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resumed the adjourned consideration of his majesty's message of the fifteenth; and a motion was made, "That privilege of parliament does not extend to the case of writing and publishing seditious libels, nor ought to be allowed to obstruct the ordinary course of the laws, in the speedy and effectual prosecution of so heinous and dangerous an offence." As this resolution tended to confine within narrower limits the supposed privileges of every member of the legislature, and was also diametrically opposite to the late determination of the court of common pleas, the ministry were deserted by a few of their usual supporters, and the opposition made a vigorous, though finally ineffectual stand against it. Pitt exerted himself with extraordinary ardour in this debate; and as the extent of his conceptions, the acuteness of his remarks, and the powers of his eloquence left very little to be said by any other person, on the same side of the question, his speech, which has been faithfully preserved, precludes every vain attempt to give a more impressive form to the chief arguments that were urged against the surrender of privilege.

He represented such a surrender "as highly dangerous to the freedom of parliament, and an infringement on the rights of the people. No man," he said," could condemn the paper or libel more than he did; but he would come at the author fairly, not by an open breach of the constitution, and a contempt of all restraint. This proposed sacrifice of privilege was putting every member of parliament, who did not vote with the minister, under a perpetual terror of imprisonment. To talk of an abuse of privilege, was to talk against the constitution, against the very being and life of parliament. It was an arraignment of the justice and honour of parliament, to suppose that they would protect any crimi whatever. Whenever a complaint was made against any member, the house could give him up. This privilege had never been abused: it had been reposed in parliament for ages. But take away this privilege, and the whole parliament is laid at the mercy of the crown. Why," continued he," is a privilege, which has never been abused, to be voted away? Parliament has no right to vote away its privileges. They are the inherent right of the succeeding members of this house, as well as of the present members; and I very much doubt whether a sacrifice made by this house is valid and conclusive against the claim of a future parlia

ment."

With respect to the paper itself, or the libel which had given pretence for this request to surrender the privileges of parliament, he observed that the house had already vcted it a libel-he joined in that vote. He condemned the whole series of North Britons he called them illiberal, unmanly, and detestable. He abhorred all national reflections. "The king's subjects," he said, "were one people. Whoever divided them was guilty of sedition. His majesty's complaint was well founded: it was just: it was necessary. The author did not deserve to be ranked among the human species-he was the blasphemer of his God (3) and the libeller of his king. He had no connection with him: he had no connection with any such writer: he neither associated nor communicated with any such. It was true that he had friendships, and warm ones: he had obligations, and great ones: but no friendships, no obligations could induce him to approve what he firmly condemned. It might be supposed, that he alluded to his noble relation [lord Temple]. He was proud to call him his relation: he was his friend, his bosom friend, whose fidelity was as unshaken as his virtue. They went into office together, and they came out together: they had lived together, and would die together. He knew nothing of any connection with the writer of the libel. If there subsisted any, he was totally unacquainted with it. The dignity, the honour of parliament had been called upon to support and protect the purity of his majesty's character; and this they had done by a strong and decisive condemnation of the libel which his majesty had submitted to the consideration of the house. But having done this, it was neither consistent with the honour and safety of parliament, nor with the rights and interests of the people, to go one step farther. The rest belonged to the courts below."

The other arguments made use of by the opposers of the resolution were little more than repetitions of the doctrine so lately confirmed by the court of

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king's bench; that the privilege of parliament extended to all cases, except treason, felony, and those offences, in which sureties of the peace might be demanded; that libels were breaches of the peace only by inference, and by construction, not actually, and in their own nature; that this doctrine was supported by the highest law authorities, by the records of parliament, and particularly by two plain resolutions of the house of peers, so far as the question concerned their privilege; and that to relax the rule of privilege, case by case, would be attended with the greatest inconvenience, by rendering the rule itself precarious, in consequence of which the judges would neither know how to decide with certainty, nor the subject to proceed with safety in this doubtful and perilous business.

