THE Parliamentary History OF ENGLAND, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD ΤΟ THE YEAR 1803. FROM WHICH LAST-MENTIONED EPOCH IT IS CONTINUED FROM THE TWENTY-NINTH OF JANUARY 1777, TO THE LONDON: PRINTED BY T. C. HANSARD, PETERBOROUGH-COURT, FLEET-STREET: FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, & BROWN; J. RICHARDSON; BLACK, 1814. PREFACE. THE present Volume contains the Proceedings in Parliament during the years 1777 and 1778. To present the public with correct Reports of the multifarious Debates, relating to the War with America, which took place during this memorable period- and which Debates, from the confused manner they have heretofore appeared in, have been rendered unintelligible, and, to the generality of readers, nearly useless-has been the anxious endeavour of the Editor. And he hopes, in particular, that the transactions, in both Houses, during the laborious Session, which opened on the 18th of November 1777, and closed on the 3rd of June 1778-a Session in which a greater number of interesting public questions were agitated than, perhaps, in any other within the space of the preceding century -will be found detailed with a carefulness commensurate with their importance. THE favourable manner in which this Work has been received, makes it no less the duty than it is the interest of the Proprietors to exert their utmost to render it as worthy of attention as they are able. The remaining Volumes will appear regularly, until the Work shall be brought down to the year 1803; at which period THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES, now, publishing under the superintendence of Mr. T. C. Hansard, commenced. LONDON, 5, Panton Square, |