there were among them; but it is a question whether under the circumstances in which Lord North was placed, they could have guided the helm of the state with greater steadiness or greater skill.

THE NEW MINISTRY.

In the ranks of the opposition there were two parties: one which contended for the complete emancipation of the colonies; and the other, though opposed to the principle of taxation and the continuance of hostilities, which still wished to maintain the principle of supremacy over the colonies. At the head of the first of these parties was the Marquess of Rockingham, and of the second, the Earl of Shelburne. His majesty was still reluctant to acknowledge the independence of the colonists, and he, therefore, naturally looked to Lord Shelburne as the successor of Lord North. Accordingly Shelburne was sent for, and had the first post offered him; but his lordship informed his majesty that, in his opinion, no one could at present fill that situation except Lord Rockingham. A negociation was therefore set on foot with the Marquess, whose appointment was soon afterwards announced, with Lord Shelburne and Mr. Fox as secretaries of state. The other new ministers were Lord Camden, as president of the council; the Duke of Grafton, as keeper of the seal; Admiral Keppel, created viscount, as first lord of the admiralty; Lord John Cavendish, as chancellor of the exchequer; General Conway, as commander-in-chief; Mr. Dunning, created Lord Ashburton, as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; and the Duke of Richmond, as master-general of the ordnance. Lord Thurlow retained the great seal. The other departments of the state were filled by persons eminent for rank or talent. The Duke of Portland was sent out as lord-lieutenant of Ireland; Mr. Burke was made paymaster of the forces; Mr. T. Townshend became secretary at war, and Colonel Barré treasurer of the navy; Mr. Sheridan was under-secretary of state; Lord Howe, created viscount, was appointed to the command of the grand fleet; Mr. Kenyon and Mr. John Lee were made attorney and solicitor-general; and Sir William Howe was made lieutenant-general of the ordnance. The usual changes, also, took place in the royal household; at which the king was far more affected than he was by the total change in the ministry. It is said that William Pitt was offered the place of a lord of the treasury, which office he rejected with disdain. Be this as it may, Pitt, who had largely contributed to the overthrow of Lord North's cabinet, remained without post or situation. Pitt, however, probably consoled himself with the idea that the new ministry would not retain the reins of government for any length of period, and that on their ruin he might rise to the highest office in the state. From the very conditions, indeed, upon which the Marquess of Rockingham consented to form the new ministry, and to place himself at the head, it was clear that his administration would not be of long duration. These conditions were:-"Peace with the Americans, and the acknowledgment of their independence not to be a bar to the attainment of that object. A substantial reform in the several branches of the civil list expenditure, on the plan proposed by Mr. Burke. The diminution of the influence of the crown, under which article the bills for excluding contractors from seats in parliament, and disqualifying the revenue-officers from voting in the election of members, were included." These were arbitary measures to impose upon a monarch holding such sentiments as George III., and it was manifest to all men of discernment that the men who imposed them upon him could not hope to possess his confidence. Moreover, there were wide disagreements in the cabinet, as to the means of pursuing the first of these objects, and as to the lengths to which the others should be carried. Finally, mutual jealousies and dislikos existed between the inembers of the confederated

parties; and it required no prophetic eye to foresee that they would never act with that unanimity requisite for the establishment of their power. The issue was,

that " every day brought forth a new proof of that hatred which the parties composing this administration bore towards each other; the Rockinghams abused Lord Shelburne for want of good faith; and the reply of the Shelburnes was, that they were in no ways pledged to Lord Rockingham.”

AFFAIRS OF IRELAND.

