capture of Tobago in the beginning of June to the beginning of August, without being encountered by Rodney, and in July sailed for St. Domingo, where, after being reinforced by five sail of the line, he escorted the rich mercantile convoy with a fleet amounting to twenty-eight ships of the line. He conducted the convoy northwards until they were out of danger, and then proceeded to the second object of his expedition. Admiral Rodney, conceiving that his health required an immediate return to his native country, escorted the West India convoy home, and sent the greater part of his ships under sir Samuel Hood, to watch the motions of the French fleet1.

1 Parliamentary History of England. Steadman's History of the American War. Annals of Great Britain. New Annual Register, 1781.

CHAP. VIII.

Reflections on the State of the War....Meeting of Parliament, Nov. 1781....Mr. Fox's Amendment to the Address....Lord North's Apology for continuing Hostilities. ... Mr. Burke's memorable Reply to the Minister....Mr. Pitt's Attack upon the Ministry....Sir James Lowther's Motion for Peace....Increase of the Opposition....Tottering State of the Administration....Mr. Pitt's Description of the State of the Cabinet.... Supplies granted for 1782....Complaints against Lord Sandwich....General Conway's Motion for an Address to the King to discontinue the War lost by a Majority of one Vote....The Motion subsequently proposed and carried.... The King's Answer to the Address....Lord North lingers in Office.... Lord John Cavendish's Resolutions....Debates on an anticipated Change of Ministry....Sir John Rous's Motion for the Removal of Ministers....Lord North announces his Resignation.... Strictures on his Character and Administration.... Members of the new Cabinet....Mr. Eden's Motion on the political State of Ireland....Proceedings in the Irish Parliament....Measures of Reform and Economy....Mr. Dundas's Resolutions on the Affairs of the East India Company.... Mr. Pitt moves for a Reform in Parliament....The Whigs divided on the Subject.... Report of the Commissioners for examining the public Accounts....Naval and military Transactions of the Year....Successes of the Spaniards in the West Indies....They threaten Jamaica....Arrival of Admiral Rodney with a British Fleet in the West Indies....He comes in contact with Count de Grasse....Engagement between the British and French Fleets....Triumph of the British Fleet, and Loss on the Part of the Enemy....Rewards bestowed on the Victors....Reduction of Dutch Forts in Africa....Military Transactions in India....Affairs of the Carnatic....Territory of Banares.... Conduct of Governor Hastings towards the Princesses of Oude....Sir Edward Hughes falls in with the French under Admiral Suffrein in the East Indies...has five indecisive Engagements with them....The French_take Trincomalé....Tippoo Saib defeats the English in the Carnatic.... Is checked by Sir Eyre Coote....Military Transactions under Colonel Humberstone and General Matthews.... The latter is defeated by Tippoo Saib... taken Prisoner, and put to Death....Naval Transactions at Home....Lord Howe and the combined Fleets....Loss of the Royal George, and other Ships

by tempestuous Weather....The Spaniards renew the Siege of Gibraltar....General Elliot opens his Batteries of red hot Balls....Destructive Effects on the Besiegers.... Attempt to blockade the Port frustrated....Lord Howe relieves the Garrison...has a partial Action with the combined Fleets....The European Powers grow weary of the War and sigh for Peace.

ALTHOUGH the events of the year 1781, which have been detailed in the preceding chapter, were of a varied complexion, and some of them highly honourable to the British arms both by sea and land, yet upon a calm and deliberate review of them, the country began to be seriously impressed with the folly of prosecuting any longer an offensive contest with America, and even ministers themselves appeared to entertain similar sentiments. The bad principles of the war, which might have passed with impunity among a large class of home politicians had they been crowned with success, were now very generally condemned, as the project of coercing America appeared more palpably impracticable. From hostile confederacies and disasters abroad, the ministry could not turn, without alarm, to the growing dissatisfaction of the nation. The authority of the mother country had been so often explained and qualified, and by ministers themselves partially renounced, that men came to think it might be actually renounced without involving in it the ruin of the parent state. And the pride of the country, habituated to anticipate the event of American independence, at length became familiarized to the idea of degradation. All that had been predicted by the wisdom of lord Chatham and Mr. Fox, respecting the issue of the contest, was now fatally fulfilled by the surrender of the army under the command of lord Cornwallis. The public could no longer remain blind to the future effects of the war, or slumber in their former torpid state of security.

VOL. I.

Y

Parliament assembled on the 27th November, 1781, and no inconsiderable degree of surprise was excited, on finding that the speech from the throne was quite silent on the subject of peace. The continuance of the war was still ascribed to the restless ambition of our enemies; and the royal speech offered the highest congratulations to the public on the protection which the navy had been enabled to afford to the British commercial fleets, and the prosperous aspect of her East Indian affairs. In the house of commons, the motion for an address produced an important debate of considerable length on the question at issue. The declaration, in the proposed address, to pledge the house to an unqualified support of the war, after seven years of disaster, and the boldness of holding such language at the very moment when the calamities which the measures of administration had entailed upon the country called aloud for humiliation and sorrow, were topics urged by Mr. Fox with his usual warmth and energy. He pointedly condemned the principles of the war, animadverted indignantly on the delusions by which parliament had been led on, year after year, to support it, and the gross and criminal mismanagement which characterized every branch of administration. He even imputed the loss of the army under lord Cornwallis to the incapacity of lord Sandwich, who was at the head of the admiralty. That minister, he said, had declared in another assembly, that a first lord of the admiralty who should fail in having a fleet equal to the combined force of France and Spain, would deserve to be dragged from his situation to condign punishment. But such a case, Mr. Fox contended, was now before them. The inferiority of the British fleet in every quarter of the globe, might be proved from the events of the campaign; and he conjured the house to bring their marine minister to the reward which,

by his own confession, he so richly merited. Mr. Fox went on to observe, that it had been avowed by one of the highest members of administration, that if the capture of Charlestown produced no decisive result, he should grow weary of the war. That event had taken place, and brought disasters in its train; and yet ministers persisted in wishing to prosecute the war-they even seemed to love it as it grew more disastrous. He concluded by moving an amendment to the address, the object of which was to leave the expediency of continuing the war open to future debate, instead of binding the house to any specific course of measures.

The impression which this speech appeared to make on the house, and the silence of those who had been accustomed on all occasions to justify the principle and the policy of the war, called up lord North in an early part of the debate. He defended the grounds of the colonial contest, and asserted that the war was not maintained for the prerogative of the king, but of parliament, against which the revolted colonists had unjustly taken up arms. He contended, that neither the speech from the throne, nor the proposed address pledged the house to a continuance of the war. "A melancholy disaster," said his lordship, "has occurred in Virginia,—are we, therefore, to lie down and die? By dejection and despair every thing must be lost; by bold exertion, every thing might yet be saved." The war, he allowed, had been unfortunate, but it was not unjust; and should the share he had had in supporting a war, in defence of the rights of parliament and the British constitution, lead him to the scaffold, his opinion would remain unaltered. Mr. Dundas made an elaborate speech in support of the address, which called up Mr. Burke, who inveighed most indignantly against the pertinacity of ministers. The war, he said, had teemed with calamities; but this