- fore the house of commons on the twenty- second of March, lord Castlereagh having stated, that the term of the existing charter would expire in May, 1814, and that his majesty's ministers had to consider three propositions Whether the existing govern- ment in India should be allowed to continue in its present state whether an entire change should take place in the system or whether a middle course should be adopted. On a question of so much importance it was deemed necessary to hear evidence at the bar ; and the witnesses, chiefly persons who had occupied high stations in India, were generally against opening the trade, or al- lowing missionaries to repair to the east for the purpose of converting the natives. On this subject, however, so much zeal had been displayed in many of the petitions, that, after much discussion, it was at length resolved that such measures ought to be adopted as might tend to the introduction of useful knowledge, and of religious and moral im- provement, among the natives ; and that fa- cilities should be afforded to persons desi- rous of going to, and remaining in, India for these purposes. After the subject had occu- pied the attention of parliament for some months, a bill, founded on certain resolu- tions proposed by lord Castlereagh, was in- troduced, and read a (third time on the thir- teenth of July. It secured to the company, for a further term of twenty years, or until April, 1834, all their possessions in India, including the later acquisitions, continental and insular, to the north of the equator. GEORGE IIL 17601820. 575 Their exclusive right to commercial inter- course with China, and to the trade in tea, was confirmed. British suhjects in general were permitted to trade to and from all ports within the limits of the charter, under cer- tain provisions: all ships engaging in this private trade to be of the burden of three hundred and fifty tons or upwards, and those for the settlements of Fort William, Fort St. George, Bombay, and Prince of Wales's Island, to be provided with a license, which the court of directors were bound to grant : to all other places a special license was re- quired, which the directors might grant or refuse, subject to an appeal to the board of control. The church establishment in the British territories in India was placed under the direction of a bishop and three archdea- cons. The application of the company's territorial revenues was directed to the maintenance .of the military force and to the establishments at their settlements, the pay- ment of the interest of their debts in Eng- le.nd, the liquidation of their territorial debt, their bond debt at home, and such other pur- poses as the directors, with the approbation of the board of control, might appoint. The dividend on India stock was limited to ten per cent until the fund, called the separate fund, should be exhausted, when it was to be ten and a half per cent. ; and the number of king's troops, for which payment was to be made by the company, was limited to twenty thousand, unless a greater number should be sent to India at the request of the direc- tors. Thus the new charter secured to the East India company all the political power they could reasonably desire, whilst the con- tinuance of their exclusive right of trading between China and Great Britain left the most valuable portion of their mercantile business without competition. TREATY WITH SWEDEN. THE treaty with Sweden was laid before parliament on the eleventh of June, and excited strong animadversions. The king of Sweden having engaged to employ a force of not less than thirty thousand men in concert with the Russians, Great Britain so far acceded to a compact between the courts of Stockholm and Petersburg!!, as not only to oppose no obstacle to the annex- ation of Norway to Sweden, but to assist, if necessary, in obtaining that object, by a naval co-operation; his Britannic majesty also engaging, independently of other suc- cors, to furnish to Sweden, for the service of the current campaign, the sum of one mil- lion pounds, and to cede to her the island of Guadaloupe. The king of Sweden recipro- cally granted to the subjects of his Britannic majesty, for twenty years, the rij;ht of en- trepot in the ports of Gottenburg, Carlsham, and Stralsund, for all commodities of Great Britain and her colonies, upon a duty of one per cent, ad valorem. Lord Holland depre- cated the transfer of Norway, denounced the cession of Guadaloupe, and opposed the subsidy as inconsistent with the financial difficulties under/ which the country was laboring. His proposal, however, to suspend the execution of the treaty, vas rejected. The session closed on the twenty-second of July with a speech from the throne, ex- pressing satisfaction at the favorable state of affairs on the continent, and regret at the continuance of war with the United States ; declaring, however, that the prince-regent could not consent to purchase peace by a sacrifice of the maritime rights of Great Britain. He approved of the arrangements for the government of British India, and ex- pressed his resolution to employ the means placed in his hands by parliament, in such a manner as might be best calculated to re- duce the extravagant pretensions of the enemy, and facilitate the attainment of a safe and honorable peace. 576 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XLI. Prussia declares against France Battle of Lutzen Armistice Renewal of Hos- tilities Austria joins the Grand Alliance Battle before Dresden Batfle of Den- nevitz Bavaria joint the Allies Rout of Buonaparte at Leipzic Revolution in Hollarid and Successes in Spain Battle of Vittoria Capture of St. Sebastian Lord Wellington enters France Failure of Sir John Murray before Tarragona Campaign in America Naval Engagements Meeting of Parliament Proceed- ings peace with Denmark Transfer of Norway to Sweden Murut joins the Allies Lord Wellington crosses the Adour Battle of Orthes Soult retreats to Toulouse The Allies cross the Rhine, and enter France Treaty of Chaumont Battle of Craone Occupation of Paris by Capitulation Abdication of Buona- parte Battle of Toulouse Convention of Paris Entrance of Louis XVIII. Treaty of Peace- Royal Visitors to England Restoration of the Pope Return of Ferdinand to Spain South American Affairs Parliamentary Proceedings Honors conferred on the Duke of Wellington Princess of Wales State of Ire- land Treaty with Holland Congress of Vienna. PRUSSIA DECLARES AGAINST FRANCE. BATTLE OF LUTZEN. IN the year 1813, the first event of im- portance which occurred was the defection of the Prussian general, D'Yorck, who en- tered into a convention with the Russian general, Wittgenstein, now appointed to the command in chief on the death of the veteran Kutusoff, but shortly afterwards suc- ceeded by Barclay de Tolli. That conven- tion the king of Prussia, then within the grasp of Buonaparte, refused to ratify ; but no sooner had he freed himself from the ap- prehension of peril no sooner did he per- ceive that there vas a chance for emancipa- tion for himself uid his country than he conferred the most distinguished approbation upon D'Yorck. As the year advanced a Russian envoy was dispatched to Vienna ; an Austrian am- bassador arrived in London; and Sweden, by landing a considerable force in Swedish Pomerania, struck the first decisive blow against the French. During the three first months Buonaparte strained every nerve to recruit his armies, or more properly speak- ing, to create new ones. By the third of April, decrees had been passed for levies to ihe amount of five hundred and thirty-five thousand men; and it was then estimated that he would have four hundred thousand on the Elbe, two hundred thousand in Spain, and two hundred thousand partly on the Rhine, and partly in Italy. On the fifteenth of April he left Paris, the empress Maria Louisa having first been declared regent of the French empire " till the moment when victory should return the emperor." Previ- ously to this the king of .Prussia had issued an edict, abolishing the continental system ; the emperor of Austria was understood to have formed the resolution of taking part against France, unless Buonaparte should listen to his offer of mediation; and the crown-prince of Sweden, over whose inten- tions some clouds of doubt yet hung, had resolved to place himself at the head of the Swedish armies. About this time a Danish mission ar- rived in England, and for a while the hope was indulged that peace between Britain and Denmark would be restored ; but the demands of the latter being inadmissible, or, according to other accounts, the cession of Norway to Sweden being demanded by this country, occasioned the failure of the negotiation. On the second of May was fought the great battle of Lutzen, in which the village of Gros-Gorschen was six times taken and retaken by the bayonet; but the allies at length drove the French from their positions, and remained masters of the field ; though they subsequently found it necessary to fall back beyond the Elbe, which they effected in perfect order. Here they received con- siderable reinforcements, and another dread- ful battle, or rather a succession of battles, took place from the nineteenth to the t'wen- ty-second, at and near Bautzen, of the same character as the action at Lutzen ; the re- sult of which, according to the French ac- counts, was, that they lost between eleven and twelve thousand men in' killed and wounded, and the allies ten thousand ; and that they advanced about thirty miles, the allies retiring before them, unbroken and formidable, into the Prussian territory. These engagements were fatally ominous to Buonaparte : in the action of the twenty- first he was deserted by a part of the Saxon and of the Wirtemburg troops ; and on the twenty-second the celebrated marshal Duroc was mortally -wounded. In an engagement GEORGE HI. 17601820. 577 previous to the battle of Lutzen the French also lost marshal Bessieres, who was killed by a cannon-ball. nevitz, over marshal Ney, on which occasion the first of June ; and on the fourth an ar- mistice, to continue .on all points till the twentieth of July, was finally concluded and ratified hostilities not to recommence with- out six days' notice. At the request of Aus- tria, who appears to have been the prime mover in this affair, the armistice was pro- longed till the tenth of August : every at- tempt, however, at negotiation failed; and on the seventeenth, agreeably to notice, hos- tilities again commenced. Austria, having signed a treaty by which she became a member of the grand alliance, having for the loss of the French wa"s stated at sixteen thousand men. From the recommencement of hostilities, down to this period, the entire loss of the enemy was estimated at upwards of a hundred thousand men, and two hun- dred and fifty pieces of cannon. Feeling the severity of their losses, an ex- traordinary sitting of the French senate was holden on the fourth of October, the empress Maria Louisa attending in person. The ob- ject of this sitting was to pass a decree for another levy of two hundred and eighty thousand men. But France had yet greater, its object the recovery of the independence j severer losses to sustain. The defection of of Europe, had issued a declaration of war i the king of Bavaria, and his junction with against France ; and at the different inter- views which, during the armistice, had taken place between the respective sovereigns and their ministers, it had been determined that the crown-prince of Sweden should be invested with the chief command of the combined forces. BATTLES. OF DRESDEN, DENNEVITZ, AND LEIPZIG. VARIOUS movements and affairs of posts took place immediately on the renewal of hostilities ; but it was not until the twenty- eighth of August that a general battle was fought before Dresden, in which general the allied powers ; the defeat, the total rout of Buonaparte at Leipzic on the sixteenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth of October, with the loss of one hundred and twenty thousand men, and one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, were yet to be proclaimed to the world. Previously to this last and decisive conflict, (during which seventeen battalions of German infantry, with all their staff, and two regiments of Westphalian huzzars, with twenty-two pieces of artillery, came over to the allies,) Buonaparte 'had been concentrat- ing his forces at Leipzic, while the allies extended themselves on every side, and pre- Vandamme and six other French generals, j pared for battle. In the grand contest for with many officers of rank, six standards, I this city, a greater force had assembled than sixty pieces of artillery, and ten thousand prisoners, were taken. On the twenty-sixth had almost ever acted on no confined a thea- tre ; and the attack of the allies on the six- general Blucher, whose active and intrepid teenth, after much slaughter, left both ar- exertions obtained him that distinction which I mies in nearly the positions they held at its has attached so much glory to his name, had i commencement. The seventeenth passed taken fifty pieces of artillery, thirty tum- brils and ammunition-wagons, and ten thou- sand prisoners; and, renewing the contest on the following day, he took thirty more pieces of cannon, and five thousand prisoners. The loss of the French was also increased, and the allies proportionably strengthened, by the desertion of two Westphalian regi- ments during the principal battle. In the action of the twenty-eighth, the brave, but unfortunate, general Moreau received a mortal wound while in earnest conversation with the emperor of Russia. He had ar- rived at Gottenburgh from America in May, and proceeding to join his countryman and early companion in arms, Bernadotte, was appointed to the high station of major-general of the allied army. His judicious advice respecting the plan of the campaign was VOL. IV. 49 chiefly in preparation for the great action of the next day, which was directed upon the town itself, and at the conclusion of which Buonaparte had lost forty thousand men, and sixty-five pieces of cannon. His army began to defile towards Weissenfels during the night, and in the morning of the nineteenth the magistrates of Leipzic requested a sus- pension of arms, for the purpose of arranging 1 a capitulation; but, as it was easily seen that this was an artifice to facilitate the escape of the French, the emperor Alexander would allow no respite, and the allied forces were led to the attack. After a short resistance they carried the city, which was entered by the emperor of Russia, the king of Prussia, and the crown-prince of Sweden, about two hours, after Buonaparte had quitted it. The French were flying in utter confusion over 578 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the Elster ; the bridge was blocked up ; prison- ers were taken by thousands; and many who plunged into the stream perished. The whole of the rear-guard fell into the hands of the allies ; among the prisoners were Reg- nier, Brune, Valfery, Bertrand, and Lauris- ton, together with the king of Saxony and his whole court ; Macdonald with difficulty gained the opposite bank, and prince Ponia- towski was drowned in the attempt. Buonaparte retreated through Erfurt with about seventy or eighty thousand men, and at Hanau was opposed by thirty thousand Bavarians, under general Wrede, who did not retire until they had sustained a consid- erable loss. On the second of November he reached Mentz, and, continuing his retreat through Frankfort, crossed the Rhine on the seventh of November, when he again de- serted the shattered remains of his army, and fled to Paris. The immediate consequences of this grand overthrow were great and glorious beyond expectation. The house of Orange was re- instated in Holland; Hanover and Bruns- wick were restored to their rightful sove- reigns ; the confederation of the Rhine was dissolved; the Rhine itself was passed by the allies ; and the " sacred territory " France, covered, as it had been, by so many vassal states, was now laid open to its very frontier. ^. The first steps of Buonaparte, after his arrival at Paris, were to throw an oppres- sive weight of taxation upon the people, and to decree a new levy of three hundred thousand conscripts, to be sacrificed at the shrine of unprincipled ambition. Shortly after the issuing of this decree, the allied powers promulgated a declaration, offering peace to Buonaparte on the liberal basis of guaranty- ing to the French empire " an extent of ter- ritory which France, under her kings, never knew ;" On this basis, Buonaparte professed himself willing to treat; and a congress was therefore expected to assemble at Man- heim to negotiate a general peace. It was the desire of Buonaparte that, during the negotiating, an armistice should be pro- claimed ; but to this the allies very pru- dently refused to assent. REVOLUTION IN HOLLAND. THE revolution in Holland appeared as the sudden burst of public feeling, though it did not take place without previous concert The people of Amsterdam rose in a body, and, with the old cry of Oranje Boven, put up the Orange colors, and proclaimed the sovereignty of that house. On the six- teenth of November, an administration was organized under the direction of the armed burghers, and many of the leading citizens took upon themselves the care of preserving order. Similar measures were adopted at the Hague, Rotterdam, and other places. The intelligence of these events was brought over on the twenty-first to London, by a deputation, for the purpose of inviting the prince of Orange to place .himself at the head of his countrymen a call which he readily obeyed. On the twenty-fifth of No- vember, he embarked at Deal, accompanied by the earl of Clancarty, and on the third of December made his solemn entry into Am- sterdam, where he was proclaimed by the title of William the First, sovereign prince of the united Netherlands. SUCCESSES IN SPAIN. BATTLE OF VIT- TORIA. IN Spain lord Wellington had, on the twenty-sixth of May, entered Salamanca, the French precipitately evacuating the city on his approach ; and on the following day, apparently fearful of being cut off by the rapid advance of the allied army, they com- menced a hasty evacuation of Madrid, and of all the posts in its vicinity. Lord Wel- lington continued to advance, the French flying before him in every direction ; and, on the thirteenth of June, they blew up the inner walls of Burgos, fled from that for- of tress, and abandoned the whole of the coun- try to the Ebro, which general Graham im- mediately passed. Lord Wellington's next laurels were gathered on the plains of Vit- toria, where, on the twenty-first of June, he obtained a complete victory over marshal Jourdan. The French lost one hundred and fifty-one pieces of cannon, four hundred and fifteen wagons of ammunition, all their baggage, provisions, and treasure, with their commander's baton of a marshal of France. Lord Wellington continued the pursuit, and on the twenty-fifth took their only remain- ing gun. The battle of Vittoria was cele- brated in England by general illuminations and splendid fetes; in Spain medals were struck on the occasion ; and the cortes, by an unanimous vote, decreed a territorial prop- erty to lord Wellington, in testimony of the gratitude of the Spanish nation. Buonaparte immediately superseded Jour- dan, and appointed Soult to succeed n*im, with the title, or rank, of lieutenant-general of the emperor, an honor never before conferred upon any of Buonaparte's generals. Previ- ously to his joining the army, he issued a pro- clamation, stating that his imperial majesty's instructions, and his own intentions, were, to drive the allies across the Ebro, and to cele- brate the emperor's birth-day in the town of Vittoria ! Soult, however was destined, in his turn, to acknowledge the superiority of British prowess. From the twenty-fifth of July to the second of August, a series of en- gagements took place, the result of which GEORGE HI. 17601820. 579 was the retreat of the enemy into France, with the loss of fifteen to twenty thousand men, four thousand of whom were prisoners. CAPTURE OF ST. SEBASTIAN. WELLING- TON ENTERS FRANCE. THE siege of St. Sebastian, which had been invested shortly after the battle of Vittoria, was conducted by Sir Thomas Gra- ham ; and, on the twenty-fifth of July, an attempt to storm the fortress proved unsuc- cessful. As the port was necessary for the supply of provisions and other necessaries by sea, not a day was lost in prosecuting the siege ; but it was not till the thirty-first of August that another assault was undertaken. The breach, which, at a distance, appeared very ample, proved to be of such a nature that it would admit the men only in single files ; and, if any succeeded in gaining the narrow ridge of the curtain, his station proved instantly fatal. Two hours of severe but fruitless exertion ensued, and the attack was almost in a desperate state, when Sir Thomas Graham adopted the expedient of directing the guns against the curtain over the heads of his own troops. The firing was executed with such admirable precision and effect, that in an hour the defenders were driven from their works, and retired to the castle, leaving the town in full possession of the allies, who sustained the severe loss of two thousand three hundred men in killed and wounded. The importance of the place induced Soult to cross the Bidassoa in great force for its relief; but he was gal- lantly repulsed by the Spanish troops alone. The castle surrendered on the eighth of Sep- tember, and the garrison, now reduced to about eighteen hundred men, were made prisoners. On the seventh of October the allied ar- my crossed the Bidassoa, and planted the British standard in France. Pampeluna, the siege of which had been left to the care of the Spanish general Don Carlos D'Espagna, surrendered on the thirty-first day of Octo- ber; a circumstance which relieved lord Wellington from every apprehension respect- ing his rear, and enabled him to concentrate and dispose of his forces at pleasure. His march was impeded by heavy rains ; but, on the tenth of November, the French were driven from an intrenched position along the Nivelle, and pursued to Bayonne. On the ninth of December, and four following days, Soult, who intended to drive the allies across the Ebro, and to celebrate Bounaparte's birth- day in Vittoria, sustained another series of defeats on the banks of the Adour. Imme- diately after the action three German regi- ments, apprized of the important changes which had taken place in the northern parts of the continent, went over in a body to the allies. FAILURE BEFORE TARRAGONA. FROM this brilliant career of success in the north of Spain, we must now turn to the eastern coast of the Peninsula, where gene- ral Sir John Murray disembarked his forces on the thirty-first of May, and, on the third day of June, invested Tarragona ; but, after advancing his batteries against it, he received reports that Suchet was marching from Va- lencia, for its relief, with a superior force, and he immediately reimbarked his army, leaving cannon in the batteries, although ad- miral Hallowell was of opinion that they might have been brought off if he had re- mained till night. Sir John Murray's con- duct afterwards underwent an investigation before a military tribunal, but it was attrib- uted to an error in judgment. ' Lord Wil- liam Bentinck, who succeeded him in the command, resumed the siege of Tarragona in August, and Suchet, who had retired into Catalonia, advanced to Villa Franca; and, the British general having withdrawn, he entered Tarragona, destroyed the works, withdrew the garrison, and again retired to- wards Barcelona. As the grand effort against France was making on the side of the west- ern Pyrenees, the third Spanish army was detached in order to co-operate with lord Wellington, and the remainder of the troops in this quarter acted on the defensive. Suchet, however, although able to maintain his footing in Spain, could not hope to gain any material advantage ; and such was now the commanding situation of lord Welling- ton, that the liberation of the Peninsula might be considered as accomplished. CAMPAIGN IN AMERICA. NAVAL EN- GAGEMENTS. THE events of the war with the United States were at this period, when continental affairs were so highly important, viewed with comparatively little interest. The Ameri- cans collected a large force in the back set- tlements, and again approached Detroit, when colonel Proctor, on the twenty-second of January, routed their advanced guard, and captured five hundred men, including their commander, general Winchester. In the end of April the American general Dearborn, with five thousand men, took possession of York, at the head of Lake Ontario, from whence general Sheaffe, who had not one thousand men, was compelled to retire. About the same time general Vincent was obliged, by superiority of numbers, to evacu- ate Fort George, on the Niagara frontier,, and, on the fifth of June, he compelled the enemy again to fall back on Niagara ; but soon af- terwards colonel Proctor was attacked by the American general Harrison, with ten thou- sand men, who captured nearly the whole of his force; he himself escaping with a few of his attendants. On the tenth of Septem- 580 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. her nine American vessels encountered six British on Lake Erie, in which unequal con- test the American commander's vessel at one time struck ; but at length the whole British squadron, reduced to a complete wreck, fell into the hands of the enemy. In the end of October three American armies, each amounting to ten thousand men, marched from different points upon Lower Canada; but this great effort was completely frus- trated, and, on the whole, the campaign was honorable to the British arms. Great Britain did not fully maintain that decided superiority in naval combats which had so long distinguished her, although in none did she suffer disgrace. The preceding year closed with the loss of the English frig- ate Java, captain Lambert, with lieutenant- general Hislop arid his staff on board, bound to Bombay. She was met off the coast of Brazil by the American frigate Constitution, captain Bainbridge, of much superior force ; and after a furious action, in which she was dismasted and completely disabled, she sur- rendered to her antagonist in a state which obliged him to set her on fire as soon as the wounded were removed. Captain Lambert and many of his crew were killed. The Peacock British sloop, of eighteen guns, was also sunk in an engagement with the Amer- ican sloop Hornet. The. time, however, arrived, in which the British flag was to re- cover its glory. Captain Broke, of the Shan- non frigate, had been cruising for some time near the port of Boston, where the Chesa- peake frigate then lay ; and that the enemy might not be prevented from coming out, by the apprehension of having more than one opponent to deal with, captain Broke, on the first of June, drew up before the harbor in a posture of defiance. Captain Lawrence, of the Chesapeake, accepted the challenge, and put to sea ; while crowds of the inhabitants, in the greatest confidence as to the issue, lined the beach to witness the approaching conflict. After the exchange of two or three broadsides, the Chesapeake fell on board the Shannon, and they were locked together. At this critical moment captain Broke, observing that the enemy flinched from their guns, gave orders to board. In less than ten min- utes, the whole of the British crew were on the decks of the Chesapeake; and in two minutes more the enemy were driven, sword in hand, from every point; the American flag was hauled down ; and the British Union floated over it in triumph. In another 'min- ute they ceased firing from below, and called for quarter; and the whole service was performed in fifteen minutes from its commencement. Both ships came out of ac- tion in the most beautiful order, their rigging appearing as perfect as if they had only been exchanging a salute. The Shannon sailed immediately with, her prize for Halifax, where captain Lawrence died of his wounds. The loss, on both sides, was very severe for so short a contest; that of the English being twenty-three killed and fifty-six wounded, and the Americans about seventy killed and one hundred wounded. In St. George's chan- nel the American sloop of war Argus was also captured by the British sloop Pelican. PARLIAMENT. PARLIAMENT was opened so early as the fourth of November, by the prince-regent, with a speech from the throne, of which the new alliances against France, and the war with America, formed the principal topics. The prince declared that no disposition to require from France sacrifices inconsistent with her honor, or just pretensions as a na- tion, would ever be an obstacle to peace; and that he was ready to enter into discus- sions with the United States on principles not inconsistent with the established maxims of public law, and with the maritime rights of the British empire. The addresses on the speech were carried without opposition. After the treaties with Russia and Prussia had been laid before the house, lord Cas- tlereagh introduced a bill to enable his ma- jesty to accept the services of a proportion of the militia out of the United Kingdom, for the vigorous prosecution of the war. The bill passed through both houses without opposition, every possible exertion to bring the great contest on the continent to a speedy issue being considered desirable. The sanc- tion of parliament was also obtained, without a dissentient voice, for the loan of twenty- two million pounds, as well as for the aids granted to Sweden, Russia, Prussia, and Aus- tria, either in direct subsidies or in bills of credit. Two millions had been advanced to Portugal, two to Spain, and one to Sweden. The sum to be allowed to Russia and Prussia was estimated at five million pounds; and the advance to be made to Austria consisted of one million pounds, together with one hun- dred thousand stand of arms, and military stores in proportion. Men of all parties concurred in supporting the foreign policy of ministers, and the advocates of peace admitted that there were no means of securing that blessing but by perseverance in the mighty contest which had been so gloriously begun. On the twentieth of December parliament was adjourned until the first of March, 1814. PEACE WITH DENMARK. TRANSFER OF NORWAY. MURAT JOINS THE ALLIES. PEACE between Great Britain and Den- mark was re-established on the fourteenth of January. Britain engaged to restore all her conquests except Heligoland ; prisoners of war, on both sides, were to be released ; Denmark was to join the allies with ten GEORGE HI. 17601820. 581 thousand men, on receiving a subsidy of four hundred thousand pounds from Eng- land ; and Pomerania to be ceded, by Swe- den, to Denmark, in lieu of Norway. It was not, however, without great reluctance that the king of Denmark parted with one of his crowns, and the people of Norway could not be reconciled to a transfer which militated against their national and political prejudices. Violent commotions consequent- ly took place ; a declaration of Norwegian independence was made ; and prince Chris- tian, hereditary prince of Denmark, was proclaimed regent. Hostilities commenced between Sweden and Norway about the middle of July ; by the latter end of August prince Christian was compelled to relinquish his claims ; and the sceptre of Norway, after having been so long annexed to the Danish dominions, passed into the hands of the king of Sweden. The mortifications of Buonaparte were increased by the defection of Murat, his brother-in-law, who had been created king of Naples by his interest, and who, by a treaty dated the eleventh of January, en- gaged to assist Austria with an army of thirty thousand men, and opened his ports to the English. In Holland, a body of Eng- lish and Dutch, under Sir Thomas Graham, created a diversion in favor of the allies. WELLINGTON CROSSES THE ADOUR. BATTLE OF ORTHES. IN the south of France, at the commence- ment of the year, the progress of lord Wel- lington was retarded by the state of the weather ; but as soon as it became tolerably favorable, he resolved to pass the Adour, in which he was greatly assisted by admiral Penrose, with the vessels and boats collect- ed for the service. The army now received its supplies from the little harbor of St. Jean de Luz, which was crowded with English shipping. The Gave d'Oleron was also pass- ed, and Soult withdrew to a commanding position in front of Orthes, where, being re- inforced by general Clausel, he determined to wait the issue of an action. On the twenty-seventh of February lord Welling- ton issued his orders for a general attack, when the French were driven from one po- sition to another, till the rapid advance of Sir Rowland Hill, who had forced a passage over the Gave de Pau, above the town, and marched a strong body of cavalry upon the road to St. Sevre, threw them into inextri- cable confusion. On the twenty-eighth, the pursuit was continued to St. Sevre, where general Beresford crossed the upper part of the Adour. On the first of March the ad- vance of the main army was impeded by heavy rains; Sir Rowland Hill, however, proceeded to Aire, which he attacked on the second, and, after an obstinate resistance, 49* the enemy was again put to flight, leaving the road to Bordeaux completely open. The retreat of Soult's army was towards Tou- louse, whither the main body of the British pursued him ; whilst Bayonne was invested by Sir John Hope. In this state of affairs, Buonaparte released Ferdinand the seventh and his brother Don Carlos. ALLIES ENTER FRANCE. TREATY OF CHAUMONT. BATTLE OF CRAONE. THE allied armies operating on the Rhine probably exceeded half a million. Prussia and Austria had, between them, an effec- tive force of two hundred and fifty thou- sand ; Russia alone had nearly two hundred thousand ; and to these may be added thirty thousand Swedes, ten thousand Danes, and a large number of troops contributed by the princes of the confederation of the Rhine. On crossing that important river, the allies issued a proclamation, in which they de- clared that, though victory had conducted them into France, they had not come to ma he war upon her; their wish and object were simply, to repel far from them the yoke that the French government endeavor- ed to impose on their respective countries countries which possessed the same rights to independence and happiness as France. As conquest and splendor were not their ob- jects, they therefore called upon the magis- trates, land-owners, and cultivators, to re- main at their homes, as the progress and stay of the allied armies would be charac- terized by the maintenance of public order, respect to private property, and the most severe discipline. Notwithstanding all they had suffered, they were not animated by a spirit of vengeance ; they knew how to dis- tinguish and separate the ruler of France from France herself: to him they attributed all their calamities ; and not even were they disposed to retaliate on the French nation any of those miseries which the revolution had brought on Europe. While Buonaparte never made war but for the purpose of con- quest, and to gratify his ambition, other counsels guided the allied monarchs. They, indeed, were ambitious they, indeed, sought glory ; but their ambition and glory were of a very opposite character from those of Buo- naparte. The only conquest which they de- sired was that of peace ; not such a peace as Buonaparte had often mocked Europe with, but a peace which should secure to their own people, to France, and to Europe, a state of real repose. " We hoped to find it before touching the soil of France; we come hither in quest of it !" Marshal Blucher's army, amounting to eighty thousand men, crossed the Rhine in three columns; general St. Priest at Cob- lentz, generals Langeron and D'Yorck'-at Caub, and general Sacken at Manheim; 582 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. while, at the same time, Brabant was enter- ed by filly thousand men, to co-operate with the forces from England. But it was not only with her troops and money that this country was determined to assist the allies in their glorious purpose of restoring the tranquillity of Europe : as it was natural to suppose that the downfall of Buonaparte, or, if he displayed a sincere desire for peace, a treaty with him, would take place, it was proper, in either case, that Britain, who had done so much, and who was so much inte- rested in the result, should have her repre- sentative present with the allied armies; and lord Castlereagh was selected for this purpose. Buonaparte found the French nation very reluctant in coming forward against the- in- vaders ; and the regular armies, which still remained to him, were by no means equal to cope with them : they therefore advanced into France with little opposition. By the middle of January part of the allied forces occupied Langres, an ancient and conside- rable town, one hundred miles within the French frontier. The principal armies which Buonaparte bad been able to collect were under the command of Marshals Vic- tor and Marmont. The former advanced into Alsace, where he met the Bavarians, under general Wrede ; the French, how ever, were compelled to evacuate this prov- ince, and, being brought to action in Lor- raine, were defeated with great loss, and re- treated on Luneville. The Cossacks, ac- cording to their usual custom, were greatly in advance, having pushed on between Epi- nal and Nancy. The second French army, under Marmont, was ordered to oppose the advance of Blucher ; but neither in relative force nor equipment was it equal to this ob- ject. Marmont, therefore, retreated before the Prussian general to the Saare, behind which river, and within the frontiers of Old France, he took up a position. His retreat was much harassed on one flank by count Sacken, who occupied Worms, Spires, and Deux Fonts ; while, on the other, he was approached by general D'Yorck, who occu- pied Treves and Saar-Louis. From this sketch it is evident that, even within a month after the allies had crossed the Rhine, they were gaining fast upon Paris, while the French armies which had hitherto been collected were quite incompetent to resist them with effect. On the twenty-fifth of January, Buona- parte left Paris, preceded by Berthier, hav- ing previously confided the regency, during his absence, to Maria Louisa. The French armies about this time were assembling with- in the line of the Meuse ; Chalons-sur-Marne being the point towards which Macdonald, Marmont, Victor, and Mortier, were re- treating from different quarters. The allied armies were also concentrating and pressing on the same point: Blucher by the way of' Nancy and Toule; and Schwartzenberg, who had the chief command of the Aus- trian and Russian armies, by Langres and Chaumont. Anxious to prevent the junction of his opponents, Buonaparte moved forward to St Dizier, and on the twenty-ninth at- tacked Blucher at Brienne, where, after a sanguinary conflict, he remained master of the field. On the first of February he again attacked the Prussian general at La Ro- thiere, where he was beaten with the loss of seventy-three pieces of cannon and of four thousand prisoners, and driven over the Aube to Troyes, from whence the advance of Schwartzenberg compelled him to retreat to Nogent, and abandon the ancient capital of Champagne. This rapid career, which threatened speedy ruin to Buonaparte, stimu- lated him to fresh exertions, and he deter- mined on the plan of concentrating his force at particular points. His first efforts were directed against Blucher, whom he compelled, after a variety of actions, to re- treat. In the mean time, however, prince Schwartzenberg, with the Austrians, was advancing upon Paris, and a corps had gain- ed possession of Fontainbleau on the seven- teenth of February, which obliged Buona- parte to turn his arms on that side; and, after much fighting, Schwartzenberg was compelled to withdraw his positions on the Seine, and establish his head-quarters at Troyes. This city was evacuated by the allies on the twenty-third ; it was, however, recovered on the fourth of March by general Wrede, at which time Buonaparte was marching against Blucher. During these operations the plenipoten- tiaries from the several belligerent powers assembled at Chatillon, where Caulincourt appeared on the part of France. The treaty, which proceeded upon the ground of placing France in the same territorial situation as she stood under her kings, with some ad- dition to her ancient limits, contained a proposition that her capital should be occu- pied by the allied armies till the conclusion of a definitive treaty. Buonaparte, elated by the temporary successes which he had recently gained, seized with fury the paper containing the proposal, exclaiming, while he tore it, " Occupy the French capital ! I am at this moment nearer to Vienna than they are to Paris !" The advantages, how- ever, of the allies were immense : every fortress which fell on either side of the Rhine augmented their means of invasion ; the Oder, the Elbe, and the Rhine, had be- come a triple line of reserves, from which they continually drew reinforcements ; and the obstacles that had hitherto retarded their GEORGE in. 17601620. 583 progress were daily diminishing. Anxious, however, to ascertain Buonaparte's views and intentions, the allied sovereigns allowed Caulincourt to present a counter-proposition, stipulating only that it should correspond with the spirit and substance of the condi- tions already submitted; and the tenth of March was fixed upon, by mutual consent, as the period at which the final determina- tion should be made. In the mean time a treaty was signed at Chaumont, by which Austria, Russia, Eng- land, and Prussia, undertook each to bring one hundred and fifty thousand men into the field, and engaged, should Buonaparte re- ject the propositions submitted to him, to employ all their means in a vigorous prose- cution of the war. Britain also engaged to furnish a subsidy of five million pounds to be equally divided *mong the other three pow- ers ; reserving to herself, however, the right of furnishing her contingent in foreign troops, at the rate of twenty pounds per annum for infantry, and thirty pounds for cavalry. The treaty finally stipulated that the league should continue for twenty years, and should extend also to such other powers as might de- termine to join the confederation. At length, on the fifteenth of March, the French pleni- potentiary presented a counter-proposition, demanding that the Rhine should form the boundary of the French empire ; that Ant- werp, Flushing, Nimeguen, and part of Waal, should be ceded to France ; and that Italy, including Venice, should form a kingdom for the viceroy, Eugene Beauharnois. In addition to these claims, he demanded in- demnities for Joseph, Jerome, and Louis Buonaparte ; and for the viceroy, as duke of Frankfort. As these demands would con- fer power on France out of all proportion to the other great political bodies of Europe, the ministers of the allied sovereigns de- clared that, to continue the negotiations, un- der the present auspices, would be to re- nounce the objects they had in view, and to betray the confidence reposed in them. Aus- tria herself abandoned Buonaparte to his fate, and the congress was dissolved. Operations were not relaxed in conse- quence of these negotiations. On the fifth of March, Buonaparte was repulsed at Sois- sons, which town, after having twice changed masters, had been most opportunely reduced by Winzingerode and Bulow, at the head of thirty thousand men. He then made a flank movement on Craone, which covered the left wing of Blucher's army, and an obsti- nate engagement ensued, during which the Prussian general detached ten thousand cavalry, with instructions to throw them- selves on the flank and rear of the French ; but this manoeuvre was unsuccessful, and on the seventh Blucher retreated in admira- ble order upon Laon, where he was joined by the Russians who had evacuated Sois- sons. Here he was attacked by Buonaparte, with his whole force, on the ninth ; and, after a severe action on that and the follow- ing day, he retained his position, the French retreating towards Soissons, with the loss of forty-eight pieces of cannon and five thou- sand prisoners. In Blucher Buonaparte found an antagonist, who, in every vicissitude, pre- sented an example of constancy and hero- ism ; and to whose prowess he is said to have paid an involuntary tribute, on one oc- casion, by exclaiming that he would rather fight ten regular generals than that old drunken hussar; for the day after he had totally defeated him, he was sure to find him as ready as ever to renew the combat. In the course of his route, Buonaparte seized Rheims, and continued his march to- wards prince Schwartzenberg, who, on the twenty-first, took a position before Arcis-sur- Aube. After an obstinate engagement, Buo- naparte, apprehensive of a surprise from Blucher, avoided a general action, and re- treated upon Vitry and St. Dizier. His ef- forts were now directed to prevent the junc- tion of Schwartzenberg and Blucher; br.t in furthering his object, by passing the Aube with his whole army near Vitry, he left him- self open to the bold decision which was im- mediately adopted by the allies, who lost no time in placing themselves between the French army and Paris, and proceeding thither, with a united force of at least two hundred thousand men. On the twenty-fourth of March, prince Schwartzenberg established his head-quar- ters at Vitry; and on the same day field- marshal Blucher arrived, with a large pro- portion of his army, at Chalons. General Winzingerode and CzernichefT were now dispatched, with ten thousand horse and fifty pieces of cannon, to observe the march of Napoleon on St. Dizier, and to menace his rear. The arrangements being complete, the king of Prussia issued orders to marshal Blucher to direct his force on Paris ; and on the twenty-fifth the Austro-Russian army faced about from Vitry, and took the same direction, by the route of Fete Champenoise, where a junction between the two armies was formed. On their march the allies had the good fortune to intercept a column of five thousand men, escorting from Paris an immense convoy of ammunition and provis- ions for Buonaparte. The grand army es- tablished its head-quarters at Coulommiers on the twenty-seventh, having marched twenty-seven leagues in three days, and be- ing now only thirteen leagues from Paris. The plan of the allied sovereigns was to concentrate the whole of their force on the right banks of the Marne and tne Seine, 584 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. and to attack Paris on the north, by taking a position on the heights of Montmartre. On the twenty-eighth they continued their progress to Meaux, and in the evening ar- rived in the neighborhood of the French metropolis, without having encountered any formidable obstacle. OCCUPATION OF PARISABDICATION OF BUONAPARTE. HITHERTO Buonaparte had displayed to his army the most invincible confidence in the final result of the campaign, considering the armies to which he was opposed as cut off in their retreat, and inclosed in the heart of France. Roused at length from this de- lusion by intelligence, received on the twenty-seventh, that the allies were march- ing directly on Paris, he advanced to the Aube. On the twenty-ninth at daybreak, whilst preparing to pass that river at the bridge of Doulancourt, a courier arrived with intelligence that marshals Marmont and Mortier, after having fallen back before the enemy, were making dispositions to de- fend the capital ; and, aware of the insuffi- ciency of their means, he foresaw the catas- trophe which was about to destroy the great edifice of his power. The troops left for its defence consisted of the remains of the corps which had fallen back before the allied armies ; five or six thousand regulars in gar- rison, commanded by generals Compans and Ornans ; and thirty thousand national guards, of whom eight or ten thousand at the most were fit for active service. This small army, under the immediate command of Joseph Buonaparte, assisted by Mortier and Mar- mont, and the governor-general, Hulin, had taken a position in front of the heights of Montmartre, under cover of some intrench- ments hastily thrown up, and lined with one hundred and fifty pieces of artillery ; then- line extended to the villages of Pantin, Ro- mainville, and Belleville. The canal, and the nature of the ground altogether, ren- dered this position a strong one, particularly as the allied cavalry had no extent of ground to make a charge. In the interim, Buona- parte had issued orders to defend the capital to the last extremity, being himself, as he announced, on his march to relieve it At dawn on the thirtieth, the allies, wishing if possible to spare the effusion of blood, sent a flag of truce into Paris ; but admittance being refused, they resolved to attack the enemy on the heights, the result of which was a brilliant victory, and the possession of Paris. In every direction the French troops bad been driven to the barriers, and the cap- ital was about to be forced, when marshal Marmont, on whom the command had de- volved, dispatched an officer to general Bar- clay de Tolli to solicit a truce ; engaging to abandon all the ground which he occupied beyond the barriers, and to sign a capitula- tion for the surrender of the city in two lours. The Russian general instantly sub- mitted this proposition to his imperial mas- ter, and to the king of Prussia, who were both on the field, and the truce was agreed to without hesitation. At four o'clock in the afternoon, count de Nesselrode entered the city, furnished with full powers to ratify the capitulation, which was concluded at two o'clock in the morning of the thirty-first of March. Buonaparte arrived at Troyes at eleven o'clock at night on the twenty-ninth, having exhausted his troops by a march of twenty leagues that day, and, early on the follow- ing morning, took the direction of Sens; but so great was his impatience, that with an escort of one thousand five hundred cav- alry, he proceeded with the utmost rapidity to Fontainbleau, and in the night of the same day arrived at Cour de France, about four leagues from Paris. Early in the morn- ing of the thirty-first he received intelli- gence that his capital had capitulated, and that no efforts could now prevent the en- trance of the allied armies into Paris. In this emergency he held a council with his- officers, at which it was determined that Buonaparte should repair to Fontainbleau, and there rally his army, while Caulincourt proceeded to the head-quarters of the allied monarchs, furnished with full powers to co- incide in such conditions as the conquerors might be disposed to dictate. The military government of Paris was confided to general Baron Sacken ; and the propriety of this choice was manifested by the good order and tranquillity which prevail- ed in all quarters. The senate was the only body which possessed any authority ; but this assembly thought itself crushed beneath the ruins of Buonaparte's throne, till a de- claration on the part of the emperor Alex- ander called it into action. This proclama- tion was no sooner promulgated than the senators were suddenly convoked by prince Talleyrand de Perigord, in his quality of vice-grand elector. Sixty-five senators as- sembled, by this authority, on the first of April, threw off the imperial sway, and cre- ated a provisional government, charged with the office of re-establishing the functions and administration of the state. The instal- lation of the provisional government was signalized by an address to the French ar- mies, in which it was said, " You are no longer the soldiers of Napoleon : the senate and all France release you from your oath." On the following day, the second of April, the senate decreed that Buonaparte had for- feited the throne of France, and that the people, as well as the army, were released from the oath of fidelity. At the close of GEORGE ffl. 1760 1820. 585 the sitting the members proceeded, in a body, to the emperor of Russia, who, after receiving their homage, addressed them in these terms : " A man, who called himself my ally, came as an unjust aggressor into my dominions. It is against him, and not against France, that I have carried on the war. I am the friend of the French, and you cause me to renew this declaration. It is just and wise that France should have strong and liberal institutions, commensu- rate with her present enlightened state. The allies and I have only come to protect the freedom of your decisions. As a proof of the durable alliance which I wish to con- tract with your nation, I restore to you all the prisoners now in Russia. The provi- sional government has solicited this of me : I grant it to the senate in consequence of the resolution which it has taken." Thus were two hundred thousand French captives restored without ransom, and returned, from the extremities of Europe and Asia, to the bosom of their families. Marshal Marmont, in a correspondence with prince Schvvartzenberg, on the third of April, professed his readiness to accede to the decree by which Buonaparte was de- clared to have forfeited the throne of France ; but he required, as a guarantee, that all troops quitting the standard of Napoleon should have leave to pass freely into Normandy; and that, if the events of the war should place Buonaparte as a prisoner in the hands of the allies, his life and safety should be guarantied, and he should be sent to a coun- try chosen by the allied powers and the French government. To these demands prince Schwartzenberg acceded \ and Mar- mont, with his corps of twelve thousand men, passed within the lines of the allies. In the mean time Buonaparte collected all his troops at Fontainbleau, amounting to sixty thousand men, and announced that it was his intention to march his army to the capi- tal, and to repel the invaders. The strug- gle, however, had become hopeless, and major-general Berthier was deputed to re- pair to the palace during the night of the third of April, and to recommend to Buona- parte the salutary measure of abdication. The first mention of the subject roused him into rage ; but when marshals Ney, Oudinot, and Macdonald, who afterwards arrived, as- sured him that this alone could save the country, his spirit seemed subdued, and he consented to abdicate his throne in favor of his son, the infant king of Rome. This pro- posal it was determined to submit to the senate and the French nation ; and on the fourth marshals Ney and Macdonald, accom- panied by Caulincourt, were deputed to re- pair to Paris for that purpose. At the con- ference which ensued, Talleyrand, general Pozzo di Borgo, and others, attended ; and the result was, that the Bourbon dynasty should be restored. At the breaking up of the conference, marshals Ney and Macdon- ald returned to Fontainbleau, where they arrived at eleven o'clock at night on the fifth. Ney was the first to enter the apart- ments of the palace, when Buonaparte in- quired, with earnestness, if he had succeed- ed. " In part, sire," said the marshal, " but not in regard to the regency it was -too late revolutions never give way. This has taken its course, and the senate will to- morrow recognize the Bourbons." The marshal then proceeded to state that the personal safety of the emperor and his family had been stipulated for ; that he would be permitted to retire to the Isle of Elba, which was to be possessed by him in full sove- reignty ; and that a stipend of two million of francs would be allowed for his annual expenditure. In virtue of these arrange- ments Buonaparte consented to the entire renunciation of his rights, and on the sixth of April announced his abdication in the fol- lowing terms : " The allied powers have proclaimed that the emperor Napoleon is the only obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe: the emperor, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces, for him- self and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy ; and that there is no personal sac- rifice, even that of life, which he is not rea- dy to make for the interest of France." In the event of her surviving him, a reversion of one million of francs was to be enjoyed by his consort, Maria Louisa, to whom were assigned the dutchies of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla ; and a revenue of two million five hundred thousand francs was assigned in various proportions to his mother, bro- thers, and sisters. These revenues were to be charged on the great book of France. Joseph and Jerome Buonaparte fled from Blois, after endeavoring to compel then- sis- ter-in-law to accompany them to Orleans. Next day count Schouwalow arrived to take her under his protection, and to conduct her to the head-quarters of the emperor of Aus- tria. On the twentieth Buonaparte depart- ed from Fontainbleau for Elba, accompanied by generals Bertrand and Drouet, who re- tired with him to that island. The exiles were escorted on their journey by four supe- rior officers, acting as commissioners to the allied powers, together with one hundred and fifty foreign troops, supported by detach- ments placed at a distance from each other. On the twelfth of March, the city of Bourdeaux was occupied by marshal Beres- ford, with a detachment of fifteen thousand men, at the request of the inhabitants, who, having mounted the white cockade and de- clared for the Bourbons, had received the 586 HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. due d'Angouleme, nephew to the unfortu nate Louis the sixteenth, and husband to his daughter, with general acclamations. On the twenty-fifth of March, two deputies from Bourdeanx arrived in England, and waitet on Louis the eighteenth at Hartwell House shortly after which deputies also came from other parts of France. BATTLE OF TOULOUSE. SOULT retreated towards Toulouse, which, though naturally not very strong, he had time to place in a posture of defence, as the continual falls of rain impeded the advance of the allied army. On the eighth of April the French cavalry were driven from a vil- lage on a small river which falls into the Garonne, below the town. The ninth was occupied in making preparations; and on the tenth they were carried into execution. After a long and arduous contest, the allied armies established themselves on three of the sides of Toulouse ; and, having turned the French army, compelled it finally to re- treat, leaving three generals, D'Harisse, Burrot, and St. Hillaire, and sixteen hundred men, prisoners in the hands of the victors. Of the numerous battles fought by lord Wel- lington in the south of Europe, that of Tou- louse, which was the last of the campaign and of the war, was the most sanguinary : the engagement, which commenced at seven o'clock in the morning, did not cease till the same hour in the evening ; and the number of the killed and wounded, in the allied ar- mies, amounted to nearly five thousand. On the eleventh, intelligence reached Toulouse that Buonaparte was dethroned, and the in- formation was immediately communicated to marshals Soult and Suchet ; but they did not consider it sufficiently authentic to in- duce them to lay down their arms ; and, in the interval, Sir John Hope was made prisoner in a sortie of the enemy from Bayonne. Other arrivals, however, placed the fact out of all doubt, and a suspension of hostilities was agreed upon, on the same ba- sis as the convention of Paris. CONVENTION OF PARIS ENTRANCE OF LOUIS EIGHTEENTH. AT the period of the restoration, Louis the eighteenth was confined, at his rural retire- ment in England, by sickness and infirmity ; in consequence of which his brother, the count d'Artois, was appointed lieutenant- general of France, and made his public entry into Paris on the twelfth of April, surrounded by several of the great officers of state, and attended by a group of French marshala On the fifteenth, the emperor of Austria, who had hitherto remained at Dijon, also entered the French capital in great state. On the twenty-third, a convention was signed between the allied powers and France, by which it was agreed that hostilities should everywhere cease, and that the allied ar- mies should evacuate the French territory in fourteen days; the boundary line to be observed being that which constituted the limits of France on the first of January, 1792. Fifteen days were allowed for mutual evacu- ations in Piedmont, and twenty days in Spain ; the fleets were to remain in their then present stations ; but all blockades were to be raised, and the fisheries and coasting trade permitted. All prisoners were mu- tually liberated, and sent to their respective countries. On "the third of May, Louis the eighteenth, (who had been conducted into London by the prince-regent, and convoyed from Dover to Calais by the duke of Clar- ence, at which places he was joyfully wel- comed) made his solemn entry into Paris. The procession was very brilliant, and passed in perfect order and decorum ; but the ex- pressions of satisfaction were by no means universal, particularly among the soldiery. On the preceding day, he had issued a de- claration, forming the basis of that constitu- tional charter by which the liberties of the nation were to be secured. The represent- ation was to be vested in two bodies, the chambers of peers and of deputies ; the taxes to be freely granted ; public and individual liberty to be secured; the liberty of the press, saving necessary precautions for pub- lic tranquillity, to be respected ; liberty of worship allowed ; property to be inviolable, and the sale of national estates irrevocable ; the ministers responsible ; the judicial power independent, and the public debt guaran- tied ; the pensions, ranks, and honors of the military, and the ancient and new nobility, were to be preserved, and the legion of honor maintained. PEACE. ON the thirteenth of May, a definitive treaty of peace was signed at Paris, by which the integrity of the French boundaries, as they existed on the first of January, 1792, was assured, with some small additions on the side of Germany and Belgium, and a more considerable annexation on that of Savoy, including Chamberi and Annecy, together with Avignon, the Venaissin, and Montbeliard. The navigation of the Rhine was declared free the duties payable on its )anks to be hereafter settled ; Holland, un- der the sovereignty of the house of Orange, was to receive an increase of territory the sovereignty in no case to be united with a breign crown ; the German states were to )e independent, and united by a federal "eague ; Switzerland to be independent under ts own government ; Italy, out of the Aus- ;rian limits, to be composed of sovereign states ; Malta, and its dependencies, to be- ong to Great Britain. France recovered all the colonies, settlements, and fisheries GEORGE HI. 17601820. 587 which she possessed on the first of January, 1792, excepting Tobago, St. Lucie, and the Isle of France, with its dependencies, which were ceded to England ; and a part of St. Dotningo, which was to revert to Spain. The king of Sweden renounced, in favor of France, his claims on Guadaloupe, and Por- tugal restored French Guiana. In her com- merce with British India, France was to en- joy the facilities granted to the most favored nations, but not to erect fortifications in the establishments restored to her. The naval arsenals and ships of war, in the maritime fortresses which she surrendered in the late convention, were to be divided between her and the countries in which such fortresses were situated ; Antwerp, in future, to be only a commercial port. Plenipotentiaries from the powers engaged in the late war were to assemble at Vienna, to complete the dispositions of the treaty. The king of France engaged to co-operate with his Brit- annic majesty in his eflbrts for obtaining the total abolition of the slave-trade ; and, after the private claims of her subjects on France should have been satisfied, Great Britain generously consented to remit in her favor the whole excess for the maintenance of prisoners of war. ROYAL VISITORS TO Ei\ 7 GLAND. THE restoration of peace, after so long and arduous a struggle, was hailed in Eng- land with the most lively satisfaction ; an air of gladness, joy, and exultation, was dif- fused over the whole country ; and the me- tropolis was converted into a scene of gaiety, never surpassed on any occasion, by the ar- rival, early in June, of the emperor of Rus- sia and his sister, the grand dutchess of Old- enburgh, the king of Prussia and his sons, with the most distinguished of the allied generals, including Blucher, Platoff, Barclay de Tolli, Czernicheff; D'Yorck, and Bulow. Prince Metternich, and several of the most distinguished continental statesmen, also ac- companied them. They were received and entertained with all the honors due to such illustrious visitors ; and, after a stay of about three weeks, during which illuminations, galas, and feasting, were the order of the day, they returned to the continent, to be present at a general congress of the European pow- ers at Vienna. RESTORATION OF THE POPE AND FER- DINAND. SOUTH AMERICAN AFFAIRS. ONE of the first acts of the French provis- ional government was to facilitate the return of pope Pius the seventh to his dominions ; who, to evince his gratitude to his patrons and to all Europe, adopted the extraordinary measure of re-establishing the order of Je- suits, a detestation of whose principles had, in 1773, become so universal in the Catholic world, that their suppression was effected by the concurrent efforts of the Bourbon sove- reigns. He had also announced his inten- tion of reviving all the monastic institutions, and invited the dispersed members of those fraternities to repair to Rome, where the va- cant convents should be prepared for their reception. In Spain, one of the latest artifices of Buonaparte was that of proposing to liberate Ferdinand the seventh, on condition that he should deliver up certain garrisons to the French. By this means the enemy would have been reinforced with twenty thousand men, which might have turned the scale against lord Wellington, and thus the spread- ing of the insurrection in favor of Louis the eighteenth, in the southern departments of France, would have been impeded : general Copons, however, succeeded in obtaining the person of Ferdinand without acceding to the invidious demand of the French ruler. The liberated monarch arrived at Gerona oh the twenty-fourth of March, and was every- where enthusiastically received by the Span- ish people. Their beloved sovereign was restored to their wishes, and their hearts cherished the reviving thought of peace, hap- piness, arid security; but, alas! how soon was the intoxicating chalice fated to be dashed from their lips ! One of the first im- pulses of the " belove'd Ferdinand" was to overturn the constitution which had been framed by the cortes to spurn his deliver- ers from his presence to' condemn the sa- viors of their country to exile, imprison- ment, and death to re-establish the inqui- sition and to encompass himself within a pestiferous swarm of bigoted priests and crime-diseased noblesse, the wretched rem- nants of his father's infamous court. From the arbitrary measures pursued by Ferdinand, it was evident that he would be disposed to reduce by force, rather than reclaim by con- ciliation, the revolted colonies. A compul- sory loan, imposed on the merchants of Cadiz, enabled him to equip eight thousand troops, the command of which was intrusted to gen- eral Murillo; and the expedition sailed, to- wards the close of the year, for South Amer- ica, where Monte?ideo held out for the mother country, though blockaded by land and sea, and reduced to great extremities. The naval force of Buenos Ayres was com- manded by commodore Brown, an English- man, against whom the governor of Monte- video sent out a flotilla, over which Brown obtained a complete victory, and Montevideo soon afterwards surrendered. In Chili the authority of Ferdinand the seventh was ac- knowledged, on condition that trade be free- ly permitted with allied and neutral nations, especially with Great Britain. In Venezuela, the royalists obtained a victory which enabled them to regain possession of the Caracas. 588 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. PARLIAMENT. HONORS CONFERRED ON WELLINGTON, &c. PARLIAMENT was not reassembled till the twenty-first of March, 1814, when the allied armies were within a few days' march of their ultimate destination. The first busi- ness of importance was a motion made by the chancellor of the exchequer, for a grant of two million pounds, on account of the army extraordinaries, in addition to three million pounds before voted. On the twenty-second, Goulbourn introduced a bill for preventing the grant of any patent office in the colonies for any longer term than during such time as the grantee should discharge the duties of the office in person, and behave well therein. A bill, introduced by Sir Samuel Romilly, for taking away corruption of blood in cases of felony and high treason, was passed, with an amendment proposed by Yorke, purport- ing that no attainder of felony not extending to high treason, petty treason, and murder, do lead to corruption of blood. The price of corn being at this time high, a measure, the object of which was to pro- hibit importation, excited general alarm, es- pecially in the manufacturing and commer- cial districts, and its promoters were accused of a design to sacrifice the trading to the landed interest, in order to enable the coun- try gentlemen to keep up their greatly in- creased rents. On the fifth of May, Sir Henry Parnell moved, in the commons, a resolution for permitting, at all times, the exportation of grain from any part of the United Kingdom. This being carried, a second resolution was proposed for regulat- ing the importation of grain by a schedule, according to which, when the home price of wheat was sixty-three shillings per quarter, or under, foreign wheat should be liable to a duty of twenty-four shillings; when the home price was eighty-six shillings, it should be duty free ; and at all intermediate prices the eame ratio should be preserved : and a third resolution for the warehousing of foreign corn, duty free, for re-exportation. A bill, founded on the first resolution, was passed ; but, in consequence of the great number of petitions against any alteration in the corn Hws, the further consideration of measures for regulating the importation was post- poned to another session. The prince-regent conferred upon field- marshal the marquis of Wellington the dig- nity of duke and marquis of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, by the style and title of Marquis Douro and Duke of Wellington in the county of Som- erset To support the dignity thus con- ferred upon him, the sum of four hundred thousand pounds was voted by parliament, in addition to one hundred thousand pounds granted on a former occasion. At the same time Sir John Hope was raised to the peer- age, under the title of Lord Niddry; Sir Stapylton Cotton was created Lord Comber- mere ; Sir Thomas Graham Lord Lynedoch ; Sir Rowland Hill, Lord Hill ; and Sir Wil- liam Beresford, Lord Beresford; and the dignities of the three latter were accom- panied by a grant of two thousand pounds per annum each. On the twenty-eighth of June the duke of Wellington took his seat for the first time in the house of peers, when he modestly expressed his thanks for the ap- probation bestowed upon his conduct PRINCESS OF WALES. A SHORT time before the arrival of the royal visitors in this country, the princess of Wales received a letter from the queen, acquainting her that in a communication from her son, the prince-regent, he stated that her majesty's intention of holding two drawing-rooms in the ensuing month having been notified to Jhe public, he must declare that he considered his own presence at her court indispensable ; and that he desired it might be distinctly understood, for reasons of which he alone could be the judge, to be his fixed and unalterable determination not to meet the princess of Wales upon any oc- casion, either in public or in private. The princess replied that, though she could not so far forget her duty to the king and to herself as to surrender her right, she should not, in this instance, present herself at the drawing-rooms of the next month. The princess next addressed a letter to the prince, demanding to know what circum- stances could justify the proceeding he had thus thought fit to adopt After open per- secution and mysterious inquiries, upon un- defined charges, the malice of her enemies, she said, fell entirely upon themselves, and she was restored to the full enjoyment of her rank in his majesty's court. She had been declared innocent, and would not suV mit to be treated as guilty. Her royal high- ness proceeded to state that occasions might arise (one she trusted was far distant) when she must appear in public, and his royal highness must be present also. The time selected for this proceeding, she said, made it peculiarly galling : many illustrious stran- gers were already in England, including the heir of the house of Orange, who had an- nounced himself as her future son-in-law ; others were expected, of equal rank, to re- joice with his royal highness in the peace of Europe ; her daughter would, for the first time, appear in the splendor and publicity becoming the approaching nuptials of the presumptive heiress of the empire ; and, of all his majesty's subjects, she alone was pre- vented from appearing in her place to par- take of the general joy, and deprived of the indulgence in those feelings of pride and af- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 589 fection permitted .to every mother but her. Her royal highness also addressed a letter to the speaker, inclosing, for the information of the house of commons, the correspond- ence which had passed on this occasion. After the letters had been read, Methuen moved, " that an humble address be present- ed to his royal highness the prince-regent, to pray that he would be graciously pleased to acquaint the house by whose advice he was induced to form the 'fixed and unal- terable determination never to meet her royal highness the princess of Wales, upon any occasion, either in public or private.' " Ministers contended that it was not within the province of the house to interfere in this case ; and the debate, which was carried on with closed doors, terminated in Methuen's consenting to withdraw his motion, from a hope that the rigorous proceeding announc- ed against the princess would not be acted upon at the approaching drawing-rooms. In this expectation the honorable gentleman was disappointed ; but when the subject was again resumed on the twenty-third of June, Methuen dwelt more upon the necessity of increasing the establishment of the princess of Wales than on the indignity and injus- tice offered to her ; on which lord Castle- reagh observed that it was the first time parliament had been told that an increased provision for her royal highness was the ob- ject which her friends had in view. His lordship proceeded to state that he had no objection to submit to the house, on a future day, a proposal on this subject ; and, in con- clusion, adverted to a fact not before gene- rally known, namely, that there was in ex- istence an instrument dated in the year 1809, signed by the prince and princess of Wales, and approved by his majesty, and to which his signature, as well as that of a large proportion of the ministers of the time, was affixed, which provided for a distinct establishment for the princess, and admitted the fac^ of the separation. On the fourth of July lord Castlereagh proposed that such an increase should be made to the income of the princess as would enable her to main- tain an establishment more suited to her situation in this country; and he thought the most desirable measure would be to raise it to that point to which it would be advanced in the event of the death of the prince-regent: his proposal therefore was, that the net annual sum of fifty thousand pounds should be granted to the princess of Wales, and that the five thousand pounds and seventeen thousand pounds per annum, which she at present enjoyed, should be withheld from the prince-regent's income. This sum was, at her own request, reduced to thirty-five thousand pounds; and the princess shortly afterwards asked, and read- VOL. IV. 50 ily obtained, permission to make a tour to the Continent LORD COCHRANE. PUBLIC attention was strongly excited during the session by a prosecution against lord Cochrane and seven others, for a con- spiracy to create a fraudulent advance in the price of the public funds, by circulating false intelligence of the defeat and death of Buonaparte. The trick was carried into ef- fect, with temporary success, on the eleventh of February ; and the whole of the defend- ants being found guilty, the sentence passed on lord Cochraue was, that he pay a fine of five hundred pounds, be imprisoned twelve months, and stand once in the pillory ! this part of the sentence was, however, re- mitted. On the fifth of July the 'house of commons expelled his lordship by a majority of one hundred and forty to forty-fous : he, however, asserted his entire ignorance of the whole plot, that he was placed under disadvantages by the nature of the prosecu- tion and the conduct of the judge : and the electors of Westminster felt so confident of his innocence, that they re-elected him not only without opposition, but in triumph. His name was also erased from among the knights of the Bath. . FINANCE. THE national income and > expenditure were, on the thirteenth of June, brought under the consideration of the house of commons. The whole amount of the joint and separate charges for the service of the year were stated by the chancellor of the exchequer at sixty-seven million five hun- dred and seventeen thousand four hundred and seventy-eight pounds for England ; and for Ireland at eight million one hundred and seven thousand and ninety-four pounds, making the total expense of the year seven- ty-five million six hundred and twenty-four thousand five hundred and seventy-two pounds. To meet the charges upon the public" revenue, the taxes and the loans of the year for England would produce sixty- seven million seven hundred and eight thou- sand five hundred and forty-five pounds. The exports of the past year had very con- siderably exceeded those of the most flour- ishing year at any former period. The total amount of the loan for 1814 was twen- ty-four million pounds, being eighteen mil- lion five hundred thousand pounds for Eng- land, and five million five hundred thousand pounds for Ireland; and, from the terms upon which the loan had been negotiated, it might be calculated that the public would remain, charged with the yearly interest upon it of four pounds, twelve shillings and one penny per cent. .At the close of this statement the usual resolutions were read and agreed to, after a remark from Ponson- 590 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. by, that the public interest demanded that the property tax should not be collected after the fifth of April next Apprehen- sions, however, were still entertained that the tax might be renewed ; and the incon- clusive replies given by government to the inquiries made on- that subject excited a very deep and general alarm throughout the country. The first place which took measures to petition parliament against the renewal of the tax was the city of London ; and the example of the metropolis was so generally followed, that the voice of the people, which, when distinctly and perse- veringly raised, must always be heard, final- ly prevailed. STATE OF IRELAND. THE state of Ireland had, for some time, been such as to call for the adoption of addi- tional measures for securing the public tran- quillity ; and on the eighth of July, Peel, chief secretary for Ireland, proposed the re- newal of a measure which had received the sanction of parliament in 1807. The clause of the insurrection act, which it was now intended to revive, provided that, in case any part of the country should be disturbed, two justices of the peace should be empow- ered to summon an extraordinary sessions of the county, which should consist of seven magistrates; that the lord-lieutenant, in council, on receiving a report from the magistrates so assembled, stating that the ordinary law was inadequate to the preser- vation of the public peace, should be em- powered to issue a proclamation, command- ing all resident within the same district to keep within their houses from sun-set to sun-rise ; and that any persons detected out of their houses at the prohibited times, with- out being able to show good cause, should be liable to be transported for seven years. It was also required that the lord-lieutenant should order a special session of the peace to be held, at which the persons offending against this law should be tried, and, if ne- cessary, the trial by jury should, in these cases, be dispensed with. Other provisions sanctioned the employment of the military ; enabled the magistrates to pay domiciliary visits ; and to break open doors if denied ad- mission. The bill was warmly discussed in its several stages, but it ultimately passec both branches of the legislature ; and, at the close of the session, obtained the royal as- sent Parliament was prorogued, on the thirtieth of July, by the prince-regent in person. TREATY WITH HOLLAND. CONGRESS OF VIENNA. IT was agreed by treaty between Grea Britain and Holland, that this country shouk retain the Cape of Good Hope, Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice, but restore Batavia, Surinam, Curacoa, and St. Eustatia. A ne- gotiation was also entered into for uniting 3reat Britain and Holland more closely, by i marriage between the young prince of Orange and the princess Charlotte of Wales; jut, from some cause with which the public las never been fully acquainted, though it does not appear that the prince was ever very acceptable to his intended consort, the treaty was not successful. On the twenty-ninth of March, the prince of the Netherlands opened the grand meet- ing of the notables of the country, to take into consideration the plan of the constitu- tion, which was viewed and adopted with acclamation. Decrees were also passed, for the establishment of the freedom of the press ; the restoration of the Dutch language, which had fallen into disuse during the union of Holland with France ; the relief of the inferior clergy ; the solemn observance of the sabbath, and other purposes. ' The Austrian Netherlands were conferred on the house of Orange, in the hope that so import- ant an acquisition would render it capable of preserving its independence, and main- taining a rank among the sovereigns of Eu- rope. The emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia made their solemn entry into Vienna ; and on the first of November the formal in- stallation of the congress took place. The royal personages congregated on this occa- sion consisted of the emperors of Russia and Austria, and the kings of Prussia, Denmark, Wirtemberg, and Bavaria; with ambassa- dors from England, Russia, Austria, Prussia, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, and the minor states of Germany. One of the first acts of the congress was to recog- nize a new regal title annexed to the British crown, and to confirm to Hanover the rank of a kingdom, the title of elector being ren- dered unsuitable to present circumstances by the sixth article of the treaty of Paris, by which it was agreed " that the states of Ger- many should remain independent, and joined in a federal union." On this ground, several of the powers concurring in the treaty had invited the prince-regent to renounce the ancient title and to assume that of king, with some extension of territory, by which the arrangements required for the future welfare of Germany would be facilitated; particularly as all the ancient electors, and the duke of Wirtemberg, had already erected their states into kingdoms. A gen- eral diet assembled on the fifteenth of De- cember, which was opened by the duke of Cambridge, and a constitution was agreed upon on the plan of a representative gov- ernment In Italy, the territories formerly possessed by the sovereign house of Sardinia were GEORGE HI. 17601820. 591 restored to Victor Emanuel ; and, by a pro- tocol signed in the congress of Vienna on the fourteenth of December, the territory forming, before the French revolutionary wars, the venerable republic of Genoa, was definitively united to the states of his Sar- dinian majesty, contrary to the condition on which Genoa was occupied by a British force. The annexation of all the other dis- tricts in the north of Italy to the Austrian dominion, followed almost as a matter of course. Lord William Bentinck had given the Genoese an assurance that their city would be restored to its former indepen- dence ; but lord Castlereagh expressed the regret of himself and his brother ministers, that they had not been able to preserve its separate existence, without the risk of weak- ening the system adopted for Italy ; and to this state-necessity the ancient republic was obliged to submit, as was that of its old rival, Venice, to the political arrangement which finally annexed it to Austria. Of all the sovereigns by right of French conquest, Mu- rat, king of Naples, alone held his acquisi- tions undisturbed. 592 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XLII. Negotiations with America Campaign in Canada Failure at Plattsburg Expedi- tion to Washington Attacks on Alexandria and Baltimore Naval Actions Fail- . we against New-Orleans Capture of Fort Bowyer Peace with America Cap- ture of President frigate Meeting and Proceedings of Parliament Return of Buonaparte from Elba, his march to Paris Measures of allied Powers State of Paris Movements of French and allied forces Buonaparte attacks the Prussians Battle of Waterloo Buonaparte's return to Paris His Abdication Advance of Allies Capitulation of Paris Return of Louis XVIII. Buonaparte surrenders to the English, is sent to St. Helena Murat attempts Naples, and loses his life Parliament reassembled Corn Laws, and other Measures Terms imposed upon France Continental Affairs Hostilities in India. NEGOTIATION WITH AMERICA CAM- PAIGN IN CANADA. DURING the continuance of a conflict in which embattled nations were the actors, and empires the stake whilst the united armies of ajl Europe were approaching, and finally occupying, the proud city of Paris the war between Great Britain and the United States was of a secondary interest. A war so differently affecting the different parts of the Union could not fail to call forth those violent political contentions for which that republic is so much distinguished. At Boston the declaration of war was the sig- nal of a general mourning ; all the ships in the harbor displayed flags half-mast high ; and in that, as in other cities of the north- ern states, public meetings of the inhabitants were held, at which a number of resolutions were passed, stigmatizing the approaching contest as unnecessary and ruinous, and as tending to a connexion with France, de- structive to American liberty and independ- ence. Immediately after the declaration a party was formed, called the Peace Party, which combined nearly the whole of the federalists throughout the United States, and by whom a systematic opposition, prin- cipally directed against the national finances, was maintained to the latest period of the war. With the democratic party, and in the southern states in particular, where swarms of privateers were preparing to reap a rich harvest among the West India Islands, the popular sentiment was decidedly in favor of war ; and, of all the cities of America, in this interest, Baltimore stood in the foremost rank in zeal and in violence. The first im- portant event, the capture of the British frigate Guerriere by the Constitution, cre- ated in England astonishment not unmixed with dismay ; whilst in America the contest became in consequence more popular, and the spirit of maritime enterprise more ani- mated and enthusiastic. When the captain and crew of the Constitution landed at Bos- ton, particularly unfavorable to the war as that town had been, they were received with every mark of honor and distinction, and a sptendid entertainment was given to captain Hull and his officers. In the interval between the breaking out of the war and the close of the year, the elections to the offices of government in the United States took place ; and the federal- ists, in common with the English people, cherished the expectation that the power and influence of Madison the president, and the war party in America, were nearly at an end. The disasters in Canada, however, in- stead of rendering the war more generally and decidedly unpopular, changed the dis- like which had been entertained for it in the northern states into a determination to pros- ecute the contest with increased vigor. The democratic interest was consequently strengthened ; and, on the second of Decem- ber, the re-election of Madison was secured. Soon after the American government had declared war against Great Britain, over- tures of a pacific nature were made by both parties : but although much diplomatic dis- cussion took place on both sides, the negoti- ation proved unsuccessful. In each country the original cause of the war, and the re- sponsibility of its continuance, were imputed to the enemy : admitting, however, the ex- istence of the British orders in council, and the impressment of American seamen, to have justified the United States in declaring war in the first instance, yet, when the for- mer of these evils was removed, and when an offer to suspend hostilities by sea and land was made through the medium of the British authorities in America, in order to adjust the still existing differences, it was the duty of the American government to have accepted the pacific overture. The limits of the right of blockade stand fixed, by the law of nations, upon grounds that ad- mit of no serious dispute ; and, with regard to the impressment of seamen, America did GEORGE IE. 17601820. 593 not deny that Great Britain had a right to reclaim her own subjects ; and the English government did not pretend to have any right to impress any who were really and truly American citizens. The whole quar- rel, then, was about the means of asserting these rights ; and had the ministers of both countries sought for peace in the spirit of peace, that inestimable blessing must have been speedily obtained :. the conquest of Canada, however, against which, notwith- standing all their reverses, the Americans had yet met with sufficient success to give them some hope of its final accomplishment, may be regarded as one of the objects for which they were induced to persevere in the war. At the opening of congress on the seventh of November, 1813, the president announced that Great Britain had declined an offer, which had been made by the emperor Alex- ander, to mediate the existing differences between that power and the United States ; and under such circumstances, the president conceived that a nation proud of its rights, and conscious of its strength, had no choice but in exertion of the one in support of the other. The door of negotiation was not, however, finally closed ; for, while Great Britain was disinclined to commit the deci- sion of the question at issue to the mediation of a power, that, in common with America, might be disposed to circumscribe her mari- time claims, she professed a readiness to nominate plenipotentiaries to treat directly with those of the American government, and expressed an earnest wish that their conferences might result in establishing be- 'tween the two nations the blessings of peace. This proposal, which was commu- nicated by lord Castlereagh to the American secretary of state on the fourth of Novem- ber, was accepted by the government of the United States without hesitation, and Got- tenburg was fixed upon as the seat of dis- cussiorv. The negotiations, however, which were removed to Ghent, did not commence till the following August, and then proceed- ed with little prospect of success, although the restoration of peace in Europe had re- moved the principal causes of difference. After the failure of the-enemy in their in- vasion of Canada, and attempt upon Mont- real in October, 1813, they were convinced not only that an overwhelming superiority of force was of little avail against British troops, but that the inhabitants were not so favorably disposed towards them as they ex- pected. In the course of the year they had, however, acquired the ascendency on Lake Erie ; but, instead of expelling the British from the Niagara frontier, they had, on the last day of December, lost all their own posts on the river St. Lawrence, their strong- 50* est fortress being taken, in a masterly style, by Mlonel Murray, under the orders of gen- era^rummond, who had been recently ap- pointed to the command in Upper Canada. Sir James Yeo, a naval officer of high repu- tation, who commanded on Lake Ontario, and the American commodore Chauncey, were each indefatigable in preparing for the campaign of 1814, and Sir James was pre- pared for any operation before Chauncey was in a condition to meet him ; but, being unsupported by an adequate land force, no- thing important took place. The Canadian bank of the Niagara became the theatre of a quick succession of obstinate and sangui- nary conflicts; and general Brown, who was opposed to general Drummond, proved himself the ablest of the American land of- ficers; but the struggle closed by leaving the two armies in the same positions they had occupied in the spring. FAILURE AT PLATTSBURG. IN June and July, after the dethronement of Buonaparte, a numerous fleet arrived in the river St Lawrence from Bourdeaux, with fourteen thousand of those troops which, under the duke of Wellington, had raised the military reputation of their country to the highest pitch of renown ; but it was not till the third of September that Sir George Prevost entered the American territory, and advanced against Plattsburg, on Lake Cham- plain, in conjunction with a flotilla under captain Downie of the navy. The Ameri- can flotilla, which was somewhat superior in force, lay at anchor in Plattsburg bay. After waiting for the arrival of the British vessels, during which time the American troops were busily employed in improving their defences, and increasing the difficulties of attack, a joint assault was agreed upon ; and, on the morning of the eleventh, captain Downie stood into the bay, and attacked the American squadron. Not a moment was now to be lost on shore ; but, from some un- explained cause, the advance of the army was not sufficiently rapid, and, during an obstinate struggle of more than two hours, the vessels were successively obliged to strike. When the light troops were close in upon their works, and half an hour would have avenged the fall of the gallant Downie, who was mortally wounded early in the ac- tion, the loss of the fleet induced Sir George Prevost to recall them, but they reluctantly yielded this triumph to a weak and undis- ciplined enemy ; and in the night he com- menced a precipitate retreat, abandoning a large quantity of stores. The whole loss of the army, in killed and wounded, did not exceed two hundred men ; but the disgrace- ful issue of the expedition had such an ef- fect on the minds of the soldiery, that above eight hundred of them had deserted before 594 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the retreat was concluded. Hitherto ithad been considered that Sir George PrevoMjiad ably conducted the defence of Canada^but he was now recalled to answer to charges preferred against him by Sir James Yeo, for his neglect to co-operate with captain Dow- nie ; he did not, however, live to await his trial. EXPEDITION TO WASHINGTON-ATTACKS ON ALEXANDRIA AND BALTIMORE. A STRONG naval force, with an adequate number of troops, was also dispatched against the American coasts, and their operations were attended with general success. On the nineteenth of August admiral Sir Alex- ander Cochrane and major-general Ross en- tered the Patuxent; and the army, being disembarked, immediately commenced its march for the city of Washington, while ad- miral Cockburn, with a flotilla of armed boats, proceeded up the river on its flank. As these boats opened the reach above Pig-point they perceived the Baltimore flotilla, under com- modore Barney, which had taken refuge in the Patuxent. Those vessels were soon af- terwards discovered to be on fire, and six- teen of them blew up in succession. The seventeenth fell into the hands of the Brit- ish, and several merchant schooners were captured or destroyed. On the twenty-fourth, when the land forces, in number about five thousand, came within five miles of Wash- ington, they encountered about nine thou- sand Americans, whom they completely routed ; and at eight o'clock in the evening they entered the new metropolis of the United States, when they immediately pro- ceeded to set fire to the capitol, including the senate-house and the house of repre- sentatives. The arsenal, the dock-yard, with a frigate nearly ready to be launched, and a sloop of war, the treasury, the war-office, the rope-walk, the president's house, and a great bridge over the Potowmac, were also consigned to the flames. Private property was respected, except some houses from which guns had been discharged at the Brit- ish troops. On the evening of the twenty- fifth the army left Washington, it being ne- cessary to retreat before any great force could be assembled ; and some wounded were necessarily left behind, who were treated with humanity. On the thirtieth the whole force reimbarked without molest- ation. The destruction of public buildings, not designed for military purposes, was re- sented, by the Americans, as an insult which one free people ought not to inflict on an- other. This enterprise was followed by 'an attack on the town of Alexandria, situated lower down the Potowmac. On the twenty- ninth, Fort Washington, by which the river is there protected, surrendered to captain Gordon, of the Seahorse, accompanied by other vessels; and the common-council of Alexandria capitulated, on condition that private property should be respected. All naval and military stores and merchandise, being delivered up, were shipped on board twenty-one vessels which were found in the harbor ; and the British departed, laden with spoil, without sustaining much injury from the batteries on the river. The next object of attack was Baltimore ; and on the twelfth of September the forces under general Ross effected a landing near North Point, about thirteen miles from the town. Having forced an intrenchment which had been drawn across the peninsula, they advanced ; and, while their van-guard was engaged with the riflemen in the woods, a bullet pierced the breast of general Ross, who expired on the spot, deeply lamented by the army. Colonel Broke, who succeeded to the command, attacked and dispersed a large body of Americans; but, on advancing to the town, he found it so strongly defend- ed, that he was compelled to relinquish the enterprise. NAVAL ACTIONS. AMONG the losses sustained at this period was that of captain Sir Peter Parker, com- manding the Menelaus, who was mortally wounded while leading a body of a hundred seamen against an American force stationed near Bellair ; and the British sloop of war Reindeer was taken by the American sloop Wasp ; but this misfortune was fully com- pensated by the capture of the United States frigate Essex, off Valparaiso, on the western coast of South America, by the English frig- ate Phoebe, which relieved the British tra-. ders in that quarter from a formidable enemy. An expedition, which sailed from Halifax in July, under general Pilkington, had re- duced Moose Island, and two others in the bay of Passamaquoddy. In September this advantage was followed up by an expedition which caused the enemy to burn a fine frig- ate, called the John Adams, and compelled them to leave the whole district, from that bay to the Penobscot river, in possession of the British. In consequence of the alarm created by these operations, measures were submitted to congress by the American government for making adequate defensive preparations; and it was proposed, that the present mili- tary establishment, amounting to sixty-two thousand four hundred and forty-eight men, should be preserved and rendered complete ; and that an additional permanent force of at least forty thousand men should be raised for the defence of the cities and frontiers. A bill was accordingly introduced, providing that the white male inhabitants of the Uni- ted States, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, should be distributed into GEORGE HI. 17601820. 