CHAPTER XVII.

{GEORGE III. 1789–1791}

The Election of Speaker..... The Question of the Regency resumed..... Recovery of his Majesty..... Adoption of a Plan for fortifying the West India Islands..... Bill for the Commemoration of the People’s Rights, etc...... Shop Tax repealed, etc...... Motion respecting the Corporation and Test Acts, etc..... Slave-trade Question..... Election of Speaker..... Pitt’s financial Measures..... Impeachment of Warren Hastings..... Parliament prorogued..... Continental Affairs..... State of Parties in England..... Meeting of Parliament..... Debates on the Test and Corporation Acts..... Mr. Flood’s Motion for Reform in Parliament..... East India Affairs..... Pitt’s financial Statement, etc...... The Slave-Trade Question..... Disputes with Spain..... Impeachment of Warren Hastings..... Parliament prorogued and dissolved..... Settlement of Disputes with Spain..... Continental Affairs..... Progress of revolutionary Principles in England..... War in India..... Meeting of Parliament.

{A.D. 1789}

ELECTION OF SPEAKER.

Mr. Cornwall, the speaker of the house, having expired on the 2nd of January, business received a temporary interruption. On the 5th of that month William Wyndham Grenville was proposed as his successor by the friends of administration, and Sir Gilbert Elliot, by the Whigs. The former was chosen by a majority of two hundred and fifteen against one hundred and forty-four.

THE QUESTION OF THE REGENCY RESUMED.

On the day that the election of speaker took place, Pitt gave notice that he should, on the morrow, lay before the house the restrictions which he considered necessary to be annexed to the regency. Hitherto Fox had complained of Pitt’s tardiness in proposing a regency, but he now seemed resolved to impede the progress of the minister. He was well aware that Pitt was averse to bring the royal physicians to the bar of the house to give evidence, yet notwithstanding he resolved that they should be again there examined. On the very day that Pitt was to introduce the subject of the restrictions, therefore, urged by Fox, the member for Abingdon, Mr. Loveden, made a motion to that effect. In support of his motion, Mr. Loveden said, that before the house proceeded any further, they ought to know how the case now stood; what was the present state of his majesty’s health, what the degrees of alteration it had undergone since the physicians were last examined, and whether the probability of recovery was increasing or diminishing. This was the more necessary he said, because contradictory reports were in circulation, which were said to be supported by the different royal physicians. The reports unfavourable to the king’s recovery had been put forth by, or at least was imputed to Dr. Warren, whom Pitt, in reply, treated as a violent Whig and party man, whose wishes suggested his predictions. Pitt also plainly intimated that he conceived gentlemen on the opposite side, who were to form the new administration under the regency, wished the doctor’s opinion to be true. This insinuation was repelled by the opposition as unjust and illiberal, but in the same breath they acted as unjustly and illiberally, by falling upon Willis, the Tory doctor, and accusing him with uttering false oracles and predictions of amendment, which were merely meant to serve the purposes of Pitt and his party. But though Pitt at first opposed this measure, he ultimately acquiesced in its course, and a new committee of the house was appointed to re-examine all the physicians. This examination, which ought to have been brief, was prolonged by the frivolous questions of opposition members, and by frequent altercations, so that the report was not brought up before the 13th of January. As the committee had not examined into the grounds of the different opinions held by the physicians, Burke moved that the report should be recommitted; but this was negatived without a division, and it was ordered that it should be printed, and be taken into consideration, in a committee of the whole house, on the 16th of the month. On that day Pitt introduced his plan of a restricted regency. On the 30th of December Pitt had, in a letter, submitted to the Prince of Wales the heads of a plan arranged by the cabinet, and though the prince, acting under the influence of his advisers, had expressed his entire disapprobation of the plan, he nevertheless consented to undertake the regency with the proposed restrictions. What these restrictions were, Pitt now explained to the house. After expressing his great satisfaction at having consented to the re-examination of the physicians, the event of which had justified his sanguine expectations of the king’s recovery, he observed, that under these circumstances, what parliament had to provide for was, a deficiency in the executive government for an interval which he trusted would be brief, and against any embarrassment in the resumption of the royal authority, when his majesty should be able to resume that authority. This was all that was required, he said, for the present; but if contrary to expectations his majesty’s illness should be protracted, then a more permanent plan of government might be arranged. He moved, therefore, that the Prince of Wales should be invested with the whole regal authority, subject to certain necessary limitations. These limitations were, that his authority should not extend to the creation of new peers; that he should not grant any pension or place for life, other than such place as, from its nature, must by law be held for life, or during good behaviour: that he should not have any power over the personal property of the king; and that he should have nothing to do with his majesty’s person or household, which were to be left entirely to the guardianship of the queen. Pitt proposed that the queen should be assisted in the discharge of her duties by a council, which council were to have no power of control, but only that of giving advice, and satisfying themselves daily of the state of the king’s health. Pitt also proposed that they, the said council, or some others, should be appointed to manage the real and personal estate of the king, being bound at the same time not to alienate or dispose or any part of it, except by lease. These propositions were warmly advocated by Pitt and others on the same side of the house, and as warmly opposed by members on the opposite benches. Mr. Powys, after condemning the whole of Pitt’s plan, as tending to mutilate the constitutional authority, and after asserting that the heir-apparent ought to be invested with the full powers and prerogatives of the crown, moved an amendment to the first resolution, by which his royal highness would be appointed regent, “subject to such limitations and exceptions as might be provided.” This motion was seconded by Lord North, who endeavoured to show that the bestowing of the whole power and patronage of the household upon the queen, would be setting up a party at court in opposition to the administration of the regent. Sheridan followed on the same side, and was both witty and severe upon the abstraction of the household patronage from the regency, and endeavoured to show that Pitt wanted it for himself, when he could no longer hold his present high office! Colonel Fullarton also argued against the mutilation of the executive government, and not only attacked Pitt, but the queen herself. Pitt’s resolutions, however, were ably defended by the new speaker, Grenville, and on a division the amendment moved by Powys was lost by a majority of two hundred and twenty-seven against one hundred and fifty-four. All the resolutions were now carried except the last, and this, which referred to the care of the king’s person and household, was debated on the 19th of January, with, if possible, increased animosity. Two amendments were moved—one by Lord North and the other by Mr. Bouverie—but both were negatived by considerable majorities, and on the 22nd the resolutions were taken into consideration by the lords. The contest in the lords was even more obstinate than it had been in the commons, but an amendment, moved by Lord Sandwich, for limiting the time during which the regent should be restrained from creating peers, and another moved by Viscount Stormont, on the restriction placed upon the regent in regard to the granting of places, were negatived, and then all opposition ceased. A protest was signed by fifty-seven peers, among whom the Dukes of York and Cumberland were again numbered. But the storm was not yet over. Both the prince and his friends were irritated in the highest degree by the restrictions which Pitt imposed upon the regency; and though the former had privately expressed his acceptation of, or submission to the limitations, yet the latter were still resolutely bent upon opposing the premier. On the 27th of January, after recapitulating all the steps which had been taken, Pitt suggested that it would be respectful to the Prince of Wales, and expedient in the order of their proceedings, to know parliamentarily, whether he was willing to accept the regency upon the terms imposed by that house. Pitt moved that a committee should be appointed to wait upon his royal highness for that purpose, with the resolutions to which both lords and commons had agreed. On this occasion, the minister was accused by Mr. Gray and Burke, with treating the prince with marked disrespect; and the latter likewise taxed him with the design of converting the monarchy into a republic, with a regent, annually elected, nominally at its head. Against the regency bill he burst into a paroxysm of rage. He exclaimed, “It is a mere mummery, a piece of masquerade buffoonery, formed to burlesque every species of government. A hideous spectre, to which, with Macbeth, we may exclaim,—

‘Avaunt and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee. Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold: Thou hast no speculation in those eyes That thou dost glare withal.’

“So it is with this ministerial, political spectre. ‘Its bones are marrowless, its blood is cold, and it has no speculation in its eyes.’ I reprobate it as a chimera, a monster summoned up from the depth of hell!” But all the arguments, and accusations, and rage of the opposition proved fruitless: Pitt’s motion was carried without a division, and ordered to be sent up to the lords for their concurrence. Pitt also moved for a similar committee to wait upon the queen, in order to ascertain whether her majesty would undertake the care of his majesty’s person, and the management and control of the household; and this likewise was carried _nem. con._, and ordered to be carried to the lords. The motion for the concurrence of their lordships to these resolutions was made by Lord Camden; and this being voted, committees were forthwith appointed for the purposes therein specified. One of the joint committees of lords and commons waited upon the Prince of Wales, at Carlton-house, on the 30th of January, the anniversary of the execution of Charles I., a day on which parliament never met for the despatch of business, but which was not considered too sacred for the execution of such an important commission. The reply of the prince was brief, and to the point. He thanked the lords and gentlemen for the communication of the resolutions agreed upon, and requested them to assure their respective houses, that his duty to the king, his father, and his concern for the safety and interests of the people, together with his respect for the united desires of the two houses, outweighed in his mind every other consideration, and determined him upon undertaking the weighty and important trust proposed to him. At the same time, while he accepted this trust, his royal highness took care to record what his opinions were respecting the restrictions imposed upon his regency. He remarked:—“I am sensible of the difficulties that must attend the execution of this trust, in the peculiar circumstances in which it is committed to my charge, of which, as I am acquainted with no former example, my hopes of a successful administration cannot be founded on any past experience. But confiding that the limitations on the exercise of the royal authority, deemed necessary for the present, have been approved by the two houses only as a temporary measure, founded on the loyal hope, in which I ardently anticipate, that his majesty’s disorder may not be of long duration; and trusting, in the meanwhile, that I shall receive a zealous and united support in the two houses and in the nation, proportioned to the difficulty attending the discharge of my trust; in the interval, I will entertain the pleasing hope that my faithful endeavours to preserve the interests of the king, his crown, and people, may be successful.” On the same day, a joint committee of lords and commons waited upon the queen at Kew Palace, and were assured by her majesty, that out of her duty and gratitude to the king, and from a sense of the great obligations she owed to this country, she would accept of the trust proposed to her by parliament, together with the council to aid her in the discharge of an office with which was connected, not only her own happiness, but also the happiness of a great, loyal, and affectionate people. The answers received from the Prince of Wales and the queen were read in the house of lords on the 31st; and after they were ordered to be printed, Lord Camden moved, in a committee of the house on the state of the nation, that letters patent should be issued, under the great seal, empowering certain commissioners to open and hold the king’s parliament at Westminister. Among the commissioners proposed by ministers were the names of the Prince of Wales, his brother, the Duke of York, and his uncles, the Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester. The duke of York, however, whose views entirely coincided with those of opposition, rose and said, that from want of knowledge, he had been unable to take any steps to prevent his nomination; and that, as he could not sanction such unconstitutional and illegal proceedings with his name, he desired that it might be omitted: he added, “and I am requested to make the same request on the part of my brother, the Prince of Wales.” The Duke of Cumberland, also, on the same grounds, desired that his own name, and the name of his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, should be struck out of the commission. A debate took place on the proper mode of withdrawing the names of these four personages, so as to convey no disrespect either to the house or to their royal highnesses; but it was finally settled that the names should still stand on the transcript, and that when the resolution was reported to the house, an amendment should be moved, to make it appear on the journals, that it was at the express desire of the several princes that their names were omitted. Camden’s motion was now passed without a division; and the resolution being communicated to the commons, at a conference on the 2nd of February, Pitt moved the concurrence of the house therein. Another stormy debate took place, in which Lord North and Burke strongly insisted on the right of the Prince of Wales to the regency, and in which Pitt as strongly denied that right; but no division took place, and the resolution of the lords was therefore carried. The session was now opened on the 3rd of February, and the bill founded on the propositions already agreed upon was brought in, and by the 13th of February passed the house. Every article of it was warmly contested on the same grounds as when the resolutions were discussed, and some amendments and variations were introduced; the peerage clause, in particular, being limited to three years. Thus altered, the bill was sent up to the lords; and on the 17th, their lordships, in committee, made two important additions to it: one placing all the palaces, parks, houses, gardens, &c., under the control and management of the queen; and the other committing to her the care of all the royal offspring under the age of twenty-one.

