the precife object which he wished at the mo ment to compass. The ruinous effects of British perfidy and British barbarity in India are very strongly and diftinctly stated in his letters, difpatches, and minutes of council. In his minute of September 29, 1783, he fays, "By a facred and undeviating obfervance of every principle of public faith, the British dominion might have by this time acquired the means of its extenfion, through a virtual fubmiffion to its authority, to every region of Hindoftan and Decan.-But the powers of India ALL dread the connection.The subjection of Bengal, the ufurpations in the Carnatic, the licentious violations of the treaty with the nizam, the effects of our connections with the vizier, ftand as TERRIBLE PRECEDENTS against us." Yet as to himself, the primum mobile of the whole fyftem, he declares in his famous Minutes of Defence, "that he had the confcious. fatisfaction to fee all his measures terminate in their defigned objects; that his political conduct was invariably regulated by truth, juftice, and good faith; and that he refigned his charge in a ftate of established peace and fecurity, with all the fources of its abundance unimpaired, and even improved." To reconcile thefe apparent incongruities, we are required therefore, by a fpecies of faith which can work

miracles,

miracles, to believe that there exifted in India crimes without a criminal, oppreffions without an oppreffor, and tyranny without a tyrant. In fine, when we confider with serious attention the ori gin and progrefs of the British government in India, the friendship and generosity with which the English nation was received and permitted to form establishments in that country, the black and base ingratitude with which those obligations were requited, and the unexampled, unprovoked, and unatoned exceffes which have been perpetrated on the princes and inhabitants of Hindoftan, is it the weakness of superstition merely to tremble at the fecret apprehenfion that fome mighty vengeance is yet in ftore for this kingdom; fuch as finally, by the intervention of obvious caufes, overwhelmed and fubverted the proud, corrupt, and tyrannic empires of antiquity?

We are now to revert, from this long but neceffary and important digreffion, to the regular narrative of events in England.

On the 18th of July, 1781, the feffion was closed by a speech, in which his majesty observed, "that the great efforts made by the nation, tỏ furmount the difficulties of the prefent arduous and complicated war, muft convince the world that the antient fpirit of the British nation was not abated or diminished; and he was refolved

to

to accept of no terms or conditions of peace, than fuch as might confift with the honor and dignity of his crown, and the permanent interests and fecurity of his people."

The military hiftory of the prefent year was marked, in its commencement, by a spirited though abortive attempt on the part of the French, to capture the island of Jersey by a coupde-main.-Early on the 16th of January, 1781, a landing was effected by the baron de Rullecourt, at the head of about 800 men, at the Bank du Violet; and, to the aftonishment of the inhabitants, when the day began to dawn, the marketplace of St. Helier was found occupied by French troops. The governor's house being entirely furrounded, he was compelled to furrender himself prisoner, and was fo far intimidated as even to sign articles of capitulation. But when Elizabeth-Caftle was fummoned, captain Aylward, the commander, far from paying the leaft regard to the acts of the governor in his prefent ftate of durance, fired upon the French and obliged them to retreat; and major Pierson, a young and gallant officer, fecond in command, having affembled the regular troops and militia of the island on the heights near the town, attacked the enemy with the greatest resolution and vigor. Baron Rullecourt being at the commencement of the action mortally wounded, the

French

French troops in less than half an hour laid down their arms, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Unfortunately almoft the last shot fired previous to the surrender proved fatal to major Pierfon, in whose conduct, during the whole of this tranfaction, difcretion and valor had been equally confpicuous,

Early intelligence of the rupture with Holland having been transmitted to the West Indies, admiral Rodney and general Vaughan appeared, February 1781, with a very confiderable naval and military force before the island of St. Euftatia, that famous depofit of wealth and mart of traffic. So little apprehenfive were the inhabitants of this event, that it was with difficulty they were brought to give credit to the fummons. Being totally deftitute of the means of refiftance, they were compelled to furrender at difcretion. But fo far were the British commanders from imitating the noble example of lenity and policy fet by the marquis de Bouillé, that, with a rigor unknown and unheard-of amongst civilized nations, the immenfe property found on the ifland was declared to be confifcated, on pretence of the affistance afforded by the inhabitants to the Americans-as if the inhabitants of Euftatia were amenable to the laws of Great Britain. The ftores and merchandize, eftimated at three millions sterling, were publicly fold for

VOL. III.

e

about

about one fourth of their real value; and the world faw with aftonishment British naval and military officers, of the highest rank and reputation, degraded by a kind of harlequin metamorphofis into falesmen and auctioneers. A prodigious number of trading veffels lying in the harbour alfo became the property of the victors, with two men of war, one of which was a flag ship commanded by admiral count Byland.

Nearly at the fame time the Dutch fettlements of Demerary, Berbicia, and Iffequibo, on the Southern Main, alfo fubmitted without refiftance to the arms of his Britannic majefty. Here, however, the fame indifcriminate confiscation of private property did not take place. But the proceedings at St. Euftatia excited univerfal confternation; and a memorial was presented to admiral Rodney and general Vaughan, by the hands of Mr. Glanville, his majesty's folicitorgeneral for St. Christopher's, strongly representing, "that if by the fate of war the British WestIndia Islands fhould fall into the hands of an enraged enemy, the conduct of St. Euftatia would be a pretext for them to retaliate; that the conquerors of all civilized countries had avoided the invafion of private property; that the generosity of the enemy had been very confpicuous; and even in the cafe of Grenada, which had been taken by ftorm, the rights of individuals had

been