In consequence of writs having to be issued for new elections, to replace such members as had vacated their seats by accepting office, parliament did not re-assemble until the 8th of April, on which day the new administration commenced the trial of their strength. The first measure of national importance which they brought forward, was the repeal of an act passed in the reign of George I., for securing the dependency of Ireland; and against which a loud clamour had been long raised in that country. This repeal, which was carried through both houses of parliament without a division, was virtually a renunciation of legislating for Ireland; and therefore gave great satisfaction to the whole body of the Irish people. This satisfaction was increased by the abolition of the power of suppressing or altering bills in the privy-council, and the limitation of the duration of the Mutiny Act to the term of two years. So gratified were the Irish with these concessions, that a vote of the house of commons in that kingdom passed unanimously for raising 20,000 seamen for the service of the British navy. The subject of Irish discontent was introduced into the British parliament by Mr. Luttrell, but it was the eloquence of Mr. Grattan which moved ministers to make these large concessions to Ireland. While they were hesitating as to the extent of the gifts which they should offer to allay the angry feelings that existed in that country, he set forth in a lofty tone of eloquence the rights of Ireland, and ministers wavered no more. The spirit of the Irish nation may be seen in the following portion of his speech. He remarked :-" I remember Ireland when she was a child, and have beheld her progress from injuries to arms-from arms to liberty. The Irish are no longer afraid of the French, nor of any nation; nor of any minister. If men turned their eyes to the rest of Europe, they would find the ancient spirit expired, liberty ceded, and empire lost: nations subsisting on the memory of past glory, and guarded by mercenary armies. But Ireland, quitting such examples, had become a model to them: she had excelled modern, and equalled ancient Europe. The meeting of delegates at Dungannon was a great event; and like all original measures, matter of surprise till it became matter of admiration. It may be compared to the English convention parliament, or the assembly of barons at Runnymede; all were original transactions, not flowing from precedent, but containing in themselves precedent and principle. Every great constitutional question would have been lost, the public would have been lost, had they depended only on parliament; but they had fallen into the hands of the people, and by the people they would be preserved. The Irish volunteers are associated for the preservation of the laws, but the claims of the British parliament are subversive of all law. The volunteers had supported the rights of the Irish parliament against those temporary trustees who would have relinquished them; but England had no reason to fear the Irish volunteers: they would die for England and her majestic race of Allied by liberty as well as allegiance, the two nations formed a constitutional confederacy: the perpetual annexation of the crown was one great bond, but liberty was a still greater. It would be easy to find a king, but impossible for Ireland to find a nation which could communicate to them a great charter, save only England. This made England a natural connexion; and every true Irishman would

men.

BILL FOR EXCLUDING CONTRACTORS, ETC.

It has been seen that bills for disabling revenue officers from voting at elections, and excluding contractors from the house of commons, had been repeatedly brought into parliament, and as repeatedly negatived. In order to acquire popularity ministers revived these bills, and they now passed with approbation and applause. And it seems to have been high time that such measures should have been adopted. In support of the former bill, the Marquess of Rockingham declared that the election chiefly depended on officers of the revenue in seventy boroughs, and that nearly 12,000 officers, created by the recent administration, possessed votes in other places. He argued that his situation, as first lord of the treasury, would be extremely uneasy if the bill were rejected, for he could not without remorse subject them through his influence to the necessity of voting against the dictates of gratitude and conscience. This was a curious argument, but it terminated the debate, and the bill passed. About the same time, also, Mr. Burke's Reform Bill was again brought forward, and after some warm opposition in the house of lords was adopted. By this bill the board of trade, the board of works, the great wardrobe, the office of American secretary of state, and many sinecure appointments were abolished.

RESOLUTIONS RESPECTING WILKES EX

PUNGED FROM THE JOURNALS.

During this session, Wilkes was successful in obtaining the erasure of the resolutions concerning the celebrated Middlesex election from the journals. The motion was made by himself and was seconded by Mr. Byng. It was opposed by Fox, the "man of the people," on the principle that the house of commons ought, for the advantage of electors, to have the privilege of expelling those whom they as representatives deemed unworthy of a seat. Elated with his triumph, Wilkes published a letter expressive of delight, but the people generally did not participate in his triumph. The sun of Wilkes's popularity had long gone down, and the people read his letter with indifference.

DISFRANCHISEMENT OF CRICKLADE, ETC.

A few days after the success of Wilkes an act was passed, by large majorities in both houses, for disfranchising many corrupt voters of the borough of Cricklade, and extending the right of suffrage to the freeholders of the hundred. This bill was strenuously opposed in the upper house by Lords Thurlow, Mansfield, and Loughborough. In the course of the debate the Duke of Richmond accused the lord-chancellor Thurlow, not without justice, of opposing every reform; and Lord Fortescue attacked the law lords in general, declaring that the dignity of the house was lowered and tarnished by their presence. All the above bills originated with the Rockingham party. Soon after, Lord Shelburne introduced a bill of his own, for compelling persons holding patent places in the colonies and foreign possessions to reside, and do something for their money, which was adopted.