RECOVERY OF HIS MAJESTY.

The hopes of power and place which opposition had formed, and for the realization of which they had so stoutly contended, were suddenly dashed to the ground. While thus contending, it had been rumoured abroad that his majesty was fast recovering. This was essentially true; and Pitt had for some days been halting between two opinions, namely: whether he should proceed with, the regency-bill, or whether he should stop the proceedings. His opponents also had been perplexed as to the proper mode of procedure; whether to let the bill pass at once without opposition, and accept office, or to wait a little longer, and see whether there was any chance of retaining it. At length, however, all the perplexities by which both parties were surrounded were clean swept away. On the very day that the lords committed the bill, as sent up to them by the commons, it was publicly declared that the king was convalescent. This, no doubt, was a grievous disappointment to the Whig leaders, for it brought all their hopes and designs to a sudden termination. They had, however, only themselves to blame for this disappointment, inasmuch as they might, but for their opposition, have taken the reins of government into their hands two months ago. But hope now fled, and desire failed. On the 19th of February, Lord Chancellor Thurlow announced from the woolsack, in his peculiar sonorous tone of voice, that from the reports of the physicians, his majesty had been for some time in a state of convalescence; that the accounts just received conveyed the happy news that the improvement in his health was still progressive; and that, therefore, it would be indecorous to proceed in the present measures, he had no doubt, he said, that the house, participating in the general happiness of every man in the kingdom, would consider it necessary to wait a few days before they went further with the bill; and he therefore moved that their lordships should immediately adjourn to Tuesday next. In reply to Thurlow, the Duke of York remarked,—“I trust your lordships will do me the justice to believe that no person in the house could feel equal pleasure with myself from the favourable account which the noble lord on the woolsack has given, and the motion he has made to the house, in which I heartily concur. I should have had great satisfaction in making the same communication to the house, if I had been able to do it from certain information. I thought it my duty yesterday, upon the favourable reports given to the public, to request to be admitted to his majesty’s presence. From reasons very justifiable, no doubt, it was not thought proper that I should have that satisfaction. From the knowledge I have of my brother’s sentiments, though I have had no immediate communication with him upon the subject of this motion, I am convinced he will feel equal, if not greater, pleasure than myself at the hopes of his majesty’s recovery, as it must relieve him from the embarrassment of the situation in which this bill would have placed him, which nothing but a strong sense of his duty to the public would have induced him to undertake.” Thurlow’s proposed adjournment was agreed to, and the regency bill there stopped.

The conduct of the Irish parliament in this matter formed a striking contrast to that of the English. On receiving the intelligence of his majesty’s illness, a motion was made in the commons for presenting to the Prince of Wales an address, requesting him to assume the government of Ireland during the king’s incapacity, with the full powers of the executive branch. This motion, which was moved by Mr. Conolly and supported by Grattan, passed without a division, and was confirmed by the lords. The lord-lieutenant, the Marquess of Buckingham, late Earl Temple, refused to transmit this address to England; and commissioners were therefore appointed by both houses to present it in person to the Prince of Wales. These delegates arrived in England on the 25th of February, and on the following day they presented their address to the prince at Carlton-house. The recovery of his majesty, however, rendered the object of their commission nugatory: the prince returned his warmest thanks to the delegates, but acquainted them with the change which had taken place in the king’s health, and which, he said, he hoped, within a few days, would enable his majesty to resume the government. All that the commissioners, therefore, obtained for their pains and their loyalty were thanks and a splendid entertainment, at which the leaders of the prince’s party were present. Entertainments had, indeed, from the commencement of his majesty’s illness, been the order of the day at Carlton-house; the Saturday and Sunday of every week being set aside for that purpose; a mode of proceeding which brought great scandal on the prince and his party. The Whigs, by their recent conduct, in fact, rendered themselves unpopular in the eyes of the soberer part of the nation; and it may be questioned whether, if they had gained office under the regency-bill, they could have retained it for any lengthened period, even if his majesty had still been confined to Kew Palace as a maniac. The very city of London, which had once been the centre of opposition, was now on the side of Pitt and the king, and the feeling was universal throughout all England.

As the regency-bill had not passed, it was not deemed necessary to adhere to the method prescribed by it for announcing the king’s recovery and restoration to his royal capacity; the declaration in parliament, the bulletins of the physicians, and the suspension of those bulletins by royal order, were considered sufficient ground to enable his majesty to resume the functions of his office. Several adjournments of both houses took place subsequent to Lord Chancellor Thurlow’s announcement of his majesty’s recovery; but at length, on the 10th of March, a commission, under the great seal, was read to lords and commons, authorising the commissioners, previously appointed by letters patent for opening the parliament, to declare certain additional causes for holding the same. After the commission had been read, the lord chancellor observed, that his majesty being, by the blessing of Providence, recovered from his malady, had commanded the commissioners to convey to them his warmest acknowledgments for the proofs they had given of affection to his person, of zeal for the honour of his crown, and concern for the security and good government of his dominions. The commissioners were also ordered, he said, to acquaint the two houses that, since the close of the last session, his majesty had concluded a treaty of defensive alliance with the King of Prussia, and that he had endeavoured, during the last summer, to prevent the extension of hostilities in Europe. The house of commons was further informed, that the estimates of the current year would be forthwith laid before them. Addresses of congratulation were then passed both to the king and queen without a dissentient voice. On that night all London seemed one blaze of light; an illumination took place, such as that great capital had never witnessed before. This scene was renewed on the 23rd of April, which was appointed to be held as a day of public thanksgiving throughout the kingdom; and when his majesty went in grand procession to St. Paul’s Church, to return thanks to almighty God for his recovery. His majesty was attended on this occasion by the queen and royal family, the two houses of parliament, and all the great officers of state, judges, and foreign ambassadors. The procession entered the cathedral amidst the peal of organs and the voices of five thousand children of the city charity schools, who were placed between the pillars on both sides, and singing that old melody, the hundredth psalm. The king was much affected; and turning to the dean, near whom he was walking, he said with great emotion, “I now feel that I have been ill.” His emotion almost overpowered him; but recovering himself be proceeded to the chair, where the humility with which he at first knelt down, and the fervour with which he appeared to pour forth the feelings of a grateful heart, made a deep impression on all within the cathedral. By this affliction the personal popularity of the king greatly increased. It became the fashion to call him “the good old king,” and men loved to dwell upon his morals and his virtues. It would be difficult, indeed, to point out any period in the annals of English history when any monarch was so universally revered by his subjects. Nor did the steady, consistent, and constitutional conduct of the prime-minister remain unacknowledged. While his opponents, by the sentiments which they had uttered in the heat of debate on the regency-bill, had given great offence to the people at large, Pitt had risen greatly in their estimation. He had, also, the warmest approbation of his majesty for the part he had taken; for on more than one occasion he expressed the highest satisfaction of his conduct, and that of the majority in parliament, in regard to the regency question. His majesty also remarked, that his illness had eventually become a source of happiness to him, inasmuch as it proved how nobly the people would support him when he was in trouble.

ADOPTION OF A PLAN OF FORTIFYING THE WEST INDIAN ISLANDS.

The first subject that engaged the attention of parliament after his majesty’s recovery, was a plan, formed by the master-general of the ordnance, for the fortification of the West Indian Islands. This scheme was condemned by General Burgoyne, Sheridan, and other members of opposition; but on the 18th of March £218,000 was granted for that purpose.

BILL FOR THE COMMEMORATION OF THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS, ETC.

On the 24th of March Mr. Beaufoy moved for leave to bring in a bill “to establish a perpetual anniversary thanksgiving to Almighty God, for having, by the glorious revolution, delivered this nation from arbitrary power, and to commemorate annually the confirmation of the people’s rights.” It was argued in opposition to this bill, that the event was sufficiently commemorated in the form of prayer appointed for the 5th of November; but the house seemed to think otherwise, for the bill was not only brought in, but carried through all its stages, and sent up to the lords. In the lords, however, it met with a more successful opposition; for, on the motion of Bishop Bangor, who pointed out the several parts of the service of the 5th of November, which had been added and altered, for the purpose of commemorating the revolution, the bill was thrown out without being once read; a ceremony to which a bill proposed by a peer is considered as a matter of right, and which is usually accorded to any measure sent up to the lords by the commons, as a matter of courtesy.

SHOP-TAX REPEALED, ETC.

On the 3rd of April Fox renewed the attempts he had made, in several successive years, for the repeal of the shop-tax; and as Pitt did not now oppose him he was this time successful. Mr. Dempster also proposed and carried the abolition of the additional tax and restrictions which had been laid upon the hawkers and pedlars.

{GEORGE III. 1789–1791}

MOTION RESPECTING THE CORPORATION AND TEST ACTS, ETC.

On the 8th of May Mr. Beaufoy again moved the repeal of the corporation and test acts; being prompted thereto, he said, by the confidence which the dissenters reposed in the disposition of the house to do justice to the injured, and to afford relief to the oppressed. This motion was warmly supported by Fox, who laid it down as an axiom of policy, that no human government had any jurisdiction over opinions as such, and more especially over religious opinions. Fox supported this view by weighty arguments; but the motion was opposed by Pitt on the same ground as before; and on a division it was lost by one hundred and twenty-two against one hundred and two. On a subsequent clay, Lord Stanhope introduced a bill into the house of peers for relieving all nonconformists from the operation of the penal laws, and allowing them free exercise of their faith in preaching and writing; papists only being excepted on account of their persecuting spirit. Lord Stanhope denounced these penal laws as a disgrace to our statute-books; but the motion was opposed by Dr. Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the whole bench of bishops, as tending to unloose the bonds of society, by substituting fanaticism for religious order and subordination, by opening a door to licentiousness and contempt of Christianity, under pretence of religious liberty; and as destructive to the Church of England and the constitution, of which that church was a firm support. The bill was rejected on the second reading; and another, which was shortly after brought in by the same noble lord, to prevent suits in the ecclesiastical courts for the recovery of tithes, shared the same fate.