With whatever plausibility and eloquence Pitt and his party endeavoured to support these opinions, the advocates for the motion very fully demonstrated their fallacy, and established the contrary doctrine on every ground of popularity, liberty, law, precedent, and reason. They first took a view of the nature of the offence, and showed that a libel was not only productive of consequences injurious to the peace of individuals, but in many cases, pregnant with danger to the safety, and to the very being of the commonwealth. They asserted, that the distinction between actual and constructive breaches of the peace was trifling and sophistical: that the question was concerning the nature and weight of the offence, and not the name by which it was called: that it would be ridiculous to allow a seditious libeller advantages which were denied to an ordinary breaker of the peace when sedition was a crime of much greater guilt and importance than a menacing gesture, or even an actual assault: that the privilege of parliament was a privilege of a civil nature, instituted to preserve the member from being distracted in his attention to the business of the nation, by litigations concerning his private property, but by no means to prove a protection for crimes. "If," said they, "this distinction of breaches of the peace were to hold, members of parliament might not only libel public and private persons with impunity, but might, with the same impunity, commit many other misdemeanors and offences of the grossest nature, and the most destructive to morality and order; because they, as well as libels, are breaches of the peace, but by construction, and in their consequence. If privilege were of this nature, the freedom of the members would be the slavery of the subject, and the danger of the state.

"Privilege of parliament," they added, "being defined solely by the discretion of either house for itself, was a matter of the most delicate nature: it was therefore to be used with the utmost moderation. If it should be so exercised as to appear incompatible with the public peace or order, or even, perhaps, with the safety and quiet of individuals, the people might come to think that they lived under a constitution, injudiciously, and even absurdly framed, in which the personal liberty of the representatives of a free people might become inconsistent with their own. That the house, instead of enlarging its immunities beyond their original intention and spirit,-instead of claiming an invidious and no very honourable privilege, ought to stand forward in giving a noble example of its moderation and its regard to justice. By agreeing to the resolution, it would give this practical lesson, and, at the same time, this comfortable security to the people, that no situation was a sanctuary for those, who presumed to violate the law in any of its parts."

Such were some of the chief points insisted on by those who justified the proposed resolution; and the debate being adjourned till n at day, the question was carried by a majority of one hundred and twenty five. One of the members was then nominated to go up to the house of lords, to desire a conference for obtaining the concurrence of their lordships; which was accordingly granted; and their lordships, in a few days after, agreed to the resolu tion, though not without a more obstinate and violeut struggle than even that which had taken place in the commons. The protest, signed by seventeen of them, affords a proof of what has been already remarked, that Mr. Pitt left very little room for the display of novelty, or of originality on that side of the question. But the speech of lord Lyttleton in support of the resolution and published by himself,

though less ardent than Pitt's, has been generally deemed more convincing and unanswerable. NORTH BRITON BURNED BY THE COMMON HANGMAN.

THE majority of the lords concurred in the resolution of the commons on the question of privilege, and in other resolutions of the lower house relative to the libel, in the order for its being burned by the common hangman; and in the propriety of addressing the king to testify their indignation at such unparalleled insolence.

But though both houses of parliament, actuated by the strongest motives of loyalty and of true patriotism, had resolved that no plea of privilege should obstruct the régular course of justice in matters of such high concern to the public, and had also ordered the North Briton, No. XLV, to be burned by the common hangman; yet, when this order was on the point of being executed at the Royal Exchange, under the immediate direction of the city sheriffs, Harley and Blunt, the mob became so riotous as to rescue the paper from the executioner before it was consumed, and to fling a billet snatched from the fire at Harley's chariot, in consequence of which he was slightly wounded. This riot being reported to the lords and commons, they took up the matter with becoming seriousness; and resolved, after the Lords had examined Harley, "that the rioters were perturbators of the public peace, dangerous to the liberties of this country, and obstructors of the national justice." The sheriffs, at the same time, had the thanks of parliament for their spirited conduct on the occasion; and both houses unanimously joined in an address to his majesty, that he would give directions for the discovery of the rioters.

DUEL BETWEEN MARTIN AND WILKES. AFTER these steps taken by the whole legislative body to brand the libel itself with the strongest marks of their abhorrence, the commons proceeded in the complaint against Wilkes as the author of it. But their earnestness in the prosecution was for some time checked by an accident, which, though perilous to Wilkes, proved very useful to his party, by keeping the hopes and spirit of the mob alive, which would probably have expired under an early and final decision of the house against him. In the course of the first day's debate on the king's message respecting the libel, Samuel Martin, member of parliament for Camelford, and late first secretary of the treasury, whose character had been virulently attacked in some of the early numbers of the North Briton, took an opportunity of remarking, "that the author of these papers was a malignant and infamous coward." When the house was up, Wilkes sent a note to Martin, acknowledging him. self to be the author. A duel with pistols ensued, in which Wilkes was so dangerously wounded, that he could not appear in the house of commons, when the matter of his complaint was to be heard. In consequence, therefore, of a letter from Wilkes to the speaker, requesting that the farther consideration of his case might be deferred until he was able to attend, the commons put off the hearing of evidence on the charge against him as the author of the libel; but decided the other questions respect ing the plea of privilege, and the criminality of the paper, as has been already related.

