factures much affected. The profusion attending the war was complained of; and parliament was requested, previous to the raising of any new taxes, to enquire into, and correct the abuse of expenditure in the public money; to reduce exorbitant emoluments, abolish sinecure places and unmerited pensions, and apply the produce to the exigencies of the state. This petition was followed by others of a similar kind from twentyseven of the principal counties and most of the large towns in England. The ministry, however, continued firm and undaunted. Previous to the taking any of the petitions into consideration, they insisted on going through the business of the supply, by determining the ways and means; nor did either the number of English petitions, or an additional one from the island of Jamaica setting forth the extreme danger that island was in, make them alter their resolution. At last, in the beginning of February 1780, a plan was brought forward by Mr. Burke, for securing the independency of parliament, and introducing economy into the various departments of government. This plan, among other things, proposed the abolition of the offices of treasurer, comptroller, and cofferer of the household; treasurer of the chamber, master of the househould, the board of green cloth, with several other places under the steward of the household; and removing the great wardrobe, the jewel office, the robes, board of works, and the civil branch of the board of ordnance. Other reformations were also proposed; but though the temper of the times obliged the minister to admit the bills, and even to pretend an approbation of the plan, he meant nothing less than to admit it in its full extent, or indeed in any part, if it could be prevented. When the plan, therefore, which he had approved in general, came to be particularly considered, he was found to be determined against every part of it. The general temper of the people, without doors, however, seemed now to have affected many of the members of parliament, and made them desert their old standard. An economical plan, proposed in the house of lords by the duke of Shelburne, was rejected only by a majority of 101 to fifty-five. This was the strongest opposition that had appeared in that house for many years; but in the lower house the strength of ministers was still more on the decline. The first proposition in Mr. Burke's plan was to abolish the office of secretary of state for the colonies; and the utmost efforts of ministry could preserve this office only by a majority of 208 to 201. The board of trade was abolished by 207 to 198; but this was the only defeat sustained by ministry at this time; all the rest of the plan being rejected, excepting only one clause, by which it was determined that the of fices of lieutenant and ensign, &c., belonging to the yeomen of the guards, should not any longer be sold, but given to officers in the army and navy on half pay, and of fifteen years standing in their respective lines of service. Administration, however, had a still greater defeat to meet with than what they had experienced in the abolition of the board of trade. The 6th of April 1780 was the day appointed for taking into consideration the numerous petitions, from half the king

dom of England. They were introduced by Mr. Dunning; who, in a very elaborate speech, set forth the many attempts that had been made to introduce reformation and economy into the plans of government. These had been defeated by ministerial artifice, or overthrown by mere dint of numbers: he concluded therefore, and moved as a resolution of the house, That the influence of the crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished. This motion being carried, after a long and violent debate, he next moved, that the house of commons was as competent to examine into and correct abuses in the expenditure of the civil list, as in any other branch of the public revenue. To this another was added by Mr. Thomas Pitt, that it was the duty of the house to provide an immediate and effectual redress of the abuses complained of in the petitions. The ministry. now requested that nothing farther might be done that night: but such was the temper of the house, that both these motions were carried without a division; after which they were read a first and second time, and agreed to without a division.