595 classes of twenty-five in each ; every class to furnish one able-bodied man to serve du- ring the war ; that assessors should deter- mine the territorial precincts of each class, so that the property in each division should be as nearly equal as possible ; that, in case of failure, a penalty should be levied on each class, to be divided among them, in propor- tion to the property of individuals ; and that every five male inhabitants liable to military duty, who should join to furnish one soldier during the war, should be exempt from service. FAILURE AT NEW-ORLEANS. IN the beginning of December, admiral Cochrane's squadron arrived at the mouths of the river Mississippi, with a considerable body of troops, commanded by major-gene- ral Keane. The first object was to reduce a flotilla of gun-boats on Lac Borgne, which was gallantly performed on the fourteenth, by captain Lockyer, with the boats of the squadron. On the twenty-third, the first division of troops, amounting to two. thou- sand four hundred m^n, were landed within six miles of the city, and in the night they were attacked by the Americans ; but, after sustaining some loss, they maintained their position. On the twenty-fifth, on which day the second division joined, major-general Sir E. Pakenham, an officer of distinguished merit, who had served in the Peninsula, ar- rived, and took the command. He found the British army posted on a piece of flat ground, with the Mississippi on the left, and a thick wood on the right The enemy were stationed behind an intrenchment, ex- tending from the river on their right to the wood on their left, a distance of about a thousand yards. This line was strengthened with flank- works, and had a canal in front, about four feet deep : on the further bank of the Mississippi the Americans had a bat- tery of twelve guns, which enfiladed the whole front of their position. The disposi- tion "for the attack, which was to be made during the night, was formidable ; but unex- pected difficulties, increased by the falling of the river, occasioned considerable delay to the entrance of the armed boats, and the attack did not take place until the columns were discernible from the enemy's line at more than two hundred yards' distance. The troops engaged on each side may be estimated at ten thousand ; and, since the breaking out of the war, no engagement had, perhaps, been fought witli so much bravery none, certainly, with so disastrous a result The loss of the British, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, amounted to two thousand and forty, including, in the former, the com- mander-in-chief, who fell while bravely en- couraging his men on the edge of the glacis, and among the wounded, generals Gibbs and Keane, the former of whom expired on the following day. The loss of the enemy, ac- coming to the official statement of their general, was incredibly small, not exceed- ing seventy-one. General Lambert, on whom the command now devolved, after holding a consultation with admiral Coch- rane, determined to reimbark the troops, and to abandon the enterprise. The con- cluding operation of the war 'was the cap- ture of Fort Bowyer, on Mobile Point, in the Gulf of Mexico, which, being wholly, unable to resist the British force, capitula- ted on the eleventh of February, 1815. PEACE WITH AMERICA. CAPTURE OF THE PRESIDENT FRIGATE. BEFORE these events took place, the la- bors of the plenipotentiaries assembled at Ghent were brought to a close ; a treaty of peace and amity having been signed on the twenty-fourth of December, which was af- terwards ratified by both governments. The treaty, which was negotiated on the part of America by Adams, Bayard, Clay, Russel, and Gal latin, and of Great Britain by lord Gambier, Goulbourn, and Adams, was silent on the grand cause of the war and primary object of dispute, the right of search ; but, as America abandoned her claim of com- pensation for the captures made under the British orders in council, and omitted all mention of her original pretensions, her re- sistance to the maritime claims of England must be considered as tacitly abandoned. All conquests, on either side, were to be re- stored. Britain retaining the islands in Pas- samaquoddy bay, which were hers by the treaty of 1783. Under this article the Americans had only the defenceless shore of the Detroit, on the frontier of the two provinces, to offer in exchange for their fortress of Niagara and the important post of Michilimackinac, both of which were still in possession of the British. The Indians were to be restored to the rights and pos- sessions which they held in 1812; it was reciprocally agreed that commissioners should be appointed for settling the disputes respecting boundaries ; and both parties en- gaged to continue their efforts for the entire abolition of the slave-trade. The interval between the actual conclu- sion of the treaty, and the circulation of that important intelligence, enabled the En- glish navy to obtain another triumph. The President, one of the largest frigates yet sent to sea by the United States, command- ed by captain Decatur, accompanied by the Macedonian, armed brig, laden with provi- sions, 'sailed from New- York during one of those gales in which the blockading squad- ron was driven out to sea. After a long chase the Endymion, captain Hope, came up with the former, when a severe action ensued, in 596 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. which the President, having crippled her adversary in the rigging, was enabled to j?et ahead. The British frigate Pomona ||DW coming up, the President surrendered, after exchanging a few broadsides. The mutual advantages of a free interchange of com- mercial communication between two coun- tries, whose interest it is at all times to cherish the relations of peace, were resumed shortly after .this event; and in both was the termination of the war hailed with un- feigned satisfaction. PARLIAMENT. THE session of parliament was opened on the eighth of November, 1814, by a speech from the prince-regent, of which the lead- ing topics were the pending negotiations at Ghent, and the intended congress at Vien- na. Adverting to the supplies for the ensu- ing year, his royal highness regretted the necessity of so large an expenditure, and concluded by recommending that parliament should proceed with due caution in the adop- tion of such regulation as might be neces- sary for extending the trade of Great Brit- ain, and securing her commercial advan- tages. The usual address was carried with- out a division. RETURN OF BUONAPARTE FROM ELBA. 1815. DETERMINED on one more despe- rate effort, Napoleon Buonaparte again stood forward to alarm, and it might almost be said, to appal, the surrounding nations. On the twentieth of February, 1815, he laid an embargo on the vessels in the ports of Elba, assembled his guards, and declared his pur- pose of contending for the imperial crown of France. On the twenty-sixth (Sir Neil Campbell, the English commissioner ap- pointed to reside in Elba, being at this time in Italy) he embarked in four vessels, with about a thousand men ; on the first of March, he effected a landing near Cannes ; and in four days the astounding news reached the capital. Monsieur, the king's brother, im- mediately set off from Paris with marshal Ney, who treacherously kissed the hand of Louis, and swore to bring his old comrade to the capital in an iron cage. His majesty at the same time convoked an extraordinary meeting of the legislative body, which in- stantly voted addresses, and declared their inviolable attachment to the throne. The king and his ministers adopted such measures as seemed best calculated to in- sure the public safety; but, unfortunately, the army was rotten at the very core. The French soldiers had never heartily joined with the enemies of their chief; his name and the imperial eagle were- still dear to them; and, as they claimed an important share in the establishment of his military glory, so they had continued to sympathize in his disgrace, and to look back with re- gret on those halcyon days when conquered and invaded nations administered to the gratification of their ruling passion. Aware of the disposition of the army, and confi- ding in their attachment, Buonaparte does not appear to have made any specific ar- rangement, or adopted any regular plan of march ; but, as soon as a favorable opportu- nity of escape presented, to have trusted en- tirely to the power of his name and pres- ence. At Grenoble a large quantity of ammuni- tion fell into the hands of Buonaparte, who pushed on, at the head of only six hundred horse, to Lyons, whence the disaffected troops ha.d previously compelled Monsieur to re- tire. Here he halted to refresh his follow- ers ; reviewed the whole of his army, which now made a formidable appearance ; assu- med the imperial state ; and began to issue proclamations and decrees. The same re- bellious spirit appeared in other places. Mar- shal Ney, having issued a proclamation, da- ted the fourteenth of March, describing the Bourbons as unfit to reign, and recommend- ing his troops to join the august Napoleon, went over to the invader at Lons le Saul- nier. Secure in the support of the army, Buonaparte proceeded on his march, and entered Paris on the evening of the twenti- eth. On the following morning he showed himself at a window in the garden of the Thuilleries ; and, about noon, he reviewed the troops on the Place Carousel. Louis the eighteenth, accompanied by marshals Berthier and Macdpnald, had previously left Paris for Lisle, whither Monsieur and mar- shal Marmont were also retiring with a con- siderable force. One of the first measures of Buonaparte was to dispatch Caulincourt to invite the archdutchess Maria Louisa to reunite her fortunes with his ; and, for some time, the Parissians were amused with the expectation that their empress would return. The imperial carriages were ordered from St. Cloud to meet her and her son on their route from Vienna ; their arrival was even announced ; but neither the empress of France nor the king of Rome appeared. An attempt to kidnap the baby monarch proved also unsuccessful. MEASURES OF ALLIED POWERS. STATE OF PARIS. As soon as the intelligence of Buona- parte's irruption had reached Vienna, the allied powers issued a solemn manifesto, in which they declared; that, by thus break- ing the convention which had established him in the island of Elba, Buonaparte had destroyed the only legal title on which his existence depended ; that, by appearing again in France with projects of confusion and disorder, he had deprived himself of the protection of the law, and had manifested GEORGE HI. 17601820. 597 to the .universe that there could be neither peace nor truce with him ; that he had placed himself without the pale of civil and social relations; and that, as an enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of the world, he had rendered himself liable to public vengeance. The allies, at the same time, expressed their firm determination to maintain entire the treaty of Paris, and to employ all their means, and unite all their efforts, to prevent the peace of Europe from being again troubled. This declaration was followed by a new treaty, signed at Vienna on the twenty-fifth of March, by which the contracting parties solemnly engaged not to lay down their arms but in agreement with each other ; nor until Buonaparte should be wholly and completely deprived of the power of exciting disturbances, and of renewing his attempts to obtain the su- preme power in France. About a fortnight after his return to Paris, Buonaparte severally addressed let- ters to the allied sovereigns, stating that he had been restored by the unanimous wish of the French people, and that he was de- sirous of maintaining peace on the terms which had been settled with the Bourbons. The congress, to which these letters were generally referred, agreed that no answer should be returned to them ; and, both at home and abroad, he found himself surround- ed by difficulties of no ordinary kind. In several parts of France the royalists were in arms ; and, however willing his military associates might be to support him in the absolute dominion he had possessed as em- peror, the republican party, on which he was chiefly obliged to depend, would only receive him as the head of a popular gov- ernment. The liberty of the press, which he reluctantly conceded, facilitated the cir- culation of much that was obnoxious to him ; and the interference of the police, on such occasions, was resented by the repub- licans* as an infraction of the promised free- dom. The declarations of the allied pow- ers were also distributed throughout France, in the hope that, by making his danger more apparent, he would be compelled to surrender many sovereign prerogatives. His cabinet became the scene of vehement con- tention, and he was at length induced to conciliate the attachment of the council of state by a solemn promise to adhere to their advice in the formation of a new constitu- tion. Having thus divided their strength and lulled their suspicion, he took advan- tage of their apathy, fled from the Thuille- ries, seized the impregnable palace of Bour- bon, and, surrounded by a body of his guard, he published the outline of a new constitu- tion of his own arrangement, under the singular title of " An additional Act ;" the mode of promulgating which, without the sanction of any public body, was evidently dangerous to national freedom ; and neither the republicans nor the constitutionalists relished this anticipation of the solemn na- tional compact, for which he had appointed the Champ -de Mai. The royal charter, subsisting as a fundamental law, could not be innovated upon ; but the additional act in some measure confirmed the mass of con- tradicjbory laws already prescribed by Buo- naparte, and was liable to be modified, lim- ited, and controlled by the old imperial decrees embodied in the constitutions to which this act was proffered as a supple- ment. The assembly of the Champ de Mai was held on the first of June, various arrange- ments having been previously made to in- fluence the votes ; and after a declaration of the arch-chancellor, that the new con- stitution was accepted by an almost unani- mous concurrence of votes, but unaccom- panied by the slightest evidence of their validity, the emperor signed the additional act, to which he swore upon the evangel- ists to adhere. He then distributed his eagles to the troops of the line and the na- tional guard, as they passed before him, and swore to defend their colors. The next point was to assemble the chambers, which took place on the Sunday following, when the representatives elected for their presi- dent Lanjuinais, an individual peculiarly obnoxious to Buonaparte ; but, notwith- standing the chagrin occasioned by this cir- cumstance, he complacently expedited all his civil affairs, such as the installation of his chambers of commons and of peers ; in- formed them that his first duty called him to meet the formidable coalition of empe- rors and kings that threatened their inde- pendence, and that the army and himself would acquit themselves well ; recommend- ing to them the destinies of France, his own personal safety, and, above all, the lib- erty of the press. When the ceremonials were completed, Buonaparte quitted Paris for the frontiers, where, by one of those rapid movements which have so frequently distinguished his career, he put his forces in motion upon the Sambre on the fifteenth of June. MOVEMENTS OF FRENCH AND ALLIED FORCES. BATTLE OF WATERLOO. THE close of the last year had left the whole fortified frontier of the Belgic prov- inces on the side of France occupied by strong garrisons, chiefly of English troops, or in the pay of England ; and, since Buo- naparte's return, continued reinforcements had been sent from this country, the whole of which were placed under the command of the duke of Wellington. In the latter 598 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. part of May the Prussian army, under prince Blucher, had arrived in the neigh- borhood . of Namur, and frequent confer- ences took place between the two generals relative to co-operation. Buonaparte de- termined to attack them while the Russians and Austrians were too distant to afford succor ; and on the 15th of June, at day- break, the Prussian out-posts on the Sam- bre were driven in : general Ziethen was compelled to retire from Charleroi through Fleurus, to unite himself with the main Prussian army, which lay in the vicinity of St Amand and Ligny ; and, towards even- ing, an advanced corps of Belgians was driven to the position of Les Quatre Bras. The duke of Wellington, although he had used his best endeavors to gam imme- diate intelligence when Buonaparte joined his army, does not appear to have been very early informed of that event, as, in conse- quence of the want of provisions, and espe- cially of forage, he had found it necessary to disperse his army very much. The British head-quarters were at Brussels. As soon as the movements of the French were ascertained, the whole of the army was ordered to advance upon Les Quatre Bras, and, early in the morning, the prince of Orange reinforced the brigade which had been drivn from thence, regained part of the ground, and commanded the communi- cation with Blucher, who was posted on the heights between Brie and Sombref, await- ing the attack of the French, although the fourth corps under Bulow had not joined. Except the corps .of Ney, who was at Frasne, opposed to the British at Les Qua- tre Bras, and of Grouchy, who was in the rear of Fleurus, Buonaparte attacked the Prussians with his whole force, bring- ing up not less than one hundred and ten thousand men against eighty thousand. About three in the afternoon he carried the village of St Amand, after a vigorous re- sistance ; and his next efforts were directed against Ligny, where the contest was main- tained with the utmost obstinacy, for five hours. About two hundred cannons from both sides were directed against this unfor- tunate village; and it took fire in many places at once. Sometimes the battle ex- tended along the whole line. About five the Prussians, led by Blueher, in person, recovered St Amand, and regained the heights ; and at this moment they might have profited greatly by their advantage, if Bulow had arrived; but either the march of this corps had been miscalculated, or the nature and state of the roads had not been taken into the account. From the duke of Wellington he could receive no assistance ; for as many of his troops as had come up were themselves perilously engaged with superior numbers. As evening advanced the situation of the Prussians became more hopeless ; there were no tidings of Bulow ; the British division could with difficulty maintain its own position at Les Quatre Bras; and Blucher was at length obliged to retire upon Pilly, leaving behind him sixteen pieces of cannon, and a great num- ber of killed and wounded. The retreat, however, was effected with such order that the French did not think it prudent to pur- sue him, and he formed again within a quarter of a league from the field of battle. The gallant marshal, in one of the charges of cavalry, nearly closed his long and illus- trious life, his horse having fallen, mortally wounded, and himself being rode over by the French cuirassiers, who were repulsed and pursued by the Prussian cavalry before he was discovered and remounted. Early in the afternoon of the same day, the sixteenth, marshal Ney, after skirmish- ing for a considerable time, commenced his grand attack on the British, at Les Quatre Bras, with about forty thousand men ; and the position was maintained, with the most signal intrepidity, by the prince of Orange, the duke of Brunswick, and Sir Thomas Picton, who completely defeated every at- tempt to get possession of it In this ac- tion the French were not only superior in numbers, but were comparatively fresh, the allies having been marching from the pre- ceding midnight. In pursuing a French division, which was repulsed early in the engagement, some British troops exposed themselves unawares to a body of cuiras- siers, who, taking advantage of an ine- quality of ground, on which corn was grow- ing as high as the shoulders of the tallest man, were posted in ambush ; and the gal- lant forty-second regiment of Highlanders, in particular, suffered most severely. About three o'clock the duke of Wellington came on the field with the British guards. At this period the French had dispossessed the Belgian sharp-shooters from the Bois de Bossu, which enfiladed the British position. General Maitland, with the guards, was instantly ordered to recover this wood, and the service was speedily effected. In this obstinate conflict the British lost many ex- cellent officers ; and had particularly to de- plore their gallant ally, the duke of Bruns- wick, who was killed by a musket-ball. Marshal Blucher, who found himself so much weakened by the battle of Ligny as to be under the necessity of continuing his retreat, concentrated his army near Wavre, about six leagues to the rear of his former position, and considerably farther disjoined from the line of the duke of Wellington's operations. His march was followed by Grouchy, whilst Buonaparte, with the rest GEORGE IE. 17601820. 599 of his army, made a movement to the left, to unite himself with Ney, and attack the English at Quatre Bras. Blucher's move- ment obliged the duke of Wellington to retire upon Genappe, and thence upon Waterloo.' The retreat began towards noon on the seventeenth, and was well covered by the cavalry and horse artillery. A large body of French cavalry, headed by lancers, followed with some boldness, espe- cially at Genappe, where the little river which runs through the town is crossed by a narrow bridge ; but the pursuit was not vigorous, and between five and six in the afternoon the whole army reached the ap- pointed ground. The position which the duke of Welling- ton occupied was in front of the village and farm of Mont St. Jean, about a mile and a half in advance of the little town of Water- loo. The rain, which was heavy through- out the night, began to abate about nine in the morning, when Buonaparte, whose head-quarters were then at Planchenois, a farm some little distance in the rear of the French line, and about fifteen miles from Brussels, put his army hi motion. His position was on a ridge immediately oppo- site to that of the British, at a distance varying from a thousand to twelve or thirteen hundred yards; the right on the heights in front of Planchenois ; the centre at a Jittle country tavern and farm, famous from that day in history for its appropriate name of La Belle Alliance ; the left leaning on the road to Brussels from Nivelles. The cui- rassiers were in reserve behind, and the imperial guards upon the heights. Grou- chy and Vandamme had been detached to- wards Wavre against the Prussians; and the sixth corps, under count Lobau, with a body of cavalry, was in the rear of the right, ready to oppose a Prussian corps, " which," says an official French account, " appeared to have escaped marshal Grouchy, and to threaten to fall upon our right flank." Thinking to bear down the British army by dint of numbers, he brought against their force, comprising altogether about seventy- five thousand, of which the British did not exceed thirty-three thousand, three corps of infantry, and almost all his cavalry, amount- ing, with artillery, to one hundred and ten thousand men, forty thousand more being in reserve, or awaiting the Prussians on the right. The two points of the greatest import- ance in the British position were the farm of Hougoumont, with its wood and garden in front of the right, and that of La Haye Sainte, in front of the left ; and, about ten o'clock, Soult and Ney attacked the former with their usual impetuosity. This point the duke of Wellington had strengthened as much as possible during the night ; and so severe was the contest, that, within half an hour, fifteen hundred men were slain in an orchard not exceeding four acres in ex- tent. Great efforts were made by the as- sailants, who surrounded the house on three sides, and burnt a great part of it to the ground ; but it was defended with the ut- most gallantry to the last. The assault upon Hougoumont was accompanied by a heavy fire from more than two hundred pieces of artillery upon the whole British line ; and, under cover of this fire, repeated attacks had been made, one of which was so serious, and made with such numbers, that it required all the skill of the British commander to post his troops, and all the courage and discipline ef his soldiers to withstand the assailants. In this attack Sir Thomas Picton was mortally wound- ed, by a musket-ball in the head, and Sir William Ponsonby was slain by the Polish lancers. On the left of the centre the enemy ob- tained a temporary success. Some light troops of the German legion had been sta- tioned in the farm of La Haye Sainte ; the French succeeded in occupying the com- munication between them and the army ; and, when all the ammunition of the be- sieged was expended, they carried the farm-house, and bayoneted the Hanoverians stationed to defend it. From this position they were never driven, till the grand ad- vance of the British in the evening. The battle continued with the most desperate intrepidity on both sides, Buonaparte con- tinually bringing forward his troops in con- siderable masses, which the British and their allies repulsed. The duke of Wel- lington was every where, and never were his exertions more needful ; sometimes he was rallying broken infantry, and some- times placing himself within the squares. No man, indeed, ever had more confidence in his troops, and no troops ever more am- ply returned the confidence which they so well deserved. On this day both men and leaders were put to the proof: none of their former fields of glory, many as they had seen together, had been so stubbornly con- tested, or so dearly won. The carnage, owing partly to the confined extent of the ground, and the consequent intermixture of the contending forces, was such as the Brit- ish army had never before experienced; but it would have been still greater, had not the ground been soaked with rain, in consequence of which the balls seldom rose after they touched it, and the shells frequently buried themselves in the mud. Buonaparte, about seven in the evening, made a last and desperate effort to force the left of the British centre near La Haye 600 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Sainte. The attack was led by marshal Ney with eagerness and precipitancy ; gen- eral Friant fell by his side, and his own horse was killed. He was opposed by the duke of Wellington in person, with such resolution that the assailing columns turn- ed and fled in disorder. At this time, when the thickening cannonade on the French right, and the appearance of troops emerg- ing from the woods, announced that the Prussians were coming up in full force, the British army was ordered to advance, the centre being formed in line, and the battal- ions on the flanks in squares, for their se- curity. The duke himself led them on, and in every point the success was most decisiver The enemy, exhausted by their own repeated and unsuccessful attacks, scarcely waited the charge ; their first line was thrown back upon, and mingled with the second ; all order was abandoned ; the panic spread rapidly ; and the whole army, pressed by the British in front, and by the Prussians on the right and in the rear, fled in irretrievable confusion. Blucher, on proceeding to join the duke of Wellington, left one division of his army at Wavre, under general Thielman, to op- pose marshal Grouchy, before whom he gradually fell back ; and, whilst Buonaparte was vainly encouraging his army with the hope of being succored by the arrival of the marshal, that officer, who appears not to have been aware of the movements on his left, and that the fate of his master would be decided at Waterloo, was advancing on the road to Brussels, exulting in his un- profitable success. It was about half-past seven, at which time it was evident that Buonaparte's attack upon the British had failed, that the duke of Wellington took that great and decisive step which crowned small-arms were mixed pell-mell, and it was utterly impossible to rally a single corps. The enemy, who perceived this astonishing confusion, immediately attack- ed with their cavalry, and increased the disorder; and such was the Confusion, owing to night coming on, that it was im- possible to rally the troops and point out to them their error." Buonaparte's station during the battle had been upon the Charleroi road, at the hamlet of La Belle Alliance ; near which post, by a singular coincidence, when night had closed in, and the rout of the enemy was complete, Blucher and Wellington met in the pursuit, and exchanged congratula- tions. As the British and Prussians were now on the same road, and the former, having been twelve hours in action, were greatly fatigued, the duke readily relin- quished the charge of pursuit to his gallant colleague, who declared that he would con- tinue it throughout the night, and gave orders to send the last man and the last horse after the enemy. In this pursuit the Prus- sians took about one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, Buonaparte's travelling equipage, and the whole materiel and bag- gage of the army. An equal number of artillery had been also taken by the British. Such a battle could not be fought without great loss on both sides ; and this victory was indeed achieved by a severe sacrifice. On the side of the victors the total of killed and wounded, exclusive of the Prussians, exceeded thirteen thousand men; among whom were six hundred officers, including leven generals. The loss of the French must have been tremendous : it is supposed that they left at least twenty thousand men dead on the field ; and, being pursued after the battle by a fresh and inveterate enemy, his glory and saved Europe. The Prus- j their numbers were so greatly thinned by sians made their attack shortly after, under the most favorable circumstances ; and, even if the British army had not repulsed the enemy, Blucher's movement would have been decisive. If the French had succeeded in their efforts against the duke of Wellington, it would have prevented them from profiting by the success : but, being made at the critical moment of their defeat, it rendered the victory complete. A total rout cannot be more fully acknow- ledged than in Buonaparte's own account. "A complete panic," he says, "spread through the whole field of battle ; the men threw themselves in the greatest disorder on the line of communication; soldiers, cannoneers, caissons, all pressed to this point ; the old guard, which was in reserve, was infected, and was itself hurried along. In an instant the whole army was nothing but a mass of confusion ; all the soldiers of slaughter and desertion, that of the hun- dred and fifty thousand men with whom Buonaparte commenced this campaign of four days, not a third part remained in arms, though the prisoners did not exceed seven thousand. The feeling produced in England by this battle, which led to more important conse- quences than have resulted from any in modern times, will never be forgotten. Though accustomed to victory, upon the all seemed eclipsed by that of Waterloo. The first consideration was, how to express a due sense of this great exploit how to manifest a nation's gratitude to the army and its leaders. There remained no fresh distinctions to confer on the duke of Wel- lington ; but two hundred thousand pounds were added to the former grant, that a mag- nificent palace might commemorate the GEORGE HI. 17601820. 601 event Every regiment which had been present was permitted from thenceforth to bear the word Waterloo upon its colors ; all the privates were to be distinguished in the muster-rolls and pay-lists of their respec- tive corps as Waterloo men, and every subaltern officer and private allowed to reckon that day's work as two years' ser- vice in the account of his time for increase of pay, or for a pension when discharged A benefit not less important was extended on this occasion, to the whole army, by a regulation enacting, that henceforward the pensions granted for wounds should rise with the rank to which the officer attained so that he who was maimed when an en sign should, when he became a general receive a general's pension for the injury which he had endured. BUONAPARTE'S RETURN TO PARIS Hi: ABDICATION. THE allied armies moved upon Paris where the proceedings of the governmen evinced how little ability there was to re- sist their progress. Buonaparte, who hac twice returned to the capital alone after leading armies to destruction, again has- tened thither, and informed his chamber of peers that he had come to Paris to consult on the means of restoring the materiel o: the army, and on the legislative measures which circumstances required. The two chambers hastily assembled, and, after some discussion, declared their sittings per- manent, and that any attempt to dissolve them was high treason. The ensuing de- bates were 'full of tumult: one speaker ventured to call for the abdication of the emperor ; several voices seconded the mo- tion ; and in this critical juncture his adhe- rents suggested various projects, even pro- posing that he should dissolve the mutinous assembly with an armed force, and assume the dictatorship. On the morning of the twenty-second, the chamber of representa- tives assembled to receive his act of abdi- cation, a measure considered indispensably necessary for the salvation of the country. A long interval of feverish impatience elaps- ed. At length the minister of police ap- peared with a declaration, in which Buona- parte announced that his political life was terminated, and proclaimed his son empe- ror of the French, by the title of Napoleon the second. An address of thanks for the sacrifice he had made was presented by the president, Lanjuinais, at the head of a deputation ; and the two chambers, eluding any express recognition of the young Na- poleon, proceeded to nominate a provisional government, of which the members were Carnot, Fouche, Caulincourt, Grenier, and Quinette. VOL. IV. 51 ADVANCE OF ALLIES. CAPITULATION OF PARIS. THE duke of Wellington remained at Waterloo on the nineteenth of June ; and on the twentieth he marched to Malplaquet, and crossed the French boundary, having issued a general order, apprizing the sol- diers that, in marching through the domin- ions of an ally, they were to observe the strictest discipline. This order was so well obeyed, that the inhabitants acknowledged that the British paid more respect to public and private property than had even marked the conduct of their own troops. Cambray surrendered on the twenty-fourth ; the strong fortress of Peronne was reduced on the twenty-sixth ; on the twenty-eighth the duke was at St. Just ; and on the twenty- ninth and thirtieth he passed the Oise. Blu- cher, after carrying Avesnes by escalade, marched upon Laon, under the walls of which Soult^with about four thousand strag- glers, was joined by twenty thousand men, under Grouchy and Vandamme, who had with difficulty and loss effected their retreat from Wavre. At Villars Coteret, a contest between these forces took place, which ter- minated favorably to the Prussians, who im- mediately advanced to the neighborhood of Paris ; and, having passed the Seine, by a combined movement, the two generals com- pletely invested the city on its defenceless side. In the mean time commissioners ap- pointed by the provisional government had repaired to the camp of prince Blucher, and requested a suspension of arms while they proceeded to the head-quarters of the allies with overtures for peace ; but he would only listen to unconditional submission, and the possession of Paris ; he, however, granted them passports to proceed to Haguenau, where the allied sovereigns, who were ad- vancing with a large army, held their head- quarters. After a long but unsatisfactory conference, they returned to Paris, and found the duke of Wellington and prince Blucher ready to enter the capital, in pur- suance of a convention concluded in their- absence. The provisional government had nvited the marshals and generals to a coun- cil of war, at which it was decided that all re- sistance must be fruitless ; and Fouche and /aulincourt proposed that the city should be surrendered to Louis the eighteenth, argu- ng that it would conciliate a family under whose power it was evident they must re- urn. It was, however, finally determined jo offer a capitulation as a mere military ransaction, without reference to any politi- cal question. The convention was con- cluded on the third of July, and its princi- >al terms were, that the French army hould, on the following day, commence its narch to take up a position behind the 602 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Loire, and completely evacuate Paris in three days ; that all the fortified posts and the barriers should be given up ; that pub- lic property, with the exception of that re- lating to war, should be respected; that private persons and property should be equally respected ; and that all individuals in the capital should continue to enjoy their rights and liberties, without being disturbed or called to account, either as to situations held by them, or as to their conduct or po- litical opinions. BUONAPARTE SURRENDERS TO THE ENGLISH. IS SENT TO ST. HELENA. BUONAPARTE^S abdication was accompan- ied by a kind of farewell proclamation to the army, after which he occupied himself in preparing for a voyage to America ; and on the third of July he arrived at Rochefort, escorted by general Beker, whose orders were to see him speedily embarked on board a small squadron which the pro- visional government had assigned for his conveyance. On the eighth he went on board a small French frigate ; but the port was so closely blockaded by English ves- sels, that escape was impossible, and he sent a flag of truce to the commodore of the British squadron, requesting permission to pass, which was refused. At length, on the fifteenth, after endeavoring to make terms with captain Maitland of the Bellerophon, who could only reply that he had no author- ity to enter into any kind of treaty, he sur- rendered at discretion, and was conveyed to England in that vessel, which arrived in Torbay on the twenty-fourth, whence he transmitted a letter to the prince-regent, signed " Napoleon," in these terms : " Ex- posed to the factions which divide my country, and to the enmity of the great powers of Europe, I have terminated my po- litical career ; and I come, like Themisto- cles, to throw myself upon the hospitality of the British nation. I place myself under the safeguard of their laws, and claim the protection of your royal highness, the most powerful, the most constant, the most gen- erous of my enemies." Buoyed up by the expectation of obtain- ing an asylum in England, he was cheerfu and affable, and soon ingratiated himself with every person on board ; but in England Buonaparte could not be permitted to reside with comfort to himself, or security to Eu rope; nor could he have been suffered to emigrate to any neutral country, however distant, where intercourse with his adhe- rents would be practicable. It was there- fore determined that the island of St Helena should be the place of his residence. Distan twelve hundred miles from the nearest con tinent, containing but one harbor within its circumference, strong by nature, impregna >le by art, commanding from its declivities a view of the ocean on every side for more Jian sixty miles, this island, from its soli- ude and security, seemed created for the reception of some illustrious exile. When nformed that he would be conveyed to St. Helena, with four of his friends, to be chosen by himself, and twelve domestics, received the intimation without surprise, but protested against the measure with the utmost energy, alleging, that he had been breed to quit the isle of Elba by the breach of the treaty made with him by the sove- reigns of Europe ; that he had endeavored to avoid hostilities, but had been forced to commence them by the allies themselves ; and that it was not consistent with the prin- iples of the British constitution to doom turn to perpetual banishment without accu- sation and without trial. He was removed on board the Northumberland ; and the offi- cers who surrounded him were instructed to address him by no higher title than that of General. Count Bertrand, the countess, and their children, count and countess Montholon, count Las Cases, and general Gourgaud, with nine men and three women servants, remained with Buonaparte, and the rest were sent on board the Eurotas frigate. Buonaparte's surgeon alone, of all his attendants, refused to accompany him, and his place was supplied by the surgeon of the Bellerophon. The Northumberland sailed on the seventh of August, and ar- rived at St Helena in the middle of Octo- ber. Thus terminated the career of this spoiled child of fortune, who, had he known any bounds to his inordinate ambition, might have been seated in security on the throne of France, with far greater power than any of her monarchs had ever enjoyed. MURAT ATTEMPTS NAPLES. KILLED. CONNECTED, in some measure, with the movements of Buonaparte, appears to have been the advance of Murat against Austria. Murat, however, was still more unfortunate than his master. He was defeated in his object of revolutionizing Italy; he failed in his attempt to cut his way through the Aus- trians, at Tolentino, on- the third of May ; and he arrived at his capital just in time to escape from it in disguise. His army ca- pitulated on the twenty-first of May, when the Austrians entered the city, and Ferdi- nand the fourth of Sicily was restored to the throne. Murat effected his escape to Toulon, where he remained some time in disguise ; thence he proceeded to Corsica, and assem- bled about four hundred followers, at the head of which, mimicking, as it were, his master, he embarked for the Neapolitan coast ; but his vessels were dispersed in a storm, and, landing with only thirty follow- ers on the eighth of October, he foiled in GEORGE 13L 17601820. 603 exciting an insurrection in his favor, and was arrested, tried, and condemned to be shot. The sentence was put in execution on the fifteenth ; and his behavior, on this occasion, was worthy of a man who had been elevated to an exalted station, for which, however, he possessed few qualities except personal bravery. PARLIAMENT REASSEMBLED. CORN LAWS. THE British parliament reassembled on the ninth of February, when the state of the corn-laws again occupied the attention of the house of commons. On the seventeenth, nine resolutions were moved in a commit- tee, which, after allowing the free ware- housing of grain for re-exportation, or to be taken for home consumption when the price should permit, fixed the average at eighty shillings per quarter for wheat, and proportionally for com ; that is to say, when British corn should not be below that price, foreign might be admitted duty free. A bill framed on the resolutions was introduced on the first of March, and, after encounter- ing a strong opposition in both houses from the manufacturing and commercial inter- ests, was passed on the twentieth by the lords. The apprehension of dearth, as the immediate consequence of this law, occa- sioned riots, which were not quelled with- out military aid. Experience, however, has shown that the alarm was groundless, the price having fallen so far below the stand- ard as to leave the agricultural part of the community an adequate remuneration, after paying that increase of rents and taxes which had taken place during the war. An important act was passed for extend- ing the trial by jury in civil causes to Scot- land. Its provisions differed in several par- ticulars from those of the English law, and the granting such a trial was in each case optional with the judges : but it was hoped that at no distant period a further extension of the principle would be concurred in, the present measure being favorably received in Scotland. A bill was passed for continuing the re- striction of cash payments by the bank of England till the fifth of July, 1816, a mo- tion for inquiry having been previously negatived. On the twenty-second of May a message was delivered to both houses from the prince- regent, occasioned by the landing of Buo- naparte in France, which was followed by documents relative to the engagements con- cluded with the allies. When the subsidies came under the consideration of the house of commons, lord Castlereagh stated that Austria, Russia, and Prussia, were each prepared to contribute to the common cause a larger force than they had engaged for, and that several of the inferior powers were also to furnish very considerable contin- gents. The sense of both houses was very strongly expressed, not only by the usual supporters of ministers, but by several op- position members, in favor of resistance to Buonaparte ; and a grant of five millions, to make good the engagements with Aus- tria, Russia, and Prussia, was carried by a majority of oue hundred and sixty votes to seventeen. The property, or income tax, the inquisi- torial nature of which had rendered it highly unpopular, was doomed to expire in April ; but, as suspicions were entertained that it was in the contemplation of minis- ters to continue it another year, meetings against it were convened all over the coun- try, and a schedule of new and additional taxes, as a partial supply for the deficiency to be occasioned by its extinction, was ac- tually made out, when suddenly, the irrup- tion of the Exile of Elba rendered its re- vival, which alone produced the enormous sum of fourteen million pounds per annum, a measure of imperative necessity. The supplies for the year, exclusive of the Irish proportion of nine million seven hundred and sixty thousand eight hundred and four- teen pounds, were stated at seventy-nine million nine hundred and sixty-eight thou- sand one hundred and twelve pounds ; and, in aid of this enormous demand, a vote of credit for six million pounds, and two loans for forty-five million pounds were resorted to. A message from the prince-regent on the twenty-seventh of June, announced the marriage of the duke of Cumberland with the widow of the prince of Salms, and a motion was made in the house of commons for an addition to the duke's income ; but, as it appeared that the queen had expressed strong objections to the union, the grant was negatived by one hundred and twenty- six against one hundred and twenty-five. The escape of lord Cochrane from the king's bench prison, his recapture and subsequent liberation, would scarcely be worth noticing, were it not for the remarkable circumstance that, on this occasion, his single voice de- termined the question, and relieved the speaker from the unpleasantness of being called upon to give a casting vote .upon a question of considerable delicacy. Parliament was prorogued, on the elev- enth of July, by a speech from the throne. TERMS IMPOSED ON FRANCE. ON the twentieth of November, a treaty or convention between the allies and France received the final signatures of the con- tracting powers. In this treaty it was stipu- lated that seven fortresses were to be occu- pied by one hundred and fifty thousand of the allied troops, at the expense of France, 604 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. for a period not exceeding five years: the land the recovery of her Polish provinces, pecuniary indemnity was settled at seven hundred million francs; and the Ionian islands were declared independent, under the protection of England. During the oc- cupation of Paris, the various states which had suffered from the depredations of Buo- naparte, lost no time in recovering the works of art of which he had deprived them; and a great number of valuable paintings and national monuments were re- stored to their original owners. On the re-establishment of the kingly government in France, measures were ta- ken for the punishment of those who had been most actively engaged in the late re- bellion ; and, although only a few atoned for their offences with their lives, the cele- brated marshal Ney was among the number. An act of confederation was signed at Vienna on the. eighth of June, by which the management of the general affairs of the German states was confided to a diet, com- posed of representatives of all the princes and free cities of the empire ; and as they severally pledged themselves not to make war upon each other, but to submit all dif- ferences to the decision of the diet, the fu- ture tranquillity of Germany is secured so long as the confederacy shall act up to its declared principles. In the final settlement of Europe by congress, Prussia received some important territorial accessions, chiefly from Saxony, whose king was compelled to submit to the loss of Thuringia, Upper and Lower Lusatia, and Henneberg. This ac- quisition, in addition to Swedish Pomerania, restored Prussia to a high rank among the powers of the continent. HOSTILITIES IN INDIA. IN the East Indies some disputes between the British government and the state of Nepaul, respecting boundaries, broke out into hostility. Several gallant but unsuc- cessful attempts were made on the strong fort of Kalunga, in one of which general Gillespie was slain ; the fort was at length, however, evacuated by its garrison ; and, after a campaign of unusual difficulty, the country from Kemaoon to the river Sut- ledge was ceded to the English company. About this period the whole island of Ceylon came under the British dominion, the king of Candy, who possessed the inte- rior, having driven the inhabitants, by a se- ries of atrocities, to throw off his yoke. Early in the year general Brownrigg, the governor of the British possessions on the coast, issued a proclamation declaring that he made war on the tyrant alone, and prom- ising protection to his oppressed subjects. An adequate force then penetrated to the capital, amidst the acclamations of the in- habitants ; the king was delivered up, with- out the loss of a single man ; and a treaty was concluded, by which the British au- thority was established in the whole island ; the rights and immunities of the chiefs were secured, the religion of Boodh was established, torture and mutilation were abolished, and no sentence of death was to be executed without a warrant from the British governor. GEORGE m. 1760-1820. 605 CHAPTER XLIII. Parliament called Holy Alliance Marriage of the Princess Charlotte to Prince Leopold Distressed State of the Country Riots and Tumults Expedition against Algiers East India Affairs Meeting of Parliament The Prince-Regent attacked by the Populace Message as to Illegal Meetings Relinquishment of Income by Prince-Regent and Ministers Meeting in Spa-fields and Palace-yard Commit- ments to the Tower Loan of Exchequer- Bills for Public Works Catholic Claims rejected Lord Sidmouth's Circular Messages from the Prince-Regent Disturb- ances at Manchester State Trials Death of Princess Charlotte Foreign Affairs Meeting and Proceedings of Parliament Royal Marriages Education of the Poor and Charitable Institutions Army of Occupation withdrawn from France Disturbances at Manchester, tyc. Death of Queen Charlotte. PARLIAMENT CALLED. HOLY ALLI- ANCE. 1816. Parliament assembled on the first of February, 1816. Brougham moved for a copy of a treaty concluded at Paris, on the twenty-sixth of September, between Russia, Austria, and Prussia, and which had received the name of the Holy Alliance. By this singular document, which was couched in the most devout and solemn language, and consisted of three articles, the three potentates, members of different Christian churches, declared their resolu- tion, both in their domestic administration and foreign relations, to take for their guide the precepts of the holy religion taught by our Savior. They bound themselves in a fraternity of mutual assistance, regarding themselves as delegated by Providence to govern three branches of one and the same Christian nation, of which the Divine Being was the sole real Sovereign ; and they de- clared that all such powers as should sol- emnly avow the sacred principles which had actuated them, would be received with ardor jnto this " holy alliance." Brougham observed, that there was something so sin- gular in the language of. the treaty, as to warrant no little jealousy. He could not think that it referred to objects merely spiritual : the partition of Poland had been prefaced by language very similar to that now used ; and the proclamation of the em- press Catherine, which wound up that fatal tragedy, was couched in almost the same words. Lord Castlereagh vindicated the motives of the emperor of Russia, and stated that the prince-regent, whose accession to this alliance had been solicited, had ex- pressed his satisfaction in its tendency. He opposed the production of the document itself, on the ground that it was contrary to the practice of parliament to call for copies of treaties to which this country was no party. 51* FINANCE. FROM an abstract of the net produce of the revenue, in the years ending the fifth of January, 1815, and the fifth of January, 1816, it appeared that, in the former, it amounted to sixty-five million four hun- dred and twenty-nine thousand nine hun- dred and eighty-one pounds; and, in the latter, to sixty-six million four hundred and forty-three thousand eight hundred and two pounds. Notwithstanding this enor- mous produce, the chancellor of the exche- quer acknowledged, on the very first day of the session, that it was his intention to propose a reduced income tax of five pounds per cent. This intention was, however, frustrated by the persevering opposition of the people. On the fifth of March, Vansit- tart, with the view of gaming over the poorer classes, announced, amongst his pro- posed modifications, that incomes of less than one hundred and fifty pounds, and farms of less rent than one hundred and fifty pounds, were to be exempt from the operation of the tax ; and that, upon farms of higher rent, the assessment was to be upon one-third instead of three-fourths of the rent On that reduced scale, he esti- mated the tax to produce six million pounds annually. It had been proved, however, that, according to the original plan, more than half of the tax had been paid by in- comes of one hundred and fifty pounds a-year and under. Estimating the net pro- duce of the tax at ten per cent, to be twelve million pounds, at five per cent, it would indeed be six million pounds ; but, by tak- ing away, at one stroke, half of the sources of production incomes of one hundred and fifty pounds a-year and under the produce of the remaining half could not exceed three million pounds. On the final discussion of the subject, on the eighteenth of March, the motion for the continuance of the income tax was negatived by two hundred and 606 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. thirty-eight against two hundred and one. This important defeat having exempted the opulent from a heay assessment, a boon was granted to the mass of the people, by the repeal of the war tax on malt, which had been estimated to produce two million pounds per annum. In bringing forward the budget, on the twentyrseventh of May, the chancellor of the exchequer announced the highly gratifying fact, that the surplus of the preceding year's grants in hand amounted to five million six hundred and sixty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty-five pounds. In their favorite object of maintaining a large standing army, min- isters were successful the situation of the continent rendering it in some measure necessary. Among the additional ways and means, the sum of three million pounds was ad- vanced by the bank, at three per cent, in- terest, on condition of being permitted to increase their capital by one-fourth. The restriction on cash payments was subse- quently extended until July, 1818; the English and Irish exchequers were consoli- dated ; and a bill was passed for a new sil- ver coinage, in which the denomination of the coin was raised by a small seignorage, sixty-six instead of sixty-two shillings being allowed to the pound Troy. MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS. A MESSAGE from the prince-regent to both houses of parliament, on the fourteenth of March, announced the marriage contract of his daughter, the princess Charlotte Augusta, with his serene highness the prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg ; and, on the motion of the chancellor of the exchequer, an annual sum of sixty thousand pounds was voted to the illustrious pair during their joint lives ; of which ten thousand pounds was to form a sort of privy-purse for her royal highness. If the prince should die first, the whole sum was to be continued to her royal highness; if he should be the survivor, the sum of fifty thousand pounds was to be continued to him: the sum of sixty thousand pounds was also granted by way of outfit. The marriage ceremony was performed on the second of May, at the queen's palace ; and the event called forth the sincere congratulations of the nation. In July, another royal marriage' took place between the princess Mary, fourth daughter of his -majesty, and her cou- sin, the duke of Gloucester. Their estab- lishments were framed on a scale which rendered an application to the public purse unnecessary. The state of Ireland was brought under discussion in April, by Sir John Newport, who moved for documents to explain the extent and nature of those evils which ren- dered it necessary to maintain there, during peace, an army of twenty-five thousand men. This motion was superseded by an amendment, proposed by Peel, who asserted that the disturbances in that country seemed to be the effect of a systematic opposition to all laws. The debates on the Catholic question were attended with the same re- sults as on former occasions ; but an expec- tation was entertained that they would be renewed in the ensuing session with greater success. A bill relative to the registry and regulation of slaves, which had been intro- duced by Wilberforce towards the close of the last session, became the subject of warm debates, in consequence of a calamitous in- surrection which had taken place at Bar- badoes. A petition from the merchants of Bristol deprecated the measure, as disclo- sing a spirit of interference with the local legislation of the colonies; and, on the sug- gestion of lord Castlereagh, Wilberforce postponed his intended motion, and moved for papers on the subject Palmer, who argued that the information arose from ex- pectations, among the slaves, of entire eman- cipation, fostered by the proposed registry bill, moved an amendment, which was car- ried, recommending the colonial authori- ties to promote the moral and religious im- provement, as well as the comfort and hap- piness, of the negroes. Parliament was prorogued on the second of July, when the prince-regent expressed his deep regret at the distresses sustained by many classes of his majesty's subjects, which he hoped would be found to have arisen from causes of a temporary nature. STATE OF THE COUNTRY. RIOTS. THE period had now arrived in which the consequences of so long and expensive a war were to be most severely felt. The system of borrowing could no longer be con- tinued, and the supplies must now be raised within the year. The pressure of agricul- tural and commercial distress was very se- verely felt ; and, in the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, and various other parts of the kingdom, tumults of a very serious nature took place. In the Isle of Ely, a kind of organized insurrection burst forth, which was not suppressed without consid- erable difficulty, and between seventy and eighty rioter* were tried by a special com- mission, when twenty-four were found guilty, of whom five suffered the' final exe- cution of the law. Later in the year, the inferior produce of the harvest, the consequent advance in the price of provisions, and the continued depression of trade and commerce, operated most severely upon the poorer classes throughout the kingdom. Numerous meet- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 607 ings were holden to consider the means of alleviating the general distress, and large subscriptions were raised; but at several of the assemblies ostensibly convened for the most benevolent purposes, persons of se- ditious principles came forward to inflame the minds of the people, by asserting that the abolition of places and pensions, and a reform in parliament, would prove a remedy for every evil. Of the meetings of this na- ture, those which were holden in Spa-fields, near London, are the most remarkable. On the fifteenth of November, many thou- sand artisans and others, assembled for the alleged purpose of petitioning for relief un- der their distress, were addressed by a per- son named Hunt, in a long and violent ha- rangue, and it was determined that a peti- tion to the prince-regent should be pre- sented by him, accompanied by Sir Fran- cis Burdett ; but the latter did not choose to appear in the business, and Hunt was in- formed that it could only be presented at a levee, or through the medium of the home secretary. On the second of December, another meeting was convened to receive the answer to the petition, when an alarm- ing breach of the peace took place. A young man, named Watson, after uttering an in- flammatory harangue, seized a flag from one of the by-standers, and, heading a party of the populace, led them into the city, and attempted to plunder the shop of a gun- smith on Snow-hill. He fired a pistol at a gentleman named Platt, who was remon- strating with him, and for this offence was apprehended, but in the confusion that en- sued he escaped ; and the riot, which might have produced incalculable mischief, was checked by the spirited conduct of the magistrates, and entirely quelled by the ap- pearance of a military force. During this disturbance, the principal part of the assem- blage remained in Spa-fields, where another petition was determined upon, and another meeting appointed. EXPEDITION AGAINST ALGIERS. FOR a series of years, the pirates on the coast of Barbary had committed great de- predations on almost every civilized state, and at length ventured to attack the Eng- lish flag. Sir Thomas Maitland, the gover- nor of Malta, proceeded, in consequence, to Tripoli, the government of which acceded to all that he proposed ; and at Tunis every thing was amicably settled by negotiation. These arrangements, however, proving in- effectual, admiral lord Exmouth, with a por- tion of the Mediterranean fleet, proceeded, in the early part of the present year, first to Tunis, and then to Tripoli. At both these places the deys appeared disposed to accede to any terms ; and his lordship proposed a treaty, for ever prohibiting the making of Christian slaves, and that such prisoners as might be taken in war should be treated according to the practice of civilized Eu- rope. These stipulations were readily agreed to : treaties were signed, and the fleet re- turned to Algiers, where lord Exmouth proposed to the dey a similar treaty, against which, however, he made a firm and reso- lute stand. Lord Exmouth, therefore, de- parted from the interview with a determi- nation to commence hostilities; on which the dey ordered the British consul, M'Don- ald, to be confined, and all the English ves- sels at Oran to be seized. Negotiations, however, were resumed, which ended in an agreement that three months should be al- lowed for obtaining the sanction of the Grand Seignior to the proposed treaty ; and the Tagus frigate was appointed to take the dey's ambassador to Constantinople. Scarcely, however, had lord Exmouth reached England, when intelligence arrived of a new and horrible outrage, between three and four hundred Corsican, Neapoli- tan, and Sicilian fishing-boats, employed in the coral fishery, near Tunis, having been attacked by an Algerine frigate, the fortress of Bona also firing upon them. At the same time a corps of cavalry from Bona charged them furiously, and the slaughter amongst these poor defenceless creatures was most dreadful. Finding it impracticable to bind the bar- barians by treaties, it was at length resolved to take severe vengeance for their cruelty 'and perfidy ; and lord Exmouth accordingly sailed from Plymouth, on the twenty-eighth of July, in the Queen Charlotte, of a hun- dred and ten guns, with four other ships of the line, five frigates, and several sloops, bombs, &c. Having rendezvoused at Gib- raltar, where he was joined by a Dutch squadron, his lordship proceeded on his voy- age on the fourteenth of August. The Al- gerines, it appeared, had, ever since the end of May, been preparing for the expected attack of our fleet, by removing every arti- cle of value from the town, which was well defended by about one thousand pieces of ordnance. Algiers, rising abruptly from the water's edge, to a great height, was surrounded by a high wall, the southern side of which was adorned with men's heads. The batteries were one above another, strongly constructed and fortified ; and along a tongue of land, which defends the entrance into the inner part of the harbor, and also the approach to it, was a range of strong batteries, which our ships were obliged to pass, to take their station near the town, for the purpose of bombarding it. Lord Exmouth arrived on the twenty-seventh of August ; and, all proposals for conciliation having proved ineffectual, the fleet passed 608 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the batteries, and at three o'clock in the afternoon, the firing commenced. The Queen Charlotte took her station off -the extreme point of the tongue, by which she enfiladed the whole line of batteries along it ; and so near was she, that every part of the mole, and what was called the Ma- rine, was visible from her quarter-deck. Both were crowded with spectators, and lord Exmouth waved his hat to them to retire, and signified that he was about to begin hostilities; but they did not attend to, or perhaps did not comprehend the meaning of his humanely intended warning, and the consequence was, that our first broadside swept off from five hundred to one thou- sand of them. The most advanced of the Algerine navy was a brig, to which -the queen Charlotte lashed herself: closer in with the shore, in the bosom of the harbor, were two frigates, and the rest of the Alge- rine vessels behind them. The fury and tremendous nature of the bombardment will never be forgotten. It continued till nearly eleven; the Algerines fighting all the time with the utmost fury, but yet with great skill and effect About ten, the land-breeze came on, and it was deemed advisable to take a larger offing during the night It was extremely dark; but the darkness was illuminated by a violent storm of lightning, with thunder, and by the in- cessant fire of the batteries. Next morning, the city and harbor exhibited a terrible scene of desolation ; four large Algerine frigates, five corvettes, a great number of smaller vessels of all descriptions, the magazines, arsenals, and a large quantity of marine stores, being destroyed, whilst their loss in men was between six and seven thousand : the assailants had also to lament a loss in killed and wounded of more than eight hundred. Lord Exmouth now repeated with effect the proposals which had before been rejected; and the result of this splendid achievement was, that the dey agreed to- tally to abolish Christian slavery ; to deliver up all the slaves in his dominions, to what- ever nation they might belong ; to return all the money he had received for the re- demption of slaves since the commence- ment of the year ; and to make reparation and a public apology to the British consul for all the indignities to which he had been subjected. After the treaties had been negotiated, and the dey had refunded three hundred and eighty-two thousand five hundred dol- lars to the governments of Naples and Sar- dinia, and had released ten hundred and eighty-three Christian slaves, it came to the knowledge of lord Exmouth that two Span- iards, the one a merchant, and the other the vice-consul of that nation, were still held in custody, on pretence that they were prisoners for debt His lordship immedi- ately insisted on their unconditional re- lease, and prepared for the recommence- ment of hostilities ; in consequence of which they were set at liberty, and not one Chris- tian prisoner remained in Algiers. Our gallant squadron quitted on the third of September ; and lord Exmouth, who was twice slightly wounded during the action, was raised from the dignity of baron to that of viscount, for his services on this occa- sion. A considerable promotion also took place amongst the officers who had so no- bly participated in the chastisement of an unprincipled tyrant EAST INDIA AFFAIRS. IN the East Indies the irritable state of the popular mind, on all subjects connected with their customs, occasioned some dis- turbances, which were not quelled without bloodshed ; and disputes with several of the native powers in the course of the year also occupied the British forces. The Pindarees made an inroad into Guntoer, laid waste that rich district, and committed many acts of wanton barbarity, whilst their movements were so skilfully conducted that they es- caped with most of their booty. The refu- sal of the rajah of Nepaul to ratify the treaty which had been concluded occasion- ed a severe contest between the British and this formidable enemy, which was termi- nated on the fourth of March, by his ac- ceding to the former terms, after being de- feated in a decisive action, and losing an important fortress. For these successes the thanks of parliament were voted to the gov- ernor-general and the army, and the earl of Moira was created marquis of Hastings. That most desirable but laborious work, the arrangement of the statute law under distinct and proper heads, had been long studied by lord Stanhope, whose life had been devoted to scientific pursuits ; during the last session he had moved for a commit- tee to consider the best means of accom- plishing the object ; but death unfortunately deprived the country of his services before the development of his plans: and it is much to be feared that a considerable time will elapse before any person equally qualified for the task will be induced to undertake it. We must not quit the year 1816 without recording the death of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the last of that great constella- tion of talent which adorned the latter part of the eighteenth century. As an orator he yielded not even to Pitt in flow of dic- tion ; whilst in force and acuteness he may be compared with Fox, and in splendor of imagination with Burke. At the early age of twenty-four he wrote a comedy, which is admitted to be one of the best in the GEORGE HI. 17601820. 609 English language The School for Scan- dal; and, had he employed his matchless endowments with ordinary judgment, no- thing could have obstructed his progress to the highest point of fame : but, attached to convivial pleasures, crusted over with indo- lence, and depressed by fortune, mischiev- ous habits obscured those transcendent pow- ers which might have placed him in the foremost rank of statesmen. He was the consistent advocate of public liberty ; and, could he have been roused to more frequent exertion, would doubtless have enjoyed a still larger share of popularity. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. PRINCE-RE- GENT ATTACKED. 1817. ON the twenty-eighth of January, 1817, parliament was opened by the prince- regent in person, when the chief topics of the speech were, the continued assurances of amity received from foreign powers ; the splendid success of the bombardment of Al- giers, with the consequent renunciation of the practice of Christian slavery ; and the successful termination of the campaign in India. The annual estimates had been formed under an anxious desire to make every reduction in the public establishments which the safety of the empire and true policy would allow ; but his royal highness regretted to state that there had been a de- ficiency in the produce of the last year's revenue : he trusted, however, that it was to be ascribed to temporary causes ; and he had the consolation to believe that it would be found practicable to provide for the ser- vice without making any additions to the burdens of the people. The riotous spirit which had lately dis- played itself again broke out on this occa- sion ; and the prince-regent, on his way to the house, was assailed by tumultuous ex- pressions of disapprobation from an un- usually large concourse of people, whose conduct, on the return of the procession, becam more violent, the royal carriage be- ing attacked with stones and other missiles in an alarming manner. This outrage was communicated to the house of peers by lord Sidmouth, when the consideration of the usual address in answer to the speech was postponed till the following day, and a con- ference was held with the house of com- mons, at which a joint address, congratu- lating his royal highness on his escape, was agreed upon. A proclamation was issued, of- fering a reward of one thousand pounds for the apprehension of the offenders, but they were never discovered. On the ensuing evening earl Grey moved an amendment on the address in answer to the speech, chiefly for the purpose of ex- pressing an opinion that the prince-regent was under a delusion respecting the degree and probable duration of the pressure on the resources of the country, which was declared to be much more extensive in its operations, more severe in its effects, more deep and general in its causes, and more difficult to be removed, than that which had prevailed at the termination of any former war. To this declaration was added a pro- fession of regret that his royal highness should riot sooner have been advised to adopt measures of the most rigid economy and retrenchment, particularly with respect to our military establishments; and a resolu- tion that the house should go immediately into a committee on the state of the nation. The amendment was negatived without a division ; and a similar one, moved in the commons on the preceding day, was reject- ed by two hundred and sixty-four against one hundred and twelve. Yet facts ere long- proved the necessity of making large and general retrenchments, and of reducing taxation. ILLEGAL MEETINGS. ON the third of February a message was communicated to both houses, announcing that the prince-regent had ordered to be laid before parliament papers containing an account of certain meetings and combina- tions held in different parts of the country, tending to the disturbance of the public tranquillity, the alienation of the affections of the people from his majesty's person and government, and the overthrow of the whole frame and system of the law and constitu- tion : his royal highness recommended the papers to immediate consideration, and they were referred by each house to a secret committee. RELINQUISHMENT OF INCOME BY THE PRINCE-REGENT AND MINISTERS. ANOTHER communication, of a different nature, was made to the house of commons by lord Castlereagh, on the seventh of the same month, previously to his moving for the appointment of a committee of inquiry respecting the income and expenditure of the state. His lordship said that he had it in command from, the prince-regent to an- nounce, that, sympathizing with the suffer- ings of a generous people, he had deter- mined upon a cession of fifty thousand pounds per annum of that part of his in- come which related to his personal ex- penses, during the continuance of the pres- ent difficulties. At the same time, his lord- ship communicated the intention of minis- ters voluntarily to dispense with one-tenth of their official incomes, while the necessi- ties of the state should require such a con- cession. Lord Camden, one of the tellers of the exchequer, also relinquished, pro tempore, the whole of the -enormous profits of that sinecure office, with the exception 610 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. of two thousand five hundred pounds, the regulated income of the other tellers. This, it was expected, would effect a saving of sixteen or eighteen thousand pounds a-year. On the reduced scale, the expenditure for the year was estimated at six million five hundred thousand pounds less than that of the preceding year, and a further saving of upwards of one million pounds was cal- culated upon for. 1818. The first report of the committee of in- quiry into the income and expenditure, re- lating to the abolition of sinecures, was made on the fifth of May, when Davies Gilbert stated, that, in recommending the suppression of certain offices, it was, at the same time, necessary that his majesty should ( be enabled to reward meritorious services, by granting pensions according to the du- ration of service and exertions of public officers. A bill, entitled the Civil Services' Compensation Bill, was accordingly intro- duced, together with another for abolishing the offices of wardens and justices in Eyre ; and they passed through both houses with little opposition. Notwithstanding the expectation of co- ercive measures to be adopted by govern- ment, a meeting of the populace, headed by Hunt and his friends, under the ostensi- ble motive of petitioning for parliamentary reform, was held in Spa-fields on the tenth of February, and a similar meeting in Pal- ace-yard, Westminster, on the thirteenth, at neither of which anything remarkable occurred. COMMITMENTS TO THE TOWER. THE report of the secret committee of the house of lords was presented on ^he eighteenth of February, and commenced by stating that the committee -found that there was no doubt that treasonable con- spiracies had been formed in the metropolis and elsewhere, which had for their object the total overthrow of the laws and govern- ment, and the indiscriminate plunder and division of property. That in August last, different meetings had been held in the me- tropolis, arms were purchased, and other measures of the like kind resorted to. At subsequent consultations it was resolved to call a public meeting in Spa-fields, which was fixed for the fifteenth of November. The conspirators had prepared addresses, and circulated them in the gaols, informing the prisoners they would shortly be liber- ated, when they would be armed by the provisional government. They were also desired to prepare themselves with tri- colored cockades, emblematic of the ap- proaching revolution. Plans were also formed for an attack upon the Tower, pikes were manufactured to arm the people, lead- ers were appointed to conduct the assaults in different districts, and fire-arms were dis- tributed amongst those who were consider- ed most worthy of confidence. While these arrangements were forming, the leaders of the conspiracy were found, night after night, in public houses, working up the minds of the people whom they might meet there, so as to render them ready instru- ments to execute any project, however des- perate. Exertions were also made to win over the soldiers to their cause. Tri-colored flags were prepared, together with a ban- ner, on which was inscribed, " The brave soldiers are our friends treat them kindly ;" and it appeared that, down to the second of December, they had the fullest, confidence of success. Communications regularly took place between the conspirators in the me- tropolis, and persons actuated by similar feelings in other parts of the country ; and matters were so regulated as that their ef- forts should be devoted to the same purpose in different quarters at one time ; for which end it was agreed that they should all hold meetings on the same day, and thereby ef- fect a general rising at once ; and this was to be done under the pretence that they were to petition the prince-regent, the real object being to promote a spirit of insubor- dination ; a contempt of all laws, whether religious or otherwise; an equal division of all property, and a restoration to what was termed natural rights. The next point upon which the report touched was the ex- istence of societies in various parts of the kingdom, under the titles of Hampden clubs, Spencean philanthropists, &c. the intent of which was, under the disguise of constitu- tional proceedings, to extend the plans of devastation and destruction already de- scribed. A reference was then had to the administration of secret oaths, and to the extraordinary measures which were taken by the conspirators to prevent a discovery of their plots plots which were found to have existence in all the great manufactur- ing towns throughout the country, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, &c. The last topic alluded to was the publication of in- flammatory and seditious works at a cheap rate, the object of which was to root out all feelings of religion and morality, and to excite hatred and contempt for the existing state of things. The committee, in fine, attributed the late attack upon the prince- regent to the effect produced by those pub- lications ; and expressed it as their decided opinion, that the civil power, as at present constituted, under all the circumstances stated, was insufficient for the preservation of the public peace. On the following even- ing a report similar in object and effect, was presented from the committee of the house of commons. GEORGE HI. 17601820. 611 In consequence of the circumstances de- veloped by the secret committees of par- liament, four persons, of the names of Wat- son, Preston, Hooper, and Keene, were ap- prehended, and committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason. A reward of five hundred pounds was also offered for the ap- prehension of a man of the name of This- tlewood ; and a further reward of five hun- dred pounds for the junior Watson. The metropolis, indeed, as well as several other parts of the kingdom, was for some time in a state of great alarm. The first parliamentary consequence of the reports of the secret committees was a motion by lord Sidmouth, in the upper house, for the suspension of the habeas cor- pus act until the first of July, then next ensuing. A bill to this effect was passed, and ordered to the commons, where it went through its different stages with rapidity; and on the fourth of March received the royal assent. In the lords a protest against the measure was signed by eighteen peers, on the ground that the existing laws were adequate to the danger. Lord Castlereagh gave notice of farther measures for the pro- tection of the country against the machina- tions of the disaffected. These were, first, the extending of the act of 1795, for the security of his majesty's person, to that of the prince-regent ; secondly, the embodying into one act the provisions of the act of 1795, relative to tumultuous meetings and debating societies, and the provisions of the act of the thirty-ninth of the king, which declared the illegality of all societies bound together by secret oaths, and of such as ex- tended themselves by fraternized branches over the kingdom ; and, lastly, the making of enactments to punish with the utmost rigor any attempt to gain over soldiers or sailors to act with any association or set of men, or to withdraw them from their alle- giance. Numerous petitions against these proposed restrictions on public liberty, par- ticularly against the suspension of the habeas corpus act, were presented to par- liament ; and in the respective houses they were opposed, in every stage of their rapid progress, by such members as usually stood forward to advocate the privileges of the people : they, however, finally received the sanction of the legislature. EXCHEQUER-BILLS. CATHOLIC CLAIMS- ON the twenty-eighth of April, the chan- cellor of the exchequer, in a committee of the house, proposed that exchequer-bills to an amount not exceeding five hundred thousand pounds, should be issued to com- missioners, to be by them applied to the completion of public works in progress, or about to be commenced ; to encourage the fisheries, and to employ the poor in the dif- ferent parishes of Great Britain, on due se- urity being given for repayment of the sums so advanced. He also moved that the lord-lieutenant of Ireland might be em- powered to advance, out of the consolidated Fund of that kingdom, a sum not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand pounds for the same purposes, under condition of re- payment in a time to be limited. These resolutions were agreed to, and a bill framed upon them was passed. In the course of this 'session several un- successful attempts were made, by the members of the opposition, to procure the abolition of unnecessary offices, and the re- duction of enormous salaries. Grattan's annual motion in favor of the Irish Catho- lics, was defeated by a majority of twenty- four; and lord Donoughmore's correspond- ing motion in the upper house was nega- tived by one hundred and forty-two votes against ninety. At the latter end of May, the office of speaker of the house of commons was re- signed, on the ground of illness, by Abbot, on whom the prince-regent immediately conferred the title of baron Colchester, and the right hon. Charles Manners Sutton was elected to succeed him as speaker. SIDMOUTH'S CIRCULAR MESSAGES FROM PRINCE-REGENT. ON the assembling of the peers, after the Easter recess, it was ordered, on the mo- tion of earl Grey, that a copy of the circu- lar letter, which had then recently been addressed by the secretary of state for the home department to the lords-lieutenant of counties, relative to seditious or blasphe- mous publications, be laid before the house. In this document lord Sidmouth had stated, that, as it was of the greatest importance to prevent the circulation of blasphemous and seditious pamphlets and writings, he had consulted the law officers of the crown, whether a person found selling or publish- ing such writings might be brought imme- diately before a justice of the peace, by war- rant, to answer for his conduct ; and their opinion was, that a justice of the peace might issue his warrant for the apprehen- sion of a person charged before him, on oath, with the publication of such libels, and compel him to give bail to answer the charge. Under these circumstances, his lordship desired to call the attention of the lords-lieutenant particularly to the subject, and requested that they would notify such opinion to the chairman at the quarter-ses- sions, in order that magistrates might act upon it. Subsequently to the production of this circular, earl Grey introduced the subject to the peers, in a speech replete 612 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. with legal information, in which he con- tended against the principle that a justice of the peace might be called upon by any common informer to decide what was or was not a libel, and to commit or hold to bail, upon his sole judgment, the party ac- cused. His lordship further held that such a specific intimation to magistrates, as to the mode in which they were to construe the law, even supposing the law itself to be clear and undisputed, would have been a high offence against the constitution. Earl Grey's motion, which was for the case which had been submitted to the law offi- cers of the crown, on whose opinion lord Sidmouth's circular to the magistrates had been issued, was supported by lords Erskine and Holland, and opposed by lords Ellen- borough and Eldon ; and, on a division, it was negatived by seventy-five against nine- teen. The subject was introduced into the house of commons by Sir Samuel Romilly, and decided in a similar manner. The country continuing to be in an alarm- ing state, messages from the prince-regent were sent down to both houses on the third of June, stating that his royal highness had ordered to be laid before parliament papers containing information of practices, meet- ings, and combinations, carried on in dif- ferent parts of the kingdom, tending to dis- turb the public peace and tranquillity, and to endanger the constitution of these realms ; and recommending to parliament to take the same into its immediate consideration. The papers produced were accordingly re- ferred, as in a former case, to committees of secrecy. The report of the lords' com- mittee, presented on the twelfth of June, stated, in substance, that having taken into their consideration the subject of the pa- pers communicated to them, and fully con- sidered the statements on which the com- munications were founded, they were of opinion that the spirit of tumult and insur- rection which gave rise to the bill now in operation, for suspending the habeas corpus, had by no means subsided ; and it was only by the vigilance of the magistrates, aided by the operation of the present bill, and their communications with the government, that the spirit of tumult and rebellion was kept down that active preparations were still going on with a view to subvert the constitution of this country and that the revival of the said bill for six months longer was absolutely necessary, to secure the public peace. The report from the com- mittee of the house of commons, presented eight days afterwards, traced the history of several plots, from certain proceedings at Manchester, in the month of March, to others in Derbyshire on the ninth of June, concluding in the following words : " Con- fidently as they (the committee) rely on the loyalty and good disposition of his majesty's subjects (even hi those parts of the country in which the spirit of disaffection has shown itself in the most formidable shape), they cannot but express their conviction that it is not yet safe to rely entirely for the pre- servation of the public tranquillity upon the ordinary powers of the law." It was ad- mitted, in the reports, that the evidence laid before the committee had, in a great measure, been derived from the depositions and communications of persons who were more or less implicated in the criminal transactions under consideration, or who had apparently engaged in them with a view of giving information to government ; but ministers defended, and most strenu- ously insisted upon, such an employment of spies as had been alluded to ; and a fur- ther suspension of the habeas corpus act, till the first of March in the ensuing year, was agreed to. On the ninth of July, Wilberforce moved for an address to the prince-regent, submit- ting, in the most dutiful but urgent terms, the expression of our continued but un- ceasing solicitude for the universal and final abolition of the African slave-trade amongst the European powers, which was agreed to without a dissentient voice. During a discussion on matters of finance, the chancellor of the exchequer contended that, if the income-tax had been acted upon, it would have produced a considerable dis- charge of the national encumbrances ; and he could not, therefore, help regretting its repeal. If the encouraging prospects now opening should unhappily fail, he was de- cidedly of opinion that vigorous measures ought to be resorted to for the improvement of our financial situation. That, amidst our difficulties, the improvement in the funds was considerable ; and that the present ses- sion of parliament had dispelled for ever the suggestions of a system of innovation and bad faith, which, for a time, united with other circumstances of the country to lower public credit He trusted that public credit would still further rise, though at that mo- ment the country was not actually paying more than three per cent interest on the exchequer-bills. Doubts had been expressed as to the resumption of cash payments by the bank ; but nothing less than an extra- ordinary political or commercial . shock would prevent its taking place in July next. The national prospect was improved by the hope of an abundant harvest; and he thought we might reasonably look to a more extensive and productive commercial intercourse. GEORGE HI. 1-7601820. 