club was accordingly transmitted to the National Assembly, whose President duly acknowledged the favour conferred upon them.

At the time that public opinion took this direction, Mr. Pitt and his colleagues remained perfectly quiescent, and contented themselves with a renewal of their assurances of continued unity with France, without expressing either approbation or disapprobation of the measures of internal policy which the Government, or rather the National Assembly, had thought proper to adopt.

Such was the state of affairs, when the British Parliament elected in 1734 assembled for its last session on the 21st of January, 1790. The King's speech contained nothing remarkable. It slightly glanced at the affairs of France, in declaring that the internal situation of the different parts of Europe had been productive of events which had engaged his Majesty's most serious attention. Early indications, however, appeared of the light in which recent transactions in that kingdom were viewed by the English Government. Lord Valletort in moving the address, took occasion to contrast the tranquil and prosperous situation of England with the anarchy and licentiousness of France, and to denounce the revolution in that kingdom as an event the most disastrous, and productive of consequences the most fatal, which had ever taken place since the foundation of monarchy.

Soon aftewards upon the debate which took place upon the estimates, Mr. Burke observed, that on a review of Europe, he did not find that we stood in the smallest danger from any one state or kingdom it contained, nor that any foreign power, but our own allies were likely to obtain a preponderance in the scale. "France," said he, "has hitherto been our first object in all our considerations concerning the balance of power; but France is in a political light to be considered as expunged out of the system of Europe. Whether she could ever appear in it again as a leading power, was not easy to determine; but at present, he considered France as not politically existing, and most assuredly, it would take much time to restore her to her

former existence. It was said, as she had speedily fallen, she might speedily rise again. He doubted this. The fall from a height was with an accelerated velocity, and to lift a weight up to the height again it was difficult, and opposed by the laws of physical and political gravitation. In a political view, France was low indeed; she had lost every thing, even to her name. He was astonished at it, he was alarmed at it. He trembled at the uncertainty of all human greatness. The French had shewn themselves the ablest architects of ruin, that had hitherto appeared in the world. In one short summer they had completely pulled down to the ground their monarchy, their church, their law, their army, and their revenue. Were we absolute conquerors, and France to be prostrate at our feet, we should blush to impose upon them terms so destructive to all their consequences as a nation, as the durance they had imposed upon themselves. In the last age we were in danger of being entangled by the example, in the net of a relentless despotism; a despotism, indeed, proudly arrayed in manners, gallantry, splendour, magnificence, and even covered over with the imposing robes of science and literature. Our present danger from the example of a people, whose character knows no medium, is with regard to government, a danger from licentious violence, a danger of being led from admiration to imitation; of the excess of an unprincipled, plundering, ferocious, bloody, and tyranical democracy of a people, whose government is anarchy, and whose religion is atheism. They had made and recorded a sort of institute and digest of anarchy, called 'A Declaration of the Rights of Man,'" thus says he, "materially 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 ever been known to suffer. He felt some concern that the strange thing called, a Revolution in France should be compared with the glorious event, commonly called the Revolution in England. In truth, the circumstances of our revolution, as it was called, and that of France, were just the reverse of each other in almost every particular, and in the whole spirit

of the transaction. What we did, was in truth and substance, not a revolution made, but prevented. We took solid securities; we settled doubtful questions; we corrected anomalies in our laws. In the fundamental parts of our constitution, we made no revolution, no, nor any alteration at all. We did not impair the monarchy. The nation kept the same rank, the same subordinations, the same franchises, the same order in the laws, the revenues, and the magistracy; the same Lords, the same Commons, the same corporations, the same electors. The church was not impaired; her estates, her majesty, her splendour, her orders and gradations continued the same: she was preserved in her full efficiency, and cleared only of that indolence, which was her weakness and disgrace. Was little done then, because a revolution was not made in the constitution? No, every thing was done, because we began with reparation, not with ruin, instead of lying in a sort of epileptic trance, exposed to the pity or derision of the world for her wild, ridiculous, convulsive movements. The state of Great Britain was above the standard of her former self. All the energies of the country were awakened, and a new era of prosperity commenced, which is still continued, not only unimpaired, but receiving growth and improvement under the wasting hand of time.