DEBATES ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. Encouraged by the fate of Cricklade, and by petitions for parliamentary reform from the Livery of London, and the still existing county associations, on the 7th of May, Mr. William Pitt moved for a committee to inquire into the state of the representation in parliament, and to report their observations thereon to the house. The petitions which had been presented prayed for the abolition of the Septennial Act. Pitt did not adopt this prayer, but demanded the sweeping away of

representation. His motion was seconded by Alderman Sawbridge, and was warmly supported by Sir George Saville, Mr. Fox, and other Whig orators. It was opposed by Thomas Pitt, who declared rotten boroughs to be an essential working part of the constitution-a sentiment suggested by his being proprietor of the borough of Old Sarum. Mr. Powys also could not see any utility in the revisal of a system which had stood the test of ages; and Mr. Dundas thought that the inquiry promised no benefit, that it would lead to evil, and that it would be wiser to submit to certain irregularities in an established form of government, than by attempting the correction to hazard the safety of the whole fabric. The debate manifested that the Whig aristocracy, now in power, were as anxious to quash this inquiry as the Tories themselves could have been; and it is remarkable, that Burke, Townshend, and others were also adverse to the motion. On a division, however, the motion was rejected by a majority of twenty only; the numbers being one hundred and sixty-one against one hundred and forty-one.

EAST INDIA AFFAIRS.

A secret committee had been appointed to investigate the abuses of the Indian government. During this session several reports were presented to the house, when Mr. Dundas reviewed the state of the company and its servants, in the course of which he reprobated the spirit of ambition which provoked the native powers, in the hope of profiting by their conquest; the perfidy which produced violations of treaty; distress; and the misgovernment which generally prethe prodigality which had induced embarrassment and vailed in our Asiatic establishments. The reports led Rumbold, for high crimes and misdemeanours comto a bill of pains and penalties against Sir Thomas mitted in the Carnatic; to a vote of censure on Warren Hastings and Mr. Hornsby, president of Bombay; and Sir Elijah Impey from the office of chief-justice at to an address to his majesty, praying the removal of Bengal.

CHANGE IN THE MINISTRY.

During these proceedings in parliament Mr. Fox, who, before he became foreign secrerary, had insinuated in the commons that he possessed the means of detaching the Dutch from the French, offered to Holland a renewal of amity on the terms of the treaty of 1674. Mr. Fox had also been endeavouring to conclude a peace with the Americans, the chief terms of which were the recognition of the independence of the thirteen American colonies, and for the rest a status quo ante bellum. No progress had been made in these negociations-for they were obstructed by the great powers of Europe-when the Marquess of Rockingham died, which put an end to the cabinet. Immediately after his decease the king sent for Lord Shelburne, and placed him at the head of the cabinet, which so deeply offended the Rockingham party that they resigned: Fox, Burke, Lord John Cavendish, John Townshend, the Duke of Portland, as governor of Ireland, and others at the boards of treasury and admiralty instantly threw up office in disgust. In consequence of their resignations, Mr. Thomas Townshend was made foreign secretary; Lord Grantham obtained the secretaryship, which had been held by Lord Shelburne; William Pitt was raised to the post of chancellor of the exchequer; Colonel Barré was made paymaster of the forces, while Mr. Dundas was appointed treasurer of the navy in his room; Sir George Yonge succeeded Mr. Townshend as secretary of war; Lord Temple undertook the lieutenancy of Ireland; and Mr. Pepper Arden was made solicitor-general. The promotion which attracted most attention was that of

William Pitt, who was only twenty-three years of age, and who, by his promotion to the post of the chancellor of the exchequer, became leader of the house of commons; and that at a time when the pecuniary concerns of the country were, from the long and expensive war which still raged, in a state of great embarrassment. Fox and his associates were accused of heat and precipitancy, and of having committed the whole Whig cause by their sudden resignation, whence, on the 9th of July, Fox thought proper to defend his conduct in the house of commons; maintaining, that he and his colleagues could not act with honour and benefit to the country, either under or in conjunction with Lord Shelburne. In his speech, he arraigned the conduct of the new first-minister, and General Conway rose in his defence. While he lamented the retirement of Fox, Conway said, that in a cabinet of eleven ministers, there must be some shades of difference; but he denied that these were sufficient to justify the resignation of Fox and the other friends of the deceased marquess. Mr. Pitt was more severe in his remarks upon Fox than General Conway. He accused him of being more at variance with men than their measures, and of having resigned in pique and from disappointed ambition, rather than on any public ground. This language might have been just to a certain extent, but there were doubtless other reasons more cogent than pique and animosity for the retirement of Fox, as he was at this time in a desperate state of poverty. Be this as it may, the severity of Pitt was the commencement of a long conflict between him and Fox.

PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. Parliament was prorogued on the 11th of July. News had been recently received of a victory gained by Rodney, which restored the naval supremacy of England in the western world; of the relief of Gibraltar, and of the poverty and embarrassment of France and Spain, as well as the absolute pauperism of the American congress. Although, therefore, overtures had been made for peace with the Americans, on the basis of independence, yet, in his speech, the king did not show himself disposed to go thus far if it could be avoided. He remarked :-"Nothing can be more repugnant to my feelings than the long continuance of so complicated a war; but should the want of a corresponding disposition on the part of the enemy disappoint the hopes of terminating that calamity, I shall still rely on the spirit, affection, and unanimity of my parliament and people to support the honour of my crown and the interests of the nation. The most triumphant career of victory would not excite me to aim at more than reasonable terms of pacification; and I have the satisfaction to add, that I see no reason which should induce me to think of accepting less." Recent pages indeed show, that his majesty was always averse to a recognition of the independence of America, and if ever he had given his consent to the proposals Fox had made, it must have been wrung from him under a consciousness that his cause was hopeless. As for Lord Shelburne he still adhered to the dogma of Chatham, and was as averse to the independence o.' America as the king himself, whence there is a stronger reason than private pique and animosity that Fox should have resigned. Had he not done so he must have acted against his own conscience, which should ever be consulted by man, whether acting in a private or public capacity. He who acts against the dictates of his own conscience is unworthy of the public esteem or confidence.

VICTORY OF RODNEY.

All our leeward islands, except Barbadoes and Antigua, had been conquered by the enemy, after which the fleets of France and Spain projected an expedition

against Jamaica. A reinforcement was despatched under de Guichen, and Admiral Kempenfelt was too weak to intercept his progress. In the meantime Rodney arrived at Barbadoes, and soon after put to sea with the intention of joining Sir Samuel Hood, who had been vainly endeavouring to relieve the island of St. Christopher, which was assailed by the Count de Grasse, and a land force under the Marquis de Bouillé. Rodney met Hood returning from St. Christopher's, which had been captured in spite of his exertions to save it; and upon his information that de Grasse had proceeded to Martinique in order to prepare for a grand attack on Jamaica, Rodney sailed with the whole British fleet to St. Lucie, in order to watch his movements. On the 8th of April a signal announced that de Grasse was coming out from Fort Royal Bay, upon which Rodney weighed anchor, and set sail in pursuit of him. At day-break on the following morning the enemy was discovered at Dominique, but continued calms prevented a close action. The van of the English, indeed, engaged the rear of the French; but a breeze springing up, de Grasse took advantage of it, and sailed away. Rodney, however, still pursued, and towards the evening of the 11th the headmost ships of the van gained so much on one or two of the enemy's ships, which had been damaged in the recent engagement, that de Grasse thought it necessary to bear down for the purpose of protecting them. Rodney now hoped to force him to battle; but as it was evening, he called in the foremost ships, and forming a close line of battle, he plied to windward all night. By this movement, however, he prevented the retreat of the enemy, and on the morning of the 12th the two fleets, ranged in opposite lines, engaged with the greatest fury. The fleets were about of an equal number, but the ships of de Grasse were of higher rates than the British, and had superior weight of metal. Victory was long held in suspense, but about noon Rodney exccuted a manoeuvre, which had never before been practised in naval tactics, and which was attended with complete success. Taking advantage of a freshening breeze which sprung up, his own ship, the Formidable, supported by the Namur, the Duke, and the Canada, bore down with all sail set on the enemy's line, within three ships of the centre, and succeeded in breaking it. By this manœuvre the French line was broken and thrown into confusion, and the rest of the division following, Rodney wore round and doubled on the enemy, by which those ships which had been separated from the others were placed between two fires, without hope of assistance. The battle, notwithstanding, lasted till sunset, at which time Rodney's exertions were crowned with complete success. Six of the enemy's ships, among which was the Ville de Paris, de Grasse's own ship, were captured; one was sunk, and another blew up; and the shattered remains crowded all the sail they could make for Cape François, and in the morning were out of sight. Sir Samuel Hood was despatched in pursuit of the fugitive ships, and coming up with five sail off Porto Rico, he captured two ships of the line and two frigates. Thus, in the whole, the French lost ten ships of the line and two frigates, and the victory was considered as one of the most decisive ever obtained by the naval prowess of Britain. The loss of the French, in killed and wounded, was terrible. Their ships were crowded with land-troops, who only served to swell the carnage: their killed alone is estimated at 3000 men, and their wounded at double that number; so that, taking the prisoners on board the captured ships into computation, they must have sustained a loss of nearly 12,000 men. On the side of the British the loss, in killed, was less than two hun dred and fifty, and in wounded about 700. By the victory Jamaica was saved, and the dominion of the ocean recovered, and the intelligence of it excited great exultation among all ranks of people. Sir George Rodney received the unanimous thanks of parliament, with a peerage, and a perpetual annuity of £2000 was