not created the fury which has produced thefe horrors; and let us coolly and deliberately inquire, as friends of that humanity which is fo inceffantly our theme, if we should not better promote the object of restoring France to the happinefs of order, tranquillity, and government; if, instead of rendering its leaders furious and defperate, we were to make a fpecific declaration that we had no defire of interfering in their domeftic concerns, and did not prefume to arrogate to ourfelves the right to dictate what fhould be their ment, or who fhould be their governors.'

The minifterial fide of the houfe went over their old ground of invective against the French, pleaded the neceffity of the war, and negatived, by their numbers, the refolutions moved by the noble duke, which were founded either upon facts recorded on the journals of that house, or upon public papers which had been laid on their tabie.

The fame day Mr. Fox brought forward the fame business in the house of commons; he reprobated, in strong terms, the continuation of the war and the conduct of ministers; he pointed out the rafhnefs of entering into the war, and carrying it on without any fixed object or end. At one time, the defign of the war was to protect Holland, at another, to reftore Louis XVII. to the crown of France; at another, to put a ftop to the dreadful anarchy now raging there, by giving them fome fixed form of government.

Speaking of the king of Pruffia, he obferved that we had entered into a treaty with that monarch, by which neither party was to have laid down arms, but by confent of the other. From this engagement he efcaped by a loop-hole; for as none of his dominions were within reach of the ene my, he had only to withdraw his troops from the scene of action, and tell us that he had not made peace with France. Though the laft campaign was extolled by minifters as fuccefsful, the Pruffian monarch difcovered that fuch victories would coft him fomething! This was the unlooked for cir cumftance that would not permit him to continue the war. Had the public been told in July 1793, that the treaty was binding upon him only for the remainder of the campaign, they would have seen it in a different point of view.

Mr. Fox concluded with reading fimilar refolutions to thofe of the duke of Bedford; upon which the previous gueftion was carried by a great majority.

About this period, the public received the exhilarating

8

intelli

intelligence of a victory gained by admiral lord Howe, dated Queen Charlotte at fea, June 2d, 1794.

On the morning of the 28th of May, the enemy was difcovered by lord Howe far to windward, and was engaged with him in a partial action that evening and the next day.

The weather-gage having been obtained, in the progrefs of the last mentioned day by the English fleet, and being in á fituation for bringing the enemy to clofe action, on the firft of June the ships bore up together for that purpose, between seven and eight o'clock in the morning.

The French, their force confifting of twenty-fix fhips of the line, oppofed to the British fleet of twenty-five (the Audacious having parted company with the fternmost ship of the enemy's line, captured in the night of the twentyeighth) waited for the action, and fuftained the attack with their cuftomary refolution.

In less than an hour after, the close action commenced in the centre; the French admiral, engaged by the Queen Charlotte, after a fevere conflict bore off, and was followed by most of the fhips of his van in condition to carry fail after him, leaving with the English several of his ships crippled or totally difmafted, exclufive of one funk in the engagement.

At this time many of the English fhips were also fo injured by the action, that they were not able to prevent two or three fhips of the enemy, in a difabled ftate, from getting away under a fprit-fail. Seven remained in poffeflion of the English, one of which funk before adequate affistance could be given to her crew.

All agree that the enemy fought with a courage border. ing on rafhnefs; but the fuperiority of the British naval fkill, and the excellent ftate of their fhips, turned the for tune of the day in their favour.

The rejoicings on this occafion were great and general; but in the capital they were blended with thofe irregularities and diforders, fo incident to a London mob; the peaceful inhabitants were awaked in the dead of night, by the barbarous clamour of thofe who were ready to commit every excefs, to fill up the measure of their favage rejoicings; and feveral windows were broken, before the affrighted inmates had time to illuminate them. In their riotous nocturnal perambulations through the ftrçcts, the mob affailed

5

the

the houses of feveral perfons, fuppofed to think differently on politics from the prefent men in power, and it was afferted that bullets were fired amidst the squibs and crackers, at the houfes of marked individuals. The house of earl Stanhope, though previously illuminated, fuffered much, and was several times on fire by illuminated candles being beaten from the windows among the furniture. In an advertisement published by his lordship, it was afferted that gentlemen had been feen in coaches diftributing money and encouraging the mob in these outrages. To the scandal of the police, thefe fcenes of outrage and riot were permitted and even encouraged for three fucceflive nights.

A few days before the prorogation of parliament, the minister had the mortification to find, that though he had punctually remitted the money from the British treasury for the use of the king of Prailia, according to treaty, the troops had not moved in the great caufe in which he had engaged them; but that his Pruffian majesty thought it more to his intereft, to order them for the protection of his newly acquired dominions in Poland.

