which resisted the united efforts of the Anglo-Corsicans and English till the 24th of May, when it capitulated on honourable terms; and the whole island, excepting Calvi, which held out till August, submitted to the English. Letters of convocation were immediately issued for the assembly of the General Consulta, to be held at the Corte, the ancient capital of Corsica, on Sunday, the 8th of June: General Paoli was elected president. The representatives of the Corsican nation immediately voted the union of Corsica with the British crown; a constitutional act was framed accordingly; and Sir Gilbert Elliot, representative of his Britannic Majesty, formally accepted this act on his part, and immediately assumed the title of viceroy.

We have thus traced the Duke of York in his inglorious career, but before resuming the thread of our historical narrative, we may be allowed, perhaps, to expose the danger which impends over this country by the extent of the influence, which the Crown possesses in the choice of our commanders, both naval and military, and which was never more culpably nor injuriously employed, than in the appointment of the Duke of York to the command of a British army. It has undoubtedly been the chief aim of the majority of the Ministers of the Crown to extend its influence, but we do not hesitate to assert that of all his predecessors, Pitt was the most criminal in the extension of the influence of the Crown, and the most base in the use which he made of it. He maintained his power over a corrupt and venal Parliament, by the power of his patronage, and the reckless manner in which he distributed it, tended in no little degree to consummate the ruin which he ultimately brought upon the country. He had the wisdom of his illustrious father before him, which ought to have been the object of his greatest reverence, and have warned him with earnestness to shun the evils of a still farther accumulation of the influence of the Crown. To the penetrating eye of Lord Chatham the danger was plainly visible long before the close of his life. His own victorious administration had increased it in a very considerable degree, and he lived to feel the per

nicious effects of that increase. But with a magnanimous zeal for liberty, and an almost prophetic prescience of events, he distinctly pointed out to his countrymen the approaching danger, and prescribed in timely reform, the means of averting it. By this conduct, the most successful Minister of Great Britain was dignified by the more valuable and lasting praise of philosophic patriotism. Thus enlightened by the precepts of an illustrious father, the son succeeded to a seat in the Cabinet, soon after the expulsion of Lord North, when even the sordid Parliament of that Minister, had recently declared that the immense accumulation of patronage must be diminished. From the younger Pitt no further augmentation of the fund of corruption was dreaded by the nation, and shortly after that rise in his exaltation to ministerial supremacy, he was received by the friends of freedom with acclamations of joy. They then fondly presaged, that an effectual barrier to liberty against the inroads of despotism, would be the work of his administration; and in the early part of it, when the bloom of youth and virtue was fresh upon him, he gave his Countrymen the promise of noble deeds, which seemed to justify their partial attachment. But blasted by the poisonous effects of power, the bloom quickly withered and decayed, and every generous purpose, impressed by parental authority, and avowed by the zeal of his own approving heart, gave way to the lust of selfish ambition. Instead of the protector of their rights, the people found him their determined enemy. Instead of renovating what was infirm in the constitution, he audaciously impaired what he found sound and vigorous. Under his direction, the fund of influence received a rapid extension; the debts and taxes of the public, its establishments civil and military, were increased in a prodigious degree, and those dreaded instruments of depotism were wielded by the Minister, with a skill and ability which doubled and trebled their force. Dexterous and bold, he seized every advantage, and made every event, in some mode available to his purpose. Nothing was so minute as to escape the vigilance of his eye; nothing was so vast, so difficult or perilous as to intimidate the daring

intrepidity of his mind. Artful and successful in the greater operations of coalitions with powerful men, in the smaller appointments of office, he was equally attentive and exact. In the distribution of honours, titles, ribands, and garters, though more profuse than the most unscrupulous of his predecessors, he succeeded in supporting the value of those baubles and the coinage of their inexhaustible mint, however copiously emitted, was still covetted, and still undepreciated. How dangerous were his talents! how fatal was his administration?

