in upon them before they reached the scene of action. Captain Troubridge, in the Culloden, took the lead of these ships; but the increased darkness having greatly angmented the difficulties of the navigation, that vessel suddenly grounded on a shoal, and could not be got off in time to share in the danger and the glory of the action. It was, however, some satisfaction to captain Troubridge, that his ship served as a beacon to the Alexander and Swiftsure, which would otherwise have gone considerably further in on the reef, and have been inevitably lost. These ships took their stations in a manner that commanded generai admiration; and at this juncture the Bellerophon, overpowered by the huge Orient, her lights extinguished, nearly two hundred of her crew killed or wounded, and all her masts and cables shot away, was drifting out of the line towards the lee side of the bay, when the Swiftsure, which at first mistook her for a ship of the enemy, but was soon undeceived, came up, and taking her station, opened a steady fire on the quarter of the Franklin, and the bows of the French admiral. At the same instant, captain Ball, with the Alexander, passed under the stern of the Orient, and, anchoring within side of his larboard quarter, raked him, and kept up a severe fire of musketry on his decks. The last ship which arriv. ed to complete the destruction of the enemy was the Leander, captain Thompson, who took his station in such a position as to rake both the Franklin and the Orient. The conflict was now carried on in the darkness of the night, and the only light to guide the operations of the fleets was derived from the flashes of their cannon. The two first ships of the French line had been dismasted within a quarter of an hour from the commencement of the action, and others had suffered so severely that victory was already certain-its extent was the only remaining question. The third, fourth, and fifth ships of the enemy, were taken possession of at half-past eight. While the battle raged with its utmost fury, the British admiral received a wound on the head from a piece of langridge shot, which cut a large flap of the skin of the forehead from the bone, and, falling over his only remaining eye, left him in total darkness. The great effusion of blood occasioned an apprehension that the wound would be mortal: Nelson uimself thought so, and desired his chaplain to deliver his dying remembrances to lady Nelson; but the surgeon, on examining the wound, pronounced it to be merely superficial. The French admiral Brueys, who sustained the honour of his flag with undiminished firmness, and had been three times wounded during the engagement without quitting his station, now received a shot which almost cut him in two. Soon after nine o'clock the Orient struck her colours, and appeared in flames, which spread with astonishing rapidity, and by the prodigious light of which the situation of the two fleets could be distinctly seen from the minarets of Rosetta, a distance of fifteen miles. About ten o'clock the ship blew up with a tremendous explosion, which was succeeded by a silence not less awful. The firing instantly ceased on both sides, and the first sound which broke the portentous stillness was the dash of shattered masts and yards falling into the water from the vast height to which they had been cast by the explosion. Only about seventy of the crew could be saved by the English boats. The Orient had on board mouey to the amount of six hundred thousand pounds. After a lapse of about ten minutes the fire recommenced with the ships to the leeward of the centre, and continued without intermission till three o'clock the next morning. It then grew very faint till about five, when it was resumed with redoubled fury; but it was, on the enemy's part, the resistance, not of hope, but of despair. At day-break, the Guilliaume Tell and the Genereux, the two rear ships of the enemy, were the only French ships of the line that had their colours flying, and in the forenoon they cut their cables and stood out to sea, taking along with them two frigates. The Zealous, worthy of her name, instantly commenced the pur suit, but, as there was no other ship in a condition to support captain Hood, he was recalled. The firing continued in the bay with some intermission till two o'clock in the afternoon, when it entirely ceased. Thus ended an engagement which will ever rank amongst the most distinguished achievements in na val annals. The result was, that, out of a fleet of thir teen sail, the admiral's ship of a hundred and twenty guns, and the Timoleon of seventy-four, were burnt; while two eighty gun ships, and seven seventy-fours, wère captured: and it was the firm persuasion of the British admiral, that, had he been more amply provided with frigates, all the enemy's transports and smaller vessels in the bay would have shared the fate of the ships of the line. This deficiency of frigates he deeply regretted, and in his usual forcible way of expressing himself, said "Should I die at the present moment, want of frigates would be found written on my heart." The British loss in killed and wounded amounted to eight hundred and ninety-five. Of the French, three thousand one hundred and five, including the wounded, went on shore by cartel, and five thousand two hundred and twenty-five perished!