Ministry had never received such a complete defeat, nor ever had been treated with so much asperity of language. The news of the proceedings of this day were received by the people at large with as much joy as if the most complete victory over a foreign enemy had been announced. Opposition, however, though masters of the field at present, did not imagine, they had obtained any permanent victory, and therefore resolved to make the most of the advantages they had gained. It was moved by Mr. Dunning, at the next meeting, that to ascertain the independence of parliament, and remove all suspicions of its being under undue influence, there should, every seven days after the meeting of parliament, be laid before that house an account of all the sums issued out of the civil list, or any other branch of the revenue, since the last recess, in favour of any of its members. This passed with little difficulty; but when he moved that the treasurers of the chamber and household, the cofferer, comptroller, and master of the household, with the clerks of the green cloth, and their deputies, should be excluded from having seats in the house, a warm debate ensued; and the motion was carried only by 215 to 213. This was the last triumph of the popular party; their next motion, for the exclusion of revenue officers, being thrown out by 224 against 195. A last effort was made by Mr. Dunning's proposal of an address to the throne against proroguing or dissolving the parliament, until measures had been taken to prevent the improper influence complained of in the petitions. On this occasion the debates were long and violent; but the motion was lost by 254 against 203. Ministry would gladly have screened their friends from the vengeance of opposition: alleging the lateness of the hour, it being then past midnight. The speaker of the house, however, perceiving Mr. Fox about to rise, insisted that the house should remain sitting; and thus the deserters from the popular party were condemned to hear their conduct set forth in such terms as perhaps were never applied, on

they exerted themselves with so much activity, that the principal gentlemen of the Catholic persuasion thought it requisite, for their safety, to convey an intimation to the British ministry, that they were desirous to drop the application they had proposed to make. They published also, in the newspapers, the representation they had made to ministry; hoping thereby to convince the public, that they were sincerely desirous to remove any cause of dissatisfaction on their own account, and to submit to any inconveniency sooner than occasion disturbance. But matters were now gone too far to be conciliated by any means. On the 2d of February, 1779, the populace of Edinburgh attacked and set on fire a house, just built by a Roman Catholic bishop, which was intended to contain a place of worship. They next day gutted another house in Blackfriars' Wynd, that had a popish chapel attached; after which they proceeded to vent their resentment on several individuals of that persuasion, by destroying their property. The next objects of their vengeance were those who had patronised the Roman Catholics. They beset the houses of principal Robertson and Mr. Crosby; but the friends of both came to their assistance in such numbers, and so well prepared, that they did not dare to exercise the violence they had premeditated: and this put an end to the attempts of the mob at Edinburgh. But the spirit of dissatisfaction at the indulgence extended to the Roman Catholics remained in great force in England: and a society was formed in London, which took the title of the Protestant Association, of which lord George Gordon, who had been conspicuous in this business in Scotland, was elected president. It now prepared to act in a decisive manner against the resolutions of the legislature. On the 29th of May, 1780, the associates held a meeting to settle in what manner they should present a petition to the house of commons against the repeal of the penal statutes. A long speech was made on this occasion by their president, who represented the Romish persuasion as gaining ground rapidly in this country; that the only method of stopping its progress was to go up with a spirited remonstrance to their representatives, and to tell them, in plain and resolute terms, that they were determined to preserve their religious freedom with their lives, &c. This harangue being received with the loudest applause, he moved that the whole body of the association should meet on the 2d of June, in St. George's Fields, at ten o'clock in the morning, to accompany him to the house of commons on the delivery of the petition. This being assented to, he informed them, that if he found himself attended by fewer than 20,000, he would not present the petition. He then directed them to form themselves into four divisions; the first, second, and third, to consist of those who belonged to the City, Westminster, and Southwark; the fourth of the Scotch residents in London. They were, by way of distinction, to wear blue cockades in their hats. Three days previous to the presentation of the petition, he gave notice of it to the house, and of the manner in which it was to be presented. On the 2d of June, about 50,000 or 60,000 of the poVOL. X.

