ANNUAL REGISTER,

OR GENERAL REPOSITORY OF

HISTORY,

POLITICS,

AND

LITERATURE,

For the Year 1798.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,

THE HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE, LEARNING, AND TASTE,
IN GREAT BRITAIN, DURING THE REIGN OF
KING CHARLES II.---PART II.

London:

REPRINTED FOR JOHN STOCKDALE, PICCADILLY.

1809.

PREFACE.

OUR readers will find in the present volume, what they will doubtless consider as a novelty in this publication, a retrospect of European politics for the year 1797.-The reasons for this arrangement will be sufficiently obvious. It is our duty, and our earnest desire, to furnish our readers with the most full and accurate information on every topic which regards the history of the present times; but the materials for such information as this are not to be collected from the public prints, nor from any common sources; they are to be sought in the cabinets of statesmen, and the portfolios of ministers. It is not always in our power to command the necessary documents in time to gratify the curiosity of our readers, nor within that period which we do not wish to exceed in bringing our annual volume before the public. This was precisely the case last year, and yet we were unwilling wholly to disappoint the public.

We, therefore, produced such a sketch of the latter transactions of the year as we were able to digest from the materials that came under our inspection. In the narrative now published, under the form of a retrospect, some errors will be found to be corrected, and a fuller light thrown upon some of the most important events. We shall probably be under the necessity of occasionally adopting a similar plan during the continuance of the present war. We are confident it will render our work more valuable to posterity; nor can it be the less agreeable to such of our contempora ries as wish to know the truth.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS.

THE History of Knowledge, Learning, and Taste, in Great Britain,

during the Reign of King Charles the Second. Part II. -

BRITISH AND FOREIGN HISTORY.

CHAP. I.

page xvii

Great Britain. State of Public Affairs previous to the Meeting of Par-

liament. Secession of the Whig Members. Observations on that Circum-

stance. His Majesty's Speech. Debate on the Address-In the House

of Lords-In the House of Commons. Debates on the Negociation at

Liste-In the House of Lords-In the House of Commons.

CHA P. II.

3

Bill for restraining the Payment of Cash at the Bank continued. Produce

of the Taxes for 1797. Army Estimates and Supplies for 1798. Ac2

count of the first Budget and the Ways and Means. Treble Assessment

Bill. The Outline of it as passed into a Law. Debates upon it. The

Resolution agreed to. Read a first Time. Debates on the second Read

ing-On the third Reading. Introduced into the House of Lords, and

passed. Debate on Mr. Nicholl's Motion, that the Salaries of certain

Offices shall be applied towards carrying on the War. Mr. Coke's Mo

tion for limiting the Fees of the Tellers of the Exchequer for a certain

time-rejected.

Land-Tax Redemption Bill.

Commons-In the Lords.

CHA P. III..

34