Mr. Fox warmly expressed his total dissent from opinions so hostile to the general principles of liberty, and which he was grieved to hear from the lips of a man, whom he loved and revered, by whose precepts he had been taught, by whose examples he had been animated to engage in their defence. He vindicated the conduct of the French army, in refusing to act against their fellow citizens, from the aspersions of Mr. Burke, who had charged them with abetting an abominable sedition by mutiny and desertion, declaring that if he could view a standing military force with less constitutional jealousy than before, it was owing to the noble spirit manifested by the French army, who on becoming soldiers, had proved that they did not forfeit their character as citizens, and would not act as the mere instruments of a despot. The scenes of bloodshed and cruelty

that had been acted in France, no man could hear of without lamenting; but when the grievous tyranny that the people had so long groaned under, was considered, the excesses they had committed in their efforts to shake off the yoke could not excite our astonishment, so much as our regret. And as to the contrast which Mr. Burke had exhibited, respecting the mode in which the two revolutions in England and France were conducted, it must be remembered that the situations of the two kingdoms was totally different. In France, a free constitution was to be created; in England, it wanted only to be secured. If the fabric of government in England suffered less alteration, it was because it required less alteration. If the general destruction of the ancient constitution had taken place in France, it was because the whole system was radically hostile to liberty, and that every part of it breathed direfully the spirit of despotism.

The attention of the British people was at this time entirely directed to the progress of the French revolution, but it was on a sudden diverted into another quarter, by a royal message which Mr. Pitt brought down to the house, announcing circumstances which indicated the approach of war. It appears that the celebrated Captain Cook, in his last voyage of discovery, touching at several ports of the western coast of North America, purchased from the natives a number of valuable furs, bearing a high price in the Chinese markets. In order to encourage this branch of commerce, a spot of ground was in 1788 procured from the Indians, and a regular establishment defended by a slight fortification, formed at a place called Nootka Sound, situated about the 50th degree of north latitude. This was regarded by the Spaniards as an encroachment on their exclusive rights of sovereignty, and consequently the Princessa, a Spanish frigate, despatched for this purpose, by the Viceroy of Mexico in the following spring, seized upon the fort, and captured the English vessels, the Iphigenia and Argonaut, trading on the coast. The Spanish commandant, hoisting the national standard, declared that the whole line of coast from Cape Horn to the 60th degree of north latitude,

belonged to the King of Spain. After much delay, and loss, and vexation to the proprietors, the captured vessels were, however, restored by the Viceroy, on the assumption that nothing but ignorance of the rights of Spain could have induced the merchants in question, to attempt the establishment on the Of these particulars, the Court of Lendon had been. regularly informed by the Spanish ambassador, so long ago as the 10th of February, and his excellency 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, as being derogatory to the incontestable rights of the Crown of Spain. The claims of Spain in relation to the right of dominion and sovereignty in America, were in the highest degree chimerical. Charles III., however, died in December, 1788, and his son, Charles IV., the succeeding sovereign of Spain, confiding in the justness of his claim, offered to submit the decision to any one of the Kings of Europe, leaving the choice wholly to his Britannic Majesty. The reply of the court of London to the memorial of the Spanish ambassador, is said to have been unnecessarily haughty, and an atonement was demanded for a proceeding so injurious to Great Britain.

On the statement of the case in the royal message, the House of Commons unanimously voted an address to the King assuring his Majesty of their determination, to afford the most zealous and affectionate support, in such measures, as might become requisite for maintaining the dignity of the Crown, and the essential interests of his dominions. A vote of credit also passed the House, for the sum of £1,000,000, and a declaration of war against Spain was momentarily expected. Whether the British Government, was, or was not in reality, serious in its designs against Spain, was a question at that time, which engaged the attention of the political world. There was, however, a decided manifestation of hostility, for the most active exertions were made to get the Channel Fleet ready for sea, the command of which was given to Admiral