to the lives, properties, and liberties of a very great part of our fellow-fubjects.

We conceive that an addrefs upon fuch objects as are before us, and at fuch a time as this, muft neceffarily have a confiderable influence upon our future proceedings; and muft imprefs the public with an idea of the general fpirit of the measures which we mean to fupport.

Whatever methods we fhall think it advifeable to purfue, either in fupport of the mere authority of parliament, which feems to be the fole confideration with fome, or for reconciling that authority with the peace and fatisfaction of the whole empire, which has ever been our conftant and invariable object, it will certainly add to the weight and efficacy of our proceedings, if they appear the refult of full information, mature deliberation, and temperate enquiry.

No materials for fuch an enquiry have been laid before us; nor have any fuch been fo much as promised in the fpeech from the throne, or even in any verbal affurance from minifters.

In this fituation we are called upon to make an addrefs, arbitrarily impofing qualities and defcriptions upon acts done in the colonies, of the true nature and juft extent of which we are as yet in a great measure unapprized; a procedure which appears to us by no means confonant to that purity which we ought ever to preferve in our judicial, and to that caution which ought to guide us in our deliberate capacity.

2. Becaufe this addrefs does, in effect, imply an approbation of the fyftem adopted with regard to the

This unfortunate fyftem, conceived with fo little prudence, and purfued with fo little temper, confiftency, or forefight, we were in hopes, would be at length abandoned, from an experience of the mif. chiefs which it has produced, in proportion to the time in which it was continued, and the diligence with which it has been pursued; a fyftem which has created the utmost confufion in the colonies, without any rational hope of advantage to the revenue, and with certain detriment to the commerce of the mother country. And it affords us a melancholy profpect of the dif pofition of lords in the present parliament, when we fee the house, under the preffure of fo fevere and uniform an experience, again ready, without any enquiry, to countenance, if not to adopt, the spirit of the former fatal proceedings.

But whatever may be the mifchievous defigns, or the inconfiderate temerity, which leads others to this defperate courfe, we wish to be known as perfons who have ever difapproved of measures fo pernicious in their past effects, and their future tendency, and who are not in hafte, without inquiry or information, to commit ourselves in declarations which may precipitate our country into all the calamities of a civil war.

Richmond, Portland, Rockingham, Stamford, Stanhope,

Torrington, Ponsonby,

Wycombe, Camden.

Tranflation of his Catholic Majefty's Declaration of War against the Emperor of Morocco.

THEREAS at the adjuftment of the peace with the

King of Morocco, the renewal and fixing the boundaries of the territory, which is annexed to my forts on the coafts of that kingdom, were fettled, as alfo the reftitution of deferters, and various other conditions, which all teftify the faid prince's recognition of the inconteftible right in my crown to thofe places, fituate in countries which had been part of the Spanish monarchy; and although by the very act of the King of Morocco himself having complied with thefe ftipulations, it appears, that living in peace with chriftians who occupied thofe places in Africa, was not in. confiftent with the fect which he profeffes; notwithstanding all this, he, doubtless not attending to all the advantages which he receives from peace and commerce with my dominions, has written me a letter, in which, founding himself upon maxims and principles of his own fect and policy, ftrange and new ones entirely, compared with thofe received among European nations, he tells me, that he will make war against these ports, and pretends, at the fame time, that fuch a ftep is not to interrupt the friendship, the intercourfe, and commerce betwixt our refpective ftates, &c. as appears from the tenor of the faid letter; which, being tranflated from the Arabic, is literally as follows:

"In the name of the merciful God, and there is no help but in the great God. "Mahomed Ben Abdalla, (L.S.) The 15th of the month of Rageb, in the year 1188.