SLAVE-TRADE QUESTION.

Since the last session the privy-council had been employed in investigating facts concerning the slave-trade; and on the 12th of May an elaborate report was laid upon the table of the house of commons, together with petitions for and against that traffic. Mr. Wilberforce had recovered from his illness; and on his motion it was voted that the report, with the petitions, should immediately be taken into consideration by a committee of the whole house. In committee, Wilberforce moved twelve resolutions, condemnatory of the traffic and the barbarous treatment of the African slaves, which he enforced by a long and excellent speech; in which he considered the subject, first, on the question of humanity, and next, on that of policy. From the evidence before the council, it appeared that the number of slaves carried away annually from Africa, on an average of four years, amounted 38,000. These were chiefly brought from the interior of the country; and they consisted of four classes: prisoners taken in war; persons seized for debt or imputed crimes; domestic slaves, sold for the emolument of their masters; and persons seized by violence or fraud. Mr. Wilberforce showed that the trade thus carried on had a natural tendency to cause frequent and cruel wars; to produce unjust convictions and aggravated punishments for pretended crimes; to encourage fraud and oppression; and to obstruct the natural course of civilization and improvement. He also showed that an extensive commerce in articles peculiar to Africa and important to our manufactures, might be substituted for this inhuman traffic; a commerce which would at once equal the profits of the slave-trade, and would probably increase with the civilization that would follow its abolition. The orator dwelt very forcibly on the grievous sufferings which the slaves endured on the passage from Africa to the West Indies, and the horrid treatment they received on their arrival. He also dwelt emphatically on the dissoluteness and other causes which prevailed among them in the West Indies, and which prevented the natural increase of population among them; arguing, that if the causes which had hitherto obstructed the natural increase of negroes in our plantations, and if good regulations were established among them, there would be no need of an annual importation from Africa. At all events, he said, a trade founded in iniquity, and carried on with so many circumstances of horror, must be abolished, let its policy be what it will. The wickedness of the trade was so enormous, so dreadful, and irremediable; that he could stop at no alternative short of its abolition. His mind had been harassed with the objections of the West India planters, who had asserted that the ruin of their property would be involved in such a step; but he could not help distrusting their arguments; he could not believe that the Almighty, who forbade the practice of rapine and blood, had made rapine and blood necessary to any part of his creation. He felt a confidence in that persuasion; he took the resolution to act on it, and light soon broke in upon his mind; his suspicion was daily confirmed by increasing information; and the evidence he had now to offer on this point was decisive and complete. He was prepared to prove that the number of negroes in our colonies might be kept up without the introduction of slaves from Africa. He added, in a fine spirit of Christian philanthropy:—“Let us then make such amends as we can for the mischief we have clone to that unhappy continent; let us put an end at once to this inhuman traffic, and stop this effusion of human blood. The true way to virtue is to avoid temptation; let us, therefore, withdraw from these wretched Africans those temptations to fraud, violence, cruelty, and injustice which the slave-trade furnishes. Wherever the sun shines let us go round the world with him, diffusing our beneficence; but let us not traffic only that we may set kings against their subjects, and subjects against their kings, sowing discord in every village, fear and terror in every family, urging millions of our fellow-creatures to hunt each other for slaves, creating fairs and markets for human flesh through one whole continent of the world, and, under the name of policy, concealing from ourselves all the base iniquity of such a traffic.” Mr. Pitt expressed his warm approbation of the manner in which the subject had been brought before the house, and confessed that the slave-trade must be abolished: and he consented that the resolutions should be entered on the journals; conceiving that such a step might produce the effect of causing foreign nations to concur with England in the proposed abolition. Fox and Burke also applauded the orator; the latter declaring that not only England, but all Europe was indebted to him for exposing the iniquity of a trade “which began with savage war, was prosecuted with unheard-of cruelty, continued, during the middle passage, with the most loathsome imprisonment, and ended in perpetual exile and unremitting slavery.” The feeling of the house and the nation at large was so manifestly, at this period, in favour of the abolition of the slave-trade, that Lord Penryn, one of its advocates, asserted that, to his knowledge, the planters were now willing to assent to any regulation of the trade short of its abolition; to which remark Fox replied, with much animation, that he knew nothing of such a thing as a regulation of robbery and restriction of murder; there was no medium; the legislature must either abolish the trade, or plead guilty to all the iniquity with which it was attended. Finally, Pitt conceded, with the consent of Mr. Wilberforce, to the examination of witnesses on the part of the slave-merchants and planters, trusting that unnecessary delays would not be introduced, as he could not submit to the ultimate procrastination of so important a measure. Evidence was heard at the bar for several successive weeks; and the session being far advanced, the friends of abolition consented, on the 23rd of June, to an adjournment of the question to the succeeding session of parliament. Before this session was closed, however, the temporary regulation act of Sir William Dolben was renewed till August, 1790.

ELECTION OF SPEAKER.

Early in June Lord Sidney resigned the office of secretary of state for the home department; and Mr. Grenville, who had so recently been nominated speaker of the house of commons, obtained the appointment. Sir Gilbert Elliot again became a candidate for the vacant chair; but the ministerial nominee, Mr. Henry Addington, was elected by a majority of two hundred and fifteen against one hundred and forty-two.

PITTS FINANCIAL MEASURES.

On the 10th of June, Pitt opened his financial scheme for the year. In doing so, he congratulated the house and the country on the fact, that his hopes of the efficacy of the sinking-fund, etc. had been well founded. The permanent income declared necessary by the committee of 1786 to defray the annual demands, was £15,500,000; and for the last two years it had exceeded that sum by £78,000. As, however, there had been several extraordinary expenses, such as paying the debts of the Prince of Wales, fitting out the armament of the summer of 1787, &c., he stated that it was necessary to raise one million by loan, and to increase some taxes or duties to pay the interest of this loan. The new duties which he proposed were laid upon newspapers, advertisements, cards, dice, probates of wills, and horses and carriages, none of which, he conceived, would press at all on the poor, or heavily upon the rich. To increase the revenue by further prevention of fraud, Pitt introduced and carried a bill for transferring the duties on tobacco from the customs to the excise; it having appeared, on inquiry, that one half of this article, which would have produced a revenue of nearly £300,000, was obtained by smuggling. Sheridan again controverted the statements of Pitt; and on the 10th of July he moved, “that a committee be appointed to inquire into the state of the public income and expenditure; into the progress actually made in the reduction of the national debt since the year 1786; and into the grounds on which a reduction of the same may be expected in future, and to report the same, with their observations thereon, to the house.” Sheridan pledged himself to prove that the report of the committee of 1786 was not founded in fact; and that for the last three years the expenditure had increased to the amount of £200,000. A long debate took place on this motion; but it was negatived without a division, as was also a motion to the same effect, moved in the upper house by Lord Rawdon.

IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.

The trial of Warren Hastings was revived early in this session; but from the occupation produced by the regency-bill and by the recovery of the king, it proceeded but slowly. It was, in fact, the 20th of April before their lordships resumed their sitting in the hall; and from the nature of the business which subsequently occupied their attention, they could then only sit seventeen days. The third article was opened on the 21st by Burke, which article related to the corrupt receipt of money. In his speech Burke alluded to Nuncomar, and indiscreetly said, that Hastings had murdered him by the hands of Sir Elijah Impey. As Impey had been acquitted by the house of commons, and as the transaction respecting Nuncomar made no part of the charges contained in the articles, Hastings thought proper to present a petition to the commons, in which he entreated them either to cause this, and similar allegations made by his accuser, to be prosecuted in distinct articles, or to afford him such redress as they should think proper. This petition was strongly supported by Major Scott, who presented it, and who accused Burke of being guilty of cool, deliberate, systematic, and intentional misrepresentation, and of imputing to Hastings crimes of which he knew him to be innocent. In reply, Burke called Major Scott the systematic libeller of the house of commons; and he, with his friends, endeavoured to prevent the petition from being received; contending that it was irregular and unprecedented, and that if every expression, not agreeable to the feelings of the party accused, were not fit to be used in a criminal prosecution, there must be an end to such prosecution. Pitt, on the other hand, gave his cordial support to the petition, as far as regarded the business of Nuncomar; and after a long debate, the house resolved “that no authority had been given by the house for the purpose of making any criminal charge respecting Nuncomar; and that the words complained of ought not to have been spoken.” Subsequently, a resolution of censure on the conduct of Burke was moved by the Marquess Of Graham; and, though strenuously opposed by Fox and the other managers, it was carried by a majority of one hundred and thirty-live against sixty-six. In the meantime the trial went on languidly. Legal doubts and difficulties were constantly suggested by the counsel for the prisoner, and time was frittered away in their consideration by the peers; and before this single charge could be settled, their lordships decided to postpone the trial to the first Tuesday in the next session of parliament. These delays caused great vexation both to the accused and the accusers. Hastings, indeed, declared that if he had foreseen such an interminable process, he would rather have pleaded guilty at the commencement of the process; and that, if he had done so, he should have been a gainer as regards money. Early in the session, in fact, Hastings had presented a petition to the lords, complaining of the great hardship to which the duration of the trial subjected him; mentioning the death of several of his judges, the long detention of witnesses necessary for his defence, the probability of his being deprived of many of them by various accidents; and reminding their lordships of the shattered state of his own health, and that his cost had been so great, that, even if his life should be spared to the end of the trial, he might become destitute of the means of defence, and thereby run the fearful chance of having his character blasted by unrefuted criminations; there being no hope of defending himself effectually without money. On the other hand, Burke and the managers complained of the delays as tending to favour the accused. On one occasion, when their lordships, after long consideration in their own chamber—whither they almost invariably retired to solve all doubt and difficulties—decided that certain evidence taken out of the minutes at Calcutta should not be admitted, he exclaimed, with impassioned vehemence:—“Plunder on; the laws intended to restrain you are mere scarecrows. Accumulate wealth by any means, however illegal, profligate, infamous. You are sure of impunity; for the natives of India are, by their religion, debarred from appearing against you out of their own country; and circumstantial evidence will not be received.” But neither the complaints of the accused nor the accusers quickened the proceedings of the peers. They still walked leisurely from the hall to their chamber, and from their chamber to the hall, whence it was jocosely said by Lord Stanhope, that “the judges walked, but the trial stood still.”

PARLIAMENT PROROGUED.

Parliament was prorogued by commission—the king-having gone to Weymouth for his health—on the 11th of August. The speech was delivered by the lord chancellor, in his majesty’s name; and in it his lordship observed, that, although the good offices of the king and his allies had not been effectual for the restoration of general tranquillity, yet the situation of affairs abroad continued to promise to this country the uninterrupted enjoyment of the blessing of peace. But this view of the state of Europe was superficial: in reality it promised nothing but strife and bloodshed. This will be manifested in the next section.