613 The prorogation of parliament, by a speech from the throne, took place on the twelfth of July. DISTURBANCES AT MANCHESTER. STATE TRIALS. THE disturbances at Manchester, alluded to in the last-mentioned report of the secret committee of the house of commons, ap- pear to have been of a very extraordinary description. At a public meeting held near St. Peter's church, on the third of March, by persons denominating themselves friends of parliamentary reform,, notices were is- sued that the espousers of their doctrines should assemble at the same place on the tenth, and proceed thence to the metropo- lis, to present a petition to the prince-re- gent, that they might be enabled to unde- ceive him ! Accordingly, on the appointed day, crowds of people nocked into Manches- ter, from all directions, as early as eight o'clock in the morning; and the instiga- tors, from their temporary stage in a cart, harangued the multitude, till their vastly increasing numbers suggested the expedi- ency of putting in force the civil and mili- tary powers. A party of dragoons, accom- panied by the magistrates of the district, then appeared amongst them, surrounded the erection, and immediately conveyed the entire group upon it to the New-Bailey prison. The concourse of auditors was forthwith dispersed without the infliction of any severity. Johnson and Ogden, two of the leaders upon former occasions, had been arrested on the previous morning, and were secured in the New-Bailey. Others were seized by the soldiers on their way to deliver their charge in Salford. A consid- erable number of people set out on their mission to London, taking the rout of Stock- port ; but above forty of them were recon- ducted to Manchester, and others were se- cured in Stockport. Most of them were provided with knapsacks, &c. containing blankets and other articles. At one period there was an assemblage of at least thirty thousand people at the meeting; not more, however, than five hundred penetrated so far as Macclesfield, where a troop of the yeomanry had remained to provide against such a contingency; and no more than twenty persons proceeded into Staffordshire. Nothing could be more wretched and pitia- ble than the appearance of the few who reached Macclesfield ; some actually faint- ing through weariness, and all of them without baggage, or any apparent resource with which to proceed twenty miles fur- ther towards London. Thus ended what has since been known under the quaint ap- pellation of the Blanketeering Expedition. In the month of June the senior Watson was, with Thistlewood' and some others, VOL. IV. 52 put upon his trial, on a charge of high trea- son, in the court of King's Bench ; but, chiefly from the discredit thrown on the testimony of the principal witness, named Castles, an accomplice or spy, and a man of bad character, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. In the course of the sum- mer the turbulent disposition of the manu- facturing classes exhibited itself in several of the northern and midland counties, par- ticularly in those of Derby, Nottingham, York, and Lancaster, by many atrocious acts of tumult and outrage ; and it was. found expedient to appoint a special com- mission to sit at Derby, for the trial of the offenders. The first four prisoners who were tried were found guilty ; nineteen of the others were then allowed to plead guilty, on an understanding that mercy would be extended to them; and twelve were acquitted, the attorney-general hav- ing declined to call evidence against them. Sentence -of death was formally pronounced upon twenty-three of these deluded men ; of whom three Brandreth, Ludlam, and Turner suffered the full penalty of the law. To the machinations of a govern- ment spy, ' named Oliver, many of them ascribed the criminal acts into which they had been led ; and the employment of such men was very generally condemned, their interest leading them to foment the plots they undertake to reveal. DEATH OF PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. THE latter part of the year 1817 was marked by an event that filled the nation with mourning. The princess Charlotte of Wales, whose nuptials had, in the pre- ceding year, afforded so much satisfaction to the country, was in a situation likely to afford an eventual heir to the British throne. Seldom, perhaps, had the hopes and wishes of a whole people been so deeply interested on a similar occasion. At nine o'clock, however, on the night of the fifth of No- vember, her royal highness was delivered of a still-born male child ; and at half-past two on the morning of the sixth she ex- pired, to the inexpressible grief of the royal family ; and throughout the country the in- dications of sorrow were unusually general and sincere. Her royal highness was about the middle size, inclining rather to the em-bon-point, but not so much as to impair the symmetry of her form. Although possessing a lofty spirit, she had nothing of high or fashiona- ble life about her, and preferred the retire- ment of Claremont to the splendor of a court She was of religious habits ; an affectionate child ; and, as a wife, a model for her sex. FOREIGN AFFAIRS. FRANCE was this year relieved from one- 614 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. fifth of the army of occupation, the amount of the diminution being thirty thousand men, although she was by no means in a tranquil state. Notwithstanding the re- straint imposed upon her by a foreign force, it had been found necessary to suspend the law for securing personal liberty, and to revive, for a time, the jurisdiction of pre- votal courts, for the sake of summary pro- cedure against persons guilty of seditious practices^ In Germany and the other states of Europe, as well as in France, little pro- gress was made in the establishment of free institutions, and in the emancipation of the press from that thraldom in which it had so long been held. In Prussia a strict censor- ship was exercised over all political publi- cations ; and the Rhenish Mercury, a jour- nal which had obtained extensive circula- tion, was even suppressed. The king of Wirtemberg, after declaring that he con- sidered a representative const^ution as necessary to the happiness of his people and of himself, dissolved the assembly of his states on their refusing to confirm one pro- posed by himself, and took the administra- tion of the finances into his own hands. In Austria the pecuniary embarrassments of the government were very great, and in Spain the finances were also in a distressed condition, which the want of cordiality be- tween the governors and the governed was little calculated to relieve. In Valencia the people raised the cry of " The Consti- tution !" and were with difficulty reduced to submission, whilst at Barcelona a formi- dable conspiracy was detected. The fanat- ical Ferdinand, in the mean time, signalized his most Catholic zeal by prohibiting all books which impugned the authority of the pope, and the holy tribunal of the inquisi- tion. In South America the contest was protracted with various success; but the thread by which the authority of Spain was held had become evidently more slen- der. In Brazil the court evinced little dis- position to return to Europe ; and, Portugal being thus degraded into the rank of a tributary state, a plan for the establishment of an independent government was secretly agitated, but was discovered hi time to de- feat its object, and the principal promoters of the' measure, general de Andrada and baron Eben, with many of their adherents, were arrested. In the United States Mon- roe succeeded Madison as president, and the country recovered from the temporary pressure which the recent war with Great Britain had occasioned. PARLIAMENT. 1818. PARLIAMENT was opened by com- mission, on the twenty-second of January, 1818, and the royal speech was calculated to allay the apprehensions of tumult and conspiracy which had been long enter- tained, and to inspire confidence in the re- sources of the country. Its principal topics were the continued indisposition of his majesty ; the lamented death of the princess Charlotte; an intimation that the prince- regent had not been unmindful of the effect which that sad event must have had on the interests and future prospects of the king- dom (alluding to negotiations then pending for the marriage of some of his younger brothers); an assurance of the continued friendly disposition of foreign powers ; the improved state of industry and public credit ; the restored tranquillity of the country; the treaties with Spain and Portugal on the abolition of the slave-trade ; a recommend- ation for increasing the number of places of public worship, die. An address, with very little discussion, was agreed to in each house : in the commons, however, Sir Sam- uel Romilly, in opposing it, severely repro- bated the conduct of ministers under the suspension of the habeas corpus act, re- marking that, in the case of Brandreth, the chief of the Derby insurgents, they had not availed themselves of the powers given them by that measure to prevent the mis- chief which had been threatened, by appre- hending and putting him in confinement, but had allowed him to go on to the perpe- tration of the capital crime, for which his life was ultimately exacted as the forfeit. Lord Castlcreagh, in defending the conduct of ministers, observed, that the doctrine which had been held respecting the trials at Derby, and the assertion that Oliver, the spy, was intimately connected with those transactions, were pregnant with evil, and did not rest on any foundation- In the upper house, a motion for the im- mediate repeal of the suspension of the habeas corpus act, called forth some stronar remarks from lord Holland, respecting the partial and suspicious nature of the evi- dence on which that important right had been suspended, and the pernicious prece- dent thus established in a time of profound peace, when nothing had appeared in the state of the country to justify such a pro- ceeding. On the fourth of February lord Castle- reagh, by command of the prince-regent, brought down to the house of commons a bag of papers respecting the internal state of the country, for the examination of which his lordship proposed that a select commit- tee should be appointed. As this was un- derstood to be a step preliminary to a gen- eral bill of indemnity for all acts performed under the suspension of the habeas corpus act, by which the persons then imprisoned and since liberated without trial, -would le deprived of all legal remedy for such im- GEORGE HI. 17601820. 615 prisonment, however unmerited, the ap- pointment of a secret or select committee was strenuously resisted by the members of opposition, who contended that a very dif- ferent sort of inquiry was called for by the conduct of ministers. The green bag and its contents formed the subject of much keen sarcasm : the appointment of a select committee was, however, agreed to, and a similar committee was also appointed in the upper house. At this period, and for some time afterwards, numerous petitions were presented to parliament by persons who had been imprisoned under the late suspen- sion of the habeas corpus law, praying for redress, and that no act of indemnity might be passed in favor of ministers. On the twenty-third of February, however, the re- port of the secret committee of the house of lords was presented : it related chiefly to the recent disturbances in the counties of Nottingham and Derby, and in the west riding of Yorkshire. The progress of in- surrection had been considerably^checked by the arrests and trials which had taken place; while an increase of employment had rendered the laboring classes less dis- posed to embrace the desperate measures of the disaffected. Some of the conspira- tors were still active, especially in London, and appeared determined to persevere, though with decreasing numbers and re- sources: the committee therefore repre- sented that vigilance would be necessary : the report proceeded to state that forty-four persons appeared to have been arrested, under warrants of the secretary of state, who had not been brought to trial ; but that these arrests were fully justified by circum- stances, and that no warrant of detention appeared to have been issued, except in consequence of information on oath. The persons detained and not prosecuted had been at different times discharged ; and the committee added their conviction that the government had exercised the powers vest- ed hi them with due discretion and mod- eration. On the twenty-fifth a bill of indemnity, founded on this report, was brought in by the duke of Montrose ; and, on the motion for its second reading, the marquis of Lans- downe proposed as an amendment, that it should be postponed for a fortnight, to give time for all the petitions from persons re- cently imprisoned under the suspension act to be brought up. This amendment was lost, and the bill was carried. When intro- duced to the house of commons by the attorney-general, Sir Samuel Romilly justly observed, that it was ' improperly called a bill of indemnity : the object of indemnity was only to protect individuals against pub- lic prosecution, without interfering with the rights of private men ; but the object of this was to annihilate such rights to take away all legal remedies from those who had suffered an illegal and arbitrary exercise of authority ; and to punish those who presumed to have recourse to such remedies, by subjecting them to the pay- ment of double costs. The bill passed, and received the royal assent. At an early period of the session Gren- fell inquired of the chancellor of the ex- chequer whether any occurrence was. likely to prevent the resumption of cash payments by the bank on the fifth of July. He also observed that the public stood in the situa- tion of debtor to the bank for the sum of three millions, advanced without interest, and for six millions, at an interest of four per cent ; and, as the bank had secured the undisturbed possession of a balance of the public money deposited in their hands, which for the last twelve years had amount- ed, on an average, to eleven millions, until the repayment of these sums, he desired to know whether any arrangement was in progress for discharging them, or for placing them on a better footing. The chancellor of the exchequer replied, that the bank had made ample preparation for resuming its payments in cash at the time fixed by par- liament ; but that pecuniary arrangements with foreign powers were going on, which might probably require a continuance of the restriction. As to the loan of six millions, he should, ere long, submit a proposition for its payment ; but, with respect to the three millions without interest, he thought the house would not be reconciled to any pro- position for depriving the public of so im- portant an accommodation. On a subse- quent occasion, the chancellor of the ex- chequer, in submitting certain propositions to a committee of the house, observed, that, in January, 1817, the bank had given notice that they were ready to pay in specie out- standing notes of a particular description, by which cash might then have been de- manded to the amount of about one million sterling ; but a very inconsiderable sum was called for. At that tune gold bullion was reduced to three pounds eighteen shil- lings and six-pence, and silver to four shil- lings and ten-pence the ounce. In October following, the bank gave notice that they would be ready to pay in cash all notes dated prior to the first of January, 1817 ; but the result was greatly different from that of the former experiment, upwards of two millions and a half having been issued under this last notice, of which hardly any part remained in circulation. The differ- ence in these results arose from the large remittances to foreign countries, in conse- quence of the importations of corn render- 616 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ed necessary by the scarcity, the migration of Englishmen to the continent, and the negotiation of a large French loan in this country. It was not, therefore, advisable for the bank to resume cash payments ; and the restriction was accordingly continued until the fifth of July, 1819. The treaty with, Spain respecting the Af- rican slave-trade, by which, in considera- tion of a subsidy of four hundred thousand pounds, she consented to the abolition of that inhuman traffic on all the coasts to the north of the line, (retaining for herself, however, a right of continuing it indefi- nitely to the south of that limit,) received the sanction of parliament. According to its regulations, no detention under the stip- ulated right of search was to take place, except in the case of slaves being found actually on board. It was necessary that each nation should have an equal right of discovering the illicit practices which had been carried on by the other ; and, unhap- pily, the guilt in the present instance was chargeable on certain British subjects, as well as on those of Spain. On the motion of the chancellor of the exchequer the sum of one million pounds was granted, to be raised by exchequer- bills, for the purpose of supplying the defi- ciency of places of worship belonging to the establishment, by building new churches and chapels of ease where the increase of inhabitants rendered such accommodation necessary. A considerable sum was also raised by subscription in furtherance of this laudable object. ROYAL MARRIAGES. ON the thirteenth of April, a message from the prince-regent to both houses an- nounced the approaching marriages of the duke of Clarence to the princess of Saxe Meiningen, and of the duke of Cambridge to the princess of Hesse, and expressed his confidence that a proper provision would be made by parliament on the occasion. From the discussion which ensued in the com- mons, it appeared that a plan had been sub- mitted by ministers to their parliamentary friends, at a meeting holden for that pur- pose, but that the proposition had met a very cold reception; and several gentle- men who had been at the meeting now de- clared that they could not accede to its terms. Brougham proposed an amendment to the address, which amendment was sus- tained by what was termed the alarm- ing minority of ninety-three against one hundred and forty-four. The address, of course, was carried, and the message was ordered to be taken into consideration on the following evening. On the following evening, however, contrary to all precedent on such occasions, the proceedings were postponed till Wednesday. In a very warm conversation which took place on the sub- ject, Tierney stated it to be the intention of ministers to propose an annual addition of nineteen thousand pounds or twenty thousand pounds to the income of the duke of Clarence, and of twelve thousand pounds respectively to the dukes of Kent, Cum- berland, and Cambridge, with an outfit to of each to the amount of the additional in- come. On Wednesday, the fifteenth, lord Castlereagh, admitting Tierney's statement to have been substantially correct, informed the house that the intended proposition had been modified ; but that nothing less, in ad- dition to the duke of Clarence's income, than ten thousand pounds, could possibly en- able him to support the dignity of his rank in the married state. His lordship moved a resolution accordingly. An amendment, however, making the additional sum six thousand pounds instead of ten thousand pounds, was carried against the ministers. On the Tuesday evening following, having announced that the duke of Clarence could not accept of the six thousand pounds, lord Castlereagh moved a resolution for a simi- lar grant to the duke of Cambridge. This motion was strongly opposed by Brougham, but ultimately carried. A few days previously to these discus- sions the princess Elizabeth had been united to the prince of Hesse Homberg ; but, as she was in the enjoyment of nine thousand pounds a-year settled on her by the state, no proposal was made for a marriage dowry. For a time the duke of Clarence, in conse- quence of the pecuniary disappointment to which he had been subjected, relinquished, or professed to have relinquished, his in- tended marriage. At a subsequent period, however, the union took place. In the en- suing month an announcement of the in- tended marriage of the duke of Kent with the dowager princess of Leiningen, sister of prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg, pro- duced a grant to the royal pair to the same amount as in the cases of the dukes of Cum- berland and Cambridge. The supplies of this year were estimated at the sum of twenty million nine hundred and fifty-two thousand four hundred pounds ; to meet which, in addition to the produce of ways and means, a three and a half per cent, stock was created to the amount of fourteen million pounds. By this expedient no new taxes were levied, nor were any ad- ditions made to the old ones. The alien act was continued for two years, on the ground that it was necessary to keep out, as well as to send out, of Great Britain, those persons who should avail HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 617 themselves of the vicinity of France, to foster a spirit menacing to the security of this and the other governments of Europe. On the motion of the lord chancellor, a clause was introduced, by which all per- sons who might ha.ve been naturalized since the twenty-eighth of April by the purchase of shares in the bank of Scotland, or who might claim to be naturalized by becoming partners in that bank, after the passing of this act, should be deemed and taken to be aliens, notwithstanding any existing act of the parliament of Scotland, so long as the provisions of this law respecting aliens should remain in force. EDUCATION OF THE POOR. A COMMITTEE \vas formed in the house of commons early in the year, to consider of a bill, proposed by Brougham, respecting the education of the poor ; and an inquiry was instituted into the state and manage- ment of charitable funds. For this inquiry fourteen commissioners were to be appoint- ed by the crown, six of whom were to have no salaries. The bill, in its passage through the house of lords, underwent various changes. The commissioners were limited to those charities connected with educa- tion ; they were precluded, by circum- stances over which they could not have control, from investigating the state of the education of the poor generally ; they were directed to traverse the country, and to call witnesses before them, but were to possess no authority for enforcing attendance, or for demanding the production of any one document. Brougham observed that the bill, as it now stood, left everything to the good-will of those who had an interest at variance with the inquiry, yet much good might still result from the exercise of the powers possessed by the house. The means to be used were, that the commissioners should .proceed and call witnesses; that they should report occasionally to the house, and make returns of the names of all per- sons refusing to give information, or to pro- duce documents, without alleging any just cause of refusal ; and the committee, which would be reappointed next session, might be empowered to call those persons before them. Brougham then proposed an ad- dress to the prince-regent, praying for the appointment of a commission to inquire into the state of education of the poor through- out England and Wales, and to report thereupon. On this address the previous question was moved and carried ; and the same fate attended another proposal, that the commissioners should inquire into the abuses of charities not connected with edu- cation. Parliament was dissolved by the priuce- 52* regent in person, on the tenth of June. Having stated his intention to give direc- tions for calling a new parliament, his royal highness thus proceeded : " I cannot re- frain from adverting to the important change which has occurred in the situation of this country and of all Europe, since I first met you in this place. At that period, the do- minion of the common enemy had been so widely extended over the continent, that resistance to his power was, by many, deemed to be hopeless ; and in the extremi- ties of Europe alone was such resistance effectually maintained. By the unexam- pled exertions which you enabled me to make, in aid of countries nobly contending for independence, and by the spirit which was kindled in so many nations, the conti- nent was at length delivered from the most galling and oppressive tyranny under which it had ever labored ; and I had the happi- ness, by the blessing of Divine Providence, to terminate, in conjunction with his majes- ty's allies, the most eventful and sanguinary contest in which Europe had for centuries been engaged, with unparalleled success and glory. The prosecution of such a con- test for so many years, and more particu- larly the efforts which marked the close of it, have been followed, within our own coun- try, as well as throughout the rest of Eu- rope, by considerable internal difficulties and distress. But, deeply as I felt for the immediate pressure upon his majesty's peo- ple, nevertheless I looked forward without dismay, having always the fullest confi- dence in the solidity of the resources of the British empire, and in the relief which might be expected from a continuance of peace, and from the patience, public spirit, and energy of the nation. These expecta- tions have not been disappointed. The im- provement in the internal circumstances of the country is happily manifest, and prom- ises to be steadily progressive ; and I feel a perfect assurance that the continued loy- alty and exertions of all classes of his ma- jesty's subjects will confirm these growing indications of national prosperity, by pro- moting obedience to the laws, and attach- ment to the constitution, from which all our blessings have been derived." THE ALLIED ARMY WITHDRAWN FROM FRANCE. DISTURBANCES AT MAN- CHESTER, &c. ON the fourth of November a notifica- tion was addressed to the duke of Riche- lieu, the prime minister of France, by the plenipotentiaries of the courts of 6reat Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, as- sembled at Aix-la-Chapelle, stating that their august masters, being called upon by the twentieth article of the treaty of Paris 618 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. to examine, in concert with the king of France, whether the military occupation of a part of the French territory, stipu- lated by that treaty, ought to cease at the termination of the third year, or be pro- longed to that of the fifth, had recognized, with satisfaction, that the order of things established by the restoration of the legiti- mate and constitutional monarchy of that country gave assurance of the consolidation of that state of tranquillity in France ne- cessary for the repose of Europe ; and that, in consequence, they had commanded the immediate discontinuance of such military occupation: a measure which they re- garded as the completion of the general peace. This information was received with delight by the French people ; and, although some slight ebullitions of seditious feeling have since occasionally presented them- selves, the event has happily proved that the presence of foreign troops was no longer necessary. Throughout the summer the cotton-spin- ners, and other laboring classes of manu- facturers at Manchester, and in the neigh- boring parts of the country, remained in a state of organized opposition to their mas- ters on the subject of wages. From this cause several partial disturbances arose ; one in particular at Burnley, and another at Stockport. Fortunately, through the prompt exertions of the Manchester yeo- manry, these irruptions were put down, without bloodshed or actual violence. It is too probable, however, that much hostility and bitterness of feeling were thus mutu- ally excited between the lower classes and the yeomanry, the effects of which burst forth with calamitous fury at a subsequent period. DEATH OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE. IN consequence of the queen's declining health, two amendments had been made in the regency bill during the last session of parliament; the first empowering her ma- jesty to add six new members, resident at Windsor, to her council, in the event of her absence from that residence ; and the sec- ond repealing the clause which rendered necessary the immediate assembling of a new parliament in the event of the queen's death. These amendments were very op- portunely made ; as, after a lingering ill- ness of six months, which was sustained with great fortitude and resignation, her majesty expired at Kew palace, on the seventeenth of November, in' the seventy- fifth year of her age. She had been blest by nature with a sound and vigorous frame, having, until within two years of her de- cease, enjoyed an almost uninterrupted state of health. Her remains were interred at Windsor on the second of December. Queen Charlotte possessed a strong and sound judgment, and used her influence with great discretion. Though she could boast no claim to beauty, she was not defi- cient in those accomplishments which add grace and dignity to an exalted station. As a wife and a mother she was a pattern to her sex, performing all the tender and ma- ternal offices of a nurse to her royal off- spring, fifteen in number an example but too seldom followed. During the long pe- riod in which her majesty may be said to have presided over the English court, it was remarkable for the steady countenance uniformly extended to virtue, and as uni- formly withdrawn from its opposite. Mar- ried at an early period of life, it required a more than ordinary effort of intellect to re- sist the false glare which surrounded her ; yet at a time when there was hardly a court in Europe that was not marked by its licentiousness, she protected hers from the contaminating influence of splendid vice. The vices of the French court led to the revolution which deluged that country with blood ; and the same cause occasioned, in a great measure, the horrors with which Spain and Naples were subsequently visited. During that time England presented on the throne the example of those virtues that form the great and binding links of the so- cial chain ; and this example was the more salutary, as our sudden and rapid prosperity was calculated to produce the greatest moral relaxation. In public her majesty never tolerated any person in her presence, however high their rank, who had been guilty of any gross breach of those laws which refinement has introduced amongst men, for the preservation of society. In her attendance on divine worship her majesty was very regular and exemplary. She was popular when lord Bute's adminis- tration had rendered the king very much the reverse, and was considered with gen- eral regard as a domestic woman : so much so, that colonel Barre, then a violent oppo- sition speaker, delivered a splendid eulogi- um on her " mild, tender, and unassuming virtues." When the king first betrayed symptoms of insanity, the ministry, in ap- pointing a regency, proposed restrictions on the regent, which raised a strong spirit of opposition. At this critical and delicate juncture, her majesty's affections were di- vided between her consort and her son ; but, with this exception, we do not know of any intermixture on her part with the politics of the day. Even Junius, who at- tacked the court with so much rancor, and who was not likely to have spared any GEORGE III. 17601820. 619 branch of the royal family, is wholly silent as to her majesty, except where he severely rebukes the duke of Grafton, the prime minister at that time, for having led his mistress through the opera-house, in the presence of the queen. This rebuke is an additional proof of the high sense which that popular writer entertained of the pu- rity of her majesty's character, and of the decorum which ought to have been observed in her presence. It has been said that she was penurious, if not avaricious : to her pecuniary affairs she was certainly very attentive, and it is not a little creditable to her that she was scrupulously so to the pay- ment of her own tradesmen ; but there are also many proofs of her disposition to assist distress, and to patronize merit. 620 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER XLIV. Parliament convoked Royal Speech Criminal Code Measures for return to Cash Payments National Income and Expenditure State of the Nation Catholic Question Foreign Enlistment Bill, and other Proceedings Emigration to the Cape of Good Hope Radical Reformers Popular Meetings Arrests for Sedition Violent Dispersion of a Meeting at Manchester Hunt and his Associates found Guilty Earl FVtzwittiam dismissed from Lord-Lieutenancy of the West Riding Address of Corporation of London Meeting of Parliament Documents on State of the Country Bill to prevent Traversing of Informations or Indictments Other Restraining Bills Cession of Parga Restoration of Java Change in the King's Health Death of the Duke of Kent Death of George the Third Con- cluding Remarks. PARLIAMENT CONVOKED. ROYAL SPEECH. 1819. THE new parliament met on the fourteenth of January, 1819, when, in the upper house, chief baron Richards took his seat on the woolsack, pro tempore, in con- sequence of the lord chancellor's indisposi- tion. In the house of commons Mr. Man- ners Sutton was unanimously re-elected speaker. Of the royal speech the main topics were, the king's health the demise of the queen the evacuation of France by the allied troops the probability of a durable peace the favorable state of the revenue the improved aspect of trade, manufactures, and commerce the favora- ble result of the war in India and the con- clusion of a treaty with the United States of America, for extending, to a further term of years, the existing commercial conven- tion. In both houses the usual addresses were agreed to without a division. The death of the queen having rendered necessary the appointment of a new guar- dian of the king's person, the earl of Liver- pool, on the twenty-fifth of January, intro- duced a motion for the purpose of nomina- ting the duke of York to that office ; and, after some discussion as to the patronage to be enjoyed by his royal highness, the bill was passed. Several debates subsequently took place respecting the royal establish- ment at Windsor; and on a motion for granting ten thousand pounds a-year to the duke of York, as custos of the royal per- son, from the public instead of from the privy-purse, which was carried by a small majority. The subject also excited much freedom of remark, both in and out of par- liament CRIMINAL CODE. THE state of the criminal code, a topic deeply interesting to the best friends of hu- manity, occupied the attention of parlia- ment at an early part of the session. The astonishing variety and appalling multitude of offences, more than two hundred in num- ber, against which capital punishment was denounced by the statute-book, had long been reprobated by philanthropists, both foreign and native, as a national disgrace, and stigmatized, by philosophical lawyers, as a fruitful source of mischief. It was the certainty, they remarked, rather than the severity of punishment, which tended to deter offenders ; and those penalties which the general feeling of society condemned as incommensurate with offences were the most uncertain of being carried into effect. Principles such as these had repeatedly been brought before the house of commons by Sir Samuel Romilly, who had proposed several bills founded upon them, one of which had passed into a law ; but the death of that distinguished and estimable indi- vidual had thrown the cause into other hands. A petition from the corporation of London, complaining of the increase of crime, and pointing out the commutation of capital punishment, was referred to a committee for the examination of the disci- pline and police of the different prisons throughout the country, the appointment of which was moved by lord Castlereagh on the first of March. It was the opinion, however, of those who were well informed, and who felt deeply interested in the busi- ness, that, for the due consideration of so ex- tensive and important a subject as the penal code, a distinct committee should be ap- pointed ; and to that effect Sir James Mack- intosh made a motion on the following day. After adducing a variety of observations and facts, illustrating the system of subter- fuge which the dreadful severity of the laws in many cases had produced amongst prosecutors, witnesses, and jurors, and the consequent impunity and increase of crime, he observed that it was by no means his wish or intention to form a new criminal code : to abolish a system, admirable in its principles, interwoven with the habits of GEORGE III. 17601820. 621 the people, and under which they had long and happily lived, was indeed very remote from his ideas of legislation. He did not even propose to abolish capital punishment : on the contrary, he held it to be a part of that right of self-defence with which societies were en- dowed : he considered it, like all other pun- ishments, as an evil, when unnecessary ; but capable, like them, of producing, wjien sparingly and judiciously inflicted, a pre- ponderance of good. He aimed not at the establishment of any universal principle : his sole object was, that the execution of the law should constitute the majority, and the remission the minority, of cases. Sir James subsequently divided capital felonies into three classes : those on which the pun- ishment of death was always, those on which it w&sfrequently, and those on which it was never, put in force. He proposed to leave, for the present, the first and second divis- ions untouched : the third, consisting of no fewer than one hundred and fifty different crimes, ought, he conceived, to be entirely expunged from the list, as so many relics of barbarous times, disgraceful to the char- acter of a free, a thinking, and an enlight- ened nation. Lord Castlereagh compli- mented the candid and moderate spirit in which Sir James Mackintosh had brought forward his motion ; notwithstanding which, he persisted in opposing, as unnecessary, the appointment of a separate committee. Other members, however, warmly supported the proposal, which was ultimately carried by one hundred and forty-seven voices against one hundred and twenty-eight ; and, before the close of the session, Sir James had the satisfaction of reporting progress as chair- man. CASH PAYMENTS. A MOTION by Tierney, on the second of February, for a committee to inquire into the effects of the restriction on cash pay- ments J)y the bank, was met by an amend- ment proposed by the chancellor of the ex- chequer, directing an investigation into the state of the bank of England with reference to the expediency of the resumption of cash payments at the fixed period ; such informa- tion to be reported by the committee as might be disclosed without injury to the public interests. The first report was brought up by Peel on the first of April : it represented that the bank, having been in- duced to pay in specie all notes issued prior to 1617, had been drained of cash to the amount of upwards of five million pounds, most of which had found its way to the con- tinent, and been there recoined into foreign money ; and that, to prevent a continuance of this drain, and to enable the bank to ac- cumulate a greater quantity of bullion, with a view to the final resumption of cash pay- ments, it was expedient to restrain the fur- ther payment of the notes alluded to in spe- cie. A bill was accordingly brought in, and, the standing orders of the house having been suspended, was passed through all its stages the same evening. In the course of the discussion Manning, a bank director, attrib- uted the drain upon the bank, and the pas- sage of our specie to the continent, to the French loan, and a deficient harvest, corn having been imported into this country to the amount of ten million pounds. In the upper house, lord Harrowby moved the sus- pension of the standing orders, that the bill might be passed through all its stages at one sitting, which earl Grey and others op- posed at considerable length, contending that, if necessary, it would have been bet- ter for ministers to issue an order of council for suspending the bank payments on their own responsibility: on the following day, however, the bill was read three times, and passed. A similar measure was also carried for the protection of the bank of Ireland. The second report was presented on the fifth of May, when two bills were passed, founded on a plan, recommended by the committee, for the gradual return to cash payments, and of which the principal pro- visions were, that a definite period should be fixed for the termination of the restric- tion, and that preparatory measures should be taken, with a view to facilitate and in- sure, on the arrival of that period, the pay- ment of the promissory notes of the bank of England in the legal coin of the realm ; that provision ought to be made for the gradual repayment of the sum of ten million pounds, being part of the sum due to the bank on account of advances for the public service ; that, from the first of February 1820, the bank shall be liable to deliver, on demand, gold of standard fineness, having been as- sayed and stamped at the mint, a quantity of not less than sixty ounces being required, in exchange for notes at the rate of four pounds one shilling per ounce ; that, from the first of October 1820, the bank shall be liable to deliver gold at the rate of three pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence per ounce, and from the first of May 1821, three pounds seventeen shillings and tenpence half-penny ; that the bank may, at any period between the first of February and the first of October, 1820, undertake to deliver gold, as before mentioned, at any rate between the sums of four pounds one shilling, and three pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence per ounce ; and, at any period between the first of October 1820, and the first of May 1821, at any rate between the sums of three pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence, and three pounds seventeen shillings and ten- pence half-penny per ounce ; but that, such 622 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. intermediate rate having been once fixed that rate shall not be subsequently increas- ed ; that, from the first of May 1823, the bank shall pay its notes, on demand, in the legal coin of the realm ; and that it is ex- pedient to repeal the laws prohibiting the melting and the exportation of the com. NATIONAL INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. ANOTHER select committee was appoint- ed, on the motion of lord Castlereagh, to in- quire into the income and expenditure of the country, from which he anticipated a most favorable result. The receipts for the year ending the fifth of January 1818, were fifty-one million six hundred and sixty-five thousand four hundred and fifty-eight pounds ; while those for the following year were fifty-four million sixty-two thousand pounds, showing an increase upon the latter of two million three hundred and ninety- seven thousand pounds : but there were cer- tain arrears of war duties on malt and prop- erty, which reduced the income of 1818 to forty-nine million three hundred and thirty- four thousand nine hundred and twenty- seven pounds, while the arrears to January 1819, amounted only to five hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and thirty- nine pounds. The expenditure was also less by about six hundred and fifty thousand pounds than was expected ; and the result was, his lordship said, a total surplus of three million five hundred and fifty-eight thou- sand pounds, applicable to the reduction of the national debt Allowing one million for the interest on the loan, there remained two million and a half of surplus revenue. Tierney observed that an old debt upon the sinking fund of eight million three hundred thousand pounds, which must be liquidated before one farthing of the surplus in ques- tion could be made available for the expenses of the current year, had been altogether thrown out of view. The various taxes, taken together, exceeded seven millions; but this was the extreme of the amount ap- plicable to the army, the navy, the ordnance, and miscellaneous services: how, then, could it be possible, he asked, that with an income of only seven millions, and an ex- penditure of twenty millions, both ends should be made to meet, and a surplus be left ? and would it not be a gross delusion to speak of the sinking fund as applicable to the public service, while government were obliged to borrow thirteen millions a year to support it] The chancellor of the exchequer observed, that this statement in- cluded certain particulars which could not be admitted in making a fair comparison. By taking the whole charge of the consoli- dated fund and the sinking fund, it had been shown that our expenditure considerably exceeded our receipts. This must neces- sarily be the case, since so great a part of the war taxes had been abolished. Parlia- ment had thought fit to relieve the country from fifteen millions of taxes, and thus they unavoidably prevented the effect which would have been produced in the redemp- tion of the debt by these fifteen millions an- nually. With respect to any plans of finance for the present year, he should reserve to himself the power of adopting that which the situation of public affairs rendered most expedient. On the third of June the chancellor of the exchequer submitted a series of financial resolutions, which stated that, by the remo- val of certain taxes, the revenue of Great Britain was reduced by eighteen million pounds ; that the interest and charge of the funded and unfunded debt of Ireland ex- ceeded the whole revenue of that country by one million eight hundred thousand pounds ; that it was necessary to provide, by a loan or other means, for the service of the present year, the sum of thirteen million pounds, which, deducted from the sinking fund of fifteen million pounds, reduced it to only two million pounds ; and that, for the purpose of raising this sinking fund to five million pounds, it was absolutely necessary to impose new taxes to the amount of three million pounds annually. This sum parlia- ment ultimately agreed to raise by a con- siderable duty on foreign wool, and by smaller duties on various other articles, such as tobacco, tea, coffee, and cocoa-nuts. Two loans of twelve million pounds each were also made ; one of them supplied by the money market, the other derived from the sinking fund. Out of these sums there was to be a surplus, of which five million pounds were to go towards the repayment to the bank recommended by parliament previously to the resumption of cash pay- ments, and five million five hundred and ninety-seven thousand pounds to the reduc- tion of the unfunded debt " In adopting this course," observed the speaker, in his address to the prince-regent, at the close of the session, " his majesty's faithful commons did not conceal from themselves that they were calling upon the nation for a great exertion; but, well knowing that honor, and character, and independence, have at all times been the first and dearest objects of the hearts of Englishmen, we felt assured that there was no difficulty that the coun- try would not encounter, and no pressure to which she would not cheerfully submit, to enable her to maintain, pure and unimpair- ed, that which has never yet been shaken or sullied, her public credit and her na- tional good faith." CATHOLIC QUESTION. NUMEROUS petitions having been present- GEORGE III. 17601820. 623 ed to parliament, both for and against the Catholic claims, this great question of inter- nal policy was again brought before the house of commons by Grattan on the third of May. The causes of disqualification, he observed, were of three kinds : 1. the com- bination of the Catholics ; 2. the danger of a Pretender ; 3. the power of the pope. He insisted that not only all these causes had ceased, but that the consequences annexed to them were no more ; and concluded by moving for a committee of the whole house, to consider the state of the laws by which oaths or declarations are required to be taken or made as qualifications for the en- joyment of offices and the exercise of civil functions, so far as the same affect Roman Catholics ; and whether it would be expe- dient to alter or modify the same. The mo- tion was lost, on a division, by a majority of only two, the numbers being two hundred and forty-three against two hundred and forty-one. On the seventeenth a corres- ponding motion was submitted to the peers by the earl of Donoughmore, who contend- ed that the position of the Catholic question had been greatly changed. All anti-chris- tian principles and uncharitable surmises were disallowed by its opponents ; and the great objection was limited to an arguable supremacy, which was supposed inherent in a foreign state. If he were allowed to go into the committee, he would, after getting rid of the declaration, next dispose of the oath of supremacy, when there would re- main no vestige of such tests, except the oath of abjuration, now of no practical use, as it aimed at a non-existent family. The bishop of Worcester opposed the motion, on the ground of danger to the church and state. That danger, it was argued by the bishop of Norwich, did not exist ; and we ought to do unto others as we would that they should do unto us. The bishop of Pe- terborough said that, if the present question were ne merely of religion, it should have his support ; but it was evident the grand 'object of the Catholics was political power. The earl of Liverpool argued that the con- cession would not operate to allay animosi- ties in Ireland, and that the interests of the great mass of the people would not be af- fected by it in the smallest degree. The lord chancellor also strenuously opposed the motion, chiefly for the old refuted reason that the Catholics could give no security, by oath, which could reconcile the king's supremacy, in things temporal, with the pope's supremacy, in things ecclesiastical. On a division, the motion was negatived by one. hundred and forty-seven against one hundred and six. Another effort in behalf of the Catholics was made in the upper house by earl Grey, who introduced a bill " for abrogating so much of the act of the twenty-fifth and thirtieth of Charles the Second as prescribes to all officers, civil and military, and to members of both houses of parliament, a declaration against the doc- trines of transubstantiation and the invoca- tion of saints." The bill was allowed to proceed to the motion for its second reading, when it was thrown out by one hundred and forty-one against eighty-two. FOREIGN ENLISTMENT BILL. A BILL was brought in by the attorney- general on the thirteenth of May, for pro- hibiting the enlistment of British subjects into foreign service, and the equipment of vessels of war without license. The first of these objects, he observed, had been in some measure provided for by the statutes of George the Second, by which it was an offence amounting to felony to enter the service of any foreign state : if neutrality were to be observed, however, it was im- portant that the penalty should be extended to the act of serving unacknowledged pow- ers as well as acknowledged ones; and part of his intention, therefore, was to amend those statutes, by introducing, after the words " king, prince, state, potentate," the words, " colony or district, who do as- sume the powers of a government." Sir James Mackintosh warned the house, that, in whatever manner the motion might be worded, and its real object concealed, the bill ought to be entitled " A bill for pre- venting British subjects from lending their assistance to the South American cause, or enlisting in the South American service." He stated that the statutes of George the Second, adduced as authority on this occa- sion, were intended merely for the tempo- rary purpose of preventing the formation of Jacobite armies organized in France and Spain, against the peace and tranquillity of England ; and he concluded by repro- bating a measure which was virtually ai> enactment to repress the liberty of the South Americans, and to enable Spain to reimpose that yoke of tyranny which they were un- able to bear, which they had nobly shaken off, and from which he trusted in God they would finally, and for ever, be enabled to extricate themselves. Lord Castlereagh contended that the proposed bill was neces- sary in order to prevent our giving offence to Spain, whom that house was too just and too generous to oppress, because she was weak, and her fortunes had declined. Was not, he inquired, the proclamation which had been issued about eighteen months be- fore approved both in England and America, as perfectly just in the principles of neu- trality which it declared ? Was it not, he also asked, a breach of that proclamation, when not only individuals, whom, perhaps, 624 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. it might have been impossible to restrain, not only officers in small numbers went out to join the insurrectionary corps, but when there was a regular organization of troops when regiments regularly formed left England when ships of war were fitted out in the English ports, and transports were chartered to carry out arms and ammuni- tion 1 In the subsequent stages of the bill, ministers candidly avowed that the mea- sure had been suggested by the stipulations of a treaty with Spain, in the year 1814, and by the representations which the min- isters of Ferdinand the Seventh had con- sidered themselves as entitled, by such stipulations, to address to the British gov- ernment This admission excited some se- vere comments on the character of Ferdi- nand. At length, however, the bill was carried. An act of grace, on the part of the prince- regent, for reversing the attainder of lord Edward Fitzgerald, by which the blood of his two children had become corrupted, was passed without opposition. The preamble of the bill stated that his lordship had never been brought to trial ; that the act of at- tainder did not pass the Irish parliament till some months after his decease; and that these were sufficient reasons for mitigating the severity of a measure decreed in un- happy and unfortunate times. Wilberforce complained that two great powers had hitherto shown a reluctance to enter into the arrangements necessary for carrying into effect the total abolition of the slave-trade. It grieved him to cast this re- proach on a great and high-minded people like the French ; and he was still more hurt to find that America was not free from blame. He trusted that all nations would cordially combine in insuring to the inhab- itants of Africa a progress in civilization equal to that of the other quarters of the world ; and concluded by moving an ad- dress, entreating the prince-regent to renew his endeavors for the attainment of an ob- ject so generally interesting. The address was agreed to unanimously ; and a similar one was voted in the house of lords, on the motion of the marquis of Lansdown. The sum of fifty thousand pounds was granted, on the motion of the chancellor of the exchequer, for the purpose of enabling government to divert the current of emi- gration from the United States to the Cape of Good Hope, the colony to which it was considered that it might be most advan- tageously directed. It was proposed to pay the expense of the passage, and to afford to the emigrant the means of exercising his industry on arriving at the destined spot. A small advance of money would be re- quired from each settler before embarking, to be repaid him in necessaries at the Cape, by which means, and the assistance afforded by government, he would be furnished with a comfortable subsistence until he gathered his crops, which, in that climate, were of rapid growth. The session, which had been of a nature more than usually busy, was closed by the prince-regent in person on the thirteenth of July. The royal speech expressed a con- fident expectation that the measures which had been adopted for the resumption of cash payments would be productive of the most beneficial consequences ; regretted the ne- cessity of additional taxation; anticipated important permanent advantages from the efforts which had been made to meet our financial difficulties; and, in adverting to the seditious spirit which was abroad in the manufacturing districts, avowed a firm de- termination to employ the powers provided by law for its suppression. RADICAL REFORMERS. POPULAR MEET- INGSARRESTS. ABOUT this time a party which had re- ceived the appellation of Radical Reform- ers, obtained much notice by their active exertions among the lower orders, chiefly of the manufacturing classes. One of their first steps .waa an applltation to the magis- trates of Manchester to convoke a meeting, for the alleged purpose of petitioning against the corn bill, which was refused ; and, in consequence, the meeting was summoned by an anonymous advertisement. Hunt, who had been selected as the hero of the day, was conducted to the place of meeting by an immense multitude, in a sort of tri- umphal procession, and a strong remon- strance to the prince-regent was adopted : the assemblage, however, dispersed with- out tumult. This meeting was followed by many others of a similar nature at Glas- gow, Leeds, Stockport, and other manufac- turing neighborhoods : the strong measures of precaution, however, that were taken by the respective local authorities, had, in most instances, the effect of preserving order and tranquillity, though there was a marked contrast between the peaceable demeanor of the auditors and the inflammatory char- acter of the language in which they were addressed. On these occasions, the want of a true representation of the people was pronounced to be the grand source of all our evils; for which annual parliaments, universal suffrage, and election by ballot, were pointed out as the only cure. At one meeting there was a discussion whether the people had a right to destroy the. bank of England ; and some suggestions were thrown out as to the expediency of a division of landed property, and a recurrence to phys- ical force. By some, however, it was con- GEORGE in. 17601820. 625 tended that these suggestions, which hap- pily produced no practical results, were made by spies; and it is not improbable that the agents of government, whose duty could not legitimately extend beyond the office of observing and faithfully reporting the proceedings which took place, might occasionally exceed their instructions. One novel and censurable feature of the system Hunt was elected to the chair, and a num- ber of resolutions were passed, to the effect that, as the persons at present composing the house of commons had not been fairly chosen, the meeting could not consider themselves bound in equity by any of their enactments, after the ensuing January. When the officers took Harrison, a few voices proposed resistance, on which Hunt was the formation, in Lancashire, of female requested them to let him go quietly. "If reform societies. These bodies entered into ' they apprehend me," said he, " I am ready violent resolutions, and called upon the wives and daughters of manufacturers in different branches to form sister societies, for the purpose of co-operating with the men, and of instilling into their children a deep-rooted hatred of our tyrannical rulers. At Birmingham, where the extensive and almost general distress of the working classes had given greater currency to the new doctrines, the radical reformers hazard- ed a bolder experiment than any they had before displayed. This was the election of a member, or, as it was denominated at the time, a legislatorial attorney, to represent that great and populous town in the house of commons. At a meeting, holden for this purpose on the twelfth of July, the mana- gers stated that, the issue of a writ being compulsory, they had not thought it neces- sary to wait for a mandate on this occasion ; but that, in the exercise of their constitu- tional rights, and of the duty of good sub- jects, they should proceed to advise the sovereign by their representative. Sir Charles Wolseley, who had previously de- clared his resolution to claim his seat, should he be elected, was put in nomina- tion, and instantly chosen by an assemblage of fifteen thousand persons. A few days after this performance had been acted, it was resolved, at a meeting in the great unrepresented town of Leeds, that a similar election should take place as soon as an eligible member should be found : but the government at length interfered; Sir Charles Wolseley was taken into cus- tody, on account of seditious expressions used at a meeting at Stockport, in Cheshire ; and an itinerant preacher, of the name of Harrison, for a similar offence at the same place, was soon afterwards arrested, while he was attending a reform meeting in Lon- don. On these charges they were next year convicted, and sentenced to imprison- ment The Smithfield meeting, at which Har- rison was arrested, took place on the twen- ty-first of July. Some degree of alarm was naturally felt by the inhabitants of the me- tropolis on this occasion ; and, for the pur- pose of preventing riot or disorder, very ex- tensive and judicious precautions were ta- ken, both by the government and the police. VOL. IV. 53 with bail, and will try the question with them. Let me subpoena all of you here ; and then, though they may get three vil- lains to swear away my life, I shall not be afraid when I have fifty thousand witnesses to contradict them. If only thirty of you should come day by day, the trial will last for three years !" The remonstrance to the prince-regent, which had been agreed to at a meeting in Palace-yard, Westminster, on the eighth of September, 1818, was again adopted, and numerous speeches followed ; in the course of which Hunt stated that the penny subscriptions to promote the cause of reform, which had been calculated to create, in a year, a fund of two hundred and fifty-six thousand pounds, amounted, at the expiration of ten months, to only four pounds fourteen shillings and sixpence. This enormous assemblage finally separated without tumult. On the third night following, an atrocious attempt was made at Stockport to assassi- nate Birch, the deputy constable for that township, by whose exertions bot^i Sir Charles Wolseley and Harrison had been apprehended. Vigorous measures were im- mediately adopted by government for the discovery of the offenders; and, on the thirtieth of July, a proclamation against se- ditious meetings was issued. DISPERSION OF MANCHESTER MEETING. THE Manchester reformers, who had posted up notices of a meeting to be holden on the ninth of August, for the purpose of proceeding to the election of a representa- tive, as at Birmingham, were informed by the magistrates that, as the object of the proposed assemblage was unquestionably il- legal, it would not be suffered to take place. In consequence of this determination, they relinquished the design, and issued notices of a meeting, for the avowedly legal object of petitioning for a reform in parliament, on the sixteenth of August. An open space in the town, called St Peter's Field, was selected as the place of assembly; and never, upon any former occasion of a simi- lar nature, was so great a number of per- sons known to be present Some hours be- fore the proceedings were to commence, large bodies began to march in from the neighboring towns and villages, formed five 626 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. deep, many of them armed with stout staves, and preserving a military regularity of step. Each body had its own banner, bearing a motto; and, under a white silk flag, two clubs of female reformers appeared. The numbers collected were estimated at sixty thousand. A band of special constables, stationed on the ground, disposed them- selves so as to form a line of communica- tion from a house where the magistrates were sitting to the stage or wagon fixed for the orators. Soon after the business of the meeting had been opened, a body of yeo- manry cavalry entered the ground, and ad- vanced with drawn swords to the stage: their commanding officer called to Hunt, who was speaking, and told him that he was his prisoner. Hunt, after enjoining the people to be tranquil, and offering to sur- render to any civil officer who should ex- hibit his warrant, was taken into custody by a constable, and several other persons were also apprehended. Some of the yeo- manry now cried out, " Have at their flags !" and they began to strike down the banners which were raised in various parts of the field when a scene of dreadful confusion arose; numbers were trampled under the feet of men and horses ; many persons, even females, were cut down by sabres ; some were killed, and the maimed and wounded amounted to between three and four hun- dred. In a very short time the ground was cleared of its former occupants, and mili- tary patrols were stationed in the princi- pal streets of the town to preserve tran- quillity. Much difference of opinion has ever since prevailed on this subject ; and, perhaps, the Manchester meeting is one of those events, upon which, in all its variety of details, historians will never be found to agree. Whether the riot act were actually read is still a moot point : the reformers and their friends insist that it was not ; the magis- trates and their adherents contend that it was. And certainly if it was read the af- firmative of the proposition would have been more easily established than its nega- tive. The whole appears to have taken place within ten minutes, by which time the field was entirely cleared of its recent occupiers, and filled with different corps of infantry and cavalry. Hunt and his col- leagues were, after a short examination, conducted to solitary cells, on a charge of high treason. On the following day notices were issued by the magistrates, by which the practice of military training, alleged to have been carried on in secret, by large bodies of men, for treasonable purposes, was declared to be illegal. Public thanks were, by the same authority, returned to the officers and men of the respective corps engaged in the attack ; and, on the arrival in London of a dispatch from the local au- thorities, a cabinet council was held, the result of which was the return of official letters of thanks to the magistrates, for their prompt, decisive, and efficient measures for the preservation of the public tranquillity, and to all the military engaged, for the sup- port and assistance afforded by them to the civil power. For some days the town of Manchester and its neighborhood were in a state of con- strained quietness, although some further disturbances, in which one or two lives were lost, had taken place. At a meeting held at the crown and anchor, in London, a string of resolutions, strongly censuring the con- duct of the magistrates and military, and returning thanks to Hunt and his colleagues, were unanimously adopted ; as was also a resolution to raise a subscription for defray- ing the expenses of counsel, &c. in defence of the prisoners. In the same spirit a meet- ing was likewise holden in Smithfield ; and a violent letter was also addressed to the electors of Westminster by Sir Francis Bur- dett, for the writing of which, as a libel, he was afterwards tried and convicted. In pursuance of this letter, an immense multitude assembled in Palace-yard, West- minster, on the second of September, for the purpose of declaring an opinion on the con- duct of the magistrates and yeomanry of Manchester. After speeches which occu- pied three hours in their delivery, by Sir Francis Burdett, and Hobhouse, his col- league in the representation of Westmin- ster, several violent resolutions were adopt- ed, declaring the assemblage at Manchester a lawful meeting ; that the outrage on that occasion was an attempt to destroy by the sword the few remaining liberties of Eng- lishmen, and that it was another lament- able consequence of the want of a real re- presentation ; and an address to the prince- regent, founded thereon, was unanimously agreed to. The circumstances of the Manchester case turned out to be such, that government found it expedient to abandon the threat- ened prosecution of Hunt and his colleagues for high treason, and those persons were ac- cordingly informed that they would be pro- ceeded against for a conspiracy only, which might be bailed ; but Hunt refused to give bail, even, as he said, to the amount of a sin- gle farthing : some of his friends, however, liberated him. His return from Lancaster to Manchester was one long triumphal pro- cession, waited upon by thousands, on horse, on foot, and in carriages, who hailed him with continued shouts of applause. GEORGE III. 17601820. 627 HUNT FOUND GUILTY. EARL FITZWIL- LIAM. THE grand jury of Lancaster found true bills against Hunt, Johnson, and Moorhouse, and the others who were committed with them on the charge of conspiracy. The prisoners availed themselves of the privi- lege of traversing till the spring assizes of 1820 ; and, instead of Lancaster, the trial took place at York. After ten days' dura- tion it closed on the tenth of April, when the jury declared Hunt, Johnson, Knight, Healy, and Bamford, guilty of assembling, with unlawful banners, an assembly, for the purpose of moving and inciting the liege subjects of our sovereign lord the king into contempt and hatred of the government and constitution of the realm, as by law estab- lished, and attending at the same. In the ensuing term, Hunt and his associates re- ceived sentence ; Hunt to be imprisoned in the jail of Ilchester two years and six months, and then to find securities, for his good behavior for five years ; and Johnson, Bamford, and Healy, to be imprisoned each one year in Lincoln castle, and also to find sureties. The reformers, notwithstanding the tra- gical results of the Manchester meeting, still ventured to assemble, as before, at Leeds, Glasgow, and other towns. The conduct of the Manchester magistrates and yeomanry was there the prominent theme ; ensigns of mourning were exhibited ; hor- rible details were given of the barbarous acts alleged to have been committed ; and the sufferers of the sixteenth of August were eulogized as martyrs, and their mem- ory classed with that of Russell, Hampden, Sidney, and other illustrious names of an- cient times. Rarely, however, where the local authorities refrained from interposing, did any breach of the peace ensue ; but at Paisley, where the flags of the radicals were seized by the magistrates, on their return from the meeting, some riots occurred, which, fortunately, were quelled without bloodshed. The regular opposition, or whig party, throughout the kingdom, seized with avidity upon the solemn approval which had been given by government, so hastily, as they said, to an illegal act of power ; and the va- rious meetings which were held on this oc- casion were numerously, and some very respectably attended. A large assemblage of the county of York was sanctioned by the presence of earl Fitzwilliam, lord-lieutenant of the west riding, and many other noble- men and gentlemen of high consideration, who delivered their sentiments in very strong language; and a petition to the prince-regent was adopted, calling loudly for inquiry. In consequence of this pro- ceeding, earl Fitzwilliam was dismissed from his lord-lieutenancy ; an incident which ex- cited much surprise, and was strongly ani- madverted upon. An address of the corpo- ration of London, also calling for inquiry, received from the prince-regent an objurga- tory reply. " With the circumstances which preceded the late meeting at Manchester," said his royal highness, " you must be unac- quainted ; and with those which attended it you appear to have been incorrectly inform- ed. If, however, the laws were really violated on that occasion, by those to whom it immediately belonged to assist in the ex- ecution of them, the tribunals of this coun- try are open to afford redress ; but to insti- tute an extrajudicial inquiry, under such circumstances as the present, would be manifestly inconsistent with the clearest principles of justice." To counteract these meetings, loyal ad- dresses, and offers for the raising of yeo- manry corps, were zealously promoted by the friends of government. A veteran bat- talion of between ten and eleven thousand men was also formed from the Chelsea pensioners. At Lancaster the grand jury threw out all the bills which had been preferred against individuals by the sufferers of the sixteenth of August. At Oldham, eight miles from Manchester, the coroner's inquest sat for many days on the body of John Lees, one of the unfortunate men alleged to have lost his life in consequence of injuries received on that memorably fatal day. Great tumult was excited on this occasion : the inquest was, in consequence, adjourned to Manches- ter, where it occupied some weeks ; but the whole proceedings were set aside, on the ground of informality, by the court of king's bench. MEETING OF THE PARLIAMENT. DOC- UMENTS ON STATE OF THE COUNTRY. AMIDST the general ferment which had been produced by these circumstances, the meeting of parliament was impatiently wait- ed for by all parties, and it assembled on the twenty-third of November. " I regret to have been under the necessity," observed the prince-regent, in the opening speech, " of calling you together at this period of the year ; but the seditious practices so long prevalent in some of the manufacturing dis- tricts of the country have been continued, with increased activity, since you were last assembled in parliament. They have led to proceedings incompatible with the public tranquillity, and with the peaceful habits of the industrious classes of the community ; and a spirit is now fully manifested, utterly hostile to the constitution of this kingdom, 628 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. and aiming not only at the change of those political institutions which have hitherto constituted the pride and security of this country, but at the subversion of the rights of property and of all order 'in society. I have given directions that the necessary in- formation on this subject shall be laid before you ; and I feel it to be my indispensable duty to press on your immediate attention the consideration of such measures as may be requisite for the counteraction and sup- pression of a system, which, if not effect- ually checked, must bring confusion and ruin on the nation." On the succeeding day the promised documents respecting the state of popular feeling were produced : they consisted, in part, of the correspondence of official per- sons with the home-secretary ; and, in part, of communications to such persons, made by individuals whose names were withheld. Such of the letters of the Manchester ma- gistrates as had been written previously to the sixteenth of August, expressed appre- hensions that a formidable insurrection was in contemplation: at the same time th'ey bore testimony to the deep distresses of the manufacturing classes, and assigned hun- ger as the natural cause of the willingness of the poor to listen to any project for the melioration of their sufferings. It was stated, in numerous depositions, that the practice of secret military training prevail- ed to a very great extent among the re- formers; but only with the .view of en- abling themselves to march in the sem- blance of military array to their .meetings, sticks being the only weapons which had been employed. A communication from lord Fitzwilliam, on the state of the West riding of the county of York, represented that the last reform meeting on Hunslet Moor had been less numerously attended than the former ones, and intimated that the rage for holding such meetings might safely be left to die away of itself. Sir John Byng, the military commander of the district, stated that simultaneous meetings were to have been held at many neighbor- ing towns, but that the plan had been frus- trated by disunion amongst the leaders. The distress and discontent in this part, where pistols, pikes, and other weapons, were reported to be manufacturing in con- siderable quantities, formed the subject of some of these communications ; and simi- lar representations from the south-west of Scotland, where employment and wages had fallen off in a still more deplorable de- gree, were afforded by others. The grand jury of Cheshire also expressed the alarm which was felt for their lives and proper- BILL TO PREVENT TRAVERSING OF IN- DICTMENTS. OTHER RESTRAINING BILLS. THE lord chancellor introduced a bill, on the twenty-ninth, which he said he had long contemplated. It had been the prac- tice of the courts to allow defendants, in cases of information or indictments, to im- parle or traverse. As great inconvenience had arisen from this practice, as trials were sometimes delayed till a very remote pe- riod, and as the ends of justice might thus be defeated, the bill would take away from a defendant the right of traversing ; allow- ing the court, however, to postpone his trial upon his showing ground for the delay. Earl Grey at once entered his protest against the whole of the measures, which, as it appeared, were in preparation, as cal- culated to bring the greatest misery, if not ruin, upon the country. On the second reading earl Grosvenor contended that, whilst the attorney-general was allowed to hold informations over the heads of defend- ants for an indefinite length of time, to abolish the right of traverse was greatly enhancing the grievance. Lord Erskine also objected to the measure, as depriving the people of an ancient and important privilege. On the other hand, the earl of Liverpool contended that, if their lordships did not pass this bill, they had better at once declare that every description of sedi- tion and blasphemy should be invested with full toleration. Lord Holland urged that, in fairness, the measure ought to be so or- dered as to legislate on both sides, by pre- venting the delays which occurred by pro- secutions on ex-offido informations, as well as by those of indictment ; and, agreeably to this suggestion, the lord chancellor, on the third reading, proposed an additional clause, compelling the attorney-general to bring a defendant to trial within a year, or to enter a noli prosequi. The bill, thus amended, was agreed to without opposition. The other bills rendered necessary by the state of the country were to the follow- ing effect : An act to render the publica- tion of a blasphemous or seditious libel pun- ishable, on a second conviction, at the dis- cretion of the court, by fine, imprisonment, banishment, or transportation ; and to give power, in cases of a second conviction, to seize the copies of the libel in possession of the publisher ; a stamp-duty equal to that paid by newspapers, on all publications of less than a given number of sheets, with an obligation on all publishers of such pieces to enter into recognizances for the pay- ment of such penalties as might in future be inflicted on them. The press being thus ties by the loyal part of the king's subjects. | restrained, seditious meetings were to be GEORGE HI. 17601820. 629 controlled by the following provisions : That a requisition for the holding of any meeting, other than those regularly called by a sheriff, boroughreeve, or other magis- trate, should be signed by seven household- ers; and that it should be illegal for any persons, not inhabitants of the place in which such meeting was held, to attend it: also, that magistrates should be empower- ed, within certain limitations, to appoint the time and place of meeting. To repel danger from the mustering of an Illegal force, it was proposed to prohibit military training, except under the authority of a magistrate or lieutenant of a county ; and, in the disturbed districts, to give to magis- trates the power of seizing arms believed to be collected for unlawful purposes, and also to apprehend and detain persons so car- rying arms. The only one of these bills which passed without opposition was that for the prevention of secret military train- ing. The bill for the seizure of arms, which, under certain circumstances, and in particular districts, authorized search to be made in private houses, by day or night, was strenuously resisted in both houses; and, upon an amendment for omitting the words " or night," the house of commons divided Ayes forty-six, Noes one hundred and fifty-eight. A clause of the blasphemous and seditious libel bill, by which offenders were, upon a second conviction, subjected to the punishment of transportation, passed the house of lords, but ministers found it expedient to withdraw it in the commons. The penalty of banishment, however, which had been previously unknown to the Eng- lish law, was allowed to be enacted. In its progress the seditious meeting bill was sub- jected to a modification, by which all meet- ings held in any room or building were ex- empted from its operation. Several limita- tions of the bill for subjecting small publi- cations to the newspaper stamp-duty were also introduced. On the following evening the marquis of Lansdown moved for a select committee to inquire into the state of the nation, and more especially of those which were called disturbed districts. The principle called radicalism, his lordship said, existed in ex- actly the same proportion as distress, the agricultural part of the country being yet untainted, whilst in the cotton manufactur- ing districts of both England and Scotland the spirit of radicalism had reached its height. The distress arose from the long war, which gave us the whole carrying trade of the world which created a fixed capital that still existed and filled the markets without the possibility of finding a vent for them. It was also increased by the poor laws, the paper currency, and the 53* spirit of excessive speculation. Adverting to the expedients which had been proposed for the alleviation of distress by the ad- vancement of temporary loans to encourage labor, he said there were two other points of a more extended nature : one was to take off duties on articles which had con- siderably decreased in various districts such as tea, which had been greatly re- duced in consumption, and was subject to much smuggling from America and other parts ; the other point was the establishment of favorable commercial treaties, which government had not yet succeeded in ac- complishing. He alluded, in particular, to the timber trade with Norway, which, he said, had been neglected, to encourage the growth of an inferior article in Canada, which prevented Norway taking in return many of our articles of commerce. The marquis Wellesley deprecated the seditious designs and views of the reformers, and thought the discussion of the restriction bills ought to be proceeded with in preference to any inquiry. Lord Erskine contended that the country was by no means in so alarming a state as at the time of the state trials in 1794. The existing laws were sufficient to remove the evils complained of, and to pun- ish the guilty. He ridiculed the evidence which appeared in the papers lately laid be- fore parliament, with a view to prove a treasonable or seditious meeting at Man- chester ; and contended that there was no- thing illegal in marching to a place of public meeting. Lord Grenville could not consider the designs as originating in the distress, which he hoped was only temporary. Such distress gave facilities to factious men, which they otherwise would not possess ; but the root of the evil lay much deeper. The pro- moters of the new system here, taking the French revolution as their model, had de- luged the country with blasphemous publi- cations. On the Manchester occasion, he considered the conduct of the magistrates to have been not only free from blame, but highly meritorious. The motion was neg- atived. Unfavorable as the time appeared for a discussion on parliamentary reform, lord John Russell was not deterred from calling the attention of the house of commons to the unrepresented towns, many of which had risen into great commercial wealth and importance, while certain boroughs had sunk into decay, and had become unfit to enjoy the privilege of sending representa- tives. He adduced examples, from the his- tory of parliament, to show that the principle of change had been often acknowledged, and the suffrage withdrawn and conferred on various occasions. After explaining his views he proposed several resolutions, tend- 630 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ing to establish the principle of change which he had laid down, and some rules respecting the voters of disfranchised places, on whom corruption should not have been proved. The last resolution was for the disfranchise- ment of the borough of Grampound, the cor- ruption of which had already been proved to the house. On the suggestion of lord Castlereagh, who manifested a willingness to concur in the objects of the motion to a certain degree, lord John Russell withdrew it, and a few days afterwards brought in a bill for the disfranchisement of Grampound, and the transfer of its representation to some populous town, CESSION OF PARGA. RESTORATION OF JAVA. MUCH animadversion was excited in the political circles by the fulfilment of a con- vention, concluded in 1815, between Great Britain and Turkey, by which the fortress and territory of Parga, on the western coast of Greece, then protected by the British flag, were to be ceded to the Porte, under a stip- ulation that those inhabitants who chose to emigrate should receive an indemnification lor the fixed property which they would be compelled to abandon. This spirited people were the last of the free Christian Greeks of Epirus who had resisted the intrigues and aggressions of Ali Pacha: in 18C7, after the treaty of Tilsit had given the Ionian Isles to Buonaparte, they had solicited and obtain- ed a French garrison from Corfu; and in 1814 they had placed themselves under British protection. Finding the fate of their country irrevocable, they all chose to emi- grate, rather than expose themselves to the vindictive malignity of the Turk ; and an estimate was made of their buildings, lands, and plantations, amounting to nearly five hundred thousand pounds ; but the compen- sation ultimately obtained for them was less than a third of that sum. In a more distant quarter discussions arose which likewise exposed the foreign policy of England to severe criticism. Avail- ing themselves of certain defects in the treaty for the restoration of Java, the Dutch commissioners committed various aggres- sions in the Malayne Archipelago, and par- ticularly against the sultan of Palambang, which drew forth a strong protest from the British functionary, Sir Thomas Raffles, di- rected against the whole political system acted upon by those commissioners, as being exclusively suited to the views of their own government, and hostile to existing engage- ments with the native princes. In Hanover various salutary reforms were effected ; in Wirtemberg the plan of a con- stitution was accepted by the representative assembly. CHANGE IN THE KING'S HEALTH,- DEATH OF THE DUKE OF KENT. THE protracted existence of the venera- ble monarch who had so long swayed the British sceptre was now drawing to a close. In the month of November the hitherto firm health of his majesty underwent a sudden alteration; and, although the dangerous symptoms were for a time removed, a gen- eral feebleness and decay ensued, which portended no very distant dissolution. In the midst of the anxiety caused by this change, the public regret was excited by the loss of the duke of Kent, who was seized with an inflammation on the lungs, and ex- pired, after a short illness, on the twenty- first of January 1820, in the fifty-third year of his age. In person his royal highness was manly and noble, in stature tall, in man- ners dignified, yet affable. He was easy of access, temperate in habits, and in the army acquired the reputation of personal courage. In politics he took no very active part, but attached himself to the whig or popular party : and, whenever any charitable object was to be promoted, his name and presence needed little solicitation. He left an infant daughter, named Alexandrina Victoria. DEATH OF GEORGE THE THIRD. CON- CLUDING REMARKS. ON the twenty-ninth of January, eight days after the death of the duke of Kent, his venerable father expired without a struggle, in the sixtieth year of his reign and the eighty-second of his age. Over the last nine years of his life an awful veil had been drawn. In the periods of the deepest na- tional solicitude his mind had felt no inter- est ; in the hour of the most acute domestic feeling his eye had been tearless: almost the last time that this venerable sovereign appeared in public was on the day when his people, with one accord, devoted themselves to rejoicing in honor of his completion of the fiftieth year of his reign, a period far beyond the common term of dominion. He was blind ; but, as he rode through the as- sembled thousands of his subjects, he was indeed the object of veneration and love. In a few weeks a most afflicting domestic calamity, the death of the princess Amelia, bowed him to the dust. The anguish of the father was too great for a wounded spirit to bear : his reason forsook him, and it never returned. It is remarkable of the departed sover- eign, that, although he felt, and frequently expressed, an anxious desire to obtain and preserve to his subjects the blessings of peace with other nations, and was untainted by ambition, yet that he was involved for nearly one half of his long reign in wars more extensive, sanguinary, and costly, than GEORGE IH. 17601820. 631 any upon record. With the exception of the war which commenced in 1756, before his accession to the throne, the rest may be traced, in a great degree, to the disposition of his majesty to assert and [maintain his first positions upon political topics ; hence the prevailing sentiments of the general mass of his subjects did not always concur with his, in respect of the expediency of his wars, and recourse was frequently had by his ministers to artifices and delusions, for the purpose of exciting popular inter- ests and feelings in support of wars, the real motives of which were not always avowed. In the treaties of peace which were ne- gotiated during his reign, his ministers were remarkably injudicious and unfortu- nate. By the peace of 1763, Great Britain, though triumphant, surrendered the Ha- vannah and several other important colo- nial acquisitions, to obtain the status quo ante helium for German allies, whom she had previously subsidized, and assisted with a large army to fight their own battles, but who have never since made or manifested any grateful return for her sacrifices. So unfortunate and mismanaged was the first war with the United States of Amer- ica, that the peace of 1783, (of which Sheridan justly observed, that " every per- son was glad, and no one was proud,") was vindicated by one of the then ministers, be- cause, " if peace had not been concluded, the naval superiority of France, Spain, and Holland, would have enabled them to take Jamaica, or to invade Great Britain within a year, because defensive war must ter- minate in certain ruin, because to hazard an engagement at sea, would have beea equivalent to a surrender of the kingdom, and because the protraction of the war would have endangered public credit, and public bankruptcy might have dissolved the goveTnment." The peace of 1801, besides having been impracticable in its provisions, effected anything rather than the ostensible objecl of the war, " indemnity for the past anc security for the future ;" and the peace of 1814, and the subsequent conventions, ex- hibited to the world the before incredible example of a nation at the zenith of power and glory, and the benefactor or conqueror of all those with whom she had to nego- tiate, voluntarily and unconditionally sur- rendering the most valuable possessions in both the Indies without compensation, or even stipulating for any local commercial advantage, though she well knew the ava- ricious jealousy of some, and the restless intrigues of others of the powers to whom she made those wanton sacrifices. Still more unjustifiable was the cession of Ge- noa and its territory to the house of Savoy, contrary to an express stipulation upon which Genoa had received a British gar- rison. No sovereign, however, enjoyed the af- fectionate loyalty of the English nation more entirely ; and hence the influence of his personal character had a considerable and evident effect in countervailing jacobin principles. The personal character of a king can never be a matter of indifference : in private life the example of George the third and. his illustrious consort contributed much to the improvement of public morals. In too many instances the fascination of the throne has been sufficient to throw a veil of factitious splendor over the vices of those who occupied it : princes, indeed, appeared formerly to be in some degree exempted from the obligation of those duties of de- cency and morality by which the million were bound ; but, during the reign we have been recording, station and rank were viewed with jealous scrutiny, and afforded little protection to the frailties of their pos- sessors. If the example of George the third could not make all men uniformly moral, it did all that could be done by the practice of the humblest domestic virtues, the most unaffected piety, and the most exemplary regularity. His conduct as a husband, a father, and a master, secured the respect of all who beheld him nearly, and was ap- proved by the moral feelings of the whole nation. His intellectual faculties, not originally of the very highest order, were clouded by the constitutional malady, which exhibited itself at rather an early period of his life ; but, though the powers of his mind were by no means brilliant, he possessed a prac- tical understanding, which, as far as ordi- nary affairs were concerned, commonly led him to a right judgment of men and things ; and he showed remarkable address in find- ing occasions for displacing obnoxious min- isters, and in ruling through the medium of subservient parliaments. In his applica- tion to business he was regular and steady, and always appeared perfectly competent to the subjects submitted to his considera- tion. His education had been rather neg- lected ; but he had, cultivated a habit of continual inquiry in his intercourse with others an intercourse which, from the frankness of his disposition, was less lim- ited than might be supposed ; and, aided by a retentive memory, he had thus ac- quired a variety of useful knowledge, of a description the most likely to turn to good account in the exercise of the duties of his station ; for he was systematic in all his habits of life, though his civil-list was so 632 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. often in arrear of debt from some unex- plained cause. On coming to the crown, he laid his com- mands upon the duke of York to discontinue card-playing on a Sunday, and openly to acknowledge his obedience to the royal will in this respect. The injunction was under- stood and obeyed in the politest circles. He also did his utmost to suppress those perni- cious assemblies, masquerades a species of amusement which, it is to be hoped, will never be nationalized in England. The king, however, was neither an anchorite 1 nor a recluse. He was fond of the theatre ; and to his taste and judgment the amateurs of the histrionic art are indebted for most of those improvements which constitute the boast of modern days. The costume of the stage underwent a thorough reform the licentiousness of dramatic writers was effectually curbed and many of the scenes which Dryden and Congreve did not blush to avow, would not for a moment be tole- rated by an audience of the present .time. In literary taste George the third was sup- posed to be somewhat deficient ; but he col- lected a noble library, and, during his reign, literature certainly was not neglected. In addition. to the great names of Johnson and Goldsmith, those of Cowper and Burns, Pa- ley and Blair, Robertson and Gibbon, with innumerable others, will testify to future ages that intellectual pursuits were duly appreciated. The graphic arts may be said to have re- ceived a character and establishment in this reign. In January, 1765, a charter of in- corporation was given to a society of art- ists, whose exhibitions had been commenced five years before ; and the royal bounty pre- sented them with an annual donation of a hundred pounds. The Royal Academy was instituted some years afterwards. Previ- ously to that period there was no such thing as an English school of art : now the con- noisseur may distinguish, in our public ex- hibitions, portraits which compete with the best works of Vandyke, and historical pieces that are not unworthy of the noblest times of Italy. Every branch of domestic and commer- cial arts rapidly attained to excellence du- ring his reign. The furniture and fitting up of our houses partake of the same re- finement. Formerly the originals of our cabinet works, even to the tables and chairs, were French ; our mantel-pieces, our mir- rors, and our pictures, were Italian. The tide has turned : our manufactures of all sorts, no less for their taste in imagination than for their skill in execution, are now admired all over the continent. Maritime discovery made astonishing progress in the reign of George the third. When JefFeries was geographer to the king, that artist, however high in reputation for talent and knowledge, was obliged, by the necessity of the case, to inscribe "parts unknown" over a great portion of the earth's superficies : the discoveries of the immor- tal Cook, Carteret, King, Vancouver, and others, have reduced the terra incognita; within narrow limits, which become every day more and more contracted. By those geographical discoveries our knowledge of natural history, of the vegetable as well as of the animal world, has been greatly aug- mented Nor was the royal bounty con- fined to discoveries on the face of the globe : the penetrating telescope of Dr. Herschell owes its powers and its comple- tion to the munificence of the king ; and whatever we know of the Georgium Sidus and other newly-discovered planets, of the lesser satellites of Saturn, of the celestial nebulae, and of other astronomical phe- nomena, must be attributed to the zeal for the advancement of science that honored while it gratified the monarch by whom it was encouraged. In every branch of science and the me- chanical arts, this reign is distinguished by the most important discoveries. The appli- cation of the steam-engine to every branch of manufactures, and even to propelling vessels at sea ; the improvements in cotton and other machinery; the application of gas to the purposes of light ; the safety- lamp, and other chemical discoveries of Sir Humphry Davy and others : all these, and far more than these, had their origin in this reign. Agriculture, the basis of national pros- perity, experienced much royal attention, and many consequent benefits. Numerous statutes were passed for converting barren wastes into arable land, for draining marshes, for forming roads, constructing bridges, ca- nals, ports, with other improvements, all contributing to facilitate the intercourse of the kingdom, and consequently favoring the transit of agricultural productions. The king made a point of obtaining more than a theoretical acquaintance with a subject of such vital importance. He established an experimental farm ; he procured from Spain the most valuable specimens of the superior races of Merino sheep ; and he al- lowed the breed to be disposed of to noble- men and gentlemen who were inclined to engage in the speculation. Several letters in Young's " Annals of Agriculture," un- der the signature of John Robinson, are understood to have been furnished by George the third. The progress of great public works in the midst of apparently interminable wars was truly surprising. In London a new GEORGE HI. 17601820. 