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and was offered knighthood as the reward of his valor. But his haughty refufal fhewed how little he was flattered by thefe petty and puerile diftinctions.

The Dutch on their part bestowed rewards more liberal and folid on the officers and failors of their fleet, and admiral Zoutman was received at Amfterdam with great applause and acclamation and the event of this remarkable action fhewed, that the Dutch feamen were ftill poffeffed of that determined courage which had distinguished them in the days of De Ruyter and Van Tromp.

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About this time the emperor, now refident in the Netherlands, iffued a placart, by which Oftend was declared to be a free port; and in the month of October he acceded in form to the armed neutrality, as the kings of Pruffia and Portugal had alfo previously done.

Notwithstanding the great conceffions made by the parliament of Great Britain to the people of Ireland, that country, finding its own ftrength, remained in a state far fhort of fatisfaction for it had ftill much to afk, or rather to demand. The army on the Irish establishment had been hitherto invariably governed and directed by the fole prerogative of the monarch; but as the spirit of liberty and independence in

creased,

creased, a Mutiny Bill, on the model of the English, had been recently introduced into the Irish parliament, and passed into a perpetual law. But a measure originally highly popular was now the subject of loud complaint; and it was affirmed, not without reason, that liberty could. never be fecured on juft and conftitutional grounds, fo long as the monarch was irrevocably invested with the unlimited power of the fword; that in England the Mutiny Bill was paffed only from year to year, and in the very preamble of it ftanding armies without the confent of parliament are declared illegal; the troops themfelves, the law that regulated, and the power that commands them, are by this bill limited. to one year. Thus was the army of England rendered a parliamentary army, and the conftitutional afcendency of the fubject over the foldier preferved.

In numerous county and provincial meetings the fupremacy of the British parliament was in formal refolves pofitively denied, and the abfolute independence of Ireland on the British legiflature boldly afferted. The unconftitutional powers of the Irish privy council, where, agreeably to the famous law of Poyning, all laws must originate, were reprobated, a Habeas Corpus At loudly called for, the abolition of all fu

perfluous

perfluous places and penfions infifted upon. The zeal and activity of the military affociations fufficiently evinced their determination to enforce their claims by a mode of application which was in no danger of being difregarded.

BOOK IX.

Motion

Session of Parliament-Infatuation of Ministers. condemnatory of the American War by Sir James Lowther. Remarkable Debate on the Army Estimates. Lord George Germaine advanced to the Peerage under Circumstances of unprecedented Indignity and Disgrace. Mr. Fox renews his Motion of Censure upon Lord Sandwich, in which Two Hundred and Seventeen Members of the House of Commons concur. General Conway's Motion against the American War negatived by a Majority of One Voice only. General Conway's Second Motion carried by a Majority of Nineteen Voices. Successive Motions of Censure on the Ministers. Entire Change of Administration-Marquis of Rockingham a Second Time Minister. High and peremptory Claims of the Irish Parlia ment. Repeal of the Irish Declaratory Act. Mr. Burke's Reform Bill a Third Time introduced and passed. King's Debts a Third Time discharged. Resolution respecting the Middlesex Election rescinded. Mr. Pitt's Motion of Enquiry into the State of the Representation. Death of the Marquis of Rockingham. Advancement of Earl ShelburneFatal Divisions amongst the Whigs. Minorca conquered by the Spaniards. Island of St. Christopher, &c. captured by the French. The Bahamas taken by the Spaniards. Decisive Victory of Sir George Rodney over the French off Dominique. Glorious Defence and final Relief of Gibraltar. Provisional Articles of Peace with America signed at Paris, November 1782. General Washington resigns his Commission. Session of Parliament-Strength of the New Ministry. Preliminaries of Peace with France and Spain signed. Debates on the Peace-Terms of it disapproved by the Commons. Coalition between Mr. Fox and Lord North. Change of MinistryDuke of Portland First Minister. Extreme Unpopularity of

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the Coalition Administration. Act of Renunciation of the Authority of Great Britain over Ireland. Embarrassments of the East-India Company. Mr. Pitt's Plan of Parliamentary Reform. Remarkable Petition of the Quakers. Order of Council for the Regulation of Commerce between the Con→ tinent of America and the West Indies. Treaty of Peace signed between England and Holland. State of Europe. Mr. For's India Bill moved-Passes the Commons, but is rejected by the Lords. Sudden Dismission of the Coalition Ministers. Mr. Pitt First Minister-His great Popularity. Political

Conflict between the Crown and the Commons. Mr. Pitt's India Bill rejected. The Nation declares in Favor of the Crown. The Parliament dissolved. Meeting of the New Parliament-Triumph of the Minister.

THE fecond feffion of the prefent parliament commenced at Westminster on the 27th of November, 1781. In the fpeech from the throne his majesty obferved" that the war was still unhappily prolonged, and that, to his great concern, the events of it had been very unfortunate to his army in Virginia, having ended in the total lofs of his forces in that province. But he could not confent to facrifice, either to his own defire of peace or to the temporary eafe and relief of his fubjects, thofe effential rights and permanent interests upon which the ftrength and fecurity of this country muft ever principally depend." His majesty declared, "that he retained a firm confidence in the protection of Divine Providence, and A PERFECT CONVICTION of the JUSTICE of his CAUSE;"-and

he

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