contending parties began to have their eyes open to the nature of the contest in which they were engaged. They perceived, upon reflection, that whatever partial advantages they had gained, the war ultimately tended to the general injury of all the belligerent powers. France had indeed succeeded in her efforts to separate the American colonies from the mother country, but had been foiled in her principal purpose, of obtaining naval and commercial supremacy. Her operations had been carried on at an enormous expense, which not only annihilated all the treasure that had been heaped up by her reforming economists, but infinitely exceeded her revenue, and overwhelmed her with new debt. The war which caused such unprecedented expenditure, had been far from producing any advantage likely to secure an eventual equivalent. The confederacy in India was crumbling to pieces, and British superiority was again manifest. All the sanguine projects of France against the West Indies had fallen under the victorious arms of Rodney; and America, impoverished by her long and arduous struggle, was more likely to drain than to supply her allies with treasure. Spain had engaged in the war as the tool of French ambition, which, artfully playing on the weakness, personal prejudices, and vanity of its monarch, dazzled him by the splendid promises of Gibraltar and Jamaica, and thereby blinded him to his real interests, to which nothing could be more contrary than either the encouragement of revolt in the American colonies, or hostilities with England. All her mighty and costly preparations against Gibraltar had fallen under general Elliot's red hot balls; her projects against Jamaica had been completely defeated by the skill and valour of Rodney; her hopes of naval and commercial aggrandizement, through the depression of England, had perished; her ships had been captured, and her fleets vanquished. In four

years, all her extraordinary exertions, all her waste of blood and treasure, had terminated in the conquest of the defenceless province of West Florida, and the barren Island of Minorca, which was little better than an hospital. America alone had succeeded in the contest, and attained the objects for which she fought; but she prevailed by efforts that drained her resources, by labours which required a respite as soon as it could be procured consistently with her public engagements. During her short warfare, Holland, in the loss of her settlements, the seizure of her treasures, and the destruction of her trade, had been instructed how dangerous it is for a state deriving its subsistence from commerce, to provoke to war a neighbour that rules the ocean. England, for the last five years, had been engaged in a war to defend her maritime sovereignty; and great as had been her maritime losses, she had upon the whole maintained that grand object. But her defence, though manifesting her energy, had drained her resources. Her expenditure was enormous; her debt and taxes had far surpassed the anticipation of her most desponding politicians. Trade was interrupted; difficulties and distress pervaded all ranks of her people; increasing demands appeared to portend the derangement of her finances, and the downfall of her credit. From all these circumstances, it was obviously the interest of each party individually, and of all conjointly, to cultivate the attainment of peace1.

1 Parliamentary History of England. New Annual Register. 1782. Mills's History of British India. Annals of the Reign of George the Third. Drinkwater's History of the Siege of

Gibraltar.

CHAP. IX.

Remarks on the new Administration....Death of the Marquis of Rockingham....Estimate of his Character....The Cabinet divided respecting a Premier....Lord Shelburne and the Duke of Portland....Resignation of Mr. Fox, Lord John Cavendish, and others....Changes in the Ministry....Mr. Pitt Chancellor of the Exchequer....Mr. Fox's Explanation of the Cause of his Resignation....General Conway's Reply....The Duke of Richmond and Lord Shelburne.... Declaration of the latter respecting American Independence....Effects of this Declaration in America....Attempted Negotiations for Peace.... Mediation of Russia and Austria.... The Shelburne Administration signs provisional Articles of Peace with America. ...Mr. Fox's Complaint of the Conduct of Lord Shelburne.... He moves for Copies of the provisional Articles of Peace.... Legislative Enactment respecting the Parliament of Ireland. ...Preliminaries of Peace signed at Versailles....Conditions of the Treaty....The Articles of Peace submitted to Parliament....Debates on these Stipulations....Ministers left in a Minority.... Lord Shelburne resigns his Premiership....Ministerial Interregnum....The Coalition Ministry....The Rockingham Party predominates.... Commercial Intercourse with America....Loan for the Services of the Year... Mr. Pitt renews his Motion for Parliamentary Reform....Provision for the Prince of Wales....Treaty of Peace with Holland....Definitive Treaties with the other Belligerents....Affairs of the East India Company....Mr. Pitt's Attack upon Ministers.... Mr. Fox introduces his East India Bill....Political Ferment occasioned by this Bill....Mr. Pitt's Attack upon it....Grounds of ministerial Defence....Mr. Burke's celebrated Speech.... The East India Company and City of London petition against the Bill....Lord Temple prejudices the King's Mind against it.... Proceedings in the Commons....The Bill lost in the House of Peers....The King abruptly dismisses his Servants. ...Mr. Pitt raised to the Premiership....The Ministry and House of Commons at variance....Mr. Pitt brings forward his East India Bill.... The Commons reject it....Extraordinary Firmness of Mr. Pitt....Granting of the Supplies withheld by the Commons.... Resolutions in both Houses of Parliament on the extraordinary State of the Country....The King refuses to dismiss his Ministers....Parliament dissolved, 24th March, 1784.