633 mint, a new custom-house, and many other splendid structures, were erected at the na- tional cost ; whilst three bridges over the river Thames, docks and canals in every part of the kingdom, and a numberless va- riety of stupendous undertakings, were car- ried into effect by individual subscription. The system of education invented by Jo- seph Lancaster, a member of the Society of Friends, was first introduced under the immediate patronage of the king, who on this occasion benevolently expressed his wish " that every poor child in his domin- ions might be able to read his bible, and have a bible to read." The merit of the system, however, though first introduced into England by Lancaster, was said to be due to Dr. Bell, who had previously prac- tised it, or a somewhat similar method, at Madras ; and a national society, on his plan, was formed by the bishops and other digni- taries and members of the church, with the duke of York at their head, the chil- dren of which were bound to conform to the ceremonies of the established religion ; and thus was a laudable and zealous rivalry excited in the work of well-doing. In an age when education was thus eagerly promoted, the growth of knowledge could not be slow ;' and indeed in every branch, political, commercial, and literary, the progress of improvement was unparal- leled. In political knowledge, the publica- tion of the debates in both houses of par- liament, which was first permitted in this reign, but which, though only tacitly per- mitted, can never now be withheld, achiev- ed more than any single event that we can anticipate. The universal diffusion of pub- lic papers, and the spirit of political inquiry, of which they may be said to be both cause and effect, have also gone far to remove the mystery in which politics were wont to be involved. That, influence behind the throne, which, early in the reign, was eloquently, but with some exaggeration, stated to be greater than the throne itself, had so dimin- ished before its close, that the secret his- tory of the court has now little effect on the politics of the day ; and whilst the admin- istration is controlled by a popular assem- bly, the proceedings of which are diurnally laid before the public, that public will be nearly as competent to judge of the mo- tives and merits of the various measures pursued as those with whom they originate. It has been popularly objected against the late king, that he governed too much upon tory maxims, and was too little mind- ful of the principles which placed his family on the throne. It is certainly true that the whig party was excluded throughout nearly the whole of his reign ; they came in twice by the mere force of circumstances, but were each time driven out, after a few' months' continuance in office, on the first pretext which enabled the court to obtain the co-operation of the people for their ex- clusion. The first and second Georges were compelled, by the circumstances of their situation, and the peculiar tenure by which they held the crown, sedulously to discoun- tenance the old tory doctrines of passive obedience and divine right; but with the terror of the Pretender, it might always have been foreseen, would die the whiggism of the Brunswicks. Assuming, indeed, that the term implies the support of the popular rather than the monarchical part of our constitution, it is difficult to understand in what sense a king is expected to be a whig. The possession of power so naturally cre- ates a disposition to preserve, and even to extend, that power, that, in attributing to princes a participation of this our common nature, we are certainly urging no objec- tion peculiar to monarchy. The counter- acting powers vested in the other parts of our political machinery prove that the ope- ration of this principle was fully foreseen, and adequately provided for. It pannot, however, be altogether maintained that the tory ministers of George the third have been, practically, less whigs than their im- mediate predecessors ; government, on the contrary, has considerably abated of that high tone which it habitually held in the former reigns ; and this was, indeed, to be expected when the great aristocratic fami- lies which formed the strength of the whig party ceased to be the regular organs of the will of the crown, their opponents being, both by connexion and property, of less in- trinsic weight. Yet the political influence of a certain portion of the aristocracy has been increased in this reign, by the eleva- tion of several proprietors of borough towns to the house of peers. The increasing influence of the crown was also a subject of popular outcry through- out this reign ; and that its patronage enor- mously grew with the growth of our estab- lishments and the augmentation of the revenue and expenditure, is certain ; but the consequent influence of government must be viewed in connexion with the great increase of wealth among those upon whom that influence had to work ; for it is obvious that the same amount of patronage that would bribe a poor country, would be inadequate to affect a rich one; and, al- though the general state of society yet pre- sents much for the philanthropist to de- plore, that Great Britain is a rich one would not be doubted if it were possible to de- scribe her and her inhabitants as they were, 634 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. in all respects, at the commencement ant at the close of the reign ; a period during which no country and no people that ever existed could, we are convinced, exhibit greater alterations, and, in general, greater improvements. The state of the country, as it is displayed in its agriculture, manu- factures, and commerce the state of the roads and the means of internal communi- cation the connexion formed with foreign countries for commercial purposes, and the means by which that was carried on, as well as the effects it produced on domestic life, manners, and pursuits the great ad- vances in all branches of science and arts ; these, and a thousand other points, would form the topics of comparison between Great Britain in 1760 and Great Britain in 1820. The population of the island, which, in the former reign, was little more than eight millions, was, at the latter period, little less than doubled ; and if to this we add that of Ireland, the absentees in our vari- ous colonies and dependencies, and the na- tives of those distant possessions, upwards of sixty millions of persons now hold alle- giance to the British crown. During the first and the last wars of this reign, Great Britain was able not only to make the most unprecedented military ex- ertions, but her navy proved itself, at the same time, more than a match for the whole maritime force of Europe. It destroyed or blockaded the fleets of France, Holland, Denmark, and Spain ; and when Russia for a while assumed the character of an ene- my, it met the fleet of Russia also with alacrity and success. At one time the ships of war at sea exceeded six hundred, which, added to those in ordinary, building, re- pairing, &c. made a grand total of more than eleven hundred. To man this navy required a force of nearly one hundred and sixty thousand seamen and marines ; where- as, in the war which raged when his ma- jesty came to the throne, seventy thousand or seventy-five thousand were thought to be the utmost that the nation could furnish. That the mercantile navy of Britain has in- creased in a wonderful ratio needs no other proof than the necessity felt by our mer- chants for enlarging the principal ports of the kisgdom by means of extensive docks and other accommodations as at Hull, Liv- erpool, London, and elsewhere. These were found to be absolutely indispensable, not only for the accommodation of the East and West India trades, but for the recep- tion of vessels from all parts of the globe. In 1760 the amount of British shipping was stated at four hundred and seventy-one thousand two hundred and forty-one tons ; and in 1812 it was stated by Mr. Colquhoun at two million one hundred and sixty-three thousand ninety-four tons; exclusive of the shipping of Ireland. In the year 1760, the net customs' duties paid into the exchequer amounted to only one million nine hundred and sixty-nine thousand nine hundred and thirty-four pounds. In 1815 the consolidated customs, with the annual duties and war taxes, amounted to ten million four hundred and eighty-seven thousand five hundred and twenty-two pounds; the consolidated ex- cise, with the annual duties and war taxes, amounted to twenty-six million five hun- dred and sixty-two thousand four hundred and thirty-two pounds; and the stamps, post-office, assessed taxes, property-tax, land-tax, &c. produced twenty-nine million three hundred and ninety-three thousand eight hundred and forty-eight pounds ; ma- king a total net revenue of sixty-six million four hundred and forty-three thousand eight hundred and two pounds! Pitt estimated the total income of the country at one hun- dred million pounds ; but, according to sub- sequent calculations, more accurately made, it is considered to be almost, if not quite, one hundred and fifty million pounds. That a great debt, whether public or pri- vate, is a great evil, cannot be denied ; and the national debt, which originated in the days of king William, has certainly been most enormously increased during this reign. At the accession of queen Anne it amounted to upwards of sixteen million wunds. During the administration of Sir Robert Walpole it was thought, by well- mformed persons, that it might be increas- ed to one hundred million pounds; but a lundred millions was the ne plus ultra ; there it must stop ; and that was the point of national bankruptcy. By the war, of the American revolution, however, to the reat joy of the foreign enemies and rivals of England to the great alarm of foreign- ers who had property and dealings with icr and to the terror of the whole king- dom it was augmented to the sum of two lundred and fifty-seven million pounds ! and, notwithstanding the operation of the sinking fund, the amount of nominal capi- &\ of the public debt is now about eight lundred and fifty million pounds,, including the unfunded debt. That the consciousness of the nation be- ng in a state of retrogression since the >eace of 1815, should have spread a gloom over the concluding years of the reign, cannot be matter of surprise.; but, if every- hing could recede in its due proportion, relief would be certain, and not very dis- tant : whilst the prices of agricultural pro- GEORGE HL 17601820. 635 duce and of manufactures were gradually receding towards the point from which they started at the French revolution, the large sum annually payable for interest on the national debt not only afforded slender scope for reduction, but became the more difficult to be raised as the value of pro- duce declined. From the difficulties, how- ever, which have been overcome, from the triumphs which have been enjoyed, the genuine patriot must feel warranted, amidst a season of temporary gloom, in looking forward to bright and golden times, bear- ing in mind that the progress of know- ledge, which cannot now be impeded, must favor the pursuits of peace, and infuse a hatred of war ; and that, after the career of glory has been so honorably run by Great Britain, her rulers are more than ever bound, now that her swords are turn- ed into plowshares, and her spears into pruning-hooks, to cultivate peace on earth, and good-will towards men. 636 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER I. GEORGE IV. Accession of King George IV. The King's Declaration to his Council Proclamation of his Majesty Kings Illness and Recovery' Detailed Ceremonial of the late King's lying in State and Royal Funeral Parliament Dissolved by Commission Discov- ery of Cato-Street Conspiracy Detection, Trial, and Execution of Thistlewood and others Tumultuous Proceedings in the North Attack on the Soldiery at Bonny- muir Defeat of those concerned therein Trial of disaffected persons Conduct of Ministry General Election New Parliament King's First Speech Proceedings in Parliament Lord John RusseFs Motion on Elective Franchise Allusion to the Queen's Arrival Revision and Amendment of Criminal Code Education of the Poor State of Agriculture Afflicting position of Public Affairs Petition of Lon- don Merchants Ways and Means for 1820 Delicate situation of their Majesties Commission of Inquiry Mr. Brougham's Proposition to Government Proposed Compromise with the Queen Offer of fifty thousand pounds a-year to the Queen Queen's Narrative Her Majesty's Progress Mission of Lord Hutchinson Sudden departure of her Majesty from St. Omers Landing of Queen Caroline in England The King's Message to Parliament The Queen's Communication to House of Commons Proceedings in the Commons Statement of Ministers Proceedings in the House of Lords Bill of Pains and Penalties Account of Trial Speeches therein Bill abandoned by Ministers Parliament prorogued State of Conti- nental Affairs. ACCESSION OF KING GEORGE IV. 1820. CALLED to the throne of his ancestors, by the death of his venerated father, George the Fourth took upon himself the actual sovereignty of these realms, which he had already presided over many years as regent, during the distressing malady of his august predecessor. The peculiarly felicitous fea- tures attending his personal assumption of regality, were such as to promise to the na- tion something proudly pre-eminent in the history of reigns. Differing essentially in each particular from the situation of his pa- rent, at a similar epoch, who came to the throne in the midst of a protracted war, at an early period of life, with a character lit- tle known to the nation, less to the world, and wholly unused to govern, or any of the arts of polity the present monarch, from age, habits of general intercourse, universal knowledge, much experience as a ruler, and at the blissful period of profound peace, had to contend with no jarring opinions on the probable exercise of that sway, the results of which the people had often witnessed ; and being generally successful through a varied series of political difficulties and crit- ical emergencies, and graced as it had been by a long career of surpassingly splendid and brilliant victories, flattering to the na- tional pride, they had as long admired. In pursuance of established usage, the cabinet ministers assembled on the morning subsequent to the demise of the late king. When his majesty held his first court at Carlton house, which was numerously and brilliantly attended by all ranks and parties, who eagerly offered their homage to the reigning monarch, the reappointment of the lord chancellor, and several ministers, was the first exercise of sovereign power, the oaths of allegiance being administered to those present. A council was, in compli- ance with the royal ordinance, immediately holden; and all his late majesty's privy- counsellors then in attendance were sworn as members of his present majesty's council, and took their seats at the board according- ly. Thus regularly convened, the new sov- ereign made the following declaration. KING'S DECLARATION TO COUNCIL. " I SAVE directed that you should be as- sembled here, in order that I may discharge the painful duty of announcing to you the death of the king, my beloved father. " It is impossible for me adequately to ex- press the state of my feelings upon this mel- ancholy occasion ; but I have the consola- tion of knowing, that the severe calamity with which his majesty has been afflicted for so many years, has never effaced from the minds of his subjects the impressions created by his many virtues ; and his exam- ple will, I am persuaded, live for ever in the grateful remembrance of his country. " Called upon, in consequence of his ma- jesty's indisposition, to exercise the prerog- atives of the crown on his behalf, it was the first wish of my heart to be allowed to re- store into his hands the powers with which I was intrusted. It has pleased Almighty God to determine otherwise, and I have not GEORGE IV. 1820. 637 been insensible to the advantages which I have derived from administering in my dear father's name the government of this realm. " The support which I have received from parliament and the country, in times the most eventful, and under the most arduous circumstances, could alone inspire me with that confidence which my present statton demands. " The experience of the past will, I trust, satisfy all classes of my people, that it will ever be my most anxious endeavor to pro- mote their prosperity and happiness, and to maintain unimpaired the religion, laws, and liberties of the kingdom." As a subsequent act, the king, with the usual solemnities, and in conformity to the law, took the customary oaths, including that in the Scotch ritual, for the security of the national church of Scotland. These gracious declarations, with the form for the proclamation of the new monarch, were then agreed upon, and signed by the distinguished personages present. PROCLAMATION OF HIS MAJESTY. THE proclamation of his majesty took place publicly iu the metropolis on Monday, January thirty-first. To account for this apparent delay, it is only necessary to call to attention, that the late king expired on the Saturday evening, the following morn- ing being Sunday, January thirtieth, the an- niversary of the martyrdom of Charles I., a solemn fast is appointed by our church, and consequently this pageant would have been inadmissible. On the same day, Monday, the members of parliament were sworn in, and immediately adjourned till the seven- teenth of February. KING'S ILLNESS AND RECOVERY. DURING this recess, and treading as it were upon the heels of the ceremony of proclamation, the public attention was most powerfully excited, and the sympathies of the nation aroused, by distressing reports of the state of his majesty's health ; an illness supposed to have originated from agitation of spirits, arising from the domestic afflic- tion he had sustained in the rapidly succeed- ing loss of two such near relatives as a brother and a father : added to this, his ma- jesty, .who was scarcely recovered from an attack of gout, had incautiously exposed himself to the inclemency of the season, by standing a length of time under the portico of his palace, that his admiring people might behold- their monarch, while, amidst their enthusiastic plaudits, and loudly lengthened demonstrations of grateful and joyful huzzas, they hailed, and the heralds, for the first time, proclaimed him by his royal style and titles as George the Fourth. The appre- hensions respecting ,his majesty were not lessened, when the official bulletin an- VOL. IV. 54 nounced the king's illness to proceed from inflammation of the lungs that being the identical disease which had so unexpectedly proved fatal to the duke of Kent only a week previous. The melancholy ideas which this seeming fatality originated were fortunately not confirmed. The king was declared out of .danger after nine days ; but a long time passed- ere he gained his pristine health. To add to this sombre view of affairs, the nation was occupied in preparing for the mournful rites due to departed worth and majesty, and never was grief more strongly indicated, or sorrow more generally manifested, not more by the universal sable habits of the people, than by the saddened deportment of all ranks concerned in, or viewing the ob- sequies of the late king, which took place on Wednesday evening, February 16th. CEREMONIAL OF LATE KING'S LYING IN STATE AND ROYAL FUNERAL. As the minutias of these funeral transac- tions may hereafter be deemed interesting, without further apology it is observed, that soon after ten o'clock on Tuesday morning, the preparations were completed for the mournful ceremonial of his majesty's re- mains lying in state ; and the gates of Wind- sor castle were then thrown open for the admission of the public, many hundreds of whom had been anxiously waiting for some hours. The public were, in the first place, admitted by the grand entrance to the upper ward, or square of the Black Horse. The entrance was parted by a strong railing, diverging within the ward to the right and left, so that the stream of company, which incessantly poured in, was by that means directed at once to the north-eastern tower of the quadrangle, commonly called Eger- ton's tower. At the door four marshal's men were stationed, with their silver-tipped staves, and wearing, in addition to their state uniforms, ample scarfs of black silk, with crape hatbands, and sword-knots. As- cending the winding stairs of the tower, the visitor, after passing through an ante-cham- ber, filled with marshal's men and yeomen of the guard, entered at once into St. George's hall, where the departed sover- eign had been accustomed to hold the chap- ter of the knights of the garter. The throne and its canopy were covered with black cloth, and at the foot of the steps was a slight railing, also covered with black. Over the hall, diagonally to the door of the guard- chamber, matting was laid down, with a black cord on each side, to confine the com- pany to the space it occupied ; and on the other sides were stationed privates of the life-guards, with their arms reversed. This apartment had a very impressive effect. It led at once to the king's guard-chamber and state apartments, where the knights of 638 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. the garter, in the absence of the sovereign, dine at an installation. The lofty walls of this apartment were entirely covered with the armor of past ages ; bills and partizans, coats of mail, helmets, cuirasses, and glaives; bucklers and shields; matchlocks, broad- swords, pistole, daggers, muskets, and the armor of Edward the Black Prince. The visitors were, in this chamber also, separa- ted from the great body of the apartment by a cord covered with black ; and in the open space, yeomen of the guard were assembled in groups, who, not being immediately upon duty, waited here to relieve their comrades. Their costume was the same, in form, as their ordinary one, save that it was entirely of black cloth, with crape round the cap, and the arms of England embroidered in gold, silver, and colors. Their partizans had also a covering of black cloth. From this apartment the spectator passed through an ante-chamber; the floor, ceiling, and walls, entirely covered with sable drapery, and lighted at intervals by silver sconces, each bearing two small wax-lights; just sufficient to show a long line of yeomen of the guard, leaning on their crape-clothed partizans as motionless as statues. He then entered the presence chamber, in which re- posed the remains of the beloved monarch. The whole of this noble apartment was en- tirely covered with fine purple cloth, and illuminated by a profusion of silver sconces. On a raised platform, at the opposite ex- tremity, appeared the coffin supported upon tressels, and covered with a pall of rich pur- ple velvet, lined with white satin, and orna- mented at each side by three escutcheons, and on the top were deposited the kingly crown of England, and the electoral one of Hanover, on two purple velvet cushions, superbly fringed and tasseled with gold. On each side of the coffin were three stupen- dous wax-lights, in massive silver candle- sticks, and over it a radiated canopy of pur- ple cloth ; the cornice was also adorned with escutcheons. At the head of the coffin was seated the earl of Delawarr and lord Graves, the lords in waiting ; and colonel Whatley, colonel King, Sir George Campbell, and Sir Cavendish Bradshaw, the grooms in waiting. At the feet stood the pursuivants, in official costume, but uncovered, and about the apart- ment were a number of the band of gentle- men pensioners, in their state dresses, with crape scarfs. Thence the company passed through the king's drawing-room and its ante-chambers, and descended by the stair- case in the western tower, where king John resided during the time of his contest with his barons; and thence out through the quadrangle, by the grand southern entrance. At four .o'elock, the hour announced for closing the public ceremony of the day, the gates were shut. At break of day on Wednesday, the sol- emn toll of the great bell in the belfry of the castle was heard, and the royal standard was seen hanging half-staff down, on the round tower of the keep. At sun-rise the thunder of cannon was heard in the park. From that period till sun-set, the artillery, without intermission, continued firing five- minute guns throughout the day ; and from sun-set they fired minute-guns till the con- clusion of the funeral ceremony. A little before ten o'clock, the wax-lights in the sil- ver sconces having been replenished, and the lords and grooms in waiting, the pages of the bed-chamber, the heralds, the pur- suivants, the gentlemen pensioners, and the other state attendants, having taken their station around the royal coffin, the grand entrance to the upper court of the castle was thrown open to the impatient public, who rushed forward in all directions ; and, in despite of the utmost exertions of the police and military, the pressure continued more or less throughout the morning. At four o'clock the ceremony of the royal re- mains lying in state was at an end, and the gates were closed against thousands of per- sons, who, up to that moment, had been pressing forward for admission. Through- out the whole of the preceding night, pre- parations had been making in St. George's chapel. Three additional chandeliers were suspended from the roof along the centre of the choir, and a double sconce affixed to each of the stalls. Superb communion ser- vices of plate, from the different chapels royal, were arranged upon the communion table, the steps of which were covered with fine purple cloth. A raised platform cover- ed with black cloth was erected down the south aisle, and up the nave of the choir, with a railing on each side to prevent inter- ruption to the procession from the specta- tors. In the north aisle seats were erected, tier above tier, for the accommodation of those persons who might be able to obtain tickets from the lord high steward ; and the organ loft, which was not capable of afford- ing accommodation to more than ninety persons, was fitted up for the nobility. Be- fore the communion table, and over the opening of the subterraneous passages lead- ing to the mausoleum of the royal family, a superb canopy of royal blue velvet was placed, supported by four slight pillars, wreathed with velvet and gold. The can- opy was in the shape of a parallelogram, with the roof of the sweeping Chinese con- tour, and surrounded with a Gothic fretwork cornice in dead gold. From this cornice descended a festooned drapery of royal blue GEORGE IV. 1820. velvet, richly fringed and tasseled, of the same color, and each, festoon was further adorned with a royal escutcheon. To the right and left of the altar, diagonally, seats were placed in tiers for the foreign ambas- sadors, and the whole floor of the choir was covered with black cloth. As the evening advanced, the Eton scholars, assembled un- der their respective masters, to the number of more than five hundred, clothed in deep mourning, walked two and two to the gate of the hundred steps, where they were ad- mitted through the cloisters to the interior of the royal chapel, and took up their sta- tion in the north aisle. After the public ceremony of lying in state, and when the visitors were all ex- cluded from the castle, the lords in waiting and the other state attendants still remained with the royal corpse till seven o'clock, when his royal highness the duke of York, as chief mourner, took his seat at the head of the coffin, under the canopy, in lieu of the lords in waiting, and he continued sit- ting there during the lapse of two hours. In the interim, the persons who were to take part in the procession were assembled in St. George's hall, and there marshalled by Sir George Nayler, the Windsor herald. At nine o'clock the duke of York left the presence-chamber, and the yeomen of the guard, under the superintendence of the Exon, proceeded to remove the coffin of their royal master down the grand staircase to the vestibule, where it was placed upon the car ; and, in a few minutes afterwards, the procession set forward. The covered way was flanked on each side by a double rank of the foot-guards, with their arms reversed, and a single rank of mounted life-guards, every fourth man having a lighted flambeau. As the proces- sion issued from the palace, the silver trum- pets of the household commenced the per- formance of the "Dead march in Saul," in which they were joined by the bands of the several regiments on duty as they ad- vanced. The progress of the procession was extremely slow ; the discharge of the minute-guns adding greatly to the effect of the grand impressive scene. The proces- sion having reached the porch of the chapel, the knight-marshal's men, with trumpets and drums, filed off without the doors. At the entrance, the royal corpse was received by the very reverend the dean, attended by the choirs, who fell in immediately before Blanc Coursier, king-at-arms, bearing the crown of Hanover. The whole then pro- ceeded down the south aisle, and up the nave to the choir. As they advanced, the organ performed Dr. Croft's funeral ser- vice, " I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord." This occupied the time till the royal dukes, their supporters, and the other members of the procession, had reached their respective seats. The chief mourner sat on a chair at the head of the corpse, and the other princes of the blood- royal were seated near him. The lord chamberlain of his majesty's household (the marquis of Hertford) took his seat at the foot of the corpse, and the supporters of the pall and canopy arranged themselves on each side. The part of the service before the interment was then read by the dean ; the choir chaunted the psalms. Kent's an- them, " Hear my prayer, O Lord," was then performed, followed by "I heard a voice from heaven." The service then pro- ceeded to the collect, immediately preceding which, the celebrated anthem, composed by Handel for the funeral of queen Caroline, was performed by the whole choir. The royal corpse was lowered into the grave exactly at ten minutes after ten ; and as the consecrated earth was sprinkled upon its cover, the guards, who during the cere- mony had stood with their arms reversed, instantly recovered and grounded them on the pavement of the north and south aisle. At this solemn moment, Sir Isaac Heard, garter king-at-arms, came forward in his superb and embroidered mantle, and pro- nounced the style and titles of his late ma- jesty. At the conclusion of the mournful ceremony, the royal dukes slowly quitted the choir at the side-door, followed by a long train of the great officers of state, the nobility, and others, and proceeded to the chapter-house, whence they immediately went to their apartments in the castle, and the nobility repaired to their carriages; but it was long after midnight before the different courts of the castle were entirely cleared of the sorrowing multitude who at- tended to see their late royal master's re- mains deposited in a mausoleum, the con- struction of which was originally designed under his own superintendence, and com- pleted by the kind orders and attention of his son, our present beloved monarch. PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED. THE illness of the sovereign was a two- fold source of regret and inconvenience, as it precluded his majesty from receiving the addresses of the house of lords and com- mons on the throne, and also from going to dissolve the parliament in person. Our constitutional laws requiring the dissolu- ' tion to take place within the next six months following the demise of the king, it was decided that the parliament should be closed by commission on the twenty-eighth of February when the lord chancellor deliv- ered the subsequent speech : " My Lords and Gentlemen, " We are commanded by his majesty to 640 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. inform you, that it is a great disappoint- ment to his majesty, that on this first and solemn occasion he is prevented, by indis- position, from meeting you in person. " It would have been a consolation to his majesty, to give utterance in this place to those feelings, with which his majesty and the nation alike deplore the loss of a sove- reign, the common father of all his people. " The king commands us to inform you, that in determining to call without delay the new parliament, his majesty has been influenced by a consideration of what is most expedient for public business, as well as most conducive to general convenience. " Gentlemen of the House of Commons, "We are directed by his majesty to thank you for the provision which you have made for the several branches of the pub- lic service from the commencement of the present year, and during the interval which must elapse before a new parliament can be assembled. " My Lords and Gentlemen, " We are commanded to inform you, that, in taking leave of the present parliament, his majesty cannot refrain from conveying to you his warmest assurances of the sense which his majesty entertains of the import- ant services which you have rendered the country. "Deeply as his majesty lamented that designs and practices such as those which you have been recently called upon to re- press, should have existed in this free and happy country, he cannot sufficiently com- mend the prudence and firmness with which you directed your attention to the means of counteracting them. " If any doubt had remained as to the nature of those principles by which the peace and happiness of the nation were so seriously menaced, or of the excesses to which they were likely to lead, the flagrant and sanguinary conspiracy which has lately been detected, must open the eyes of the most incredulous, and must vindicate to the whole world the justice and expediency of those measures to which you judged it ne- cessary to resort, in defence of the laws and constitution of the kingdom." DISCOVERY OF CATO-STREET CON- SPIRACY. THE conspiracy thus glanced at in the speech of the lords commissioners, was one of the most desperate plots that could have been conceived by bad men for the worst of purppses ; the object contemplated being no less than an attempt to overthrow the existing government, and plunge these realms into anarchy and lawless confusion. This, as it appeared, was to be effected by the projected assassination of his majesty s ministers. The chief leader implicated in this ex- travagantly atrocious and absurd plot, was a person called Arthur Thistlewood ; ori- ginally bred to the drug trade, at Newark, in Nottinghamshire ; then a subaltern offi- cer in the militia, and subsequently in a regiment of the line in the West Indies. Having resigned his commission, imbued with republican principles, after passing some time in America, he visited France, at that period of the revolution when the sanguinary despot Robespierre had just ex- piated his guilty career on the public scaf- fold ; and it is presumed that the scenes he there witnessed confirmed the opinions upon which he finally acted. As an accomplice of doctor Watson, he was tried with him ; and on his acquittal he challenged lord Sidmouth, then secretary of state for the home department: this drew upon him the prosecution of his lordship, and a sen- tence of fine and imprisonment. When liberated, he seems to have nourished ideas of the utmost turpitude ; to realize which he devofced all his time associating with none but the most debased of the lowest class, who, stimulated by similar doctrines, were worthy coadjutors in sueh a cause. A nucleus of disappointed revenge, he gath- ered together a number of individuals des- perate as himself, and, with their aid, re- solved to destroy the ministers and abolish the government The next in consequence were Ings, a butcher; Davison, a Creole; Brunt and Tidd, shoemakers. The plan, as finally arranged by this horde of assassins, was so detestably wicked, so pregnant with dan- ger to themselves in theory, and attended with such little probability of success in practice, that it requires all the strength of corroborating evidence not only of spies, accomplices, and more creditable wit- nesses ere the human mind can reconcile such a union of madness and delinquency. It was resolved, after a series of meet- ings, that delay was useless ; and poverty, as they admitted, goading them to the at- tempt, Wednesday, twenty-third of Feb- ruary, was fixed upon for the individual murder of the ministers, at their respective houses. On the preceding Sunday the plan was arranged as follows: Forty or fifty men were to devote themselves to the task of assassination ; under no less pledge than a forfeiture of their own lives, in case of failure, through any want of address or de- termination, while executing the diabolical project. Other detachments were simul- taneously to seize upon the field-pieces, at the London light-horse station in Gray's Inn Lane, and the artillery ground. Possessed of these cannon, the Mansion-house was to ibe used as the palace of the provisional GEORGE IV. 1820. 641 government the bank was to be attacked and the metropolis was to be set fire to in various points. Similar meetings were held on the Monday and Tuesday ; on which last day one of the conspirators, named Edwards, informed Thistle wood that a cabinet dinner would take place on the morrow^ Thistle- wood's doubts being removed by the an- nouncement in the newspaper, and it being specified therein that the dinner would be given at lord Harro why's house in Grosve- nor square, on the Wednesday, he exultingly observed, " As there has not been a dinner for such a length of time, there will no doubt be fourteen or sixteen there, and it will be a rare haul to dispatch them all together !" Pursuant to the plan of operations now set- tled, one of their body was to go with a note addressed to lord Harrowby : when the house door was opened, a band of the conspirators were to rush in and while one party were occupied in seizing the domestics, and pre- venting any one below making their escape, another was to effect their entrance to the room which contained the ministers, and massacre them all. It was a peculiar pro- vision that the heads of lords Castlereagh and Sidmouth were to be brought away as trophies of success. From the house of lord Harrowby a few of the number were instan- taneously to repair to the barracks, in King- street, Portman-square, where, after firing the straw depot of the cavalry by means of fire-balls, they were to co-operate with the remainder in executing the other parts of the scheme already detailed. In the interim strict watch was kept upon lord Harrowby's dwelling, in order to ascertain that none of the police or military entered, or were con- cealed in its neighborhood. The whole of the day was passed by them in preparations for the intended plot : weapons and ammuni- tion were prepared, and proclamations writ- ten, to affix on those places that were to be set fire to. During this period these infat- uated wretches rendezvoused gradually; and about six o'clock in the evening, they met in a stable, in an obscure street, called Cato-street, near the Edgeware road. This place they had hired a short time previous : it comprised, besides the stable, two rooms above it, the ascent to which was by a ladder only. In the largest room, having taken the precaution to post a sentinel below, the conspirators were to be seen to the number of twenty-four or twenty-five, by the glim- mering ray of one or two small candles, ad- justing their accoutrements on an old carpen- ter's bench, and exulting in the fast approach- ing consummation of this scene of blood. DETECTION TRIAL, AND EXECUTION OF THISTLEWOOD. AMONGST their number was one disaffect- ed to the cause. This spy, the above named 54* Edwards, had for some time been in the pay of the administration, and gave regular in- telligence to his employers of all particulars connected with this foul and extraordinary transaction. Every precautionary method was adopted to lull suspicion : the apparent preparations for the banquet were continu- ed at lord Harrowby's mansion, till eight o'clock in the evening, and by these means the conspirators were detected with arms in their hands. To effect this, a large party of constables, under the direction of the ma- gistrate Mr. Biinie, proceeded to Cato-street, where it was intended they should be sup- ported by a detachment of the Coldstream guards. The police officers reached their destination about eight, immediately enter- ed the stable, ascended the ladder, and dis- covered the conspirators in the loft, (for it was nothing better,) on the point of setting , out to execute their meditated object The principal officer required them to surrender, and Smithers, one of the active police con- stables, dashing forward to secure Thistle- wood, received his sword through his body, and instantly fell. The candles were now blown out, the conflict became general; some of the gang rushed down the ladder, the officers grappling with them, while others forced their way from a window sit- uated in the back of the loft. At this junc- ture the military, commanded by captain Fitzclarence, arriving, two conspirators were secured in the act of escaping ; and by the co-operation of the police and soldiers, seven more were taken that evening, and securely conveyed to Bond-street. Thistlewood, who had escaped in the first moment of confu- sion, was seized next morning in bed, in the neighborhood of Finsbury-square, and some others were apprehended in the two follow- ing 1 days. March the twenty-seventh true bills of indictment for the charge of high treason, were returned against eleven of the prison- ers. And April the seventeenth, a commis- sion for the purpose being regularly opened, Thistlewood was put on his trial. The chief witness adduced, was a conspirator named Adams, who, after escaping from Cato-street, had been arrested on the following Friday, and kept in custody until he was brought forward to give his testimony in support of the prosecution. The trial lasted three days, when the accused was found guilty, on that part of the indictment" which charged him " with having conspired to levy," and with " having levied war against the king." Ings, Tidd, Brunt, and Davidson, were severajy tried and convicted. The other six being permitted to withdraw their original plea, now pleaded guilty ; and it appearing, that one of the number who had attended the meeting in CatQ-street, was ignorant of its 642 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. destined purpose, he was graciously pardon- ed ; while the sentence of the remaining five was commuted into transportation for the term of their natural lives. The throng of spectators assembled at the execution of the criminals was immense ; and commensurate was the disgust mani- fested at that part of the sentence, which displayed the horrid spectacle of mangling and decapitating the reeking remains of these miserably deluded men. This tribute of justice to violated laws, occupied in its shocking details, nearly an hour and a quarter; during which a strong body of cavalry lined the streets in the vicinity, and very considerable augmentations of all branches of the military, were assembled in the metropolis, pending the trial until the final execution of the sentence. TUMULTUOUS PROCEEDINGS IN THE NORTH. THIS extraordinary and desperate plot, was confined to a very limited number of infatuated wretches, unconnected with the revolutionary partisans, who, in this instance, seemed to have no share with them. Still little doubt remains that the general feeling of discontent, so diffusively spread abroad, was the foundation on which Thistlewood and his gang confidently looked for support and triumph. The spirit of discontent had been a length- ened time smothering, and at last broke forth in some districts in a very appalling man- ner. About the middle of March much alarm prevailed in and about Glasgow ; it being known that numbers of the class of artisans, and others, who wished to pursue their quiet avocations, unmixed with the noisy turmoil of political convulsions, had been repeatedly menaced by the adherents of riot and confusion. This had gained such a height, that they imagined they could not, without endangering the safety of their fam- ilies, persevere in the conduct of peaceful and loyal subjects. The panic which was now prevalent, on Sunday the second of April received an accession, when, on that morning, a treasonable proclamation was discovered posted on the walls of Glasgow, its neighboring towns and villages. This proclamation, supposed to eihanate from " the Committee for the formation of a Provisional Government," recommended the proprietors, and those concerned in large manufactories, to suspend their employ- ments till order should be insured by the organization alluded to. This paper like- wise enjoined all parties to desist from their avocations, denouncing as enemies and trai- tors to their king and country, whoever should attempt by force of arms, or other- wise, aught against the projected political amelioration. The fruits of this inflammatory placard exhibited themselves on the Monday. The weavers and colliers, in Paisley and Glas- gow, declined work; and this baneful ex- ample spread through the numerous bodies of wrights, iron-founders, masons, and ma- chine-makers, &c. Several of the cotton mills commenced their usual routine; but being presently disturbed by threatening visitors, most of their workmen did not re- turn after breakfast, or absented themselves in the latter part of the day. Glasgow now exhibited a most extraordinary aspect : the streets were crowded with throngs of arti- sans, idly loitering away their time, and waiting in anxious suspense for the first burst of the promised revolution, which was to commence at a moment, and to emanate from persons and powers invisible, and un- known. As these persons and powers re- mained shrouded in their original mystery, rumor, at the time, was busy in imputing the whole as a fabrication of political es- pionage, with what degree of truth is not evident. Suffice it to observe, that if any secret hope of disorder was nourished, it happily was not realized ; the people then conjugated, did not attempt by any open act to violate the public peace, the far greater number of them seeming to be swayed more by motives of curiosity and dread of these secret agitators, than by any revolutionary fervor or desire of change to plunge the country into confusion. ATTACK ON SOLDIERY AT BONNYMUIR RESISTANCE to the public authorities did on one occasion show itself. On the Wed- nesday, an individual of the Stirling yeo- manry, proceeding from Kilsyth to Falkirk, fell in with a radical squad, armed in a heterogeneous manner with muskets, pikes, and pistols, these demanding his arms, which he refused to surrender ; after seve- ral ineffectual shots were discharged at him, he escaped uninjured to his former quarters at Kilsyth. The commanding offi- cer immediately detached eleven cavalry, and an equal number of yeomanry, to scour the road leading to Falkirk, and clear it, if possible, of the insurgents. The military soon came in sight of them. The insur- gents, augmented in number, had, in the interim, found some arms and food in the neighboring houses, and were now posted advantageously on a rising ground in Bon- nymuir, commanding an extensive view of country. This, on the advance of the cav- alry, the insurgents subsequently abandon- ed, and now sought the protection of a wall, from behind which they fired several times: the commander of the detachment requi- ring them to surrender their arms, received in answer a volley therefrom, accompanied with a loud cheer, and a remark that they GEORGE I\ r . 1820. 643 came there to fight. Secured by the stone wall in front from an immediate charge, the cavalry were compelled, as well by that opposition as the mossy and plashy state of the ground, to make a circuitous approach to a gap which offered a readier access. Observing this intention, the rebels hur- ried to the gap for the purpose of disputing the entrance, but the better half hurried off to their different homes. DEFEAT AND TRIAL OF DISAFFECTED PERSONS. THOSE who still made a show of resist- ance, were instantly scattered; many of them severely wounded, and nineteen pris- oners were taken. Besides the commander of the troops who was wounded, three of the soldiery received hurts, one horse also being killed, and three wounded. The majority of those implicated in this petty insurrection, had arrived that morning from Glasgow, hoping to find, as prearranged, a considerable number from the neighboring districts, associated on Bonnymuir. The plan it appeared was to have marched forth- with to have taken possession of the Car- ron iron-works to have equipped them- selves therefrom with arms, particularly artillery, and thence to have instituted a regular plan of offensive military opera- tions. These intentions were defeated by the judicious precautions of the magistracy, who, in promptly co-operating with the military, prevented the evil-minded from reaching the proposed rendezvous. So that instead of the four or five thousand expect- ed to muster there, there were found about fifty only, whose strength of infatuation made them true to their engagements, in despite of rational prudence. Open resist- ance was thus crushed. The failure of this Quixotic attempt tended on the one hand to extinguish the hopes of the deluders, by the defection of those heretofore deluded, who, resuming their former habits of indus- try, in a few days the threatened storm passed over, and that part of the country displayed no further signs of political agi- tation. A special commission being held in the different counties where these treasonable acts had taken place ; all persons who were in custody were brought to trial : and, on this occasion, though numerous sentences were recorded, the royal clemency evinced itself by extending mercy to all but three. One of these had been long known as an organizer of sedition; the other two had been taken in open resistance, at the affair with the cavalry before-mentioned. The execution of these three delinquents differ- ed materially from that of Thistlewood and his coadjutors, in as far as the Scotch reb- els died, some of them penitent of their pc- itical guilt, and all of them sensibly af- fected with proper feelings of morality and religion. CONDUCT OF MINISTRY. IN taking a retrospect of the many mo- mentous cares which occupied the attention of ministers; the earliest transaction, and one which, from its peculiar delicacy, ob- truded itself on the public eye, was the unhappy prelude to those proceedings against the consort of the reigning mon- arch, which afterwards convulsed the king- dom from one extremity to the other. After advising the queen's name to be omitted in the liturgy, which omission was sanctioned by an order of council ; a case of alleged misconduct out of the realms was submit- ted to the consideration of the crown-law- yers, who gave it as their decided opinion, that no indictment could be supported on these premised grounds. The solidity of which opinion can be alone duly estimated when treating hereafter more fully on this head. GENERAL ELECTION. On issuing the writs for the return of in- dividuals to sit in parliament, the cities of London and Westminster took the lead ; and during their elections, as well as throughout the kingdom, every nerve was strained, every influence used by all parties, to bring in those individuals whose after- exertions promised to be most conducive to their several views : and as these returns became public, the characteristics of the various members elected were scrutinized, and the consequent assemblage of the sen- ate looked for with considerable anxiety by the great class of the community. NEW PARLIAMENT. ON the twenty-first of April, the .new parliament began to assemble, till the twen- ty-third was occupied by the several mem- bers taking the requisite oaths. On that day the right honorable Charles Manners Sutton was unanimously rechosen as speaker of the house of commons. And on the twenty-seventh, his majesty opened his first parliament in person, by delivering a gra- cious speech from the throne in the follow- ing terms : KING'S FIRST SPEECH. " I HAVE taken the earliest occasion of assembling you here, after having recurred to the sense of my people. " In meeting you personally for the first time since the death of my beloved father, I am anxious to assure you, that I shall al- ways continue to imitate his great example, in unceasing attention to the public inter- ests, and in paternal solicitude for the wel- fare and happiness of all classes of my sub- jects. "I have received from foreign powers 644 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. renewed assurances of their friendly dispo- sition, and of their earnest desire to culti- vate with me the relations of peace and amity. " Gentlemen of the House of Commons, " The estimates for the present year will be laid before you. " They have been framed upon principles of strict economy ; but it is to me matter of the deepest regret, that the state of the country has not allowed me to dispense with those additions to our military force which I announced at the commencement of the last session of parliament " The first object to which your attention will be directed is, the provision to be made for the support of the civil government, and of the honor and dignity of the crown. " I leave entirely at your disposal my in- terest in the hereditary revenues: and I cannot deny myself the gratification of de- claring, that so far from desiring any ar- rangement which might lead to the impo- sition of new burdens upon my people, or even might diminish, on my account, the amount of the reductions incident to my accession to the throne, I can have no wish, under circumstances like the present, that any addition whatever should be made to the settlement adopted by parliament in the year 1816. " My Lords and Gentlemen, " Deeply as I regret that the machina- tions and designs of the disaffected should have led, in some parts of the country, to acts of open violence and insurrection, I cannot but express my satisfaction at the promptitude with which those attempts have been suppressed by the vigilance and activity of the magistrates, and by the zeal- ous co-operation of all those of my sub- jects, whose exertions have been called forth to support the authority of the laws. " The wisdom and firmness manifested by the late parliament, and the due execu- tion of the laws, have greatly contributed to restore confidence throughout the king- dom; and to discountenance those princi- ples of sedition and irreligion which had been disseminated with such malignant per- severance, and had poisoned the minds of the ignorant and unwary. "I rely upon the continued support of parliament in my determination to main- tain, by all the means intrusted to my hands, the public safety and tranquillity. " Deploring, as we all must, the distress which still unhappily prevails among many of the laboring classes of the community, and anxiously looking forward to its re- moval or mitigation, it is, in the mean time, our common duty, effectually to protect the loyal, the peaceable, and industrious, against those practices of turbulence and intimida- tion, by which the period of relief can only be deferred, and by which the pressure of the distress has been incalculably aggra- vated. " I trust that an awakened sense of the dangers which they have incurred, and of the arts which have been employed to se- duce them, will bring back by far the greater part of those who have been un- happily led astray, and will revive in them that spirit of loyalty, that due submission to the laws, and that attachment to the con- stitution, which subsist unabated in the hearts of the great body of the people, and which, under the blessing of Divine Provi- dence, have secured to the British nation the enjoyment of a larger share of practi- cal freedom, as well as of prosperity and happiness, than have fallen to the lot of any other nation in the world." PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT LORD JOHN RUSSEL'S MOTION ON ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. ONE of the first acts of the legislature referred to a subject of vital import to the constitution. Proof having been given du- ring the preceding parliament, that the ut- most venality prevailed in the borough of Grampound, wherein it was substantiated, that the greater portion, nearly amounting to the whole, of the electors, were in the habit of selling their votes ; of which of- fence several had been convicted; lord John Russel, upon the Issue of these indict- ments, had brought forward a bill in the house of commons, for the purpose of dis- franchising that borough, and transferring the right of election to Leeds. This im- portant measure, his lordship seized the earliest opportunity of pursuing ; and the necessary preliminaries having been ad- justed, a second reading of the bill was moved on the nineteenth of May, though scarcely any opposition disclosed itself against the deserved punishments of this highly corrupted borough ; of which one of their corporate body, in palliation, made use of these remarkable words: " That there might be perhaps two or three voters who had not taken bribes." Yet in the mode of disposing of the franchise, much conflict of opinion arose. Before any dis- cussion could take place on the essential point of forfeiture, eventful circumstances so completely engrossed the attention of parliament, that the measure fell through, the session having closed, without any final decision on the bill in question. ALLUSION TO QUEEN'S ARRIVAL. THE circumstances referred to originated in the unexpected arrival of her majesty queen Caroline, who, after several years travelling in foreign countries, now return- ed to England. The general explosion of GEORGE IV. 1820. 645 sympathies excited by this event, and the ever-to-be-regretted proceedings instanta- neously following it, annihilated as it were all other matters of import, to which the attention of parliament was tributary. Still, as various transactions necessarily preceded this, we must continue our parliamentary records. REVISION AND AMENDMENT OF CRIMI- NAL CODE. IN this period, Sir James Mackintosh distinguished himself as a philanthropist, in benevolently devoting his time, and great knowledge of jurisprudence, to a renewed plan for ameliorating the system of crimi- nal laws ; and these exertions, on renewal, met with much success. In the preceding session, a committee had been deputed to take this important subject under their con- sideration ; and, so far as related to punish- ment of a capital nature, had recommended considerable modifications. Complying with these suggested ideas, on the ninth of May, Sir James moved for leave to bring in six bills to amend our penal code. Three out of these six different bills, after much and lengthened discussion, and some alter- cation in the house of peers, were finally carried through both houses of the legisla- ture. Of these three bills, the first was to repeal the acts by which stealing privately in shops to the value of forty shillings was made a capital offence ; but, upon the sug- gestion of the lord chancellor Eldon, it still subjected to capital punishment those who should privately steal in shops to a value exceeding ten pounds. The second bill which passed was for the repealing certain acts of parliament, which visited with capital punishment a class of actions, that were in fact either no moral offence, or, from their obsoleteness, could at most be deemed but misdemeanors ; such as rendering it a capital crime for an Egyp- tian to reside or remain one year in the kingdom ; notorious thieves residing in Cumberland or Northumberland, was still a capital offence by the statute-book; as was any one being found in disguise in the mint, or for any one injuring Westminster bridge. The third bill went to repeal those clauses of certain acts of parliament which consti- tuted the offences specified in them capital, and which, by this amended act, would be converted from capital into simple felonies. Of the offences thus modified were enu- merated the taking away of any maid, wife, or widow, for the sake of her fortune ; the receiving of stolen goods ; the destroying of trees ; the breaking down the banks of rivers; the wounding of cattle; sending threatening letters ; and all the capital of- fences created by the bankrupt laws, and the marriage act. For these several crimes, differing as they did in consequence, the indiscriminate punishment of death was (as the statute-book stood then unrepealed) still the sentence of the law. By this bill, with certain exceptions in particular cases, that heaviest punishment death was now com- muted for transportation, imprisonment, or hard labor, within the discretionary powers of the court. The ultimate success of these bills, ac- companied, as they were, with the modifi- cations of the house of peers, is a convinc- ing proof, if such were wanting, of the progressive march of reason and humanity, which in the present time may be looked upon with complacency as the precursor of more triumphs over prejudices, however inveterate. England's criminal code had too long been disgraced with these atro- cious anomalies : at length those blemishes in the statute-book were beheld, acknow- ledged, and partially erased. Sir Samuel Romilly's hand may be said to have wiped the first stains therefrom ; and his name will long be remembered by an admiring posterity, for the perseverance with which he attacked those prejudices which protect- ed such statutes, and for the strenuous' ef- forts he made, during the whole of his life, to ameliorate our criminal jurisprudence. Sir James Mackintosh, worthily pursuing the steps of his predecessor, and equally zealous in the cause of humanity, must be cheered by the progress he has made in so righteous a cause ; and thus encouraged, a continuation of his labors will doubtless re- ward him by the final accomplishment of his virtuous and benevolent attempt. The attention given to this subject by its parti- sans is a source of eternal renown. Never- fading wreaths of civic honor should be en- twined round the brows of Rotnilly and Mackintosh and the parliament of 1820 will be gratefully hailed by every friend to the honor of his country, for having passed these laws, so much milder in their import, and beneficial in their influence. EDUCATION OF THE POOR. MR. BROUGHAM, having rendered an im- portant service to his country in his efforts to establish a system for the detection and remedy of existing abuses in the manage- ment and appropriation of various charita- ble funds and establishments, early this ses- sion brought forward a plan for the educa- tion of the poor. This subject, of the ut- most importance embracing so much to interest the better feelings of society, and opening so fine a. field for discussion was not to receive the desired concurrence of all parties. Accordingly Mr. Brougham's measure did not at this period experience the support it needed : and having obtained 646 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. leave to bring in his bill, which was read on the eleventh of July for the first time, the measure unfortunately fell to the ground. STATE OF AGRICULTURE. THE member for Surrey, Mr. Holme Sum- ner, moved for a select committee to take into consideration the agricultural state of the country, the table of the house being loaded with petitions from all parts of the kingdom, complaining of its agricultural distress. The general prayer of these pe- titions was for some further restriction upon the importation of foreign corn, under a conviction that the before-mentioned ca- lamity was much aggravated by the large importations of grain from different parts of the continent. These views of intended relief, gratifying as they might be to the agriculturalists, were not indulged with equal complacency by the classes engaged in manufactures and general commerce who, equally oppressed by the peculiar spirit of the times, were loud in their out- cries of distress, which could not meet al- leviation, but on the contrary must expe- rience much increase by any measure, how- ever plausible, tending to raise the price of corn. The debates resulting from the mo- tion of the member for Surrey, occupied the house for a considerable time ; and when the bill came to be argued, those debates were protracted to a considerable length and every minutia connected with the im- portant questions which that motion in- volved, elicited the best endeavors of the commercial and landed interests;' and in their conflicting opinions, as well as those on both sides of the house, great ability was displayed. AFFLICTING POSITION OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. THOUGH this bill promised much, yet it was speedily discovered that no immediate remedy for existing evil could possibly be devised ; and the only hope of effectually removing the general distress must arise from the lenient hand of time when a .continuance of peace, and a perseverance in rigid economy and efficient retrench- ment, might authorize a gradual and liberal diminution of taxation, and a general and improved increase of foreign markets. These lengthened discussions were humil- iating to national feeling, and painful to humanity, by the statements adduced of political and private wretchedness, appa- rently irremediable, which at that time ex- isted in many parts of the kingdom. De- preciated as our landed property was then in value, and darkly as the clouds impended over our national prosperity, it yet was a never-failing source of true consolation to every thinking person, who contemplated with a great degree of satisfaction the ex- panded views of liberal and enlightened policy which actuated the greater mem- bers of ministry and opposition, whilst ar- guing on these subjects of leading import. And the natural inference deduced from the candor manifested by all parties was such as to warrant the well-grounded hope of the most beneficial results to the real interests of the community, from the lauda- ble endeavors of the house in their future parliamentary labors. PETITION OF LONDON MERCHANTS. As the period of misfortune will some- times achieve miracles, so the present crisis produced a most important petition from the great body of London merchants, enumer- ating the many and serious difficulties un- der which the commerce of the country labored, which was introduced to the con- sideration of the commons by Mr. A. Ba- ring, preluded by an able and well-digest- ed speech. This petition possessed, among other remarkable features, the abandonment of many ancient errors of the mercantile system, and the consequent prayer for a commerce unrestricted by monopoly, and fraught with an entire freedom of trade, which it recommended, as being most es- sentially conducive to promote individual enterprise, and national prosperity. WAYS AND MEANS FOR 1820. ON the nineteenth of June, the chancel- lor of the exchequer brought forward the usual statement of financial arrangements for the service of the year. On the subject of the army estimates, its expenditure, which for the year 1819 had been taken at eight million seven hundred and eighty- two thousand pounds, received an increase of eight hundred and four thousand pounds ; which made an aggregate of nine million five hundred and eighty-six thousand pounds, a sum rendered necessary by the augment- ation of force the situation of the country demanded. The estimate of naval expen- diture also went beyond that of the pre- ceding year by one hundred and fifty thou- sand pounds ; being now calculated at six million five hundred and eighty-six thou- sand pounds. The sum total for the service of the current year, including the interest of the national debt, was estimated at fifty millions five hundred thousand pounds. The ways and means proposed to meet this enormous charge upon the empire, were, exclusive of permanent revenues, the con- tinuation of the customary annual taxes, amounting to three million pounds, the sum of two million five hundred thousand pounds, from the produce of the temporary excise duties, which had remained in force since the war, two hundred and forty thousand pounds arising from lottery, old naval stores, two hundred and sixty thou- GEORGE IV. 1820. 647 sand pounds, a loan of five million pounds, seven million pounds of exchequer-bills to be funded, together with twelve million pounds, taken from the sinking fund. These various items comprised the budget, and will be found to form in the aggregate the required sum, amounting to thirty million pounds. DELICATE SITUATION OF THEIR MAJES- TIES. THE attention of the legislature was now aroused, and this posture of parliamentary affairs suddenly arrested, and remained so for a considerable lapse of time, being al- most exclusively devoted to the unhappy situation of their majesties. The reader will remember, that reference has before been had to the proceedings which arose in consequence of charges exhibited against the queen, whilst in her subordinate sta- tion, as princess of Wales ; the consequence of which proceedings was the full and tri- umphant exoneration and acquittal of her royal highness, coupled with the disgrace of her accusers. From that period she had remained in great privacy, nearly amount- ing to total seclusion; though afterwards when, in pursuance of the advice of friends, or her own inclinations, she went abroad, her mode of life varied, passing in rapid succession through many distant countries. Whilst thus occupied in travelling, her name was seldom brought before the pub- lic ; and except in the casual perusal of an occasional extract from foreign newspapers, none seemed to remember her long absence from England. Though the million then appeared so regardless, subsequent disclo- sures have evinced that the conduct of her royal highness, during her residence abroad, had been visited with strict scrutiny, and a formal inquiry had been instituted, in or- der, if possible, to ascertain what belief might i)e afforded to reports which had spread about, in their nature affecting her character most materially. Rumors of an extremely prejudicial complexion were cur- rent on the continent, charging the princess of Wales with no less a dereliction of her high station, than that of living in a state of habitual adultery, with an individual whom she had rapidly raised from the ob- scure situation of her courier, to that of the first post in her household. . COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. AN inquiry into the truth or falsehood of so serious a charge was now absolutely ne- cessary. And, accordingly, it appears, that the English government appointed commis- sioners, who repaired to Germany and the Italian states, for the purpose of collecting evidence, touching those transactions, which were so repeatedly stated to have occurred. The labors of these commissioners, in their collecting of evidence, was not made pub- lic, nor were any measures of publicity then adopted by the government, arising out of the information obtained from the Milan committee. MR. BROUGHAM'S PROPOSITION TO GOVERNMENT. IN consequence of these reported move- ments, it is supposed, in the month of June, 1819, Mr. Brougham, the acknowledged legal adviser and confidential servant of the princess of Wales, communicated a propo- sition to the earl of Liverpool, then prime minister to the prince-regent, that the in- come of thirty-five thousand pounds per annum, at that time enjoyed by her royal highness, but which was to expire at the demise of the late king, should, in lieu of terminating at that premised period, be se- cured to her for her natural life; and that upon this arrangement taking place, the princess should undertake to reside abroad permanently; and not assume, at any fu- ture time, the title or rank of queen of England. This singular proposal was, at the period, stated to be made without the cognizance or authority of the princess, or any knowledge of it on her part. Such being the circumstances attending this fact, government accordingly replied, that there would be no indisposition on its part, at the proper epoch, to give due attention to the principle on which the proposal rested, pro- vided it received the sanction of her royal highness ; and in this manner was that ne- gotiation then disposed of. PROPOSED COMPROMISE WITH QUEEN. BY the accession of the king, when de facto, the princess, his consort, became queen of England, it then was imperative, that government should decide upon the line of conduct which was to be observed respecting her ; and, in their determina- tion, they appear to have selected a mode of compromise, which, to say nothing either in extenuation or otherwise, would at least have prevented the odious trial that after- wards took place. This compromise was founded upon the basis of Mr. Brougham's former proposal, and now required of the queen the quiet renouncement, or a priori, the non-assumption of her title, with her permanent exile from the realm. Such a serious determination on the part of the ministry, must have resulted from a very strong, if not thorough, conviction on their minds of her majesty's delinquency ; with a consequent persuasion of the absolute ne- cessity for such compromise with guilt, to insure the paramount safety and welfare of the constitution and the nation. Upon weaier grounds than these, it would be impossible to screen the conduct of minis- ters, by urging aught in their defence. 648 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. That their after-measures were concerted upon, and connected with, the decision to refuse all public recognition of her title, as strongly as possible, may be gathered from their very first act, after the king's acces- sion ; when her name as princess of Wales was as a preliminary necessarily expunged from the church liturgy, and the omission of it in her character of queen was, as al- ready cursorily mentioned, wholly omitted by order of council. OFFER OF FIFTY THOUSAND A-YE A R TO QUEEN. THE next step taken by ministers was an effort to obtain some declaration from her majesty, recognizing on her part the same principles. To effect this, Mr. Brougham was again applied to, and to him a memo- randum was confided to be communicated to the queen. This memorandum contain- ed the terms on which government would treat with her majesty, and which was an exact transcript of those Mr. Brougham had originated, save that on the point of allow- ance, in lieu of the thirty-five thousand pounds proposed by him, it was suggested to augment the sum to fifty thousand pounds yearly. The verbiage of which memoran- dum was as follows : " 15th April, 1820. " THE act of the 54th George III. cap. 160, recognized the separation of the prince-re- gent from the princess of Wales, and allot- ted a separate provision for the princess. This provision was to continue during the life of his late majesty; and to determine at his demise. In consequence of that event, it has altogether ceased, and no provision can be made for her, until it shall please his majesty to recommend to parliament an ar- rangement for that purpose. "The king is willing to recommend to parliament to enable his majesty to settle an annuity of fifty thousand pounds a-year upon the queen, to be enjoyed by her during her natural life ; and in lieu of any claim of jointure or otherwise, provided she will en- gage not to come into any part of the British dominions, and provided she engages to take some other name or title, than that of queen ; and not to exercise any of the rights or priv- ileges of queen, other than with respect to the appointment of law-officers, or to any proceedings in courts of justice. The an- nuity to cease upon the violation of these engagements, namely, upon her coming into any part of the British dominions, or her assuming the title .of queen, or ; her exercis- ing any of the rights or privileges of queen, other than above excepted, after the annuity shall have been settled upon her. On her consent to an engagement on the above con- ditions, Mr. Brougham is desired to obtain a declaration to this effect, signed by her- self, and at the same time a full authority to conclude with such persons as his majesty may appoint a formal engagement upon these principles." A fact no less extraordinary avowed itself, that this memorandum transmitted to Mr. Brougham, by lord Liverpool, by some fatal- ity was not communicated to her majesty, until, in the course of subsequent proceed- ings, some allusion being made to it by his lordship, in a note addressed to the queen on the ninth of June ; when in her reply thereto, on the next day, she commands Mr. Brougham to state, '' that the memorandum of April fifteenth, 1820, which the proposi- tion made through lord Hutchinson had ap- peared to supersede, has also been now sub- mitted to her majesty for the first time." The proposition now alluded to, as made through the medium of lord Hutchinson, arose from a tissue of difficulties and ex- tremely delicate circumstances, which will be dilated upon as the history proceeds. In the interim, it is highly necessary and prop- er to observe, the great distance at which Mr. Brougham was stationed from his illus- trious client, offered no inconsiderable bar to that prompt dispatch, which was so pe- culiarly desirable to have been observed on an occasion of such first-rate importance. The queen, wh'o was engaged in a travel- ling excursion, had passed about three months in the French dominions, and on quitting Toulon on the twenty-sixth Janu- ary, had returned to Tuscany in the com- mencement of February. Up to that period, no official intimation was afforded her of the death of George the Third : the only intel- ligence she had acquired upon that subject, was from the newspapers ; to which channel of information, she was indebted for the ap- prisal that her name had been omitted in the liturgy of the church. Towards the latter end of the same month, February, her majesty visited Rome, and upon her arrival in that city, she immediately assumed her title of queen of England, demanding, at the same time, a guard of honor from the papal government. Cardinal Gonsalvi, in reply to this requisition, stated, " that as no com- munication on the subject had been made to the papal government by the king of Eng- land and Hanover, or his ministers, his holi- ness did not know that the queen of Eng- land was in Rome, and in consequence could not grant her a guard of honor." QUEEN'S NARRATIVE. INCENSED by this answer, her majesty wrote a letter dated the sixteenth March, describing the numerous insults which she stated as having received from different courts, which letter appeared in all the Eng- lish newspapers about the middle of April. " During my residence at Milan," she ob- - GEORGE IV. 1820. 649 serves, " in consequence of the infamous behavior of Mr. Ompteda, (he having bribed my servants to become the traducers of my character,) one of my English gentlemen challenged him ; the Austrian government hent off Mr. Ompteda. I wrote myself to the emperor of Austria, requesting his pro- tection against spies who employed persons to introduce themselves into my house, and particularly into my kitchen, to poison the dishes prepared for my table. 1 never re- ceived any answer to this letter. After this I was obliged to go into Germany to visit my relatives, the margravine of Baden, and the margravine of Bareuth. The shortest road for my return to Italy was through Vienna, and I took that road with the flat- tering hope that the emperor would protect me. Arrived at Vienna, I demanded public satisfaction for the public insult I had re- ceived in Lombardy ; this was refused me, and a new insult was offered. The emperor refused to meet me, or to accept my visit. Lord Stewart, the English ambassador, hav- ing received a letter from me informing him of my intention of returning by Vienna, and of taking possession of his house there, (as it is the custom of foreign ambassadors to receive their princesses into their houses when travelling) absolutely refused me his house, left the town, and retired into the country. Lord Stewart afterwards wrote a very impertinent letter to me, which is now in Mr. Canning's hands, as I sent it to Eng- land. Finding the Austrian government so much influenced by the English ministers, I sold my villa on the lake of Como, and settled myself quietly in the Roman estates. I there met with great civility for some time, and protection against the spy Mr. Ompteda ; but from the moment I became queen of England, all civility ceased. " Cardinal Gonsalvi has been much influ- enced since that period by the baron de Rydan, the Hanoverian minister, who sucf- ceeded Mr. Ompteda, deceased. The baron de Rydan has taken an oath never to ac- knowledge me as queen of England ; and persuades every person to call me Caroline of Brunswick. A guard has been refused me as queen, which was granted to me as prin-i cess of Wales, because no communication i has been received from the British govern- ment announcing me as queen. My mes- senger was refused a passport to England. I also experienced much insult from the court of Turin. " Last year in the month of September, (I was then travelling incognito, under the name of the countess Oldi,) I went to the confines of the Austrian estates, to the first small town belonging to the king of Sar- dinia, on my way to meet Mr. Brougham at Lyons, as the direct road lay through! VOL. IV. 55 Turin. I wrote myself to the queen of Sar- dinia, informing her that I could not remain at Turin, being anxious to reach Lyons as soon as possible, and also that I was travel- ling incognito ; I received no answer to this letter. The postmaster at Bronio, the small post-town near the villa where I then re- sided, absolutely refused me post-horses ; in consequence of this refusal, I wrote to Mr. Hill, the English minister at Turin, de- manding immediate satisfaction, and the reason of such an insult Mr. Hill excused himself upon the plea of its being a misun- derstanding ; and told me that post-horses should be in readiness whenever I should require them. I accordingly set out, and arranged to go through the town of Turin at night, and only to stop to change horses, but I received positive orders not to go through the town, but to proceed by a very circuitous road, which obliged me to travel almost the whole night in very dangerous roads, and prevented me from reaching the post-town (where I should have passed the night) till five in the morning, when, by going through Turin, I might have reached it by ten at night. " Finding so much difficulty attending my travelling, I thought the most proper mode for me to pursue would be to acquaint the high personages of my intention of passing the whiter at Lyons, or in the neighborhood of Lyons, previous to my intended return to England in the spring. I addressed a letter to the French minister for foreign affairs, informing him of my intentions, and also that I wished to preserve the strictest in- cognito. No notice was taken of this letter ; and one addressed to the prefect of Lyons met with like contempt. In fact, from the seventh October to the twenty-sixth Janu- ary, the day I embarked from Toulon for Leghorn, I received so much insult from the governor and prefect, that I almost con- sidered my life in danger, unprotected as I then was in such a country. Another mo- tive induced me to leave it. Mr. Brougham could not fix the period for meeting me any- where in France. "I have written to lord Liverpool and lord Castlereagh demanding to have 'my name inserted in the liturgy of the church of England ; and that orders be given to all British ambassadors, ministers, and consuls, that I should be received and acknowledged as the queen of England; and after the speech made by lord Castlereagh in the house of commons in answer to Mr. Brough- am, I do not expect to receive further in- sult. I have also demanded that a palace may be prepared for my reception. Eng- land is my real home, to which I shall im- mediately fly. I have dismissed my Italian court, retaining only a sufficient number of 650 HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. persons to conduct me to England ; and if Buckingham bouse, Maryborough house, or any other palace is refused me, I shall take a house in the country till my friends can find a house for me in London. I have sent a messenger to England to make the proper arrangements for that purpose." The letter addressed on this occasion to lord Liverpool, was as follows : " ROME, 16th March, 1820. " The queen wishes to be informed through the medium of lord Liverpool, first minister to the king, for what reason or motive the queen's name is left out of the general prayers, with a view to prevent all her sub- jects from paying her such respect as is due to her. And it is an equally great omission towards the king, that his consort-queen should be obliged to submit to such neglect, as if the archbishop was in perfect ignorance of the real existence of the queen Caroline of England. The queen is desirous that lord Liverpool should communicate this let- ter to the archbishop of Canterbury. Lord Liverpool will with difficulty believe how much the queen was surprised at this first act of cruel tyranny towards her ; since she had been informed through the newspaper; of the twenty-second February, that, in the course of the debates in the house of com- mons, lord Castlereagh, one of his best friends, assured the queen's attorney-general that the king's servants would not use to- wards the queen any inattention or harsh- ness. And after that speech of lord Castle- reagh the queen is surprised to find her name left out of the liturgy, as if she no longer existed in this world. The queen trusts before she arrives in England these matters will be corrected, and that she will receive a satisfactory answer from lore Liverpool. " CAROLINE, QUEEN." HER MAJESTY'S PROGRESS. THE diffusive publication of these letters naturally excited a general idea that her majesty would instantly shape her course for England : it was confidently asserted that her majesty was rapidly proceeding thither; ane even the public journals so far lent them- selves to busy rumor as to announce that she had reached Calais, and would " be in Dover on the following day, the nineteenth of April." Concurring reasons, however induced her majesty to prolong her visit a Rome, so that she did not arrive until the ninth of the next month at Geneva. A that place she dispatched a letter to Mr Brougham, requiring his immediate attend ance, either there, or at one of the French sea-ports. Upon the arrival of these dis- patches from her majesty, a consultation was held in London by Messrs. Brougham ant )enman, aided by others the friends of the [ueen, the result of which deliberation was, an humble request from Mr. Brougham that ler majesty would, without any loss of time, repair to Calais; from whence she would asily hold communications with the shores of England it being at that juncture ut- ;erly impossible to foretell in how many and various points it might be requisite for her aw officers to have access to, or consult ;he queen respecting her wishes and views. Pursuant to this advice her majesty quit- ;ed Geneva, directing Mr. Brougham to meet her, on the thirtieth day of May, at St. Omers. To further this interview, the queen proceeded to Dijon, and from thence ;o Montebard, where she was joined by Mr. Wood, an alderman, and one of the repre- sentatives in parliament for the city of Lon- don. This gentleman was a great favorite, and highly popular among the working lasses and the lower orders of the people ; and his name will often recur, as well as that of Lady Anne Hamilton, who had formerly belonged to her majesty's house- hold, and who now at the same place hast- ened to rejoin her. Whatever might be the representations made by these new attendants, or whatever views this enlargement of her suite might elicit, is still involved in mystery : yet it was obvious to those who had paid attention to her movements which, prior to the ap- pearance of these individuals, had been slow and apparently of uncertain character that a fresh impetus seems to have resulted from their arrival, as thenceforward the queen pursued her route in a more rapid and determined manner. On the twenty-ninth she arrived at Villeneuve le Roi, from whence her majesty wrote two letters, one addressed to the duke of York the con- tents of which never met the public eye the other to lord Liverpool, declaring her intention of being in London in five days ; desiring that a royal yacht should be in readiness for her at Calais, the port she pro- posed embarking from ; and that a residence should be prepared for her temporary or more permanent habitation. By the same dispatch Lady Anne Hamilton addressed a letter, in her majesty's name, to the first lord of the admiralty, lord Melville, request- ing him to give the necessary orders that one of the royal yachts should be in attend- ance at Calais, at the latest, on the third of June. The promptitude of these wishes and determinations clearly evidenced that her majesty seemed to have viewed her sit- uation in a different point than heretofore ; for the courier who bore her commands to Mr. Brougham to attend upon her at St. Omers, where she had resolved to wait for him, could barely reach London sooner than GEORGE IV. 1820. Wednesday or Thursday, and Mr. Brough- am's arrival at St. Omer's could not by any possibility be effected at the earliest before Friday ; and yet her majesty apprized lord Liverpool with her full intention to be in London on the Saturday. Mr. Brougham reached Dover, on his road to attend her majesty, on Friday ; and on the same day again departed for St. Omers, accompanied by lord Hutchinson : at this place they ar- rived on the afternoon of ' Saturday, and took up their abode at different hotels. MISSION OF LORD HUTCHINSON. THIS nobleman, who went in company with Mr. Brougham to St. Omers, had been formerly one of the queen's friends, and was at that time in the confidence of the king. The mission confided to him was of a highly delicate nature, and one which de- manded great judgment and much discre- tion to discharge it properly. The minis- ters of the king having determined upon the evidence, which had been now for some length of time in their possession, had re- solved that the queen could never be re- ceived in England with the dignified hon- ors attendant upon her royal station ; and being anxious, upon every consideration, to avert the necessity of bringing such evi- dence before the public eye, they to the latest moment indulged the hope, that her majesty would ultimately be induced to con- sent to remaining abroad in a state of in- cognito, sooner than risk the alternative of the disclosures in their power to make. The communication which Mr. Brougham had been directed to submit to the queen on this subject, so long back as April the fifteenth, was understood by ministers as forming the basis of that gentleman's nego- tiation, whenever he should have a per- sonal interview with her majesty; and the duty lord Hutchinson was commanded to undertake was to be considered as wholly unnecessary to be proceeded in, in the event of a successful issue to the proposi- tion from the queen's own advocate. As a ne plus ultra in the possible, but scarcely anticipated, rejection of overtures, on the part of the queen overtures which the members of government had at least per- suaded themselves met with no opponent, in her legal adviser, and attorney-general ; to meet, however, such extreme case, lord Hutchinson was directed to present himself to her majesty, and in considera- tion of her former friendship, and also in virtue of his situation as the friend of the king, he was empowered, as the last re- source on the part of the ministry, as well as being an act of justice due to the queen herself, to impress upon her in the most urgent manner the important resolve which government had been compelled to take; and to convince her that no other alterna- tive remained, if she persisted in her de- termination of landing in England, than to exhibit against her a public accusation of . adultery. A mysterious veil has to the present moment shrouded this important period of the history of the unfortunate queen the introduction of lord Hutchin- son to her majesty by Mr. Brougham ; which took place immediately on their ar- rival, and before the official communication intrusted to the queen's advocate had been presented to her, is an event that has never been elucidated, though it is well known such was the extraordinary course that was unhappily pursued. Her majesty had reached St. Omers the day before the arrival of Mr. Brougham, who waited upon her without delay, and at once informed her that lord Hutchinson had come in the spirit of former friendship to make some proposals to her in the name of the king. Her reply was, that she would be happy to receive him; and in conse- quence his lordship was immediately intro- duced. A situation more embarrassing than that of lord Hutchinson, at such a moment, can scarcely be conceived ; for it appears, that although he remained for some time with her majesty, no conversation arose, except upon topics wholly foreign to the intended purpose of the meeting. Her ma- jesty could not well be expected to com- mence such a subject ; and his lordship, of course, could not allude to it himself. As the part specifically assigned to his per- formance, was not to be entered upon, till he was apprized that a complete failure had attended the negotiation of Mr. Brougham, from whom, on the following day, lord Hutchinson received this note : " Mr. Brougham having humbly submit- ted to the queen, that he had reason to be- lieve that lord Hutchinson had brought over a proposition from the king to her majesty, the queen has been pleased to command Mr. Brougham to request lord Hutchinson to communicate any such proposition as soon as possible in writing. The bearer of this, (count Vassali) will wait to receive it from your lordship. " June 4th, 1820." To this lord Hutchinson sent a written answer, stating that his lordship had no written proposals in his possession, but merely some scattered memoranda on scraps of paper. Mr. Brougham instantly returned the following reply : "Mr. Brougham is commanded by the queen to express to lord Hutchinson her majesty's surprise at his lordship not being ready to state the terms of the proposition of which he is the bearer; but as lord 652 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Hutchinson is desirous of a few hours' de- lay, her majesty will wait until five o'clock, in the expectation of receiving a commu- nication from his lordship at that hour. " Two o'clock, 4th June, 1820." At five o'clock, Mr. Brougham received the answer as follows : SIR In obedience to the commands of the queen, I have to inform you that I am not in possession of any proposition or pro- positions detailed in a specific form of words, which I could lay before her majes- ty ; but I can detail to you for her informa- tion the substance of many conversations held with lord Liverpool. His majesty's ministers propose that fifty thousand pounds per annum should be settled on the queen for life, subject to such conditions as the king may impose. I have also reason to know that the conditions likely to be im- posed by his majesty are, that the queen is not to assume the style and title of queen of England, or any title attached to the royal family of England. A condition is also to be attached to this grant, that she is not to reside in any part of the united kingdom, or even to visit England. The consequence of such a visit will be an im- mediate message to parliament, and an en- tire end to all compromise and negotiation. I believe that there is no other condition I am sure none of any importance. I think it right to send to you an extract of a let- ter from lord Liverpool to me ; his words are: 'It is material that her majesty should know confidentially, that if she should be so ill-advised as to come over to this country, there must be then an end to all negotiation and compromise.' The de- cision, I may say, is taken to proceed against her as soon as she sets her foot on the Brit- ish shores. "I cannot conclude this letter without my bumble, though serious and sincere supplication, that her majesty will take these propositions into her most calm con- sideration, and not act with any hurry or precipitation on so important a subject I nope that my advice will not be misinter- preted. I can have no possible interest which would induce me to give fallacious counsel to the queen. But let the event be what it may, I shall console myself with the reflection, that I have performed a pain- ful duty imposed upon me, to the best of my judgment and conscience, and in a case, in the decision of which the king, the queen, the government, and the people of England are materially interested. Having done so, I fear neither obloquy nor misre- presentation. I certainly should not have wished to have brought matters to so pre- cipitate a conclusion ; but it is her majes- ty's decision and not mine. I am conscious that I have performed my duty towards her with every possible degree of feeling and delicacy. I have been obliged to make use of your brother's hand, as I write with pain and difficulty, and the queen has refused to give any, even the shortest delay. " I have the honor to be, Sir, " With great regard, " Your most obedient, " Humble servant, " HUTCHINSON." SUDDEN DEPARTURE OF HER MAJESTY FROM ST. OMERS. IMMEDIATELY on the perusal of this let- ter by the queen; at her request, Mr. Brougham made the following answer in writing : "Mr. Brougham is commanded by the queen to acknowledge the receipt of lord Hutchinson's letter ; and to inform his lord- ship, that it is quite impossible for her ma- jesty to listen to such a proposition. " Five o'clock, 4th June, 1820." A very few minutes had elapsed, after this communication, when the queen ab- ruptly left Mr. Brougham, and stepping into her carriage, it was ordered to drive off with the utmost speed. So sudden and unexpected was this departure of her ma- jesty, that Mr. Brougham was scarcely sen- sible that she had quitted the room, till he beheld her in the carriage, and departing, as he was standing at the window. The motive which induced this strange conduct on the part of the queen, was as- cribed to a sudden suspicion which assailed her, and which she did not think it consist- ent with prudence, to communicate even to her attorney-general. A very short time previous thereto, it had been cursorily men- tioned by lord Hutchinson, that he expect- ed a courier every instant to arrive from Paris. This casual observation led her ma- jesty to conceive the erroneous notion, that hostility must be the intended object of this courier, from a court which had invariably manifested a marked disrespect in its mea- sures toward her, and that as a climax, it might probably end in an interception of her journey, by the agency of France. She therefore instantly embracing this idea, took the resolution of setting off with such celerity, lest the delay of a few minutes might beget time for the arrival of a mes- senger, fraught with powers to refuse her the means of travelling unrestrained ; and influenced by this apprehension, she lost no time in hurrying on board an English packet-boat the moment she reached the port of Calais. This courier to whom lord Hutchinson alluded, had been dispatched to GEORGE IV. 1820. 