Pitt was the genius of despotism, and horrible strides did he make during the whole of that fatal administration, in throwing down the liberties of the people. His immoderate pursuit of conquest and territorial aggrandizement, was but the steppingstone to the exercise of that influence which he had obtained, and the weight thus rashly thrown into the scale of monarchy, gave the Crown that degree of preponderance, which was hardly attained by the proudest Plantagenet, in the early period of the Constitution. Pitt studied to a nicety the character of the Monarch, whom he had to govern, and no man but a Pitt could have moulded the obstinate nature of George III., with such never failing success, to his own immediate purpose, nor have obtained such an unlimited power over him, even to the conquest of his most inveterate prejudices. It must, however, be acknowledged, that the appointment of the Duke of York to the command of the British Army, was in a degree forced upon him, or rather he acquiesced in it, to gain for himself some end, which he was particularly solicitous to obtain. Pitt had determined to translate a distant relative of the family from the see of Lincoln, to that of Worcester in order to bestow the see of Lincoln upon his own tutor, Dr. G. P. Tomline. This arrangement, however, was sturdily opposed by George III., who had determined to bestow the first vacant see on Dr. Jackson, the brother of the tutor of the Prince of Wales. At this period, the Duke of York applied to his royal father to give him the command of the British Army, which with the assistance of the Duke of Brunswick, were to march triumphantly to the gates of Paris, and having thrown

down the goddess of liberty into the dust, and broken all the insignia of republicanism, were to replace the hated race of the Bourbons on the throne of France. "I'll speak to Pitt about it," said his Majesty, who already saw a halo of glory, such as Alexander or Cæsar wore, encircling the brow of his warlike son. And he did speak to Pitt about it, and Pitt with his accustomed hauteur, turned a deaf ear to the application. He, however, now saw that he had the monarch in his toils; he knew that the appointment of the Duke of York to the command of the British army, was a favourite object, not only with the king, but the queen; the king however had refused the translation of his relative, and thus, the minister and the king stood fairly balanced against each other. The duke was pressing; and the king was also pressing; Pitt also pressed the proposed arrangement in the episcopal changes; at last, after much coquetting and negotiation, a compromise was entered into, the appointment of the duke was made out, and his majesty was pleased to issue his conge d'elire, that most ridiculous specimen of state quackery, to the dean and chapter of Lincoln, recommending the Rev. Dr. G. P. Tomline to be by them chosen to the see thereof.

We now come to the counterpart of the Duke of Clarence, He also solicited employment, and his royal father also promised to speak to Pitt about it." The Duke of Clarence was, however, more modest in his request than his gallant brother, who would not be content with the command of a regiment, but nothing less would satisfy his ambition than the command of an entire army, where veteran officers were to be subordinate to him, who had grown grey in camps, and who bore the scars about them of a hundred battles. On the other hand, the Duke of Clarence simply solicited the command of a ship, to which his rank and character entitled him as much as any other officer on the books of the Admiralty. Not one of the lords of the Admiralty, however, was favourable to him, nor can it be supposed that the following letter, which he

wrote to them, tended in any degree to remove the prejudice, which they had imbibed against him.

MY LORDS,

At a time when this country is engaged in a war with a powerful and active enemy, whose great aim appears to be the subversion of all the ancient monarchies of Europe, it becomes every man who values the constitution under which he enjoys so many blessings, to rally round the throne, and protect it from the dangers by which it is so imminently threatened. Conscious that during my naval career, I never committed an act which could tarnish the honor of the flag, under which it was my pride and glory to fight, I solicit in this hour of peril to my country that employment in the service, which every subject is bound to seek, and particularly myself, considering the exalted rank which I hold in the country, and the cause which it is my duty to maintain and defend. I regard a refusal of that employment, as a tacit acknowledgment of my incapacity, and which cannot fail to degrade me in the opinion of the public, who from the conduct that has been pursued towards me, are justified in drawing a conclusion unfavourable to my professional character, on account of the very marked neglect which has been shown towards every application on my part, which has been transmitted to your lordships to be employed in the service of my country. If the rank, which I hold in the navy operates as an impediment to my obtaining the command of a ship without that of a squadron being attached to it, I will willingly relinquish that rank, under which I had formerly the command of a ship, and serve as a volunteer on board any ship to which it may please your lordships to appoint me. All I require is active service, and that when my gallant countrymen are fighting the cause of their country and their sovereign, I may not have the imputation thrown upon me, of living a life of inglorious ease, when I ought to be in the front of danger.

Clarence Lodge, March 15th, 1794.

WILLIAM.

To the Right Hon. the Lords of the Admiralty.