Hereford, 5 8. Worcester, 6 54 7 460 Warwick, 6.9 Gloucefter, 610 Wiltshire, 3 10 COURSE of EXCHANGE. : LONDON, January 28, 1772, Amfterdam, 34 4.". Ditto at light 33 1 Antwerp, Rotterdam, 345' 2 Uf. Madrid, 40 Lifbon, 5s. 7 d. af Prices of Gold and Silver per Oz. Gold in Coin, 4 1 6 Kent, 2 8 Pil. Pcs. of Eight, 564 -Average, Ditto fmall, 56 3 5 3 9 4 5 6 5 2 о I Silver in Bars Stand. 5 GENERAL AVERAGE. I per Quarter, 48 8137 424 31: 8154 Part of SCOT-LAND, Wheat. Rye. Barley Oats. Beans. Big. 4 33 3 3 2 7 I 3 8 Publied by Authority of Parliament, WILLIAM Cooks. THE BRITISH MAGAZINE, AND GENERAL. REVIEW OF THE Literature, Employment, and Amusements of the Times. For FEBRUARY, 1772. An impartial Review of the different N purfuance of our defign, we fhall now lay before our readers, the principal tranfactions which happened during the administration of Lord Bute's fucceffor in office, the Right Hon. George Grenville. But as this gentleman entered into office foon after the peace of 1762, we fhall glance over the state of Europe at that time, from whence we fhall be enabled to discover the futility of thofe reafoners who anticipated the approaching horrors of carnage, and dogmatically pro. nounced upon the certainty of a speedy war. In the course of this furvey, we fancy our impartial readers will be apt to cenfure the men who fpoke and writ against the ftability of the peace, efpecially as BRIT. MAG. Feb. 1772. the events have clearly demonftrated, that they were by no means endowed with a spirit of political prophecy. The fate of affairs in the north were, at the time the peace was concluded, fuch as promifed the utmoft quietness and tranquillity. Ruffia at the time of Charles the XII. was first comprehended within the political fyftem of Europe. From the fi gure the cut in the last war, it was manifeft, that her armies were numerous, and no signs appeared of her troops having degenerated from that feverity of difcipline introduced with good effect by Peter the Great. But the precarioufnefs of the tenure, by which her Sovereigns held the crown, no certain principles of fucceffion being established among them, rendered the Emprefs extremely anxious to conclude hoftilities on her part, and no lefs defirous of living in peaceful amity with her neighbours. Sweden and Denmark were intent upon domeftic improvements, and confequently averse to war out a previous confultation with the grand monarch. So long therefore as France deemed it effential to her political welfare to preferve the peace inviolate, fo long was there every reafon to fuppofe that Spain would follow her example. That the French did serioufly mean to perform without referve the ftipulated conditions, is manifest from their behaviour in a particular incident, the payment of a very confi The King of Pruffia having eftablifhed his reputation as an able ftatefiman, a confummate politician, and an expert general; having preferved his territories, even when furrounded with devaftation, having managed his finances with fuch dexterity as not to contract a fhilling of debt during the war; thus circum-derable fum for the fubfiftance and ftanced he had nothing to apprehend from his falfe friends, or to dread from his avowed enemies. Befides, by judicious negotiations, the fenfibly fhrewd Monarch had made it the intereft of those powers whofe influence might be moft prejudicial to his welfare to continue with regard to him, if not in alliance, at leaft in a state of neutrality. Poland for inftance was partly indebted to Frederic for a king, whom he in a manner feated upon the throne, no German potentate therefore could feduce the Poles to throw their intereft into the fcale, and thus affift to commence hoftilities against the Pruffian monarch; and even the animofity of Ruffia, loft its antient rancour and fubiided into a kind of cold indifference. maintenance of their prifoners. Had France formed a defign of recommencing war, it is a folecifin in politics, and an affront even to common fenfe, to fuppofe that the would have been punctual in difbursements, which by draining her of money, would deprive her of the means to carry the fcheme fhe propofed into execution. From this curfory furvey of things from the state of the different powers in Europe, it appears therefore, that the late peace promised in every refpect to be lafting. And confidering the real fituation of France and Spain, divefting ourfelves of vulgar prejudices, we must pronounce that it. was by no means the intereft of either of thofe powers to commence hoftilities in hafte : we are apprised indeed that they are our rivals, and that on every occafion they view us with a malign afpect; nay we know that they would rejoice, fhould a favourable opportunity occur, in which by advantage or furprise they might. effectuate our deftruction. But fuch a The Turks he managed in fo artful a manner as to play them off with fingular fuccefs against Auftria, by which political manœuvre he became formidable to that power, from which alone he had dangers to apprehend. France, befide a national bank-crifis of our fate feems at present in ruptcy occafioned by the war, was very remote futurity. convulfed by the disorders which infected the Parliaments throughout that kingdom. In the midst of fuch interior broils, foreign wars were accumulated evils ftudiously to be avoided. And as to Spain, a junction of interefts, cemented between the two kingdoms by that inftrument called the Family Compact, forbade the Spaniard to con ceive an idea about hoftilities with As we defigned to lay before our readers the fituation of foreign poli. tics and affairs, when Mr. Grenville affumed the reigns of government, it may be neceffary, as connected with the fubject, to give a fummary detail of the means by which Lord Chatham, then Mr. Pitt, became acquainted with the actual exiftence and nature of a family compact. In. In the latter part of Queen Anne's reign, the Earl of Marifchall, brother to Marshall Keith was an officer in the English guards. Previous to the death of the Queen, this nobleman, had entered into fe veral plans with the Jacobitical party, in order to have James proclaimed King of England in cafe of the Queen's demife. Failing in his projects, he fled, and was attainted; preferving however a ftrong attachment to his native country, he made feveral unfuccefstul attempts to procure a pardon; at length, during Mr. Pitt's administration a favourable opportunity offered, which he failed not to improve to his advantage. From his foreign connexions he