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MR. WILKES, though confined by his wound, and almost deserted by his party in both houses of parliament, made an effort of another kind, which was crowned with temporary success. Encouraged by the verdicts which had been given in favour of several persons taken up, like himself, on general warrants, he commenced an action in the court of Common Pleas, against Robert Wood, Esq. the late under secretary of state, for seizing his papers; and on the sixth of December, after a hearing of near fifteen hours, before lord chief justice Pratt, and a special jury, he obtained a verdict with 1000l. damages, and costs of suit. In the charge given on this occasion by the judge to the jury, his lordship pronounced the warrant, under which Wilkes had been apprehended, unconstitutional, illegal, and absolutely void; but he also declared, that he was far from wishing a matter of such consequence should rest solely on his opinion, as he was only one of the twelve judges, and as there was also a still higher court, before which the question might be canvassed. "If," said he, "these higher jurisdictions should declare my opinion erroneous, I submit, as will become me, and kiss the rod: but I must say, I shall always consider it as a rod of iron for the chastisement of the people of Great Britain." It is but justice to so truly respectable a character to observe, in direct contradiction to the insinuations at that time thrown out by some of the intemperate friends of the ministry, that this opinion was not tinctured with party spirit, nor influenced by party attachments. It was the result of the most profound knowledge, and of the fullest conviction (4). It was the very opinion, which this great lawyer, when attorney general, had stated, with equal candour and firmness, to Pitt, who was at that time secretary of state, and who, notwithstanding his learned friend's declaration against the legality of general warrants, thought himself justified by the practice of office, and by the exigency of the occasion, in having recourse to such extraordinary acts of power. solemn a decision was considered by the opposition as a matter of great triumph.

So

WILKES AVOIDS THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

ON the sixteenth of December, the house of commons, being tired out by repeated delays of Wilkes's appearance on account of his wound, and suspecting that there might be some collusion between him and such of the faculty as attended him, made an order that doctor Heberden and Mr. Hawkins, the former a physician and the latter a surgeon, should observe the progress of his cure, and report their opinion to the house. Wilkes declined to admit them, though he had before received their visits at the request of Martin. But in justification of the characters of his own medical attendants, and of the reports they had made from time to time of the state of his health, he sent for doctor Duncan, one of his majesty's surgeons in ordinary, and Middleton, one of his majesty's serjeant surgeons, observing, in his usual strain of MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS AUGusta. sarcastic humour," that, as he found the house of commons thought it proper he should be watched, DURING this delay of the direct proceedings of he himself thought two Scotchmen most proper for the commons against Wilkes, they received another his spies." It seems, however, that the superior message from the king, to inform them that his mapowers of Scotch surgery, or the kind care and jesty, having received proposals for a marriage beconcern of the house of commons for Wilkes's tween the princess Augusta and the hereditary speedy recovery, had the happiest effect: for the prince of Brunswick, had agreed to the same; and house having on the twentieth of December adas he could not doubt but that such an alliance journed during the Christmas holidays, Wilkes would be to the general satisfaction of all his subjects, found himself well enough, on the twenty-fourth, he promised himself the assistance of that house, to to set out for France, in order to visit his daughter, enable him to give his eldest sister a portion suit- who, he said, was then dangerously ill at Paris. able to the honour and dignity of the crown. The The truth is, that Wilkes, very justly intimidated commons, therefore, as well as the lords, to whom by the decision of all the preliminary questions rethe like information was communicated, unanimous-lative to his case, and by the sentence passed on ly resolved to address the king to declare their entire satisfaction at the prospect of an alliance with so illustrious a protestant family, which had so signally distinguished itself in the defense of the liberties of Europe. The address was presented by the whole house; and they voted eighty thousand pounds as a dowry to her royal higliness. The

his seditious libel, seized the present opportunity afforded him by the adjournment of the commons, to make his escape.