The oppofition fide of the houfe did not emit the opportunity of reminding administration of their predictions relative to the conduct of this monarch, and embarraffed the minifter by importunate interrogatories. What fervices, they afked, had the king of Prullia rendered this country Gince he was fubfidized? Had he marched any troops to co-operate with ours? And if he had, what did their num→ ber amount to? What had they done?. And where were they now ftationed? What articles of this or the former treaty had the king of Pruffia fulfilled? Had he fulfilled any except one the receiving of our money? These were points, they added, into which the house of commons were bound to inquire before they feparated, and they could not face their conflituents without knowing fomething upon thefe topics. If the minifter fhould fay that he did not imagine the king of Pruflia would have acted as he has done; the anfwer was, that he was warned of it in the course of the debates on the granting of the fubidy; and he might have been taught to expect it, from paft experience of the conduct of that monarch. If, on the contrary, the mi nifter faid that the misfortunes of the campaign were not owing to the neglect of the king of Pruffia, or to the infincerity of the emperor, or any of the allies, but to the pro

digious

digious numbers of the French, as an armed nation-there again the answer was plain; he knew the French to have been an armed nation, for so they had been moft emphatically termed by himself.

Mr. Pitt was, however, on the 11th of July, relieved from thefe embarrafiments by the prorogation of parliament. . The fame day, in the house of lords, the duke of Norfolk was prevented from making a promifed motion, by the lord chancellor absenting himself till too late an hour.

Lord Lauderdale, on this occafion, moved that this houfe do appoint a fpeaker, and proceed immediately to bufinefs. No proceeding took place in confequence of this motion, and his majefty arriving foon after, the parliament was prorogued.

About this time the duke of Portland was introduced into adminiftration.

His grace, ten years ago, declared, in the face of the whole people, his opinion of Mr. Pitt: that he had infulted the house of commons in the groffeft manner, and that he never could act in concert with him until he had, by a temporary dereliction of office, acknowledged the offence against the conflitution, of which he had been guilty. Mr. Pitt refused to refign, and his grace refused to act with him. Time has removed thofe objections, and the duke (as well as the earls Spencer, and Fitzwilliam, Mr. Wyndham, and others, who called themfelves the Whig party) has condefcended to accept an office in fubordination to that minifter, whom a few years ago he affected to treat with contempt.

WEST INDIES.

The cheering prospect which this quarter wore at the beginning of the campaign, has lately been clouded; the ficknefs raging among the British troops, the treachery of fome French royalifts, and the exertions of the republicans, have materially leffened the great expectations the English na tion had entertained, from the capture of the French iflands.

According to official letters from fir Charles Grey, dated Guadaloupe, July 8th, 1794, we learn, that a French fquadron having landed fome troops, the Britifh forces commanded by captain Robertfon, endeavoured, on the 2d of July, to gain. poffeffion of Point a-Petre, where the French were poited;

but

but being mifled by their guides, the troops entered the town at the part where they were most exposed to the enemies cannon and small arms, and where it was not poffible to fcale the walls of the fort; in confequence of which they suffered confiderably from round and grape fhot, together with small arms fired from the houses, &c. and a retreat became unavoidable. Sir Charles foon after learnt that the French had retaken Grande Terre.

AMERICA.

On the 26th of March, 1794, congrefs refolved that an embargo be laid on all fhips and veffels in the ports of the United States, whether then cleared out or not, bound to any foreign port or place, for the term of thirty-days.

The congrefs foon after made an act to empower the prefident of the United States, to lay a further embargo upon fhipping or not, during their recefs, as exigencies might require.

On the 16th of April, general Wafhington informed the fenate, that the communications which he had received from the American minister in London, contained a serious aspect of affairs between the United States and Great Britain. He therefore had thought proper to nominate Mr. John Jay, as envoy extraordinary of the United States to his Britannic majesty. Going,' fays the prefident, immediately from the United States, fuch an envoy will carry with him a full knowledge of the exifting temper and fenfibility of our country; and will thus be able to vindicate our rights with firmness, and to cultivate peace with fincerity.'

On the 21st of May, 1794, general Washington laid before the fenate and the house of reprefentatives, fome private information which he had received, that fome encroachments > were about to be made upon the American territory, by an officer and party of the British troops; he also caused a representation to be made to the fame effect to the British mi nister.

GERMANY.

The memorials and exhortations of the emperor to the petty princes of Germany, to arm their subjects against the common enemy, have hitherto been ineffectual; too poor to hire their pealants to march with the regular troops of the. empire, and too timid to put arms in their hands to enable

them