pulace assembled in St. George's Fields. They drew up in four separate divisions, as had been agreed, and proceeded to Westminster, with lord George Gordon at their head. An immense roll of parchment was carried before them, containing the petition. On their arrival they compelled several members of both houses to put blue cockades in their hats, and call out No Popery.' They forced them to take an oath that they would vote for the repeal of the popery act, as they styled it, and treated others with great indignity, posting themselves in all the avenues to both houses; they had even the audacity more than once to endeavour to break open the doors. Several members of the house of lords narrowly escaped with their lives. During these disturbances, lord George Gordon moved for leave to bring up the petition. This was granted; but, when he proposed it should be taken into immediate consideration, it was strenuously opposed by almost the whole house. Enraged at this, he came out several times to the people during the debates, acquainting them how averse the house appeared from granting their petition, and naming particularly those who had spoken against it. Several members expostulated with him in the warmest terms on this unjustifiable conduct; and one of his relations, colonel Gordon, threatened to run him through the moment any of the rioters should force their way into the house. After some hours, during which the house could carry on none of its deliberations with regularity, the members were relieved by the arrival of a party of the guards. Order being restored, the business of the petition was resumed; when lord George Gordon told them it had been signed by nearly 120,000 British Protestant subjects. He therefore insisted that the petition should be considered without delay. But the commons continued immovable in their determination. Of 200 members, then present in the house, six only voted for it. In the mean time the mob had dispersed themselves into various parts of the metropolis, where they demolished two Romish chapels belonging to foreign ministers; and openly vented the most terrible menaces against all people of that persuasion. On the 4th of June they assembled in great numbers in the eastern parts of London; and attacked the chapels and houses of the Roman Catholics, stripping them of their contents, which they threw into the street, or committed to the flames. They renewed their outrages on the following day, destroying several Romish chapels, and demolishing the house of Sir George Saville, in resentment of his having brought into parliament the bill in favor of the Catholics. Next day both houses met as usual; but, finding that no business could be done, they adjourned to the 19th. During the 6th and 7th of June, the rioters were absolute masters of the metropolis and its environs. Some of those who had been concerned in the demolition of the chapels belonging to foreign ministers, having been seized and sent to Newgate, the mob collected before that prison, and demanded their immediate release. On being refused, they proceeded to throw firebrands and all kinds of combustibles into the keeper's house;

2 I

which communicated to the prison; so that this immense pile was soon in flames. In this scene of confusion the prisoners, amounting to about 300, were all released; among whom were several under sentence of death. The mob set fire, in the same manner, to the King's Bench and Fleet prisons, and to a number of houses belonging to Roman Catholics. The terror excited by these incendiaries was such, that most people hung out of their windows pieces of blue silk, the color assumed by the rioters; and chalked on their doors and shutters the words, 'No Popery.' The night of the 7th of June concluded these horrors. No less than thirty-six different conflagrations were counted at the same time. The bank had been threatened, and was twice assailed; but happily was too well guarded for their attempts. In the evening, large bodies of troops arrived from all parts, and came in time to put a stop to the progress of the rioters. The king having, under his sign manual, directed that the troops should not scruple to act, they dispersed them every where; but it was not until the afternoon of the 8th, that the people began to recover from their consternation. During great part of the day, the disorders of the preceding night had created so terrible an alarm, that the shops were almost universally shut. The melancholy effects of misguided zeal were not, however, confined to London. The outrageous disposition of the populace was preparing to act the like horrid scenes in other parts of England. The mob rose in Hull, Bristol, and Bath; but, through the timely interposition of the magistracy, these places were saved from their fury.

On the subsiding of this violent commotion, lord George Gordon was arrested, and committed close prisoner to the Tower, and on the 19th of June both houses met according to adjournment. The speech from the throne, acquainting them with the measures that had been taken in consequence of the disturbances, and assuring them of the utmost readiness to concur in whatever could contribute to the safety and maintenance of the laws and liberties of the people, was highly approved; but the conduct of administration was severely censured, and charged with unpardonable neglect for not calling forth the civil power, and employing the military in due time. Ministry excused themselves, from the want of sufficient strength to answer all the demands of assistance that were made during the riots, and the absolute impossibility of suppressing them till the arrival of troops from the country. The various petitions were now taken into consideration, that had been presented for the repeal of the act which had occasioned the riots; but the house continued in the same mind. Nevertheless it was thought proper to yield somewhat to the prejudices of the people, by passing a bill for preventing persons of the Popish persuasion from teaching or educating the children of Protestants; but this was afterwards thrown out by the lords. Nothing could have happened more opportunely for the ministry than these riots; for such was the terror occasioned by them, that the ardor which had appeared for promoting popular meetings, and opposing the measures of government, was in a great degree suppressed.

