tish perfidy and British barbarity in India, are very strongly and diftinctly stated in his letters, difpatches, and minutes of council. In his minute of September 29, 1783, he fays, "By a facred and undeviating obfervance of every principle of public faith, the British dominion might have by this time acquired the means of its extenfion, through a virtual fubmiffion to its authority, to every region of Hindoftan and Decan.-But the powers of India ALL dread the connection. The fubjection of Bengal, the ufurpations in the Carnatic, the licentious violations of the treaty with the nizam, the effects of our connections with the. vizier, stand as TERRIBLE PRECEDENTS against us." · Yet as to himself, the primum mobile of the whole fyftem, he declares in his famous minutes of defence," that he had the confcious fatisfaction to fee all his measures terminate in their defigned objects; that his political conduct was invariably regulated by truth, juftice, and good faith; and that he refigned his charge in a state of established peace and fecurity, with all the fources of its abundance unimpaired, and even improved." To reconcile thefe apparent incongruities, we are required therefore, by a fpecies of faith which can work miracles, to believe that there existed in India crimes without a criminal, oppreffions without an oppreffor, and tyranny without a tyrant+. In fine, when

we

If it be poffible yet to entertain any fhadow of doubt refpecting the effects of the general policy adopted by the English government in India, it muft affuredly vanish when we hear the decifion of loid Cornwallis, the noble fucceflor of Mr. Haftings, who, in his dispatch of August 2, 1789, fays, "Independent of all other confiderations, I can affure you that it will be of the utmost importance for promoting the folid interefts of the company, that the principal land-holders and traders in the interior parts of the country fhould be RESTORED to fuch circumftances as to enable them to fupport their families with decency.I am forry to be obliged to say, that agriculture and internal commerce have for many years been gradually declining; and that at prefent, excepting the clafs of Shroffs and Banians, who refide almoft entirely in great towns, the inhabitants of thefe provinces were advancing haftily to a general ftate of poverty and wretchednefs. In this defcription I mult even include ALMOST EVERY ZEMINDAR in the company's territories."And in his minute of council, dated September 18. 1789, his lordship aflerts, and the affertion is furely enough to ftrike us with amazement and horror, "That ONE THIRD of the compa ny's territory is now a JUNGLE inhabited by WILD BEASTS."

we confider with serious attention the origin and progress of the British government in India, the friendship and generofity with which the English nation was received and permitted to form establishments in that country, the black and bafe ingratitude with which thofe obligations were requited, and the unexampled, unprovoked, and unatoned exceffes which have been perpetrated on the princes and inhabitants of Hindoftan, is it the weakness of fuperftition merely, to tremble at the fecret apprehenfion that fome mighty vengeance is yet in ftore for this kingdom: and to apply to BRITAIN the fublime and terrible prophetic denunciations originally uttered against the proud, corrupt, and tyrannic ftates of antiquity?" Thus faith the LORD GOD-Behold I am against thee-I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. I will lay thy cities wafte, and thou fhalt be defolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.-Becaufe thou haft had a perpetual hatred, and haft fhed the blood of this people by the force of the fword; because thou haft faid, Thefe nations and these countries fhall be mine, and we will poffefs them, therefore, as I live, faith the LORD GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy, which thou haft ufed out of thine hatred against them-and thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blafphemies which thou haft spoken, faying, They are laid defolate, they are given us to confume.-I have heard them; therefore, when the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make THEE defolate, and they fhall know that I am the LORD."

We are now to revert from this long but neceffary and important digreffion, to the regular narrative of events in England.

On the 18th of July 1781, the feffion was clofed by a fpeech, in which his majesty obferved, "that the great efforts made by the nation, to furmount the difficulties of the prefent arduous and complicated war, must convince

the

the world that the antient fpirit of the British nation was abated or diminished; and he was refolved to accept of no terms or conditions of peace, than fuch as might confift with the honor and dignity of his crown, and the permanent interefts and fecurity of his people."