CONTINENTAL AFFAIRS.

At this period war and anarchy were disturbing a large portion of the continent. In the preceding year, Gustavus, King of Sweden, offended at the intrigues of Russian emissaries; jealous of the extended power of the Czarina Catherine; and anxious to recover the territories which had been wrested from his predecessors, had commenced a war with Russia. Gustavus was aided by a subsidy from the Turkish Sultan, who was at war with Russia, and he entertained hopes of assistance from Great Britain and Prussia. The Danes were engaged by treaty to assist the Russians, and fearing the result of this alliance, the courts of Great Britain and Prussia, without engaging directly in the contest, encouraged diversions both in Poland and Sweden. But Gustavus had enemies in his own dominions. His nobles had never forgiven him for overthrowing their unbounded power, in 1772, and the war against Russia, which he began without the assent of the states, was the signal for revolt. Many of these nobles were superior officers in the Swedish army, and they conspired against the king; and, declaring that the war undertaken was contrary to the constitution, they sent deputies to St. Petersburgh, in order to negociate an armistice, which was effected. At the same time a Danish army invaded Sweden and menaced Gothenburg. The situation of Gustavus was a critical one, but he was delivered from all danger by his high courage, and the good offices of the courts of England and Prussia. These courts, having in vain offered their mediation between those of Petersburg and Stockholm, so effectually intimidated the Prince of Denmark, who governed the state for his incapable father, that he promised to abstain from all hostilities. Gustavus now convoked a diet at Stockholm, in which an act of union and security was proposed and adopted by the three lower orders of the assembly; which act gave him unlimited power, and invested him with the right of waging war without the consent of the states; made all classes of society equal in rights of property and security, and all places and offices accessible to the citizens; and established colleges of government, responsible to the king, instead of the senate of the kingdom, whose authority had been independent. The aristocratic senate of Stockholm, which had been abridged of its powers in the revolution of 1772, was now entirely suppressed, and while many of the members were arrested and thrown into prison, others fled to St. Petersburgh, where they lived under the protection of the czarina. Gustavus now hastened back to his banners on the Russian boundary, and in the course of this year, 1789, several severe and bloody actions took place, in most of which he was victorious. Towards the close of the campaign, however, while in Russian Finland, his galley-fleet, which moved along shore and co-operated with his army, was defeated by a more numerous galley-fleet belonging to the czarina, and having lost many of his best troops, he was compelled to evacuate the Russian territories and retreat across his own frontier. After this both armies went into winter-quarters.

In the meantime, notwithstanding the exertions made both by England and Prussia to restore peace, war continued between the imperial courts of Austria, Russia, and the Porte. Early in this year’s campaign, the Austrians overran the greater part of Wallachia, and Moldavia, and the Prince of Saxe Cobourg, who commanded them, being joined by the Russians under Suvaroff, gained a great victory over the grand army of the Turks at Martinitzi. Subsequently, Belgrade was captured by the Austrians, and on the northern frontier the Russian General Potemkin defeated another Turkish army, at a place called Tabac, not far from the town of Bender. Flushed with victory Potemkin sat down before Bender, but though the garrison was a small one, and the fortifications contemptible, it was not captured till its walls were utterly demolished. Before winter set in the Russians captured several places on the shores of the Black Sea, and others on the Dniester and the Danube. They had, indeed, reduced almost every important place between the Danube and the Bog and Dnieper. On the other hand, the Turkish fleet defeated the czarina’s flotilla or flotillas, on the Black Sea, and successfully checked the Austrians, who after the reduction of Belgrade, undertook the siege of Orsova.

Commotions every where prevailed. While the Austrian emperor was prosecuting victories and conquests from which he could not hope to derive any permanent advantages, he contrived to alienate from himself the affections of the people of the Netherlands. This people consisted of independent states, resembling each other in manner, character, and constitution of government; their polity being composed of three orders, clergy, nobles, and people, under the limited principality of one personage, denominated Count. The Netherlander had shown an heroic devotion to his mother, Maria Theresa, and were warmly attached to his own person. Animated, however, by a restless spirit of innovation, he dared to interfere with their ancient privileges and religion—two objects of which they were particularly tenacious—and thus created a spirit of disaffection throughout all the Low Countries. Under the plea of reform he made innovations in their ecclesiastical establishments; suppressed the most venerated judicial institutions; appointed new and despotic tribunals; subverted the legislature, by abrogating the power of the assembly of states, and instituted a general government, with a court minister at its head; and finally attacked the clerical order, by overthrowing those institutions which were the very nursery of its priesthood. These sacrilegious acts roused the choler of the people; open rebellion was the natural result; and the people were victorious. The imperial troops committed many excesses throughout the Low Countries, and dyed their swords in blood; but the Netherlander, strong in the justice of their cause, finally triumphed. By the close of this year the Flemings, the States of Brabant, and all the other provinces, with the exception of Luxembourg, completely established their independence.

It seems clear that the revolt of the Netherlander did not arise from that democratic spirit which everywhere prevailed at this period, but from the rapacity and usurpations of the Austrian emperor. It is dangerous to touch ancient constitutions, and still more dangerous to lay violent hands upon venerated religious establishments. But while the Netherlander may be acquitted of being inflamed with the fierce passions of democracy in their struggle with the Emperor of Austria, as much cannot be said of other people and nations. At this time, indeed, a party existed in most countries, whose aim was to overturn the existing order of things, of which the efforts at revolution in several small states, such as Aix-la-Chapelle and Geneva may be cited as examples. These were so many instances of the democratic spirit which now prevailed; but they sink into insignificance when compared with the commotion which had commenced in France.

Incidental mention has been made of the financial embarrassments of the court of France; embarrassments which were in a great measure induced by the impolitic interference of that court in the dispute between England and her American colonies. Such was the deplorable condition of the French treasury in 1780, that a national bankruptcy was only avoided by the issue of paper money, which by a royal edict was enforced on the people, who were enjoined to receive it as gold or silver. Added to this a scarcity was threatened, and many of the people were actually perishing for want of bread. The prime minister, Necker, who was at the head of the French government during the American war, had incurred the hatred of the court party, and had been compelled, in 1781, to leave the kingdom. His successors were first Calonne, and then Brienne, both of whom failed to deliver the nation from its distresses. In 1788, therefore, Necker was recalled, and placed anew at the head of the finances, and also admitted to the council of state. Necker was at this time the hope of the nation, but there was no man in existence who could effect its salvation. Urged by the people, one of the first measures of Necker was to procure an order of council for the assembling of the States-general, which it was thought, could alone rescue the nation from impending ruin. The meeting of the States-general would probably have been attended with no ill effects, had it been constituted as in ancient times. Instead, however, of there being an equal number of nobles, clergy, and commons convoked, Necker unfortunately prevailed upon the king to summon six hundred of the commons, making that body numerically equal to the other two estates, and therefore capable of successfully opposing their measures. This was fatal to the peace of the nation, for the mass of the people of France, from among whom the commons were convoked, were rampant for a change in the existing order of things—were revolutionists at heart. The factious spirit which prevailed among them was discovered at the very opening of the States-general, which took place on the 5th of May, 1789, at Versailles. After the king had delivered a speech, in which he expressed a hope that it would communicate new vigour to the nation, re-establish public credit, and open additional sources of happiness, a question arose, “Should votes be taken by order, as heretofore, or by head?” This provoked the parties to combat, and the commons prevailed: the votes were to be taken by head. This clearly gave the preponderance to the commons, or third estate, since their number was equal to that of the nobles and clergy and they might expect some adherents from both those parties. Within six weeks, indeed, the third estate being strengthened by a part of the lower clergy, upon the motion of the Abbé Sieyes, declared themselves the national assembly. This was a great step, and the first imposing phenomenon of the new order of things. It caused great joy among the people, great movements among the nobility and the clergy, and great consternation at court.

To stem the onward tide of revolution which threatened to overwhelm the nation, the king, by a herald at arms, declared that the debates of the assembly were suspended, and that it was his majesty’s intention to hold a royal session. The hall of the states was now closed, but the deputies, under their first president, Bailly, assembled at one time in the Tennis Court, and at another in the Church of St. Louis, and took an oath to remain united until the regeneration of the state was accomplished. The royal session took place on the 23rd of June, and the king having pronounced the previous resolutions of the assembly to be illegal, ordered the estates to leave the hall, and withdraw each to their chamber, to deliberate there upon certain subjects which he laid before them. He would consider himself, and himself alone, he said, as the representative of the nation, and threatened to take all necessary measures into his own hands, if the national assembly acted contrary to his wishes. But the words of the monarch fell upon the ears of men who hated royalty, and who were resolved upon stripping the diadem from his brow. Being by this time joined by the greater part of the clergy, who seem to have considered that their interests were blended with those of the people, the commons resolved not to stir from the hall. The command of the king was repeated by a royal messenger, and then was seen the determined hostility which prevailed in the assembly towards the courts. “Only the force of bayonets,” said Mirabeau, “can drive the deputies of the people from their seats.” The assembly, therefore, still remained, and on the following day was reinforced by some members of the nobility, with the Duke of Orleans at their head. The king was perplexed; but hoping still to counteract their measures, he ordered the majority of the nobles, and the minority of the clergy to unite with the third estate, whereby the national assembly was finally completed. But there was still no reconciliation. Thirty thousand armed men, foreigners, were assembled in the vicinity of the capital, under the command of Marshal de Broglio, and these hostile preparations excited the people to revolt, engaged the representatives of the nation in a struggle between opposite duties, and alarmed the friends of liberty. All Paris—all France, became agitated and excited to action. Patriotic societies were formed as guides of the wild-fermenting masses of the people, and means of resistance were debated upon and adopted. In the midst of the commotion, a report was spread that Necker and Montmarin, the two popular ministers, had been dismissed and banished the kingdom, and that they and their colleagues were succeeded in office by men who were decided advocates of the ancient _régime_. Now commenced insurrection. On the 14th of July the people rose _en masse_, and being joined by the French guards, they stormed and captured the Bastille. Alarmed at these proceedings the king discharged his new ministers; recalled Necker; sent away the foreign troops, and threw himself into the arms of the nation. Joy and acclamation succeeded, and a festival of reconciliation was celebrated at Paris, between king and people, which seemed to presage the return of harmony. But there were two parties in the state who were far from being satisfied with the reconciliation thus brought about—the aristocrats and the democrats. The former saw their downfall therein, and rather than submit to such a state of things, great numbers went into voluntary exile. By their departure, the king was left without defence and counsel in the midst of the roaring storm—was left to the mercy of men who were in heart his most deadly enemies. He assumed the tri-coloured cockade, and sanctioned the decrees of the assembly, which aimed at the overthrow of the old, and the establishment of a new government; but still, though he complied with their every wish, it was evident, to all men of discernment, that he had not the affections of his subjects, and that his life was not safe in their hands. After his apparent reconciliation with the Parisians, Louis hastened to Versailles, where he hoped to remain in peace. But it was scarcely to be expected that a people, and especially the people of a corrupt capital, after they had broken the bonds of obedience, would immediately return to social order. Despite the exertions of Bailly, the recently elected mayor of Paris, and of Lafayette, the head of the newly created citizen militia, tumults were the order of the day. Famine raged in the city, and urged by it, as well as by a desire of revenge, many fell victims to the fury of the multitude. Thus Foulon, counsellor of state, and thus Berthier, his son-in-law, hitherto intendant of Paris, perished. Accumulated murders were committed in the capital, and similar scenes occurred in the provinces. Several cities followed the example of Paris, and in the country the peasants armed themselves against the nobles: the times of King John seemed to return. These crimes are in a great measure to be imputed to some members of the national assembly; but in the month of August the better part got a resolution passed, whereby the disturbers of the tranquillity were reminded of their duty, and the national guards, which were promptly raised in the whole kingdom, charged with the maintenance of order and security. But resolutions and decrees, and even the sword, were still impotent to allay the rash fury of the populace. It was suspected by them that the higher orders were not sincere in the sacrifices to which they had assented, and a rumour was industriously spread abroad that preparations were making for the retreat of the king to Metz, in Lorraine, where the royal standard was to be raised in opposition to the national assembly. Nor does it appear that the king was sincere in the concessions which had been wrung from him, or that he intended their perpetuation. At all events, if the king himself was sincere, it is certain that the queen and her counsellors turned their thoughts towards the restoration of the monarchy. Full of warlike sentiments, the court brought the regiment of Flanders to Versailles, and surrounded itself with soldiers, whence not only the populace suspected its movements, but the municipality of Paris became alarmed, and Lafayette himself spoke openly of a plot against liberty. A fresh insurrection now took place. Urged in part by famine, in part by wild cannibal passions, and in part by objects of treason and ambition, on the 5th of October, several thousand furious women, intermixed with a number of men of the most abandoned characters, assembled together, and after having committed some outrages, set up a long and hideous cry “To Versailles!” And the cry was not long confined to them. It resounded also among the citizen-militia, and among the great mass of the population of Paris, and Lafayette placed himself at the head of the insurrection. On the night of the 6th of October the palace of Versailles was attacked; many of its defenders were slain; and the king and the royal family, being rescued from the hands of the infuriated mob by Lafayette at the head of the national guard, were carried in triumph to Paris. The heads of the unfortunate defenders of the monarch, fixed on pikes, adorned the procession as it passed through the streets of the city. This new triumph of the populace occasioned another change in the constitution by the national assembly: the king being compelled to accede to every thing which they chose to establish. But France was not yet tranquil. The king and the people—except the factionists—became again, in appearance, if not in reality, reconciled; but there was still an under-current of mischief at work, which finally involved the monarch in ruin, Paris in bloodshed, and all Europe in war!