had learnt, that feveral of the Catholic European powers were about to form an affociation, and to enter into an intimate offenfive and defenfive alliance: This affair, of probably fatal confequence to the liberties of Great Britain, he without delay communicated to the English miniiter; and withal pledged himfelf to tranfmit into England a rough draught or general outline of the covenant or agreement, provided the minister would also on his part engage to the paffing an amnesty in his behalf. Pitt agreeing to the conditions, the Earl Marifchall, who was appointed Amballador from Pruffia to Spain, where the compact was framed; foon made himself intimately acquainted with all the fecrets of the Spanish Court, and in a very fhort space of time, obtained an exact sketch of the compact, which he conveyed to Mr. Pitt, and then decamped from Madrid with the utmost precipitation. Upon infpection it appeared, that feveral powerful states were contracting parties; and that France and Spain were at the head of the confederacy: it was alfo no longer a fecret that the deftruction of this kingdom, was meditated by thofe two powerful | ftates, who, in one article, contained in this famous compact, mutually stand engaged to affist each other, whenever either fhall be at variance with a maritime power. What nation is included in the idea of a MARITIME POWER, there is no neceffity to point out. Such was the afpect of foreign affairs, fuch the state of Europe, fuch the interior political machinations of our enemies, when George Grenville was created first Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Egremont Secretary for the Southern, and Lord Hallitax for the Northern department. Upon the appointment of the miniftry, the oppofition, who found themfelves excluded, began as usual to difcover wonderful defects in those who had taken upon them the moft difficult task of guiding the helm ofstate. The popular demagogues hesitated not to pronounce, that the administration were exceeded in property as well as parliamentary interefts by the men in oppofition; with respect to talents or abilities, they took care to inform the public that the fuperiority was clearly on their fide. In short, they modeftly intimated, that they were better qualified to govern, and confequently wifhed much to be in office. Notwithstanding, that the fpirit of fedition was carried to moft unwarrantable lengths, the ministers were not to be brow-beaten by men whom they very well knew longed for nothing fo much as power, and who, if poffeffed of the means, might propably want the will to perform a national fervice. Party papers appeared, in which the ministry were most grofly infulted. They were faid to be mere tools in the hands of Lord Bute: They were compared to puppets, and that nobleman was fuppofed to guide the master wire, which accelerated or retarded all their movements. The nation was therefore called upon to oppose a Scottish Scottish chief affuming the form of an English administration. This extreme licentiousness of the pref betrayed one writer into an attack upon the King's fpeech, which in its confequences introduced fome national topics, highly confe'quential to British Liberty, to be dif cuffed by both Houfes of Parliament. As the fuppofed (for it doth not yet appear that he was the real) author of a paper, called the North Briton, at that time enjoyed a leat in the Houfe of Commons, the iffuing a warrant for his apprehenfion, and detaining him in actual cuftody, gave rife to an opinion, that the whole proceeding was a manifeft breach of privilege. As the warrant, by which the man was taken up, was general, not fo much as naming the perfons whom it authorised the messengers to feize upon, its conftitutional legality was called into question: and as all definitions of libels were vague and uncertain, whether the obnoxious paper might with propriety be comprehended within the defcription, was a queftion, the final decifion of which was left to Parlia ment. may innocently commit a crime which may draw down the vengeance of an enraged administration. On the 15th of November 1763, the North Briton, No. 45, was voted a falfe, fcandalous and feditious libel. A majority in the Houfe of Commons entering upon a confer ence with the Lords, it was determined, that the paper fhould be burnt by the hands of the common hangman. An addrefs was prefented to his Majefty, exprefling their utmoft abhorrence of the contents of the libel. Not however content with this, administration proceeded to vote, that privilege of parliament did not extend to the cafe of writing and publishing feditious libels, nor ought to obftruct the ordinary courfe of the laws in the Speedy profecution of fo dangerous an offence. To fupport this refolution, the miniftry argued very floridly on the nature of a libel. They faid that the magnitude of the offence could be eftimated only by the exaltedness of the character it was defigned to injure; that in many cafes a libel was infinitely more cri The execution of the general war-minal than feveral fpecies of felonies rant, the imprifonment of the culprit in the tower, his application to the Court of Common Pleas by an habeas corpus, and the feveral letters which paffed on the occafion, thefe are all circumstances of fuch notoriety that we think it needlefs to trefpafs upon the patience of our readers by a recapitulation of fuch affairs; we shall confine ourselves to the more important debates which paffed in the fenate concerning libels, privileges of parliament, and general warrants. Thefe are fubjects highly neceffary for every Englishman to be acquainted with, becaufe by an exercife of the Taft, his perfonal liberty may hourly be in imminent danger, and by a falfe gloffary or conftruction of the firft, a man capable of holding a pen, and offences, which are nevertheless excluded by law from the benefit of privileges. They contended that acts, which have a manifeft tendency to break the peace, differ in name only from those which are deemed positive breaches of the peace. And they further added, that if fureties might be required for an actual affault or breach of the peace, why not for fedition, a complicated crime, and of moft dangerous confequences to the peace of the ftate. If, faid the minifterial party, a diftinction of this kind be once fuffered to exift, the laws againft libelling would cease to operate, and a man in oppofition to fuch laws, might commit a variety of misdemeanors with impunity, and take fhelter under the privilege of parliament. |