informed of the ftrength of the plea, and therefore they would not Itay to give judgment on it; and they accordingly quitted the House. The chief magiftrate faid, that he looked upon his cafe as already pre-judged, and would therefore add nothing to what he had before urged in his defence.

It was then faid, that though his crimes were of a higher nature than thofe of Mr. Oliver, yet in confideration of his ill ftate of health, it should only be moved to take him into the cuftody of the Serjeant at Arms. This intended favour was utterly disclaimed by the Lord Mayor, who faid, he wifhed for none; and that whatever flate his health might be in, he gloried in undergoing the fame fate with his friend. The motion was accordingly amended, and the question for his commitment to the Tower, carried by 202 against 39; the populace took his horfes from the coach, and drew it to Templebar, though it was then midnight; and having conceived fome fufpicion of the deputy Serjeant at Arms who attended him, when they got there they fhut the gates, and informed his Lordship that his company, had been drawn to the utmoft extent of their boundaries, and that they must now immediately get out the chief magiftrate comprehended the full extent of the danger they were in, and pledged his honour that the gentlemen with him were his particular friends, who were to accompany him home; upon which they pro ceeded to the Manfion-houfe with loud huzzas.

The miniftry had been frequently attacked for directing the whole weight of this profecution against

two only of the magiftrates, while Mr. Wilkes, who was equally concerned with them, and had led the way in oppofing the effects of the proclamation, was allowed to triumph in his contumacy. They' were repeatedly afked, whether they confidered him as above or below the law; whether it was fear or contempt that procured an im-. punity to him, in a caufe for which others were perfecuted with fuch unremitted violence.

It seemed indeed that they were very cautious of involving themfelves with that gentleman. He had been ordered to attend; upon which he wrote a letter, directed to the Speaker, that no notice had been taken in the order of his being a member, nor that his attendance had not been defired in his place, both of which were indifpenfibly neceffary; that he now, in the name of his conftituents, demanded his feat in parliament, when he would give a full detail of his conduct in this tranfaction, which would confequently amount to a compleat juftification of it. This letter was offered to the Speaker in the House, by a member; but upon an idea of informality, after occafioning a long debate, it was neither received, nor admitted to be read. Other orders were iffued for his attendance, of which he took no notice; and at length, a few days before the recefs at Eafter, he was ordered to attend on the 8th of April: at the fame time knowing that he would not attend, and not knowing how to punish his contumacy, they had got into a great difficulty. No expedient occurred for freeing them-felves from it, except one, that was more neceffary than honourable.

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The

to the navigation of that part of the Thames. Befides the evident advantages of fo plaufible a pretext, the introducing it as a public concern, precluded the opinion of the Judges, which would have been otherwife called for as to the legality of title, in a question that affected private property. The bill was ftrongly fupported, and was carried with eafe through both Houfes, though the city of London perfevered in oppofing it through every ftate of its progrefs. It was however productive of a proteft in the House of Lords, and of a petition from the city, to prevent its receiving the royal affent, in which, among many ftrong expreffions, and complaints of the violence and injuftice of the tranfaction, it is declared to be without a precedent in the annals of this kingdom; and that the petitioners are at least as anxious upon his Majefty's account as their own, that his reign fhould not be dishonoured by an act of power, enormous in the prefent inftance, and beyond imagination fatal in its example. It was also ranked among the principal grievances, that were complained of in the remonftrance that was prefented (fome time after the prorogation) for the diffolution of the parliament.

The bill brought in this feffion, for the more effectually enabling the Eaft India Company, to raife and fupport a military force for the defence and protection of their fettlements, was a subject of confiderable difcuffion, and feemed very near being carried into effect. It was propofed that a regiment or body of 2000 men fhould be raised, the officers to be appointed by the King, but paid by the Com

pany; that this body fhould be compofed of 600 German Proteftants, 700 Irish Catholics, and 700 English; that they were to be fubject to the military laws during their continuance in England; that 1400 of them fhould be sent annually to the Eaft Indies; and that the Company's officers fhould have liberty to recruit with beat of drum, in the manner practised by the regular forces.

The principal objections to this bill were, its being unconftitutional to keep an armed power in the kingdom that was independent of parliament in refpect to its pay; that the introducing of foreign forces was contrary to the act of fettlement; the danger of eftablifhing fuch a precedent; that fuch mercenaries having no natural intereft in the country, were always at the beck of power ready for any fervice, and though the number was at firft inconfiderable, it was eafily feen, how by degrees, and under various plaufible pretences, they might be augmented in any degree; that befides, when they came to be quartered upon the people, there was no answering for the confequences which a meafure fo odious and deteftable to them might produce. That exclufive of thefe confiderations, it would throw too great an additional power into the hands of the crown, by the appointment of fuch a number of officers; and that it would be utterly deftructive of the recruiting fervice for the army, as the apparent temptations for enlifting would be much higher on the fide of the Company.