{GEORGE III. 1789–1791}

STATE OF PARTIES IN ENGLAND.

The events which had taken place in France during this year, naturally attracted the anxious notice of other European states. In England many persons read of them with pleasure, others with suspicion and jealousy, and others with anxiety and alarm. The general opinion was favourable to the revolution, arising from the natural abhorrence with which Englishmen look upon despotism under every possible form and shape. Even Fox and Pitt at first united in a tribute of admiration of the great movement; they, with others, overlooking its most criminal excesses, on the presumption that it would tend to establish the liberty and the happiness of the French people. All parties, indeed, agreed in believing, or at least hoping, that the states being properly modelled would by degrees effect the most important reforms, and produce the most valuable results, not only to the French themselves, but to all the world. Poets sang the destruction of the Bastille; orators applauded the asserters of liberty; statesmen contemplated the revolution with pleasure; and even divines from their pulpits did not blush to extol the character of the French regenerators. Among the most ardent admirers of the French revolution was an assemblage of persons, with Lord Stanhope at their head, who had associated for many years for the purpose of commemorating the British revolution of 1888. These revolutions were totally different in character, but losing sight of this, the society even went so far as to offer a formal address of “congratulation to the national assembly on the event of the late glorious revolution in France.” It must be in charity supposed, that a great deal of ignorance existed as to the real character of the movement in France, otherwise it could only be concluded that a similar spirit existed in England as in that country. It must not be disguised, however, that England contained a certain class of discontented speculative men, who considered their own country deficient in the liberty which, they imagined as agreeable to man’s natural rights; and who therefore looked upon the French revolution as the precursor to a similar movement among ourselves: men who, from a revolutionary ardour and a fondness for innovation, looked on all resistance to power as commendable, confounded revolt with liberty, and identified conspiracy with patriotism. But this section of the community happily was not extensive: the many who admired the French revolution did so from a generous sympathy, and while they lamented the excesses committed, they attributed it to the old tyranny, which had brutalized the people, and which they considered as not likely to continue. They concluded, erroneously indeed, that a change from the old system of despotism must be an improvement, and fondly hoped that the alterations would produce a government in France, similar to that which they themselves enjoyed. Others there were, however, who viewed the new politics of France with horror. Looking from the present to the future, they foresaw that the events which had taken place in that country, instead of producing such a change in the condition of the French people as every friend to rational and well-regulated freedom must desire, would only produce the most lamentable consequences—would either terminate in anarchy, or in the establishment of despotism. Of the great public men of the day, Burke was perhaps the first to discern the true character of this movement in France. The letters which he wrote during its progress all show that he looked upon it with the utmost suspicion: arguing from the bloody deeds with which it was consummated, deeds still more bloody and fearful. But the keen insight into the French character which Burke possessed was not common to the public at large, or even to his own party and the friends of his bosom: the general impression was, that the French people, after the first ebullitions of vengeance, would return to their senses; and that then they would build up a fabric of freedom on the ruins of tyranny, which might serve for a model to all Europe: a bulwark of liberty which the iron foot of despotism should never be able to throw down.

“But history, time’s slavish scribe, will tell How rapidly the zealots of the cause Disbanded—or in hostile ranks appeared: Some, tired of honest service; these outdone, Disgusted, therefore, or appalled, by aims Of fiercer zealots—so confusion reigned, And the more faithful were compelled to exclaim, As Brutus did to virtue: ‘Liberty, I worshipped thee, and find thee but a shade.’” —Wordsworth.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

{A.D. 1790}

The British parliament met on the 21st of January. The king, who had now recovered from his malady, attended in person, and in his speech he slightly glanced at the affairs of the continent, by observing that they had engaged his most serious attention; paid an appropriate tribute to the excellence of the British constitution; and congratulated the country on the increase of the public revenue, the extension of commerce and manufactures, and the general prosperity. The addresses in both houses were voted without opposition or division. In moving that in the commons, Lord Valletort took occasion to contrast the tranquil and prosperous situation of England with the anarchy and licentiousness prevailing in France, and to stigmatize the revolution as an event the most disastrous and the most fatal that had ever taken place since the foundation of the French monarchy. Nearly all who followed Lord Valletort coincided in his sentiments, attributing the prosperity and tranquillity of England to the superior excellence of its constitution, and to the prudent administration of the executive government. The subject was resumed in the debates which took place on the 5th and 9th of February, in both of which Fox spoke in a laudatory manner of the French military, and in the latter of which he extended his eulogiums to the French revolution itself. It has been seen before that Burke’s sentiments on this subject were foreign to those of his party, and notwithstanding his political connection _with_, and friendship _for_ Fox, he rose from his seat greatly agitated, and denounced the revolution as “an irrational, unprincipled, proscribing, confiscating, plundering, ferocious, bloody, tyrannical democracy.” In his speech, Burke, after paying some high compliments to the genius and character of Fox, and adverting to the danger of his opinions as sanctioned by the authority of so great a name, entered at large into the subject. He remarked:—“The French have shown themselves the ablest architects of ruin that have hitherto appeared in the world. In one short summer they have completely pulled down their monarchy, their church, their nobility, their law, their army, and their revenue. Were we absolute conquerors, with France prostrate at our feet, we should blush to impose on them terms so destructive to their national consequence, as the durance they have imposed on themselves. Our present clanger is that of being led, from admiration, to imitate the excesses of a people whose government is anarchy, and whose religion is atheism.” Burke expressed his concern at hearing this strange thing called a revolution in France, compared with the glorious event called the revolution in England. He instituted a parallel between the two, and showed how widely they differed from each other, and how Great Britain had risen beyond the standard of her former self, because she had commenced with reparation, and not with ruin. The French, he said, had made their way through the destruction of their country to a bad constitution, when they were absolutely in possession of a good one. Instead of redressing grievances and improving the fabric of their state, to which they were called by their monarch and sent by their country, they had first destroyed all the balances and counterpoises which served to fix the state and to give it a steady direction, melting down the whole into one incongruous, ill-connected mass; and then, with the most atrocious perfidy and breach of all faith, they laid the axe to the root of all property, and consequently of all national prosperity, by the principles they established and the example they set in confiscating all the possessions of the church. They had made and recorded a sort of institute and digest of anarchy, called “A Declaration of the Rights of Man;” thus systematically destroying every hold of authority by opinion, religious or civil, on the minds of the people. By this mad declaration they had subverted the state, and brought on such calamities as no country, without a long war, had been known to suffer. Burke expressed himself astonished and troubled at the movements in France beyond measure, and denounced it as so far from being worthy of imitation, that it ought to have our utter abhorrence He would spend the last drop of his blood—would quit his best friends, and join his bitterest enemies, to oppose the least influence of such a spirit in England. Burke concluded his noble harangue by saying that he was now near the end of his natural, and probably still nearer the end of his political, career; that he was weak and weary, and wished for rest; that at his time of life, if he could not do something by weight of opinion, it would be useless to attempt anything by mere struggle; and that, with respect to the British constitution, he wished but few alterations in it, adding, that he should be happy if he left it not the worse for any share he had taken in its service. This speech, so full of patriotism and unanswerable argument, gave rise to a grand schism among the Whigs. As soon as Burke had concluded, Fox rose and declared his total dissent from opinions “so hostile to the general principles of liberty,” and which, he said, he was grieved to hear from the lips of a man whom he loved and revered; a man by whose precepts he had been taught, and from whom he had learned more than from all the men with whom he had ever conversed. His speech on that day, he remarked, some arguments and observations excepted, was among the wisest and most brilliant that had ever been delivered in the house; but still, with all these admissions, his opinion on the general subject remained unaltered. Fox entered into a vindication of the conduct of the French army, in refusing to act against their fellow-citizens, and excused the scenes of bloodshed and cruelty which had been committed by the citizens, on the ground of their long-suffering from tyranny. At the same time Fox declared, that he never would lend himself to support any cabal or scheme to introduce any dangerous innovation into our excellent constitution; and that Burke might rest assured they could never differ in principles, although they might disagree in the application of principles. Burke rejoined, and expressed himself satisfied with the explanation of his right-honourable friend; and the discussion might have ended for the present, had it not been for Sheridan, who wished to make a speech on this grand subject. Sheridan, in rising, said, that he felt it his duty to declare that he differed from Burke in almost every word respecting the French revolution. In his opinion it was as just as our own, proceeding upon as sound a principle, and a greater provocation. Sheridan then eulogised Lafayette, Bailly, and other patriots of that stamp, and vehemently defended the general views and conduct of the national assembly. He concluded his harangue by charging Burke with being an advocate for despotism, and with having spoken of the national assembly with an unwarrantable freedom of speech. Burke instantly rose to reply; and in doing so he expressed his indignation at the language which Sheridan had used, and declared that henceforth his honourable friend and he were separated in politics. Sheridan’s language, he said, was not new, since it was only a repetition of what was to be heard at the reforming clubs and societies with which the honourable gentleman had recently become entangled, and for whose plaudits he had chosen to sacrifice his friends. He added, that his argument was chiefly an argument _ad invidiam_, and that all the applause he could hope for from clubs was scarcely worth the sacrifice which he had chosen to make. The Whig party were alarmed at this breach in their camp; and attempts were instantly made to bring about a reconciliation by means of mutual explanations. But these attempts were fruitless; the bond of union was for ever broken. The Whig party were rendered still more uneasy by the conduct of Pitt, who declared that Burke had that day conferred a great obligation upon the country, and warmly applauded the zealous and seasonable attachment which he had displayed to the principles of the British constitution. No man, in truth, rendered more service to the cause of constitutional liberty than did Burke at this period. This was but the first of a series of splendid harangues which he uttered upon the subject of the French revolution, and which were as the sound of a trumpet to the hearts of the English people. The contagion of its principles were also arrested by the weighty productions of his pen; in which productions “his fancy laid all nature under tribute, collecting treasures from scenes of creation, and from every walk of art to adorn his pages.” His sentiments had the more weight because they proceeded from a mind which had ever been active in the great business of reform; some traces of which activity were manifest in the statute-book. But the reforms which Burke had ever advocated were founded in justice; those which the French regenerators had adopted were subversive of all order, and tended only to anarchy and desolation.