-constituting a loss, during that glorious, but fatal night, of upwards of five hundred human beings an hour! One British officer of the rank of captain only fell; this was the brave captain Westcott, who was killed early in the action. Throughout England the victory was celebrated with every mark of rejoicing. His majesty couferred the dignity of baron, with a pension of threa thousand pounds a year, on the admiral, who was called to the house of peers by the style and dignity of Baron Nelson of the Nile. The Grand Seignior also transmitted a superb diamond chelengk, or plume of triumph, taken from one of the imperial turbans; and the king of Naples, at a later period, granted the title of duke of Bronte, with an estate in Sicily. Captains Berry and Thompson received the honour of kuighthood, and the other commanders were presented with gold medals. The Turkish sultan sent a purse of two thousand sequins to be distributed amongst the wounded, and the English nation raised, by public subscription, a considerable sum for the widows and children of those who fell in the action. NEW COALITION AGAINST THE FRENCH. Ar Rastadt the effect of this victory became evident. The deputation of the empire had already agreed to a plan of indemnities, by means of which forty-four of the secular and ecclesiastical states were to make immense sacrifices to obtain peace; but the attack on Switzerland and Rome, and the expedition of Buonaparte into Egypt, joined to the opposition he had there encountered, and the recent disaster of the French navy, encouraged the congress to delay the negotiations, and evidently rendered a new contest unavoidable. At this juncture too, and partly from the same causes, the Turks declared war against France; and Russia became an efficient member of the new coalition preparing against the French nation, the co-operation of the emperor Paul being secured by a subsidy, stipulated in a treaty concluded in December between him and the king of Great Britain, wherein each party engaged not to make a peace or armis tice without including the other. This alliance was extended rather than strengthened by the activity of the king of Naples, who, after issuing a declaration of war against the republic on the twenty-second of November, put his army in motion against the French on the twenty-third of that month, and on the twenty-ninth succeeded in making himself mas ter of the Roman capital. This success, however, was of short duration; for on the fifteenth of De cember the Neapolitan troops suffered a signal defeat at Civita Castillana, and this disaster was followed by the immediate evacuation of Rome. After a series of defeats, during a continued retreat, Ferdinand IV. was obliged, on the last day of the year, to abdicate all his continental dominions, and to take refuge on board an English man of war. EXPEDITION AGAINST OSTEND-CAPTURE OF MINORCA. AN expedition was fitted out in England agamst Maritime Flanders, early in this year, for the express purpose of blowing up the basin, gates, and sluices of the Bruges canal, as well as destroying the internal navigation, by means of which transportschuyts, instead of risking a sea voyage, were en abled to keep an internal intercourse between Holland, France, and Flanders. An armament accordingly sailed for the purpose from Margate Roads, on the eighteenth of May, under captain GEORGE III. Popham, with a body of troops, consisting of twelve hundred men, commanded by major-general Coote. Having landed on the following day without opposition, they proceeded to burn several boats, demolish the sluice-gates, and effect a grand explosion, by which it was intended to destroy a great national work, which had cost the States of Bruges an immense sum of money, and had not been completed with a labour of five years. Thus having, as was supposed, rendered the Bruges canal unserviceable, the commander-in-chief attempted about noon to return on board the shipping, but the wind was so high, and the surf so much increased, as to render it impracticable. Upon this it was deemed proper to occupy a position upon the sand hills, at a little distance from the beach, and, by way of gaining time, the governor of Ostend was summoned to surrender; but this fate was unhappily reserved for the invaders themselves, as that officer found means in the course of the night to assemble a great force, with which he hemmed in the English early in the morning; and, all resistance being in vain, they surrendered, after a gallant defence, in the course of which the major-general was wounded. Captain Popham endeavoured, without effect, to obtain an exchange of prisoners; and it appears at first to have been the intention of the French government to oblige the British troops to Jabour at the reparation of the works they had destroyed, but it was found on inspection that the damage was but trifling. A small armament was despatched against Minorca, under the command of admiral Duckworth and general Stuart, and a descent was made near the creek of Addaya. As the invaders had few of the requisites of a siege, their adversaries might, with a small share of spirit, have made a considerable resistance: intimidated, however, by the movements of the troops, and the appearance of the squadron, the garrison capitulated on the fifteenth of November, and the whole island was reduced without the loss of a single man. the same time the isle of Goza, near Malta, caAbout pitulated to a detachment of admiral Nelson's squadron. In St. Domingo disease måde such alarming havoc among the English troops, that at length major general Maitland was instructed to surrender Portau-Prince and St. Marc to Toussaint L'Ouverture, a negro commander, who had nearly annihilated the dominion of the French in the island; and in the course of the year they evacuated every other post. Such were the chequered scenes of the campaign of 1799; but the balance of victory, of disinterested policy, and of success in arms, (the affairs of Egypt taken into the scale,) certainly preponderated in favour of England. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT-INCOME TAX. On the twentieth of November parliament as sembled. The great and continually increasing expense of the war had induced the minister, in the course of the last session of parliament, to bring forward, for the sanction of the house, a new system of finance, the principle of which was to raise within the year a large proportion of the necessary supplies, which, aided by the operation of the sinking fund, should prevent any material addition being made to the public debt. The tax proposed for this purpose, called the triple assessment tax, was, however, found so inadequate to the object, that the minister determined to substitute in its stead a tax on income. Accordingly, on the third of December, the house having formed itself into a committee, Pitt stated that the supplies which would be necessary for the service of the present year amounted to about thirty million pounds, towards which the usual ways and means would produce six million one hundred thousand pounds. It remained then to be considered in what way the deficiency should be raised. Here two leading principles occurred for the guidance of the house-either to raise the whole by loan upon the old funding system, or to raise a considerable part of the supplies within the year upon the principle adopted in the last session of parliament. Pitt then proceeded to state his new plan of finance, which was a tax on income. The commissioners, who should be vested with the power of determining upon the rate of every one's income, should be persons of respectable situations in life, removed from any suspicion of partiality; and, in case the party was 1760-1820.11 279 dissatisfied with their decision, another body of peal might be carried. The next point for consi commissioners should be formed, to whom an ap deration was the mode of contribution that should be adopted. Under this head it was his intention to propose that no income under sixty pounds a year should be called upon to contribute, and that the scale of modification, up to two hundred pounds a year, as in the assessed taxes, should be introduced called for should amount to a full tenth of the with restrictions. The quota which should then be contributor's income. The returns to be made by the person assessed, subject to the inspection of a surveyor, who should lay before the commissioners fairness of the rate at which a party might have such grounds of doubt as might occur to him on the assessed himself. The party, however, should not called for, nor his confidential clerks or agents exbe compelled to answer; his books should not be amined; but, if he declined to submit to such investigation, it should be competent for the commissioners to fix the assessment, and their decision should be final. The national income, after deducthundred and two million pounds, on which amount ing one-fifth for modifications, he calculated at one a tax of ten per cent. would produce ten million pounds a year. The unfairness and inequality of the proposed members, Pitt observed that an honourable gentleassessment having been ably contended by several hundred pounds per annum, one of whom derived man had said, that if two persons had each five his income from land, and the other from industry, they ought not both to be taxed equally at fifty pounds: but to complain of this inequality was to complain of the distribution of property-it was to complain of the constitution of society. The consequence of this tax would be to all alike; and who. ever contributed a tenth of his income, under the bill, would have a tenth less to spend, to save, or to accumulate. The house then divided: for the eighty-three; against it, seventeen; majority, one further consideration of the report, one hundred and hundred and sixty-six. After undergoing several eighteenth of March 1799, and the fifth of April was amendments, the bill was passed into a law, on the fixed as the time for making the returns. The remaining supplies were to be made up from the new imposts on sugar, coffee, and stamps, aided by the recently imposed convoy-tax. Abont two hundred tions, and a hundred and twenty thousand seamen and fifty thousand land forces, of different descripand marines, were also voted. A bill to enlarge the time prescribed by an act of the last session, for the redemption of the land-tax, and to make certain. regulations respecting ecclesiastical property, and the property devised for lives and for long terms, was also carried into a law. UNION WITH IRELAND PROPOSED-PRO- ing important message was delivered by secretary land was essential to the true interests of both The same day on which the message on the Dublin; and a speech on this occasion was made by the lord-lieutenant, which concluded with a hope that the parliaments in both kingdoms would be disposed to provide the most effectual means of maintaining and improving a connection essential to their