653 Paris with letters to his lordship's nephew, at that time residing there, requesting him to hasten to St. Omers to assist him, in case of necessity, as his confidential amanuensis. At the very moment when her majesty, swayed by this panic, was hurrying away, lord Hutchinson was employed in writing the following letter, which, after the queen's departure, was delivered to Mr. Brougham : "ST. OMERS, five o'clock, 4th June, 1820. " MY DEAR SIR, I should wish that you would enter into a more detailed explana- tion ; but to show you my anxious and sin- cere wish for an accommodation, I am will- ing to send a courier to England to ask for further instruction, provided her majesty will communicate to you whether any part of the proposition which I have made would be acceptable to her ; and if there is any- thing which she may wish to offer to the English government on her part, I am will- ing to make myself the medium through which it may pass. " I have the honor to be, &c. " HUTCHINSON." This letter was dispatched immediately to her majesty in an inclosure from Mr. Brougham, and was received on board by alderman Wood ; but as her majesty was then laid down and asleep, a couple of hours elapsed ere an opportunity presented itself for delivering it to her hands. Having pe- rused it, her majesty desired the alderman to acknowledge the receipt of it, and- to add thereto, that she saw no reason for altering the course adopted by her. The individual with whom the crime of adultery was alleged to have taken place so repeatedly, was named Bartolomeo Ber- gami ; and he having accompanied her majesty as far as to St. Omers, there re- quested permission to withdraw his further services, and received his dismission in con- sequence. Mr. Brougham still remained at St. Omers ; and the only persons in attend- ance upon the queen, at the period of her embarking for England, with the exception of menial servants, were her protege Mr. William Austin, of whom so much surmise has taken place, lady Anne Hamilton, al- derman Wood, and his son. LANDING OF QUEEN CAROLINE IN ENG- LAND. ON Tuesday the sixth of June, at one o'clock, after an absence of six years, her majesty set foot once more on the shores of Britain. The queen was received, on her landing at Dover, with the most heartfelt expressions of joy, and demonstrations of welcome, by myriads of people, who had asseinbled on the beach to hail her return to England. A triumphal procession was 55* arranged, preceded by a variety of flags with inscriptions appropriate to the occa- sion, from the place of landing to the prin- cipal inn. She left Dover at half-past six in the evening, and slept that night at Can- terbury; which place, after receiving the compliments of the corporation, she quitted the next morning, and, anxious to proceed, arrived in London that afternoon. Prior to the queen leaving Dover, she re- ceived an address from the inhabitants, con- gratulating her on her reaching this country, as well as on her accession to the throne, as queen-consort. Her answer was gracious, dignified, and appropriate to her new situa- tion. She expressed her unfeigned delight in once more being united with so generous and noble a nation ; and her hope that the time would come, when she would be per- mitted to promote the happiness of her hus- bands subjects. On each part of the road her progress was marked, and her presence greeted by the congregated masses of people, with every unequivocal testimony of devotion, and every demonstration of triumph and joy that time and possibility could achieve. On her nearer approach to the capital, the cavalcade which preceded her carriage in- creased to such a surprising extent, that it might be thought a nation of cavaliers, winged with the spirit of ancient chivalry, had flown to congratulate her arrival, and become her escort ; whilst the metropolis, at the same time, poured forth its million from all quarters, so as actually to retard the procession. The queen having finally resolved to take up her temporary residence at the dwelling of alderman Wood, in South Audley street, the growing cavalcade took the route up Pall Mall, passing the king's palace with shouts of triumphant exultation, and at last gained the alderman's house ; at which place her majesty alighted, and subsequently came forward, at the loud and reiterated request of the immense concourse^ to the balconies of the house and by this, and other acts of condescension, testified the grateful sense she entertained of the rap- turous reception which she had met with during her journey. Long after the queen had withdrawn from the windows, and even during the chief part of the night, multi- tudes of the lower classes still remained collected around the house, discussing the events of the day: illuminations were called for, with no small voice, in the neighboring streets ; and complied with, by many from a spirit of real exultation, and others from the dread of refusing what the clamors of the populace demanded, made darkness visi- ble, so that the illumination became general but not before the committal of divers outrages had taken place. 654 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. If the queen's friends were thus on the alert, no supinenesa could be ascribed to the ministers of the king, as during this her majesty's triumphant progress they had been engaged in deliberations upon the measures which her sudden and almost un- expected arrival in England rendered it expedient for them to pursue. Intelligence had been received by them of the queen's positive refusal to negotiate on the evening of Monday the fifth of June, at which time they were also informed of her embarkation at Calais. A cabinet council was held at lord Liverpool's house, on the same night, which assembled at nine o'clock, and con- tinued till past twelve in close conference. The ministers resumed their deliberations the next morning, and protracted them till near one ; adjourning only for the dispatch of other business till half-past nine the same night. During the interval of this adjourn- ment, the two houses of parliament assem- bled at their usual hour, and the king went in state to the house of lords about two o'clock, and gave the royal assent to several bills, including the civil-list bill, which had then first passed. THE KING'S MESSAGE TO PARLIAMENT. IMMEDIATELY afterwards lord Liverpool brought down the subsequent message from the king, which was read from the wool- sack by the lord chancellor Eldon : " GEORGE R. " THE king thinks it necessary, in conse- quence of the arrival of the queen, to com- municate to the house of lords certain papers respecting the conduct of her majesty since her departure from this kingdom, which he recommends to the immediate and serious attention of this house. " The king has felt the most anxious de- sire to avert the necessity of disclosures and discussions, which must be as painful to bia people as they can be to himself; but the step now taken by the queen leaves him no alternative. "The king has the fullest confidence, that in consequence of this communication, the house of lords will adopt that course of proceeding which the justice of the case, and the honor and dignity of his majesty's crown, may require." Lord Liverpool then laid on the table the papers referred to in his majesty's message, contained in a g^reen bag ; and his lordship proposed that his majesty's message should be taken into consideration on the following day, when he meant to move an address upon it " The terms of the address," his lordship observed, "would be such as not to pledge their lordships to anything fur- ther than to thank his majesty for his com- munication, and to assure him, that their lordships would adopt that course of pro- ceeding which the justice of the case and the honor and dignity of the crown should appear to require." His lordship added " that he should then move to refer the papers he had laid on the table to a secret committee, having for its object to inquire whether any, and what course of proceeding should be adopted." The same message from the king, accom- panied by a duplicate bag of papers, was carried to the house of commons by lord Castlereagh ; who stated that he should pur- sue precisely the same procedures as those which lord Liverpool had announced in the upper house. The notification of lord Liverpool origin- ated no discussion ; but immediately upon this motion of lord Castlereagh being put by the speaker, Mr. Grey Bennett com- menced an attack, by assailing the conduct of ministers; in which he demanded to know, whether a letter, which had appeared in a public journal, purporting to be a letter from lord Hutchinson to Mr. Brougham, was a genuine document or not? Whether lord Hutchinson had been instructed by his ma- jesty's ministers to tender to the queen a proposal, that she should renounce all right, title, and claim to the name, dignity, and honors of queen of England ? And whether the bribe offered her for making this renun- ciation was an income of fifty thousand a-year as stated therein 1 Lord Castlereagh, in a vein of irony, replied, tha " out of ten- derness to the honorable gentleman, and with a view to allow him time to reflect upon the subject, he should decline answer- ing the questions which he had then put ; for he appealed to the good sense of the house, whether any answer was necessary, considering the very grave communication which had just been made to it." Mr. Brougham complained that an imperfect statement of the transactions at St Omers had that morning made its appearance in the newspapers, and also censured the pub- lication of lord Hutchinson's letter. He did not however elucidate or explain away any of the misrepresentations or misstatements. He avowed that he was at a loss to conjec- ture to whom so great and palpable a breach of confidence as this publication of lord Hutchinson's letter could be ascribed ; and observed that whatever the merits of the case now at issue against the queen might be, the defence of ministers must solely rest upon their clearly proving, that her majesty's landing in England had not only precluded other measures, but rendered im- possible all further forbearance on their parts. GEORGE IV. 1820. 655 THE QUEEN'S COMMUNICATION TO HOUSE OF COMMONS. THE following day, June seventh, prior to the taking the king's message into con- sideration, Mr. Brougham read to the house the communication from the queen which follows : " The queen thinks it necessary to inform the house of commons, that she has been induced to return to England, in consequence of the measures pursued against her honor and her peace for some time by secret agents abroad, and lately sanctioned by the conduct of the government at home. In adopting this course, her majesty has had no other purpose whatsoever but the defence of her charac- ter, and the maintenance of those just rights which have devolved upon her by the death of that revered monarch, in whose high honor and unshaken affection she had al- ways found her surest support. " Upon her arrival, the queen is surprised to find that a message has been sent down to parliament requiring its attention to writ- ten documents; and she learns with still greater astonishment that there is an inten- tion of proposing that these should be re- ferred to a select committee. It is this day fourteen years since the first charges were brought forward against her majesty. Then and upon every occasion during that long period, she has shown the utmost readiness to meet her accusers, and to meet the full- est inquiry into her conduct She now also desires an open investigation, in which she may see both the charges and the witnesses against her; a privilege not denied to the meanest subject of the realm. In the face . of the sovereign, the parliament, and the country, she solemnly protests against the formation of a secret tribunal to examine documents, privately prepared by her ad- versaries, as a proceeding unknown to the law of the land, and a flagrant violation of all the principles of justice. She relies with full confidence upon the integrity of the house of commons for defeating the only attempt she has any reason to fear. " The queen cannot forbear to add, that even before any proceedings were resolved upon, she had been treated in a manner too well calculated to prejudge her case. The omission of her name in the liturgy; the withholding the means of conveyance usual- ly afforded to all the branches of the royal family ; the refusal even of an answer to her application for a place of residence in the royal mansions ; and the studied slight of the English ministers abroad, and of the agents of all foreign powers over whom the English government had any influence, must be viewed as measures designed to preju- dice the world against her, and could only have been justified by trial and conviction." PROCEEDINGS IN THE COMMONS. WHEN this communication had been read, lord Castlereagh moved the order of the day for taking the message of the king into con- sideration. His lordship, after entering at great length into a defence of the conduct of ministry, concluded a speech of consid- erable ability, with moving, that the papers contained in the sealed bag, which he on the preceding day presented to the house, should be referred to a select committee, in order to consider fully the matter thereof, and to report thereon their opinions to the house accordingly. The appointment of a com- mittee was resisted by Mr. Brougham, who proceeded to a minute examination of the proposals made to her majesty through the intervention of lord Hutchinson ; these he commented upon, and in the severest terms deeply reprobated. STATEMENT OF MINISTERS. MR. CANNING rose to follow Mr. Brough- am. He declared that next to the desire which was nearest his. heart, that this in- quiry might be even now avoided, he cher- ished the hope, that she, who was chiefly interested in the result of this inquiry, would come out of the trial superior to the accusation. He next defended the conduct of ministers in proposing terms of compro- mise to her, and in endeavoring to open a negotiation with her. He then alluded very strongly to the proposals which had origin- ated with Mr. Brougham in 1819. He said ministers had been inadvertent enough to receive a communication under the seal of such rigid secrecy, that he must abstain from stating its contents, although he held the paper in his hand : nor could he even state the quarter from whence it came, though that would be very material ; but when goaded by wanton and unnecessary insult, he must mention to the house that, in July 1819, a statement had been given to government, under an obligation of keeping k secret, discussing every one of the propo- sitions which had been made in the present instance to her majesty. He said he was precluded from stating its actual contents ; but thus much he would say fearlessly, that not one proposition had been made by his majesty's ministers, which had not its pro- totype in the suggestion thus made to gov- ernment, for the eventual guidance of its conduct. When drawing his speech to a conclusion, Mr. Canning lamented, that the projected and much-to-be-desired negotia- tion at St. Omers had failed, and in continu- ation said, " For this result, no blame could be attached to the honorable and learned gentleman, (Mr. Brougham,) or to the noble lord who accompanied him. Other advice, no doubt, had been given to her majesty, advice which, if it had not proceeded from 656 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. bad intention, was not characterized by ab- solute wisdom. But that advice, at least the failure of the negotiation, had forced this appeal to parliament." Several other members having delivered their consequent opinions on this subject, Mr. Wilberforce rose to recommend a short delay, in the expectant hope of some mode of compromise being yet achievable, and accordingly moved that the present debate be adjourned until the Friday next follow- ing. Lord Castlereagh said he would not oppose the motion for this delay, as it marked the spirit which pervaded the house, which spirit was perfectly in unison with that upon which ministers had themselves acted. He could not, however, he added, be responsible for the effect of such delay ; indeed it was his full conviction, that little, if any good could be anticipated or expected from it: but he was not therefore the less disposed to bow to the wisdom of those who professed a different view of, and opinion on, this sub- ject The adjournment of the house in con- sequence took place. PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. IN the house of peers, the motion of lord Liverpool for a secret committee was car- ried without a division. His lordship ob- served, " that the appointment of this com- mittee would in no respect prejudge the queen's case, as their business would be not to condemn, but merely to inquire whether there were sufficient reasons for ulterior proceedings. The adulterous intercourse of which her majesty was suspected, having been committed with a foreigner, did not amount to treason ; it was not even an indict- able offence; it was a mere civil injury. The affair, therefore, could not come before their lordships in their judicial capacity, accord- ing to the common forms of law. Neither could they be called upon to decide upon it in the shape of an impeachment; for how could any person be impeached for that which the law treated as a simple civil in- jury ! It was, therefore, only legislatively that the lords could have to deal with this matter, and before any definitive legislative measure should be proposed with respect to it, a committee should inquire whether any, and what steps were necessary to be taken." A secret committee, consisting of fifteen peers, was accordingly chosen by ballot ; but in consequence of a negotiation instituted by the house of commons, the meeting of the committee was postponed by various ad- journments, in the hope that ulterior pro- ceedings might even then be avoided. All overtures for a compromise being finally re- jected by her majesty, the secret committee made its report on the fourth of July, in the following terms : " BY the lords' committees appointed a secret committee to examine the papers laid before the house of lords on Tuesday the sixth of June last, in two sealed bags, by his majesty's command, and to report there- upon as they shall see fit ; and to whom have been since referred several additional papers in two sealed bags, by his majesty's com- mand, relative to the subject matter of his majesty's most gracious message of the sixth of June last. " Ordered to report, that the committee have examined, with all the attention due to so important a subject, the documents laid before them ; and they find that these documents contain allegations supported by the concurrent testimony of a great number of persons in various situations of life, and residing in different parts of Europe, whicli deeply affect the honor of the queen, charg- ing her majesty with an adulterous connex- ion with a foreigner, originally in her ser- vice in a menial capacity, and attributing to her majesty a continued series of conduct highly unbecoming her majesty's rank and station, and of the most licentious character. " These charges appear to the committee to be calculated so deeply to affect, not only the honor of the queen, but also the dignity of the crown, and the moral feeling and honor of the country, that, in their opinion, it is necessary they should become the sub- ject of a solemn inquiry, which it appears to the committee may be best effected in the course of a legislative proceeding, the ne- cessity of which they cannot but most deep- ly deplore." On the subsequent day, lord Dacre pre- sented the following petition from the queen : " CAROLINE, Regina. " THE queen, observing the most extraor- dinary report made by the secret committee of the house of lords, now lying upon the table, represents to the house that she is prepared at this moment to defend herself against it, as far as she can understand its import. Her majesty has also to state, that there are various weighty matters touching the same, which it is absolutely necessary, with a view to her future defence, to have detailed in the present stage of the proceed- ing. The queen, therefore, prays to be heard this day, by her counsel, regarding such matters." Lord Dacre then moved that counsel should be called in, but the motion was negatived. The earl of Liverpool then proposed the following BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES. " AN act to deprive her majesty queen Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of the title, pre- rogatives, rights, privileges and exemptions of Queen Consort of this realm, and to dis- GEORGE IV. 1820. solve the marriage between his majesty and the said Caroline Amelia Elizabeth. " Whereas, in the year 1814, her majesty Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, then princess of Wales, and now queen consort of this realm, being at Milan, in Italy, engaged in her service, in a menial situation, one Bar- tolomeo Bergami, a foreigner of low station, who had before served in a similar capacity. -And whereas, after the said Bartolomeo Bergami had so entered the service of her royal highness, the said princess of Wales, a most unbecoming, degrading intimacy com- menced between her royal highness and the said Bartolomeo Bergami. And where- as, her royal highness not only advanced the said Bartolomeo Bergami to a high station in her royal highness's household, and received into her service many of his near relations, some of them in inferior, and others in high and confidential situations about her royal highness's person ; but be- stowed upon him other great and extraordi- nary marks of favor and distinction ; and conferred upon him a pretended order of knighthood, which her royal highness had taken upon herself to institute without any just or lawful authority. And whereas, her royal highness, whilst the said Bartolo- meo Bergami was in her said service, fur- ther unmindful of her exalted rank and station, and of her duty to your majesty, and wholly regardless of her own honor and character, conducted herself towards the said Bartolomeo Bergami both in public and private, in various places and countries which her royal highness visited, with in- decent and offensive familiarity and free- dom ; and carried on a licentious, disgrace- ful, and adulterous intercourse with the said Bartolomeo Bergami, which continued for a long period of time during her royal highness's residence abroad ; by which con- duct rf her said royal highness great scan- dal and dishonor have been brought upon your majesty's family and this kingdom. Therefore to manifest our deep sense of such scandalous, disgraceful, and vicious conduct on the part of her said majesty, by which she has violated the duty she owed to your majesty, and has rendered herself unworthy of the exalted rank and station of queen consort of this realm ; and to evince our just regard for the dignity of the crown and the honor of the nation, we your ma- jesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and the Com- mons in parliament assembled, do humbly entreat your majesty that it may be en- acted And be it hereby enacted, by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that her said majesty Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, from and after the passing of this act, shall be and hereby is deprived of the title of queen, and of all the prerogatives, rights, privileges and ex- emptions, appertaining to her as queen con- sort of this realm ; and that her said majesty shall, from and after the passing of this act, for ever be disabled and rendered incapable of using, exercising, and enjoying the same, or any of them ; and moreover that the mar-' riage between his majesty and the said Caroline Amelia Elizabeth be, and the same is hereby, henceforth and for ever wholly dissolved, annulled, and made void to all intents, constructions, and purposes what- soever." This document will remain as a lasting memorial to posterity of the nature of those charges which were exhibited against the queen, and of the serious penalties which, if the bill had finally passed, would have followed the declaration of her majesty's guilt According to the forms observed in the house of lords, it was requisite that this bill should be read a first time, as a prelimi- nary step to the introduction of any evi- dence to be adduced in support of such heavy charges at the bar of their house ; so that it was not until the seventeenth of August that the trial of her majesty upon this bill of indictment may be said to have actually commenced. On that day there appeared in support of the bill, Sir Rob- ert Gifford, the king's attorney-general; Sir John Copley, the king's solicitor-gener- al ; Sir Christopher Robinson, the king's advocate-general ; doctor Adams, a civilian ; and Mr. Parke, an outer barrister. On the part of the queen, appeared her majesty's attorney-general, Henry Brougham, Esq. her majesty's solicitor-general, Thomas Denman, Esq. ; Dr. Lushington, a civilian ; and Messrs. John Williams, Tindal, and Wilde, outer barristers. Mr. Maule, so- licitor to the treasury, assisted by Mr. Powel, an attorney who had been employed at Milan in collecting the evidence, acted as agent for the bill, and Mr. Vizard as agent for the queen. PREPARATORY PROCEEDINGS RELATIVE TO QUEEN. WHILST the city of London, followed by various other cities, towns, villages, corpo- rations, guilds, and associated bodies, were pouring in addresses of congratulation, which stream of public opinion was daily swelling to a torrent, foaming and impetu- ous, declaratory to her majesty of the peo- ple's sentiments, and assuring her of their determined and affectionate support, the adverse party were busily employed in pre- paring for the approaching investigation ; in aid of which, many witnesses, principally HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. natives of the Italian states, were rapidly arriving at our different ports : one party of these, on landing at Dover, received a sample of British feeling, being very roughly hand led by the populace ; and their safety was ultfmately provided for, by congrega- ting them in a spot conveniently contiguous to the houses of parliament, known by the name of Cotton Garden. LIST OF WITNESSES REFUSED. HER MAJESTY'S petitionary application for a list of times and places, referred to in the several charges, as well as names and designation of witnesses to be adduced in support of such . charges, having been re- fused by the house of lords, they adjourned until the fifteenth of August, and the house of commons until the twenty-first ; all means of accommodation, in the interim, being rejected, and the legal advisers on both sides of the question having been marshalled as before stated. The memorable day, August seventeenth, 1820, may be con- sidered as the COMMENCEMENT OF THE QUEEN'S TRIAL. AT a very early hour on that day, many individuals, from a hope that assiduity and perseverance might procure them an op- portunity of witnessing this interesting scene, assembled in the neighborhood of the houses of parliament ; all, however, who did not bear with them the passport of a noble lord, or were unconnected with the public press, were disappointed. Soon after nine o'clock, the peers began to take their seats, and several members of the lower house occupied stations near the throne. The space reserved for the queen's counsel, short-hand writer, &c. were provided with desks, and an abundant supply of writing materials. The peers now arrived in con- siderable numbers, and as soon as the lord chancellor was seated on the woolsack, prayers were read by the junior bishop of Landaff. Soon afterwards Sir Charles Ab- bott, (chief justice of the king's bench,) Mr. Justice Holroyd, and Mr. Justice Best, entered the house ; they were quickly fol- lowed by lord chief baron Richards, Mr. Baron Garrow, and the lord chief justice of the common pleas. At ten o'clock, pre- cisely, the order of the house was read, for calling over the names of the peers, by Mr. Cooper, deputy clerk of parliament These preliminaries concluded the earl of Liver- pool moved, " That the order of the day for the second reading of the before recited bill of pains and penalties, be now read." The duke of Leinster opposed this measure, in pursuance of the previous notice given by him, and moved, " That the said order be now rescinded." On the lord chancellor's putting the question, the cry of " content" was feeble, that of " noncontent" very pow- erful. The duke then demanded a division ; the numbers were contents forty-one, non- contents two hundred and six majority one hundred and sixty-five. The earl of Liverpool then moved that counsel be called in, and heard in support of the preamble of the bill. The earl of Caernarvon having, in a speech of considerable length and sound argument, stated his reasons for opposing the present measure, as one not of neces- sity ; a discussion took place, as to the pro- priety of the course about to be pursued, towards the queen, and questioning whether the crime imputed to her did not amount to high treason ; and therefore subjected her to a mode of proceeding, different to a bill of pains and penalties. In this discussion, earls Grey, Liverpool, and the marquis of Lansdowne partook. The doubts thus arising, were then submitted to the decis- ion of the judges, who retired, and on their return, the lord chief justice Abbott de- livered their united opinion as under : "The judges have conferred together upon the question proposed to them by the house, whether if a foreigner, owing no al- legiance to the crown of England, violates in a foreign country the wife of the king's eldest son, and she consents thereto, she commits high treason, within the meaning of the act of the 25th Edward III. ? And we are of opinion that such an individual, under such circumstances, does not commit high treason, within the meaning of that act." This opinion, his lordship continued, was grounded upon the language of that statute of Edward III., which declared it to be treason for any man to violate the wife of the king, the wife of the king's eldest son, &c. ; the judges holding that, unless there were a man who could be legally charged with such a violation, the charge being that he did the act against his alle- giance ; it could not be said that treason had been committed. An act done by a foreigner, therefore, owing no allegiance to the crown, could not amount to that crime. The question that counsel be called, be- ing carried in the affirmative, it was fol- lowed by the appearance of her majesty's law officers, and those retained in her be- half; the attorney and solicitor general, and others on the side of the prosecution. On presenting themselves at the bar, the duke of Hamilton requested to know by what authority the king's attorney-general stood in that place 1 on what part he appeared ? and by whom he had been instructed to ap- pear 1 ! The earl of Liverpool understood the at- torney-general appeared in consequence of GEORGE IV. 1820. 659 an order received from the house. He had taken those steps which to him seemed best for the purpose of obtaining- informa- tion. He had applied for information to the secretary of state for the home department, and with that and such other information as had been obtained, he now appeared for the purpose of opening the case. Mr. Brougham then said, that he humbly conceived the time was now come when, under the authority of their lordships them- selves, he was free to state his objections to the principle of the bill in this present stage of its progress. Counsel was then ordered to withdraw. After a few minutes it was communicated to them that they were at liberty to urge their objections to the principle of the bUl, either at that time, or after the evidence was concluded. Though it will not be admissible, to enter at full into the proceedings of this most ex- traordinary trial, by giving the detailed evidence adduced on the occasion, yet as some satisfaction to the reader at this point, and in trifling, though very feeble, testimony of the forensic eloquence displayed by the legal gentlemen engaged in the prosecu- tion, as well as the defence, and the legis- latorial acumen elicited during this mo- mentous period, some copious extracts will be hazarded from the printed proceedings, delivered during the trial from day to day, for the use of the house. In these extracts, the utter impossibility of doing justice to the zeal, the oratory, and the persuasive force, and legal argument offered at the bar, by the various advocates, would deter the attempt in persons less influenced, to afford more than a bare recital of dates to their readers ; at the same time it is proper to remark, that these data can only be con- sidered as scarcely discernible marks of the broad track, given in many contemporane- ous accounts of the trial published at large at the period ; and in particularly referring the intelligent reader to that well-digested account written by Adolphus. It is only necessary to -peruse it, to prove that it is the most authentic, as well as succinct, that can be obtained of all the matters connected with this important political measure. THE SPEECH OF MR. BROUGHAM AGAINST THE BILL. MR. BROUGHAM then commenced his general address to their lordships against any further proceedings with the bill of pains and penalties on the queen. Such laws were sometimes passed in the earlier periods of the Roman history, and were de- nominated privilegia. They were divided into two classes : one consisting of laws passed against, and the other of laws pass- ed in favor of, individuals. The great Ro- man jurisconsults, however, who well knew the value of their expressions, as well as of the principles which they established, had called all such laws privilegia odiosa, thereby indicating to after-times, that they ought never to be resorted to except in cases of absolute necessity. He would not say that all those whom the great masters of ancient jurisprudence served had gov- erned, their conduct by that principle. On the contrary, he was well aware that no blacker proceedings were to be found than some of these privilegia odiosa. Another objection to the present bill was, that it was an ex-post facto law : it suffered a deed to be done, and afterwards pronounced upon its innocence or its guilt. Without notice or warning, it laid hold of a party, and in- flicted punishment with the same severity as if the supposed crime had been distinctly defined and the punishment denounced. The bills passed against Mortimer and others at the commencement of Edward III.'s reign, were afterwards rescinded, as was also the case with most of those passed during the reign of Richard III. The suc- ceeding age was almost sure to regard them as measures adopted to serve a temporary purpose. He did not think it necessary, at this stage of the proceeding, to make any reference to the reign of Henry VIII., and he should therefore pass over the whole history of that barbarous and detested prince ; detestable alike for his spoliations of property and his cruelty to his family ; but still more detestable for his violation of the dearest and most sacred charities. He should therefore take his stand upon what had passed under milder reigns, and the case of lord Straftbrd, under Charles I. would be sufficient for his argument. He considered the bill of attainder passed against that nobleman as the greatest dis- grace that ever sullied the purity of either house of parliament. He would read to them the recorded sentiments of their an- cestors, because no language of his could make so deep an impression as this was calculated to make on the hearts and un- derstandings of all men. After stating, that, under various pretexts, the turbulent party, hostile to lord Strafford, seeing no mode of obtaining their object by any ordi- nary procedure, had resolved to effect that nobleman's destruction (meaning not only his bodily destruction, but that of his char- acter), and, therefore, purposely murdered him. The present bill, substituting, for death, deprivation of rank the most illus- trious, removal from a station the most ex- alted, and the loss of privileges the most esteemed amongst women ay, and what was yet dearer, the ruin of her character and happiness belonged strictly and tech- HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. nically to that class of enactments which their lordships' predecessors had thus char- acterized. He had thus stated his general objections to all bills of this nature, and he had now to address himself to the one im- mediately before them. He should form but an inadequate approximation to the un- derstanding of this libel, if he believed it to be only like other bills of pains and pen- alties; for he would venture to say, that the worst of those bills (not excepting even those relating to the wives of Henry VIII.) was, when compared with the present, a regular, consistent, and judicial proceed- ing. In the first instance he assumed that nothing illegal could be laid to her majes- ty's charge. He was bound to assume this by the decision of the judges, and, indeed, from the very face of the proceeding. He submitted, therefore, that some satisfactory reasons ought to be stated why impeach- ment was not resorted to in this instance. Was the case such, that no house of com- mons could be expected to pass a vote upon it ] or was the evidence so lame and de- fective, that no committee would recommend any proceedings in relation to it 1 Why had they not confidently trusted to that house, and taken their papers and their witnesses where an impeachment might be founded upon them, and where their lordships would have to administer justice in the regular and established form ? Her majesty was de- prived of many advantages by this adoption of a different course. In the other case she would have been furnished with some specification of the charges, or at least they would have been set forth with more pecu- liarity of detail as to the various points of the accusation. Perhaps also a list of wit- nesses could not then have been withheld, and, in a word, the queen would have had all the advantages of a real judicial pro- ceeding. The case of lord StrafFord, and the proceedings to which it led, as well as the protests of the virtuous minority who opposed the bill, all went to prove that such measures could only be justified in or- der either to save the state from ruin, or because justice had failed from some posi- tive default in a court competent to admin- ister it The burden of proof on the neces- sity of this bill being thrown on the other side, he would ask, where was that impel- ling and overruling necessity (he did not say motive, for that might be guessed) which alone could prescribe and justify this mea- sure ! Was the succession or its purity en- dangered, or was there even a possibility of its being put in jeopardy ? Here he was entitled to ask, Why proceed with this bill without necessity] Why attack the queen for acts which, if committed, could not en- danger the succession ? This was not a trial under any known law ; and if the possi- bility of danger of this kind were estab- lished, he allowed that one of the prelimi- nary objections to the bill had been re- moved. But he called upon its supporters to show how the succession was endanger- ed. If there were a chance that the suc- cession might fail for want of heirs, some such change might be desirable; but it could not be contended that such a contin- gency was at all likely here to happen. It was said that the exalted station of her ma- jesty rendered her conduct an object of peculiar solicitude with her family, and that the legislature was bound to protect the honor of that family ; that her majes- ty's conduct tended to degrade the throne on which she sat, and the nation over which she was placed ; and it was contended, therefore, that the connexion existing be- tween her and the nation must be broken, because her conduct would sully its purity. First of all, he might be permitted to ask, whether it had never struck their lordships that these charges all referred to the con- duct of her majesty before she became queen, when she had no royal dignity to support, when she had no immediate con- nexion with the diadem, and when she was only the wife of a subject, though filling- the highest station in the realm 1 But see how this operated on another most import- ant part of the question. If the queen had been brought before the house when prin- cess of Wales, and charged with offences alleged to be done in that capacity, could any man deny that a bill of divorce from her royal husband must have been the remedy, and that divorce could only be ob- tained with the ordinary forms? All the preliminary forms must, have been observ- ed ; the party claiming the bill must have come into the house by petition, and he would come in vain, if he did not enter it with clean hands. But here the promoters of this measure waited till the queen had lost her rank as princess of Wales, and until that rank was almost forgotten ; and then they said, because she is now queen we will proceed against her for offences al- leged to have been committed when she was princess of Wales thus taking espe- cial care not to take one step while she possessed those rights against her husband which every private wife enjoyed. He did not say that those rights were extinct, but some persons did assert it, and that was enough for his argument. Thus the ques- tion now was, not between man and wife, but between king and queen, and the pro- moters of this bill delayed till they thought at least that she was deprived of one pro- tection. Either, then, this bill must be dis- missed for having been brought in too late, GEORGE IV. 1820. 661 or there was not a shadow of justice in not giving her nunc pro tune, as lawyers ex- pressed it, the benefit of her situation as princess of Wales. This brought him to implore their lordships to pause a while on the threshold of this proceeding. " I put out of view," said Mr. B. " at present the question of recrimination : I raised it for the purpose of my argument, and I shall pursue it no farther. I should be most deeply, and I may say with perfect truth unfeignedly afflicted, if in* the progress of this ill-omened question the necessity were imposed upon me of mentioning it again ; and I should act directly in the teeth of the instructions of this illustrious woman [pointing to the queen, who sat immediately below him], I should disobey her solemn commands if I again used even the word recrimination without being driven to it by an absolute and overruling compulsion. In obedience to the same high command I lay out of view, as equally inconsistent with my own feelings and those of my client, all arguments of another description, in which I might be tempted to show that levity or indiscretion, criminality, or even criminal intercourse (for why should I be afraid to use the term 1) cannot be held to be fatal to the character of the country, or to the honor and dignity of the illustrious family governing it. Here nothing is or has been proved ; and is it because calumnies have been bruited and gossipped about because such a jealous watch has been kept upon the queen abroad, that we are to think they are to have more force than conduct less equivocal at home? That argument, and everything resulting from it, I willingly postpone till the day of necessity ; and in the same way I dismiss for the present all other questions respecting the conduct or connexions of any parties previous to mar- riage. These I say not one word about : they aTe dangerous and tremendous ques- tions, the consequences of discussing which, at the present moment, I will not even trust myself to describe. At present I hold them to be needless to the safety of my client ; but when the necessity arrives, an advocate knows but one duty, and, cost what it may, he must discharge it. Be the consequences what they may to any other persons, powers, principalities, dominions, or nations, an advocate is bound to do his duty; and I shall not fail to exert every means in my power to put a stop to this bill. But when I am told that a case of ab- solute necessity for the measure is made out, because the queen has been guilty of improper familiarities (though I must look at the bill itself for the nice distinctions anc refined expressions found in it) because she has thought fit to raise from low situa- VOL. IV. 56 tions officers who had served other people "n menial capacities because she had treat- sd them with unbecoming intimacy be- cause she had advanced them, and bestowed marks of favor and distinction upon them jecause she had created an order, and con- ducted herself in public and private with offensive familiarity I cannot help asking, if these matters are so fatal to the honor and dignity of the crown, nay, to the very peace of the nation (for what else can jus- tify a bill like this ]) why is it only resorted to at the present moment ? The bill charges even a licentious, disgraceful, and adulter- ous intercourse, and therefore its supporters say, it is absolutely necessary for the house to interpose. But I appeal to the house for I am compelled to do so whether this is not only untrue, but whether it is not known to be untrue. The bill itself speaks falsely, and I will tell you why I say so. Are we arrived in this age at that highest pitch of polish in society, when we shall be afraid to call things by their proper names, yet shall not scruple to punish by express laws an offence in the weaker sex which has been passed over in the stronger ? Have we indeed reached that stage 1 I trust I shall not hear it said in this place : I hope that spirit of justice which I believe per- vades this house at large will prevent it. But if not I will appeal to the spirit of ho- liness, and to the heads of the church now ranged before me, whether adultery is to be considered only a crime in woman. I make the same confident appeal, and to the same quarter, when I ask whether the crown can be dishonored, the fame of the country tarnished, and the morals of the people put in jeopardy, if an adulterous in- tercourse (which no one ventures to call adultery) shall be proved against a lady, when that which I venture to call adultery, because the exalted individual himself has confessed it to be so, has actually been com- mitted by a prince. It is with the utmost pain that I make this statement: it is wrung from me by hard compulsion; for there is not a man who acknowledges with a deeper sense of gratitude than I do all the obligations which this country and Eu- rope owes to that illustrious individual. I say it not God forbid I should to visit harshly upon him any of the failings of our common nature, much less to alter in one iota my recorded sense of the baseness of that conspiracy by which those failings were dragged before the public. I bring it for- ward because it is in truth an answer to this case. Why was no bill of degradation brought in in 1809, after the resolution of the house of commons, and a full confes- sion on behalf of the party accused, that he had been guilty of "most immoral and un- 662 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. becoming conduct 7" All this, I say, was well known to the authors of the present bill ; for one of themselves penned the very words I have just read to the house. I ask, therefore, whether there is any possibility of replying to this objection, but in one short way that all men may do all they please, however exalted their station, how- ever intimately connected with the crown, and with the highest interests of the state, that their conduct is perfectly indifferent; but let the tooth of slander once fix upon a defenceless female of the family, who has been residing abroad, who has been allowed to expatriate herself; who has been assisted in removing from the country, and even cherished to keep away from it ; then, at that instant, the venom must distil, and she must be persecuted and prosecuted, under tlie canting, hypocritical, and disgusting pretence that the character of the country and the honor of the crown are at stake. Whether all of us, nearer to the object, do or do not see through the flimsy pretext, be assured that the good sense of the nation cannot be deceived, and that those at a dis- tance will be both shocked and astonished. The -people at large must look upon it as something too ridiculous to be examined. I myself can hardly use decorous terms in speaking of it, and they, in their homely language, will assert that it is an attempt to accomplish one purpose under the color of another. " Here is a man," they will say, " who wishes to get rid of his wife ; he talks of the honor and safety of the country ; yet its dearest interests, its peace, its morals, and its happiness, are to be sacri- ficed to gratify his desires." He would ask who had encouraged the queen to go abroad 7 When that illustrious personage, worn out by all she had experienced in this country, naturally began to think repose a blessing, who had recommended that she should seek it on the continent 7 Who had opposed the advice given by the friends of the queen, to which they had set their hands, and he (Mr. Brougham) among them, that they would answer with their heads for her safety while in England, but that when abroad she would be surrounded by foreign- ers, spies, and informers 1 Who had coun- teracted this faithful suggestion 7 Who but those who were now arrayed against her, with a green bag of documentary evidence in the one hand, and .this bill of degrada- tion in the other! How happened it that they never before thought of the character of the country, the honor of the royal fam- Uy, and the dignity of the throne 1 Where was their boasted sagacity, when these evil counsellors could not foresee what might be the consequences of the step they were BO earnestly recommending 7 Then there was no whisper of anything of the sort ; all was to be ease, tranquillity, and liberty, for the rest of her majesty's life : there was to be no watching, no prying, no spying, no asking " why do you do so or so 1" but all was to be kindness and toleration. With these promises, the next thing was to assist the queen to depart The ship of war, which was refused to bring her back, had been readily granted to take her away. Money was also offered, with equal liberali- ty, for her outfit, and her residence abroad commenced under the happiest auspices. Yet reports soon came over ; they increased by degrees; the slander became blacker and more malignant ; and as early as four years ago it had assumed a certain consist- ency. Still there was no jealous watching, no hunting for evidence, and no hint given to the queen that it would be fit to be more guarded in her conduct : the character of the country and the honor of the crown were then never dreamed of. Ministers had never said, "Return; this is danger- ous the country suffers the crown is dis- honored the royal family degraded by these calumnious reports." On the con- trary, they had done everything to encour- age her staying ; and he (Mr. Brougham) would venture to stake his existence that any man would have been deemed an ene- my, and have had the court-doors flung in his face, who should have had the hardihood to counsel that hef royal highness should have been requested to revisit this country. Yet these very men, after forcing her away after aiding, abetting, and encouraging a foreign residence after taking no one step to put an end to that which they them- selves alleged to be the sole cause of the evil : even at the twelfth hour, and when the twelfth hour was about to toll, did they then come with a request that she should return? Did they then suggest that her majesty, having changed her station, could no longer live abroad with safety that what might be good for a princess was evil for a queen 7 Did they come forward with any plain, frank disclosure that some in- quiry might be rendered necessary that reports had got abroad so malignant that they could not be overlooked that suspi- cion attached, and that that suspicion must be removed 7 Was anything of this sort done, not in kindness to the queen, but in com- passion to the long-suffering people of Eng- land, now agitated by this great question 7 No such thing : to the last moment she was warned not to come back : she was to be pensioned, largely pensioned, for not coming home ; and she was to enjoy the rank she had degraded and the privileges she had forfeited. She was to have an income to enable her to be wicked on a larger scale GEORGE IV. 1820. 663 all levity, all indiscretion, even " adulterous intercourse," was to be pardoned on one condition, and that condition was, that she should continue abroad, before the eyes of foreigners, who envied and hated us: she was to be the degrading spectacle of the queen of this country, without one of the virtues that ought to belong to her sex and her condition. With these facts before him, he must have a mind capable of swallowing the most monstrous improbabilities, who could lend himself for one moment to the belief that ministers gave credit to the pre- amble of the bill. It would never have been heard of, if the queen had returned from Calais; but her landing at Dover called up all those phantoms of national degradation and insulted honor, of which so much had recently been heard : they were all raised by the foot which she set upon the English shore ; and if she had consented to restrain it, she might still have lived without impu- tation, at least from the quarter in which it now originated. " I end here," said Mr. Brougham, " what I have to urge not that I have nothing more to bring forward, but because I am sure that your lordships are men of justice, that you are men of princi- ple, men of ordinary sagacity, and, above all, that you are men of honor. I have made my appeal to you upon this bill, and I feel confident that I have not made it in vain. True it is that your committee has reported in its favor, but that cannot pledge the house, and he is the greatest of all fools who consults his apparent consistency at the expense of his absolute ruin. The sooner you retrace the step into which you may have been led at an unwary moment, the greater will be the service you render your country : if you decide that this bill ought not to proceed, you will be the sa- viors of the state, and indeed promote the substantial welfare of the kingdom, and the truest honor of the crown." MR. DENMAN AGAINST THE BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES. MR. DENMAN presented himself at the bar, and in a speech, distinguished as much for eloquence as it was for sound argument, argued against the principle of the bill. " I trust," said the learned counsel, " your lordships will, above all things, seriously weigh the balance of evil which is likely to arise from this measure. I trust also, that you will not, yourselves, overlook any matter which is calculated to injure, or pro- duce a disregard for the marriage tie. Look, my lords, to the moral feelings of the coun- try, which this measure is calculated to out- rage. Observe that all this cannot be pro- ductive of any good but must, be the result what it may, produce infinite harm to the country. I must here, on the part of her majesty, protest against any proceeding by bill of pains and penalties, when the scene is laid in a foreign and distant land, when the inquiry is to be into a life of more than six years, and when the accused has been refused a list of the witnesses against her. This last refusal placed her majesty in a worse situation than any person taking his trial in one of the lower courts. The re- quest made to your lordships was, in fact, that this great principle might be preserved, but modified according to your lordships' pleasure, so as to avoid inconvenience. This, however, has been refused. In the case of a charge in the lower courts, the witnesses appeared before a grand jury, and the ac- cused had an opportunity of ascertaining the character of the persons by whom the accu- sation was to be supported. But her majesty has been denied this right Therefore in- stead of having received any favor at the hands of your lordships, she has every right to complain. Again, I say, that in her ma- jesty's name, I protest against this bill of pains and penalties in a case which admits of impeachment I also protest against your lordships' not discharging the duties im- posed on you, as well as your exercise of a power not contemplated by the constitution. Your lordships may meet with the co-opera- . tion of the other branch of the legislature ; but be it remembered, that you may also meet with its check and control. I must here guard myself from any imputation, from what I have said, that either I or my learned friends are declining the contest. No ; we do not shrink from the combat we are ready and anxious to meet it Here I feel it my duty to state, that I owe to my illustrious client an apology, for having, in the line of argument which I have been obliged to take, allowed even a possibility of the truth of the charges against her. I feel a perfect conviction of her innocence ; I feel also, that there cannot be brought against her anything which, to an honorable mind, will be a proof of her guilt But whatever be the consequences which follow this investigation, whatever may be the sufferings inflicted on her majesty, I shall never withdraw from her that homage and respect which I owe to her high station, her superior mind, and those resplendent virtues which have shone through a life of perse- cution and of suffering. I shall never pay to any other who may usurp her place, that respect and duty which belong to her, whom the laws of God and man have made the consort of his present majesty, and the part- ner of his throne." Her majesty entered the house during the learned counsel's speech, and at its conclu- sion withdrew. She was treated by the house with every mark of respect 664 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. SPEECH OF HIS MAJESTY'S ATTORNEY- GENERAL. THE attorney-general then rose and said, the question to be considered was, whether they would entertain the grave and solemn, but disgusting charges preferred against her majesty, or whether they were pre- pared to say, that notwithstanding the proof to be adduced, there was something in this bill that it ought not to be followed up by the enactments contained in the preamble 1 This was his view of the question before their lordships. But see how it had been argued by his learned friends. They had argued the question as if the preamble had not been proved, and yet they had indulged themselves in talking of spies, informers, perjured and suborned witnesses. When those witnesses had given their testimony, the time would come to speak of their char- acter, and the nature of their testimony. This line of proceeding was, in fact, nothing more nor less than tampering with their lordships' feelings, and doubtless it must have made an impression upon their minds. His learned friends had also placed another difficulty in his way. They had found fault with the framing of the preamble, and, not satisfied with that, had gone through its whole history. They attacked the proceed- ings of the secret committee, and went on to show the disadvantages under which her majesty labored, in consequence of not hav- ing her case brought before a grand jury. But their lordships had decided that this was the only mode of proceeding they had decided, that the crime with which her ma- jesty was accused, though if committed in England would be treason, could not be so construed, having been committed abroad, and with a foreigner. They had in fact decided that her majesty was not amenable to any of our courts of justice, and this was the only mode of proceeding which could be instituted. Their lordships instituted this inquiry on the report of a secret com- mittee; this, it was urged, deprived her majesty of the benefit derived from a grand jury. But did the committee find her ma- iesty guilty of any one charge 1 They mere- r said, that from what had been laid before them, they were of opinion, that there was serious ground of charge against her majes- ty, affecting the dignity of the crown, and they recommended the house to proceed to an inquiry. See then, how the arguments f his learned friends were applied first, they found fault with the preamble of the bill ; and secondly, they quarrelled with the measure itself; which their lordships, by their having read it the first time, had sanc- tioned. It was urged that the secret com- mittee had reported upon un vouched docu- ments. He had no means of knowing upon what statements the secret committee re- ported, nor did he know from whence his learned friends drew their information ; but he was much mistaken if the select com- mittee had not had the sworn testimony of witnesses in support of the statements laid before them. But whether they had or not, such testimony was not now the question ; their lordships had decided upon that report, and that decision could not now be called in question. The grounds alleged in the preamble of the present bill were of the same public nature and import as those stated in the bill against the bishop of Rochester. When the facts recited were proved in evidence, the great question which their lordships would have to decide, would be, whether such a substantiation of the truth of the facts should be followed by the enactment of the bill ? It had been endeavored by his learned friends to raise an objection to the bill, on the ground that the charges which it alleged against her majesty, had flowed from slander and per- jury. In the present stage of the proceed- ing, what right, he would ask, had they to argue upon such a gratuitous and unpro- voked assumption ? Where were the proofs to justify it ? Their lordships knew nothing of them they could not know anything of them ; and for what purpose such a line of observation was introduced, he would leave to their lordships to decide. In the same spirit, it was objected by his learned friend, that the present bill originated in a commit- tee of that house, where no decisive opinion had been formed. He could not see the least strength in such an objection. The decisive opinion of their lordships had yet to be formed. It would be doing a great injustice to her majesty had their lordships, in that previous part df the proceeding, ven- tured to pronounce a decisive opinion; it would then be imputed to them that they had forestalled and prejudged the question. Their lordships had wisely abstained from such a course. All that they had done was to express their opinion that there existed grounds for a serious charge against her majesty. Throughout the whole of the ar- gument of his learned friends, that had been assumed, which, at least, was extremely doubtful, namely, that in proceeding against her majesty, an impeachment could have been founded. The whole of the argument, against proceeding by bill of pains and pen- alties, rested on the grounds of their lord- ships acting in that case in their legislative, and not in their judicial capacity. When, therefore, his learned friends deprecated such a course, and contended for an im- peachment, they were bound to have shown, that in the present case an impeachment could have been maintained. That proof GEORGE IV. 1820. 665 they had declined ; and their lordships, he trusted, would agree with him, that the wisest course which could have been pur- sued, was the one which was the least subject to doubt and uncertainty. Besides, he would confidently say, that notwithstanding all those airs of triumph with which those ob- jections were introduced notwithstanding all the inflammatory language which ac- companied their statement, that a very dif- ferent character would have been given to the measure of proceeding by bill of pains and penalties, had not that been the very measure which, in the present case, had been adopted. It was adopted because it adverted to certain charges against her ma- jesty, which, though of the gravest import, were not a violation of any law, while the best authorities supported the doctrine that an impeachment could not be maintained but for a breach of the law. Sure, then, he was, that notwithstanding all the challenges now so heroically thrown out, notwithstand- ing all those allusions to the morality of the country, and all those various topics so lib- erally brought into view, had impeachment been the proceeding adopted, the very same objectors would have deprecated it, and have said, that the proceeding in the case of an adultery should have been by bill, and not by impeachment, because by the adoption of the latter course, the accused party was deprived of the power of recrimi- nation- They complained of the proceed- ing by bill, because they were now shut out from recrimination, and, strange to say, re- gret that the impeachment was not adopted a course of proceeding which no lawyer would venture to assert, allowed the accused to recriminate. All this contradiction had its purposes ; it was to terrify and to alarm, and to withdraw the minds of their lord- ships from the real question on which they had to decide. His learned friends had, it was to be recollected, taken this course, not in the* exercise of a duty compulsive with them, but acting under an indulgence so very rarely allowed by that house so rarely indeed, that the divorce case of the duke of Norfolk was the only one to be found where the counsel of the accused was allowed to interfere before the evidence was produced. It was not, then, too much to expect that those sweeping charges should have been deferred until the character of the evidence to be produced was ascertained ; before the charge of corruption was thrown out against witnesses to be examined, surely his learn- ed friends should wait until enabled to sus- tain such imputations by proof. His learned friends may prejudge, they may prejudice, they may assail the characters of the most eminent and illustrious in rank and station ; they may rake from the shades of oblivion, 56* all those prejudices, or failings, over which the healing spirit of time and more correct feeling had, in consideration of his many virtues, thrown a veil; they may select the moment when an illustrious individual (the duke of York we presume) was next in succession to the throne, when the re- mains of his illustrious partner have just been consigned to the grave, to wound his feel- ings, and revive recollections which a better feeling had never disturbed : all these things his learned friends may do with impunity to him it was only to state the facts which he should call upon evidence to sustain. They may declaim on the bribes by which that evidence was obtained, and animadvert on the nature of the motives which they presumed to operate on the minds of some of their lordships. All that remained for him was to conjure their lordships, and he knew he did so not in vain, to dismiss all such inapplicable statements from their minds, and to apply themselves to the great and important question, on which, in fact, they were called in their judicial character to pronounce. The solicitor-general was next heard at considerable length. Mr. Brougham, in reply, urged a variety of arguments in favor of his original propo- sition, and showed the impolicy of the prin- ciple contended for by the counsel for the crown. The public expectation was now at its height, when lord King gave notice of a motion to stop all further proceedings ; and on Saturday the nineteenth, moved, " That it appears to this house that it is not neces- sary for the public safety or the security of the ccnntry, that the bill entitled, ' An act to deprive her majesty,' &c. should pass into a law." On which lord Liverpool moved as an amendment, " That the attorney-general be directed to be called in." Earl Grey opposed the amendment ; the house divided, for the amendment one hundred and eighty-one, against it sixty-five, majority one hundred and sixteen. Earl Grey then moved, " That it appears that the bill now before the house does not aftbrd the most advisable means of prosecu- ting the charges against her majesty, and that therefore, under the present circum- stances it is not necessary, or expedient, to proceed further with it" This resolution was put as an amend- ment to the motion of lord Liverpool, " That counsel be called in," and was negatived by a division as follows, for the amend- ment sixty-four, against it one hundred and seventy-nine, majority one hundred and fif- teen. The lord chancellor having desired the 066 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. attorney-general to open his case, he im- mediately commenced his address to the house : " My lords, I now attend at your bar to fulfil the duty which you have demanded, of stating to your lordahips the circumstan- ces which are to be adduced in evidence in support of the charges which are contained in the preamble of the bill now under your lordships' consideration. A duty, my lords, more painful or more anxious, I believe, was never imposed upon any individual to ac- complish. " I have, my lords, to state to your lord- ships the circumstances which are to be adduced in evidence to your lordships in support of those serious and heavy charges which are made in the preamble of the bill, which has already been so much the sub- ject of discussion : charges which, in the language of the preamble, not only reflect the greatest scandal and disgrace upon the individual against whom they are made, but also reflect the greatest disgrace upon the country itself. The highest individual, as a subject, in the country, is charged with one of the most serious offences both against the laws of God and man. It is that of an adulterous intercourse an adulterous in- tercourse carried on under circumstances of the greatest aggravation. " My lords, it is well known to your lord- ships and the country, that in the year 1814, her majesty, for reasons operating upon her mind, and not by compulsion, as has been insinuated by my learned brothers, thought fit to withdraw herself from this country to a foreign land. " My lords, her majesty, when she quitted this country, quitted it with persons about her who were precisely such persons as should be about an individual of her exalted rank. She was accompanied by individuals connected with distinguished families in this kingdom. Among these were lady Charlotte Lindsay and lady Elizabeth Forbes, who were her maids of honor; Mr. SL Ledger, who was her chamberlain ; and Sir William Cell, and the Hon. Kep- pcl Craven, who, I believe, were attached to her in a similar cliaracter. She was also accompanied by captain Hesse, as her equerry, and Dr. Holland as her physician ; besides other persons whom it is unneces- sary to enumerate. With this suite her maierty arrived at Milan. She remained at Milan for a space of three months ; and during that period a person was received into her service, whose name occurs in the preamble of this bill, and whose name will as frequently occur in the course of these proceedings a person of the name of Bergami, who was received into her ser- vice as a courier, or footman, or valet de place. It was about fourteen or fifteen days previous to her majesty's departure from Milan that Bergami entered into the situa- tion I have described. Her majesty, on quitting Milan, proceeded to Rome, and from thence she went to Naples, where she arrived on the eighth of November, 1814 ; and I believe that I shall be able to satisfy your lordships that on the evening of the ninth of November, that intercourse, which is charged between her majesty and Ber- gami by the present bill, commenced, and was continued from that time till he quit- ted her service." That Bergami having gained this ascendency over her royal high- ness, as he inferred, from a continuation of adulterous intercourse, which was facilita- ted in everyone of the various changes of res- idence, that took place during several years passed in the visiting of different countries, by the invariable arrangements of a contigui- ty of sleeping apartments ; and as he further stated, by the command of the princess ; he from his brief of instructions also stated, that a constant repetition of similar scenes had taken place till she established herself at Deste, near Cairo : that there Bergami was advanced to the dignity of her majesty's chamberlain, when he invariably dined at her majesty's table, together with his sister the dame d'honneur : that on board the ships Leviathan, Clorinde, as well as the much famed Polacca, the recurrence of these li- centious proceedings would be substan- tiated, accompanied by many public demon- strations of affection, such as the princess calling Bergami " her dear, her love," and other unequivocal terms, and acts of en- dearment and partiality : that she procured several titles and dignities for him pre- sented him her picture and that he now entered her bed-room at all hours, without the slightest previous notice, and there re- mained alone with her for a considerable portion of time, and at many periods : that not contented with heaping honors, digni- ties, and favors on him, her majesty, at Je- rusalem, instituted an order, called the Order of St. Caroline, of which she made Bergami grand master: and that, after hav- ing on every occasion, as well by sea as upon land, continued to act in this extraor- dinary manner, subject to the observation of the lower classes in particular after having on board the Polacca exhibited her- self to the attention of the crew, during the voyage from Jaffa to Italy, and having often been seen during the day sitting on Ber- gami's knee, and embracing him ; " after this," said the attorney-general, " nobody could doubt for what purpose the tent was fitted up on the deck. At this time her majesty seemed to cast off all the restraints of female delicacy. It would be proved that GEORGE IV. 1820. 667 at one period during the voyage she had a (that duty which they had imposed upon bath prepared for her on board the vessel, ! him, and which he was pledged to perform. and into this bath she went, no person being present, or in attendance on her, except Bergami : what but the absolute banish- ment, the total oblivion of all remains of virtue and modesty, could have prevailed on a woman to admit a man and a servant ble, and of the shameful and wicked inter- at such a moment ? From this fact every man must be satisfied that the last inti- macy must have taken place between two persons of different sexes, before any female would allow a man to attend on her in such a situation." In this vessel she causes the feast of St. Bartholomew to be observed with great festivity, in hon- or of Bergami, his name being Bartolo- meo, as it had been done in the preceding year at Villa Deste : that, not satisfied with having previously lavished titles and honors on him, she finally expends several thou- sand pounds in the purchase of the estate now called Villa Bergami, or Barona, for him, situated near Milan. After a recital of most disgusting matter, to be borne out by after evidence, the attor- ney-general concluded a very able and lengthened address by observing : " Let their lordships look at the general nature of the case, and, besides this, let them look at some of those strong facts which more especially confirm the charge. This Ber- gami was a man in the greatest poverty. In October, 1814, he was received into her majesty's service, and in the short course of five or six months, he was not only in habits of the greatest familiarity with her, but his whole family surrounded her. Their lordships would allow him to call their at- tention to the state of her majesty's estab- lishment, while settled at Pesaro. There was Bergami himself, the grand chamber- lain ; his mother, who did not appear to have held any particular situation in her house- holdj his brother Lewis, who, from the hum- ble station of a courier, had been promoted to be her equerry ; the countess of Oldi, the sister, who was only maid of honor ; Francis Bergami, their cousin, was dignified with the title of the director of the palace ; Faus- tina, the sister ; Martin, a page ; Francis, a relation ; and the house-steward, besides the Piccaroon. So that their lordships would see that there were ten, as he might say, of this family retained in her service. And, to account for the striking fact of their be- ing advanced in this way in favors and honors, what was to be said 1 How was it to be accounted for ] It might well be said, indeed, in answer to that question, ' Don't from these facts alone infer guilt don't from these infer adulterous intercourse.' Why, no, he would not : if he did infer it from these alone, he should be betraying But when, in addition to these circumstan- ces, their lordships found that all these fa- miliarities continued between them, they could not leave the slightest doubt of the disgraceful conduct charged in the pream- course which took place between count Bergami and her majesty. " In cases of criminal conversation, they never had at least, it was very frequently quite impossible and impracticable to have any other evidence but that of servants, or others whose duties called them to differ- ent parts of the house. " But it was said, and with something like an air of exultation, ' Ay, but these are foreign witnesses.' Foreign witnesses ! Let them look at her majesty's conduct : why was it that her majesty was abandoned by all her other suite, by all her English ser- vants? why, but that, after her arrival from Milan, she seemed anxious to forget that she was, or should be, an English wo- man. Could she complain of those foreign witnesses, when she had shown, by her conduct, what she thought of Italian ser- vants what she thought of this man, her favored Bergami ? Should it be said, ' Don't hear foreign witnesses, there is the strong- est objection to them ; they are not to be believed :' he would ask them, what did this hold out to the public ] Was it not to say, ' Go abroad, commit what crime you please, carry on what conduct you please ; however flagitious, you never can be con- victed in an English court of justice.' And why 1 because the fact can only be proved by foreign witnesses, and they, we tell you before we hear them, are branded with in- famy. They are marked for discredit ; therefore ' go abroad, abandon yourself to the most dissolute profligacy you please; it can never be proved in a court of this country, for foreign witnesses are unworthy of belief.' " Upon the circumstances of the case, it was hardly necessary for him to add, their lordships were to decide under a sacred ob- ligation. It had been said that the wit- nesses, being foreigners, their testimony ought to be received with suspicion and distrust : but the conduct of her majesty, and the nature of the case, made such evi- dence indispensable. Their lordships would decide upon its value, and, he doubted not, calmly and firmly pronounce their judg- ment. He should now proceed to call his witnesses." The examination of which con- tinued to occupy the uninterrupted atten- tion of the house from the twenty-first of August till the sixth of September: on the following day, the solicitor-general sum- 668 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. med up the evidence which had been ad- duced in support of the bill in the following speech. SUMMING UP OF EVIDENCE. THK solicitor-general then rose to sum op the evidence to the house. He com- menced by stating, that his learned friend (Mr. Brougham) having closed the long and elaborate cross-examination of Theodore Majochi, and as the whole of the evidence in svipport of the bill was now before their lordships, the duty devolved upon him of summing up to their lordships the leading points of that evidence, in support of the allegations contained in the preamble of the bill of pains and penalties against her ma- jesty the queen. He trusted that, before he entered upon this summing up, their lordships would allow him a few moments to justify himself, and his learned friends who acted with him, as to the course pur- sued by them, and the principles by which they were actuated, in conducting this most painful and anxious inquiry. The moment the attorney-general had received his in- structions to support this bill, he, together with his learned friends who were appoint- ed to assist him, directed their most minute and anxious attention to collect all the evi- dence that it would be their duty to adduce before their lordships upon such an occa- aion. They lost not a moment ip weighing well and considering all the materials, and every other evidence which could bear upon this great question. They collected to- gether and digested everything which they thought material to this paramount inquiry, without regard to either the influence or the impression which any parts of that evi- dence were calculated to create when it came before their lordships. They felt that in the progress of this cause they were not to make themselves a party to the inquiry ; but to pursue it according to their lordships' instructions, fairly, candidly, and honestly. Having said thus much in behalf of him- self and his learned colleagues, the duty now devolved upon him of pointing their lordships' attention to the leading facts, as disclosed in the evidence before them, and to enforce upon their lordships' attention the manner in which the case at present itood, and how the evidence adduced made out and supported the allegations in the amble of the bill. His duty was not to impose or to influence by any distorted statement; all that was required of him was, that he should sum up the evidence with truth and accuracy, and then point out how it applied to the charges upon which the bill was founded. If it were not ex- pected of him to incur any charge of this mis-statement, still less, he hoped, was it expected of him to use the slightest ex- pression derogatory from the station and dignity of her majesty the queen. No such expressions should escape his lips. The queen was here on trial before their lord- ships : one side and that the case against her had only been heard. He, therefore, was bound in strict law, and so were their lordships, to consider her majesty innocent of those foul charges ascribed to her until they heard her defence. None could pro- nounce her guilty until their lordships' ver- dict decided and justified that imputation. He and his learned friends had been charged with scattering calumnies abroad, and throwing dirt against the character of the queen. But, though this charge had been insidiously disseminated, he, and those with him, felt guiltless of the imputation. They had, throughout, stated nothing which they had reason to believe would not be satisfac- torily proved. If calumnies had been ut- tered, they belonged to another quarter ; that quarter alone ought to be called upon to account for them. Before he went fur- ther, he would beg leave to call their lord- ships' attention to the nature of the charges set forth in the preamble of the bill of pains and penalties against her majesty the queen. That preamble began by stating, that her majesty in the year 1814 had, in Milan, engaged in the capacity of a menial servant, a man named Bartholomew Ber- gami ; that she had immediately after that time, committed disgraceful and unbecom- ing familiarities with that person ; that she had raised him in her household, and loaded him with honors ; that she had placed sev- eral members of his family in various situa- tions of honor and rank about her person ; and that she had afterwards carried on, for a considerable period, an adulterous inter- course with him. That was the head of the charges against the queen, as contained in the preamble of the bill ; and it was his duty to ask their lordships if that charge had not been substantially made out in evi- dence. He must now beg leave to carry back their lordships' attention in point of time to what was done by her majesty when she first set out from Milan to Naples. He thought it right, for the sake of perspicuity, to take up the subject at the time he had just mentioned, and then pursue it from that period up to the latest time that the queen's conduct had been mentioned in evidence. It appeared, from the evidence before their lordships, that her majesty took Bergami into her service as a courier, at Milan, in the year 1814; he had previously lived in a menial situation with general Pino, his wages then being three livres a-day. It was also staged by the witness, that for the first fortnight after the queen took Bergami into her sei^ice, he waited GEORGE IV. 1820. 669 behind her majesty's table. At that time a youth, of whom their lordships had heard, named William Austin, was in the constant habit of sleeping in her majesty's apart- ment ; but the queen gave directions when she set out from Milan, that another bed- room should in future be provided for him, as he was advancing to a period in life when it would be unfit for him to sleep any longer in the chamber she occupied. A separate apartment was accordingly provided for Austin on the arrival of the queen at Na- ples. When her majesty arrived there, she slept at a country-house. On the night after her arrival at Naples, the queen went to the opera. It was here most material for their lordships to attend throughout to all the relative situations of the queen's bed-room and Bergami's, who was then her courier. At Naples, the communication between them was of this kind. There was a private passage, which terminated at one side in a cabinet, that led to Bergami's sleeping-room ; while on the other side of the same passage was the bed-room of the queen ; so that the occupant of either one or the other room could traverse this pas- sage without interruption, for the passage had no communication with any other apartments than the two he had mentioned. The witness, their lordships would recol- lect, had stated, that on the evening upon which her majesty went to the opera at Naples, she returned home at a very early hour, and went from her apartment into the cabinet contiguous to Bergami's. That she soon returned to her own room, where her female attendant was in waiting, and gave strict orders that young Austin should not be admitted into her room that night. The manner and conduct of the queen upon that occasion attracted the notice of the ser- vant, who, excited by what she had noticed on the preceding night, examined the state of theJ)eds on the following morning. And what was the result of that examination 1 She had stated that the small travelling-bed had not been slept upon at all on that night, but that the larger bed had the impression of being slept in by two persons ; and she further said, in answer to a question from one of their lordships, which could not be evaded, that she had also observed in the bed two marks of a description which but too clearly indicated what had passed there in the course of the night. He had indeed heard that none of the witnesses had de- posed before their lordships to the actual fact of adultery ; but to such an assertion he would reply, that if those facts were true, no person of rational mind could doubt that on that night the adulterous inter- course was commenced which formed the subject of the present unhappy investiga- tion. Upon the sort of proof required in cases of adultery, he should merely ob- serve, that he did not recollect a single in- stance, in cases of adultery, where the ac- tual fact was fully proved in evidence. The crime was always to be inferred from accompanying circumstances, which left no doubt of the fact upon the mind of a ra- tional and intelligent man. On this point of proof he would beg leave to quote the opinion of one of the most enlightened judges that ever sat in this country. He had received this opinion from one of his learned friends, who had taken notes of it at the time it was pronounced by the learn- ed judge. It was in the case of Loveden v. Loveden, before Sir William Scott, in the consistory court, in the year 1809. The learned judge then stated, that there was no necessity in a case of that nature to prove the actual fact of the adultery, for that could not be proved in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, where there was still no doubt of its having taken place. The uniform rule was, that where facts were proved which directly led to the con- clusion that the act of adultery had been committed, such proof must be taken as sufficient Now let the house for a moment look at the case in this light : Suppose an adulterous intercourse really to have ex- isted, how would that intercourse have man- ifested itself 1 How but from the habitual conduct of the parties 1 To screen such an intimacy from the eyes of attendants was impossible; and let their lordships direct their attention to the scenes which had been constantly occurring to the scenes which, in continued detail, had been de- scribed by the witnesses. Their lordships would remember the ball which took place at the house upon the sea-shore, while the princess was at Naples. To that ball her royal highness went, accompanied only (for the purpose of dressing and preparation) by the waiting-maid Dumont, and by Bergami; two apartments, a dressing-room and an ante-room, being allotted to her use. For her first character, that of a Neapolitan peasant, the princess was dressed by the waiting-maid ; she went into the ball-room, stayed a short time, returned for the pur- pose of changing her dress, and did change it entirely ; the chamber-maid all the whUe being left in the ante-room, and the courier being in her dressing-room during the ope- ration. Now the house could not but have noticed the style of Mr. Williams's cross- examination as to that transaction. The witness had merely been asked whether there were not persons of rank and consid- eration in the ball-room below. But it had been said that, even admitting all these facts, they did not amount to evidence of 670 HISTORY OP GREAT BRITAIN. adultery. Could any man look at a prin- cess, locked up in her bed-room for nearly an hour, and changing her dress with the assistance of her courier, and entertain any doubt upon the subject ? The thing did not stop there; there was another change of dress; her royal highness assumed the character of a Turkish lady ; and in that character, for the second time, went down stairs arm-in-orm with this courier, this common footman, this man accustomed to wait behind her chair ; and what happened then! why, almost instantly, the courier returned. (The solicitor-general then re- peated the other heads of Majochi's testi- mony.) All this, however, rested upon the testimony of Majochi, who was, of course, a witness unworthy of belief. That wit- ness had been cross-examined once, twice, and because Carlton-house had been some- how introduced, he had just now been cross- examined for the third time : he (the soli- citor-general) had attended most diligently to the first cross-examination ; he had since read the evidence as it appeared upon the mini top; and he did declare that, as it ap- peared to him, during a cross-examination of seven hours, extending over a period of three years, and going through a variety of complicated facts, in no one instance had that witness been betrayed into inconsist- ency. Certainly the witness had repeatedly sed the phrase (perhaps of equivocal im- port,) "I do not remember;" and the changes which had been rung upon that circumstance might produce an impression upon low minds, although it could produce none upon the minds of their lordships. But it wai impossible not to perceive the artifice the let us have a few more " non mi ricordos;" and it was equally impossible not to perceive that to the questions pro- posed the witness could return no other nwer. The learned counsel then reca- pitulated the evidence of Gsetano Paturzo, which, he contended, was calculated to make a deep and lasting impression. Be- fore he quitted Naples he begged to allude to what had taken place at the theatre of "nt Carlos. The wife of the heir appa- nt of the throne of Great Britain, at that jme holding the supreme government of country, having about her a suite of and gentlemen, was desirous of going in private. Surely ahe might have selected some respectable person of her suite, some respectable inhabitant of Naples, some proper and decent companion, without ma- terially infringing upon the privacy of the transaction; but she choee her chamber- maid and her courier. It was a rainy night ; dark, gloomy, and tempestuous; a hired carriage was drawn up at a private door at the bottom of the garden ; they traversed the terrace, the garden ; got into the hired carriage at the private door, proceeded to the theatre, and there met with such a re- ception as obliged them to retreat and re- turn home. To what conclusion did this occurrence lead the mind of every man ac- quainted with such transactions. He next adverted to the occurrences at Genoa, where the chamber of Bergami was again imme- diately contiguous to that of the princess, and where numerous instances occurred, clearly demonstrating the familiarity which subsisted between them. There too she became surrounded with the family of her favorite, and received his child, his mother, and his sister, into her suite. To another point. It appeared that the princess, while at Genoa, had gone to look at a house in a secluded spot, and at some distance from the city. What was the recommendation of that house ? that it was far from Genoa ; far from the English. Let their lordships look to the evidence of Sacchi, and they would find what 1 ? why, that during the whole of the journey through Germany and through the Tyrol, the greatest anxiety had been shown by her royal highness to avoid the English upon every occasion : the first question to be put on arriving at any place was, whether English of rank were at hand! If that question was answered in the affirmative, the party proceeded to other quarters. From Genoa, being joined by lady Charlotte Campbell, the princess pro- ceeded to Milan. Lady Charlotte Camp- bell, however, did not travel with her royal highness, and shortly after quitted her alto- gether; from which time no English lady of rank or station remained in her suite. A lady of honor was then it appeared to be procured at Milan. And who had been chosen to fill that situation 1 The sister of Bergami. No foreigner of rank ; no Eng- lish lady of respectability ; but the sister of Bergami, the countess of OldL Was that lady in any way fitted for the office'? The princess spoke little Italian ; the count- ess spoke only the Italian of the lower or- ders, and no French. They were so situ- ated, that little communication, and no con- versation, could take place between them. It was upon these facts, which had been called trifling by the other side, but which he did not look upon as trifling; it was upon those incidental facts facts which could not be invented or exaggerated by witnesses, that the learned gentleman re- lied for confirmation of his case ; and those persons must wilfully shut their eyes against conviction, whose inferences and conclu- sions were other than his own. These facts were followed by others, not less conclu- sive. There was one circumstance of the gold chain at Venice and the still more GEORGE IV. 1820. 