During the recess, it was very confidently as serted by several of Wilkes's friends, that be

would attend the house on the nineteenth of Janu ary, which was the last day fixed for his appear

ance. But, when that day arrived, the speaker the words, "That a general warrant for apprehendproduced a letter he had received by the posting and seizing the authors, printers, and publishfrom Wilkes at Paris, stating the impossibility of ers of a seditious and treasonable libel, together his attending his duty in parliament at the time with their papers is not warranted by law; might required, with a paper inclosed, purporting to be a be added, although such warrant had been issued certificate of one of the French king's physicians, according to the usage of office, and hath been freand of a surgeon of the French army, relating to the quently produced to, and, so far as appears to this state of Wilkes's health, but not authenticated be- house, the validity thereof hath never been debated fore a notary public, nor the signature thereof veri- in the court of king's bench, but the parties therefied in any manner. Those papers being read, some upon have been frequently bailed by the said court." medical gentlemen who attended according to or- This state of the question subjected it to new and der, were called in and interrogated at the bar. It insurmountable difficulties, because a resolution of appeared by their testimony, that Wilkes had re- the commons, so worded, would imply no less than fused to admit surgeons appointed by that house to an imputation of perjury on the court of king's examine into the state of his wound; and his re- bench, for admitting to bail persons committed treat into France rather indicating a distrust of his upon such illegal warrants, instead of giving them cause, than any thing amiss in his constitution, the a free discharge. It was likewise thought a little house resolved, that in so doing, he was guilty of a extraordinary, that the word "treasonable," concontempt of their authority, and that they would tained in the earl of Halifax's general warrant, was therefore proceed to hear the evidence in support omitted in the original motion. After a very long of the charge against him. They considered the and warm debate, it was carried, that the farther letter and the apology he had sent for his non-ap- consideration of the question should be adjournéd pearance, together with the certificate that accom- for four months, which was in the usual phrase, panied it, as quite nugatory. If his wound had civilly dismissing it. The minority, however, on been in the condition in which he represented it, this point, was so very considerable, being two huna journey to Paris was a strange measure; and dred and twenty against two hundred and thirty the consequences arose from his own voluntary act. four, that the ministry may rather be said to have escaped than conquered. The whole fabric of their power seemed to be shaken by this contest; but the progress of the session showed that the formidable numbers of their opponents were mustered only on this single occasion. On all others there was no great difficulty; and the whole scheme of the supplies in particular met with the most perfect acquiescence. A short account of the plan, on which they were raised, will show how far they were deserving of general approbation.

WILKES EXPELLED.

AFTER the examination of the witnesses against Wilkes had been entered upon by the house, repeated efforts were made by a few of his friends to interrupt, or to procure an adjournment of the farther hearing of evidence: but, to no purpose. The witnesses were all successively called in; and their information appearing satisfactory as to the author of the libel, ou the atrocious criminality of which the house had already passed sentence, the expul sion of Wilkes was voted by a very considerable majority; and a new writ was ordered for electing another member for Ailesbury in his room.

To complete the degradation of this late idol of the populace, a book, entitled "An Essay on Woman," which he had privately printed and dispersed amongst his friends, was presented by one of the secretaries of state to the house of lords. This book, full of the most indecent and profane ribaldry, reflected on the character of a right reverend member of that house (5), whose vast extent of erudition and genius added dignity and lustre to his high station. The peers proceeded against the author for a breach of privilege, while he was indicted in the courts below for blasphemy. The warmest of his former advocates were now ashamed to utter a word in his favour; and even the mob, though they did not disrelish faction, could not digest profaneness: they could forgive party-malice, but were shocked at offences against morality, religion, and common decency. Wilkes was soon run to an outlawry for not appearing to the indictments against him; and the suits, which he had carried on against the secretaries of state, fell of course to the ground.

GENERAL WARRANTS.

So far the triumph of the ministry was complete. Sentence was passed on the cause, as well as on the person of their most malignant slanderer. But the secretaries of state were soon attacked on a point, which could hardly be defended by the ut most exertions of their strength and influence. On the fourteenth of February, a motion was made in the house of commons, "that a general warrant for apprehending and seizing the authors, printers, and publishers of a seditions libel, together with their papers, was not warranted by law." The friends of administration were far from vindicating the practice of general warrants; but they thought that the abuse of them could not be effectually prevented by a resolution of one branch of the legislature on a single case, and that the remedy should be provided by an act of parliament, distinguishing cases, and specifying those discretionary powers, which the contingent exigencies of government might require to be vested in a secretary of state. They also insisted very strongly on the impropriety of deciding in the house of commons a question then depending in a court of judicature.