common security; and of consolidating, as far as possible, into one firm and lasting fabric, the strength, the power, and the resources of the British empire. The address in the house of peers was opposed chiefly by the lords Powerscourt and Bellamont, who severally moved amendments, expressive of their disapprobation of a legislative union with Great Britain. On the first division the numbers were forty-six to nineteen, and on the last thirty-five to seventeen, in favour of the court. But in the house of commons, after a debate of twenty hours, the contest was so close, that only a majority of one appeared against the amendment; the numbers being, on the division one hundred and six and one hundred and five; and, when the question was put for agreeing to the address, the ministry had in their favour only one hundred and seven against one hundred and five voices. The address was reported two days afterwards, when Sir Lawrence Parsons strenuously opposed its being received, and, after a violent debate, his motion was carried by a majority of one hundred and eleven to one hundred and six voices. The exultation of the Irish metropolis at this defeat of the ministry was unbounded: the unionists were insulted and calumniated by every possible mode of attack; and the chief speaker of opposition acquired a sudden and extraordinary increase of popularity. The vehement enthusiasm of the capital, nevertheless, did not extend to the nation at large; the weight of the landed interest was in favour of the measure; and Cork, the second city of the kingdom, and the commercial towns in general, though greatly agitated and divided, were, upon the whole, rather friendly than hostile to it. On the thirty-first of January the subject was again brought under consideration by Pitt, who said that, when he proposed to the house to fix that day for the further consideration of his majes ty's message, he indulged a hope that the result of a similar communication to the parliament of Ireland would have opened a more favourable prospect than at present existed of the speedy accomplishment of the measure then in contemplation: he had, however, been disappointed by the proceedings of the Irish house of commons. He admitted that the parliament of Ireland possessed the power to accept or reject a proposition of this nature; a power which he by no means meant to dispute; but he felt it his duty to express his general outline of the plan, which, in his estimation, would tend to ensure the safety and the happiness of the two kingdoms. Should parliament be of opinion that it was calculated to produce mutual advantages, he should propose it, in order to its being recorded on the journals, leaving the rejec tion or adoption of the plan to the future consideration of the legislature of Ireland. Pitt remarked that the union with Scotland was as much opposed, and by nearly the same arguments, prejudices, and misconceptions; creating the same alarms as had recently taken place in respect to Ireland: yet, could any man now doubt of the advantages which Scotland had derived from it? One of the greatest impediments to the prosperity of Ireland was the want of industry and the want of capital, which were only to be supplied by blending more closely with that country the industry and capital of this. In the present state of things also, and while Ireland remained a separate kingdom, no reasonable person would affirm that full concessions could be made to the catholics without endangering the state, and shaking the constitution of Ireland to its centre. At the conclusion of a very able speech, he proposed a series of resolutions, and moved that the house resolve itself into a committee to discuss the same. The plan proposed that the two islands should be united into one kingdom, by the name of "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland;" that the succession to the crown should be limited and settled as at present; that the united kingdom should be represented in one and the same parliament, and that such a number of lords and commons as shall be hereafter agreed upon shall sit and vote on the part of Ireland; that the churches of England and Ireland be preserved as now by law established; that the king's subjects in Ire land be entitled to the same privileges, in respect of trade and navigation, with those of Great Britain, subject to certain regulations, to be agreed upon previously to the union, and regulated from time to time by the united parliament; that the charge arising from the payment of the interest, or sinking fund for the reduction of the principal, of the debt incurred in either kingdom before the union, shall continue to be separately defrayed by Great Britain and Ireland respectively; that, for a number of years to be limited, the future ordinary expenses of the united kingdom in peace or war should be defrayed by Great Britain and Ireland jointly, according to such proportions as shall be established by the respective parliaments previously to the union; and that all laws in force at the time of the union, and all the courts of civil or ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the respective kingdoms, shall remain as now by law established within the same, subject only to such alterations or regulations, from time to time, as circumstances appear to the parliament of the united kingdom to require. Sheridan avowed his utter disapprobation of the measure, and stated his