DEBATES ON THE TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS.

Since the decision of the last session relative to the test and corporation acts, the Protestant dissenters had not relaxed in their efforts to increase the number of their friends in the house of commons. Moreover, they had held provincial meetings in all parts of the kingdom, and by their public resolutions, in contemplation of a general election, earnestly recommended the friends of equal and universal liberty to the choice of electors. Unfortunately at these meetings, in their speeches and resolutions, they warmly applauded the principles of the French revolution; and they appear to have thought that this season of change was favourable for pressing their old claims upon parliament. Under this impression they resolved to bring the subject before the commons; and instead of Mr. Beaufoy, the friend of Pitt, Fox, the tried friend of liberty, was requested by them to become their advocate. Fox moved for the repeal of the two acts in question, and supported his motion by a long and able speech, in which he showed himself anxious to prove that the application of his clients had nothing whatever to do with the principles of the French revolution. It certainly did not emanate from that movement, for the first application had been made three years ago, when the keenest sagacity could not have formed anything like a conjecture of the events which had taken place in France. It is most certain, however, that the Protestant Dissenters, in seeking their claims, had uttered language which savoured of a spirit of innovation. It may have been only out of generous sympathy, but they had been among the warmest approvers of the French revolution; and this gave offence in high places. Hitherto, Pitt, although he opposed the repeal of the corporation and test acts, had done so with temper and moderation; but now, in opposing the motion, he spoke of their conduct with the utmost indignation. At the very moment, he said, when they were reprobating the test laws, they discovered their intention of forming associations to impose a test on members of the house of commons. Pitt also vindicated the necessity of a church establishment for the good of the state; and endeavoured to show that such an institution could not exist if toleration were extended to equality of privileges. Burke was more emphatic in his opposition to the motion than Pitt. A wild spirit of innovation was abroad, he said, which required not indulgence, but restraint; and he asserted that the avowed leaders of the dissenters had, in their speeches, resolutions, writings, and sermons, given countenance to the revolutionary spirit which everywhere prevailed. Burke read some extracts from dissenting divines in proof of his assertions; and he adjured the house to let the events which had taken place in France, and the sudden downfall of the church in that kingdom, awaken their zeal for the preservation of our own establishment. Fox rejoined, and urged the injustice of deciding a general question of right upon the conduct of a few individuals; but the motion was rejected by a majority of two hundred and ninety-four against one hundred and five. This decided hostility to the measure chiefly arose from the time at which it was brought forward, and the means which had been employed to ensure success. Many members, and among them the amiable Wilberforce, who had before voted for the repeal of these laws, now voted against it, from a conviction that it would give an impetus to the innovating spirit which so universally prevailed.

FLOOD’S MOTION FOR REFORM OF PARLIAMENT.

On the 4th of March, Mr. Flood, a celebrated Irish orator, moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the representation of the people in parliament. This bill proposed to add one hundred members to the present house of commons, in a proportionate ratio to the population of each county, to be elected by resident householders. In his speech Mr. Flood boldly asserted that the members who sat in the house were not the adequate representatives of the people. He would not deny that they were the legal representatives, and he acknowledged that they were a useful and honourable council; but, to the honour of the British constitution, we were entitled to something better. Although Mr. Flood avowed that he was no friend to revolutions, and that he considered them an evil, yet it was evident that his motion arose from an innovating spirit; and as such it was opposed. Mr. Wyndham, member for Norwich, and the professed admirer of Burke, said, that if he had approved of the measure, he should still have objected to its being brought forward or adopted at the present time. Where was the man, he asked, who would advise them to repair their house in the hurricane season? Speculatists and visionaries were at work in a neighbouring country, and that, he thought, was sufficient. There was project against project, theory against theory, _frontibus adversis pug-nantia_. He entreated the house to wait for the event, and to guard with all possible care against catching the French infection. Pitt followed Wyndham, and he declared, “that if the motion before them were the precise resolution which he himself had formerly proposed, he should now vote against it, from a thorough conviction of its impropriety.” He recommended its withdrawal, promising, on some future day, to make the subject of parliamentary reform a ministerial measure. Fox rose to support the motion; and he affirmed, in the course of his speech, “that no season could be more proper for the commencement of repairs than when a hurricane was near and ready to burst forth.” At the same time he acknowledged that he felt convinced the opinion which he supported was neither that of the majority of the house nor of the people. Burke combated the whole scheme and all the arguments that had been adduced in support of it; and asserted that these attempts at parliamentary reform were not countenanced by the people. Other members, as Wilberforce, Granville, and Powys, spoke on the same side, and the motion was at length withdrawn. These were the only great political questions which engaged the attention of the commons during this session. All change met with such an unyielding and decided opposition, that its advocates deemed it their wisdom to remain silent. In this line of conduct they were confirmed by the good temper of the people, who wisely exhibited a disposition to submit to any little wrongs they might be called upon to endure, rather than by a refractory spirit to run the risk of incurring greater.

EAST INDIA AFFAIRS.

On the 31st of March Mr. Dundas presented to the house an account of the financial state of India. He announced a great increase of revenue in Bengal; which he looked upon as the strongest proof of the prosperity and good government of the country. Dundas said, that in a few years he trusted the company would be enabled to pay off the whole of their arrears, and that the British possessions in India would be more flourishing in wealth, commerce, and manufactures, than any other part of Hindustan. In the present state of things, he remarked, we had nothing to fear from any European nation: Holland was our ally, and France was in no condition to disturb our foreign possessions. Tippoo Saib, he acknowledged, was an enemy; but without European auxiliaries, and the support of other native powers, he could never become formidable to the British empire. Dundas, indeed, indulged himself in the pleasing vision that this country was likely long to enjoy an undisturbed peace at home and abroad.

PITT’S FINANCIAL STATEMENT, ETC.

Pitt opened the budget for the year on the 15th of April; and in doing so he congratulated the house upon the prosperous state of the finances. He regarded the increase of revenue as progressive, and spoke with triumph of the growing greatness of England. Like Dundas, he spoke of the continuance of peace as certain; and he concluded his speech with an encomium upon the British constitution, to which, under Providence, the prosperity of the nation was to be ascribed. About the same time that the budget was opened, the house voted several sums as a recompense for services or indemnification for losses in the cause of the country. Thus an annuity of £1000 per annum was granted to the Rev. Dr. Willis, who had been instrumental in restoring his majesty’s intellects; the speakers salary was increased from £3000 to £6000; and the family of Penn had a perpetual grant of £4000 per annum bestowed upon them out of the consolidated fund, for the losses they had sustained during the revolt of the American colonies.

THE SLAVE-TRADE QUESTION.

Early in this session, Mr. Wilberforce, who had continued to devote time, life, fortune, and talent to the great subject of the slave-trade, moved that the house would resolve itself into a committee of the whole house, to take that trade into consideration. This motion was agreed to; and on a subsequent day he moved and carried the appointment of a special committee for the examination of witnesses. Wilberforce was himself one of the most active members of this special committee; but nothing further was done during this session beyond hearing of evidence; every mode of procrastination being resorted to on the part of the slave-merchants and planters. The bill of Sir William Dolben, for limiting the number of slaves to be transported in each slave-ship, was renewed for another year; and the further consideration of the subject was adjourned till next session.

DISPUTES WITH SPAIN.

Although both Pitt and Dundas had so recently spoken confidently of the long continuance of peace, yet, on the 5th of May, a royal message was delivered, announcing circumstances which indicated the approach of war. The circumstances from whence this message originated were briefly these:—In his last voyage of discovery, the celebrated navigator, Captain Cook, had touched at Nootka, or Prince William, on the Western coast of North America, where his crew purchased some valuable furs, which they disposed of to great advantage in China. In consequence of the recommendation of Captain King, who published the last volume of “Cook’s Voyages,” some mercantile adventurers from the East Indies, with the consent of the governor-general, undertook to supply the Chinese with fur from these regions. For this purpose they fitted out two small vessels; and the trade proved so advantageous, that, in 1788, the adventurers resolved to form a permanent settlement. A spot of ground was accordingly procured from the natives at Nootka Sound, and a regular establishment was formed, which was defended by a slight fortification. This was, however, regarded by the Spaniards as an encroachment of their exclusive right of sovereignty; and two Spanish ships of war arrived in the sound, seized two English vessels with the crews, and then took possession of the settlement. The British flag was removed; the Spanish commandant declaring, that the whole line of coast from Cape Horn to the 60th degree of north latitude, belonged to the King of Spain. These incidents were notified to the court of Great Britain by the Spanish ambassador; who, at the same time, requested that measures might be taken for preventing his Britannic majesty’s subjects from frequenting those coasts, and from carrying on their fisheries in the seas contiguous to the Spanish continent, they being, it was stated, the rights of the Spanish crown. The claims of Spain, in reference to her right of dominion and sovereignty in America, were wholly chimerical; and the notification and request of the Spanish ambassador, therefore, were met by a demand of satisfaction for the insults offered to the British nation, and reparation to the individuals who had suffered in property and person. This satisfaction had not been given; and intelligence having also been received that armaments were fitting out in the Spanish ports, his Britannic majesty judged it right to prepare on his side for supporting the rights and interests of his kingdom. Such were the circumstances related in his majesty’s message to the house of commons; and he requested that they would enable him to make such an augmentation of force as necessity seemed to require. At the same time the king expressed an earnest wish that the satisfaction due might yet be given, and that the affair might terminate without recourse to arms, or any interruption of the friendship and harmony which subsisted between the two nations. The message being taken into consideration, the commons unanimously voted an address to the king, assuring his majesty of their determination to afford the most zealous and effectual support in maintaining the dignity of his crown, and the essential interests of his dominions. This was followed by a vote of credit for £1,000,000, for the purpose of making the necessary warlike preparations. Fox gave his warm support to the address and vote of credit, but he blamed ministers for their exultation on the prospect of peace, when a war with Spain had so long been threatened: though from Pitt’s explanation it did not appear that they knew anything of the preparations in the Spanish ports till a very few days since. Subsequently, motions were made in both houses, by opposition, for the production of papers to illustrate the grounds of this dispute; but these were successfully resisted, on an established rule of policy, prohibiting all documents relating to a negociation with a foreign power from being produced while such negociation was still pending.