671 prominent fact of Dumont having actually seen Bergami pass through her chamber into the room of the princess. In cases like the present, everything was to be in- ferred from the general conduct of the par- ties; and it had been clearly shown that the princess and Bergami were constantly conducting themselves like lovers, or like man and wife, during the day, while every preparation was made to prevent the inter- ruption of their intercourse during the night. The familiarities at the Villa d'Este were not spoken to by one, two, or three wit- nesses, but by such a body of testimony as .set doubt at defiance. Walking arm-in- arm in the gardens, alone in a canoe upon the lake embracing and kissing each other where such intimacies were proved even between persons in an equal rank of life, accompanied by a constant anxiety for ac- cess to the bed-chamber of each other, no court could refuse to draw the inference that adultery had been committed. To go through the whole series of evidence would only be to fatigue the house : but what would be said to the testimony of Ragaz- zoni with respect to the statues, to the fig- ures of Adam and Eve 1 He remembered that in the very case upon which he had already stated to the house the judgment of Sir William Scott in that very case a letter had been produced written by the lady to her lover, in which she related some circumstances of an indecent nature. To that letter, as evidence, the learned judge had most particularly adverted ; saying, that no woman would have so written to a man unless an adulterous intercourse had taken place between them. That observa- tion applied most fully to the case in point. Her royal highness went subsequently to Catania, and he begged to call their lord- ships' attention to what passed there, be- cause it was most important. There was a particular arrangement of apartments, which, in consequence of the indisposition of Bergami, was afterwards altered. Her royal highness slept in the room adjoining that of Mademoiselle Dumont and her sis- ter Marietta Bron, and on the other side of that room slept the countess of Oldi. Ber- gami being ill, he was put into the room previously occupied by the countess of Oldi, and the countess was placed in the apart- ment of her royal highness. It would be seen, therefore, that up to this period Du- mont and her sister slept between the apart- ment occupied by Bergami and that allotted to her royal highness. They were in the habit of going to breakfast about nine o'clock ; the door which communicated with their room was sometimes open, sometimes closed ; but on one particular morning, hap- pening to remain beyond the usual tune (to the best of her recollection, her sister be- ing present,) about the hour of ten, her royal highness, carrying the pillows on which she was accustomed to sleep, came out of the room of Bergami. She saw Du- mont she eyed her, and passed into her own room, contrary to her usual custom, without saying anything. He believed that no questions were put as to that part of the case by the learned counsel on the other side; but their lordships, in the discharge of that important duty, which had been casl upon them, thought it necessary that somfc questions should be asked, to ascertain whether a large portion of time had not been passed by her royal highness in the bed-room of Bergami. Their lordships ask- ed, whether Dumont had quitted the room that morning 1 To which she answered, that she had not. How long had she been awake 1 She answered two hours. Whether, during that time, her royal highness passed through the room] Her answer was, no. Then the inference was, that certainly for two hours her royal highness had been in the bed-room of the courier. When he stated this fact, he was aware that it would be again said, that it depended on the evi- dence of Dumont, and therefore it became necessary, as much of what he had to in- troduce rested on her credit, fortified and supported as it wag by corroborative state- ments, to say a word or two with respect to what had been thrown out on the other side, for the purpose of impeaching her tes- timony. The learned counsel then in- geniously commented on the letters which had been produced on the cross-examina- tion of Dumont, and contended that they were clearly written by her, not in sin- cerity, but for the purpose of meeting the eye of the princess and Bergami, with a view to promote the interests of her sister. If what the counsel on the other side were saying was correct if there were no ground for casting an imputation on the character of her royal highness if there were nothing mysterious in the conduct of this courier if Bergami were advanced in the service solely on account of his merits, and the respect he bore to an honorable mistress if such were his situation, and the character of his connexion, what was the inevitable conclusion to which it led ? Could there be a more desirable witness than that man himself, to contradict the testimony of Dumont? She spoke of his conduct when the three parties only were present, not on one occasion, but many. If the connexion of Bergami with her royal highness were such as was alleged in the bill, he certainly could not appear at their lordships' bar ; but, if it were a pure con- nexion, unsullied by those circumstances 672 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. which he (the solicitor-general) had stated, why was he not opposed to this witness 1 Why was he not brought forward to contra- diet Dumont to show that a base attack was made on the character and honor of the most alniable princess in the world to <> that Dumont had been falsely accusing her royal highness with crimes that were never committed ! Having made these ob- servations on the statement of his learned friend, relative to the testimony of this wit- ness, he called on their lordships to consider the whole of the evidence, to take all the story together, and to see whether she was ultimately contradicted in any point that could destroy the inference to which her testimony must evidently lead. He asked of their lordships to mark the evidence on both sides, and to mark how the case then stood. At Milan this man had been em- ployed as a courier in general Pino's ser- vice. He afterwards was admitted to the same rank in her royal higness's household. But in the course of a few months he be- came her royal highness's equerry, then her chamberlain, then, by her influence, knight of Malta, then Baron de la Franchini, then knight of the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem, and then grand master of the order which her royal highness herself created. They would find him also possessed of a consid- erable property at the very gates of Milan. The man who had been a few years before living in a prison (for what reason he knew not), who had received three livres a day from general Pino they found this man suddenly covered with orders and honors. For what cause ? for what service ] for what talents t He asked this because, when their lordships considered it together with the other facts, it strengthened and confirmed the statement of the witnesses, and made it almost impossible to adduce any other cause for the extraordinary love which her royal highness manifested towards this man but that which was alleged. But to proceed. A vessel was hired for the purpose of mak- ing a long voyage, and her royal highness went on board at Augusta. [The solicitor- general here repeated the evidence relative to the transactions on board the polacre.] Here were five witnesses speaking of what pawed on board the polacre deposing to circumstances that took place in the pres- ence of a person who was in the suite of her royal highness at the time, and who was till in her service. Why then were they not contradicted ! As the case now stood, had be not Mated sufficient to convince their lordships' minds of what was passing, at that important period, between those par- ties 1 The learned gentleman now recapitu- lated the remainder of the evidence, ad- yerting to the licentiousness which marked the proceedings at the Barona; the dance of the man Mahomed ; the midnight occur- rences at Charnitz, where Dumont was driven from her royal highness's chamber to make way for Bergami; the events at Carlsrhue ; and the subsequent transactions at Baden, Vienna, and Trieste, at which latter place Bergami was seen coming out of his own room in his drawers and slippers, and going into that of the countess of Oldi, which had a communication with the cham- ber of the princess. All those facts proved an adulterous intercourse at that period, and by circumstances too which mutually con- firmed each other. He would now call their lordships' recollection to the evidence of two witnesses the last that were called before them he meant Rastelli and Sacchi. [Here he restated their evidence, and con- tended with great force that they confirmed in every particular the testimony of those persons who had gone before them,] On the ninth of September, upon the ap- plication of her majesty's counsel, the far- ther consideration of the bill was adjourned to Tuesday the third of October ; at which time it was stated they would be prepared to enter upon HER MAJESTY'S DEFENCE. MR. BROUGHAM accordingly commenced his address to the house on behalf of her majesty, a speech which occupied the whole of that, and the greater part of the following day. This speech has been so much admired, that any attempt at abbrevi- ating it, would only spoil what is considered too fine and perfect an example of legal oratory, to admit of mutilation. Suffice it to observe, his lengthened address contained a summary of events during twenty-six years, from the period of her majesty's first arrival in this country, "as niece of our sovereign, intended consort of his royal heir, and herself not remote in title to the crown of England." After detailing all the occur- rences which took place between her arri- val in 1794, and her departure for the con- tinent in 1814, he then, in a most able man- ner, commented on the several evidences brought forward in support of the prosecu- tion, ably contrasting the discrepancies be- tween their respective depositions in chief, and those which were extracted by the in- genious mode of cross-examinations adopted by her majesty's advocates commenting most powerfully on these contradictions as they arose, and with the coruscations of a luminous display of forensic and impassioned eloquence, bearing down all opposition to truth, wherever such appeared. Adverting to former proceedings instituted against his illustrious client, he took occasion to eulo- gize Pitt, Perceval, and Whitbread, as her early defenders her firm, dauntless, and GEORGE IV. 1820. able advocates. And when death had swept ail these away, the approaching rumbling of the storm, he said, commenced, though it was stayed by her last friend, her daugh- ter : when that sole support was gone, all that might be dreaded by her immediately took place, had she not possessed the con- sciousness of innocence. After ridiculing most forcibly the evidence, from Majochi to Dumont, in a strain of irony so levelled that it cannot be shortened without losing all its point, he next, with equal felicity, assails the Milan commission ; the proffer of the increased annuity by ministers ; and deduces from her majesty's rejection of it an irref- ragablapresumption of her innocence. Then he attacks the character of the Italian wit- nesses, developing the motives which might naturally induce them to enlist in a cause of persecution, for filthy lucre with the power exercised to bring them to the bar of their lordships' house, and the pains taken in drilling them for the manoeuvres dis- played there: contrasting the proceedings during the reign of Henry VIII. with the present time. By these commentaries upon the mass of evidence, after entering into a line of defence too voluminous to be here repeated, he concludes his elaborate address in the manner hereunder recited : " The queen is now, and has been long placed in a singular, in a most embarrassing 1 situation. Her mind, from recent as well as former events, must be naturally disposed to put a painful construction on the conduct and motives of all by whom she is surround- ed. She has been inured to this by a long and uninterrupted course of persecution by much and severe oppression, abroad and at home, by manifold frauds upon her be- nevolence and generous credulity by the malice arid treachery of spies and servants by those hidden artifices which it was im- possible always to trace. This last scene was not calculated to form an exception in her mind to the conduct habitually pursued by those who surrounded her. All she had witnessed in Italy, all she witnessed since her arrival here, down to the last day of this proceeding the witnesses who ap- peared against her, the manner in which they conducted themselves, the nature of their testimony, were all calculated to fill with general suspicion and distrust, an otherwise unsuspecting breast. It is the portion of those who have been persecuted by enemies it is their unhappy, but un- avoidable lot, to be liable to suspicion not to know to whom they dare trust. This distrust, forced on the mind by a recollec- tion of unceasing plots and artifice, must, no doubt, render her majesty extremely fearful and circumspect with respect to any witness she may be disposed to call in her VOL. IV. 57 defence. Her majesty, for aught I know, may now be harboring in her breast a viper of the same brood as Dumont, I mean the sister of that person, one with whom she corresponded, and, as she said, in cipher ; but this I do not believe. All these circum- stances are calculated to prescribe suspicion, as a duty, in her majesty's present situation. It is alien to an innocent creature, but it is one of these guards that innocence is obliged to have recourse to, when surrounded by such persons as the Grimms, the Omptedas, the Douglases, and the still less scrupulous Majochis, Dumonts, and Sacchis. We shall show, that at the time Dumont represented Bergami as having returned with a passport, and spending the night in the princess's rooms, that preparations were then actually making for the -journey ; that so far from remaining there during the night, they en- tered the carriage in an hour and a half after his arrival; that the whole of this period was employed in getting ready the. baggage ; and that while this business was going forward, the queen's door continued always open : her servants were constantly passing 1 , so that they might easily have seen anything that occurred in the room. They all came in and out as often as Bergami, making preparations for the journey, whilst the princess was reclined on the bed in a travelling-dress, in which she had lain down, determined at whatever hour the passport arrived to resume her course. How has it happened that in no one instance have two witnesses been called to establish a single fact ] Why was this omitted, when it might be done without difficulty] Why, but for this plain reason, that it would not be pru- dent to call forward one for the purpose of swearing, and another with a view to con- firmation. If two witnesses had been called to one fact, it was likely that in the cross- examination they might contradict each other, and therefore it was that my learned friends prudently abstained from having re- course to so dangerous an experiment. One circumstance was alluded to, to the truth of which, if true, a number of witnesses might have been called. The circumstance I mean, is that which is stated to have taken place at the masquerade. It must have been known to numbers that her majesty appeared there ; that she was hissed in consequence of the indecency of her dress. These were circumstances which, upon a public occa- sion, could not possibly have been concealed. The hissing must ere long have been known at Naples, and not only there, but to the surrounding country, and all the cities round about, " Et omnibus aliis opidis." What has become of V. Tyson 1 Why has she not been called ? I will tell you the reason she is not an Italian. If the facts stated be 674 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. true, there were the most important reasons for calling this witness: she was one of the queen's servants she had the care of the linen, superintended it ; the practice of call- ing washerwomen was not novel ; they were called in the Douglas plot ; rendered wise, however, by experience, no attempt was made to bring them forward on the present occasion. I contend, that as the case now stands, I am not bound to call wit- nesses ; and I submit that there is no neces- sity for it If your lordships believe what has been stated by the witnesses against her majesty, there is proof positive of adul- tery. If you believe Sacchi, Bergami has been seen twice going into the bed-room of the princess, and not returning. If you be- lieve him, and some more of the witnesses, in all they have sworn to, she is not only guilty of the crime alleged against her in the bill, but she is as bad even as Messalina. If, however, they are not worthy of credit jf they have sworn to these circumstances, knowing them to be false, we must conclude them to be more vile than those jacobins who, in the progress of the French revolu- tion, attempted to affix so unnatural a charge upon Marie Antoinette. The fairest repu- tation, when attacked in this manner, can- not possibly escape but in one way. It is not possible to overturn the charge by con tending testimony, because the plotter, on such occasions, takes care that there is only one who can swear he selects, for exam pie, the time and place in which any of you lordships may be found alone. You inai be in the place at the time mentioned. A direct contradiction under such circum stances is impossible. What does the cour do before whom such a case is brought They will direct the acquittal of the person accused, if the most trifling falsehood, ani in the most unimportant particular, shouL be detected in the evidence of the base in former. I call upon your lordships now tc act upon the same principle. I ask onl; this protection for her majesty a protection which justice and innocence demand. Muc has been said of the situation of Bergam previous to his entering the service of th queen: it has been said that this circum stance alone, contrasted with the sphere o life in which he now moves, is quite eu; ficient to excite suspicion. My lords, i cannot be denied that he has been elevate to a situation by his illustrious mistress, fa above that in which he formerly moved, an sorry I should be, indeed, if, in this country such a circumstance could lay a foundatio for a serious charge. If raising a meritor ous servant to a place of trust, was to b insinuated as matter of criminality, God fix. bid we should ever see the day when a stations may not be open to all men accon ng to their merits. I beg, however, to re- ind your lordships, that the rapidity of his romotion was quite overstated. The man- er of it shows, that he earned it gradually y the faithfulness of his character and the ropriety of his conduct, and it tends also o show the little credit that is to be given o some part of the evidence. Dumont tated, if she is to be believed, that, in the hort space of three weeks after he was aken into service, the princess promoted im to her bed ; yet after this he still con- inued to act as courier ; he dined with the ervants at Genoa, and only once sat at the 'rincess's table by accident. It was only awards the close of the period immediately irevious to their voyage, that he was ad- nitted to her table. He proceeded by slow egrees in the service of the queen, travel- ing first on horseback as courier, then in a carriage by himself, and subsequently made chamberlain. This is utterly inconsistent, f you suppose the queen to be that insane, nfktuated woman, she has been described. Would she, if thus violently attached, al- ow her paramour to remain even a day in a degrading situation. This does not re- semble the manner in which love usually rewards the object on whom it is fixed. It rather resembles the slow progress by which merit struggles through difficulties to the )lace it is worthy of. Bergami was no com- mon man, but a person of merit. His origin was not low, for his father possessed a mod- erate property in the north of Italy. He got into difficulties, like many Italian gen- tlemen, and soon sold his estate to pay his father's debts. He was certainly reduced, but still a reduced gentleman, and recog- nized as such in general Pino's service, for he dined at his table during the Spanish campaign. The general respected him, and he was universally esteemed by all those whom he served. They encouraged him to hope for better things, as knowing his former situation and his present merit. It was an Austrian nobleman who proposed him as a courier in the service of the queen, and he was hired by the chamberlain with- out her majesty's knowledge. This noble- man expressed a hope that he would be pro- moted, as he had seen better days. It was almost a condition of his engagement that he should go as a courier, and be subse- quently raised to a better station, if he ren- dered himself worthy of it. My lords, I do not dwell upon this as an important cir- cumstance. I do not think it is material to the defence. I think I have already dis- posed of the case by the comments I have made upon the evidence. I thought it ne- cessary, however, to dwell on the circum- stance, as it had been a common topic of conversation. If her majesty had been GEORGE IV. 1820. 675 charged with secret guilt, against which it is not easy to provide defence had she been charged with what could have fallen under the observation of those with whom she could have associated as friends or equals with any improper courses in pub- lic intercourse, I could have stood upon high ground indeed. I could have easily refuted every insinuation of this kind, to whatever period of her life it might have been at- tached whether before she visited this country, or while she continued in it I hold in my hand a testimonial, written by his late majesty, which cannot be read without the deepest feelings of sorrow and respect for his character. It proves the light in which he viewed her at that time, and whom, both then and ever after, he loved with a more tender recollection than any of the rest of her family. The plainness, the honesty, intelligence, and manly sense of this note, written in 1804, could not be sufficiently admired : it is thus " Windsor Castle, Nov. 13, 1804. " My dearest Daughter-in-law and Niece, " Yesterday, I and the rest of my family had an interview with the prince of Wales at Kew : care was taken on all sides to avoid all subjects of altercation, or explanation ; consequently, the conversation was neither instructive or entertaining: but it leaves the prince of Wales in a situation to show whether his desire to return to his family is only verbal or real, which time alone can show. I am not idle in my endeavors to make inquiries that may enable me to com- municate some plan for the advantage of the dear child. You and I with so much reason must interest ourselves : and its ef- fecting my having the happiness of living with you, is no small incentive to my form- ing some idea on the subject, but you may depend upon their not being decided upon without your thorough and cordial concur- rence 1 ; for your authority as mother, it is my object to support. Believe me at all times, my dearest daughter-in-law and niece, your most affectionate father-in-law and uncle, " GEORGE R." This was the opinion, and these were the sentiments, of a man not ignorant of the rules of society, or deficient in his know- ledge of the human heart. Here he showed all the anxiety of a tender and affectionate parent for the happiness and welfare of a child, and evinced all those sentiments in favor of the interests of the princess of Wales, which the consciousness alone of the purity of her conduct, and the extent of her merits, could have excited. I might now read to your lordships a letter from his illustrious successor, not in the same tone, not indicative of the same regard but by no means indicative of any want of confi- dence, or any desire to trammel his royal consort in that course of life which her own feelings might suggest. I allude to that letter which has been so often before your lordships in other shapes, and which I do not think necessary now to repeat. In that letter he expressed his wish that they should live apart. Their inclinations, he said, were not in their power, and their mutual happiness would be best consulted by their living asunder, under any plan which might seem most conducive to their comforts. There was no indication that her conduct should be made a subject of observation, or that her seclusion should be interrupted by the rigor of a scrutinizing agency such as had brought the present bill of pains and penalties into life. (A cry of " Read the letter," from the ministerial benches.) Mr. Brougham immediately read the fol- lowing letter : " Madam As lord Cholmondeley informs me that you wish I would define, in writing, the terms upon which we are to live, I shall endeavor to explain myself upon that head with as much clearness, and with as much propriety, as the nature of the subject will admit. Our inclinations are not in our power; nor should either of us be held an- swerable for the other, because nature has not made us suitable to each other. Tran- quil and comfortable society is, however, in our power; let our intercourse, therefore, be restricted to that ; and I will distinctly subscribe to the condition which you re- quired through lady Cholmondeley, that, even in the event of any accident happen- ing to my daughter, which I trust Provi- dence will in its mercy avert, I shall not infringe the terms of the restriction, by proposing, at any period, a connexion of a more particular nature. I shall now finally close this disagreeable correspond- ence ; trusting that, as we have completely explained ourselves to each other, the rest of our lives will be passed in uninterrupted tranquillity. I am, madam, with great truth, very sincerely yours, (Signed) " GEORGE P." My lords, I do not mean to call this, as it has been termed by others, a letter of li- cense ; but I think that such an epistle must make it a matter of natural wonder to the minds of all by whom it has been heard, to find that ever after the individual by whom it had been received should have been made the object of a more especial watch- fulness, and should have been exposed to an increased rigor of observation. Such, how- ever, my lords, is the state of this case ; and it is under these circumstances that her 676 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. majesty is now unexpectedly dragged to your bar. The secret agency by which she has been haunted, at length effected the first step towards her destruction ; but, thank God ! their machinations must here cease. The innocence, and the purity of my illustrious client have been assailed, but I trust with confidence, that the base efforts of her calumniators will recoil upon them- selves. Your lordships have attentively regarded the evidence as it has been sub- mitted to your notice. You have no doubt watched the character of the witnesses, and I am satisfied you will agree with me, that not one of those witnesses is entitled to the slightest credit. No single fact of the hei- nous charges which have been made has been supported by a single individual "en- titled to credit. Good witnesses were within the reach of her majesty's accusers, persons entitled to confidence and belief; but these had been studiously avoided. The plot has been discovered by the means of those prin- ciples which invariably apply to such cases. It has been exposed to the open glare of day, by the case breaking down in some of those parts which, however ingeniously got up as a whole, were left exposed to attack. The great features of the plan have been preserved with a studious regard to ulti- mate success ; but some of the minor fortifi- cations, from a belief that their weakness would not be discovered, were left unpro- tected. It is by this means that justice has triumphed it is by such trifles that the weightiest and most serious accusations have, even after having received the sup- port of great and good men, been laid pros- trate. I shall be excused by your lordships for quoting an authority from Scripture, in support of this proposition. The passage to which I allude, recites a case in which the judges of that day, the elders, were ar- raigned against the accused and in which, when they were on the eve of pronouncing an unjust judgment, with the full persuasion of it* justice, the victim was rescued from tie gripe of destruction which was about to ffrasp her, by the simple circumstance of a ntradiction respecting a tamarisk tree, h had been the case in the present in- wnce. Majochi, Dumont, Sacchi, and all e other herd of witnesses, who had been led, deposed with unblushing confidence d with an undeviating accuracy to all the features of the charges, which it was object, as well as their interest, to istain, and might have eventually suc- *ded, but for the aid and interposition of that Divine Providence which wills not that the guilty shall triumph. When such a case as this is before you when such evidence is brought to support it, can you hesitate as to the opinion which it becomes your bounden duty to form? Can you, upon evidence which would be inadequate to prove the most trifling debt which would be too impotent to deprive a subject of the commonest civil right which would be rejected in the most ordinary court of justice as insufficient to establish the lowest offence can you, I say, upon such scandal- ous and barefaced perjury, in this, the highest court which is known to the law of the land, entertain a charge so monstrous as that which has for its object the ruin of the honor of an English queen? What would be said by the people of England what would be said by the world at large if, upon this species of proof, acting, as you do, as judges and legislators, you were to pass a bill, which must for ever debase and degrade an injured, an innocent woman 1 My lords, I pray your lordships to pause, standing as you do on the brink of a preci- pice, before you form your judgment a judgment which, if pronounced in favor of the bill now under your lordships' consider- ation, will fail in its object, and will return upon those who give it. Save the country, my lords, from the horrors of such an oc- currence ; save yourselves from the conse- quences of an event by which you would risk the situation you hold in that country of which you are the ornament, but in which you would cease to flourish if no longer served by the people. Like the blossom torn from its parent stem, and dragged from the root by which its beauties were sus- tained, once deprived of the confidence, and esteem, and support of your fellow-men, you must wither and decay. Then, my lords, I say, save that country, that you may con- tinue to adorn it save the crown, the peo- ple, and the aristocracy shake not the al- tar itself, which would not be less endan- gered than its kindred throne. Your lord- ships willed the king willed that the queen of these realms should be left without the solemn service of the church. In the ab- sence of this solemnity, she sustained no loss, for she still enjoyed the heartfelt pray- ers of the people. Her majesty wants not my prayers but I now ardently and sin- cerely supplicate the throne of grace, that mercy may be poured down on the people in a larger proportion than their rulers de- serve, and that your hearts may be turned towards justice." He was followed by Mr. Williams, in an equal strain of impressive eloquence ; in which the learned counsel adverted to a great variety of prominent points, sworn to in the prosecution, which he stated he should be enabled to give the clearest con- tradiction to, by the testimony that would now be adduced. The examination of wit- nesses on behalf of her majesty then began GEORGE IV. 1820. 677 on the fifth of October, and was continued till the twenty-fourth when Mr. Denman proceeded to sum up the evidence for the defence in a speech which lasted two suc- cessive days, and which it is wholly im- practicable to give even an outline of, be- ing, as it was, a retrospective view of the whole proceedings, as contrasted in de- fence and prosecution, with the compre- hensive and ably applied illustrative re- marks of such a counsellor and such an orator as her majesty's solicitor-general, who, at the conclusion of his eloquen harangue, made use of the following re markably nervous language : " There is one topic, my lords, on which it is impossible for me not to comment We have been told that the conduct of her majesty furnishes an inference in support of the charges in the preamble. I am ready test ; and I ask, whether it is possible for a person so depraved, in the first place, to have turned away all her servants, at the moment when they had possessed them selves of the most important and damning secrets, and afterwards to have proceedec in that low attachment, that disgusting de- bauchery with an individual who had been elevated for the most criminal purposes, in defiance of all the principles .with which human nature was ever acquainted? It is one of the consequences of such an infatu- ation that it destroys all worldly considera- tions ' Not Caesar's empress would I deign to prove.' And if so, would her majesty not have been willing to hide her head in any part of the continent, in the enjoyment of that luxuri- ous profusion, in which she had been tempt- ed, by offers from this country, to continue even with great splendor? Would she not have been most anxious to retire to Pesaro, or to tfee Lake of Como, and there to ex- pend upon her favorite the vast income to be appropriated to her use 1 Is it possible to believe, that, after the loss of all that makes life dear, and character valuable after vice and profligacy had become her daily habits that her majesty would have sprung to this country, irritated and stung by nothing but this detestable accusation 1 Look, my lords, at the conduct of her name- less and unseen persecutor, and then at the conduct of my illustrious client. For a se- ries of years she has been the object of un- ceasing persecution. The death of her only daughter was immediately followed by this frightful conspiracy. The decease of her last remaining protector, whose life, while it was prolonged, was still a protection, though his affection could no longer be dis- played, succeeded not long afterwards. It was announced to her, not in the language of kind respect, or even of decent condo- lence, but in a shape which forestalled the decision of parliament upon this great ques- tion. Cardinal Gonsalvi was the instrument of stripping her of her rank, and of de- priving her of those honors to which her station in society laid claim. Her title as princess Caroline of England was stated in the face of her passport ; and the first trans- action of this new reign, in which even traitors were spared and felons pardoned by a lavish exertion of *the royal prerogative of mercy, was the most illegal and unchris- tian act yet recorded in the annals of the British monarchy. To the queen it was no new reign of peace and amnesty, but the commencement of a prosecution in which malignity and falsehood were united for her destruction. Her name was excluded from the liturgy ; but when it was forbidden that the prayers of the people should be offered up for her, their hearts made a full com- pensation for that odious exercise of unjust authority. Under such circumstances, what shall we say to the bill before the house 1 As a divorce bill it exists no more; the mere fact that the crime imputed was com- mitted six years ago, dismisses it with con- tempt; and the fact of the letter of license, written so recently after the marriage cere- mony was performed, is of itself an an- swer to any claim on the part of the hus- band. But it is a bill of pains and penal- ties a bill of degradation, dethronement, and disgrace ; and, if your lordships shall determine to proceed against this perse- cuted and injured woman, I can only say, that it is your pleasure to do so. But sure I am that your honor as peers, your justice as judges, and your feeling as men, will compel you to take part with the oppressed, instead of giving the victory to the op- pressor. I was about to observe that there were certain individuals, who had not been called as witnesses simply for this reason that our case is already proved, and that we do not think it decent, or consistent with the principles of justice, to overload the minutes already so unwieldy, by ad- mitting that we are bound to go a single step farther. We have often heard of challenges and defiances we have been told that Bergami might be called to the bar, to state that the whole charge was a fiction ; but this is one of the unparalleled circumstances of this extraordinary case. From the beginning of the world no in- stance is to be found where an individual charged with adultery has been called to disprove it. Yet, for the first time, we are o be compelled to put him to his oath! The answer is in a word there is either a case against us, or there is no case ; if there is no case, there is no occasion for us to call 07 S a witness ; and if there be a case, no man would believe the supposed adulterer, when he was put forward to deny the fact. On this subject the nicest casuists might per- haps dispute, with a prospect of success, on either side of the proposition ; but I firmly believe that the feelings of mankind would justly triumph over the strictness of morality, and that a witness so situated would be held more excusable to deny upon lus oath so dear a confidence, than to be- trtiy the partner of his guilt. Even perjury would be thought a venial crime, compared with the exposure of the victim of his adul- tery. Surely, for the sake of dragging for- ward such a witness, the principles of our nature and of the heart of man are not to be repealed even upon this occasion, to which so many principles have been made the sacrifice. Recollect, my lords, that this is a criminal prosecution of the highest kind, and requiring the clearest and strong- est evidence evidence collected and manu- factured during six years of unceasing vigi- lance and unremitting persecution. We have heard of the distinction of a queen of grace and favor, and a queen of right and law ; but her majesty has been taught, by bitter experience, the wide difference be- tween a husband of affection and guardian- ship, and a husband of jealousy and perse- cution! After all ties, divine and human, have been broken upon his part, he still thinks it possible to exact, from the alien- ated and injured object before you, the most scrupulous attention, not only to the sub- stantial virtues of her sex, but to the mosi insignificant appearances of feminine deco- rum. Let me ask you, then, what is it tha can justify you in passing such a bill Without looking to the principle (for your lordships know tiiat I am not at liberty to do so, and I only advert to it that I may no be supposed to waive any objection,) I sai that there is not one page of evidence in this whole volume to warrant you in giv ing it your sanction. There is not a single piece of evidence proceeding from any re spectable quarter, which has not been an Bwered or explained, and the inventors o! the most minute fabrications have been fol lowed with success through many of thei windings and minute ramifications. I know that rumor* are abroad of the most vague but, at the same time, of the most injunou character ; I have heard them even at th very moment we were defending her ma jeaty against charges, which, comparec with the rumors, are clear, comprehensible and tangible. We have heard, and hea daily, with alarm, that there are persons, and these not of the lowest condition, an not confined to individuals connected wit the public press not even excluded from HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. our august assembly who are industri- usly circulating the most odious and atro- ious calumnies against her majesty. Can iis fact bel and yet can we live in the orld, in these times, and not know it to )e a fact? We know, that if a juryman, pon such an occasion, should be found to assess any knowledge on the subject of nquiry, we should have a right to call him o the bar as a witness. " Come forward," ve might say, "and let us confront you with our evidence : let us see whether no xplanation can be given of the fact you assert, and no refutation effectually appli- d." But to any man who could even be uspected of so base a practice as whisper- ng calumnies to judges, distilling leprous enom into the ear of jurors, the queen might well exclaim, " Come forth, thou landerer ; and let me see thy face ! If thou wouldst equal the respectability even of an talian witness, come forth and depose in pen court. As thou art, thou art worse ban an Italian assassin, because while I ,m boldly and manfully meeting my accu- sers, thou art planting a dagger unseen in my bosom, and converting thy poisoned stiletto into the semblance of the sword of justice." I would fain say, my lords, that t is utterly impossible that this can be true ; )ut I cannot say it, because the fact stares me in the face ; I read it even in the public japers, and had I not known of its exist- ?nce in the debasement of human nature, t would have held it impossible that any one, with the heart of a man, or with the iionor of a peer, should so debase his heart and degrade his honor 7 I would charge him as a judge I would impeach him as a judge ; and, if it were possible for the blood royal graceful, I should fearlessly assert, that it was more just that such conduct should de- prive him of his right to succession, than that all the facts alleged against her ma- jesty, even if true to the last letter of the charge, should warrant your lordships in passing this bill of degradation and divorce. I well know that there are persons, to whom, under the circumstances, I think it right to allude, who have had an opportunity of reading a vast variety of depositions against the conduct of the queen. To those noble individuals I may distinctly say, " You, at all events, must vote for an acquittal. I know nothing of the facts brought before your secret committee, but I know that it is impossible for any rational or honorable man to have presented such a case as has been proved at the bar, as a ground for de- grading and dethroning the majesty of Eng- land." The facts proved before that com- mittee must have been of a more grave, more disgusting, and more infamous de- GEORGE IV. 1820. 679 scription, and whether they have been proved, or whether the witnesses publicly examined, have not dared to swear up to their original depositions, I am confident that the committee never meant it to go forth, that a case of key-holes and chamber- pots, but of notorious and undeniable guilt, ought to be the ground-work of this public prosecution. Then, I ask your lordships, has that case been made out ] Is there any man, who can read the evidence brought against the queen without a perfect con- viction that she has been most malignantly traduced ? What the boatmen on the Lake of Como may have said to those who were gaping wide for slander, I know not : what reports may have been circulated by her enemies, I know not ; what the result would have been, had the facts stated been estab- lished, I know not; but I do know, that they have not been proved that they are false, calumnious, and detestable. Nay, I say one word more to your lordships I know that a supposition prevails, that a spirit has gone abroad, dangerous to the constitution and government I have heard it said, that a spirit of mischief was ac- tively at work among the friends of her majesty : but the same person who uttered that memorable expression, in a few weeks was obliged to admit that it was false, be- cause the truth could not be concealed, that the whole of the generous population of England had enlisted themselves with ar- dor on the side of the innocent and the in- jured. At the same time, it is possible that both may be true ; the sound and middling classes of society may feel acutely for the situation of her majesty ; p.nd there may be, also, some apostles of mischief lurking in a corner, meditating a blow at the con- stitution, and ready to avail themselves of any opportunity for open violence. If that be so, the generous sympathy to which ] havie alluded would be aggravated by a ver- dict of guilty ; while those mischievous and disaffected men would deprecate nothing half sp much as to see your lordships, in the face of the power of the crown, ven- turing to pronounce a verdict of acquittal for a defendant so prosecuted. I trust your lordships will not allow the idea of having fear imputed to you to divert you from the straight course of your duty ; it would be the worst of injustice to the accused, and the worst of cowardice in yourselves. 1 say, therefore, if your own minds are satisfied that all that has been proved has been scat- tered " like dew-drops from the lion's mane," you will never hold yourselves jus- tified in pronouncing a verdict contrary to the evidence, because your conduct may be imputed to the dread of a mob, or, to use tne jargon of the day, which I detest, the apprehension of a radical attack. You mve but one course to pursue, and that course is straight forward it is to acquit ier majesty at once of those odious charges. We may truly say, that as there never was such a trial, so there never existed such means of accusation. Before I conclude, [ must be permitted to say, that during the whole of this proceeding (though person- ally I have every reason to thank the house for its kindness and indulgence) the highest gratification resulting to my mind has been, that with my learned friend I have been joined upon this great occasion. We have fought the battles of morality, Christianity, and civilized society, throughout the world ; and, in the language of the dying warrior, I may say : " In this glorious and well fougbten field We kept together in our chivalry." While he was achieving the immortal victory, the illustrious triumph, and protect- ing innocence and truth, by the adamantine shield of his prodigious eloquence, it has been my lot to discharge only a few random arrows at the defeated champions of this disgraceful cause. The house will believe me when I say, that I witnessed the dis- play of his surprising faculties with no other feelings than a sincere gratification that the triumph was complete : and admiration and delight, that the victory of the queen was accomplished. This is an inquiry, my lords, unprecedented hi the history of the world : the down-sitting and up-rising of this illus- trious lady have been sedulously and anx- iously watched : she uttered no word that had not to pass through this severe ordeal. Her daily looks have been remarked, and scarcely even her thoughts escaped the un- paralleled and disgraceful assiduity of her malignant enemies. It is an inquisition, also, of a most solemn kind. I know no- thing in the whole race of human affairs, nothing in the whole view of eternity, which can even remotely resemble it; but the great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed ! " He who the sword of heaven will bear Should be as holy as severe !" And if your lordships have been furnished with powers, which I might almost say scarcely omniscience itself possesses, to ar- rive at the secrets of this female, you will think that it is your duty to imitate the justice, beneficence, and wisdom of that benignant Being, who, not in a case like this, where innocence is manifest, but when guilt was detected, and vice revealed, said, " If no accuser can come forward to con- demn thee, neither do I condemn thee ; go, and sin no more." Dr. Lushington followed, on October twenty-sixth, and here an abstract of his two HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. speech can be given : He commenced by stating, that if he had been left to the free exercise of his own discretion on the pres- ent occasion, be should certainly decline offering any observations to their lordships, because he felt conscious that it was utterly impossible for his humble exertions to add anything to the great and splendid address of his learned mend (Mr. Denman) who had preceded him. He now, however, ad- dressed their lordships by the desire of his learned coadjutors, and he felt a consolation under his conscious inability to the task, that her majesty's defence rested on a basis so solid that the observations even of an unskilful advocate could scarcely weaken it In surveying this case, and the charges on which it was founded, some observations occurred to his mind which he would shortly lay before the house. The first was the age of the royal accused. Was ever an in- stance known in the annals of accusations of this kind, that the person against whom the charge was made was of the age of fifty ? No : he would defy any one to cite a* precedent so preposterous or ridiculous. But who ever imagined a case like the present ] In addition to the circumstance of the age of the accused, there was. here that of a nusband, who had been for twenty- four years separated from his wife ; sepa- rated, not by any desire on her part, but by his own caprice, by his own act and choice not in consequence of any misconduct of that wife, but by his pursuit of some way- ward indulgence some capricious fancy. In this way had been broken, for self-grati- fication, those bonds which the laws of God and man had formed. How, then, did the case stand? Were his majesty a simple subject, was there a man in the world who would y that he was entitled to any con- sideration whatever in an application for di- vorce that it was possible he could have an injury founded on such a complaint, for which he could claim redress 1 As a hus- band, then, the king had no right to seek ' redress. But then it was said that this ap- plication was not in the name of the king, and that the law in the case of a subject was not applicable to the sovereign. Let, how- ever, no one presume to say that he is eman- cipated from obedience to the laws of God ; for that aatertion, of whomsoever it be made, wt founded in untruth and falsehood. It WM also said that rank and station in the wife required a more rigid observance of duties than in the husband ; but was there any doty whkh was not reciprocal 1 Was it not so with respect to matrimonial rights! And was it to be said that there was one law for women and another for men ? Or did superiority of wmk make the engage- ment taken at the altar of God less binding 1 Was the private individual to be told that there was one divine law for him, and an- other for the sceptered monarch] What was the plighted troth of the husband what the promise made at the altar ? To love and to comfort But how was that promise observed ? Where was the love ? where the comfort 1 Where should he look for one or the other 1 The comfort : what traces were there of if? If he went back to 1806, was it to be found there 1 or must he look for it in 1813, at that period of cruel interference, when the intercourse between the mother and the daughter was prohibited 1 Was it to be sought for at the period when the mother was exiled to a foreign land 1 No : there it did not exist ; for wherever she went the spirit of persecution followed her. It was inconceivable that a wife thus deserted, thus persecuted, should now be told that she has been unmindful of her duty, whilst the husband who was pledged to protect her, had allowed her to pass through the world without a friend to guard her honor. He regretted the discussion of these topica He knew well that, when the acts of kings were brought before the public, there were individuals who dwelt with triumphant satisfaction on the expo- sure. No man could feel the difficulty of his situation more than he did, when called upon, in the performance of a solemn duty, to dwell upon such painful considerations : but he owed it to himself and to his client to speak out boldly. There were individuals without number, always anxious to see the failings of kings, that they might turn them into derision. He would, therefore, say as little as possible upon this ungrateful sub- ject. It was almost needless to follow it through all its bearings ; but if he were in one of those courts where cases of this kind are usually decided, what should he say to the husband who, insensible of his own honor, allows his wife for a series of years to live unprotected, and then to offer her fifty thousand pounds a-year to live abroad, knowing, as he did, that she is in a course of adultery, but without giving one direc- tion that the adulterous intercourse should cease before she enjoys the large income proffered to her 1 What would he say to an individual so acting towards his wife 1 who said to her, not in the language of par- don and admonition, which his learned friend had repeated, ' Go, and sin no more,' but 'Go and indulge your appetites, continue your adulterous intercourse, and you shall be furnished with ample means for living iu splendor with your paramour!' He was happy that he was not under the necessity of introducing another topic. He was glad to state that in this case he was not called upon by any consideration of duty towards GEORGE IV. 1820. 681 his illustrious client, to say one word by way of recrimination ; he thanked God, and the" wisdom of his learned colleagues, who had so advised her majesty, that the case upon which they built their hopes of ac- quittal was one of perfect innocence, and that, by avoiding recrimination, he should save the house and the country from all its consequences. Their lordships could not, unless fully prepared to violate the laws of God and man, declare against his client. That venerable bench of bishops, who formed part of the judges, could not, without vio- lating the holy tenets of that gospel which they preached and inculcated, pronounce against the wife of their sovereign. The laws of God and of the country were upon her side, and he was sure that it was not there that they would be violated. The learned counsel then proceeded to take a luminous and comprehensive view of the whole of the evidence for and against her majesty, applying himself particularly to those topics which might have escaped Mr. Denman, and arguing, in the clearest and most conclusive manner, that the only correct inference to be drawn from the whole was the innocence of his illustrious client. He concluded by saying, that he left the honor and character of the queen in the hands of the house: with the most perfect confidence he left her, not to the mercy, but to the justice of their lordships. On the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth, the king's attorney-general, and solicitor- general, replied with much diffusiveness to the arguments of the counsel for the queen. The witnesses for the prosecution and de- fence, with the several pleadings of the re- spective council, being gone through, the lords, on the second of November, proceed- ed to debate the question, " Whether the Bill of Pains and Penalties should be read a second time'!" In this discussion, all the pringipal speakers, as well as many other peers, delivered their opinions at consider- able length, such as to occasion adjourn- ments from day to day, until the sixth in- stant when the house divided upon the important question of the second reading of the bill, equivalent to the question in other courts, of GUILTY, or SOT GUILTY, according to the evidence. THE DIVISION. THE lord chancellor having called upon each peer, he rose in his place, and said, " Content," or " Non-content." The result was : Contents, one hundred and twenty- three ; non-contents, ninety-five ; majority for the second reading, twenty-eight. LIST OF PEERS who voted for and against the second reading of the Degradation and Divorce Bill. For the second reading. DUKES of York, Clarence, Beaufort, Rut- land, Newcastle, Northumberland, Welling- ton, Athol, and Montrose. MARQUISES Conyngham, Anglesea, Cam- den, Northampton, Exeter, Headfort, Tho- mand, Cornwallis, Buckingham, Lothian, Queensberry, Winchester. EARLS Harcourt, Brooke and Warwick, Portsmouth, Pomfret, Macclesfield, Ayles- ford, Balcarras, Hume, Coventry, Rochford, Abingdon, Shaftesbury, Cardigan, Winchel- sea, Stamford, Bridgewater, Huntingdon, Westmoreland, Harrowby, St Germains, Brownlow, Whitworth, Verulam, Cathcart, Mulgrave, Lonsdale, Orford, Manvers, Rosse, Nelson, Powis, Limerick, Donough- inore, Belmore, Mayo, Longford, Mount Cashel, Kingston, Liverpool, Digby, Mount Edgecombe, Abergavenny, Aylesbury, Bath- urst, Chatham. VISCOUNTS Exmouth, Lake, Sidmouth, Melville, Curzon, Sydney, Falmouth, and Hereford. BARONS Somers, Rodney, Middleton, Na- pier, Colville, Gray, Salfoun, Forbes, Prud- hoe, Harris, Ross or Glasgow, Meldrum, Hill, Combermere, Hopetoun, Gambier, Manners, Ailsa, Lauderdale, Sheffield, Red- esdale, St Helens, Northwick, Bolton, El- don, C. Bayning, Carrington, De Dunsta- ville, Brodrick, Stewart of Garlies, Stewart of Castle Stewart, Douglas, Morton, Green- ville, Suffield, Montagu, Gordon, (Huntley), and Saltersford. ARCHBISHOPS Canterbury and Tuam. BISHOPS London, St. Asaph, Worcester, St Davids, Ely, Chester, Peterborough, Llandaft', Cork and Rosse, and Gloucester. Against the second reading. DUKES of Gloucester, Somerset, Hamil- ton, Argyll, Leinster, Grafton, Portland, Devonshire, Bedford, Richmond, (St. Albans, absent from illness). MARQUISES Bath, Stafford, and Lans- down. EARLS de Lawarr, Ilchester, Darlington, Egremont, Fitzwilliam, Stanhope, Cowper, Dartmouth, Oxford, Roseberry, Jersey, Al- bemarle, Plymouth, Essex, Thanet, Den- bigh, Suffolk, Pembroke, Derby, Blesington, Morley, Minto, Harewood, Grey, Gosford, Romney, Rosslyn, Caledon, Enniskillen, Farnham, Carrick, Carnarvon, Mansfield, Fortescue, Grosvenor, Hilsborough, (Mar- quis of Downshire). VISCOUNTS Granville, Anson, Duncan, Hood, Torrington, Bolingbroke. BARONS Ashburton, Bagot, Walsingham, Dynevor, Foley, Hawke, Ducie, Holland, Grantham, King, Belhaven, Clifton (Darn- ley), Say and Sele, Howard of Effingham. De la Zouch, Clinton, Dacre, Audley, De Clifford, Breadalbane, Erskine, Arden, El- lenborough, Alvanley, Loftus, (M. Ely), Fitzgibbon, Calthorpe, Dawnay, rough, Dundas, Selsea, Mendip, Auckland, Gage, Fisherwick, (M. Donegall), Amherst, Kenyon, Sherborne and Berwick. ARCHBISHOP of York. PROTESTS AGAINST THE SECOND READ- ING OF THE BILL OF PAINS AND PEN- ALTIES. DISSENTIENT, No. I. Nov. 6, 1820. Because the second reading of the bill is equivalent to a decision that adulterous in- tercourse (the only foundation on which the bill can rest) has been satisfactorily proved. Because that adulterous intercourse has been inferred, but not proved ; and in a doubtful case, in which the imputed guilt is not proved, although innocence be not established, the benefit of that doubt, con- formably to the principles of British justice, must be given to the defendant. Essex (first reason only), Hilsborough (first reason only), Kenyon, Orford, Somer- set, Selsea, Roseberry, Morley (first reason only), Leinster, Mansfield, Enniskillen, Richmond and Lenox, Jersey (first reason only), Carrick, Grafton (first reason only), Anson (ditto), Darlington (ditto), Belhaven (ditto). Dissentient, No. II. Because this pro- ceeding, from its nature, cannot be assimi- lated to a common indictment, in which a conviction upon one count alone, out of many, is sufficient And because, although enough has been proved in evidence to satisfy us of the ex- istence of guilt, yet as evidence on many of the allegations has been contradicted, in some disproved, and in- others is so suspi- cious as tq be laid wholly out of the case, we are of opinion that it is inexpedient to proceed further in this measure. Plymouth, Dynevor, Grantham, Denbigh, Clinton, (second reason only), Gage (second reason), Ilchester. The following peers also protested against the bill upon general grounds : Dissentient, No. Ill William Freder- ick, Ijinsdown, Jersey, Grey, Plymouth, Fitzgibbon, Albemarle, Hamilton and Bran- don, Duncan, Hilsborough, Wentworth (Fitzwilliam), Derby, Anson, Yarborough Sherborne, Cowper, Audley, Kenyon, Car- rick, Selsea, Foley, Arden, Egremont, Tor- rinjrton, Suffolk and -Berks, Loftus (Ely) Morley, Granville, Richmond and Lennox Bedford, Fortescue, Darlington, Belhaven Grafton, Breadalbane, Auckland, Dawnay (Downe), Mendip (Clifden), Leinster Hawke, Gosford, Romney, Roeeberry, Scoti (Portland), Thanet, Hood, Ashburton, How ard of Effingham, Alvanley, Carnarvon Dundas, Caledon, Sundridge (duke of Ar HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. .yll,) Ducie, King, Rosslyn, Dacre, Cal- horpe, Grantham and Ellenborough. PROTEST FROM HER MAJESTY. Yarbo- TUESDAY, November 7. We believe the irder of the day was about to be read, when ord Dacre stated, that since he had come nto the house this morning, a protest, with espect to its proceedings, on the part of ier majesty the queen, had been unexpect- edly put into his hands to be presented. It might, perhaps, surprise their lordships that iuch a paper should have been placed in his hands, as he had taken no part in the )roceedings on this important case ; and he ught to apologize to their lordships for not laving at an earlier stage expressed his opinion of it. His objection to bills of >ains and penalties for the punishment of noral turpitude long since committed, was so invincibly strong, that he never felt the east hesitation in declaring it He hoped Jaat the protest which had been placed in lis hands would be liberally heard by the louse ; but whatever were his sentiments on the proceedings in general, he must ob- ject to the practice of judges, jury, and prosecutors, all voting in this case against the queen. With respect to the protest now intrusted to him, he would acknow- ledge that there was no precedent for re- ceiving it; but the country would form their opinion of the conduct of the house, and precedent ought never to interrupt the equitable course of justice and of truth. He had scarcely had time to read over the protest of the queen, but it appeared that in the face of her family, the house, and the country, she solemnly protested against the proceedings in that house, as contrary to the constitution, to the spirit of the laws, and the principles of common justice. -The noble lord concluded with reading her ma- jesty's protest, which was couched in the following terms : PROTEST. " CAROLINE, REOINA. " To the lords spiritual and temporal, in parliament assembled. " The queen has learnt the decision of the lords upon the bill now before them. In the face of parliament, of her family, and of her country, she does solemnly protest against it " Those who avowed themselves her pros- ecutors have presumed to sit in judgment on the question between the queen and themselves. "Peers have given their votes against her who have heard the whole evidence for the charge, and absented themselves during her defence. " Others have come to the discussion from the secret committee, with minds bi- GEORGE IV. 1820. 683 assed by a mass of slander, which her ene- mies have not dared to bring forward in the light "The queen does not avail herself of her right to appear before the committee, for to her the details of the measure must be a matter of indifference ; and unless the course of these unexampled proceedings should bring the bill before the other branch of the legislature, she will make no reference whatever to the treatment experienced by her during the last twenty-five years. " She now most deliberately, and before God, asserts, that she is wholly innocent of the crime laid to her charge, and she awaits with unabated confidence the final result of this unparalleled investigation. (Signed) " CAROLINE, REGINA." The four following days were passed in debating the expediency of the divorce clause, and on this point the lords spiritual took the chief part. On a division there appeared, contents one hundred and twenty- nine, non-contents sixty-two, majority in favor of the divorce clause sixty-seven. The minority in the house of 'lords that voted for expunging the divorce clause, were lords Hill, Rodney, Yarborough, Sal- toun, Bayning, Kenyon, Hopetoun, Suffield, Calthorpe, Combermere, Sidney, Curzon, Falmouth ; bishops of Chester, Cork, Peter- borough, Gloucester, St. Asaph, St. David's, Ely, Worcester ; earls of Winchelsea, Cour- town, Mount Cashel, Romney, Stamford, Brownlow, Fitzvvilliam, Stanhope, Balcar- ras, Dartmouth, Aylesford, Verulam, Mor- ton, Portsmouth, Caledon, Lauderdale, St. Germains, Aylesbury, Macclesfield, Lons- dale, Mount-Edgecombe, Farnham, Pomfret, Whitworth, Mayo, Shaftesbury ; marquis Cornwallis; dukes of Clarence, Portland, Beaufort ; archbishops of York and Tuam ; cabinet-ministers Sidmouth, Melville, Ba- thurst; Harrowby, Mulgrave, Liverpool, Westmoreland, Wellington, Eldon C. On the tenth of November, the order of the day for the third reading of the bill of divorce and degradation, against the queen, being moved by the earl of Liverpool, there appeared on a division of the house, for the third reading, one hundred and eight, against it ninety-nine, majority in favor of the measure nine. On declaring which, lord Dacre observed, that he had been intrusted with a petition from her majesty, praying to be heard by counsel against the passing of the bill. BILL ABANDONED BY MINISTERS. THE earl of Liverpool said that he appre- hended such a course would be rendered unnecessary by what he was about to state. He could not be ignorant of the state of pub- lic feeling with regard to this measure, and it appeared to be the opinion of the house that the bill should be read a third time only by a majority of nine votes. Had the third reading been carried by as considerable a number of peers as the second, he and his noble colleagues would have felt it their duty to persevere with the bill, and to send it down to the other branch of the legisla- ture. In the present state of the country, however, and with the division of sentiment, so nearly balanced, just evinced by their lordships, they had come to the determina- tion not to proceed further with it It was his intention, accordingly, to move that the question " that the bill do pass now," be al- tered to " this day six months." His lordship's motion was agreed to, and the house immediately adjourned to the twenty-third of November. The house of commons had also adjourned to the same day, and Mr. Brougham sent a written com- munication to the speaker, as also to lord Castlereagh, that a message would be de- livered from her majesty. The speaker re- turned for answer, that he should take the chair at a quarter before two o'clock. In pursuance of which arrangement, he en- tered the house punctually, and immediately after two new members had been sworn in, and two new writs had been moved for, Mr. Denman rose with a paper in his hand, which he stated was a communication from her majesty; at this moment, the deputy- usher of the black rod entered the house, amidst the loudest cries for " Mr. Denman, and read, read," from near fifty members. Mr. Denman continued standing with the queen's message in his hand, whilst the usher of the black rod attempted to deliver a message from the lords, but it was only in dumb show, for though his lips appeared to move, not a syllable met the ear. The usher then withdrew, and after a short pause, Mr. Tierney rose, and remarked that as not one word of what the deputy-usher had delivered could have been heard, from whence could the speaker know what the message was 1 or whether he was wanted at all in the other house ? Mr. Bennett ex- claimed, " this is a scandal to the country ;" during which, the speaker rose, and proceed- ed down the body of the house, amidst cries of " shame, shame," and loud hisses from the opposition benches, lord Castlereagh, the chancellor of the exchequer, and other min- isterial members accompanying him to the house of lords, where the commission for the prorogation of parliament was read, and the chancellor, in his majesty's name, imme- diately prorogued the parliament to the twenty-third of January. So terminated the proceedings of the legislatorial trial in the house of lords, against her majesty Caroline Amelia Eliza- r,84 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. beth, queen-consort of king George the Fourth. That this procedure should elicit, iis it manifestly did, great and extraordinary displays of feeling in all quarters, cannot be denied. For though by our wisely de- vised state axiom, we are taught to believe, that by no possibility "can the king dp wrong ;" neither would the gallant princi- ples of Britons suffer them to credit, to the extent adduced, that a queen could be so far lost to herself, and her situation. While therefore one party imputed to her crimes of a deeper dye than appertained to a Messa- lina, another exalted her beyond the com- mon lot of humanity. And though different bodies of the community were so decidedly at variance on the respective merits of the case, as to be wholly blinded by their pas- sions and prejudices according to the side they politically espoused, there was not wanting an intermediate and most valuable class of reflective beings, who could not help deploring such development had ever been advised; as besides the discordant feuds that it had introduced into the bosom -of many a hitherto peaceful family decorum and morals had been daily violated, in the grossest manner, by details of a most brutal description, which defaced the columns of the public prints, and defiled the journals of the house where the trial pended. Inde- pendent of the abstract positions that " there is one law for all classes," that when " mar- ried persons separate by consent, they be- come free, and that the complaining party -liould come into court with clean hands, is inquiry was instituted, according to min- isterial statements, merely to secure a purity of succession ; there could be no necessity for such inquiry, when time had prevented any hope or fear of children being produced by the queen ; and the insidious set-off on the other side, that his majesty wished this measure to pass, that he might marry again, has proved delusive and nugatory, no such desire or event having taken place, since death has severed that tie, which proved too strong to be dissolved by any other power. Of the necessity of these proceedings, under every feature of the case, and after the failure of conciliatory measures, little doubt remains; but the policy of it may surely be discussed, and the question of the truth or falsehood of the allegations, pro- duced against an unfortunate queen, will long be disputed by posterity. They who give credence to the evidence brought for- ward in support of the bill of pains and pen- alties, will be compelled to accede to a ver- dict of guilty; while they, who deem the greater part of the witnesses as corruptly perjured, will not only at once acquit her ma- jesty, but gladly anathematize the wretches, however exalted, who, stimulated by any view of power, place, or provocation, could descend to the far greater crime of suborn- ing them for so base a purpose. Those who feel any curiosity to become more acquainted with this ever-to-be-regret- ted exposure of royal domestic misery and affliction, can refer to the authentic records of the trial at large. Whilst commenting upon this subject it must be stated, that the public feeling expressed on this abandon- ment of the bill, and the thereby implied triumph of her majesty, was most unequivo- cal. On the evening of the day on which the bill was left to its fate, as well as on the following Saturday and Monday, illu- minations took place in all parts of the me- tropolis ; and the demonstrations of joy, ex- ultation, and triumph, were on these nights as strongly exhibited by the populace, and bore an equal resemblance to those display- ed on any occasion of general rejoicing. In most parts of the kingdom similar scenes took place; and congratulatory addresses were abundantly voted to her majesty from various corporations, fraternities, and pub- lic bodies, who for a lengthened period filled the approaches to Brandenburgh house, with all the pageantry of processions, on the days appointed for their reception by the queen. November twenty-ninth. Her majesty, preceded by a numerous cavalcade of gen- tlemen on horseback, led hy Sir Robert Wilson, went in state to the metropolitan church of St. Paul's, to return public thanks; on which occasion, the concourse of per- sons assembled was so immense, rallying round the different illustrative banners borne in the line of march, that with the most extreme difficulty could the queen's carriage proceed from Temple Bar to the cathedral. The acclamations of the count- less multitude were loud, and continued, but the greatest attention to order was ob- served ; and the day concluded, contrary to the predictive fears of many, without the slightest accident or indecorum taking place. During the entire year of 1820, the public attention in Great Britain was thus powerfully excited, and almost ab- sorbed, by the domestic affairs of the royal family. In the endeavor to achieve impos- sibilities, by proving too much, politicians, in common with other men, generally over- reach themselves the event verifies the remark : for, had the propounders of this trial contented themselves with half a case, or at least one containing half the alleged criminality, it would have worn a face of greater probability, and compelled those engaged in the defence to gainsay the evi- dence by fact more than declamation. As it was, the chivalric disposition of English- men, ever eager to espouse the weaker GEORGE IV. 1820. 685 side, and championize, if the term may be allowed, the cause of what was made to appear, in glowing colors, a highly op- pressed, helpless, and deserted female, en- listed all the generous sentiments of Brit- ons in aid of the impassioned oratory of the queen's advocates ; and thus the names of Brougham, Denman, Williams, and Lush- ington, were entwined together, as a wreath of perennial bloom, by the independence of civism, resounded at public meetings, and crowned the goblets of convivial boards in every corner of these realms, long after their three months' labor in the cause of a royal mistress had terminated. Controver- sies and heart-burnings did not expire with this famed trial ; but, as while pending, this bill of pains and penalties had engrossed all attention, and obstructed all business, so, now it was withdrawn, it unfortunately continued to occupy the private as well as public mind, to the exclusion of other sub- jects, more intimately connected with the domestic interests and foreign relations of the nation and the individual. DEATH OF THE DUTCHESS OF YORK. ON the sixth of August in this highly momentous year, expired Fred erica Char- lotte Ulrica, the consort of his royal high- ness the duke of York, the eldest brother of the king. The dutchess was in the fifty- fourth year of her age. Her royal highness was the eldest daughter of the late king of Prussia, by his first wife, Elizabeth Ulrica Christiana, princess of Brunswick Wolfen- buttel. The dutchess of York was a pat- tern of the milder and retiring virtues, strongly devoted to exercises of charity, and diffusive benevolence. She passed her time almost wholly, except when public oc- casions called her forth, in a state of com- parative seclusion at the country-seat de- nominated Oatland's Park, in Surrey, where she died ; and in the neighboring village church of Walton was, at her express de- sire, privately interred. FRANCE. HER POLITICS. REVERTING to foreign affairs, from the domestic aspect of Great Britain, we are led to contemplate the general posture of Europe at this period ; and in so doing, we discern in the position of the neighboring nation of France the gradual development of measures, in the progressive operation of that change, which a lengthened chain of imperious circumstances had effected in that so strangely agitated country. The restoration of the ancient dynasty of the Capets, consequent on those important wars which had so long convulsed the world, re- quired the adoption of many new schemes of government ; and the alteration of the laws respecting elections appeared to be a paramount object with the ministers of VOL. IV. 58 Louis XVIII. M. Decases, who at this pe- riod was deemed the minister possessed of the greatest influence, had prepared a new projet of laws on this important matter, which he was prevented by indisposition alone from propounding to the chamber of deputies. Pending this delay the due de Berri was assassinated by one Louvel, as he was coming forth from the opera-house. Whether the murderer, a ci-devant soldier, was to be considered in the light of a fanat- ical enthusiast, or as a political tool, re- mains as yet a secret ; but certain it is, that the untimely death of this prince, who was the younger nephew of the king, and the sole member of the immediate family of Louis XVIII., who promised to continue his line of heirs to the throne, was much de- plored. The horror excited by this event gave great strength to the ultra-royalists ; and an extreme fermentation of opinion en- sued in the chamber of deputies, which finally spread itself through every part of the kingdom. The ministers, in conse- quence, considered it a measure of pru- dence to yield somewhat to public preju- dice, and to content themselves with a part of the projected measure ; well knowing, that if they persisted in carrying every- thing, they ran the mortifying risk of not effecting anything. Accordingly, M. de Serre, who had been reappointed to his for- mer post of keeper of the seals, informed the chamber, that he and his colleagues were willing to abandon the plan proposed to such extent as to put an end to the pres- ent system of direct election, provided that an additional number of deputies, to be se- lected by the wealthiest class of voters, were allowed an introduction to the legisla- tive body. This alteration of direct elec- tion, or in fact nomination, of senators, though apparently bettered by the new mode proposed, tended to introduce re- straints of no small importance on the free- dom of election to the house of deputies ; and after a trial for superiority, the two contending parties at length effected a compromise. According to the plan finally adopted, while the two hundred and fifty- eight members (being the original number of the chamber as it then was constituted) were to be returned by the electoral col- leges of the several districts, comprising all persons of thirty years old and upwards ; one hundred and seventy-two additional deputies were to be chosen by departmental colleges, which were to be composed cf one- fourth of the body of electors, that fourth being made up of those who paid the larg- est contributions to the public service so that, in addition to the three estates already represented, in some degree in imitation of the British constitutional assemblies and its 686 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. monarch, France now presented to view in her lower house the political anomaly of two species of deputies, or, in fact, a fourth estate. The trial of Louvel, who had mur- dered the due de Berri, which had been so long delayed, in the delusive hope that he would reveal his accomplices, or at least make some political discoveries, took place BO late as the fifth and sixth days of June, before the chamber of peers. This assassin continued stedfast to his former declara- tion, that he had no accomplice whatever ; but added, that he had long brooded in si- lent meditation over the deed of horror, without communicating the slightest hint of his intention to a single human being : and had perpetrated it, because he thought such an act essentially necessary to the welfare of France, in whose cause he died. He was consequently pronounced guilty, and sentenced to decapitation, which he underwent, being executed on the seventh of June. ATTEMPT TO DESTROY THE DUTCHESS DE BERRI. THE dutchess de Berri was pregnant at the period of her husband's assassination. This unborn infant was the only hope of the zealous royalists, being now the sole remaining chance of a lineal male decend- ant of Louis XIV. ; as the crown, in failure of issue by the dutchess, would have de- volved upon the Orleans family, the idea of which was peculiarly obnoxious to the zealous partisans of the house of Bourbon. Attempts of a diabolical nature were twice made to frustrate the regular course of natural probabilities on this occasion the first on the twenty-eighth of April, and the last on the sixth of May by placing light- ed petards close to the apartments occupied by the dutchess, so that their violent and unexpected explosion, as it was most atro- ciously imagined, could not fail to throw her into such a sudden state of terror as must induce a miscarriage. Both attempts, however, failed ; and in the second the un- manly culprit was seized. He was named Gravier. and had formerly been an officer under Napoleon. He and an accomplice were both condemned to suffer death ; but in consequence of the intercession of the dutchess, their punishment was commuted into that of hard labor for life. On Sep- tember the twenty-ninth, the widowed dutchese de Berri was safely delivered of a posthumous son, who immediately re- ceived the title of duke of Bourdeaux, and who is the declared legitimate heir to the crown of France. The loyalists were de- lighted in an extreme degree at the birth of a prince, as by the Salique law of that kingdom, females are excluded from inher- iting the throne and consequently, had it been so, the succession must have gone away from the Capet line, which would then have become extinct. STATE OF SPANISH AFFAIRS. SPAIN at this epoch, after her long and arduous struggle for liberty and her king, was groaning under the oppressive yoke of the ungrateful and bigoted despot, Ferdi- nand the seventh, with whom, in contra- diction to many political declarations, the fanaticism of monks had more credit than the valor of soldiers. An American expe- dition was still contemplated by the besot- ted councils of the Spanish government; and, preparations being completed, an army, comprising upwards of sixteen thousand men, was assembled in the vicinity of Ca- diz, the beginning of the month of Decem- ber, 1819. Transactions which took place in the preceding June incontestably proved the general spirit of the officers as hostile to the men and measures included in the sway of Ferdinand. Though that conspi- racy failed in its ultimate object, the very troops who had effected the suppression of it were now in a state of extreme insubor- dination themselves, insomuch as to have made their own terms, and amongst those terms had obtained an exemption from serv- ing in the new world. Count Abisbal, even that individual who had arrested the pro- gress of the former revolt, was at this junc- ture considered so little deserving of a con- tinuation of the royal confidence, that the command of the army had been taken from him, and he was gone into retirement. Ac- cordingly, in the month of December, a new plan of insurrection was matured among the troops then cantoned in and round about Cadiz ; at the head of which conspiracy were prominent colonel Riego and lieutenant-colonel Quiroga. It was planned, amongst other things, that the lat- ter should effect his escape from a convent in the neighborhood, wherein he was de- tained under arrest immediately join two battalions quartered at Alcala tes Gazules, and march with them on the first of Jan- uary towards Cadiz. On the same day, Riego, who was stationed at Los Cabezas with the second battalion of the regiment of the Asturias, was to proceed with that corps to the head-quarters at Arcos, and there seize the persons of the comrnander- in-chief, count de Calderon, and such of the other superior officers as could not be trust- ed. Riego, on the first of January, having proclaimed, amid the enthusiastic acclama- tions of his troops, the constitution as adopt- ed by the cortes in 1812, reached Arcos early on the following morning, when he surprised the commander-in-chief, with his whole staff Joined by the garrison of that town, and the second battalion of the Se- GEORGE IV. 1820. 687 ville regiment from Villa Marten, he lost no time, but entered Bornos on the third of January, and was there strengthened by a battalion of the regiment of Arragon ; and at Xeres and Port St. Mary, he received a farther accession of force. With this body of troops he hastened directly to effect a juncture with Quiroga, who had made his escape ; but was delayed in his march by the sudden swelling of the rivers and the bad state of the roads ; so that he was not able to arrive at the Isle of Leon before the magistracy of Cadiz had manned and strengthened the lines called Cortadura, and by those means arrested for a time his progress in that quarter. The united forces before these lines consisted of seven bat- talions, and assumed the title of the na- tional army. Quiroga was commander-in- chief, with Riego as second in command. In the course of a few days this national army was joined by a detachment, com- prising the brigade, artillery, cavalry, and infantry, which had been detached for the purpose of occupying Port St. Mary. On the twelfth of January, at midnight, the troops obtained the possession of the arsenal of the Caraccas ; which step was followed by two successive attacks made on the Cor- tadura, the first by the troops without the lines, and the second, on January twenty- fourth, by their partisans in the city ; but neither of them were attended by success. Such were the first movements of the revolution in Spain. Ferdinand's adherents were in the mean time very active. Don Manuel Freyre, who had been declared captain-general of Andalusia, issued several proclamations in reply to those proceeding from the patriotic party ; and having assembled such troops at Seville as he thought reliance might be placed upon, after throwing some succors into Cadiz, established his head-quarters at Port "St. Mary by the twenty-seventh of January. The patriots, from being baffled in all their attempts upon Cadiz, now changed their plan of operations. March- ing with a detachment of fifteen hundred men, Riego entered Algesiras on the first of February, where, though meeting with much cordial reception and good wishes, he was unable to recruit his forces ; and in the attempt to rejoin Quiroga he found himself suddenly intercepted by Don Joseph O'Don- nel, the brother of count Abisbal, who had cut off all communication between the Isle of Leon and Algesiras. Thus situated, the patriot general resolved to march into Gren- ada; and on the eighteenth of February gained Malaga, though closely pursued by O'Donnel. Accordingly, he passed the Guadalquivir at Cordova, on the eighth of March, having been constantly harassed by the close pursuit of the opposing, and su- perior force. On his arrival at Bienveinda, on the eleventh, Riego's troops were by all these casualties broken and reduced in num- ber to about three hundred men. This be- ing too inconsiderable a force to act any longer together as an army, the patriot band, after many privations and difficulties, were compelled to separate at the foot of the Ronda mountains, for the purpose of each individual saving himself by conceal- ment or flight. In the mean time Quiroga found himself in a situation of no less jeopardy ; being in fact shut up in the Isle of Leon, with the skeleton of an army, by various privations and hardships reduced in numerical strength to less than four thou- sand men, and these becoming hourly more and more depressed through inactivity, and in imminent danger of suffering total de- struction by the want of provisions, which now became dreadfully apparent. Though these disastrous mischances so gloomily frowned upon the primary leaders of the revolution, the sun of success still gleamed upon the patriotic cause, and was gradually diffusing its radiance in other parts of the Spanish kingdoms. Gallicia witnessed an energetic rising of the peo- ple, who fully, and indeed from predisposi- tion perhaps, without difficulty, ultimately triumphed over the executive and its au- thorities. This branch of the revolt had been concerted, and was chiefly effected, by some officers of the garrison at Corun- na; who, at the time that Venegas the captain-general of the province was in the act of holding a levee, raised the cry of " The nation for ever !" and, after disarm- ing the guards of state, entered the room where Venegas was surrounded by his vis- itors. Those officers who were present at the levee immediately joined their party, and simultaneously with drawn swords pro- claimed that constitution which they de- clared themselves ready to die in the de- fence of. The patriots invited Venegas to assume the command, by placing himself at the head of this new order of affairs ; but this he refused ; and accordingly, both him- self and his staff were put under arrest, though at the same time they were treated in the most respectful manner. A new cap- tain-general of the province was appointed, in the person of colonel Acevedo a su- preme junta constituted and the garrison received in addition a patriotic corps of two thousand militia. Ferrol, Vigo, and Pente- vedra, displayed a similar enthusiastic spirit of devotional patriotism, and about the same period the since justly celebrated and esteemed Mina appeared in Navarre, in support of the constitution, which he so ef- fectually aided and there proclaimed. At HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. this important crisis, count Abisbal, who had, with the skill of a consummate politi- cian, carefully watched the progress of these events from their development, now openly espoused the patriotic cause, and from his powerful co-operation, achieved the triumph of the revolutionary party. By his influence, a plan was matured for pro- claiming the constitution, with the assist- ance of the officers commanding in La Man- cha ; in this plan was included Don Joseph 6'Donnel, the brother of Abisbal, who was at that moment following up the overthrow of Riego, but who, by this new arrange- ment, was to lend important assistance to the cause of the patriots. Count Abisbal, for these purposes, left Madrid on the third March, was joined by some of the body guard at Aranjuez, and on the next day, with the support of his brother's regiment, surprised the governor of Ocana, whom he placed in arrest, and followed this step with a proclamation of the constitution. From the instant of count AbisbaPs defection, Ferdinand could only screen himself by ap- parent submission. The power that had declared in favor of the constitution, and which was now arrayed against Ferdinand, was composed of his own household troops, commanded by the same individuals, whose influence with the soldiery had once before saved him, and from whose hands alone safety could be rationally anticipated again. In this posture of affairs, delay must have been fatal. The king lost no time in pub- lishing an official document, in which he set forth his royal intention of immediately assembling the cortes, for the purpose of re- dressing grievances and remedying every national abuse. The populace of Madrid, upon the first promulgation of this testi- mony of the weakness of the royal cause, assembled without delay in vast multitudes in the immediate precincts of the palace, and, with the fervor of those meetings, de- manded the constitution, with such outcries of violent clamor, that great apprehensions were entertained for the king's personal se- curity. Influenced by these terrors, Ferdi- nand issued the same evening a circular letter to the different authorities of Madrid, declaring that " the will of the people having been pronounced," he had resolved to swear to the constitution, as sanctioned by the cortes in 1812. This circular was followed by the immediate establishment of a su- preme junta, composed of men of principles known to be favorable to the new order of things. All persons implicated in the late proceedings, and imprisoned for state offen- ce*, were liberated ; the liberty of the press was henceforward declared, and the total abolition of the inquisition resolved upon. Tidings of the transactions which had taken place in La Mancha and Gallicia, now readied Cadiz, where general Freyre had just arrived. The enthusiasm of the peo- ple was wrought to such height, that Freyre wisely determined to yield to their wishes. On the ninth of March, the very day of his arrival, he gave public intimation in the square of Antonio, that he would put up the stone of the constitution at ten o'clock on the following morning, and that it should be sworn to immediately when done. The populace, not con tented with this declaration, vehemently exclaimed "No delay! now, now !" which was reiterated with such ar- dor and earnestness, that the general drew from his pocket the book of the constitution, which having kissed, he concluded by say- ing, " Now, then, the oath is taken ; to- morrow the remaining and requisite solem- nities shall be performed." A flag was subsequently unfurled with this inscription, "The constitution for ever, and Freyre our Regenerator." MASSACRE AT CADIZ. ON the following day a most disgraceful and horrid outrage was committed by the troops in Cadiz, which must tend to entail upon them disgrace, coeval with the pen of history, which hesitates while it records such perfidy. In this infamous breach of faith, however, it is on all sides admitted, that general Freyre had no participation. The stone of the constitution was carried into the midst of the square of St. Antonio, as the preparatory step to the ceremony. The municipal authorities were to form themselves into a procession, as assistants at the regular proclamation of the constitu- tion, and orders had been issued from the head-quarters of the general, that all the houses should be decorated, and the city publicly illuminated for three successive nights. A message had been dispatched to the island of St. Leon, inviting general Quiroga and his staff to be present on the occasion. The general himself did not at- tend the invitation, but deputed four of his personal staff to witness this celebration of popular triumph. Nothing could exceed the joy and felicity of the inhabitants of Cadiz, on this memorable morning, the tenth of March, when the whole city exhibited one scene of pleasure and hilarity. Smiles enlightened every face, and gladness shone around, while each eye was waiting the arrival of the general, each ear strained to catch the appointed hour of ten. This grati- fying spectacle was soon, however, to be converted into one of far different complex- ion, for as the clock struck, the troops rushed forth, and firing volleys upon the gazing throng, dealt death promiscuously around, whilst shouting forth " Ferdinand for ever, and down with the constitution." The ut- GEORGE IV. 1820. 