intention of moving two resolutions, declaring that no measures could have a tendency to improve and perpetuate the ties of amity which had not for their basis the fair and free approbation of the parliaments of the two coun tries; and that whoever should endeavour to obtain such approbation, by employing the influence of government, was an enemy to his majesty and the constitution. The house divided on the question of the speaker's leaving the chair; ayes, one hundred and forty, noes fifteen; and, after some further debates on the subject, Pitt's resolutions were carried by large majorities. On the fourteenth of February the report of the committee was brought up, when it was ordered that a message be sent to the lords, requesting a conference respecting the means of perpetuating and improving the connection between the two kingdoms. The subject had previously been introduced into the house of peers by a message from the king, delivered by lord Grenville. The address in answer to this message was voted unanimously by the house, which then adjourned. From this period the business remained dormant in the upper house till the eighteenth of February, when the message from the commons was delivered by earl Temple. A conference accordingly taking place in the painted chamber, the lords deputed on this occasion soon returned with a copy of the resolutions moved by the house of commons. On the nineteenth of March, their lordships having been summoned, lord Grenville moved that the house do agree with the same; and this motion, though strenuously opposed, was agreed to without a division. On the eleventh of April, the house having been again summoned, lord Grenville moved an address . to the throne, which was also carried without a division; but a protest was signed against it by the lords Holland, Thanet, and King. A committee was then named, consisting of lord Grenville, lord Minto, lord Auckland, and the bishop of Llandaff, to draw up an address conformable to the motion; which having been effected, the commons, in a second conference on the following day, were invited to join in the same, and to agree that it should be presented to his majesty as the address of both houses of parliament, which was accordingly doue in the most solemn manner. In Ireland the further consideration of the bill was postponed till the first of August. It was, however, manifest that the court were determined to persevere; and the lord-lieutenant, on the termination of the session, announced that a joint address of the two houses of parliament of Great Britain had been laid before his majesty, accompanied by resolutions proposing and recommending a complete and entire union between Great Britain and Ireland; and he further declared that his majesty, as the common father of his people, must look forward with earnest anxiety to the moment when, in conformity to the sentiments, wishes, and real interests of his subjects in both kingdoms, they may all be inseparably united in the full enjoyment of the blessings of a free constitution. Wilberforce's annual motion for the abolition of the slave trade had in this session to encounter i an additional opposition, arising from the exist ence of a negro army in St. Domingo, and the efforts made to propagate democratical principles through the West India islands. It was consequently negatived by a majority of eighty-four to fifty-four. Parliament was prorogued on the twelfth of July, 1799, when his majesty was pleased to declare that the decision and energy which distinguished the councils of his ally, the emperor of Russia, and the intimate union and concert so happily es tablished between them, would enable him to employ, to the greatest advantage, the powerful means intrusted to him by parliament, for establishing, on permanent grounds, the security and honour of this country, and the liberty and independence of Europe. On this occasion he also expressed his satisfaction in seeing that internal tranquillity was in some degree restored to Ireland, the ultimate security of which could alone be ensured by its intimate and entire union with Great Britain. CHAPTER XXXI. Affairs of Egypt-Capture of Jaffa-Siege of Acre-Gallant Defence-The French raise the Siege and return from Syria to Egypt-Tippoo Saib, at the instigation of Buonaparte, concerts measures against the India Company, who declare war in consequence-Seringapatam taken by General Harris; Death of Tippoo-Partition of the Mysore Territory-Buonaparte returns to France-Naples proclaimed a Republic-The Austrian and French Forces take the Field Encounters on the Rhine-Campaign in Italy and Switzerland-Retreat of the Russians under Saworrow-Expedition to North HollandCapture of Surinam-Party Contentions in France-The Directory overthrown, and Buonaparte nominated First Consul-He proposes a Negotiation for Peace, which is rejected by the British Government-Meeting of Parliament-Debate on Buonaparte's Pacific Overture-Subsidiary Treaties --Finance-Subsidy to the Emperor-Union with Ireland completed—Scarcity of Corn-Attempt on the King's Life. AFFAIRS OF EGYPT-CAPTURE OF JAFFA. by the total defeat of the French fleet at Aboukir, exerted himself to secure the affection of the Egyptians by flattering their religious prejudices; by recalling their ancient greatness, and asserting that he wished to restore them to their pristine grandeur; by professions of regard for his ally, the grand seignior; and by pretending