The military hiftory of the present year was marked, in its commencement, by a fpirited though abortive attempt on the part of the French, to capture the island of Jerfey by a coup-de-main-Early on the 16th of January 1781, a landing was effected by the baron de Rullecourt, at the head of about 800 men, at the Bank du Violet; and, to the astonishment of the inhabitants, when the day began to dawn, the market-place of St. Helier was found occupied by French troops. The governor's house being entirely surrounded, he was compelled to furrender, himself prifoner, and was fo far intimidated as even to fign articles of capitulation. But when Elizabeth-caftle was fummoned, captain Aylward, the commander, far from paying the leaft regard to the acts of the governor in his present state of durance, fired upon the French and obliged them to retreat; and major Pierfon, a young and gallant officer, second in command, having affembled the regular troops and militia of the ifland on the heights near the town, attacked the enemy with the greatest refolution and vigor. Baron Rullecourt being at the commencement of the action mortally wounded, the French troops in lefs than half an hour laid down their arms, and furrendered themfelves prifoners of war. Unfortunately almoft the laft fhot fired previous to the furrender proved fatal to major Pierfon, in whofe conduct, during the whole of this tranfaction, dif cretion and valor had been equally confpicuous.

Early intelligence of the rupture with Holland having been tranfmitted to the Weft Indies, admiral Rodney and general Vaughan appeared, February 1781, with a very confiderable naval and military force before the island of St. Euftatia, that famous depefit of wealth and mart of traffic,

traffic. So little apprehenfive were the inhabitants of this event, that it was with difficulty they were brought to give credit to the fummons. Being totally deftitute of the means of refiftance, they were compelled to furrender at difcretion. But fo far were the British commanders from imitating the noble example of lenity and policy fet by the marquis de Bouillé, that, with a rigor unknown and unheard-of amongst civilized nations, the immenfe property found on the ifland was declared to be confifcated on pretence of the affiftance afforded by the inhabitants to the Americans, as if the inhabitants of Euftatia were amenable to the laws of Great Britain. The ftores and merchandize, eftimated at three millions fterling, were publicly fold for about one fourth of their real value; and the world faw with aftonishment British naval and military officers, of the highest rank and reputation, degraded by a kind of harlequin metamorphofis into falefmen and auctioneers. A prodigious number of trading veffels lying in the harbor alfo became the property of the victors, with two men of war, one of which was a flag-fhip commanded by admiral count Byland.

But

Nearly at the fame time the Dutch fettlements of Demerary, Berbicia and Iffequibo, on the Southern Main, alfo fubmitted without refiftance to the arms of his Britannic majefty. Here, however, the fame indifcriminate confifcation of private property did not take place. the proceedings at St. Euftatia excited univerfal confternation; and a memorial was prefented to admiral Rodney and general Vaughan, by the hands of Mr. Glanville, his majefty's folicitor general for St. Chriftopher's, ftrongly reprefenting," that if by the fate of war the British West India iflands fhould fall into the hands of an enraged enemy, the conduct at St. Euftatia would be a pretext for them to retaliate; that the conquerors of all civilized countries had avoided the invafion of private property; that the generofity of the enemy had been very confpicuous; and

even

even in the cafe of Grenada, which had been taken by ftorm, the rights of individuals had been held facred; that Euftatia was a free port, and the rich and various commodities found there were far from being the fole property of the Dutch, that a great proportion of it belonged to British subjects; and that, previous to the declaration of war the trade to Eustatia was ftrictly legal, and the officers of his majesty's customs cleared out veffels from all the ports of Great Britain and Ireland for this ifland. And not merely the legality, but the propriety of this trade, was confirmed by the conduct of his majesty's naval officers in those feas; for if the king's enemies were fupplied by the trade of his fubjects through Euftatia, they were likewise fupplied, through the fame channel, by the fale of the prizes captured by his majesty's fhips of war."-The admiral haughtily replied to Mr. Glanville, " that he had no LEISURE to perufe the memorial; but that the island of Euftatia was Dutch, every thing in it was Dutch, every thing was under the protection of the Dutch flag, and as Dutch it fhould be treated."

While the British arms were thus ignobly employed, the French fleet under count de Graffe, after a partial engagement with admiral Hood, who in the abfence of fir George Rodney commanded the English fleet, fteered its courfe to the island of Tobago, on which M. de Bouillé, with a confiderable land force, made an immediate defcent. Admiral Rodney, on receiving intelligence of this attack, detached a fquadron for the relief of the island, which finding the French in great force was obliged to return; and the admiral, accompanied by general Vaughan, now failed in perfon with the whole fleet for Tabago, off the coaft of which he arrived the 4th of June, but had the mortification to learn that the island had furrendered on the fecond.

At the latter end of the year the island of Euftatia was loft in a manner not lefs difgraceful than that by which it had been gained. M. de Bouillé, receiving certain intel