689 most consternation and appalling terror now took possession of the crowds assembled, and the defenceless people flying from their murderous assailants, trampled down each other to avoid death. The officers disap- peared with the dispersion of the populace ; the brutal soldiery, left without control, threw off all subordination and revelled in every unjustifiable excess ; and the whole city, from a scene of universal joy and prom- ised security, was in one instant converted into the resemblance of a place delivered over to all the horrors of military execution and pillage, after a protracted siege. This out- rageous violation of public faith, this hor- rible exhibition of savage policy and brutal violence, continued from ten in the morn- ing until eight in the evening, when the officers once more interfered, and finally succeeded in withdrawing the infuriated troops to their several quarters, after a car- nage of ten hours, which bestrewed the streets with four hundred dead bodies of men, women, and children, whose number of wounded was fully proportionate. Tran- quillity was not restored in the town, ere the lapse of two days, at which time in- formation was received, that Ferdinand had accepted the constitution. The troops having no further pretext for resistance, submitted in sullen silence. No more acts of open violence occurred, but yet it can- not be wondered at, that neither soldiers or citizens deemed themselves safe, until they were removed to a distance from each other. The governor Valdeo, and the military commander Campania, were dis- placed, and within a week after the exe- crable massacre of their fellow-countrymen, the troops were marched away, to the great relief of the suffering inhabitants. The army of the Isle of Leon, which was now of considerable force, on the united suggestion of Riego and Quiroga, was ordered not to separate until the assembly of the cortes ; and'at the same time, in some recompense of their services, the rank of field-marshal was bestowed on both these chiefs of the revolution. Very soon afterwards, field- marshal Quiroga was elected a member of the cortes, and the sole command of this army devolved upon Riego. On the ninth of July, the functions of the supreme junta expired, at which period the cortes assem- bled, and the revolution was thought to be finally and solidly established through every part of the kingdom. KING OPENS THE CORTES. A SPEECH from the king opened the cortes, which immediately proceeded to the fulfilment of their various and important duties. During their sittings, divers politi- cal schemes appeared in overt act, and many disturbances broke out in Andalusia, 58* Catalonia, Estremadura, Gallicia, and Va- lencia; in Estremadura, an individual named Morales, having prevailed upon some of the Bourbon cavalry to join him, acquired by such accession an importance far beyond tris deserts. These occurrences induced several of the most zealous revolutionists among the body of the cortes, to urge min- isters to the adoption of stronger and more decisive measures against the adversaries of the new constitution. The grasping ambition of some of their own partisans was another fertile source of embarrassment to the constitutionalists, which tended to para- lyze their efforts for the public good. RIEGO'S DISGRACE. AMONG these discontented chiefs, Riego particularly distinguished himself. It had been resolved that the army of the Isle of Leon should be disbanded ; and as a com- pensation for the loss of that military com- mand, Riego was nominated captain-general of Gallicia. This change not suiting with the powerful ambition of his mind, he re- paired to the capital to protest against the measure ; but finding all his arguments and endeavors useless, and wholly failing in his remonstrances with the administration, he essayed to overawe the cortes by dint of his popularity with the lower orders of the peo- ple, and his influence in the several political clubs with which Madrid at that time abound- ed. Government, however, acted with be- coming firmness, refusing to submit to a dic- tator : laws were enacted to prevent the recurrence of abuses originating from fac- tious clubs and assemblies several of the most active rioters were subjected to pun- ishment and Riego himself, being stript of his office of captain-general, was banished to his native town of Oviedo. CORTES CLOSES. THE first session of the cortes closed on the ninth of November, when a speech was read to them in the name of the king, who, under the pretext of sickness, remained at the Escurial. Previous to their final sepa- ration, however, the cortes resolved, among many other measures strongly indicating distrust of the monarch, that three-fourths of their whole number should invariably re- main at their posts, to be in readiness to counteract any scheme which might arise prejudicial to public welfare. The long and continued absence of this infatuated sove- reign from the capital gave great umbrage to the populace and constitutionalists, as his motions could not be so well ascertained at the Escurial as they might be at Madrid. Nor did it appear that this jealousy was with- out foundation ; for on the sixteenth of No- vember, only one week after the closing of the cortes, Ferdinand being still resident at the Escurial, nominated general Carvajal 600 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. to the government of New Castile, without causing the appointment to be duly counter- signed, as was requisite, by the proper min- isters. The permanent deputation of the cortes, in conjunction with the municipal body of the capital, immediately met ; and, whilst the whole population of the city was in a state of the utmost exasperation, they drew up and presented to his majesty a most energetic and decisive remonstrance, in which, among various other matters, they pointed out the absolute necessity of the ting's residing at Madrid. In one part of this timely address they observed " Your majesty's absence has occasioned apprehen- sions that are aggravated by nominations to important employments, of persons noto- riously opposed to the constitutional system, which your majesty has sworn to preserve, and which we are all ready to defend to the last drop of our blood. We are com- pelled, sire, to say, that without some pub- lic manifestation to the new institutions, of a nature to destroy every hope in their most determined enemies, confidence cannot be re-established. This manifestation, in our opinion, can be none other than your ma- jesty's return to the midst of your children, and the immediate extraordinary convoca- tion of the cortes." FERDINAND RETURNS TO MADRID. THE king, in apparent compliance with this address, returned unwillingly on the twenty-first of November to the capital ; and shortly after, the commands in the dif- ferent provinces were, with an increased spirit of reluctance on his part, bestowed on the most violent partisans of the revolu- tion. Among those so distinguished, the ambitious Riego was appointed captain-gen- eral of Arragon : whilst Morales, the leader of the Estremaduran disturbances, with a few of his adherents, fled for safety into Portugal; but being taken by the Portu- guese, he was delivered over by them to the {Spanish authorities. The army was now completely organized, and received the king's sanction : it was arranged as a peace *U)lishment, to consist of sixty-six thou- sand, eight hundred and twenty-eight men, which was to be doubled in the event of war. The three regiments of Swiss sol- diers were suppressed ; and throughout the different provinces large enrolments of mi- litia took place. Such, at this eventful pe- riod, was the political state of Spain, towards which all Europe turned its eyes with an extreme anxiety of expectation, viewing the extraordinary spectacle of a country in which the spirit of firm resistance to a faithless, cruel, and bigoted monarch had displayed itaelf in such an unparalleled manner, and hitherto with such successful and triumph- ant results. REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN POR- TUGAL. THE neighboring state of Portugal could not remain long unaffected by the eruption which had shaken the Spanish kingdom. Similar causes produce similarity of effects. The removal of the monarch and his court to the Brazils had tended to make the no- bles less loyal in their inclinings ; and the community, seeing themselves as it were abandoned by the royal family, now that the necessity for their exile no longer existed, were more easily swayed by the resident nobility; whilst the army, in addition to many other causes of discontent, were sorely mortified by the circumstance of marshal Beresford being continued in the supreme command, and about a hundred British offi- cers still retaining their commissions, now that the war was concluded, and during a period which promised a long continuance of peace. Marshal Beresford had sailed for Rio Janeiro in the month of April, and during his absence the spirit of revolution first manifested itself at Oporto ; which was ripened into open revolt against the author- ities, under the auspices of Don Bernardo Correa de Castro Sepulveda, a young noble- man, and commander of the eighteenth regi- ment. On the twenty-fourth of August an address was read to the regiments stationed there, inviting them to assist in the estab- lishment of a constitutional government. This invitation was hailed by the assembled troops with loud acclamations ; and subse- quently, in the presence of the governor, the bishop, and the city magistrates, a pro- visional junta was appointed, consisting of sixteen members, charged with the govern- ment of the country until the cortes should meet. This junta, as a preliminary mea- sure, made a declaration of their reverence for the rights and immunities of the church, and of all the constituted authorities, joined to a most devoted attachment to the mon- archy established in the house of Braganza. The English officers were informed that they were to enjoy a continuance of their respective ranks and emoluments until the meeting of the cortes should take place : but they were strictly enjoined not to take any part whatever in the events .then pass- ing. On the other hand, the regency at Lisbon sent forth a proclamation, on the twenty-ninth of August, deprecating the whole of the transactions which had taken place at Oporto condemning it as an illegal conspiracy, and declaring that it was vested in the sovereign alone, the right of convoking the cortes. Ultimately discover- ing that the defection of the soldiery was general in all the provinces, they yielded to necessity, and published a proclamation for the speedy assemblage of the cortes. GEORGE IV. 1820. 691 Don Sepulyeda had in the interim marched to attack count Amarante, the commander of Trosos Montes, who, finding himself abandoned by his troops, sought refuge in Gallicia ; by which Sepulveda reached Co- imbra unopposed, and proceeded forthwith to the capital, followed by the provisional junta. September fifteenth a day always celebrated with military pomp by the gar- rison of Lisbon, as the anniversary of the deliverance of Portugal from the oppres- sion of a foreign yoke, in defiance of the attempts of the regency to prevent it the sixteenth regiment mustered in the Rocio, the principal square of the metropolis, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and were speedily joined by the tenth regiment from the castle, the fourth from Campo D'Ou- rique, the artillery from the Caes dos Sal- vados, and the cavalry from Alcantara until both the Rocio and the Praca were filled with troops, headed by their officers, and in full order of march. Aided by this army, the constitution was proclaimed ; the regency-halls were opened ; and a new set of governors appointed. During these pro- ceedings the troops remained quietly on the ground till near eleven at night, when they marched back, according to orders, to their several quarters, in the highest regularity : and thus was this great change brought about, without the most trifling disturbance, or slightest indication of riot. The Oporto junta entered Lisbon on the first of Octo- ber, and the northern and southern armies arrived shortly after. This was followed by the union of the two juntas, who were then divided into two sections, one of them be- ing charged with the ordinary cares of ad- ministration, and the other with such duties as were necessary for assembling the cortes. MARSHAL BERESFORD ARRIVES BE- FORE LISBON. NINE days from this, lord Beresford re- turned from Rio Janeiro, in his Britannic majesty's ship the Vengeur, and cast an- chor in the Tagus. His lordship expressed an extreme desire to land, and requested permission to be allowed so to do, in the capacity of a simple British subject, having various affairs of a private nature to settle in Portugal. The public alarm excited by his arrival was so great, that it was deemed necessary from motives combining the mar- shal's personal safety, as well as to pre- serve the public tranquillity, to refuse a compliance with this request, as well as to use every possible means to hasten his de- parture, without suffering him to have any private communication with the shore. Finding matters thus imperatively conduct- ed, marshal Beresford at length sailed for England in the Arabella packet; and after his departure, captain Maitland delivered a sum of money to the junta, from the Ven- geur, which he had conveyed from Rio Janeiro, for the purpose of paying the army. Strong and serious differences of opinion were now elicited between the two juntas of Lisbon and Oporto ; the former one be- ing desirous of adhering without deviation to the ancient forms and principles of the constitution, while the latter, far more tend- ing to democracy, was anxious to adopt the constitution of Spain in its most ample form. The leader of the violent party was Sil- veira, who succeeded in obtaining a decree, that the cortes should be elected as in Spain, according to the population, and that one deputy should be returned for every thirty thousand inhabitants. Not content with this success, they prevailed with the troops to assemble on the eleventh of November, round the palace, where the junta were then engaged in deliberation, and in obe- dience to their tumultuous clamors, the junta also decreed, that the constitution of Spain should be adopted in its fullest ex- tent. The command of the army was then conferred upon one of their most active and zealous partisans, whilst Silveira him- self assumed the department of foreign af- fairs. In consequence of these measures, the more moderate party of the junta now withdrew from the council, and one hun- dred and fifty officers of the army threw up their commissions. These events filled the kingdom with consternation, and Texeira, commander-in-chief at Lisbon, by whose influence they had been consummated, soon saw cause to repent the part he had achiev- ed. Sepulveda now strenuously exerted himself to make the army sensible of their erroneous proceeding on the eleventh, and was so far successful, that on the seven- teenth November a military council was convened, consisting of general officers, and others, commanders of divisions, who came to a series of resolutions, which enumerated, " that the public welfare required that those members who lately desired their discharge, should resume their functions; that the election of deputies to the cortes be made according to the Spanish system, but that no other part of the Spanish constitution be enacted, except when the cortes shall meet and adopt it, with sudh alterations as they shall judge proper." The effect of these declaratory resolutions, was the im- mediate reascendancy of the moderate party, by whom Silveira was stript of all power, ordered to quit the city within two hours, and to retire to his estates at Canales, from whence he was not to depart, upon any pretext, without first having obtained per- mission of the executive. These changes were hailed with unbounded applause by the people at large, who now began to look 692 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. forward with confidence and hope to the meeting of the cortes ; which expectation was not then to be realized, as they did not assemble till nearly a year afterwards. In several other parts of Europe, the minds of the people were also much agitated by the spirit of free and bold inquiry ; and conse- quently the system of governments em- bracing general representation, obtained numerous proselytes wherever such opin- ions were suffered to be promulgated. POLITICAL MOVEMENTS AT NAPLES, &c. NAPLES made an effort at obtaining a constitution, founded on the representative system, and the king was compelled to cede to the remonstrances of the people, backed as they were by the military. On the sixth of July, he issued a proclamation, promis- ing to publish the basis of a constitutional code within a week. A deputation from the army was immediately sent to Naples, to insist that his majesty should adopt the broad principle of the Spanish constitution, within the space of twenty-four hours. Upon receiving this demand, he instantly resolved to lay aside the exercise of his royal functions ; and on the same evening, he declared his eldest son, the duke of Ca- labria, vicar-general of the kingdom. On the following day, the vicar-general announced his acceptance of the Spanish constitution, and at the same time, the king confirmed this act of his son, and for the due observance of it, pledged his royal faith. On the ninth, the revolutionary army made its triumphal entry into Naples; the vicar-general named the provisional junta ; and on the thirteenth, both himself and his royal father swore fidelity to the new con- stitution, in the presence of the assembled junta. The leaders of the revolution im- mediately dispatched ambassadors to the principal European courts, but their envoys were received and acknowledged only at Madrid ; Austria did not even attempt to disguise her feelings, or dissemble her hos- tfle intent, but sent forth the most violent proclamations against the new government, anathematizing the Carbonari, the supposed instigators of the revolutionary proceed- ings, forbidding the exportation of any military stores to Naples, and ultimately sealed this frank avowal of her sentiments, by preparations for assembling a large army in Italy in the most prompt ant! effective manner. MEETING OF SOVEREIGNS. In the latter end of October, a meeting of the emperors of Russia and Austria, with the king of Prussia, took place at Troppau, to deliberate on the necessary measures which the existing state of Naples called npon them imperiously to adopt The re- sult of which conference was, that the re- gal triumvirate, by letters dated the twen- tieth November, invited the Neapolitan monarch to give them the meeting at Lay- bach ; and on the thirteenth of December, he accordingly embarked on board the Eng- lish ship Vengeur, from whence he landed at Leghorn, and arrived at Laybach on De- cember the twenty-eighth. The parliament of Naples, although they did not at all ap- prove of the sovereign's removal, ventured no measures in opposition thereto. REVOLUTION IN SICILY. WHILST these occurrences were taking place in Naples, scene's of greater anarchy and more sanguinary disorder, were trans- acting in Sicily. The news of the accept- ance and adoption of the Spanish constitu- tion, reached Palermo on the fourteenth, and the intelligence gave rise to the most enthusiastic demonstrations of exulting joy. On the following morning, which happened to be the grand national festival of the Si- cilians, some trivial circumstance roused the popular indignation against general Church, an Englishman, employed in the Neapolitan army, which ended in his being assaulted, and the plundering of his house. The multitude having by these acts com- menced a career of misguided, lawless per- secution and outrage, proceeded to the most desperate excesses ; eight hundred galley- slaves were immediately liberated and arm- ed ; and this insurrection being led on by a Franciscan monk, called Vaglica, suc- cessfully attacked the garrison. The regu- lar troops being overpowered by this brutal force, every species of atrocity was with- out hesitation committed ; many persons were killed in the heat of the conflict, be- sides a considerable number, among whom were the princes Aci and Cattolica, who were deliberately butchered after it was concluded. On the seventeenth July, an attempt was made to form some sort of pro- visional government ; a junta was appoint- ed, a civic guard established, and the gal- ley-slaves were commanded to surrender their arms and depart from the city. These arrangements were but of short duration, being subsequently overthrown, and a new junta formed, of which prince Pateno was nominated the president ; till, on the twen- ty-fifth September, a Neapolitan army, com- manded by Floristan Pepe, arrived before Palermo, which capitulated on the fifth of October ; on the next day Pepe took pos- session of the town, and immediately pro- claimed the Spanish constitution. It was expressly stipulated by the capitulation, that the Sicilian states-general were to decide, whether the parliament of Sicily should be declared independent, or be united to that of Naples. The Neapolitan legislature, however, wholly annulled this article ; and GEORGE IV. 1820. 693 a new general, with large reinforcements for the army, was speedily sent to succeed Pepe, who was thus removed. The junta being first dissolved, the Nea- politans gave the earliest proof of the prac- tical application of their ardent love of free- dom, and their devotion to liberal principles, by levying the most unjustifiable contribu- tions, and treating Palermo, not as an in- tegral part of their states, but in all re- spects as a foreign town subjugated by the success of their arms, and entitled thereby to endure every severity from the hands of a triumphant and savage conqueror. ASSEMBLY OF THE POLISH DIET. WHILST the more genial shores of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, were subjected to divers political explosions, whilst liberty was attempting some amelioration of men and manners hi those realms, the north of Europe remained in a comparatively qui- escent state, unvisited by any occurrence of material interest, unless indeed the trans- actions of the diet of Poland be deemed worthy of consideration. The Autocrat of all the Russias, with a policy replete with worldly wisdom, had continued as a boon to this annexation to his widely-extended dominions, the title of an independent kingdom ; flattering this ancient (though dismembered) nation, with the right of having its own military force, and its diet or legislative assembly, com- posed as formerly of two separate cham- bers. In conformity with this arrangement, or act of sovereign grace, the emperor Al- exander himself opened the session with an address, highly adapted to beget full confi- dence in the various measures he thereiu propounded to their legislatorial considera- tion. The measures he recommended were of an extremely popular aspect, consisting in " a modification of the constitution of the senate," a " plan of a criminal as well as a civil code." None of these measures, though strenuously debated, met with final adop- tion ; and on the closing of the sessions on the first of October, his imperial majesty, in his speech, expressed his extreme disap- pointment at the rejection of these minis- terial projets. Notwithstanding the resist- ance of the diet to his will, this powerful monarch continued the same line of polit- ical forbearance, and far from visiting Po- land with any further indications of his an- ger, pursued that laudably wise path towards it, which, by upholding and patronizing' every scheme, likely to extend the com- mercial intercourse of that nominal king- dom, with the other parts of his vast do- minions, is rapidly tending to consolidate his colossal power, as supreme ruler of that empire, of almost unnumbered millions of civilized and barbaric subjects committed to his sway. 694 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHAPTER II. Opening of Parliament His Majesty's Speech Debates on the Conduct of Minister* relative to the Queen Country Petitions to restore Queen's Name to Liturgy Queen's Message to the House of Commons Provision for her Majesty Discussion on the Question of Emancipating the Catholics Bill for Relief of Catholics intro- duced and passed through the House of Commons Rejected in the House of Lords Borough of Grampound disfranchised The Franchise transferred to the County of York Committee to inquire into Cause of Agricultural Distress Report of Com- mittee Bank of England resumption of Cash Payments Ways and Means for the current Year Parliament prorogued Death of Napoleon, ex-Emperor of France, in Captivity at St. Helena Situation of the Queen Her Conduct, and Correspond- ence with Officers of State Coronation of George IV. OPENING OF PARLIAMENT. 1821. THE first public occurrence which took place this year was the assembly of parliament ; on which occasion the king went in state to the house of lords, and opened the session by delivering a most gracious speech from the throne. DEBATES ON THE CONDUCT OF MINIS- TERS RELATIVE TO QUEEN. THE debates in both houses, consequent on the usual motions for addresses of thanks to the sovereign in grateful return for the royal speech, were long, and warmly con- tested ; and strongly indicated the feelings and opinions of the ministerial partisans, as well as of those adhering to the opposition, on the various important topics touched upon therein ; and chiefly upon the line of con- duct which government had displayed to- wards the queen : a conduct which was more scrutimzingly developed, and severely commented on, by the members in opposi- tion to ministers in the house of commons, than in the lords. Immediately after the assembled house had heard the speech read by the speaker, on their return, lord Ar- chibald Hamilton gave notice of a motion touching the omission of her majesty's name in the liturgy ; and he was followed by Mr. Wetherell a gentleman eminent in the law, and who to this period had invariably supported the ministry who immediately moved for the production of certain papers and documents relating to the mode of in- sertion of the names of the king, queen, and other branches of the royal family, in the collect* and litanies of the Liturgy, inclu- ding the period from the reign of James the first to the present day ; and for the several orden of council for the insertion, omission, or change of such nameg, from the com- mencement of the reign of Henry the eighth. An objection was made by lord Castlereagh to such a motion being brought forward without previous notice suggesting the propriety of his withdrawing it for the pres- ent This suggestion was not attended to ; Mr. Wetherell persisted in his motion ; on which lord Castlereagh moved the previous question, and thus pressed to a division. Mr. Wetherell's motion was negatived by a ma- jority of ninety-one : the numbers being two hundred and sixty votes against one hun- dred and sixty-nine. The marquis of Ta- vistock, on the following day, gave notice, that on the fifth of February it was his in- tention to move a resolution expressive of the opinion of the house on the conduct of ministers, in the late proceedings which they had instituted against the queen. COUNTRY PETITIONS. DURING this period the attention of the house was daily occupied, for a considerable portion of its time, with listening to the multifarious petitions which were presented from every part of the kingdom, complain- ing of the late proceedings against her majesty. Most of these numerous petition- ers expressed in the strongest terms of reprobation their dislike of the government- al measures ; and prayed for the restoration of her majesty's name to the Liturgy, and that the house would exert its utmost in- fluence in advising the king to dismiss from his councils his present ministers whose misconduct, as they alleged, had very se- riously endangered the dignity of the crown, and greatly disturbed the peace, harmony, and welfare of the nation, by their pernicious advice. Several of the members to whom the presentation of these petitions had been intrusted, embraced the opportunity of de- livering their own sentiments upon the subjects thereof; and many speeches were embued with all the warmth of feeling, flow of language, and force of eloquence, which such an occasion might be expected to produce. Lord Archibald Hamilton's motion, of which he had given due notice, came before the house on the twenty-sixth of January ; and was couched in the follow- ing form : " That the order in council of GEORGE IV. 1821. 695 the twelfth of February, 1820, under which the name of her majesty, Caroline, queen- consort, has been omitted in the liturgy, and in the accustomed prayers of the church, appears to this house to have been a measure ill advised and inexpedient." This motion originated a very long and animated debate, during which much legal lore, and deep as well as antiquarian research into history, were elicited by Sir James Mackintosh and Mr. Wetherell who severally supported the motion, and argued in strong and able terms, that the said order in council was not only inexpedient but illegal. In reply to these assertions the attorney-general and solici- tor-general contended the point of necessity, and also that it was not illegal ; and the form- er learned gentleman observed, that the act of uniformity gave a power to omit as well as to alter or change, as was evident from the fact, that the Liturgy annexed to that act, and which Mr. Wetherell had so rightly considered as part of it, contains a blank in the place of the name of queen, which, without such vested power of addition or omission, could never have been supplied. The conduct of government was defended by lord Castlereagh, in a most luminous speech, in which, after ably refuting the several allegations adduced, he concludes in the following remarkable terms : " For myself," said his lordship, "I can safely affirm, that I have acted as the nature of the case absolutely required ; and were that act to be done again, I would pursue exactly the same line of conduct a line which I feel to be in no degree a matter of option, but an imperative duty. In a case so surrounded by difficulties, government did not act without deliberation. No doubt they were embarrassed by the prospect of the use which would be made of the ques- tion by the seditious and disaffected. It is to be regretted, too, that the law on the case js not more clear; but as the case stood, had they at first inserted her name in the Liturgy, while such heavy charges against her lay on the council table, and had afterwards been compelled to erase it on account of the confirmation of those charges, the moral indignation of the coun- try would have overwhelmed .us. But it was said, that the queen was now proved innocent that she had been tried and ac- quitted and that her name should now be restored as matter of course. As to the opinion of gentlemen opposite on this point, it has not with me much weight : and I will tell them why; because their conviction was as strong before the evidence was given as after. I will admit, however, that tech- nically she may be said to be acquitted ; and therefore may claim the possession of those privileges to which she had strictly a legal right ; but the insertion of her name in the liturgy is not a matter of right ; and when her character has been so far affected by the evidence in support of the charges against her, that one hundred and twenty- three peers had pronounced her guilty, the crown cannot be advised to grant this or any other matter of grace and favor, which it is at the pleasure of the crown to grant or withhold. Towards the queen, person- ally, I repeat, I feel compassion. When once the proceedings against her had closed, ministers were resolved to move no further measures on the subject; but since they who affect to be her friends have renewed the discussion, be theirs the odium, and theirs the mischief which must result from its useless agitation. But I cannot be silent upon her conduct, since she has been so in- fatuated as to deliver herself into the hands of a party which I believe to have views dangerous to the public tranquillity and the constitution. I feel I cannot honor her more in a political than in a moral point of view. Has she not, in her answers to ad- dresses, reviled the king, degraded the crown, and vilified both houses of parlia- ment ] But, thank God, the country is com- ing to its senses. I do not doubt, that if parliament pursue its tone of dignified de- termination, the efforts of that party will soon expire in despair. Your path of duty is plain. You ought either to sustain the i actual government in unimpaired honor and character, that its usefulness to the country may not be diminished ; or you should, by a fair, tangible, and manly proceeding, put an end at once to the present cabinet." When this statement of his lordship was ended, Mr. Brougham followed in favor of lord A. Hamilton's motion. In allusion to his assertion on a previous occasion, that the queen was not degraded by the omission of her name in the liturgy, he confessed that he was then unwilling to allow that the queeii was degraded by that act : " It was not for rne, at .that time, to declare that my royal mistress was degraded, when she had to meet all the terrors of the threatened in- vestigation ; I say, the ' terrors' of the in- vestigation ; not that innocence should be exposed to danger from injustice or inquiry, but her majesty was on the brink of an investigation in which innocence was no security ; in which she was to be met by perjured men and perjured women ; and by bribing men and bribing women ; where the long arm of power, and the long purse of an administration stretched their influence over Italian hands and Italian hearts ; over hearts ready to crouch to the one, over hands greedy to snatch at the other. From such trial, from such a threatened prosecution the most guiltless might shrink without in- HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. curring for a moment the imputation of crime !" In the conclusion of his speech, Mr Brougham happily contended, that gentle men, who thought variously on one point, but who agreed on others, should choose the point on which they could unite, not t-hat on which they differed. Most of them thought the omission of the queen's name illegal some doubted its illegality ; all were clear as to its being inexpedient and ill-advised. " The queen," said Mr. Brougham, " has been acquitted she must be treated as if she had never been tried: or there is no justice in England. What is the object of my noble friend's motion? To call back the attention of parliament to the weighty affairs from which it had been distracted, to give opportunity, (which, while this over- whelming subject occupied the country, could not be afforded,) to consider the dis- tresses of a people, who now, unmindful of their own sufferings, poured forth their gen- erous and disinterested petitions in favor of their persecuted queen." The result of this motion of lord Archi- bald Hamilton, was evaded by the question of adjournment being carried, which pro- duced ayes three hundred and ten, noes two hundred and nine, leaving a ministerial ma- jority of a hundred and one votes. So died the first attempt to bring before parliament the conduct of ministers, as re- lating to her majesty. A second endeavor was then made in the shape of a distinct and specific charge of misconduct, which was ushered to the notice of the house by the marquis of Tavistock, in the shape of a motion for a vote of censure upon the entire proceedings held by government towards her majesty. His lordship stated, " his pur- pose was not merely to obtain from the house an expression of their sense of the late proceedings against her majesty, but to drive the present ministers from power." Mr. Lambton seconded this motion, and while so doing, roundly charged ministers with being guilty of the grossest inconsist- ency and mismanagement, throughout the whole of these proceedings, which he fully and ably detailed from the omission of her majesty's name in the liturgy, to the cir- cumstances attending the prorogation of the last session of parliament. After a lengthen- ed debate, which occupied two entire even- ings, the house on its division presented the following appearance, ayes one hundred and seventy-eight, noes three hundred and twen- ty-four ; thus was the motion of the marquis lost by a majority against it of one hundred and forty-six votes. The third and last attack during the ses- sion, which ministers had to combat against, respecting the lamentable procedure against the queen, was in consequence of a motion brought forward by Mr. John Smith, and seconded by Mr. Tennyson, the form of which was as follows : " That the house having taken into consideration the circum- stance of the queen's name not being in- serted in the collects, prayers, and litanies of the church ; and also the numerous pe- titions from the people, addressed to this house, complaining thereof; is of opinion, that under all existing circumstances, it is highly expedient that her majesty's name should be inserted in the said collects, prayers, and litanies ; and that such a mea- sure would greatly tend to remove the dis- contents that exist on that subject in the pub- lic mind." The numbers, on a division of the house, were one hundred and seventy-eight in favor of the motion; against it, two hun- dred and ninety-eight ; being a majority on the side of ministers of one hundred and twenty. The above majorities having so decisively declared the sentiments of the house upon the conduct of ministers, as connected with the late proceedings against her majesty, it was deemed by their opponents as useless to persist, and the matter went to rest for the present, the question not being resumed during the session. THE QUEEN'S MESSAGE. ON the point of the future provision for the queen, the ministry had come to a reso- lution to propose in the house of commons, that his majesty should be enabled to grant an annual sum not exceeding fifty thousand xunds, out of the consolidated fund, for the separate use and establishment of her ma- jesty. When the day arrived for the house o go into a committee on this subject, Mr. Brougham rose and stated, that he had re- ceived the queen's commands to present to the house the following message : " CAROLINE, R. "The queen having learned that the louse of commons has appointed this day or taking into consideration the part of the ting's most gracious speech, which relates x her, deems it necessary to declare, that he is duly sensible of his majesty's conde- scension in recommending an arrangement respecting her to the consideration of par- iament. She is aware that this recom- mendation must be understood as referring to a provision for the support of her estate nd dignity; and from what has lately mssed, she is apprehensive that such a >rovision may be unaccompanied by the xjssession of her rights and privileges in he ample manner wherein former queens- consort, her royal predecessors, have been wont, in times past, to enjoy them. It is ar from the queen's inclination needlessly to throw obstacles in the way of a settle- ment, which she desires, in common with GEORGE IV. 1821. 697 the whole country, and which she feels per- suaded, the best interests of all parties equally require : and being most anxious to avoid anything that might create irritation, she cautiously abstains from any observation on the unexampled predicaments in which she is placed ; but she feels it due to the house, and to herself, respectfully to declare that she perseveres in the resolution of de- clining any arrangement, while her name continues to be excluded from the liturgy." Some warmth of debate ensued upon reading this message ; and upon discussing the grant to her majesty, to which it had reference, lord Castlereagh remarked, that undoubtedly the queen had a right to ab- stain from receiving any benefit from the grant. Her majesty, on a former occasion, had declared that she would not take any money except from parliament. " She is misinformed," observed his lordship ; " she is travelling into those unconstitutional er- rors she had been before led into. Her law advisers might have informed her that it was from the crown only, and not from par- liament, that she could receive any pecuni- ary grant. With respect to her majesty, parliament could not be disturbed from its course by her interference : she might, if she pleased, reject the grant, when it came to her in a proper shape ; but the house had nothing to do with her objections now ; it was for them to proceed to the order of the day on his majesty's gracious communica- tion." Mr. Brougham, in defending the message, observed " the noble lord charges upon it a want of respect to this house, and an at- tempt to dictate as to its proceedings. The message appears to me perfectly unobjec- tionable on this head. The interpretation of its language was, that her majesty under- stood from the votes of the house, which she was entitled to read, that provision was to be made for her that night ; and she says, that under the circumstances in which she has been placed, she cannot barter her honor for money; and, therefore, in respectful language, she warns the house against the grant." PROVISION FOR HER MAJESTY. THE motion of lord Castlereagh was then carried, securing to her majesty an annual provision of fifty thousand pounds, during the term of her natural life ; and this grant parliament eventually voted. DISCUSSION ON THE QUESTION OF CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. CATHOLIC emancipation.wasthe next sub- ject of import which engrossed the atten- tion of parliament On the twenty-eighth of February, Mr. Plunkett (who now ap- peared as chief advocate of the Catholic claims, in consequence of Mr. Grattan's VOL. IV. 59 death), prefaced this question by a most able and lucid speech, which received the accla- mations of all parties in the house, and in concluding moved, "That the house do resolve itself into a committee of the whole house, to consider the state of the laws by which oaths or declarations are required to be taken for the enjoyment of offices, or the exercise of civil functions, so far as the same affect his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, and whether it would be expedient in any, or what manner, to alter or modify the same ; and subject to what provisions or regulations." The motion was favored by a majority of two hundred and twenty- seven, whilst the minority was two hundred and twenty-one ; consequently it was gained by six votes. On the second of March, the house, in pursuance of the success attend- ant on the former motion, resolved itself into a committee, to take into consideration the various claims of the Roman Catholics ; and on the motion of Mr. Plunkett, certain resolutions were agreed to without discus- sion of which the following may be deemed an abstract : " First, that those parts of the oaths required to be taken as qualifications for certain offices, which related to the be- lief of transubstantiation, the invocation of saints, and the idolatrous nature of the sac- rifice of the mass, might be safely repealed, as concerning opinions merely speculative and dogmatical, not affecting the allegiance or civil duty of the subject. Secondly, that that part of the oath of supremacy, which expressed the denial of all spiritual jurisdic- tion or authority in these realms, might be so explained, as to remove the scruples en- tertained by the king's Roman Catholic subjects with respect to taking it ; by de- claring that the sense in which the word spiritual is used, according to the injunc- tions issued by queen Elizabeth in the first year of her reign, and explained by the thirty-seventh article of the church, im- ports merely, that the kings of this realm should govern all estates and degrees com- mitted to their charge by God, whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal, and re- strain with the civil sword the stubborn and evil-doer. By another resolution, the com- mittee declared the necessity of accompany- ing such act and repeal by such exceptions and regulations as were necessary for the preservation of the Protestant succession to the crown, and maintaining inviolate the Protestant churches of England, Ireland, and Scotland, as by law established." BILL FOR RELIEF OF CATHOLICS PASSED IN THE COMMONS, REJECTED IN THE LORDS. BILLS framed on the basis of the above resolutions were subsequently introduced by Mr. Plunkett; and after many discus- 698 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. sions (of which the utter impracticability of furnishing even an outline must be re- gretted), these bills were finally passed, and transmitted to the house of peers. Fortune did not continue to smile so favorably upon the measure hi this new arena. Lord Don- oughmore undertook the conduct of the first bill in the upper house, where, though he advocated the cause with great zeal, it was doomed to receive strenuous opposition from the earl of Liverpool and the lord chancel- lor; and in the second day's debate, his royal highness the duke of York, the pre- sumptive heir to the throne, declared him- self as decidedly hostile to the bill con- sidering it as a measure pregnant with dan- ger, not only to the throne, but to the church and constitution. " Educated," said his royal higness, " in the principles of the established church, the more I inquire, and the more I think, I am the more persuaded that her in- terests are inseparable from those of the constitution.: . I consider her as an integral part of that constitution, and I pray that she may long remain so. At the same time, there is no man less an enemy to toleration than myself, but I distinguish between the allowance of the free exercise of religion, and the granting of political power." This bill, embracing in its enactments so much to occupy the attention of the statesman and the subject in general on which such con- flict of opinion prevails and which, inter- esting as it does every class of society in the kingdom, can never be duly understood in theory after it had undergone a discus- sion, though long, yet scarce adequate to its consequence, was thrown out by a major- ity of thirty-nine ; the house dividing on the question of its second reading, contents, one hundred and twenty, non-contents, one hun- dred and fifty-nine. On this momentous occasion, many of the peers took part in the debate, and twenty-seven bishops voted on the occasion either personally or by proxy of which number two only, the bishops of Norwich and Rochester, were among the contents. PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. DURING this session, the question of par liamentary reform was on two occasions agitated, in pursuance of plans introducet to the house by its most efficient advocates the first by Mr. Lambton, member for Dur ham, and the second by lord John Russel It is only to be observed, that these measures met with rejection. BOROUGH OF GRAMPOUND. AM act of practical reform, however,, took place, which ought to be fe'garded as a con vincing proof of the desire of the major par of our representative body to utterly dis- countenance and remedy the system of cor ruption, BO long a prevailing error in the lection of members returned for boroughs. 3n the twelfth of February lord John Rus- el, with the pertinacity of doing good, moved that the house resolve itself into a ommittee on the bill for the disfranchise- ment of the borough of Grampound, and iroposed, in lieu thereof, that the franchise so lost should be transferred to Leeds. This iroposition received the assenting voice of he house of commons ; but in the house of ords the earl of Liverpool raised objections jo the franchise being transferred to Leeds, in account of the extreme difficulty of es- tablishing a due and proper scale of quali- ication for voters. His lordship subse- [uently moved as an amendment, that, in )lace of this proposed transfer, two addi- ional members should be returned for the county of York. This amendment was car- ied ; and with this alteration the bill, upon >eing returned to the commons, passed. DISTRESSFUL STATE OF COUNTRY. A CONTINUATION of depreciated prices still prevailing, considerable distress was "elt by all classes of the community ; but ;hough most individuals suffered, it bore with more than common pressure on those engaged in pursuits connected with agri- culture; and important as it was to both andlord and tenant, to ameliorate their re- spective conditions, the difficulty was in devising the requisite means; and in the comprehensive wisdom of the legislature, alleviation could alone be hoped for. In the beginning of the session, numerous pe- :itions had been presented from every cor- ner of the kingdom, praying that the house would interpose for the investigation and removal of the embarrassments, which fell so heavily upon agricultural property and agriculturists. In furtherance of these pe- titions, Mr. Gooch, on the seventh March, moved for "a select committee to which these petitions should be referred, which should investigate the allegations contain- ed in them, and report their observations thereon to the house." The motion being- agreed to, a committee was accordingly nominated. THE REPORT OF AGRICULTURAL COM- MITTEE, THE report of this committee was pre- sented to the house on the eighteenth June ; it stated that the complaints of the petition- ers were founded in fact, in so far as they represented, that at the present price of corn, the returns to the occupier of an ara- ble farm, after allowing for the interest of his investments, are by no means adequate to his charges and outgoings; it also ac- knowledged, " that the committee, after a long and anxious inquiry, had not been able to discover any means calculated immedi- ately to relieve the present pressure." GEORGE IV. 1821. 699 " So far," the report stated, " as the pressure arises from superabundant har- vests, it is beyond the application of any legislative provision ; so far as it is the re- sult of the increased value of money, it is not one peculiar to the farmer, but extends to many other classes of society. That re- sult, however, is the more severely felt by the tenant, in consequence of its coinci- dence with an overstocked market, espe- cially if he be farming with a borrowed capital, and under the engagements of a lease ; and it has hitherto been further ag- gravated by the comparative slowness with which prices generally, and particularly the price of labor, accommodate themselves to a change in the value of money. From this last circumstance, the departure from our ancient standard, in proportion as it was prejudicial to all creditors of money, and persons dependent upon fixed incomes, was a benefit to the active capital of the coun- try ; and the same classes have been oppo- sitely affected by a return to that standard. The restoration of it has also embarrassed the land owner in proportion as his estate has been encumbered with mortgages and other fixed payments assigned upon it, du- ring the depreciation of money. The only alleviation for this evil is to be looked for in such a gradual reduction of the rate of the interest of money below the legal minimum, as may make those encumbrances a lighter burden upon the landed interests of the kingdom ; and this reduction, if peace continues, there is every room to hope for. The difficulties in which the al- terations of our currency have involved the farming, the manufacturing, and the tra- ding interests of the country, must diminish in proportion as contracts, prices, and labor, adjust themselves to the present value of money." In commenting upon this public docu- ment, it may be necessary to attempt the reconcilement of some apparent contradic- tions, and this is an act of great delicacy, inasmuch as being unacquainted with the precise data on which this legislatorial pro- duction was founded, the arguments con- tained therein can alone be scrutinized, un- connected with the evidence which gave rise to it The subject being of import- ance, necessarily originates a commensu- rate diffidence in the inquiry.. There is at first a seeming paradox, in ascribing the distressful pressure of this period to the superabundant harvest, as it might be con- tended, that the superabundance of any commodity, however low in its price, in the hands of its possessor, must be compensated for by that very superabundance. So though the over supply of grain in the mar- ket lowers the price to the grower, yet the capability of abundance to bring such sup- ply, counterbalances its lowness of price by the ratio of increase, which a supera- bundant harvest supplies him with to carry to that market. On the contrary, it may be observed, that the expense of raising and preparing the grain for sale, in a measure met the idea contained in this report, since though commodities were lowered in value on the peace, labor still maintained nearly its war price. Again, in agreeing with the committee, that the pressure of the distress was not peculiarly confined to the farmer, but extended to many, indeed, it might with truth be alleged, to all classes of society ; for the variation in the price of corn must necessarily affect all other articles ; and agreeing that the general pressure then experienced was occasioned by the increas- ed value of money ; yet the doctrine does not appear to be fully substantiated, that such increase in the value of money was the consequence of a restoration of the an- cient standard. Viewing this assertion, barely in connexion with this document, unsupported by other facts, it might be im- agined that some amazing change had arisen in the currency of the realm : that it had been deteriorated by authority till now, when by some act of state it had been restored to its original value. Such has not been the case ; no order of the coun- cil, no edict of the king, no parliamentary act exists, or can be traced, by which the least alteration in the British guinea, or its aliquot parts in gold or silver, has been al- lowed ; their weight and fineness remained immutable, during the adverse periods of penury and prosperity. But though so un- changed, in the sterile season of the bank restrictions, coin, from its scarcity, com- manded a higher price than its relative value ; and when a metallic currency was restored, its intrinsic worth was conse- quently, by the fruitfulness of the supply, lowered. A contemporary writer has ob- served, that "there must then be some other cause, which lessened the compara- tive value of money, in regard to commodi- ties, totally distinct from a diminution of the intrinsic value of the coin ; and this cause may be found in the proceedings of Mr. Pitt in the year 1797, when, interfering further than any among the most absolute of our monarchs had ever dared to do with the coin of the realm ; this bold financier, though he did not deteriorate its intrinsic worth, or raise its nominal value, as some had done, suspended its use altogether. From the moment, therefore, that the use of gold coin was thus, by law, dispensed with, until the period of the resumption of cash payments by the bank of England, there was no real standard in Great Britain 700 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. by which the owner of any commodity, or the possessor of lands or houses, could se- cure to themselves a certain profit, or a steady income from their property : for such was the monstrous mischief of Mr. Pitt's suspension act, that, by compulsively sub- stituting a circulation of paper credit in the place oi gold, it subjected all real property to the uncertain fluctuation of a rise or fall of prices merely nominal, according as the horizon of public credit appeared bright or stormy to the greedy eye of speculative avarice. A direct debasement of the coin to any fixed intrinsic value, by which the worth of property and the price of labor might still have been correctly measured, would have been a blessing to the country, compared with all the private miseries and public mischiefs that have resulted, and are yet to follow the fatal order of council of the twenty-seventh February, 1797. In- stead of characterizing that measure, there- fore, as a departure from the ancient stand- ard, or an alteration of the currency, as this report does, it is our fervent hope, that some future committee of the representa- tives of the people, will not hesitate to call it by its right name, affix some public stig- ma upon a policy so devoid of justice and of wisdom, and discover some means of ren- dering it impossible for any future minis- ter, by a similar act, to complete the ruin of the country." When this report of the before-mention- ed committee was made public, it extin- guished the hopes which had been enter- tained from their labors, and despondent indeed was the common mind, that no dis- covery for the distresses of the agricultural classes could be made. It now became more and more evident to the unprejudiced observer, that the chain of events which had induced the fatal policy of Mr. Pitt, in suspending the use of coin, and thereby in- undating this country with a floating paper medium, in too many instances nominal, and consequently easily attained by the speculatist, was, now things had returned to their original level of solid metallic cur- rency, productive of chief, if not of all the evils, which oppressed and nearly over- whelmed, not alone the agricultural but de- pendent thereon, the manufacturing, com- mercial, and every other branch of the com- munity. In this state no remedy could be applied, no effectual relief contemplated, but from the gradual progression of time and remission of taxation, which might re- store the coin of the realm to its ancient and natural mode of operation and value RESUMPTION OF CASH PAYMENTS. AT such a crisis, fortunately for the coun- try, the governor and directors of the bank of England, true to the interest of their establishment and the community boldly renouncing all the former ideas which in- terest, presumption, or power had induce*! them to adopt, and so long persevere in swayed by this enlightened policy, they anticipated the period prefixed by law for the resumption of cash payments, and not only voluntarily opened their hoards to the holders of their notes, but in this session of parliament succeeded in obtaining an act which hastened the final removal of the re- striction by a whole year. By this act it was made imperative on the bank of England to pay all demands upon it in cash, after the first of May 1822, in the place of the first of May in the next year of 1823. The remaining transaction of this session which from its import demands especial re- cord, was the chancellor of the exchequer's statement of the supplies required for the year, and his estimated ways and means. The total amount of supplies voted for the various services constituted the sum of eighteen million twenty-one thousand eight hundred pounds, to which was added, in- terest of exchequer-bills one million pounds ; with two hundred and ninety thousand pounds for the sinking fund on the same ; as well as seven hundred and six thousand four hundred pounds for Irish treasury bills and public works making in the whole twenty million eighteen thousand two hun- dred pounds. BUDGET FOR 1821. THE ways and means were stated as fol- lows : Annual taxes, four million pounds ; temporary excise duties, one million five hundred thousand pounds ; lottery, two hun- dred thousand pounds ; old stores, one hun- dred and sixty-three thousand four hundred pounds ; from the pecuniary indemnity paid by France, five hundred thousand pounds ; repayment of exchequer-bills lent for public works, one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds ; surplus of ways and means for 1820. eighty-one thousand six hundred and thirty pounds. In further aid of the ways anil means, there was taken from the sinking- fund of Great Britain a loan of twelve mil- lion five hundred thousand pounds; and from the sinking fund of Ireland, five hun- dred thousand pounds ; increase of capital of bank of Ireland, four hundred and sixty- one thousand five hundred and thirty-nine pounds making a total of ways and means, twenty million thirty-one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine pounds. Supplies voted, twenty million eighteen thousand two hundred pounds excess of ways and means, thirteen thousand three hundred and sixty-nine pounds. After this view of the ways and means for the year, the chancellor of the exchequer proceeded to state the probable amount of GEORGE IV. 1821. 701 the revenue, and deduced therefrom that the general revenue would be fifty-five mil- lion eleven thousand one hundred and four- teen pounds ; while the total expenditure, including the supplies, was sixty-eight mil- lion two hundred and twenty-one thousand eight hundred pounds. Thus exhibiting the pleasing prospect of an expenditure under that of the foregoing year, of no less a sum than three million pounds a view of finance highly gratifying in itself, as indicative of what might be anticipated from a continua- tion of the joint system of peace and re- trenchment. VOTE OF INCREASED ANNUITY TO DUKE OF CLARENCE. NEARLY the last act of this parliamentary session was the vote of an annuity of six thousand pounds to the duke of Clarence. His royal highness had declined a similar grant on a former occasion ; but on the sixth of June lord Castlereagh informed the house, that as, since the period of the aforesaid declining, the situation of the royal duke had materially changed, (being now mar- ried,) he was desirous of availing himself of the favorable intentions of parliament, for the augmentation of his income to an equal amount with that of his royal brother. The labors of the session being finished, parliament was prorogued on the eleventh of July, when a speech was delivered in his majesty's name by commission. DEATH OF NAPOLEON, EX-EMPEROR OF FRANCE, IN CAPTIVITY AT ST. HELENA. FROM the eventful period that Napoleon, the ex-emperor of France, became the cap- tive of St. Helena, the wonderful and almost talismanic influence connected for so many years with the bare mention of his name, gradually diminished ; and even the intelli- gence of his death, which reached England in the beginning of July in this year, created but a slight sensation, in comparison with the,effect that would have been produced all over Europe by the same event, had it occurred before the battle of Waterloo, or at any time that he exercised absolute rule over that immense nation, swelled by those tributary kingdoms which acknowledged his power. Various and contradictory accounts of the state of his health, and of his mode of life, had been propagated in England and France, during his detention at St. Helena; and many complaints were made to the British government respecting the regulations en- forced upon the ex-emperor, the partners of his exile, and the servants who followed him in his misfortunes. It was alleged that restraints were imposed, and privations ex- acted, which the most timid caution against escape could not justify ; and that a system of petty insults and puerile annoyances was 59* adopted towards the imperial prisoner, which produced upon such a mind as Napoleon's more cruel tortures than if his body had been fettered with the heaviest chains. Many volumes detailing the treatment of Napoleon were published according to which, and if the facts related be strictly true, it is to be lamented that the honor of Great Britain will suffer in the opinion of posterity for the absence, on this occasion, of the usual national generosity to a pros- trate foe. The custody of Napoleon was a trust, which demanded in its exercise the most magnanimous feelings, combined with the highest principles of chivalric honor, and an understanding soaring far above the petty prejudices of the vulgar politician. Upon these points, as well as for a detail of the transactions of St. Helena subsequent to the arrival of Napoleon, we must refer our readers to divers contemporary publica- tions ; and shall leave them to form their own opinion upon circumstances too loosely stated, and of too recent occurrence, to re- ceive the seal of history, countersigned by truth and impartiality. Whatever opinion posterity may pro- nounce upon the line of conduct pursued by the government of Great Britain towards the most formidable enemy that ever ap- peared in arms against her, when that enemy was subjugated to her power, and held his life in her hands, however busy malevolent report had been, it was in a great degree gratifying to the feelings of Englishmen to find the odious and infamous insinuation that his dissolution was accelerated by poison for ever annihilated by the infallible evidence produced on the inspection of the body after his decease. The official detail of these circumstances was transmitted to the earl of Bathurst, one of his majesty's secretaries of state, by Sir Hudson Lowe, in the following dispatch : " St. Helena, 6th May, 1821. " MY LORD, " It falls to my duty to inform your lord- ship, that Napoleon Bonaparte expired at about ten minutes before six o'clock in the evening of the 5th instant, after an illness which had confined him to his apartments since the 17th of March last He was at- tended during the early parts of his indis- position, from the 17th to the 31st March by his own medical assistant, professor Automarchi, alone. During the latter pe- riod from the 1st April to the 5th May, he received the daily visits of Dr. Arnott, of his majesty's 20th regiment, generally in conjunction with professor Automarchi, Dr. Short, physician to the forces, and Dr. Mit- chell, principal medical officer of the royal navy on the station, whose services, as well 702 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. " LONGWOOD, ST. HELENA, " 6th May, 1821. " Report of appearance on dissection of" the body of Napoleon Bonaparte. ' On a superficial view, the body appear- ed very fat, which state was confirmed by ;he first incision down its centre, where the ut was upwards of an inch and a half over the abdomen. On cutting through the car- tilages of the ribs, and exposing the cavity of the thorax, a trifling adhesion of the left [)leura was found to the pleura costalis. About three ounces of reddish fluid were :ontaiiied in the left cavity ; and nearly eight ounces in the right The lungs were quite sound. The pericardium was natural, and contained about an ounce of fluid. The heart was of the natural size, but thickly covered with fat. The auricles and ven- tricles exhibited nothing extraordinary, ex- cept that the muscular part appeared rather paler than natural. Upon opening the ab- domen the omentum was found remarkably fat, and upon opening the stomach, that viscus was found the seat of the disease. Strong adhesions connected the whole su- perior surface, particularly about the pyloric extremity to the concave surface of the left lobe of the liver ; and on separating these, an ulcer, which penetrated the coats of the stomach, was discovered one inch from the pylorus sufficient to allow the passage of the little finger. The internal surface of the stomach to nearly its whole extent was a mass of cancerous disease or schirrous portions advancing to cancer ; this was par- ticularly noticed near the pylorus. The cardiac extremity, for a small space near the termination of the resophagus, was the only part appearing in a healthy state. The stomach was filled with a large quantity of fluid resembling coffee-grounds. The con- vex surface of the left lobe of the liver ad- hered to the diaphragm. With the excep- tion of the adhesions occasioned by the dis- ease in the stomach, no one unhealthy ap- pearance presented itself in the liver. The remainder of the abdominal viscera were report on their appearance. This report is in a healthful state. A slight peculiarity as those of any other medical persons on the island, had been offered, were called upon in consultation by professor Automarchi, on the 3d of May ; but they had not an oppor- tunity afforded to them of seeing the patient Dr. Arnott was with him at the moment of his decease, and saw him expire. Captain Crokatt, orderly officer in attendance, and Dre. Short and Mitchell, saw the body im- mediately afterwards. Dr. Arnoti, remained with the body during the night Early this morning, at about seven o'clock, I proceeded to the apartment where the body lay, accom- panied by rear-admiral Lambert, naval com- mander-in-chief on this station ; the marquis deMontchenu, commissioner of his majesty the king of France, charged with the same duty also on the part of his majesty the em- peror of Austria ; brigadier-general Coffin, second in command of the troops ; Thomas H. Brooke and Thomas Greentree, Esqrs. members of the council in the government of this island ; and captains Brown, Henry, and Marryat of the royal navy. After view- ing the person of Napoleon Buonaparte, which lay with the face uncovered, we re- tired. An opportunity was afterwards af- forded, with the concurrence of the persons who had composed the family of Napoleon Buonaparte, to as many officers as were desirous, naval and military, to the hon. the East India company's officers, and civil ser- vants, and to various other individuals resi- dent here, to enter the room in which the body lay, and to view it " At two o'clock, this day, the body was r.pened in the presence of the following medical gentlemen : "Dr. Short, M. D. ; Dr. Mitchell, M. D.; Dr. Arnott, M. D. ; Dr. Burton, M. D. ; of hie majesty's sixty-sixth regiment, and Mat- thew Livingstone, Esq. surgeon in the East India company's service. Professor Auto- marchi assisted at the dissection : genera] Bertrand and count Montholon were pres- ent After a careful examination of the several internal parts of the body, the whole of the medical gentlemen concurred in a inclosed. I shall cause the body to be in- terred with the honors due to a general officer of the highest rank. I have intrusted this dispatch to captain Crokatt, of his ma- jesty's twentieth regiment, who was the orderly officer in attendance ur on the per- son orNapoleon Buonaparte at the time of his decease. He embarks on board his majesty's sloop Heron, which rear-admiral Lambert has detached from the squadron under his command with the intelligence. " I have, &c. "H. LOWE, Lieut.-Gen." The medical report in the above dispatch was couched in the following terms : in the formation of the left kidney was ob- served. (Signed) THOMAS SHORT, M. D. and principal medical officer. ARCHD. ARNOTT, M. D. surgeon, twen- tieth regiment. CHARLES MITCHELL, M. D. surgeon, H. M. S. Vigo. FRANCIS BURTON, M. D. sixty-sixth regiment. MATTHEW LIVINGSTONE, surgeon, H. C. service." This report clearly shows, that the dis- order which occasioned the death of Napo- leon was a cancer in the stomach, to which it is probable he had an hereditary disposi- surgeon, GEORGE IV. 1821. 703 tion, his father having died of the same disease at the early age of thirty-five. The pain which the ex-emperor endured from this complaint for a long period prior to his dissolution, was very acute, being, according to his description, as if a knife had been thrust into his body, and broken short off. Whatever impetuosity he formerly display- ed, he, however, bore this excruciating tor- ture with remarkable patience, and never was heard to utter a single complaint. His thoughts in his last hours were apparently fixed upon his son, and upon France. The bust of the young prince was placed by his express command at the foot of the bed upon which he expired ; it was the object to which his eyes constantly turned, and to which his ideas may be supposed as con- stantly to have reverted. The last words which were heard to fall from him were in conformity to this idea, being a repetition of Tele"" Armee"" Fife"" France." Publicity being now courted, it was de- termined that the body of Napoleon should lie in state, that the inhabitants of the island in general might have an opportunity of viewing his remains. The corpse, dressed in a green uniform, which the ex-emperor had worn, was extended on the small tent- bedstead, on which he was accustomed to rest during his campaigns, and on this bed- stead was spread the blue cloth cloak which he wore at the battle of Marengo; the decoration of the legion of honor was placed on his side ; and a small crucifix upon his heart. The climate of the island rendered it ex- pedient to hasten the interment, and the ninth of May was appointed for that cere- mony. Napoleon himself had marked out the spot in which it was his desire to be buried, in a wild sequestered little valley about a mile distant from his residence, anc very near a spring, over which the branches of two willow-trees formed a delightfu shade. To this secluded place it was the frequent custom of Napoleon to retire alone and among the meditations which he in- dulged in that " rude solitude," it is now evident that the consideration of his mor tality was one. There is not perhaps to be found in the whole range of history a more striking contrast than the condition of this individual thus presents to the contempla tion of mankind the captive of the rock of St Helena, measuring out a little space of ground to form his secluded grave ; ant the captain of millions of idolizing war riors, the imperial potentate, the arbiter of nations, to whose ambitious mind the dream of universal empire seemed within his grasp- Military honors due to the remains of a general of the first rank were paid to those of the late emperor. The selected spot having been previously consecrated, the funeral procession was ar- ranged in the following order : Vapoleon Bertrand, The Priests in full son Robes, of the Marshal. Dr. Arnott, 20th Regt. Napoleon's Physician. THE BODY, Grenadiers. In a car, drawn by Grenadiers. four horses. Twenty-four grenadiers to carry the body down a steep hill where the car could not go. Count Napoleon's horse led by Marshal Montholon. two servants. Bertrand. Madame Bertrand and Daughter in an open vehicle. Servants. Naval Officers. Staff Officers. Members of Council. General Coffin. Marquis de Montchenu. The Admiral. The Governor. Lady Lowe and Daughter, in Servants. an open vehicle. Servants. Servants. Dragoons. St Helena Volunteers. St. Helena Regiment St Helena Artillery. Sixty-sixth Regiment. Royal Marines. Twentieth Regiment. Royal Artillery. The grave was fourteen feet deep, very wide at the top, the lower part chambered to receive the coffin. The body was in- closed in three coffins, mahogany, lead, and oak ; the heart in a silver cup, filled with spirits, and the stomach preserved in an- other silver cup, were both deposited in the coffin ; notwithstanding the earnest desire of counts Bertrand and Montholon to be permitted to take the former to Europe, and the request of Napoleon's surgeon to retain the latter. One large stone covered the whole of the lower chamber, which thus received the entire remains of Napoleon Buonaparte ; and the grave was then filled up with solid masonry, clamped with iron. Immediately after the funeral of Napo- leon, the establishment which had been so expensive to Great Britain, amounting to nearly half a million per annum, was bro- ken up. Counts Bertrand and Montholon, with the rest of the faithful followers, and the household of the late emperor, repaired to Europe. On his arrival in France, count Bertrand was received in a manner which reflects much honor on the restored mon- arch of that kingdom, who justly appre- ciating the merits of that fidelity the count had so nobly proved to his chosen master, rewarded it, by restoring to him his rank and honors in the army by a royal ordi- nance. The will of Napoleon was brought 704 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. over by the count, and was duly registered in the prerogative court of the archbishop of Canterbury. It bears date April four- teenth, 1821 ; and there are three codicils annexed dated seven days later. This will appears principally to have been made for the purpose of rewarding, as far as his means permitted him, such of his friends, officers, and domestics, as the testator con- ceived to have the most peculiar claims upon his remembrance ; and the funds out of which these legacies were to be paid, consisted of the sum of six millions of francs, which he had deposited with the banker, La Fitte, at the period of his de- parture from Paris, in 1815. The common lot of mortality having overtaken Napoleon, it may be instructive to the human mind to comment shortly upon his extraordinary elevation ; nor is it wholly unworthy of remark, that he furnishes an additional example and monition to despe- rate politicians, that it is not the originally factious character which gains by tumult, but that in general they become speedy vic- tims at the altar of ambition, and are usu- ally, after the first tide of success, swept away by the million into their original state ; happy only should they escape ulti- mate destruction, during the evanescent reign of anarchy and confusion, which pre- ludes and rules most revolutionary pro- ceedings. So was it with Napoleon, whilst France was deluged in blood by the successive mobs and usurping demagogues of a day, he, in the humble capacity of a sublieutenant of artillery, contemplated the storm safe in his obscurity. The siege of Toulon first evinced his skill in gunnery ; his talents as an engineer : and the era of liberty and equality opposing no bar to pro- motion, his rise was extremely rapid to the chief command of the army of Italy ; his victories were as surprising ; fortune favor- ed all his schemes, and seemed, while hold- ing the balance, to smile on her favorite child; for into whichever scale he threw his sword, it as surely and speedily prepon- derated against all opposing powers of sin- gle or allied forces, at that period. His Egyptian campaign sullied his former suc- cesses; yet he returned to his adopted coun- try at an eventful period, in time to com- mand her destinies, first as consul, and sub- sequently as emperor; to this he added the titles of king of Italy, protector of the con- federates of the Rhine, and the Helvetic confederacy ; instituting two orders of chiv- alry, he bestowed the iron crown and le- gion of honor on all his military and other dependants deserving favor, and created a halo of enthusiasm throughout France, fa- vorable to his views of universal and abso- lute sovereignty ; his nobles, his marshals, his dignitaries and savans, rallied round and supported his cause to the last, with their councils, their treasures, and their lives; nor at Elba was his welfare neglected, or even in his final exile was he deserted by them ; he possessed the skill of Elizabeth, in availing himself by every means of the talents of the country, and, by fostering, made them appear his own, and subservient to the splendor of his career. Resembling Cromwell in many particulars of religious and subservient policy, skill as a command- er, and knowledge as a negotiator, he went beyond him in assuming the purple robe of imperial sway; and while he pursued his game of political chess, he not only check- mated a king whenever he pleased, but played with kingdoms, and, considering crowns as baubles, transferred the regal dignity at his caprice to various brandies of his own family, having at one period Naples, Spain, Holland, Westphalia, and Italy, erected into kingdoms, and governed by his brothers and near relatives; his mother and sisters were queens and prin- cesses ; his uncle a cardinal ; nor did his aggrandizement rest here, but by his matri- monial alliance with the house of Austria, he consolidated his power, so that had not his own destructive ambition undermined the splendid edifice which his talents and his fortune had erected, it must have stood against ordinary events and combinations, in perennial and overtowering pride. As it proved, Providence wisely ordained the poi- son should contain its own antidote; and his sudden rise, declension, and fall, will long stand as a lesson of morality, while it hands down to after ages the unparalleled biography in the greater class of heroes, rulers, and uncommon men, of Napoleon, cidevant emperor of the Gauls. SITUATION OF THE QUEEN. DURING the period that the utmost atten- tion of parliament was devoted to the various subjects, of which a mere outline has been attempted, the public mind was excited to a very extraordinary degree, by the violence of party writers, both for and against the government. At this momentous era, the state of the public press of England was a source of melancholy regret to every un- prejudiced mind and well-wisher to the country. The sordid lust of gain had so entirely vanquished the cause of truth, so completely subjugated the spirit of candid inquiry, on which the value of a free press alone depends, that the best feelings of Eng- lishmen were wantonly sported with, by the hirelings of party ; and public opinion, by dint of venal pens, was as frequently the result of error as of truth. In this position of affairs, the popular indignation was a roused by the oeculiarly unfortunate situation of GEORGE IV. 1821. 705 the queen; a situation which roused the passions of the people in a surprising man- ner. Her majesty, by the result of her trial, was left in a state of an unforeseen and very delicate nature ; possessed of her pre- rogatives of queen-consort, whilst the dis- closures made during the examination of witnesses, added to the influence of the highest example, precluded her from that class of society, from which alone it might naturally be expected a queen of England ought to select her circle of associates and friends. Such combination of circumstances operating as an exclusion, threw this ill- fated princess into close alliance with a party notoriously opposed to the then existing ad- ministration ; and which party, biassed by political motives, did not disdain to add to their phalanx, on this occasion, the conjunc- tive aid of the radical faction, who eagerly embraced so rare an opportunity of assailing royalty itself, under the wily paradox of es- pousing a royal cause. The kingdom now presented the unpleas- ing appearance of a house divided against itself; and doubtless much art had been resorted to on all sides to widen a breach which fatally existed, and which Providence ruling the predominant good sense of the nation at large, prevented from becoming as mischievous in its results as it was por- tentous in its opening. If, under the dire- ful influence of deeply lacerated feeling, and encouraged by the evil counsel and ill- timed flatteries of those surrounding her, her majesty was induced to consider her cause as one for which the people at large were willing to incur all risks, and brave all dangers, it is a subject rather begetting regret than surprise. Some such fallacious persuasion must doubtless have caused her to cherish, by every possible means, that popularity which she viewed as the strength that upheld her, and which she invariably resorted to, whenever occasion presented itself. It cannot be denied, that in unison with the warm-heartedness of the British nation, the feelings of the populace, in com- mon with a great majority of the public at large, continued firmly in favor of the queen ; and even when she finally drew for the allowance voted to her, in contradiction to her solemn pledge to parliament that she never would accept it, even then excuses for her dilemma were sought for, in the mis- takes into which it was presumed certain advisers had plunged her. This was the public sentiment held respecting her ma- jesty, when an approaching event opened a new field for general discussion. The ceremony of the king's coronation had been originally fixed for the first of August in the year now past: the return of her majesty had rendered this arrange- ment nugatory, by the necessity to postpone the ceremony ; and it had become a ques- tion much debated, whether, under the va- riety of circumstance, and in the existing state of the public mind, a coronation would take place or not. On this subject each party had opinions ; and in these the com- munity participated. It was observed that the king had of late appeared more fre- quently in public ; and when he visited in state the three principal theatres of the me- tropolis, the acclamations of the audiences equalled, if they did not surpass in enthusi- asm, those which were heard within the same walls in honor of the queen's presence. In- deed his reception was so highly flattering that it realized lord Castlereagh's prognos- ticated assertion in the house of commons, on the close of the late trial, " That in six months he had no doubt his majesty would be the most popular man in his dominions." ANNOUNCED CORONATION. EARLY in the month a proclamation was issued, which announced his majesty's plea- sure, that this much-discussed solemnity of coronation should take place on the nine- teenth of July ; and the consequent prepa- rations for its celebration were immediately proceeded in. CONDUCT OF THE QUEEN. ON the twenty-fifth of June, a memorial was presented to the privy-council from her majesty, preferring a formal claim to be crowned in like manner with her royal pre- decessors. An answer was returned to her majesty, that the law officers of the crown would be consulted on the subject. In fur- therance of this procedure, on the third of July a memorial was addressed by her ma- jesty to the king, praying to be heard by her law officers before the privy-council which accordingly assembled at Whitehall, for the purpose of hearing counsel on both sides. Mr. Brougham contended for the queen's legal right to be crowned, evincing great research, learning, and ability, but resting his chief argument on the plea of long and uniform practice. Mr. Denman strength- ened Mr. Brougham's argument in a very able and eloquent speech, which, together with that of his colleague, occupied the attention of the council during two sittings. On the ninth, the council again assem- bled, and the attorney-general argued against the claim preferred by her majesty. He " admitted that usage would be evidence of right ; but if it could be shown that such usage had originated in the permission of another party, there would be an end of that right. There was an evident distinction between the coronation of a king, and that of a queen. The former was accompanied by important political acts ; the recognition 706 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. by the people, and the engagement by the king to maintain the laws. The latter was a mere ceremony. But even the coronation of the king was not necessary to his posses- sion of the crown ; that act emanated from himself; and he had the sole direction of the time, manner, and place of its performance. The right assumed as inherent in the queen- consort, was not once alluded to by any writer on the Jaw and constitution of the country ; or by any of those who had treat- ed of the privileges peculiar to the queen- consort. With respect to usage, the coun- sel on the other side must admit, that since the reign of Henry the eighth, the majority of instances was against them ; there were since that period seven instances of queens- consort who had not been crowned ; and only six who had." The solicitor-general followed his learned colleague nearly in the same line of argument ; and Mr. Brougham having replied, the privy-council adjourned. The decision of the council, delivered at its next meeting, on the tenth, was, that " as it appeared to them that the queens- consort of this realm are not of right enti- tled to be crowned at any time, her majesty the queen is not of right entitled to be crowned at the time specified in her majes- ty's memorial." CORRESPONDENCE OF THE QUEEN WITH OFFICERS OF STATE. WHEN the queen, on the morning of the eleventh of July, received through the me- dium of her chamberlain, lord Hood, this decision of the privy-council, she instantly returned an answer in her own name to lord Sidmouth, stating to his lordship " her fixed determination of being present on the nineteenth, and therefore demanding that a suitable place might be appointed for her." His lordship, in answer thereto, informed her majesty, that he was commanded by the king to refer her majesty to the earl of Liverpool's letter, in which the earl had al- ready stated "that the king having deter- mined that the queen should form no part of the ceremonial of his coronation, it was, therefore, his royal pleasure that the queen should not attend the said ceremony." Lord Sidmouth further stated, that it was not his majesty's pleasure to comply with the ap- plication contained in her letter. Still per- severing in her resolution, her majesty caused the following letter to be addressed to his grace of Norfolk, as earl marshal : " My lord, Her majesty has command- ed me to say, as it is her intention to be in Westminster Abbey on the nineteenth in- stant, during the ceremony of the corona- tion of the king, your grace is required to appoint persons to receive her majesty ai the door of the Abbey, to conduct her to her seat The hour her majesty has namec be there is half-past eight o'clock. I lave the honor to be, &c. "HooD." " Brandenburgh House, July 15. To his grace the duke of Norfolk." To this letter the duke of Norfolk re- plied, that having delegated his authority it the ensuing ceremony to a deputy, (lord Howard of Effingham), he had transmitted to him her majesty's letter, which he doubt- ed not would receive immediate attention ; and on the next day the acting earl mar- shal sent to lord Hood the following reply to the queen's application : "9, Mansfield Street, July 16. "My lord, The duke of Norfolk having transmitted to me, as appointed to do the duties of the office of earl marshal of Eng- land at the ceremony of the approaching coronation, your lordship's letter to his grace, of the fifteenth instant, I thought it incumbent on me to lay the same before viscount Sidmouth, the secretary of state for the home department ; and have just learnt from his lordship in reply, that hav- ing received a letter, dated the eleventh instant, from the queen, in which her ma- jesty was pleased to inform him of her in- tention to be present at the ceremony of the nineteenth, the day fixed for his majes- ty's coronation, and to demand that a suita- ble place should be appointed for her majes- ty, he was commanded by the king to ac- quaint her majesty, that it was not his ma- jesty's pleasure to comply with the appli- cation contained in her majesty's letter ; I have accordingly to request that your lord- ship will make my humble representation to her majesty of the impossibility, under these circumstances, of my having the hon- or of obeying her majesty's commands. I have the honor to be, my lord, " Your lordship's most obedient "humble servant, "HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM, " Acting as earl marshal of England." " The lord viscount Hood." Her majesty next applied to the arch- bishop of Canterbury as follows : " Her majesty communicates to his grace the archbishop of Canterbury, that as his majesty the king has thought fit to refuse her being crowned at the same time with the king, the queen must trust that there can be no objection to her majesty's receiv- ing that right on the following week, whilst the Abbey still remains in a state of preparation for the august ceremony, with- out any additional expense to the nation ; that her majesty does not wish it from any desire of participating in the mere form and ceremony of a coronation, but as a just right, which her majesty would not aban- don without doing a manifest injury, not GEORGE IV. 1821. 