{GEORGE III. 1789–1791}

IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.

The trial of Warren Hastings recommenced on the 10th of February, on which day Mr. Anstruther went through the charge relating to the corrupt receipt of presents. Disputes instantly arose about the evidence proper to be admitted, and their lordships took another walk to their chamber in order to debate and consult. Fresh objections were then made by the counsel acting for Hastings, who said that the matter which, the managers brought forward was neither set down nor made a charge of in the articles of impeachment. On this their lordships adjourned again, and after long consultation, the objections made on the part of the defendant were held to be valid. The managers and the public by this time seemed to consider that the trial would never be finished, and Burke, on the 11th of May, called the attention of the house of commons to its protracted continuance; and moved the two following resolutions:—1. “That this house, taking into consideration the interruptions occasioned by the occupations of the judges and the house of lords, as also the impediments which have occurred, or may occur, in the course of the trial of the impeachment of Warren Hastings, Esq., doth, without meaning to abandon the truth or importance of the charges, authorize the managers of their said impeachment, to insist only upon such and so many of the said charges as shall appear to them the most conducive to the obtaining speedy and effectual justice against the said Warren Hastings. 2. That the commons of Great Britain in parliament assembled, from a regard to their own honour, and from the duty which they owe to all the commons of Great Britain, in whose name, as well as in their own, they act in the public prosecutions by them carried on before the house of lords, are bound to persevere in their impeachment against Warren Hastings, Esq., late governor-general of Bengal, until judgment may be obtained upon the most important articles in the same.” The first of these resolutions was adopted, but the latter was dropped as unnecessary. In supporting them the managers attributed the delay to Hastings himself, to his counsel, and to the house of lords. A day or two after, however, Major Scott, published a letter containing a review of the trial, and strictures upon the managers, whom he accused of being guilty of a great crime in instituting the prosecution, and of a still greater crime in not having brought it to a close long ago. Long and angry debates took place on the publication of this document, the result of which was that Major Scott was reprimanded, sitting in his place, for the violation of his duty as a member of the house of commons. In the meantime the impeachment still went but slowly forward. The court of peers only sat thirteen days during the session, and did not get beyond the charge which Anstruther had opened. After Fox had summed up and commented upon the evidence, on the 9th of June their lordships agreed to postpone the trial till the first sitting in the next session of parliament.

PARLIAMENT PROROGUED, AND DISSOLVED.

On the 10th of June his majesty closed the session by a speech from the throne, in which he informed the two houses of his intention of dissolving the present and calling a new parliament. In his speech the king said that he had as yet received no satisfactory answer from the court of Madrid, and that he was therefore under the necessity of continuing his preparations for war. He acknowledged their affectionate and unshaken loyalty to his person; their uniform and zealous regard for the true principles of the constitution; and their unremitting attention to the happiness and prosperity of his people. His majesty then dwelt upon the rapid increase of manufactures, commerce, and navigation; the security given to our most distant possessions; and the improvement of the public revenue. He added, after thus enumerating the salutary effects of their counsels:—“The loyalty and public spirit, the industry and enterprise of my subjects have well seconded your exertions. On their sense of the advantages which they at present experience, and their uniform attachment to my person and government, I rely for a continuance of that harmony and confidence, which must at all times afford the surest means of meeting the exigencies of war, or of cultivating with increasing benefit the blessing of peace.” On the next day parliament was dissolved by proclamation: it had existed seven sessions.

SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES WITH SPAIN.

The British government, desirous of avoiding hostilities, dispatched Mr. Fitzherbert to Madrid, with full powers to settle all disputes between the two nations. At first the Spanish court showed itself adverse to negociation, and applied to that of France for aid. The court of France, however, though willing to support the Bourbon compact, had lost the power, for the people, by whom it was now kept in awe, were averse at this time to a war with England. Unable to contend with the British arms alone, Spain was therefore compelled to comply with the demand of restitution and indemnification: on the 2nd of October a convention was signed at the Escurial, by which every point in dispute was conceded. The settlement at Nootka-Sound was restored; the free navigation and right of fishery in the Southern Pacific were confirmed to Britain; and a full liberty of trade and even of settlement was granted to all the north-west coasts of America, beyond the most northerly of the Spanish territories, though unaccompanied by any formal renunciation of their right of sovereignty. Both nations were equally restricted from attempting to form any settlement nearer to Cape Horn than the most southerly plantations already established by Spain. It was also agreed, that, in case of any future complaint, no violence should be committed, but recourse had to an amicable adjustment between the respective courts. This convention was generally applauded in England, though £3,000,000 had been expended in warlike preparations.

CONTINENTAL AFFAIRS.

Early in this year the Emperor Joseph of Austria died, and was succeeded by his brother Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany. On his death-bed, Joseph, who had during his life shown himself an ambition & warrior, recommended peace, and the first care of his successor was to free himself from the Turkish war. Under the mediation of England, Prussia, and Holland, negociations for peace were opened at Reichenbach, in Silesia, on the 4th of June, and a treaty of peace was settled on the _status quo_ principle, that each party should retain what it possessed previous to the war, restoring all that it had conquered, and recovering all that it had lost. The Czarina of Russia was invited to be a party to this treaty, but she refused, and still carried on war with the Turks on the one side, and the Swedes on the other.

The congress at Reichenbach interfered likewise in the affairs of the Netherlands: England, Prussia, and Holland guaranteed to the Emperor Leopold all the possessions of the House of Austria in Flanders, Brabant, &c., on the condition that he acknowledged and re-established the ancient privileges and constitution of those provinces. On the accession of Leopold, and before the meeting at Reichenbach, or before any kind of measure was attempted, either diplomatically or otherwise, he had sent a memorial to the Netherlanders, in which he expressed sincere regret for the despotic proceedings of the Austrian government, and declared his anxiety to redress all grievances; at the same time vindicating his claim to the sovereignty, and announcing his resolution to maintain it with all his might. Although the Netherlanders had established their independence, there was still among them a strong loyal imperial party, and this address and the situation of Belgian affairs revived the spirits of these loyalists, and they soon began to declare themselves in favour of Leopold, and to wear the old cockade, instead of the new patriotic ribands. By degrees, great numbers of the populace, also, embraced their opinions, and the party soon acquired a very imposing force. Such was the situation of affairs when Leopold issued a second manifesto, after the meeting at Reichenbach, engaging himself, under an inaugural oath, and the guarantee of Great Britain, Prussia, and Holland, to govern the Belgic Netherlands according to the constitution that was in force under Maria Theresa, and offering an amnesty to all who should return to their duty before the 1st of November. The mediating powers notified to the Belgian states the approval of these terms, but that body, who had exercised sovereign authority ever since the revolt, were loth to relinquish it; and under these circumstances, Austrian troops entered their territory. Various engagements took place, but resistance was vain: the arms of the emperor were uniformly successful, and the people generally acknowledged the heir of their ancient rulers. The leading members of opposition now took refuge in flight, and in a convention, guaranteed by the defensive alliance and executed on the 10th of December, the constitution of Maria Theresa was restored to the Belgic provinces, with some additional rights and privileges.

In the meantime the war between Russia and the Porte went on but slowly. Early in the year the czarina made some attempts to detach the Greek subjects of the sultan from their obedience, and a rebellion was fomented by her means in Albania, and an extensive plan was arranged by the Greeks for emancipating themselves from the Ottoman yoke. A memorial, offering the sovereignty of Greece to Constantine her son, was laid before the czarina, but before the plan could be matured she was induced to postpone her attempts upon Turkey. It was late in the autumn before Suvaroff received reinforcements, supplies, and positive orders to commence operations, and he then invested Ismael, which he captured; slaying 24,000 Turkish soldiers, and destroying 7,000 of the inhabitants. The loss of the Russians themselves was estimated at 10,000 men, including a great number of officers, some of whom were of the highest rank.

The King of Sweden opened the campaign early in this year, and penetrated within one hundred miles of St. Petersburg. Alarmed at the approach of her enemies, the czarina sent 10,000 Russians, under the command of General Ingelstrom, to obstruct their progress. Ingelstrom attacked the Swedes in their lines at Karnomkoksi, on the Saima Lake, but he was defeated with the loss of 2000 men. Gustavus still advanced, while his fleet, under the Duke of Suclermania, sailed up the Gulf of Finland, penetrated into the harbour of Revel, in the hope of demolishing that great naval arsenal, and a division of the Russian fleet which lay at anchor in that harbour. He was frustrated by a storm, and, subsequently, he was twice attacked by Russian squadrons, which on both occasions enclosed his fleet; but each time he extricated himself from danger, though with great loss cf ships and men. Having recruited his shattered forces, Gustavus took the command of the fleet himself, and having encountered a large Russian fleet, after a bloody battle, which lasted two days, he gained a decisive victory. This defeat alarmed the czarina, and being abandoned by Austria and threatened by England and Prussia, she entered into negociation with Gustavus, and by the month of August a treaty of peace was concluded between them. By this treaty those of Abo and Nystad were confirmed; each power was to retain what it possessed before the war; and Sweden renounced all claim to the possessions which had once belonged to it, and which it had overrun during the present war. Russia also granted permission to export grain from Livonia; and it was mutually agreed to appoint commissioners to settle in an amicable manner the line of frontier between the two countries: the two courts further promised themselves that they should strengthen their connexion by a close alliance, and agreed to forget what was past.