It was

thus they endeavoured to ward off the intended blow; and having, though by a small majority, procured an adjournment of the question till the seventeenth, one of their friends moved, that after

NEW PLAN of supplies.

IN contriving this new scheme, the ministry found means to cut off one of the principal sources of popular clamour. Agreeably to the principles which they had laid down in the former session, in which they declared for the most sparing use of taxation, and from the experience concerning the taxes they had then ventured to propose, they now resolved neither to open a loan, nor to have recourse to a lottery; though it is well known, that, in some res pects, these loans and lotteries afford no unpleas ing opportunities to a minister of obliging his friends, and strengthening his connections. The objects, to which they confined their attention, were first, the settlement of exchequer bills to the amount of one million eight hundred thousand pounds, which had been issued by virtue of an act passed in the preceding year, and then made chargeable on the first aids to be granted in the present session; secondly, the discharge of two millions of a debt contracted on account of the war, and which still remained to be satisfied; and, thirdly, the ways and means for the service of the ensuing year. As the bank contract was to be renewed, the treasury availed itself very prudently of so favourable a conjuncture, and stipulated that this body should take a million of the exchequer bills for two years, at an interest reduced by one-fourth, and should also pay a fine, on the renewal, of one hundred and ten thousand pounds. This was certainly the most beneficial contract ever before made with that corporation, whose vast money trade is supported by the credit of gov ernment. For the rest of the exchequer bills, they struck new ones. They brought to the service of the nation about seven hundred and twenty three thousand pounds, the produce of the French prizes taken before the declaration of war, and which the king generously bestowed upon the public. They also brought to account what had been long neglected, to the detriment of the service, and the reproach of former administrations, the saving on the non-effective men; and this saving amounted to one hundred and forty thousand pounds. With these resources, with the land-tax now grown into a settled and permanent revenue of four shillings in the pound, with the duty upon malt, with two millions taken from the sinking fund, being the overplus of that fund, joined to some other savings, they paid off the before mentioned debt, and provided for the current service in all its establishments and contingencies. They justified their employment of the overplus of the sinking fund by former precedents, by the propriety and wisdom of the measure itself, but principally on the credit of having augmented

it by near four hundred thousand pounds in the single article of tea, an immense quantity of which had been brought to pay duty by the prudent measures taken for the prevention of smuggling, and the vigilant collection of the revenue.

amounted to one hundred and seventy thousand
It therefore became necessary
pounds annually.
for a government, which valued itself upon econo-
my, to check those abuses, and to regulate the pri-
vilege. It was made felony and transportation for
seven years to forge a frank.

GENERAL CONWAY DISMISSED.

Ir is unnecessary to make any remarks on the speech, with which his majesty closed this session, as it contained only the usual return of thanks to both houses for their wise and public spirited exertions; a renewal of the assurances which his ma

Nothing could more evidently demonstrate the malignant purpose of those writers than their total silence. The points which did the ministry indisputable honour, were the application of the French prize money by the favour of the crown, at a time when there were, perhaps, other calls, plausible and pressing enough, to divert it another way; the beneficial contract with the bank, by which one hundred and ten thousand pounds were brought to the service of the year, besides the transfer and delay-jesty continued to receive of the pacific sentiments ed payment at reduced interest of a million of exchequer bills; and the saving on the non-effective men, which amounted to so large a sum; were matters of such striking merit and importance, that none but the devoted tools of a party could pass them over unnoticed.

Among the ways and means of this session were some regulations of the American trade, and some duties imposed on various articles of import and export in that extensive sphere of commerce, which, though they occasioned but little debate at the time, proved very soon afterwards a source of the most violent contests, and gradually led to all the horrors and calamities of a civil war.

The fourteenth resolution of the committee of ways and means which stated, "that towards farther defraying the said expenses, it might be proper to charge certain stamp duties in the said colonies and plantations," was thrown out, or rather postponed to the next session, in order to give the colonies an opportunity of petitioning against it, should they deem it exceptionable, and of offering some equivalent for the supposed produce of such

a tax.