707 only to herself, but to future queens-con- sort, to the British nation, and to posterity. " Brandenburgh House, July 15th." .This notification was instantly replied to by his grace. " Lambeth Place, July 15th. " The archbishop of Canterbury has the honor to acknowledge, with all humility, the receipt of her majesty's communica- tion. Her majesty is undoubtedly aware that the archbishop cannot stir a single step in the subject matter of it without the com- mands of the king." Thus repulsed in her various applica- tions to the different authorities, which the queen was instigated to make, lest her ene- mies might suppose her deficient in any of the legal means of securing a reception in Westminster Abbey on the day of the king's coronation, suitable to her high rank and dignity, no other way seemed open for her majesty, but the publication of the follow- ing high-spirited and well-written protest, on the seventeenth of July : HER MAJESTY'S PROTEST AGAINST THE DECISION OF THE PRIVY-COUNCIL RE LATIVE TO HER CORONATION. " CAROLINE R. " To the king's most excellent majesty. ' The protest and remonstrance of Caroline queen of Great Britain and Ireland. " Your majesty having been pleased to refer to your privy-council the queen's me- morial, claiming as of right to celebrate the ceremony of her coronation on the nineteenth of July, being the day appointed for the celebration of your majesty's royal coronation, and lord viscount Sidmouth, one of your majesty's principal secretaries of state, having communicated to the queen the judgment pronouncing against her ma- jesty's claim ; in order to preserve her just rights, and those of her successors, and to prevent the said minute being in after times referred to, as deriving validity from her majesty's supposed acquiescence in the determination therein expressed, the queen feels it to be her bounden duty to enter her most deliberate and solemn protest againsl the said determination ; and to affirm and maintain, that by the laws, usages, and cus- toms of this realm, from time immemorial, the queen-consort ought of right to be crowned at the same tune with the king's majesty. In support of this claim of right her majesty's law officers have proved be- fore the said council, from the most ancient and authentic records, that queens-consort of this realm have, from time immemorial, participated in the ceremony of the corona- tion with their royal husbands. The few exceptions that occur demonstrate, from the peculiar circumstances in which they originated, that the right itself was never questioned, though the exercise of it was >om necessity suspended, or from motives of policy declined. " Her majesty has been taught to believe that the most valuable laws of this country depend upon, and derive their authority from custom ; that your majesty's royal jrerogatives stand upon the same basis : ;he authority of ancient usage cannot there- Tore be rejected without shaking that foun- dation upon which the most important rights and institutions of the country dei pend. " Your majesty's council, however, with- out controverting any of the facts or rea- sons upon which the claim made on the part of her majesty has been supported, have expressed a judgment in opposition to such right. But the queen can place no confidence in that judgment, when she re- collects that the principal individuals by whom it has been pronounced were former- ly her successful defenders ; that their opinions have varied with their interest, and that they have since become the most active and powerful of her persecutors : still less can she confide in it, when her majesty calls to mind that the leading members of that council, when in the ser- vice of your majesty's royal father, report- ed in the most solemn form, that documents reflecting upon her majesty were satisfac- torily disproved as to the most important parts, and that the remainder was unde- serving of credit. Under this declared con- viction, they strongly recommended to your majesty's royal father to bestow his favor upon the queen, then princess of Wales, though in opposition to your majesty's de- clared wishes. But when your majesty had assumed the kingly power, these same ad- visers, in another minute of council, re- canted their former judgment, and referred to and adopted these very same documents, as a justification of one of your majesty's harshest measures towards the queen the separation of her majesty from her affec- tionate and only child. " The queen, like your majesty, descend- ed from a long race of kings, was the daughter of a sovereign house, connected by the ties of blood with the most illustri- ous families in Europe, and her not unequal alliance with your majesty was formed in full confidence that the faith of the king and the people was equally pledged to se- cure to her all those honors and rights which had been enjoyed by her royal pre- decessors. In that alliance her majesty be- lieved that she exchanged the protection of her family for that of a royal husband, and of a free and noble-minded nation. From your majesty the queen has experi- enced only the bitter disappointment of 708 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. every hope she had indulged. In the at- tachment of the. people she has found that powerful and decided protection which has been her steady support and her unfailing consolation. Submission from a subject to injuries of a private nature may be matter of expedience from a wife it may be mat- ter of necessity but never can it be the duty of a queen to acquiesce in the in- fringement of titose rights which belong to her constitutional character. The above public acts of the queen, de- tailing her avowed and fixed determina- tion, under all hazards and circumstances, to be present at the coronation, occasioned expectations, that the celebration of that august ceremonial would be interrupted, if not prevented, by some infraction of the public peace : but these expectations were, highly to the honor and wisdom of the nation, wholly falsified. On the nineteenth of July, the ceremony The queen does therefore repeat her | of the king's coronation was performed with most solemn and deliberate protest against the decision of the said council, considering it only as the sequel of that course of per- secution under which her majesty has so long and so severely suffered, and which decision, if it is to furnish a precedent for future times, can have no other effect, than to fortify oppression with the forms of law, and to give to injustice the sanction of authority. The protection of the sub- ject, from the highest to the lowest, is not only the true, but the only legitimate ob- ject of all power ; and no act of power can be legitimate which is not founded on those principles of eternal justice, without which law is but the mask of tyranny, and power the instrument of despotism. " Queen's House, July 17th." The publication of this protest immedi- ately preceded her majesty's endeavor to deliver it personally into the hands of the king on the day of his coronation, in which attempt her majesty wholly failed. a degree of magnificence unequalled upon any former occasion. In the course of the day, the queen presented herself at tho door of Westminster-hall, and demanded admission ; but this was refused by the door-keepers, and her majesty was thus de- barred from any participation in the cere- monies. In the metropolis, the public were ad- mitted gratis to all the principal theatres ; a balloon ascended, with an aeronaut, about noon, from the Green Park ; and after a variety of entertainments for the amuse- ment of the populace in Hyde Park during the day, in the evening there was a display of the most brilliant fire-works in the same place, under the direction of Sir William Congreve. All classes of the people, in every part of the kingdom, partook of the festivity of this memorable day : the de- monstrations of joy being general through- out the kingdom. NOTES TO MILLER. Note A, p. 69. ' WE thought it our duty," said one of those par- liaments, " to remonstrate to your majesty, that the registering that edict and declaration is irrecon- cilable with your glory, the good of the state, and the rights of mankind. Whatsoever savors of con- straint, wounds the honor of the throne. A manly and respectful freedom has always been the glory of every prince, under whose reign the subjects have made it their guide. "Your people, sire, are unhappy : all things pro- claim this sad truth. Your courts of parliament, the only voice of the nation, cease not to tell it. No, sire, it is but too true ; and we cannot too often repeat it, your people are miserable. " It is not from this day, that we are to date the calamities which desolate the several parts of your state. Your parliaments have found them- selves more than once under a necessity to lay be- fore you the sad description of them. Your ma- jesty could not behold it, without being affected. But what does it signify to the felicity of French- prince George the third, by the grace of God, king of Great Britain, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg, arch-treasurer and prince elector of the holy Ro- man empire, &c. and of the United States of America, to forget all past misunderstandings and differences that have unhappily interrupted the good correspondence and friendship which they mutually wish to restore, and to establish such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse between the two countries upon the ground of reciprocal ad- vantages and mutual convenience as may promote and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony ; and having for this desirable end already laid the foundation of peace and reconciliation by the pro- visional articles signed at Paris on the thirtieth of November, 1782, by the commissioners empower- ed on each part, which articles were agreed to be inserted in, and to constitute the treaty of peace proposed to be concluded between the crown of Great Britain and the said United Stales, but which treaty was not to be concluded until terms of men, that their sovereign shares, by reflection, in peace should be agreed upon between Great Brit- the evils they really suffer, if the mercenary spirit, ain and France, and his Britannic majesty should which devours them, is substituted to that, which ought to proscribe and punish it ? be ready to conclude such treaty accordingly; and the treaty between Great Britain and France hav- ' The termination of the war ought to put an j ing since been concluded, his Britannic majesty pnd to our misery. Peace should have introduced and the United States of America, in order to car- ry into full effect the provisional articles above in France the sweets, with which it is attended among all other nations. The capital of the king- dom was preparing to celebrate the return thereof, and with shouts of joy to dedicate a monument designed to eternise its sensibility, and the mem- ory of a beloved monarch. But, instead of this, nothing but sighs of grief appeared. mentioned, according to the tenor thereof, have constituted and appointed, that is to say, his Brit- annic majesty on his part, David Hartley, esq. member of the parliament of Great Britain ; and the said United States on their part, John Adams, esq. late a commissioner of the United States of ' It is to promote the happiness of those, who America at the court of Versailles, late delegate are placed under your care, that you are invested | in congress from the state of Massachusetts, and with the supreme authority. Your subjects have a right to your beneficence. They have, there- fore, a right to the easiest and least burdensome method of contributing to the wants of the state. This right, which is founded in nature, belongs to every nation in the world, whatever may be its form of government. It is principally the right of France, and, in a more especial manner, that of your province of Normandy- The Norman chief justice of the said state, and minister pleni- potentiary of the said United States to their high mightinesses the States-General of the United Netherlands ; Benjamin Franklin, esq. late dele- gate in congress from the state of Pennsylvania, president of the convention of the said state, and minister plenipotentiary from the United States of America at the court of Versailles; and John Jay, esq. late president of congress, and chief justice charter famishes, on this head, the most respect- :of the state of New- York, and minister plenipo- able monuments of our national immunities, and i tentiary from the said United States at the court of the justice of the kings, your august predeces- \ of Madrid ; to be the plenipotentiaries for the cen- sors. We there find, that no tax can be laid on eluding and signing the present definitive treaty ; your subjects of this province, unless it be agreed to in the assembly of the people, of the three es- tates. This charter subsists in its full force: it makes part of your people's rights, which you swore to maintain before him by whom kings reign. A'ote B, p. 305. As the principal stipulations in these treaties have been detailed in the text, it is thought suffi- cient to subjoin only a copy of the definitive treaty with the United States, because the first in which their independence was acknowledged by Great Britain, and as being virtually the basis of the general pacification. 'fhe definitive ircaty of peace and friendship, be- tioeen his Britannic majesty, and the United States rtf America, signed at Paris the third day of September, 1783. who after having reciprocally communicated their respective full powers, have agreed upon and confirmed the following articles : Art. I. His Britannic majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz. New-Hampshire, Massa- chusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence Plant- ations, Connecticut, New- York, New-Jersey, Penn- sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to be free, sovereign and independent states ; that he treats with them as such, and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the govern- ment, propriety and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof. Art. II. And that all disputes which might arise in future on the subject of the boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the following are and shall be their boundaries, viz. From the north- In tho name of the most holy and undivided west angle of Nova Scotia, viz. that angle which Trinity. It having pleased the divine providence to dis- jxe the hearts of tho most serene and most potent VOL. IV. 00 is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of St- Croix river to the highlands, along the said highlands, which divide those rivers that INDEX TO MILLER. A. Abbot, Charles, Esq. elected speaker, 482. Abdication of Buonaparte, 585. Abcrcrombic. Sir Ralph, noticed, 410. His success, 416. Lands at Helrier, 4 ,0. Killed in battle, 475. , major-general J. noticed, 553. , colonel, his sortie, 289. Abolition of the slave trade, 525. Accession of George III., 11. Ackland, major, attacked, wounded, and taken pris oner. 203. Acquisitions in St. Domingo, 402. Acquittal of admiral Kcppel, 228.' of Warren Hastings, 407. Acre, siege of, its gallant defence, 454. Its siege rais- ed, 455. Acts of Insolvency passed, 14. For registering parish children. 41. American Stamp, passed, 89 ; how re- ceived at Boston, 98; repeal of it, 101. To "restrain assembly at New- York, 110. Of the American con- vention, 116. Of amnesty, 440. Actions, on the Brandywine, 193. Between a British and American frigate, 528. At sea, 570. Adams, major, his victorious career, conquers Bengal after a four months' campaign, 94. -, Mr. noticed, 116. Address of lords and commons on occasion of first . speech of king George III., 12. Of commons to his Majesty's spsech, 33. Of commons to her Majesty, on her nuptials, ib. Of parliament, on birth of prince of Wales, 63. Of congratulation, to the na- tional assembly, 359. Of the English society at Paris to the convention, 364. Of Constitutional* Articles, thirty-nine, lite, petition against rejected, 136 Society of London, presented by its deputies to the French convention, ib. Debates on the, 471. Administration, changes in, 59. Change of, 75. New one, 91. New, 302. Admiralty, board of, its misconduct, 294. Advance of British army in America, 178, 179. Advantageous position of the French, 16. Affairs of Europe, survey of, 67. Of Ireland, 230, 298. Aggrandizement of Hanover, favorite scheme of George II., 11. Aids, to commerce, 385. From France to America, 287. Aitken, John, (the painter,) 188. Confesses his guilt ; executed ; remarks on his case, ib. Aii, archbishop of, president of the national assem- bly, 360. Alarming scarcity of provisions, results, 105. Albemarle, lord, noticed, 50. Commands against Ha- vatinah, ib. Besieges the Moro, 51. Albuera, battle of, 563. Ale, additional duty on, 14. Alexander f. emperor of Russia, succeeds bis father, 474. Visits England, 587. Aleianaria, battle of, 475. Capitulates, 522. Attack on, 534. Algiers, expedition against, 007. Allen, colonel, noticed, 155. Alliance between France and America, 213. Allied powers, measures of, 596. Alliances, continental, remarks on, 35. Allies, their victory at Graebenstein, 45. Enter France, 581. Advance of, C01. Allied army withdrawn from France, 617. Allotment of American land, granted officers and sol- diers, 84. Allowances to prince-regent, 566. To princesses, ib. Voted to royal family, 616. Amadeus, Victor, king of Sardinia, dies ; succeeded by his son, 418. Ambassador, Spanish, unsatisfactory explanation of, 30. Instructions sent to Madrid, 33. At Madrid recalled, 37. Spanish, recalled, ib. His manifesto previous to leaving court of London, 38. Amboyna, capture of, 553. Amelia, princess, death of, 557. America, North, disturbances in, 98. Its situation, and political feeling, ib. New government arrange- ments, 170. Peace with, recommended by parlia- ment, 212. Rejects plans of conciliation, 21H. Pre- liminaries of peace with. 304. Disputes with, com- 60* promised, 405. Campaign in, 579. Negotiations with, 592. Peace with, 595. American, North, compensation, 14. Assemblies re- fuse compensation for the Stamp Act, 88. Revo- lution predicted, 99. Affairs discussed in parlia- ment, 119. Petition to the king, 152. Affairs, aspect of, 158. Defeat at Long Island, 175. Forts taken, 196. Successes at sea, 207. Defeat on Lake Cham- plain, 166. Affairs in 1779, 258. Rally, 259. Army, its disposition, 262. Prospects brighten, 263. Cur- rency, depreciation of, 264. Campaign of 1781, 276. War, petition against its continuance, 294. Loyal- ists noticed, 305. Differences with the, 545. Dis- putes, 560. Declaration of war, 568. South af- fairs, 587. Amkerst, Sir Jeffery, noticed, 137. , lord, called on for his opinion by lord Chat- ham, 211. Anderson, major, killed, 282. Andre, major, noticed, 266. Taken, and executed as a spy, ib., 267. Anholt, isle, its gallant defence, 554. Anson, lord, noticed, 59. Antwerp, council at, 387. Arcon, his floating batteries, 301. Arcot, nabob of, noticed, 125. Armament against Havannah, 50. Armed neutrality, 269. Arnold, colonel, noticed, 155. Wounded at Quebec, 158; at Stillwater, 203; Made general, his defec- tion, 265. Attempts to seduce the Americans, 268. Expedition to Virginia, 277. Arrests of public orators, 625. Artifices of ministers to inflame the people against the French, 364. Arrears claimed by prince of Wales, 481. Arbuthnot, admiral, abandons his convoy, 244. Arrival of Rochambeau, 265. Asghans, noticed, 97. Ash, general, surprised, 238. Assignats, French, issued by, 393. Associations, against republicans, &c., 365. Against the war, 246. Volunteer, 432. Assurances of effectual support from house of com- mons, 13. Athol, duke and duchess of, noticed, 90. Atlee, colonel, noticed, 176. Attack on Jersey, 274. Attempt to destroy British vessels in America, 175. On Rhode-Island, 223 ; failure of it, 224. To kill made capital, 488. To burn a British squadron, 56. To assassinate the king, 325. Auckland, lord, letter to states, 383. Censure on his conduct, 385. Augsburg, congress at, 18. Augmentation of land tax, 161. Of army and navy, 394. Of British forces, 396. Augusta, princess royal of England, proposed to mar- ry the hereditary prince of Brunswick, 78. Dowry- voted her by house of commons, 79. Austin, Sophia, noticed, 572. Austerlitz, battle of, 506. Austria makes peace with France. 468. Declares war against England, 536. Joins the alliance, 577. Austrians. overthrow of the, 542. Expulsion of, from Italy, 426. B. Babes " in the wood," 441. ' Badajos, capture of, 564. Bailiic, colonel, defeated at Perimbancum, 271. Baird, Sir David, his conduct at the Cape, 516. Wounded at Corunna. 533. , Sir James, surprises Americans, 226. Baker, W. noticed, 312. Balfe, printer of North Briton, 76. Baltimore, attack on. 504. Ballot for militia produces riot at Hexbam, 14. Balcarras. lord, attacked, '203. Barclay, Da.vid, noticed, 145. His plan of union be- tween Great Britain and America, 146. Barras, count de, noticed, 286. 714 INDEX TO MILLER. Barre, colonel, his eulogium on lord Chatham, 216. Harrington, admiral, noticed, 331. , lord, his motion to expel Wilkes, 121. Basque Road, attempt to burn British fleet at anchor there, 56. Battle of Stillwater, 202. Of Guildford, 281. Amm, colonel, defeated, 201. Baylis, Mr. his escape, 301. Baylor, lieutenant-colonel, noticed, 225. His party- surprised and massacred, ib. Wounded, ib. Bangalore stormed, '.156. BtiHtry Bay, mutiny in, 483. Beaukarmoig, Eugene, married, 5-20. Bedford, duke of, sets off for Paris, 60. Betr. duty on, causes tumult, 41. Beekford, lord mayor, presents city remonstrance to the king, 127. Second do. and reply to the king, 130. Brlletombr, M. governor of Pondicherry, 234. Bfllfisle. expedition against, 24. Its capitulation, 25. Restored, i.-J. Bfllingham, shoots Perceval ; tried and executed, 567. Belligeranti, nit nation of, 58. Bengal, its conquest, 94. Bcrnadotte, prince of Ponte Corvo, elected successor to the throne of Sweden, 555. HrmnrA, Sir Francis, noticed, 115. Berne, entered by French, 444. Btresford, general, noticed, 563. Wounded, 565. , lord, noticed, 588. Bill.*, for militia amendments, 41. For restraining cruelty, ib. For extension of duke of Bridgewater's canal, ib. To regulate slave trade, 331. In favor of Catholics, 344. Against treason, 412. Bingham, captain, noticed, 560. Birmingham, disgraceful riots at, 347. Rioters tried and executed, 348. Birth of prince of Wales, 54. Of princess Charlotte, 413. Blveker visits England, 587. Banquet, colonel, notice of, 85. His campaign and Hucces*, 87. Boston, proceedings at, noticed, 98. Further particu- lars on receiving Stamp Act, ib. Policy of its in- habitants, 148. Evacuated by the British, 163. Bottetourt, lord, dissolves the American assemblies 126. Bougainville, the navigator, noticed, 131. Bouille, marquis de, captures St. Eustatia, 291. Boundaries of American settlements, 61. Bourbon, Isle of, capitulates, 545. Botutel, Monsieur, his opinion, 292. Baud, colonel, killed, 238. Braditrret, colonel, advances against American sav- ages. 86. Brandt, count, noticed, 137. Bradley, Mr. and party taken prisoners, 261. Braiilg, royal family of Portugal emigrate to, 528. Breton. Cape, Isle of, ceded to Britain, 61. Brryman, colonel, attempts to reinforce Baum, 201. Retreats, ib. Killed, 203. Bridrvell. New, burnt, 255. Brutal, earl of, ambassador to Madrid, 30. Orders ent to him, ib. His dispatches in reply, 31. His recall, 37. Bn!am aids Portugal, 46. Attempts negotiation with America, 174. Briton. North, paper, published, 72. Burnt by hang- man, 76. Brituk, repulsed at Fort Schuyler, 200. Commission- en to America foiled by congress, 220. Publish their manifesto to the people, 221. Enthusiasm against Prance. SS3. Successes, 237. Failure at Charles- town, 239. Settlements in Africa captured. 241. AmbuMdor leaves Prance, 486. Success in West Indict. 416. Travellers in France made prisoners of war. 491. Expedition to Portugal, 530. Advances into Spain, 532. Braddork, grneral. noticed, 153. Brock, general, noticed. 570. His gallant death, ib. Broglio, marshal rMrcaU, 16. Brokerage of officer* in army, church, or state, penal, Bnwn, major, noticed, 158. Brunnteifk, prince of, marries princes* Augusta, 78. Troops of, arrive in America, 165. Duke of,' his celebrated manifesto, 3C2. Oeli, duke of his' tal- ents. 548. Bru.tk. Crean. Bq. noticed, 164. Bryan, colonel, his party diupcraed. 960. Buckeburg, count du la Lippe, noticed, 47. Budget, 539, 560, 568. Buenos Jiyres, failure of expedition against, 55. Un- successful attack on, 522. Buford, colonel, defeated, 258. . general, visits England, 587. Bullion question, 552. Report on it, 558. Bunker's Hill, battle of, 150. Buonaparte, Napoleon, noticed, 393. His conduct, 410. His operations in Italy, 414. His proclamation against the pope, 426. Signs treaty with emperor of Germany, 427., His expedition to Egypt; cap- tures Malta and Alexandria, 445. Defeats the beys; his proclamation respecting Mahomet, 446. His conduct in Egypt, 453. Raises siege of Acre, 455. Quits his army, and returns to France, 456. His arrival greeted at Paris, ib. Made first consul, 462. Makes proposals of peace, ib. His concordat with the pope, 476. Created first consul for life, 483. Im- poses a new .constitution on France, ib. Institutes the Legion of Honor, ib. Assumes the presidency of the Italian republic, 485. Detains the English in France prisoners of war, 491. Seizes the due d'Eng- bien, 498. Elected emperor of the French, 499. Writes a letter to king of England, 501. Crowns himself king of Italy at Milan, 505. Enters Vien- na, 506. Gains battle of Austerlitz; consequences, 507. Chosen protector of the Rhenish confedera- tion, 519. Confers titles on his relations and fol- lowers, ib. Gains battle of Jena, 520. Subsequent successes, ib. Issues his " Berlin Decree," 521. Places his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain, 529. His Spanish campaign, 530. Battle of Eck iniilil, 541. Retreats to Lobau, 542. Gains battle of Wagram, 543. Excommunicated by the pope, ib. Divorced from Josephine, ib. Marries arch- duchess of Austria, 554. His son born, and entitled king of Rome, 561. Makes overtures to England, 569. Invades Russia, ib. Retreats, 570. Flees to Paris, ib. Leaves Paris, 582. Abdicates, 585. Re- turus from Elba', 596. His success, ib. Returns to Paris after battle of Waterloo, 601. Abdicates ; proclaims his son emperor, ib. Surrenders to the English; is sent to St. Helena, 602. , Lucien, president, noticed, 461. , Louis, noticed, 498. Elected king of Hol- land, 519. Resigns his crown. 554. -, Jerome, his ship stranded, 516. Made king of Westphalia, -, Joseph, signs treaty of peace, 478. Made king of Naples, 518. Transferred to Spain, 529. Burdctt, Sir Francis, his motion on admiralty droits, 535. Motion, 552. Committed to the Tower; his conduct, ib. Burgoyne, general, noticed, 48. Penetrates into Spain, ib. His success, ib. Further noticed, 149. His cam- paign, 197. Surrenders, 205. Arrives in England ; demands an inquiry, 218. Burke, his picture of Pitt's administration. 104. His allusion to genius and power of Charles Townsend, 110. His plan of economical regulation, 248. Re- form bill, 273. Charge against Warren Hastings, 324. His philippic against France, 336. Second invective on the revolution, 345. Breach of his friendship with Fox, ib. Speech in favor of the ad- dress, 370. His death, 428. Burrard, Sir Harry, arrives in Portugal ; his conduct, 531. Bute, earl of, added to privy-council, 12. Resigns office, 71. Buxar. battle of, 95. Byland, count, his squadron taken, 270. Byron, admiral, noticed, 218. C. Cabinet, changes in the, 62, 102. Changes in minis- terial, 111,504. Cadwallader, general, noticed, 181. Castries, Monsieur, noticed, 44. Calabria, cardinal Ruffo heads army in, 457. Caldcr, Sir Robert, his engagement, 508. Cambridge, duke of, sent commander-in-chief to Han- over, 490. His marriage, 616. Camden, lord, noticed, 90. Made lord chancellor, 104, note 2. Opposes indemnity hill, 107. Opinion of In- dia bill, 312. Made lord lieutenant of Ireland, 406. Cameron, captain, killed, 226. Campaign in Germany, vicissitudes of, 17. Of Bour- bon courts against Portugal commences, 47. In America, 1777, 191 ; Burgoyne's, 197 ; of 1779, 234. In Italy and Switzerland, 457. INDEX TO MILLER. 715 Campbell, colonel, noticed, 138. Canada, government of, 345. Invasion of, 570. Cam- paign in, 592. Canal, duke of Bridgewater's, 41. Bill for its exten- sion passed, ib. Canning, Mr. advocates Catholic cause, 568. Captors of major Andre rewarded by congress, 266. Capture of Fritzlar and magazines, IB. Of Belleisle, 25. Of Manilla and the Philippines, 55. Of the richly freighted galley to Acapulco, ib. Of French merchant fleet, 56. Of Eliabad, 96. Of Stoney Point, 236. Of Mr. Lawrens, 270. Of lord Corn- wallis, 289. Of Martinique, 402. Of Cape of Good Hope, 411, 516. Of Curacoa, 523. Of the President frigate, 595. Caribbs, the expedition against, 140. Car/eion. Sir Guy, plan of, 156. His escape to Que- bec, ib. Carlisle, earl of, appointed commissioner to America, 214. Carnac, general, noticed, 95. Caroline Matilda, princess of England, noticed, 107. Married to the king of Denmark, Christian VII., ib. Her misfortunes, ib. Her death, 137. Cos* payments by the bank, suspension of, 421. Pay- ments, 621. Cas.se/, Hesse, makes peace with France, 408. Castries, marquis de.his knowledge of naval force,287. Cathcart, noticed, 410. Catherine II., empress of Russia, 43. Behavior to- wards her husband ; political conduct, ib. Her death, 418. Catholic chapels demolished by London mob, 254. Question agitated, and occasions change of minis- try, 471. Question renewed, 623. Committee formed, 559. Catholics, Roman, relief granted them, 217. Bill in favor of, 344. Their discontent, 407. Act for re- lief of the, 488. Present petitions, 553. Their claims, 611. Causes and effects of sincere disposition of all parties towards peace, 58. Of rupture with Holland, 22. Cruger, lieutenant-colonel, bis defence of Ninety-six in America, 283. Cufta restored to Spain, 63. Cumberland, duke of, noticed, dies, 91. < -- , 2d do. marries Mrs. Horton, 136. - , 3d do. his marriage, 603. Cunningham, the American privateer, his conduct, 209. Imprisoned by France, released, &c., ib. Curtu. captain, his heroism and humanity, 303. Gushing. Mr. noticed, 116. Cu*t, John, Sir, illness and death of, 126. Vydtr, duty on, levied, 70. C-.rrmekeff, visits England, 587. D. Dalrymplr. Sir Hew, noticed, 531 . Dalytl. captain, bis plan for surprising the American savages. 84. Dannh fleet, capture of, 526. West-India Islands, surrender of, 528. Darky, admiral, escapes, 292. Dartmouth, lord, receives American petition, 153. Dashwood, Sir Francis, resigns office, 71. Created lord Despencer, 74. Daun, marshal, noticed, 43. Darin, captain, discovers the Falkland islands, 131. J)ari*on. general, killed, 280. Jtrane, Silas, noticed, 188. Death of earl Egremont, 75. Of lord Chatham, 216. Of the emperor Paul of Russia, 474. Of the prin- een Charlotte, 613. Queen Charlotte, 618. Duke of Kent, 630. Of George the 3d, king of England ; his character, ib. Debates on the expediency of 'the German war, 34. Defence of it, 35. On the proclamation of the Brit- ish commissioners in America, 186. On the peace, 483. In cabinet on Mr. Pitt's proposal of war with Spain, 31. On the address, 210. On the manifesto of American commissioners, 229. On Irish affairs, S48. On the peace, 305. On the war, 464. Debts, of the civil-list, 461. Drrnn. Nizam of, noticed, 124. Deeatur. captain, noticed, 595. Deriaration of war with Spain, 39. Of American in- dependence, 168. Of war with France, 215. Drrlmr of lord North's influence, 233. Detree of fraternization, 364. Defeat of the hereditary prince, 17. Total of the Spaniards at Gibraltar, 302. Of the ministry 296. Its dissolution. 2 >7. Defection of Arnold from America, 265. Defenders in Ireland, 433. Deficiencies of the civil-list, 17. Jfote to chapter 1. JMMMTM, nation of, noticed, 84. Delegates. county, 273. Democratic societies, 395. Dempiter. friendly to hawkers and pedlars, 321. Denmark. Frederick V. king of, noticed, 67. Chris- tian VII.. noticed, 68. Neutrality of, 405. Peace with. 580. i)tnefii:. battle of, 577. Dttttnl on Marlinico, 49. Dttftrfi conspiracy, 484. JMtMMM, John, noticed, 168. Dirpft. bombarded, 491. Diffrremtei in the ministry, 117. Between France and America, 417. With the United States of America, 5M. Difitultiei about the mutual retaining of possessions, - admiral, captures French man-of-war, 256. Dirutary of France elected, 410. Overthrown, 461. Ditaitrn to royal caiiw? in America 158. Dutwitmt on the pr-aco. r,:. On American affairs, II' f <|'inrr.'l with RIIMIH. 347. Diimiirim of general Conway. 2. Of ministry 313 Ditfutt between director* of F.ant India company and proprietors, 106. With Spain about the Falkland Itland*. 131 With Hpnin settled. 341. Between France and Russia. 500. With Holland, 190. Ditaffertion in America. 115. Dittentir*. bill for relief of, 136. Protestant bill to relieve, 330. To secure their privileges, bill, 569. Dissolution of parliament, 17. Of parliament whether it affects impeachment, 343. Distilleries, 536. Distresses of the Americans, 262. Disturbances on account of Wilkes, 114. in La Vendee terminated, 415. Dividends, unclaimed, proposal to seize, 343. Documents on state of the country, 627. Dol, bishop of, murdered, 409. Domingo, St. expedition to, 483. Donop, count, mortally wounded and taken prisoner. 196. Dougal, M', general, noticed, 176. Douglas, Sir James, noticed, 50. , Sir John and lady, noticed, 571. Doula Sujah, noticed, 94. Arms against English, 95. Surrenders unconditionally, 96. Dowdeswell, Mr. appointed chancellor of exchequer, 91. Noticed, 104. Drake, admiral, noticed, 287. , ambassador at Munich, 499. Draper, colonel, his plan for invading the Philippine islands, 54. Drayton, W. H. noticed, 220. Dresden, battle of, 577. Droit-s of admiralty, 535. Duckworth, admiral, sent against Minorca, 448. His victory, 516. Advances through the Dardanelles, 522. Duel, between Wilkes and Martin, 78. Between Pitt and Tierney, 432. Between Castlereagh and Canning, 546. Dumouriez, general, noticed, 386. His conduct, ib. Duncan, doctor, noticed, 79. , lord, his victory, 425. Dunkirk, its fortifications and harbor to be demol- ished, 62. Dundas, his escape, 316. , Sir David, retires, 560. Dunning, resigns his office of solicitor-general, 126. His motion on the influence of the crown, 252. Dutch fleet captured, 416. Delivered up by admiral Story, 460. Commissioners, 540. Duty, additional, on ale and strong beer, 14. On beer. causes tumult in London, 41. E. Easton, colonel, noticed, 156. Erkmuhl. battle of, 541. Eden, Mr. appointed American commissioner, 214. Edinburgh convention, 391. Its secretary and two members transported, ib. Education of the poor, 617. Effects of the late king's partiality to his native do- minions, 11. Ruinous, of American war, 159. Egmont, lord, continues in office, 91. Egremont's, lord, refutation of the Spanish ambassa- dor's manifesto, 38. Egypt, affairs of, 453, 468. Expedition to, 474. Elbert, colonel, his surrender, 238. Eldon, lord-chancellor, noticed, 471. Elections, new, 526. r'.lholm, captain, noticed, 241. Eliabad, capture of, 96. Elizabeth, princess, sister to the king of France, exe- cuted, 404. -, princess, her marriage, 616. Eloquence of Burke and Grenville contrasted, 121. Elliott, lieutenant-general, noticed, 51. . general, his conduct, 275. Great foresight, 301. Defeats all attempts- against Gibraltar, 302. Ellis, Welbore, noticed, 272. Appointed secretary, 295. Embarrassments of the prince of Wales, 326. Embargo on Russian, Swedish, and Danish vessels, 472. Emmett and others executed, 489. Emperor of Germany declared " Emperor of Austria," 500. Engagement between Keppel and d'Orvilliers, 227. Enghien, due d', murder of, 498. England declares war against Holland, 411. Assists Portugal, 46. English ambassador recalled from Madrid, 37. Gov- ernment offer assistance to Holland, 364. Refused, ib. Army return from the Continent, 410. F.n/i.'lment, 535. Foreign, bill. 623. Entertainment given to royal family at Guildhall, 30. Envoys British, complaint against, 499. Equipment of squadron of men-of-war and trans- ports, 24. Erekine moves an address, 313. INDEX TO MILLER. 717 Escape of the stadtholder, 405. Establishment of civil-list, 13. Estaing, d', his fleet noticed, 218. Wounded^41. Kstouckes, a", his command, 278. Etrees, marshal d 1 , noticed, 44. Europe, movements in, 490. State of, 511. Eustatia, St. taken, 275. Its prodigious wealth, ib. Conduct observed on its capture, 276. Hieing, general, noticed, 181. Exchequer- Bills, 611. Exertions of congress, 180. Exmouth, lord, his expedition, 607. Expedition against Belleisle, 24. Against East Flori- da, 225. To North Holland, 460. Of commodore Johnstnne, 230. Expenditure, national, 622. Expulsion of Wilkes from house of commons, 80. Of the Austrians from Italy, 436. Eyre, captain, noticed, 554. F. Failure at Porto Rico and Santa Cruz, 425. Falkland Islands, disputes with Spain respecting them, 131. Family compact, some account of it, 27. How avow ed, 36. Farmer, captain, noticed, 132. Fayette, marquis de la, wounded, 194. Marches into Virginia, 285. His military conduct, ib. Further noticed, 397. Ferdinand, prince, his plan of attack, 21. IV. king of Naples, abdicates, and comes on board an English man-of-war, 448. -VII. of Spain, restoration of, 5S7. Ferguson, governor, noticed, 291. , doctor, noticed, 219. Fielding, commodore, captures a Dutch squadron, 270. Finances, 431, 43, 487, 524, 535, 589, 605. Flattering state of, 349, 420, 481. Fishery, Newfoundland, rights established, 61. Fitzgerald, Edward, lord, taken, 434. Fitzkerbert, appointed plenipotentiary for peace, 304. . Mrs. noticed, 327. Fitzxilliam, lord, affirms India company's bankruptcy 303. Recalled from Ireland, 406. Displaced, 627. Fleet prison burnt, 255. Fletcher, colonel, his disaster, 271. , Sir Robert, commands Indian army, 95. Cap- tures fort of Chanda Gheer ; its governor's remark able speech, 96. Takes Eliabad, ib. Fleury, lieutenant-colonel, 236. Ftnod, Mr bis motion for parliamentary reform, 338. Florida ceded by Spain, 61. Forbes, lieutenant, noticed, 53. Ford, colonel, noticed, 125. Foreign affairs, 614. Troops landed on Isle of Wight 3%. Forest, New, bill, 352. Fortescue, lord, his remarks on the house of peers, 299 Fortifications, proposed new plan of, 322. Forts reduced by marquis of Granby, 16. FotkergiU, doctor, noticed, 145. His letter to Frank lin. 147. Fox, Charles, noticed, 62. Appointed lord of the ad miralty, 126. His ironical speech, 212. His re marks. 231. Remarkable oration. 254. Introduce his Marriage Act. 274. India Bill thrown out b; the peers, 312. Elected for Westminster, thougj not returned by high bailiff. 315. Obtains damage for this in King's Bench. 316. His remarks on Iris] bill, 321. Amends Sinking Fund, 324. His senti merits on slave trade, 335. His sentiments on Frenc! revolution, 337. Feelings on Burke's breach 01 friendship, 346. In opposition to the address, 368 Opposes address, 380. His motion to ascertain thi precise grounds of war, 384. Sends intelligence to Talleyrand of plot to assassinate Buonaparte, 514 His wish for peace ; death and character, 515. France, duplicity of her ministry, 19. Negotiation fo peace with, resumed. 25. Her conduct towards For tugal, 45. Declaration of war, 46. Disasters BUS tained by, 56. Sends warlike stores to America. 192 Preliminaries of peace with, 304. Commercia treaty with. 325. Considered by the commons, 326 Affairs of, glanced at. 336. Its revolution, 337. So licits offices of Britain in preserving peace, 361 Delivered, ib. Manifestoes against, 3fi2. Nations convention of, constituted, 363. Declares wa against Britain and Holland. 383. Queen of, he trial and execution, 392. Makes peace with Spain 408. Hesse Cassel and Tuscany, ib. Princess of, exchanged for deputies delivered to Austria by I)u inouriez, 403. State of, 417. Her measures against British commerce, 418. Internal affairs of, 428 Makes peace with Austria, 468. With Austria, Russia, and Prussia, 507. Annexations to, 554. Terms imposed on, 605. "ranee. Isle of, capitulates, 553. Franklin, doctor, noticed, 141. His effort at concilia- tion, 145. Plan founded thereon, ib. Appointed bead of post-office in America, 152. His reply to lord Howe, 177. Ambassador to France, 213. 5Vazer, general, killed, 203. Vrederick, William, brother to George III., dies, 91. VI. ascends the throne of Denmark, 536. , William, king of Prussia, dies, 428. Frederica, princess of Prussia, married to duke of York, 350. French, advantageous position of the, 15. Squadron arrives in America, 222. Ambassador to congress, ib. Fleet on the English coast, 242. Fleet defeated by Rodney, 300. Ambassador, official complaint by, 361. Disposition of the king, 3G3. Priests arrive in multitudes in England, ib. Ambassador's me morial on situation of England and France answer- ed by lord Grenville, 373. Ambassador ordered to leave England, 374. Convention, proposes to treat for peace, 385. Declares war against Spain, 388. Affairs, 391. Calendar, 393. Extraordinary efforts of, to recruit army, 394. Government, state of. 404. Its sanguinary proceedings, ib Progress in Hol- land, 405. Successful in West Indies, 408. Makes peace with Prussia, ib. New constitution, 409. Land in Wales, 426. Compel the emperor to make peace, 427. Land at Killala, and surrender, 441. Hostile movement of, against Switzerland, 444. Enter Berne, enforce a new constitution, ib. Re turn from Syria to Egypt, 455. Directory over thrown, 461. Evacuate Egypt, 476. New consti- tution, 483. Driven from St. Domingo, 490. Fleets attempt to capture West India islands, 507. En- ter Portugal, 528. Fleet, attack on, 545. Convoy destroyed, ib. , captain, deceived into a surrender of hia post, 241. Friends of the people, society of, 353. Frit-Jar, capture of, with several magazines, 616. Fucntes, count de, his manifesto, 38. G. Gage, general, noticed, 117. His judicious conduct, ib. Appointed governor, 142. Galloway, his charge against general Howe, 232. Galves, Bernardo, don de, takes Mobile, 268. Gansivort, colonel, his message, 200. Gardiner, major, noticed, 238. Gates, general, his conduct towards Burgoyne's army,. 206. Defeated, 261. Succeeded by Greene, 278. Galleon, from Manilla to Acapulco, taken, 55. Gavdaloupe, isle of, capitulates, 554. Restored to France, 61. Geary, admiral, captures a rich squadron, 274. Genoa, evacuated, 467. Gentoos, distressed state of, 138. George III. king of England, accession to the throne, 11. First meets his council at Carlton-house; hia declaration to them ; subscribes instrument to main tain church of Scotland; proclamation of; adds duke of York and earl of Bute to list of privy-coun sellers, 12. Prorogues parliament ; his first speech to both houses of parliament, ib. Proposes plan for securing independence of judges, 15. His speech on closing parliament, ib. His sentiments on the prop er use of conquests, 17. Exempt from personal or political prejudices, 29. His choice of a consort, ib- Speech to parliament, 33. Message to commons, announcing proposed nuptials of his sister princess Augusta with prince duke of Brunswick, 78. Be- stows 72.300/. French prize-moneys in aid of the nation ; illness and recovery. 90. Institutes royal academy, 118. His death, 630. Character of his reign, 631. Germaine, lord George Sackville, appointed secretary for America. 162. His information to parliament, 294. Created a peer, 295. German confederacy, sums voted for support of, 13. War debated on the, 31. Protested against, 40 Auxiliaries, 384. Germany, campaign of, 17. Empress queen of, notic ed, 68. Emperor of, mediator for peace, 384. Em- 716 INDEX TO MILLER. Criminal law, noticed, 5315. Code, 620. Crosby, Brass, lord mayor, discharges Millar, the printer; orders the deputy serjeant-at-arms into cus- tody, who finds bail, 133. Is sent to the Tower, 134; refuses to back press-warrants, ib. Cruilen, John, appointed commissioner with extraor- dinary powers, -i''-. Cruger, lieutenant-colonel, his defence of Ninety-six in America, 283. Cuba restored to Spain, 63. Cumberland, duke of, noticed, dies, 91. . ^ , 2d do. marries Mrs. Horton, 136. , 3d do. his marriage, 603. Cunningham, the American privateer, his conduct, 209. Imprisoned by France, released, &c., ib. Curtis, captain, his heroism and humanity, 302. Gushing, Mr. noticed, 116. Cust, John, Sir, illness and death of, 136. "Cyder, duty on, levied, 70. C-.frnichrff, visits England, 587. D. Dalrymple. Sir Hew, noticed, 531 . Dalyel. captain, his plan for surprising the American savages, 84. Danish fleet, capture of, 526. West-India Islands, surrender of, 528. Darby, admiral, escapes, 392. Dartmouth., lord, receives American petition, 153. Daskwood, Sir Francis, resigns office, 71. Created lord Despencer, 74. Dauit, marshal, noticed, 43. Davits, captain, discovers the Falkland islands, 131. Davison, general, killed, 280. Deane, Silas, noticed, 188. Death of earl Egremont, 75. Of lord Chatham, 216. Of the emperor Paul of Russia, 474. Of the prin- cess Charlotte, 613. Queen Charlotte, 618. Duke of Kent, 630. Of George the 3d, king of England ; his character, ib. Debates on the expediency of the German war, 34. Defence of it, 35. On the proclamation of the Brit- ish commissioners in America, 186. On the peace, 482. In cabinet on Mr. Pitt's proposal of war with Spain, 31. On the address, 210. On the manifesto of American commissioners, 229. On Irish affairs, 246. On the peace, 305. On the war, 464. Debts, of the civil-list, 481. Dtean. Nizam of, noticed, 124. Decatur. captain, noticed, 595. Declaration of war with Spain, 39. Of American in- dependence, 168. Of war with France, 215. Decline of lord North's influence, 293. Decree of fraternization, 364. Defeat of the hereditary prinre, 17. Total of the Spaniards at Gibraltar, 302. Of the ministry, 296. Its dissolution, 2:)7. Defection of Arnold from America, 265. Defenders in Ireland, 433. Drjuiencies of the civil-list, 17. Jfote to chapter 1. Delaviarei, nation of, noticed, 84. Delegates, county, 273. Democratic societies, 305. Dempster, friendly to hawkers and pedlars, 321. Denmark. Frederick V. king of, noticed, 67. Chris- tian VII., noticed, 68. Neutrality of, 405. Peace with. 580. Demerit-, battle of, 577. Descent on Marlinico, 49. DctpanTs conspiracy, 484. Dickenson. John, noticed, 168. Dieppe, bombarded, 401. Differences in the ministry, 117. Between France and America. 417. With the United States of America, 556. Difficulties about the mutual retaining of possessions, Itieky. admiral, captures French man-of-war, 256. Directory of France elected, 410. Overthrown, 461. Disasters to royal catine in America. 158. Discussions on the pracr, 03. On American affairs, 119. Of quarrel with Korain. 347. Di*mi*tion of general Con way. F2. Of ministry, 313. Dispute between directors of Kant India company and proprietors, lOfi. With Spain about the Falkland Inland*. 131 With Hpuin rtiled. 341. Between France and Russia. 500. With Holland, 190. Disaffection in America. 115. Dinentern. bill for relief of, 136. Protestant bill to relieve, 230. To secure their privileges, bill, 569. Dissolution of parliament, 17. Of parliament whether it affects impeachment, 343. Distilleries, 536. Distresses of the Americans, 262. Disturbances on account of Wilkes, 114. in La Vendee terminated, 415. Dividends, unclaimed, proposal to Seize, 343. Documents on state of the country, 627. Dol, bishop of, murdered, 409. Domingo, St. expedition to, 483. Donop, count, mortally wounded and taken prisoner, 196. Dougal, M', general, noticed, 176. Douglas, Sir James, noticed, 50. -, Sir John and lady, noticed,' 571. Doula Sujah, noticed, 94. Arms against English, 95. Surrenders unconditionally, 96. Dowdeswell, Mr. appointed chancellor of exchequer, 91. Noticed, 104. Drake, admiral, noticed, 287. , ambassador at Munich, 499. Draper, colonel, his plan for invading the Philippine islands, 54. Drayton, W. H. noticed, 220. Dresden, battle of, 577. Droits of admiralty, 535. Duckworth, admiral, sent against Minorca, 448. His victory, 516. Advances through the Dardanelles, 522. Duel, between Wilkes and Martin, 78. Between Pitt and Tierney, 432. Between Castlereagh and Canning, 546. Dumouriei, general, noticed, 386. His conduct, ib. Duncan, doctor, noticed, 79. , lord, his victory, 425. Dunkirk, its fortifications and harbor to be demol- ished, 62. Dundas, his escape, 316. , Sir David, retires, 560. Dunning, resigns his office of solicitor-general, 126. His motion on the influence of the crown, 252. Dutch fleet captured, 416. Delivered up by admiral Story, 460. Commissioners, 540. Duty , additional, on ale and strong beer, 14. On beer. causes tumult in London, 41. E. Easton, colonel, noticed, 156. Eckmuhl, battle of, 541. Eden, Mr. appointed American commissioner, 214. Edinburgh convention, 391. Its secretary and two members transported, ib. Education of the poor, 617. Effects of the late king's partiality to his native do- minions, 11. Ruinous, of American war, 159. Egmont, lord, continues in office, 91. Egremont's, lord, refutation of the Spanish ambassa- dor's manifesto, 38. Egypt, affairs of. 453, 468. Expedition to, 474. Elbert, colonel, his surrender, 238. Eldon, lord-chancellor, noticed, 471. Elections, new, 526. Elholm, captain, noticed, 241. Eliabad, capture of, 96. Elizabeth, princess, sisteV to the king of France, exe- cuted, 404. -, princess, her marriage, 616. Eloquence of Burke and Grenville contrasted, 121. Elliott, lieutenant-general, noticed, 51. , general, his conduct, 275. Great foresight, 301. Defeats all attempts against Gibraltar, 302. Ellis, Welbore, noticed, 272. Appointed secretary, 295. Embarrassments of the prince of Wales, 326. Embargo on Russian, Swedish, and Danish vessels, 472. Emmett and others executed, 489. Emperor of Germany declared " Emperor of Austria," 500. Engagement between Keppel and d'Orvilliers, 227. Enghien, due d', murder of, 498. England declares war against Holland, 411. Assists Portugal, 46. English ambassador recalled from Madrid, 37. Gov- ernment offer assistance to Holland, 364. Refused, ib. Army return from the Continent, 410. Enlistment, 535. Foreign, bill. 623. Entertainment given to royal family at Guildhall, 30. Envoys British, complaint against, 499. Equipment of squadron of men-of-war and trans- ports, 24. Erskine moves an address, 313. INDEX TO MILLER. 717 Escape of the stadtholder, 405. Establishment of civil-list, 13. Bstaing, d', his fleet noticed, 218. Wounded,,241. Estsntches, d', his command, 278. Etrees, marshal d', noticed, 44. Europe, movements in, 490. State of, 511. Eustatia, St. taken, 375. Its prodigious wealth, ib. Conduct observed on its capture, 276. Earing, general, noticed, 181. Exchequer- Bills, 611. Exertions of congress, 180. Exmouth, lord, his expedition, 607. Expedition against Belleisle, 24. Against East Flori- da, 225. To North Holland, 460. Of commodore Johnstone, 230. Expenditure, national, 622. Expulsion of Wilkes from house of commons, 80. Of the Austrians from Italy, 426. Eyre, captain, noticed, 554. F. Failure at Porto Rico and Santa Cruz, 425. Falkland Islands, disputes with Spain respecting them, 131. Family compact, some account of it, 27. How avow- ed, 36. Farmer, captain, noticed, 132. Fayette, maiquisde la, wounded, 194. Marches into Virginia, 285. His military conduct, ib. Further noticed, 397. Ferdinand, prince, his plan of attack, 21. IV. king of Naples, abdicates, and comes on board an English man-of-war, 448. VII. of Spain, restoration of, 587. Ferguson, governor, noticed, 291. , doctor, noticed, 219. Fielding, commodore, captures a Dutch squadron, 270 Finances, 431, 4(i3, 487, 524, 535, 589, 605. Flattering state of, 349, 420, 481. Fishery, Newfoundland, rights established, 61. FitigeraU, Edward, lord, taken, 434. Fitzkerbert, appointed plenipotentiary for peace, 304. . Mrs. noticed, 327. FitzicUliam, lord, affirms India company's bankruptcy 303. Recalled from Ireland, 406. Displaced, 627. Fleet prison burnt, 255. Fletcher, colonel, his disaster, 271. , Sir Robert, commands Indian army, 95. Cap tures fort of Chanda Gheer ; its governor's remark able speech, 96. Takes Eliabad, ib. Fleury, lieutenant-colonel, 236. Flood, Mr his motion for parliamentary reform, 338. Florida ceded by Spain, 61. Forbes, lieutenant, noticed, 53. Ford, colonel, noticed, 125. Foreign affairs, 614. Troops landed on Isle of Wight 3%. Forest, New, bill, 352. Fortescue, lord, his remarks on the house of peers, 299 Fortifications, proposed new plan of, 322. Forts reduced by marquis of Granby, 16. Fothergill, doctor, noticed, 145. His letter to Frank lin, 147- Fox, Charles, noticed, 62. Appointed lord of the ad miralty, 126. His ironical speech, 212. His re marks. 231. Remarkable oration. 254. Introduce his Marriage Act. 274. India Bill thrown out b; the peers, 312. Elected for Westminster, thougi not returned by high bailiff. 315. Obtains damage for this in King's Bench. 316. His remarks on Iris bill, 321. Amends Sinking Fund, 324. His senti ments on slave trade, 335. His sentiments on Frenci revolution, 337. Feelings on Burke's breach o: friendship. 346. In opposition to the address, 368 Opposes address, 380. His motion to ascertain Hi' precise grounds of war, 384. Sends intelligence ti Talleyrand of plot to assassinate Buonaparte, 514 His wish for peace ; death and character, 515. France, duplicity of her ministry, 19. Negotiation fo peace with, resumed. 25. Her conduct towards For tugal, 45. Declaration of war, 46. Disasters sus tained by, 56. Sends warlike stores to America, 192 Preliminaries of peace with, 304. Commercia treaty with, 325. Considered by the commons, 326 Affairs of, glanced at. 336. Its revolution, 337. So licits offices of Britain in preserving peace, 361 Delivered, ib. Manifestoes against, 362. Nationa convention of, constituted, 363. Declares wa against Britain and Holland, 383. Queen of, he trial and execution, 392. Makes peace with Spain 408. Hesse Cassel and Tuscany, ib. Princess of, exchanged for deputies delivered to Austria by Du mouriez, 403. State of, 417. Her measures against British commerce, 418. Internal affairs of, 428. Makes peace with Austria, 468. With Austria, Russia, and Prussia, 507. Annexations to, 554. Terms imposed on, 605. ?ranc,e. Isle of, capitulates, 553. 'runklin, doctor, noticed, 141. His effort at concilia- tion, 145. Plan founded thereon, ib. Appointed head of post-office in America, 152. His reply to lord Howe, 177. Ambassador to France, 213. iVazer, general, killed, 203. Frederick, William, brother to George III., dies, 91. VI. ascends the throne of "Denmark, 536. , William, king of Prussia, dies, 428. Frederica, princess of Prussia, married to duke of York, 350. French, advantageous position of the, 15. Squadrort arrives in America, 222. Ambassador to congress, ib. Fleet on the English coast, 242. Fleet defeated by Rodney, 300. Ambassador, official complaint by, 361. Disposition of the king, 363. Priests arrive in multitudes in England, ib. Ambassador's me rnorial on situation of England and France answer- ed by lord Grenville, 373. Ambassador ordered to leave England, 374. Convention, proposes to treat for peace, 385. Declares war against Spain, 388. Affairs, 391. Calendar, 393. Extraordinary efforts of, to recruit army, 394. Government, state of. 404. Its sanguinary proceedings, ib Progress in Hol- land, 405. Successful in West Indies, 408. Makes peace with Prussia, ib. New constitution, 409. Land in Wales, 426. Compel the emperor to make peace, 427. Land at Killala, and surrender, 441. Hostile movement of, against Switzerland, 444. Enter Berne, enforce a new constitution, ib. Re turn from Syria to Egypt, 455. Directory over thrown, 461. Evacuate Egypt, 476. New consti- tution, 483. Driven from St. Domingo, 490. Fleets attempt to capture West India islands, 507. En- ter Portugal, 528. Fleet, attack on, 545. Convoy destroyed, ib. , captain, deceived into a surrender of his .post, 241. Friends of the people, society of, 353. Frit-Jar, capture of, with several magazines, 616. Fuentes, count de, his manifesto, 38. G. Gage, general, noticed, 117. His judicious conduct, ib. Appointed governor, 142. Galloway, his charge against general Howe, 232. Galves, Bernardo, don de, takes Mobile, 268. Ganssvort, colonel, his message, 200. Gardiner, major, noticed, 238. Gates, general, his conduct towards Burgoyne's army... 206. Defeated, 261. Succeeded by Greene, 278. Galleon, from Manilla to Acapulco, taken, 55. Gaudaloupe, isle of, capitulates, 554. Restored to France, 61. Geary, admiral, captures a rich squadron, 274. Genoa, evacuates, 467. Gentoos, distressed state of, 138. George III. king of England, accession to the throne, 11. First meets his council at Carlton-house; his declaration to them ; subscribes instrument to main tain church of Scotland; proclamation of; adds duke of York and earl of Bute to list of privy -coun sellors, 12. Prorogues parliament ; his first speech to both houses of parliament, ib. Proposes plan for securing independence of judges, 15. His speech on closing parliament, ib. His sentiments on the prop er use of conquests, 17. Exempt from personal of political prejudices, 29. His choice of a consort, ib Speech to parliament, 33. Message to commons, announcing proposed nuptials of his sister princess Augusta with prince duke of Brunswick, 78. Be- stows 72.300/. French prize-moneys in aid of the nation ; illness and recovery, 90. Institutes royal academy, 118. His death, 630. Character of bis reign, 631. Germaine, lord George Sackville, appointed secretary for America, 162. His information to parliament, 2!>4. Created a peer, 295. German confederacy, sums voted for support of, 13. War debated on the, 31. Protested against, 40. Auxiliaries, 384. Germany, campaign of, 17. Empress queen of, notic ed, 68. Emperor of, mediator for peace, 384. Era- 718 INDEX TO MILLER. perorof, his m.inifVsU> against France, 3C2. Makes peace with France, 507. Campaign in, 550. Gibraltar, its siege raised, 30-2. Completely relieved r ib. Ooddard, general, storms Ahmedabah, 270. Gordon, lord George, president of the Protestant as- sociations, 254. Presents petition to house of com- mons, ib. Committed to the Tower, 255. Tried for high treason, and acquitted, ib. Ooree restored to France, 62. Taken, 496. Ocncer, lord, noticed, 103. His charge against lord Chatham, 211. Government, form of independent American, 170. Of Canada, 345. Umfton. duke of, resigns office, 102. Joins opposi- tion, 160. Graham, lieutenant-general, his exploits, 5C2. Ac- tivity, 565. Oranky, marquis of, reduces forts in the neighborhood of Fritzlar, 16. Recommends accommodation with America, 210. Grant, captain, noticed, 84. , noticed, 175. , general, his expedition, 241. Granrillr, lord, noticed,. 75. Grattan, his address, 298. Vote of money to him, ib. Graces, admiral, fleet of, 265. Grcathead, Henry, rewarded for bis invention of life- boat, 482. Greenirifk hospital, abuses, 232. Greene, colonel, presented with a sword by congress, 196. Succeeds Gates, 278. Gregory, general, his brigade, 262. Grenada, island of, its capture, 50. Taken, 416. Grenrillc, Mr. George, noticed, 59. His speech in fa- vor of taxing America, 99. , bill for determining disputed elections, 128. Receives royal assent, ib -, lord, reply to Prince-Regent, 629. Grey, lord, do. 629. , major-general, 225. His nickname, ib. , De, appointed lord chief-justice ; resigns the bench, 256. Giiichen. count de, joins Spanish fleet, 292. Guildhall, entertainment given to their majesties, 30. Gttstacus, king of Sweden, expelled the throne, 544. H. Jlabca* corpus act, suspended, 187. Suspension of, 395. Continued, 406. Suspended in Ireland, 492. Hailfirtd. fires at the king, 466. JUltfax, earl of, noticed, 59. Appointed privy-seal; his death, 135. Hall, lieutenant-colonel, noticed, 198. Hammond, Sir Andrew Saape, examined by com- mons, 231. Jfanrork, John, noticed, 116. Elected president of congress, 151. , general, noticed, 223. Hanover, makes peace with France, 408. Occupation of. 472, 518. Invasion of, 490. llareourt, earl of, appointed lord-lieutenant, 137. , lieutenant-colonel, takes general Lee, 179. Hardnhipt of American campaign, 184. 1/ardteirkr. lord-chancellor, noticed, 126. Hardy, Sir Charles, retires with his fleet, 242. Dies, 279. Harkimtr, general, assembles militia, 200. Killed, ib. //arf/anrf. admiral, noticed, 227. Htrlty, sheriff, wounded by London mob, 78. Htrritn. his invention of time piece, 41. Rewarded by parliament for it, ib. /faroey. captain, noticed, 52. JDulet. colonel, killed, 183. Hatting*. Warren, vote of censure on, 299. Uurke's charge against him, 324. His trial, 331. Resumed, 344. Trial adjourned till next session, 384. And acquittal. 407. Htttke. colonel, noticed, 176. Hara*nuk, armament against it. 50. Description of iu harbor. 51. Surrender of, 53. Immense booty fmind there. *4. Hawke, Sir Edward, removed, 133. Hatfktrt' tax, 330. Much relieved, 334. Hatekenbury, lord, signs preliminary treaty, 478. Huxkini, doctor, noticed, 79. HtbrrdtH. doctor, noticed, 79. Iffiiter. general de, commander of Hessians in Ame- rica, 17J. Jlrl/lcr, battle of the, 4tiO. Ifr/i-clic, republic, formed by France, 444. Hermionr, Spanish register-ship, captured, 54. Hertford, earl of, noticed, 91. Hessians, captured at Trenton, 181. Heiham. riot at, 14. High bailiff of Westminster, his conduct in refusing to return Fox, 316. Hill, general, his conduct, 564. , lord, noticed, 588. Hillsborough, earl of, noticed, 75. Appointed colonial secretary. 111. His circular letter, 119. His Majesty George III, first speech to both houses of parliament, 12. Hoche, general, noticed, 409. Hofer, the Tyrolese chief, his talents, 543- Holland, lord, creation of, 71. , noticed, 91. Concludes alliance, offensive and defensive with France, 411. Made a republic, 417. Declares war against Britain, ib. Its annex- ation to France, 554. Revolution in, 578. Treaty with, 590, Holy Alliance, 605. Honduras, right of cutting logwood ceded to England, 62. Convention relative to, 325. Honors conferred on officers, 588. Hood, admiral, created an Irish peer, 300. Hope, captain, noticed, 595. , general, do. 533. Hopkins, commodore, blockaded by English, 179. Homer, noticed, 532. Norton, Mrs. noticed as marrying the duke of Cum- berland, 136. Haste, captain, his victory, 561. Hotfiam, commodore, sailing of his squadron, 240. His victory, 407. Houghton, general, his gallant death, 563. Howard, general, wounded, 282. Howe, colonel, noticed, 51. , general, do. 149. , Sir William, do. 167. , general Robert, noticed, 225. , lord, his victory, 400. Huger, general, left in command of American army, 279. Wounded, 282. Hughes, Sir Edward, noticed, 291. Destroys shipping of Hyder Ally, ib. Takes Trincomale, 301. Hull, general, his surrender, 570. Humbert, general, noticed, 441. Hunt, captain, noticed, 131. , member of parliament, expelled for peculation, 553. , orator, noticed, 625. Found guilty, 627. Huntingdon, earl of, leaves office, 126. Hutchinson, governor, noticed, 141. Leaves America for England, 142. Hyde, lord, appointed chancellor of Lancaster, 135. Hyder, Ally, noticed, 124 Hischaracter and conduct, ib. Defeated, 291. His death, 309. I, Illegal meetings, 609. Illegality of general warrants, 79. Illness of king George III., 90, 332. Illuminations on king's recovery, 334. Impeachment of Hastings, voted by house of com- mons, 329. In parliament, whether affected by its dissolution, 343. Impey, Sir Elijah, chief-justice of India, proceedings of, 273. Impolitic proceedings in North Carolina, 258. Income, relinquishment of, by ministers, 69. Na- tional, 622. Income, tax, 449. Repealed, 481. Independency of the judges secured, 15. India company, Mir Cossim's attempt against, 92. Stock debates. 105. Indemnity bill of, 107. Scru- tiny of its affairs, 109. Its proposals accepted, ib. Petition parliament, 110. Restrained from increas- ing their dividend, ib. Act renewed, 111. Extra ordinary fall of stock, 124. Loan bill passed, 137. Traffic in appointments, 539. India, court of judicature, instituted in, 137. Successes in, 291. Fox's bill, 310. Thrown out by the peers. 312. Declaratory act. 331. State of. 339. War in, 341. Statement of its revenues, 355. Successful war in, 356 Insurrection in, 523. Hostilities in 604. Affairs of, 608. INDEX TO MILLED. 719 Indian affairs, 271, 273, 309. Indiana, of America, cause of disturbances with, 83. Commence hostilities, 84. Treaty with, 86. Join Burgoyne's army, 198. Their barbarities, ib. Dis- mayed by Schuyler's account, 200. Indies, West, proceedings in, 484. Indisposition of the king, 493. Inflexibility of the English secretary Chatham, 26. Influence, secret, alluded to, 91. Inglefield, captain, noticed, 300. Inquiries, aa to failure of negotiation, 27. Insolvent act, 15. Repeal of compelling clause, 34. Instructions to ambassador at Madrid, 39. Insurrection of royalists in Brittany and Poitou, 388. Intelligence of Burgoyne's defeat, 211. Interference with affairs of Holland, 329. Inundations, remarkable, in consequence of heavy rains, 135. Invasion of England, 476. Ireland, advantageous acts in favor of, 147. Offers to raise volunteer force, 162. Accepted and raised, 242. Its trade relieved, 217. Affairs of, 298. French attempt to invade, 416. Union with, proposed, 450. Proceedings thereon, 451. Martial law in, 492. Bill respecting, 526. State of, 590. Irish parliament make overtures, 111. Commercial propositions, 322. Parliament, proceedings of, 386. Origin and progress of Rebellion, 432. Rebellion, objects of it, 440. Insurrection, close of it, 442. Irishmen, united societies of, 433. Irnham, lord, noticed, 136. Irwin, inventor of the marine chair, 41. Receives re- ward from parliament, ib. Italy, campaign in, 457. Affairs of, 537. J. Jackson, (spy) his employment by France, 433. Jaffa, capture of, 453. Jaffier, Mir, noticed, 93. James II. king, noticed; opinion of his abdication, 108. Jameson, lieutenant-colonel, receives Andre prisoner, 266. Jay, ambassador from America, 405. Java, capture of, 586. Restoration of it, 630. Jefferson, Thomas, noticed, 213. Jena, battle of, 520. Jenkinson, Charles, Esq. appointed lord of treasury ; his talents. 111. Jenner. doctor, receives vote of parliament for his invaluable discovery of vaccination (or cow pox), 482. Jervis, Sir John, his victory; created a peer, 424. John, (the painter) his plol, 188. John, St. island, ceded to Britain, 63. Johnson, Sir W. noticed, 86. , Sir John, do. 197 Johnstonc, governor, named commissioner to America, 214. His attempts by private correspondence pre- judicial, 220. , commodore, his expedition, 290. Jointure granted to the queen, 33. Jones, Paul, his conduct, 242. His naval actions, 243. His surrender demanded as a pirate, 245. Jourdan, noticed, 415. Jubilee of reign of king George III. observed, 546. Judges made independent, 15. Juries, rights of, in libel cases, 344. K. Kalb, baron de, general, noticed, 260. Kearsley, George, printer of North Briton, 72. Keating, colonel, noticed, 553. Kempenfelt, admiral, retreats, 292. Kent, duke of, his marriage, 616. Death and charac- ter, 630. Kcppe.1, major-general, noticed, 51. , commodore, noticed, 51. Captures a fleet of French merchantmen, 56. . admiral, commands grand fleet, 220. Takes two French frigates, 227. Engages D'Orvilliers ; his trial and acquittal, 228. Kilwarden, lord, murder of,-489. King George III. his first speech, 12. Illness of, 90. Proceedings thereon ; recovery, ib. Substance of his speech, 107. Reply to city remonstrance, 130. Royal conduct, ib. Reviews navy at Portsmouth, 140. Speech to parliament, 293. Do. 316 Attempt to assassinate him, 325. His humanity thereon, ib. Speech to both houses, 332. Indisposition, ib. Re- covery, 334. Returns thanks at St. Paul's cathe- dral, ib. Speech, 336. Message to commons on French affairs, 374. Presents sword and medal to earl Howe, 401. Transmits medals to flag officers and captains, ib. Speech, 407. Assaulted going to parliament, 412. His speech there, ib. Attempt on his life, 466. Return of illness, 472. His regard to his coronation-oath, 470. Indisposition of, 493. Speech, 502. Completes fifty years' reign, 546. Re- joicings in consequence, ib. Malady,557. Increase of it, 566. Change in the health of, 630. His death and character, ib. King's Bench Prison, burnt, 255. Kingsborough, lord, set at liberty ; Wexford delivered to him, 439. Kinnon, general M', mortally wounded, 564. Kniphausen, general, noticed, 178. Knox, colonel, noticed, 176. , general, takes St. Vincent, 416. Lake, lord, his services, 510. Land Tax, reduced, 108 ; increased. 138 ; redemption of, 431. Langara, Don Juan, defeated and taken prisoner, 256. Langdale, Mr. (distiller) house burnt by rioters, 256. Lauderdale, lord, proceeds to Paris to negotiate, 515. Laudohn, marshal, noticed, 44. Laurens, Henry, elected president of congress, 197. His letter to the British commissioners, 219. Taken prisoner, 270. Committed to the Tower for high treason, 271. , lieutenant-colonel, remarkable situation of, Lauriston, colonel, arrives with treaty of peace, 478. Laws of Militia, amended, 41. Lee, colonel, noticed, 49. - , Mr. do. 153. - , general, do. 154. - , Henry Richard, first mover of American inde- pendence, 167. - , major, noticed ; captures British garrison at Powles Hook, 237. Lefebvre, general, his conduct, 461. Leipsic, battle of, 557. Lennox, lord George, 48. Leslie, major-general, takes possession of Charles- town, 257. Lexington, battle of, 148. Libel cases, rights of juries in, 344. - bill passes, 352. Life-boat noticed, 482. Lincoln, general, ( wonded, 201. Linois, admiral, repulsed, 497. Livingstone, colonel, noticed, 158. Loan of 1,200,000/., 14. Interest provided for by ad- ditional duty on ale, ib. To India company of 1,400,000;., 137. To Germany, 406. Logwood, right of cutting it ceded to Britain, 62. London, negotiation at, 19. City of.'its remonstrance to the king, 127. Sends up a second, 130. A third and fourth, 134. Petitions in favor of America, 146. Loudon, earl of, noticed, 48. Longitude, reward for ascertaining the, 41. \Loughborough, lord, (Wedderburne) tries London riot- ers by special commission, 256. Made lord-chan- cellor, 370. Louis XVII. dies in the temple, 409. - XVIII. withdraws from Venetian territories, 414. His entrance into Paris, 586. Lovel, general, noticed, 237. Lowndcs, president, noticed, 240. Lowther, Sir James, his motion, 293. Lucia, St. taken, 416. Luckner, general, noticed, 44. Luttrell, colonel, vacates his seat in parliament; op- poses Wilkes ; state of the poll ; consequences, 123. Lutien, battle of, 576. V Lynch, Sir William, noticed, 117. Lynedoch, lord, noticed, 588. Lyttleton, lord, 78. Celebrated speech of, ib. His patriotism, 107. Macartney, earl, sent ambassador to China, 405. Mack, general, surrender of, 505. 720 INDEX TO MILLER. Haekintosk, Sir James, noticed, 690. .Matleane, colonel, noticed, 237. Macnamara. captain, noticed, 55. Madeira, occupied by Britain, 474. Madrid, insurrection at, 529. Evacuated by the Kreiidi, ih. Capture of, 565. Magaw, colonel, capitulates at Fort Washington, 179. Mahrattas, noticed, 97. JUaida, battle of, 518. Maittand, lieutenant-colonel, noticed, 240. , lord, hia splendid talents, 273. Marlborougk, duke of, noticed, 75. Jflalmabu.ry, lord, sent ambassador to France, 429. Malta taken, 4t>'.. Mallby, captain, noticed, 132. Multexr. projierty in Spain seized, 483. Man, Isle of, its sovereignty purchased, 90. Manchester, disturbances at, 613, 615. Meeting, dis- persion of, 625. , duke of, resolution in house of peers, 160. Manilla, governor of, his character, 54. Its capture, 55. Saved from justly merited pillage, though taken by storm, ib. .Vanley, captain, captures an ordnance vessel from England, 154. Mansfield, lord, his patriotism, 107. Hia opinion of the American war, 161. House in London destroy- ed during riots, 255. Mantua, its surrender, 426. .Marat, death of, 390. Martngo, battle of, 467. Maria Louisa, archdutcheBs of Austria, her marriage, 554. .Warion, general, noticed, 263. Maroon war terminates, 408. Marriage bill proposed, 273. of the duke of York, 350. of the prince of Wales, 407. Martial Laic, 489. Martinico, isle of, descent on, 49. Its surrender, 50. Restored with Marigalante to France, 61. Taken, 402. Massachusetts, votes an army to defend her state, 149. .\tattttcir*. general, noticed, 178. Mai well, general, surprises Elizabeth Town, 183. M'Pherson, John, captain, killed, 158. Mecklenburg, princess Charlotte of, chosen by George III. as queen, 2!t. Meeting of nfie parliament, 33. Of parliament, 209, 229, 336. In the navy, 422. Mr/iff de la Toueke, noticed, 499. Melville, lord, proceedings against, 502. Resigns situation, 503. Erased from privy-council, 505. Impeached, 514. Memorial of navy officers presented to the king, 228. of French executive, 373. Replied to by lord Grenville, ib. Mends, captain, his squadron, sources of, 550. Mereer, general, receives three bayonet wounds, which occasion his death, 183. Message respecting France, 486. Message* from Prince-Regent, 611. Metternich, prince, visits England, 587. Middleton, surgeon, noticed, 79. Miles, colonel, noticed, 175. Military events on the Continent, 380. Operations on the Continent, 397. Preparations, 487. Arrange- ments, 512. Plan of lord Castlereagh, 526. Hi/ilia, ballot, productive of riot, 14. New, uncon- stitutional, 161. Bill to raise Scotch, 102. Reject- h Regulations, 232. Called out, 365. Extend their services. 4:12. Consolidation of laws, 482. Ical, noticed. 535. Augmentation of, 537. .Vini-"r,- relinquish income, 609. Ministerial appointments, 515. Disputes and changes, 546. Differences, 566. Negotiations, 567. Profu riM Ministry, conduct of. :. Steps taken by, 33. Change 102. Defeat of. 207. Dissolved, ib. New, ib. outvoted nml n-sisn, 305. A new one, 313. New one formed. 471. N.-u , its members, 494. Appoint mcnts in the. 501. New, 512. Chance of the, 525. Minorca, rectori-d, 62. Taken, 200. Capture of, 448. Miquelo*. isle of. eiven to France, 63. Mirabta*. count de. report of. 340. Miranda* general, noticed, 516. I !.'. His attempt against the India company, details of it, ib. Mifrvndtuf of the Admiralty, 294. MUford, Sir John, resigns the situation of speaker on accepting the office of lord-chancellor of Ireland, with title of lord Redesdale, 481. Monckton, general, commands successful expedition against Marti nico, 50. Maro, besieged, surrender of island. 63. Motion on American war, 274. Of censure on lord Sandwich, 230. For abolition of slave trade, 335. Of Mr. Flood, for parliamentary reform, 338. For reform in parliament, 354. For negotiation with France, 371. For sending minister to Paris, ib. For peace, barracks, &c. 384. Against American war, 274. Monte-yideo, capture of, 522. Moore, Sir John, noticed, 532. Retreat, battle of Co- runna, &c. 533. Moscow, destruction of, 570. Mosquito settlers evacuate Honduras, 326. Motives of national policy for encouraging pacific proposals, 59. for a general peace, 304. Movements of French forces, 5s)7. Of allied forces, ib Murders in metropolis, 567. Murat, joins the allies, 580. Advances against Aus- tria, 602. Returns to Naples ; killed, 603. N. JVaples, made a republic, 456. National force, increase of, 420. income, 622. expenditure, 622. Naval preparations, 226. Affairs, 407. Mutiny, 422. Operations, 424, 468. Actions, 476, 594, 561. En- gagements, 580. Negapatam, surrender of, 291. Negotiation for peace with France, 25. Main points of disputes in, ib. Candid inquiry into, 27. For peace, unsuccessful, 418. Renewed and broken off, 429. Neil, lord O', mortally wounded, 439. Neilsem, Samuel, rebel chief, 436. Nelson, commodore, his gallantry, 424. Bombards Cadiz, 425. His victory of the Nile, 446. Goza capitulates to his squadron, 449. His victory at Copenhagen, 472. Attacks Boulogne Flotilla, 476. His celebrated signal, 509. Gains victory of Tra- falgar ; death, ib. New ministry, its members, 297. Administration, 302. Parliament, 315. Newcastle, duke of, his death, ] 18. Newfoundland, taken by the French; refaken, 56. Right of fishing settled, 61. Loss of vessels at, 417. Newgate prison burnt during riots, 255. Nicholson, Margaret, her attempt to assassinate the king, 325. irt nniin. duke de, arrives in London to negotiate peace, 62. His speech to the king, ib. Noailles, M. de, his declaration, 215. Nootka Sound, settlement at, 339. North, lord, appointed chancellor of exchequer, 111 Elected chancellor of Oxford, 137. His conciliato- ry bills, 211. Announces the dissolution of minis- try, 297. Northington, lord-chancellor, condemns ministerial measures, 102. Northumberland, duke of, his dismissal, 91. Norton, Sir Fletcher, speech on the increasing influ- ence of the crown, 252. Norway, transfer of, 580. Nullum Tempua Act introduced, opposed by minis- ters, 111. O. Objects of the rebellion in Ireland, 440. Oliver, alderman, committed to the Tower, 134. Operations of the French fleet, 240. In Virginia, 285. In the West Indies, 290. On the frontiers, 293 In La Vendee, 40R On the Rhine. 410. In Italy and Germany, 414. In Silesia, 521. In Swedish Poinerania, ib. Opposition, its efforts, 120. Reduced by desertion, 370 To a repeal of the test and corporation acts, 337 Orange Societies, 433. Orders in council, repeal of, 568. Orleans, New, failure at, 595. Orthes, battle of, 581. INDEX TO MILLER. 721 Orvilliers, count de, sails from Brest, 227. Ossory, Upper, earl of, bis motion on Irish affairs, 246. Ostf.nd, expedition against, 448. Otto, M. signs preliminary treaty in London, 478. Oude, nabob of, treaty with, 97. Outcry, violent, against new duty on beer, 14. Outrage against the king, 411. Overtures made by courts of Madrid and Versailles, 57. Oxford, mayor and bailiffs, sent to Newgate, 111. P. Paine, Thomas, his answer to Burke, 360. Pallister, Sir H. his trial, 228. Palm, murder of, 520. Papal authority ended, 445. Parget, cession of, 630. Paris, negotiation at, 18. Insurrection in, 409. Oc- cupation of, 594. Convention of, 586. State of, 596. Capitulation of, 601. Parker, Sir H. engages Dutch fleet, 292. Parliament dissolved, 15. Assembly of a new, 33. Closes, 42. Opened with speech from throne, 63. Closed, 71. Opens, 75. Proceedings respecting Wilkes, ib. Privileges of, ib. Assembles, 99. Al- ways existing, 108. Dissolved, 111. Of Ireland made octennial, ib. Its language as regards lord Tovvnahend, 112. Prorogued at a remarkable crisis, 124. A new one assembled, 144. Meeting of, 159. Meets, 244. Dissolved, 315. Meeting of, 319. Meeting of, 330. Regularly opened, 334. Meeting of, 336. Dissolved, 340. Whether its dissolution affects impeachment, 343. Meeting, 349. Assem- bled, 365. Meets, 367. Prorogued, 385. Meeting of, 394. Meeting of, 406. Proceedings of, ib. Pro- rogued, 407. Dissolved, 413. New, 418. Meeting of, 430. Meeting of, 471. Meeting of, 480. New, 485. Meeting of, 492. Prorogation of, 495. Open- ing of, 501. Meeting, 511. Prorogued, 514. Dis- solution of, 515. New, 524. Dissolution of, 525. New assembly of, 526. Prorogued, ib. Assembles, 535. Prorogation of, 536. Corrupt practices in, 539. Assembled, 566. Meeting of, 571. Proceedings of, 573. Closed, 575. Reassembles, 588. Opened, 596. Reassembled, 603. Called, 605. Meeting of, 609. Opened, 614. Dissolved, 617. " Convoked, 621. Meeting of, 627. Parliamentary privilege, 77. Reform, 320. Proceed- ings, 535, 588, 600. Supplies, 81. Partiality of George II. for his native dominions, 11. Parties in France, 389. Patna, taken by India company, 93. Paul, emperor of Russia, succeeds his mother, 418. His death, 474. Peace, overtures for, from France and Spain, 57. Uni- versally desired, 60. Negotiations for, ib. Prelim- inaries signed, 62. General motives for, 304. With the Mahrattas, 309. Negotiations for, unsuccess- ful, 419. Between Austria and France, 468. Be- tweCn Great Britain and France, 477. Of Amiens, 478. Sentiments on the, 480. Negotiation for, 514. Signed, 586. Perceval, assassination of, 567. Character ; provision for his family, ib. Peter III. succeeds to empire of Russia, 42. Mild and popular regulations; foreign politics; desire of peace ; alliance with Prussia, ib. Principles of re- form ; deposition and death, 43. Petition of Wilkes to commons, 118. Petitions in favor of debtors produce Insolvent Act, 14. In favor of America, 100. Of county delegates, 273. Against American war, 294. Philippine islands, invasion of, and capture, 54. Philadelphia taken, 194. Evacuated, 222. Pichegru, his campaign, 405. Pieman, major, killed, 274. Pitt, (lord Chatham) unfavorable to peace, 19. His proposal of war with Spain, 31. Interview with the king, and resignation of office, 32. Misconduct, ib. Remarkable speech on taxing America, 99. Sent for by king to form new ministry, 102. , Mr. Thomas, his speech on influence of the crown, 253. .William, his eloquence, 99. Reform bill, 309. His communication to the commons, 314. India bill, 316. Sinking fund, 323. Motion for parlia- mentary reform, 320. Remarks on slave-trade, 331. Proposal to seize unclaimed dividends, 343. Speech VOL. IV. 61 on moving address, 383. Message relative to peace, 412. His duel, 431. Speech on the right of search, 471. Resigns, ib. Motion on naval defence, 493. Returns to ofiice, 494. His illness, 505. Death, 511. Vote of money to pay his debts ; public fu- neral, 512. Plan of attack of prince Ferdinand, 16. Plans of conciliation rejected by America, 218. Of lord Cornwallis defeated, 286. Points of dispute in negotiation with France, 26. Poland, kingdom of, dismembered, 137. Pondicherry capitulates, 234. Taken, 386. Poor, education of the, 617. Pope, the, dies at Valence, 445. Restoration of, 587. Popham, Sir Home, his expedition to Buenos Ayres, 516. Recalled ; tried and reprimanded, 517. Popular meetings, 624. Population of England, ascertained by authority, 470. Returns of, ib. Act, returns of, 569. Porto Rico, failure at, 425. Portugal, relief of, vote for, 41. Conduct of France and Spain towards, 45. Receives the assistance of Great Britain, 46. Invasion of, 474. Operations in, 549. Pownall, governor, his speech on America, 129. Poteys, Mr. motion against American war, 293. Poynings' 1 law protested against in Ireland, 298. Pratt, lord chief-justice, 73. His opinion on Wilkes's commitment to Tower, ib. Remarkable charge to jury, 79. Preparations for funeral of George II., 12. War, 365. By France for invasion of England, 487. Price, Dr. his sermon, 359. Priestley, Dr. his house destroyed by mob, 348. De- clared a member of convention of France,. 363. Princess Royal of England, marriage of, 428. Printers, contest between, and commons, 133. Privilege, breach of, 552. Proclamation of George III., 11. Of commissioners to America, 179. Progress of French in Holland, 405. Prohibitory bill, 'American, 161. Property tax augmented, 501. Proposal of a congress at Augsburg, 18. Proposals of French for peace, rejected, 462. Proposed marriage bill, 274. Proposition for peace, 298. Protest, popular, against the continuation of German war, 40. Of lords against repealing the Stamp Act, 101. In house of peers, 160. Provision for service of ensuing year, 34. Prussia, subsidy to, 14. Of extraordinary change in situation of, 42. Success of, 43. Makes peace with France, 408. King of, his manifesto against France, 428. King Frederick William III. dies, 362. De- Clares war against France, 576. King of, visits England, 587. Makes peace with France, 507. Occupies Hanover, 518. Subserviency to France, 519. Prussian operations in campaign, 44. Public testimony of joy on accession of George HI., 12. Privy-counci\ assemble on death of George II., 11. Take oath of fidelity to king George III., ib. a. Quakers, petition against the slave-trade, 310. Quebec, expedition against, 156. Attack of, 158. Siege of, raised, 164. Queen Charlotte of England, nuptials of, 33. Message of commons to her majesty, ib. Dowry granted her, ib. Jointure granted to her, 34. Council of, its members, 587. Quibcron bay, unsuccessful expedition to, 408. R Radical reformers, 624. Randolph, Peyton, chosen president of congress, 151. Rowlings', colonel, destructive riflemen, 179. Reason for a negotiation at London and Paris, 18. Rebellion in Ireland, its origin, progress, 432. Sup- pression of, 439, 489. Recall of British ambassador from Madrid, 37. Span- ish from London, ib. Recorery of the king, 334. Reduction of forts by Granby, 16. Of land-tax, 108. Reflections on commercial intercourse, 322. 722 INDEX TO MILLER. Reform hills. 29P. Parliamentary motion for, 338. Sncietirii in Great Brilnin, 3.H. Rrftxcy act. !K). Bill noticed. 334. Bill. 557. Relief to Roman Catholics, 517. To the trade of Ire- Und, ib. Remark* on the alliance* with continental powers, 3j. Concluding ones, 631. Repeal of shop tax. 334. Of compelling clause of in- -. ill i- n I act, 34. Result o( American campaign, 1*4. Reparation of the forfeited estates in Scotland, 318. Restraining Bills, 628. Retreat of marshal Broglio, 16. Of the Spaniards from Portugal. 49. Its consequences, ib. Return of English army from the continent, 410. Rerolt of America predicted, ( J9. Of Pennsylvania Line. 576. Revolution Society, 359. In France, 336. Rtvarat for ascertaining the longitude, 41. Rhode-Island, tumultuous proceedings at, 141. Richmond, duke of, appointed minister. 102. Sisns protest against proceedings of lords, 160. His plan of fortifications, 322. Rigby, arraigns the speaker's conduct, 190. Riot* at Hexham, 14. At Boston, 1-29. In Scotland against Catholicism, 244. In London. 254. At Bir- mingham, 347. In various parts of England, 568. In Spa fields, 607. Rofkatnbeait, general count, arrives in America with army from France, 265. Rochfnrd, earl of, remonstrates at Madrid, 89. Kodcingkam, marquis of, appointed minister, 91. La- mented death, 302. Rodney, admiral, relieves Gibraltar, 256. Takes Span- M!I convoy, ib. Defeats Don Juan de Langara, ib. Takes St. Eustatia, 275. Defeats French fleet, 300. Created a peer, ib. Itoleia. battle of. 531. Romano, marquis, landed in Spain, 530. Rome, revolution at, 445. Annexed to France, 543. King of, created, 561. , Roa, general, destroys Spanish batteries, 275. Killed, 594. Rose, Mr. tried and acquitted, 352. Royal academy instituted, 118. Marriage act, 136. Annuities, 218. Proclamation against seditious writings, 355. Rulle. baron de, attacks Jersey, 274. Mortally wound- ed, ib. Rumbold. Sir Thomas, bill of pains and penalties against, 299. , Sir George, seizure of, 498. Rupture with Spain. 339. Settled, 341. Russia, 346. Discussion on it, 347. Rmnia. death of empress of, 42. Succession of Peter HI. to the throne of, ib. Deposition and death; succession of Catherine II., 43. Mediates for a peace, 304. Makes peace with France, 507. De- clares war with England, 527. Invasion of, 569. Rutlcdge, John, elected governor, 238. 8. Sackville, lord, his elevation to the peerage, 295. Pro- ceeding* thereon, ib. Salamanca, battle of, 565. Salt tax, augmented, 501. Santa Cm, failure at, 425. Maura, taken, 554. Sardinia, subsidy to, 385. Hartine. his assurances to America. 210. Sartmmah, taken by the English, 226. Its siege rais ed.340. Saumarn. Sir James, his action, 477. Saeey. dnrliy of, made a French department, 364. , Sir Uf-orgp. bill in favor of Roman Catholics, ltmyed by rioters, 254. Sayrt, Mr. committpd to the Tower, 159. Scarcity of corn, 412. , treat, 4fl. A renewal of it, 470 fcottitk Epireopalian*. bill in favor of, 352. Secret intrirne* of French, at court of Madrid, 19. Sumien of th>* minority in parliament, 187. Senegal, secured to England. 02. fferinfopitam. capture of, 456. Skerift of London, assaulted while attending the burning of Wilkes's North Briton, 78. Skrnaan't remarks on India bill, 317. On fortiflca tioni, 383. Sentiments on French principles, 337. Shirley, takes Dutch forts, 301. Shop tax, repealed, 334. S/iorekam, New, electors disfranchised for venality, 134. .V Stcedes. efforts of the, 536. Conduct of their king, ib. Switzerland, hostile movements of French against, 444. Its constitution changed, ib. Campaign in, 457. Affairs of. 483. Symptoms of hostility with France, 484. INDEX TO MILLER. 723 Talavera, battle of, 547. Tarleton, colonel, victory of, 258. His manoeuvre and success, 261. Defeated, 279. Tarragona, loss of, 564. Failure of, 579. Tax on cider and perry, 70. On land reduced, 108. On shops repealed, 334. Taxes, new, rejected by commons, 297. Taxing colonies, debates and proceedings in England as to rights, 100. Tea destroyed at Boston, 141. Temple, his resignation, 32. Confers with Pitt, 103. His patriotism, 107. Remarkable card sent to him, 312. Test and corporation acts, 334. Their repeal op- posed, 337. Thanksgiving for recovery of the king, 334. Thurlow, appointed solicitor-general, 26. Created a baron on being made lord-chancellor, 244. Ticonderoga, fort, taken, 155. Evacuated, 198. Time-piece, Harrison's, 41. Tippoo Saib, his success, 271. Conduct, 341. War against him, 356. His conduct in the field, ib. Cap- ital invested, ib. Sues for peace; terms granted; reflections thereon, 357. Hostile preparations, 455. Conduct and death, 456. Title, royal, new, 470. Titles conferred by Buonaparte, 520. Tobago, surrender of, 50. Taken, 386. Toleration act, proposed alteration, 559. Toll-gates at Blackfriars-bridge burnt, 255. Toulouse, battle of, 586. Tooke, John Home, tried and acquitted, 395. Elected member of parliament, &c. 472. Tortosa, surrender of, 562. Total defeat of Spaniards at Gibraltar, 301. Toulon, its port and fleet surrender to the British, 392. Evacuated, 393. Tower, commitments to, 610. Townscnd, marquis, made master of ordnance, 137. Trafalgar, victory of, 508. Traitorous correspondence bill, 384. Travancore, rajah of, treats to purchase Dutch forts, 341. Traversing of indictments ; bill to prevent, 628. Treasure-ships, detention of, 497. Treaty for peace with France broken, 28. With the Indians, 86. With the nabob of Oude, 97. With the elector of Hesse and the duke of Brunswick, for having soldiers, 162. Commercial, with France, 325. Considered by commons, ib. Of Campo Formio, 427. Of Tilsit, 521. Of peace between Austria and France, 543. Trial of Hastings, 331. Trials, state, 613. And executions for treason, 440. Trinidad, capture of, 425. Triple assessment, 431. Tumult in London occasioned by duty on beer, 41. Turkey declares war against Russia, 522. Turk's islands, 89. Tu.f!any makes peace with France, 408. Tyrawley, lord, recalled from Portugal, 48. Tyrolese, efforts of the, 543. U. Union with Ireland, proposed, 450. Proceedings there- on, ib. Completed, 465. Universal disposition towards peace, 53. Unsuccessful attack on Penobscot, 237. V. Vaccination, noticed, 482. Valencia d' Alcantara surprised by general Burgoyne, 48. ' , loss of, 564. Valletort, lord, his contrast of England and France, 336. Vaughan, general, burns Esopus, 204. Takes St. Eustatia, 275. Vendee, La, civil war of, 415. Termination, 416. Vendean successes, 388. Vergcnnes, count de, confers with American commis- sioners, 213. Vernon, Sir Edward, sails from Madras, 234. Vice- Chancellor appointed, 573. Vicissitudes of the campaign in Germany, 17 Victory of Graebenstein, 44. Of lord Howe, 401. Of the Nile, 446. Victories, naval, 49. Vienna, congress at, 590. Vimiera, battle of, 531. Violent debates respecting Wilkes, 120. Debates, 244. Vincent, St. taken, 416. Virginia, descent on, 234. Visitors, royal, to England, 587. Vittoria, battle of, 578. Voluntary contributions, 396. Volunteer companies, 233. Associations, 487. Volunteers, vote of thanks to, 488. Volunteering of militia, 432. Vote for the relief of Portugal, 41. Votes of censure on various persons connected with India, 299. Vyner institutes parliamentary inquiry into conduct of Burgoyne 218. W. Walchercn, expedition to, 544. Inquiry into the policy and conduct of it, 551. Wales, princess dowager of, mother to George III. her death, 136. , prince of, his birth, 54. His embarrassments, 326. Consequences, ib. Answer to Pitt, 334. Mar- riage, 407. Debts arranged, ib. Claims of his for arrears ; grant to him of 60.000/. for three years and a half, 486. Refused military promotion, 488. Made regent, 557. Retains old ministry, 558. His letter approving them, ib. Delivers speech from throne, 575. His letter to the queen, 588. Ad- dresses parliament, 596. Attacked going to bouse, 609. Relinquishes income, ib. Speech to parlia- ment, 614. , princess of, charges against, 571. Writes letter to the king, 572. To the speaker, 573. Re- port of commissioners, ib. Receives letter from queen ; answer ; her letter to her husband, 588. Letter to the speaker, ib. Allowance voted her, 589. Leaves England, ib. Wall, general, his letter, 37. Wallace, attorney general, recommends a truce with America, 296. , Sir James, his services, 204. Captured by D'Estaing, 240. Want of harmony in the cabinet, 504. War, German, debate on the expediency of, 34. In- genious defence of it, 36. Declared against Spain. 39. In Germany protested against, ib. Declared by France and Spain against Portugal, 46. De- clared by Spain, 232. In India, 233, 341. With Tippoo Saib, 356. With Holland, 411. Unpopular- ity of the, ib. With Russia, 469. With Holland, 490. In India, 496. Between Austria and France, 540. Wardle, colonel, noticed, 538. Warrants, general, 72. Declared illegal, 79. Washington, general, appointed to chief command of American army, 153. His biography, ib. Difficul- ties attending his situation, 154. Establishes a war of pests, 173. Refuses to receive letter from royal commissioners, ib. His reason for such re- fusal to congress, ib. His patriotic conduct, 178. Retreats to Newark, ib. His question to colonel Reed, ib. Continues his retreat, ib. Invested with extraordinary powers, 180. Retreats to Princeton, 182. Heroism, 183. State of his army, 195. Ad- vantages of his position at Whitemarsh, 206. His situation, 236. His general order, 288. Resigns his government, 417. , expedition to, 594. Warren, Sir John Borlase, captures French frigates, 402. Naval victory, 442. Waterloo, battle of, 598. Watson, colonel, reinforces lord Rawdon, 283. Watt, (the state spy,) executed, 395. Ways and means, 120, 214, 384. Webb, (late secretary to treasury,) charges against him, 118. Wechabites, sect of, 556. Welderen, count, delivers memorial toGeorge III., 191. Wellcslcy, marquis, bis preparations against Tippoo Saib, 456. , general, his success in India, 496. Arrives at Corunna, 530. Gains battles of Roleia and Vi- 724 INDEX TO MILLER. miera; sail* from England; arrives at Lisbon, 531. Take* Oporto, 540. Gains battle of Talavera, 547. Created viscount Wellington, ib. Forms the lines of Torres Vedras, 549. Units Basaco, 530. Falls back to Torres Vedras, ib. Raises siege of Ba- dajoz, 564. Wtlingt**, captures Ciudad Rodrigo; created by Cortes duke thereof, 564. Captures Badajoz, ib. Enters Spain, 565. Gains victory of Salamanca, ib. Captures Madrid, ib. Appointed generalissimo of Spain ; created earl and marquis, 566. Gains battle of Vittoria, 578. Enters Prance, 579. Crosses the Adour, .".-I. Gains battle of Toulouse, 586. Created marquis, duke, &c. 588. Gains battle of Waterloo, 598. Further grant, 600. Enters Paris, 601. Wet Indies, operations in, 390, 408. Islands lost, 299. British success in the, 416. Attempt on, by French fleets, 507. Wettwurutfr scrutiny closed, 319. Police bill passed, 351. WVymoiiM, lord, his letter to chairman of Lambeth quarter sessions, 130. Wkittam, messenger, city proceedings against him, 134. White, colonel John, remarkable exploit of, 241. H'hitcHill. president suspended, 291. Wltitelock, general, cashiered, 522. Wilkts, John, his North Briton, 75. No. 45 of it, ib. Committed to the Tower, ib. Brought up to West- minster hall by Habeas Corpus, 73. His speech to the judges, ib. Discharged from custody, 74. -Re- turns thanks to the court, ib. Dismissed from com- mand of militia, ib. His North Briton ordered by commons to be burnt by common hangman, 76. Wounded in a duel with Mr. Martin, 78. Avoids house of commons, 79. Goes to France, ib. Ex- pelled the house, 80. His essay on women ; con- demned; outlawed, ib. Starts as a candidate for London ; erected member for Middlesex, 113. Ad- dresses court of king's bench, ib. Disturbances on .his account, 114. Imprisoned and fined 500?., ib. ' Petitions house of commons, 118. Appeals on a writ of error to lords, ib. Violent debates respect- ing him, 120. Motion for expelling him house of commons, 121. Expelled and re-elected for Middle- sex, 123. Subscriptions raised for him, 130. Elect- ed for Middlesex a third time, 131. Discharged from prison, ib. Chosen alderman, sheriff, lord-mayor, and chamberlain, ib. Rechosen twice more for Middlesex ; obtains the expunging of proceedings of commons from journal subsequent to declension of popularity, ib. Discharges Wheble the printer. 133. Ordered to appear at bar of house of commons ; his letter to speaker ; declining to obey, 134. William Henry, prince, third son of George III. cre- ated duke of Clarence, 91. Windows, new duty on, 317. Winter, admiral de, defeated, 425. Wirtemburg, prince of, his marriage, 428. X. Xavier, prince of Saxony, 44. Y. Yarmouth, lord, arrives from captivity in France. 514. Communicates message from Talleyrand, ib. Yeomanry, force, of Ireland, 434. York, duke of, added to privy -council on accession of George III., 12. , duke of, second eon of George III. ; his mar- riage, 350. Allowance granted him thereon, ib. His campaign, 388. Returns to England, 405. Ap- pointed field-marshal and commander-in-chief, 411. Lands in Holland, 460. Campaign, ib. Negotiates and reaches England, 461. Charges preferred against him, 537. Resigns office, 539. Restored as com- mander-in-chief, 560. York, JVeto, act passed to restrain its assemblies, 110. Preparations against, 167. Do. for its defence, 173. Taken, 177. Yorke, Charles, accepts the great seal ; elevated to peerage ; sudden death, 126. , Sir Joseph, presents memorial to states-gen- eral, 190. , archbishop of, his political language, 211. Yorck, d', visits England, 587. Z. Zaddak, Sha, noticed, 92. Arms against England, 96. Zoutman, admiral, noticed, 292. THE END. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. I Form LO-50m-4,'61(B8994s4)444 DA Miller - M61h History of Great Britain