course of debate, has been a source of surprise and perplexity to many of his friends. They have found it difficult to allow him the credit of conviction in his change, it being no easy matter to believe that a minister should come to the discussion of such a question, so lightly ballasted with opinions of his own as to be thrown from his equilibrium by the first wave of argument he encountered; and various statements and conjectures were, at the time, brought forward to account for it. Amongst other speculations, it has been remarked that Mr. Hastings was at this period a great favourite at court, and jealousy of his increasing influence has been assigned as one motive for the conduct of the minister. It has even been said that the king had expressed a wish to have his new favourite appointed president of the board of control, and that this was what decided Mr. Pitt to extinguish, by giving him up into the hands of the opposition, every chance of a rivalry which might prove troublesome, if not dangerous to his power. His mode of governing India was no doubt well calculated to give him favour with those who are instinctively inclined to admire his plan of administration; add to which, that a strong distaste to those who were his accusers, would have been sufficient to recommend any person or measure to which they were opposed. But whether Mr. Pitt, in the part which he now took, was actuated merely by personal motives, or, as his eulogists insist, by a strong sense of impartiality and justice, he must at all events have considered the whole proceeding, at this moment, as a most seasonable diversion of the attacks of the opposition, from his own person and government, to an object so little connected with either. The many restless and powerful spirits now opposed to him, would soon have found, or made, some vent for their energies, more likely to endanger the stability of his power; and as an expedient for drawing off some of that perilous lightning which flashed around him from the lips of a Burke, a Fox, and a Sheridan, the prosecution of a great criminal like Mr. Hastings furnished as efficient a conductor as could be desired. However, by the vote of this evening, the die was cast; but beyond this decision nothing of importance regarding the case of Mr. Hastings was brought before the house during the present session of parliament. Mr. Dundas, however, introduced a bill for improving the government of India. This bill gave the governor-general the nomination to vacant seats in the council; it also limited his officers, and authorized him to decide upon every measure, whether agreeable or not to the council. The bill was warmly opposed in both houses, but was supported by great majorities, and passed into a law. Among the remarkable domestic incidents of this year, was an attempt on the life of the king by a female, who, presenting a paper to him as he alighted from his carriage at the garden gate of St. James's Palace, made a thrust at his breast with a concealed knife. The blow was happily avoided by a backward movement, and as she was about to make another thrust, her hand was seized by a yeoman of the guard, and the knife taken from her; his majesty, with his characteristic humanity, exclaiming, "I am not hurt―take care of the poor woman; don't hurt her." On examination she was found to be one Margaret Nicholson, a person in obscure life from the north of England, whose reason was bewildered by some insane ideas of a right to the crown. Her insanity being fully apparent to the privy council, she was committed to custody as a lunatic1. 4 Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. New Annual Register. Debates in Parliament. Annals of the Reign of George the Third. CHAP. XI. ... Preliminary Remarks.... Opening of Parliament, 1787....Speech from the Throne....Commercial Treaty with France submitted to Parliament.... Debate in the Commons. Mr. Charles Grey's first Speech.... Consolidated Duties Bill....Mr. Beaufoy's Motion for the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. Opposed by Mr. Pitt and Lord North....Payment of the Prince of Wales's Debts....Debates on the Subject....Trial of Mr. Hastings, Mr. Sheridan's celebrated Speech....Mr. Hastings taken into Custody....Affairs of Holland....Discussions on Promotions at the Admiralty....Mr. Pitt's declaratory Bill. ...Extraordinary Debate thereon....Mr. Grenville's for regulating contested Elections....Petitions for the Abolition of the Slave Trade....Relief granted to the American Loyalists.... Continuation of the Impeachment of Warren Hastings.... Mr. Burke's specific Charges against him....Sir Elijah Impey impeached by Sir Gilbert Elliot....Proceedings resisted.... Financial Plan proposed by the Chancellor....Parliament prorogued....Illness of the King, and his Visit to Cheltenham.... Parliament assembled....Proceedings for supplying the royal Authority....Regency Bill introduced by Mr. Pitt....The great Seal put in Commission....Parliament adjourned....His Majesty's Recovery....National Rejoicings....Extraordinary Proceedings in the Irish Parliament.... Repeal of the Shop Tax in England. 1787. As the country was at this time in possession of the blessings of peace, the views of her public councils and the wishes of her inhabitants were happily at liberty to cultivate the resources of commerce and revenue. It is a pleasing task to fill up the chasm which occurs in her history, from the absence of battles and sieges, with the records of her peaceable arrangements and treaties abroad, or of those financial measures at home, which, from the prosperous nature of the times, pressed but slightly on the mass of the people. The state of political parties continued without any material alteration. The right honourable Charles Jenkinson was advanced to the dignity of a peer, under the title of lord Hawkesbury, and made chancellor of the dutchy of Lancaster, and president of the board of trade, but without a seat in the cabinet. For commercial information and mercantile knowledge, he stood preeminent, and was of signal use to the minister. On the 23d of January his majesty opened the sittings of parliament. After congratulating the country on the friendly disposition of foreign powers, his majesty informed the two houses, that he had concluded a treaty of commerce with the French king, and had ordered a copy of the treaty to be submitted to parliament. He recommended to the house of commons to make the revenue an object of their earliest attention, and to endeavour, by some wise regulations, to simplify the state of public accounts. Information was also given of a convention which had been formed with Spain, respecting the cutting of logwood in the Bay of Honduras. The treaty of commerce with France was brought under the examination of the house of commons, on the 5th of February, on a motion of Mr. Pitt's, that the house should resolve itself into a committee for taking into consideration that part of his majesty's speech which related to it. Some motions for delay, originating with the opposition, having been negatived, Mr. Pitt, on the 12th February, took up the subject in an elaborate explanation and defence of the treaty. As the foundation of a commercial connexion between the two countries, he stated it to be an acknowledged fact, that France had the superiority in her natural products, and Great Britain in her manufactures and artificial productions. Upon this relative condition, a valuable intercourse of trade between the two nations might be established, each having its own distinct staple; and instead of clashing in their respective pursuits of wealth, they might resemble two opulent traders in different branches, carrying on a mutually beneficial traffic with each other. Having gone over a variety of particulars, to show that the demand for our manufactures was likely fully to balance that for the French commodities, and that whatever reduction our revenue might undergo from the diminution of duties on some articles, would be compensated by increase in others; he proceeded to answer some objections that had been made to the political tendency of the treaty. It had been said, that its effects would be to compose that jealousy and rivalry between the two countries which was so essential to the welfare of Great Britain, a country that always viewed France as its natural and unavoidable enemy. This principle he regarded as a national prejudice, unworthy of an enlightened people; and indeed it was a libel on the constitution of political societies to suppose that any two states were necessarily enemies. He concluded with moving a resolution, that all the articles of the produce and manufactures of the European dominions of the French king, not specified in the tariff of the treaty, shall be imported into this kingdom on payment of duties as low as any payable on the like articles from any other European nation. Mr. Fox followed in a long speech, in which he strenuously insisted, that the only situation in which Great Britain could stand in the general system of Europe, with honour, dignity, and safety, was as a counterpoise to the power of France. Having maintained this political point with all his energy, he proceeded to consider the treaty in a commercial view, and supported a petition which had been presented from an association of manufacturers, called the Chamber of Commerce, for further deliberation on so important a subject. He then moved an amendment, which, after several other members had |