THE formation of a new ministry, avowedly acting upon whig principles-the principles which placed the family of Brunswick on the throne of England, which brought about the glorious Revolution, and secured the liberties of the country,-was an event that diffused great joy, and afforded inexpressible satisfaction to a considerable portion of our fellow subjects. It infused fresh vigour into the constitution; for, by combining energy in our fleets and armies with a skilful and united administration at home, it opened upon public view a prepossessing aspect of the state of our affairs. Unhappily, however, for the country, this pleasing prospect was of short duration. The political horizon soon became once more beclouded; and storms and tempests, not a little destructive of the public weal, succeeded. Hitherto the new ministry had conducted the affairs of the country with, at least, the appearance of perfect and cordial unanimity; the earl of Shelburne, in the upper house, bringing forward the same motions, and supporting them by the same general arguments that were used by Mr. Fox in the commons. But an event now occurred which was the subject of deep and universal regret, and the consequences of which cannot be sufficiently deplored. This event was the death of the marquis of Rockingham, which took place on the 1st of July, 1782, in the meridian of his days, and when he was in the zenith of his political reputation.

Though by no means distinguished for preeminence of talent, lord Rockingham was a nobleman whose character for every public and private virtue, though drawn by his warmest admirers, has never been questioned by his enemies. He possessed, according to the eulogium of Mr. Burke, sound principles, enlargement of mind, clear and sagacious sense, and unshaken fortitude. His rank, his services, and conciliatory influence, had long rendered

him the centre of union among the whigs. The weight and influence attached to his reputation, connected with the excellence of his private character, and the mild benignity of his manners, all combined to form a power of attraction which held together the whole ministerial system; and when this ceased to operate, disorder, confusion, and mutual repulsion quickly ensued. The splendour of the new constellation faded; and, to use a poetical allusion, then it was that "certain stars shot madly from their spheres." His decease occasioned a struggle for power, of which the evil consequences continued to be felt during the remainder of the century. The unrivalled talents of Mr. Fox pointed him out to a great proportion of the nation as the natural successor of lord Rockingham. His majesty, however, using his prerogative of appointing his own servants, fixed his choice on the earl of Shelburne. On the demise of the marquis of Rockingham, the duke of Portland was looked up to by the whigs as their ostensible head; and on that account he was esteemed the properest person to fill the office of first lord of the treasury. Mr. Fox called a meeting of his friends, for the avowed purpose of opposing lord Shelburne's appointment to the first official situation; and it was agreed at the meeting, to solicit his majesty for the nomination of the duke of Portland to that high station: but when Mr. Fox waited upon the king with this request, he heard of a different appointment-it had already been conferred upon lord Shelburne. The acceptance of this high and preeminent office on the part of the latter, without any previous communication with his colleagues in administration, was considered by the Rockingham party as equivalent to a declaration of political hostility. It was in effect telling his allies,

that he considered his influence in the cabinet to be