"To the King of Spain. "Health to him who follows the law, and perfifts therein. Know ye, that we are in peace with you

according to the treaties of peace made between us and you: but the Mahometans of our dominions, and of Algiers, have agreed, faying: That they will not fuffer any Christian whatever to be on the coafts of Mahometan countries from Ceuta to Oran, and they will recover to themfelves the poffeffion of them; for which reafon they have requested us to attend ferioufly to this affair, faying, "Thou haft no excufe for remaining quiet, or confenting that Mahometan.countries fhould remain in the power of Chriftians, at a time when God hath given thee forces and warlike inftruments, fuch as no one elle hath." It was not poffible for us not to attend to their inftances, or affift them upon this fubject: and now we are defirous of taking the matter into confideration. If the Algerines undertake the war together with us, as they have defired to do, it is well; but if they withdraw themfelves, and oppofe what they themselves have defired; we will confider them as enemies, and fight in perfon, till God fhall decide between us and them. And this bufinefs is not against the peace which fubfifts betwixt us and you: your traders and their fhips will remain as before, and will take their provifions and other things from any of our ports, as they please, conforming to the cuftoms now obferved in them, agreeable to the marine treaty between our refpective caravels, and your fhips fhall receive no damage, fo that your fubjects will trade in all our dominions, and will travel by land and by fea, with all fecurity, and nobody will hurt them, becaufe we have established peace with you, which we will not break, if you, on your part, do not la

which cafe you will be allowed four months, that every body may know it; and what we have faid concerning our going to the faid countries, is, because we are obliged to it, and have no method of excufing ourselves from it. But with refpect to peace at fea, we will do according to our own will. And now we give you an account of the truth of this bufinefs, that you may be advised thereof, and confider what fuits you; and we have figned this letter with our own illuftrious hand, that you may be affured of its certainty. Greeting, the 15th day of the month of Rageb, in the year 1188." (19th Sept. 1774.)

And judging it unbecoming my fovereignty to listen to, much lefs to admit fuch propofitions; and being befides informed that the person who was charged by the King of Morocco to deliver this letter to the governor of Ceuta for me, had declared, that, in proof of the peace being at an end, the Moors in the camp would fire against the fort with balls as foon as he had left it; which they actually did; and being informed that the faid Moors have fince continued to fire against certain fishermen's boats, which were near them as ufual, by which hoftilities the Moors have broken the peace; I have refolved, upon account of thefe acts, and from the time they were committed, to declare, That it is to be understood, that the friendship and good harmony with the King of Morocco is interrupt ed, all communication is to cease between my fubjects and his, and things to return to the ftate of war, by fea and land, in which they were before the treaty was fettled, keeping up only the 17th article of it, in which it was ftipulated,

that, in cafe of a rupture, fix months fhould be allowed to the individuals of both nations to retire freely to their respective countries with their goods and effects, which I order shall be kept and obferved punctually with the Morocco fub. jects; being perfuaded, that that prince will obferve the fame with refpect to mine. And whereas lately, the King of Morocco having fent me fome Spanish captives, which he had obtained from the regency of Algiers, I did order the alcaide who brought them, that not only all the Morocco Moors, who, by having been taken on board Algerine veffels, were prifoners in Carthagena, fhould be delivered up, but also all the wounded and old Algerines who were there; am defirous that these unhappy people fhould effectually have their liberty, and be conveyed to the kingdom of Morocco, as was intended, notwithstanding the new state of affairs which has arifen, being moved thereto by the pity with which I consider their fate, and be caufe they fhould not be prejudiced by an event in which they have no concern. Wherefore, and in confequence of all that has been stated, I order, That the peace between thofe dominions and these shall be held to be broken, and the war be renewed, and that the fubjects of the King of Morocco fhall not be disturbed in their free return to their country, with their goods and effects, for which I grant the term of fix months, counting from the publication of this cedula, for fuch is my will. Dated at San Lorenzo el Real. October 23, 1774

I THE KING,
Geronimo de Grimaldi.

CHARA C

Some Particulars of the Life of LEWIS XV. Late King of FRANCE and NAVARRE; with fhort Sketches of the Character and Conduct of fome of his Minifters, Generals, and Favourites.