In Paris, during this year, the national assembly pursued its legislative labours. All ecclesiastical possessions had, at the close of the preceding year, been declared national property, and the reformers soon after laid their hands on the domains of the crown: with the exception of some castles, which were to be left to the king, the rest were transferred to the state. To facilitate the sale of the possessions of the crown and the church, paper money was created, which was at first ordered to last only six years, but which was subsequently declared current money—as good as gold. These measures were followed by the suppression of all orders and cloisters; by the suppression of the parliaments; by an entire change of the judicial system; by the admission of Jews to the rights of citizens; by the abolition of all the titles of the noblesse, coats of arms, and decorations of the order of chivalry; by an order that the estates of Protestants who fled from France on the iniquitous repeal of the edict of Nantz, should be restored; by a division of France into eighty-three departments, subdivided into two hundred and forty-nine districts, each of which was composed of from three to five cantons; and by a change in the national representation, which was made to harmonize with this new division. To all these decrees the king, who had no alternative, gave his unqualified sanction, and in return the national assembly fixed the civil list of the king at 25,000,000 of livres, besides the possession of castles of pleasure. Harmony seemed to be restored, and to establish it a festival of confederation was ordained, which, on the first anniversary of the capture of the Bastille, was held in the field of Mars, when the king and 500,000 Frenchmen swore on the altar of the country to observe the new constitution. But notwithstanding all this show of harmony, a secret fermentation remained. The abolition of titles and the insignia of rank inflamed the anger of the aristocrats, and the manifestations of their wrath increased the hatred of the commons. A new emigration took place, and officers, as well as nobles, fled for their lives. The emigrants assembled in arms at Coblentz, Worms, and Ettenheim, from whence, maintaining a close connexion with their friends or dependants at home, they cast firebrands into the interior of the kingdom. Nor did the priesthood quietly submit to the civil constitution which the national assembly imposed upon them: they refused to take the oath, and stirred up many against public authority and the new constitution. The friends of liberty were alarmed and exasperated at the open and secret preparations of this twofold and implacable opposition. In this state of irritation all that was known was friend and enemy; and these relations effected the triumph of the fanatic and the fall of the moderate. One of the first who fell was Necker, to whose counsels the nation was indebted for most of the concessions of the king, and consequently for its success: Necker lost all his popularity, and fled from a country which he had contributed to ruin. The king, also, soon again declined in popular favour; the sentiments of his heart did not accord with his public declarations, and this becoming manifest, the popular party was disquieted and enraged. Mirabeau, whose ardour for revolution had begun to cool, and who now saw that the constitution was far too democratic for a monarchy, leagued secretly with the fallen court, and laboured with all the force of his popularity to raise it from its degraded state, and to recover for the crown a portion of strength necessary for its existence. But it was too late. Before this, clubs had been formed among the members of the national assembly, in order that better directed and more energetic efforts might be made in securing the objects of the revolution. Pre-eminent among these clubs was that of the deputies from Bretagne, which held its sessions in the suppressed cloister of the Jacobins, from which cloister the members of the club received the name of Jacobins; a name which finally obtained a bad celebrity in the world’s history. Similar clubs were also formed in most of the important cities of the kingdom, which maintained, with that at Paris, the closest union of sentiments and efforts. The bonds of society in France were, in truth, loosened, and no human skill could restore them: the bridle had been taken from the mouth of the fiery steed, and no human arm could arrest his headlong course. Marat, Danton, and Robespierre-men of blood—with others of the same stamp, had already made their execrable names known in the clubs of the Cordeliers and Jacobins, which finally united, and these were the men who were, for a brief period, to rule the destinies of France.

PROGRESS OF REVOLUTIONARY PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND.

It has been well said that the season of hope and delusion ought now to have been over—that whatever right-hearted and right-headed Englishmen might have thought of the French revolution at the opening of the States-general in May, 1789, they ought not at the close of this year to have regarded it with any other sentiments than those of horror, disgust, and pity. But “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.” Although it was as clear as the sun at noon-day, that the events which had taken place in France were but the precursors of some horrible catastrophe—that the French regenerators sought not wholesome and legitimate reformations, but the ruin of their country, yet it is a lamentable fact that their admirers in England were now greatly on the increase. On the very day that the festival of confederation took place in Paris, six hundred gentlemen in England assembled to celebrate the event which it commemorated. The chairman of this assembly was Earl Stanhope, who acted as president of the Revolution Society in London: a society which, after extending its ramifications throughout the country, entered into an active correspondence not only with the National Assembly, but with the societies in all parts of France, instituted for the promotion of revolutionary principles. Among the associates of this society were men of all ranks and professions—men who could lay no claim to a practical acquaintance with politics, or the working of governments, and who knew little or nothing of human nature. Happily for the country, however. Burke and other writers put forth all their strength to show the danger which lurked in the Revolution Societies of England, and government opposed a mighty barrier to the progress of their dangerous principles. These wrought the salvation of the country. The most powerful antagonist to these societies, who worked by means of the press, was Burke, who, toward the end of this year, published his great work on the subject, entitled “Reflections on the Revolution, &c.” a work which sounded the knell of the old Whig confederacy. Some of this party yielded at once to the force of his arguments, while others retreated as they saw the development of the principles against which they were directed. In fact, the result of this work was to make the old appellations of Whig and Tory assume a widely different meaning from that which had hitherto been attached to them: by the term Whig was now understood the favourers of such democratic principles as existed in France; by that of Tory, those who were alarmed at the progress of the French revolution. The bold and uncompromising stand which Burke made against these principles led to a final rupture between him and his old friend Fox, and consequently to the permanent separation of the great Whig party: from this time there was a division in the camp; a breach which could not be healed.

WAR IN INDIA.

During this state of affairs in Europe, a war which directly concerned England broke out in India. Tippoo Sultaun, whose hatred towards the English was mortal, in the year 1789 sent a secret messenger to France, to invite the French government to send six thousand of their best troops to the Carnatic, with which he engaged to drive the British forces out of every part of Hindustan. This messenger was favourably received by the people, and even some of the king’s ministers were in favour of the project. Louis, however, had not forgotten the lesson he had been taught by interfering in the American war—an act for which he was still indeed suffering—and he turned a deaf ear to the plausible representations which were made to him in order to obtain his consent. But before Tippoo received an answer from the French monarch, he had commenced operations, by attacking the Rajah of Travancore, who had long been the close ally of the English. Before the end of the year 1789 Tippoo had overrun and took possession of the greater part of the rajah’s dominions, and subsequently he defeated a detachment of the company’s army, under Lieutenant-Colonel Floyd. His progress, however, was soon stopped. The Bengal government, having formed a close alliance with the Mahrattas, the Nizam of the Deccan, and other native powers, raised two armies; one in the Carnatic of 15,000 men, under General Medows, and another of 7,500 men, in the presidency of Bombay, under General Abercrombie. Thus threatened, Tippoo evacuated the Travancore country, and retreated to his strong capital, Seringapatam. But he had provoked the war, and it was not to close with his retreat. In June, 1790, Medows, with the Carnatic army, marched towards Seringapatam, and took several important fortresses in his route. Medows, however, was obliged to retrace his steps by intelligence that Tippoo had again burst into the Carnatic, and was carrying fire and sword to the walls of Madras. Tippoo was soon obliged to retire beyond the mountains; and in the meantime General Abercrombie, with the Bombay army, landed at Tellicherry, and reduced all the places which the enemy possessed on the Malabar coast, in which he was aided by the Nairs, and the other petty Hindu rajahs, who were glad of an opportunity of rescuing themselves from Tippoo Sultaun’s rule. In the end the Rajah of Travancore was re-established in his dominions, and then the campaign closed: but the war was not yet over.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

The new parliament assembled on the 25th of November. In his speech his majesty expressed great satisfaction at the amicable adjustment of the late disputes with Spain about Nootka Sound; observed that since the last session of Parliament a foundation had been laid for a pacification between Austria and the Porte, and that a separate peace had been concluded between Russia and Sweden; noticed the hostilities which had broken out in India; acquainted the house of commons that the expenses of the armament, together with the estimates for the ensuing year would be laid before them; and called particular attention to the state of the province of Quebec. The address was carried in both houses with large majorities; though ministers were censured by opposition, in the lords and in the commons, for the convention which they had made with Spain. On the 3rd of December, when copies of this convention were laid before the two houses of parliament, it was urged in the commons that more papers ought to be produced, and on the 13th of the same month Mr. Grey made a motion for all that related to the affair of Nootka Sound. This motion was negatived by a majority of nearly two to one; and on the following day Mr. Duncombe, one of the members for Yorkshire, after mentioning that trade and manufactures had suffered but little during the late dispute with Spain, moved an address to his majesty on the late successful negociations with the court of Madrid, which was carried by a still larger majority. A similar address was moved in the lords by the Duke of Montrose, when the Marquess of Lansclowne took occasion to reprobate the convention in very strong language. The marquess contended that the Spanish nation had an indisputable right to the whole of the American coast on which Nootka Sound is situated; a right which was acknowledged in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Overlooking the provocation which Spain had given, and her previously concerted plan to enter upon a war in conjunction with France, he said that ministers had, in the arrogance of power, insulted the present weakness of that country, and inflicted a wound which would rankle in the heart of the Spanish people. The marquess also argued that they had alienated and made enemies of Prance, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, as well as of Spain. He also argued, that by the late treaty of France, which was an infringement of the old Methuen treaty with Portugal, ministers, had alienated the court of Lisbon, and that had war taken place, the Portuguese, Venetians, and Neapolitans, would have joined the Spaniards against England. Lord Rawdon spoke on the same side; hinting a suspicion that our fleet had been destined for the Baltic, while we were bullying Spain, which had not offered any insult to this country; and that this farce had been carried on until the King of Sweden had made peace with Russia. The convention was defended by Lord Grenville, and the address was carried by a majority of forty-three. Another debate took place on this subject on the 15th of December, when Pitt gave in, in a separate account, the expenses of the late armament; intimating at the same time that some of those expenses, which arose out of the engaging an additional number of seamen, must be continued, as these seamen could not be all disbanded at once. The expenses incurred by the late armament, and the funds necessary to keep up the additional number of seamen, he said, was £3,133,000, which he thought might be defrayed without entailing any permanent charge upon the revenue. He proposed to defray it by temporary taxes, assisted by £500,000, which he contemplated taking from the unclaimed dividends lying in the Bank of England, the total amount of which he estimated at £680,000. This latter proposition, however, excited such alarm in the great chartered companies and to the mercantile world in general, that Pitt was obliged to abandon it, and to accept of a loan of £500,000 from the Bank without interest, so long as a floating balance to that amount should remain in the hands of the cashier. The bulk of the money required was raised by an increase of the duties upon sugar, British and foreign spirits, malt, game licences, and by an increase of the assessed taxes, except the commutation and land-taxes, part of which were to continue for two years, and the rest for four only. Pitt also introduced, in aid of the expenses of the armament, a variety of new regulations, to prevent the evasions and frauds practised in the taxes upon receipts and bills of exchange: these were to be permanent.