But a bill was passed for restraining the increase of paper money in the colonies, by declaring that any such paper, which might be in future issued there, should not be considered as a legal tender in payment. It is remarkable, that all those measures, many of which were extremely delicate and hazardous, were proposed, acquiesced in, and passed into laws, without the least animadversion, as if the leaders of party, who had been so clamorous about trifles, anticipated with silent joy the fatal issue of such experiments, and looked upon them as the probable means of introducing themselves into power, even through the distresses and convulsions of the whole empire.

Among the bills prepared for the royal assent at the close of the session on the eighteenth of April, was one which had for its object the increase of the revenue of the post-office, by correcting and restraining abuses and frauds in the practice of franking. Upon the whole it was estimated, that the loss to the revenue, in consequence of franking

of foreign powers; and an exhortation to employ this season of tranquillity in considering of the most effectual means for perfecting the works of peace, so happily begun. Thus ended the parliamentary campaign for this season; and the ministry, to whose duration a very short date had been assigned by their adversaries, not only weathered the storms of the session, but seemed to gather new strength to contend with future tempests. In the moment of triumph, and of indignation also at those who had deserted them in the hour of greatest danger, they showed their power and resentment, perhaps too indiscreetly, by dismissing some persons of high military rank from the service, and, among the rest, lieutenant-general Conway, an officer of distinguished merit and abilities. So harsh a step admitted, however, of some little excuse. In the debate on general warrants, the division in the commons ran so near, as before observed, that the ministry carried the question only by a majority of fourteen. Had the question been decided in favour of the opposition, the monument was to have been illuminated in the same manner as in the year 1732, when the famous excise scheme was defeated; and the greatest testimonies of joy were to have been displayed. Preparations for those purposes having been openly made, were considered as so many insults upon government; and however the zeal of the citizens or of the uninformed populace might influence them, it was thought indecent in any of the king's servants to countenance such proceedings. The general officer already mentioned was represented as being an important acquisition to the minority, and was charged with not only voting against the court in the debate on general war rants, but with speaking in the most disrespectful terms of the minister's person and capacity for bus iness. The general and his friends very properly insisted upon his being as independent as any other gentleman in the house of commons, and that he ought to be as free in giving his vote. The ministry were far from disputing that principle; but they said, that the king ought to have an equal freedom in employing whom he pleased in the departments that were in his disposal (6).

NOTES TO CHAPTER VI.

1 All Mr. Pitt's former harsh
and outrageous censures of
the peace were softened into
this courtly phrase, in his
conversation with the king.
2 The present duke of York.
3 The orator here alluded to
Mr. Wilkes's famous, or ra-
ther infamous " Essay on
Woman."

4 His lordship acquired great
popularity by his judicial de-
cisions on the illegality of gen-
eral warrants. The corpora-
tion of Dublin took the lead
in voting him the freedom of
their city in a gold box, ac-
companied with the thanks of

the sheriffs and common coun-
cil for his just and spirited
conduct in the late trials.
The lord mayor, aldermen,
and common council of Lon-
don improved upon the ex-
ample by a vote, that the
freedom of the city should be
presented to his lordship, and
that he should also be request-
ed to sit for his picture, to be
placed in Guildhall, as a last-
ing memorial of their grati
tude. Similar compliments
were transmitted to him from
some other communities in
England and Ireland; and
the seal of royal approba-

tion was soon after affixed to those testimonies of popular esteem, by creating him a peer of the realm.

5 Dr. Warburton, bishop of Gloucester, whose name was most scurrilously mserted in the title page as the author of the notes. The complaint could not otherwise have been properly brought before the house of lords.

6 In little more than a year after, the general had ample amends made him for the unpleasantness of this dismission, by being appointed one of the secretaries of state.

CHAPTER VII.

Inquiry into the Causes of the Renewal of Hostilities with the Savage Tribes in America-Extent of the Governments of Quebec, of East and West Florida—Incitements to War on the Part of the Indians-Military Operations against the Indians, and Peace with them-Impolitic Suppression of the commercial Intercourse between the British and Spanish Plantations, and between the American Colonies and the French Islands-Colonists refuse Compensation for the Stamp Duties-State of the British Logwood-cutters in the Bay of Hondurus-French atone for outrage at Turk's IslandsProgress of American Stamp Act through both Houses-Prevention of Smuggling-Purchase of the Sovereignty of the Isle of Man-A Regency Bill recommended by his Majesty-New Administration formed by the Duke of Cumberland.

