ported from Africa into the British West Indies; the different descriptions of persons included in this aggregate number; the injury sustained by the seamen employed in the African trade; the causes of the mortality of the negroes; and the different items of calculation respecting the increase of population in Jamaica and Barbadoes; declaring, that no considerable or permanent inconvenience would result from discontinuing the farther importation. The members for London, and several great trading towns, degraded themselves by becoming advocates for the continuance of this detestable traffic; but perceiving that the sense of the nation was decidedly in favour of the abolition, and alarmed at the support the ministry gave to the measure, as well as the reception it met with in the House, Lord Penryn, one of its opposers, asserted that, to his knowledge, the planters were now willing to assent to any regulation of the trade, short of its abolition. In reply to this remark, Mr. Fox, with great animation declared, that he knew of no such thing as a regulation of robbery, and restriction of murder: there was no medium: the legislature must either abolish the trade, or plead guilty to all the iniquity with which it was attended. Mr. Pitt at length conceded, with the consent of Mr. Wilberforce, to the examination of witnesses on the part of the slave merchants and planters, trusting that unnecessary delays would not be introduced, as he could by no means submit to the ultimate procrastination of so important a business. Evidence having been heard at the bar of the House for several successive weeks, and the session being far advanced, the friends of the abolition consented, on the 23d of June, to an adjournment of the question to the succeeding session of Parliament, and the temporary regulation

act of Sir William Dolben was renewed for another

year.

On the 1st of July, Mr. Dundas; in conformity to the India regulation bill, made his annual statement of the finances of the company, which he represented as in a prosperous and flourishing condition; concluding, however, with a motion to empower the company to raise the sum of 1,000,000l. by way of increase of capital, to be subscribed by the present proprietors of East India stock. The bill, founded on this motion, passed both Houses without difficulty.

In the annual statement of the finances, it appeared that the income of the country, for each of the last two years, amounted, on an average, to 15,578,000l. From several circumstances, however, particularly from the discharge of the Prince of Wales's debts, from a large sum voted to the loyalists, and the expense of the armament in the preceding year, a loan of 1,000,000l. became necessary. The interest of this loan Mr. Pitt proposed to discharge by a tontine, which he averaged at four and a half per cent. This sum, he observed, added to some deficiencies, would call for taxes to the amount of 100,000l. per annum, To answer this, new duties were laid upon newspapers, advertisements, cards, dice, probates of wills, and upon horses and carriages. Mr. Sheridan strongly controverted the statement of Mr. Pitt, and moved, on the 10th of July, for a committee to inquire into the state of the revenue, in which he pledged himself to prove, that the report of the committee of 1786 was not founded in fact; and that, for the three last years, the expenditure had exceeded: the income to the amount of 2,000,000l. Mr. Sheri, dan's proposal was resisted by the ministerial side of the House, and rejected.

1

Early in the session the trial of Mr. Hastings was revived, but the intervention of the circuits of the judges rendered it impossible for the Lords to proceed upon the trial before the 20th of April, when the court was resumed, and sat during the remainder of the session seventeen days. The third article, respecting presents illegally and corruptly received by Mr. Hastings, was brought forward by Mr. Burke. In the course of his harangue, the honourable manager, having occasion to mention the charge which had been instituted on this head against Mr. Hastings by Nundcomar, with his usual unguardedness of language, added, that Mr. Hastings had murdered that man by the hands of Sir Elijah Impey. As the transaction respecting Nundcomar made no part of the charges, Mr. Hastings thought proper to present a petition to the House of Commons, in which he entreated them either to cause this and similar allegations, made by Mr. Burke, to be prosecuted in distinct articles, or to afford him such redress as the House might judge suitable and proper. The petition was strongly resisted by Mr. Burke and his friends; but it received the cordial support of Mr. Pitt, as far as regarded the business of Nundcomar. After a long debate the House of Commons resolved, "that no authority has been given by the House, for the purpose of making any criminal charge respecting Nundcomar, and that the words complained of ought not to have been spoken." A resolution of censure was afterwards moved upon Mr. Burke by the Marquis of Graham, and voted by a majority of 135 against 66.

An important operation of finance took place in the course of the session, in the exchange of the heavy duties on tobacco from the customs to the excise,

which was effected without much opposition. It is worthy of observation, as characteristic of the inconstancy of public opinion, that this measure, which had nearly cost Sir Robert Walpole his place, and even endangered his life, and against which 200 members of the House of Commons divided on the original motion of the minister, was now opposed, on the third reading of the bill, by 20 voices only, in a thin House of 90 members.

Mr. Grenville, speaker of the House of Commons, having been advanced, upon the resignation of Lord Sydney, to the office of secretary of state, and subsequently to the peerage, was succeeded by Henry Addington, Esq. who soon acquired great reputation for dignity, integrity, and impartiality, in the discharge of his office. The Parliament was prorogued on the 11th of August, by a speech from the lordchancellor, in the name of the Sovereign, in which it was observed, that, although the good offices of the King and his allies had not been effectual for the restoration of general tranquillity, the situation of affairs promised to this country the uninterrupted enjoyment of the blessings of peace. The recent events which had taken place in the different nations of Europe, rendered an assurance like this, at such an eventful period, peculiarly grateful. A war had been kindled which gradually spread from the Euxine to the Baltic; from the snow-clad mountains of Norway to the arid wastes of Tartary: and the foundation of a great and stupendous revolution had been laid, which, by a sudden and almost miraculous expansion, became at once an object of admiration and terror to a gazing. and astonished world.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE French Revolution, an event in comparison with which all the revolutions of states and empires recorded in the annals of History are insignificant, was at this period in full activity; and although the details of the circumstances which led to this great occurrence must be sought in the History of France, it has in such an especial manner influenced the state of these kingdoms, that some notice of it is absolutely necessary. Human affairs are generally gradual in their progress from infancy to perfect maturity, but the revolution in France resembled the shock of an earthquake or the eruption of a volcano; nothing could resist its impetuosity.

The disputes which had subsisted between the King and the parliaments, during the latter part of the reign of Louis the Fifteenth, appeared to terminate on the accession of his grandson, into whose hands the reins of government fell, at the early age of twenty, and whose first acts were highly popular; but although he had all the virtues of private life, he had none of the talents necessary in situations of difficulty. From various causes, among which the impolitic interference of the French government in the dispute between Great Britain and her American colonies may be more particularly mentioned, the finances of France fell into a state of the most serious embarrassment, and such was their deplorable condition in 1788, that only part of the demands on the treasury was paid in cash, the remainder being liquidated by means of bills due at the end of the year. The appearance of a partial bankruptcy was only avoided by a royal