Even the country meetings were represented as having a tendency, like the Protestant association, to bring on insurrections and rebellions. Many began to consider all popular meetings as extremely dangerous; and, among the commercial and monied people, there was no small number who were so panic struck, that all attention to the principles of the constitution was over-ruled by their extreme anxiety for the preservation of their property. Indeed the friends of the association did not hesitate to allege, that the riots had been secretly encouraged by ministry to produce these consequences.

In the debate in the house of lords on the subject of the riots, the duke of Richmond expressed his hopes, that some of his majesty's ministers would give their lordships assurances, that the measures taken to suppress them were defensible only upon the ground of necessity: and that what was illegally done, on that ground, would be cured by an act of indemnity. Other observations were thrown out relative to the king's prerogative and military law: upon which lord Mansfield observed, that neither the king's prerogative nor military law, had any thing to do with the conduct of government, in their endeavours to quell the late outrages. All men, of all ranks, descriptions, and denominations, were bound, by their oath of allegiance, to interpose for the prevention of acts of high treason, or felony, wherever any attempts to perpetrate such crimes were made in their presence; and were criminal if they did not do it. In the whole of these proceedings, therefore, the military had not acted in their technical capacity as military, but had merely exercised their duty as members of civil society. When a body of men were convened, without proceeding to the actual perpetration of treasonable or felonious acts, then, by a clause in the riot act, the presence of the civil magistrate was necessary, before the military could interpose; and for this reason, that, as no acts of felony were committed, they could have no plea in their civil character for interfering with them. But, by the statute law of the country, it became felonious in any combination of men to persevere in that combination, after the riot act had been read by a justice of the peace; and this being done, then, and not till then, they had a constitutional reason for their interposition; namely, the privilege and duty of hindering the commission of felony, whenever they had it in their power. This being, therefore, the plain voice of the law, his lordship did not see how any prerogative of the king had been exercised, nor how military law had been established. Many persons, however, were alarmed at the dangerous precedent which the late exertions of the military afforded. Among others, Sir George Saville, in an address to his constituents some time afterwards, declared, that he considered them as 'fully, effectually, and absolutely, under the discretion and power of a military force, which was to act without waiting for the authority of the civil magistrates.' A letter written by lord Amherst to lieutenant colonel Twisleton, who commanded the troops employed in London for the suppression of the riots, and which was understood to be an order for disarm

ing the citizens, was also much canvassed in both houses of parliament.