CAUSES OF DISTURBANCES WITH THE

INDIANS.

if they had seen their whole country formally can. toned out into regular establishments. It was in this idea that the proclamation strictly forbade any

1763. THE renewal of hostilities on the part of the savages in America was barely noticed, early in the last chapter, among the important concerns of the British ministry: but any farther details on that head were then postponed, on account of the more immediate and more interesting pressure of domestic occurrences. In order now to lead the reader to a proper idea of the events of that savage war, it will be necessary to trace out the causes which probably gave rise to it; and to explain the measures, which were cautiously though at first unsuccessfully designed to prevent any such dis-quered districts. But where the western boundary turbances.

purchases or settlements beyond the limits of the three before mentioned governments, or any extension of the old colonies beyond the heads of the rivers which fall from the westward into the Atlantic ocean; reserving expressly all the territories behind as an hunting ground for the Indians. Another reason, probably, why no disposition bad been made of the inland country, was, that the charters of many of the old colonies gave them no other bounds to the westward but the South Sea; and consequently comprehended almost all the conought to be settled, was a matter which admitted of great dispute; and, to all appearance, could only be finally adjusted by the interposition of parliament.

By the fourth and seventh articles of the treaty of peace, Canada was ceded to Great Britain in its utmost extent. This stretched the northern part of her possessions on the continent of America from That the ministry were not guilty of any blameaone ocean to the other. The cession of Louisiana ble neglect is evident from their earnest attention to Mississippi, and of the Spanish Florida on both to the improvement of those parts which they could seas made her American empire complete. No perfectly command. In order to invite soldiers and frontiers could be more distinctly defined, nor more seamen, who had served in the American war, to perfectly secured. The only care which seemed settle in the country they had conquered, lots of left for Great Britain, was to render these acquisi- land were offered to them as the rewards of their tions as beneficial in traffic, as they were extensive services, and in proportion to the rauk they held in in territory. In order to come at an exact know the army or navy. Every field officer was to have ledge of every thing necessary for this purpose, it five thousand acres, every captain three thousand, was judged expedient to divide the new acquisitions every subaltern two thousand, every non-commison the continent into three separate and indepensioned officer two hundred, and every private soldent governments.

The first and most northerly of these divisions was called the government of Quebec, the limita tion of which within narrower boundaries than those formerly assigned by the French to Canada, excited some surprise and no inconsiderable clamour at home. The southern divisions were more easily adjusted, as the two provinces of East and West Florida were regularly parted by the river Apalachicola. The coast of Labrador from the river St. John to Hudson's Straits, and all the neigh bouring islands in the gulph of St. Lawrence, were subjected to the authority and inspection of the governor of Newfoundland, their value depending wholly on the fishery. The islands of St. John and Cape Breton were annexed, as their situation required, to Nova Scotia.

This distribution of the newly acquired territories was announced to the public, in a royal proclamation of the seventh of October, 1763. Most people were, indeed, astonished to find, that the environs of the great lakes, the fine countries on the whole course of the Ohio and Ouabache, and almost all that tract of Louisiana which lies on the hither branch of the Mississippi, were left out, and, as it were, disregarded in this boasted plan of territorial regulation. But the ministry had many reasons for such an apparent omission. A consideration of the Indians carried with it no small weight, because It might have given a sensible alarm to that people,

dier or seaman fifty. But as no encouragement unconnected with the idea of liberty could be flattering to Englishmen, a civil establishment, comprebending a popular representative, agreeable to the plan of the royal governments in the other colonies, was directed as soon as the circumstances of these countries would admit of it; and in the mean time, such regulations were provided as held out to every individual the full enjoyment and benefit of the laws of England. And, lastly, that nothing might be wanting for the security of new settlers, and for awing as well as protecting the Indian nations, a regular military establishment also was formed there, consisting of ten thousand men, divided into twenty battalions, part of whom were to be employed in the defence of the West India islands.

THE INDIANS COMMENCE HOSTILITIES.

BUT though the most prudent steps were thus taken, to avoid giving offence to the Indians on the one hand, and to intimidate their ferocity on the other, they suddenly fell upon the frontiers of the most valuable settlements, and upon all the out-ly ing forts, with such a unanimity in the design, and such persevering fury in the attack, as had not been experienced even in the hottest times of any former war. Various causes concurred to urge them on to this very unexpected violence. The English had treated the savages at all times with

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