that the invasion of Egypt, and the expulsion of the beys, were measures which merited or had obtained his assent. These arts, however, failed to produce the desired effect, and his arms alone could ensure the obedience which he courted, or avert the danger which he dreaded. An insurrection at Cairo had nearly proved fatal to his cause; and some hundreds of the French, including general Dupuis, their commander, were killed before it could be suppressed: a much larger number of the insurgents of course perished, and not a few afterwards fell by the hands of the executioner; for Buonaparte, wherever he went, treated all who opposed him as traitors and rebels. Various skirmishes and some sharp actions took place between the invaders and the Mamelukes, under the command of the beys, in different parts of the country, particularly in Upper Egypt, in all of which the superior discipline and tactics of the French baffled the rude courage and desultory attacks of their opponents. It could not, however, be supposed that the porte would leave them in quiet possession of a portion of her territory, or that England would make no effort to wrest it from their hands: Buonaparte was aware that if an army was sent from Europe to attack him on one side, while a Turkish force from Asia assailed him on the other, he might not be able to extricato himself from the difficulties with which he would be surrounded, and he therefore resolved to attack the Turks in the first instance, in the hopes of subduing them before they could receive assistance from other quarters. He accordingly made preparations for an expedition against Acre, and sent his train of artillery, destined for the siege, by sea. The army, in four divisions, under the command of Kleber, Bon, Regnier, and Lannes, proceeded to El-Arisch, where an action was fought, in which the French were successful. They then moved forward to Jaffa, anciently called Joppa, a seaport town on the coast of Palestine, which was carried by assault, with great loss, after a vigorous defence. Numbers of the garrison were put to the sword; but the greater part having taken refuge in the mosques, and implored mercy from the French, their lives were spared. Being encumbered with nearly four thousand prisoners, from the care and maintenance of which, it is said, Buonaparte found it necessary to relieve himself, he ordered them to be marched to a rising ground near Jaffa, where volleys of musketry and grape-shot were played upon them by a division of French infantry, and such of the Turks as were not killed by the shot were put to death by the bayonet (1). The accumulation of unburied bodies occa. great number of the French soldiers were soon infected, the hospitals crowded, and the medical staff embarrassed. In this crisis Buonaparte found an apothecary who consented to administer poison to the sick. A sufficient quantity of opium was accordingly mixed with pleasant food, of which the unsuspecting victims freely partook; and in a few hours five hundred and eighty soldiers, who had suffered so much for the tyrants of their country, thus miserably perished (2). SIEGE OF ACRE-GALLANT DEFENCE. BUONAPARTE then marched at the head of his troops for Acre, which at this moment contained within its walls two men, who, with the romantie heroism of the days of chivalry, united all the knowledge appertaining to the modern art of warSir W. Sidney Smith, a British naval officer of distinguished enterprise, and colonel Phillippeaux, an emigrant officer of engineers. After rescuing his friend, Sir Sidney, from bondage in the temple, and restoring him to liberty at the. hazard of his life, Phillippeaux accompanied him in a small squadron to which he had been appointed, and, after cruising with him in the Levant, had embarked for Syria to afford assistance to the Pacha. On the thirtieth of March, 1799, the trenches were opened, about one hundred and fifty fathoms from the wall; and soon after the enemy advanced to storm the fortress. It was soon discovered, however, that a ditch of fifteen feet was to be passed, while the counterscarp was almost untouched; and the breach, which was not large, bad been effected upwards of six feet above the level of the works. Notwithstanding these obstacles a body of grenadiers descended into the ditch, and attempted to scale the wall; but nothing could be achieved. The garrison was at first seized with terror, and many of the Turkish soldiers ran to wards the harbour; but no sooner did they discover that the opening in the wall was several feet above the rubbish, than they returned to the charge, and showered down stones, grenades, and combustibles upon the assailants, who were obliged to retire, after losing two adjutants-general, and a great number of men. This event afforded so much encouragement to the troops of the pacha, that they made a sally, in which they killed several of the besiegers. In the interim the English squadron discovered, in the neighbourhood of Mount Carmel, a corvette and nine sail of gun-boats, laden with artillery and ammunition, intended to assist in the reduction of Acre, seven of which, containing all the battering train, were captured; and this fortunate incident contributed greatly to save the city. At this period of the siege Ghezzar Oglou, the pacha, dispersed his firmauns among the Naplouzians, as well as into the towns in the Said, requesting the true be lievers to rise and overwhelm the infidels. The |