HE annals of the French

efforts of this alliance; but having provoked the English by his repeated infidelities, their arms, under the invincible Marlborough, with the Auftrians, commanded by the immortal Eugene, rendered the latter part of his life as miferable as the beginning of it was fplendid.

five reigns fcarcely paralleled in the hiftory of other nations. Lewis XIV. reigned feventy-two years, and the late king, his great grandfon, fiftynine. Few princes ever bore the fway of a great empire with fuch uncommon longevity, and with an equally amazing viciffitude of fortune. These two reigns form one of the most interesting periods in modern history, as the intrigues of their courts and cabinets, their ambition, their politics, their wars, their treaties, their acquifitions, their conquefts, their loffes, and their defeats, totally changed the face of Europe. Lewis XIV.was the only fovereign of our continent truly powerful, formidable, and magnificent; his pride and ambition awoke the refentment of the fovereigns he defigned to enflave, and at laft raised against him that famous confederacy of almost all the other princes of Europe, at the head of which was king William III. He was fo well ferved, that he baffled for feveral years all the warlike VOL. XVII.

1711, was one continued series of defeats and calamities; and he had the humiliation to fee the enemies he had formerly infulted and defpifed, difplay their victorious standards on thofe very places he had acquired by force and artifice. Juft as he was reduced, old as he was, to the defperate refolution of collecting his people, and dying at their head, he was faved by the English withdrawing from their allies, and concluding the peace of Utrecht, in 1713. He furvived his deliverance but two years, for he died on the first of September, 1715, having furvived all his pofterity but Philip of Anjou, (whom in his difafters he had offered to facrifice to his competitor in the Spanifh monarchy, and a fickly infant, his fucceffor to the crown.

This was Lewis XV. the late king, born Feb. 15, 1710: he remained in the hands of women, fuperintended by the duchefs of Ventadour, a lady of refpectable character, till the duke of Villeroy,

his governor, and the bishop of Frejus, his preceptor, afterwards cardinal Fleury, fhared among it them the principal departments of his princely education. The duke was a nobleman of unfpotted honour, and a probity proof against all the contagious examples of a court immerfed in voluptuoufnefs and effeminacy, wholly influenced by glittering fycophants, whofe tranfient favour is the reward of the meanest adulation and fervility. He was grave and decent in his deportment, a philofopher amidst gran. deur, frank, generous, open, affable, and popular; but his merit chiefly confifted in good breeding, and his knowledge, fkill and gracefulness in dancing, fencing, and riding, which the French nobility and gentry confider as the moft effential accomplishments.

The bishop of Frejus was better qualified for the fpiritual government of his fmall diocefe, than for the education of a prince born to rule over a great empire. He was a prelate of great candour, purity of manners, and moderation, but a fhallow politician; a meek, pufillanimous man, who had never been converfant enough with books and men for the tuition of his royal pupil.

The partiality of Lewis XIV. for his natural children might have involved France in a civil war, had not the regency been feized upon by Philip duke of Orleans, the next legitimate prince of the blood, a man of genius and fpirit, bold, enterprising, irreligious, and diffolute. In 1716, the whole fpecie of France, in gold and filver, was computed to be about feventeen millions fterling; and though the crown was then doubly a bankrupt,

being in debt about 100 millions fterling, or 2000 millions of livres, yet by laying hold of almost all the current money in the kingdom, and by arbitrarily raifing or lowering the value of coins, in four years time the duke regent of France published a general state of the public debts, by which it appeared the king fcarcely owed 340 millions of livres this being done by a national robbery, we can form no idea but that of defpotifm of the means by which fo great a reduction was effected.

Philip V. king of Spain, had beheld with a jealous eye the regency folely vefted in the duke of Orleans, and the bold fteps he had taken to force the parliament of Paris to recognize his title. Cardinal Alberoni, the Spanish minister, a moft enterprizing genius, proud, active, and turbulent, capable to form con. fpiracies, and to delineate the revolutions of empires, but wanting that judgment, fagacity, and perfeverance, which command fuccefs, planned an unnatural alliance with Charles XII. king of Sweden, whose ambition confifted in dethroning monarchs, and beftowing kingdoms upon his allies. The Swedish hero, unthaken by his defeats, his exile, and his calamities, profeffed the higheft difpleasure at George I. having entered into a confederacy against him in his abfence. His implacable vengeance prompted him to fecond the project of Alberoni in reftoring the Pretender in England. The death of Charles, who was killed by a cannon-ball, at the fiege of Frederickstadt, foon put an end to the difquietudes of George I. from that quarter.

The prince of Cellamare, ambaffador from Spain to the court of France,