It was answered, that the Company had a right by their charter to fend out any number of men [E] 4

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they thought proper, and that for the laft feven years they had at a medium fent 2000 recruits annually to India; but that the prefent manner of raifing these men, was not only attended with great lofs and danger to the Company, but with the deteftable practices car ried on by kidnappers, and in what are called lock-up houfes, which though juftly odious to the public, cannot be prevented, in the prefent mode of recruiting their forces; and that parliament had fome years ago given a promife, or even made a kind of agreement, to grant the Company aid in this refpect,

Several modifications were propofed; it was agreed to drop the idea of recruiting with Germans; that the pay and encouragement given to the Company's forces, while in England, fhould be reftrained to the fame limits with 'thofe of the national troops. It was alfo propofed that this body fhould be ftationed in the islands of Jerfey or Guernsey; but this met with many objections. The bill was, however, carried through two readings by a confiderable majority, but was rejected upon the third. It was in general oppofed by the military gentlemen.

Such were the principal tranfactions of this feffion of parliament; equally remarkable for the variety of the bufinefs, and the importance of the fubjects that were difcuffed in it. In the fpeech from the throne, May 8th, it was obferved, that the fatisfaction given by his Catholic Majefty, together with the

appearances of a fincere difpofition in the courts of France and Spain, to preferve the general tranquility, had made a reduction of the forces by fea and land eligible. That the zeal they had fhewn upon the apprehension of a rupture, muft convince the world of their affectionate attachment to his Majefty, and of their conftant regard for the true intereft of their country; and that upon that fupport he fhould always rely for the defence of his honour, and for the fecurity of the rights of the people. An acknowledgment was made for the unanimity, cheerfulness, and public fpirit, with which the fupplies had been granted. It concluded with a particular exhortation, to ufe their best endeavours in their feveral ftations and counties, to difcourage and fupprefs all groundlefs fufpicions" and domestic disturbances; and it was earneftly wifhed, that the fúbjects might not be prevented, by any miftakes, or animofities among themselves, from enjoying in the fulleft extent, the bleffings of a mild and legal government; that the fupport of the constitution was a common duty and intereft; and by that ftandard it was wifhed, that the people would try all public principles and profeffions, and to look upon thofe as their most dangerous enemies, who, under any pretence whatfoever, would perfuade them to violate thofe laws, and undermine that authority, which the conflitution had provided, for the purpose of preferving the general liberty and happinefs,

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HE war upon the Danube feemed to languish in the beginning of the campaign. The conquerors as well as the vanquifhed were exhaufted. The great victories gained by the Ruffians were not bloodlefs on their fide; and the loss of men by fickness, and the various incommodities that attended the carrying on of a war at fo great a distance from home, was prodigious. As the neighbouring provinces were ruined by the war, the means of fubfiftence became more difficult in proportion to its length, and the expences, of course, enormous. Loans were negociated in foreign countries at a high intereft; nor were the attempts to procure money by that means every where fuccefsful.

The different pofts which the adverse armies poffeffed on the Danube, together with that fpirit of enterprize on the one fide, which is always the confequence of fuccefs, were however productive of feveral fmall engagements, in which the fortune of Ruffia generally preferved its ufual fuperiority. Of these we have but few particulars, nor were they productive of any

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confequences that make them very interefting. We find that in the month of March, a confiderable body of Turks, faid to amount to 10,000, were beaten out of Giurgewo, on the Walachian fide of the Danube, where they were ftrongly entrenched, under the cover of a caftle well furnished with cannon. The Turks are reprefented upon this occafion to have made a moft obftinate defence, and the action to have been very bloody on both fides. Some of the Ruffian officers, particularly General Weifman, undertook fome defultory expeditions to the Bulgarian fide of the river, in which, from the relaxation of difcipline, and the want of vigilance on the fide of the enemy, they met with great fuccefs in furprizing feveral of their pofts, routing their parties, and deftroying their magazines.

The conqueft of Crim Tartary was undoubtedly the great object of this campaign. It was however neceffary that the grand army fhould be formed upon the Danube, for the protection of the new conquefts; but it would have been neither good policy, nor does it seem to