We now return to the operations of the war, which, notwithstanding the powerful confederacy against Great Britain, seemed to be decidedly in her favor. The Spaniards had begun their military operations by the siege of Gibraltar, but with very little success (see GIBRALTAR); and the close of the year 1779 and beginning of 1780 were attended with some considerable naval advantages to Great Britain. On the 18th December, 1779, the fleet under the command of Sir Hyde Parker in the West Indies took nine sail of French merchant ships, which, with several others, were under the convoy of some ships of war; and about the same time several other vessels were taken by his squadron. On the 8th January 1780 Sir G. B. Rodney, who had been intrusted with the command of a fleet, one object of the destination of which was the relief of Gibraltar, fell in with twenty-two sail of Spanish ships, and in a few hours the whole were taken. On the 16th he engaged, near Cape St Vincent, another Spanish fleet, of eleven ships of the line, and two frigates, under Don Juan de Langara. The Spaniards made a gallant defence; but four of their largest ships were taken, and carried into Gibraltar: viz, the Phoenix of eighty guns and 700 men, on board which was the admiral; the Minorca, of seventy guns and 600 men; the Princessa, of seventy guns and 600 men; and the Diligente of seventy guns and 600 men. Two other seventy gun ships were also taken; but one of them was driven on shore on the breakers and lost. Four ships of the line escaped, and the two frigates; and in the course of the action the St. Domingo, a Spanish ship of seventy guns, and 600 men, was blown up. The five men of war taken were remarkably fine ships. On the 20th March there was an action in the West Indies between some French and English men of war, the former under the command of M. de la Mothe Picquet, and the latter, being part of Sir Peter Parker's squadron, under that of commodore Cornwallis. The engagement was maintained on both sides with great spirit; but the French at length gave up the contest, and made the best of their way for Cape François. Admiral Rodney having arrived in the West Indies, and taken upon him the command of his majesty's ships at the Leeward Islands, an action was fought between him and the French fleet under the command of count de Guichen, on the 17th of April. The British squadron consisted of twenty ships of the line, besides frigates; and the French fleet of twentythree ships of the line, and several frigates. The action began a little before one, and continued till about a quarter after four P. M.. Admiral Rodney was on board the Sandwich, a ninety gun ship, which beat three of the French ships out of their line, and entirely broke it. But such was at length the crippled condition of the Sandwich, and of several other ships, that it was impossible to pursue the French. The victory was, indeed, claimed on both sides; but no ship was taken on either; and the French retired to Guadaloupe. Admiral Rodney's ship, the Sandwich, had suffered so much, that for twenty-four hours she was with difficulty kept above water. Of the

British there were killed in this engagement 120, and 353 were wounded. On the 15th May another action happened between the same commanders, but only a few ships were engaged, which soon separated. The fleets met a third time in an indecisive action of the 19th of the same month. In June, admiral Geary, who commanded on this station, took twelve valuable merchant ships bound, from Port au Prince to Bourdeaux and other ports of France: but in August a very important and unexpected capture was made by the Spaniards. Captain Moutray, who had under his command the Ramilies of seventy-four guns and two frigates, with many vessels bound for the East and West Indies under convoy, had the misfortune to fall in with the combined fleets of France and Spain, which had sailed from Cadiz the preceding day. The Ramilies and the two frigates escaped; but the rest were so completely surrounded, that five East Indiamen were taken, and fifty merchant ships. Their cargoes were extremely valuable : and it was one of the most complete naval captures ever made. The Spaniards on this occasion behaved to their prisoners with great humanity; and made a suitable freturn for the generous treatment which their countrymen had experienced from admiral Rodney. As some compensation, the British took about this time Fort Omoa from the Spaniards, where upwards of 3,000,000 of dollars were gained by the victors, and, among other valuable commodities, twenty-five quintals of quicksilver, without which the Spaniards could not extract the precious metals from their ores.

And now arose a formidable confederacy of the northern powers under the title of the Armed Neutrality. Of this confederacy the late Catherine II. of Russia declared herself the head; and her plan was intimated on the 26th February 1780, in a declaration addressed to the courts of London, Versailles, and Madrid. In this declaration it was observed, that, though from the conduct of her imperial majesty, it might have been hoped, that her subjects would have been allowed peaceably to enjoy the fruits of their industry, and of the advantages belonging to all neutral nations, experience had proved the contrary; her imperial majesty's subjects had been often molested in their navigation, and retarded in their operations, by the ships and privateers of the belligerent powers. Her imperial majesty therefore declared, that she found herself under the necessity of removing those vexations which were offered to the commerce of Russia, as well as to the liberty of commerce in general, by all means compatible with her dignity and the welfare of her subjects: but before she came to any serious measures, and in order to prevent all new misunderstandings, she thought it just and equitable to expose to the eyes of all Europe the principles which she had adopted for her conduct, and which were contained in the following propositions: 1. That neutral ships should enjoy a free navigation, from port to port, and on the coasts of the belligerent powers. 2. That all effects belonging to the subjects of the belligerent powers should be looked upon as free on board such neutral ships, excepting only such