equipment of a formidable fleet; and the court of Madrid was at last convinced, that, unless fome conceffions were made, an open rupture must enfue. The king of France, who dreaded nothing fo much as a renewal of hoftilities with England, being apprized of the fecret intrigues of the duke de Choiseul at the Spanish court, and highly dissatisfied also with the countenance given by the duke to the popular and patriotic party at home, fent that minifter into exile, and made preffing inftances with his catholic majefty to come to an amicable accommodation with Great Britain.

In reply to the demand of difavowal made by England, the marquis de Grimaldi, the Spanish minifter, alleged, that as England well knew in what light the court of Madrid had ever viewed the fettlement at Port Egmont, it could not be imagined that the king of Spain could really disapprove the conduct of the governor don Buccarelli. But as it was neither the intereft nor inclination of Spain to involve herself in a war with England, his catholic majefty was willing to make fuch conceffions as should be confiftent with his honor and the welfare of his fubjects: and that inftructions had been tranfmitted to prince Maferano, his ambaffador in London, for this purpose.

Prince Maserano accordingly acquainted the English secretary of state, lord Weymouth, that the king of Spain had impowered him to difavow any particular orders given to M. de Buccarelli, and at the fame time to say that he had acted agreeably to his general inftructions and oath as governor ;-that the islands fhould be restored; and that it was expected his Britannic majesty would on his part difavow captain Hunt's menace, which had prompted the governor to act as he had done.

At this period, lord Weymouth refigned the feals of the fouthern department to lord Rochford, and a convention was soon after concluded on the terms propofed, but with a fecret article or engagement annexed, that the islands VOL. I. fhould

should be evacuated by England within a certain specified term. To this mode of accommodation lord Weymouth refused to accede, as injurious to the honor of Great Britain: but the condition not being known or suspected, it afforded at the time no public ground of objection; and when the evacuation of the islands actually took place three years afterwards, the quarrel being almost forgotten, and the attention of the public otherwise engaged, it passed off with flight and tranfient animadverfions.

The earl of Halifax now took the feals of the northern department in the room of lord Rochford; lord Suffolk fucceeding lord Halifax as lord privy feal: and Sir Edward Hawke relinquifhed his feat at the head of the admiralty to the earl of Sandwich. Mr. George Grenville had departed this life November 13, being the first day of the present feffion; and many of his friends joining the adminiftration, the majorities in both houses, notwithstanding the general unpopularity of the minifters, became very formidable.

On the 22d of January 1771 the parliament met purfuant to their adjournment; and the declaration of the Spanifh ambaffador, and the acceptance of lord Rochford, were laid before the houfe. Prince Maferano, after difavowing in the name of his Catholic majefty the violence ufed at port Egmont, and engaging formally for the reftitution of the iflands, declared, that his Catholic majefty confiders this reftitution as not affecting the question concerning the prior right of fovereignty of the iflands. The admiffion of this refervation was heavily cenfured, as leaving the main question ftill in difpute, and furnishing Spain with a full juftification, fhould fhe immediately re-commence hoftilities, or at future period that she any deem more favorable to the establishment of her claim. If the right of Great Britain to the islands in question were just and valid, it was affirmed, that no proper or adequate atonement had been made for the aggreffion committed by Spain: on the

may

other

other hand, if the right of Great Britain could not be suftained, the impolicy of our conduct in forming this diftant fettlement could be equalled only by its injustice. An addrefs of thanks and approbation being moved, a violent debate enfued, and it was not carried without a long and. obftinate oppofition-nineteen peers entering their protest in the journals of the upper house against it. The last head or article of this proteft concludes with the following remarkable words:-" Any counter-claim or affertion whatever of his majesty's right of fovereignty has been ftudioufly avoided from the beginning to the accomplishment of this unhappy tranfaction, which, after the expence of mil-. lions, fettles no contest, afferts no right, exacts no reparation, affords no fecurity; but ftands as a monument of reproach to the wisdom of the national councils, of dishonor to the effential dignity of his majefty's crown, and of difgrace to the hitherto untainted honor of the British flag.

Upon the whole it must be acknowledged that Spain, in this tranfaction, notwithstanding her recent abasement, negotiated on at leaft equal terms with England: and, though precipitately to have involved the nation in a war for the fake of an object fo infignificant and contemptible as the poffeffion of two or three barren rocks under a ftormy sky, would have redounded little to the honor of the prefent administration, great and heavy cenfure neceffarily falls on the former minifter, Mr. Grenville, who, knowing the nature and extent of the claims of Spain, and the eventual probability of a rupture, would rafhly rifque fo great a calamity for what at the best could be confidered only as a trivial, remote, and uncertain advantage. It would not indeed be difficult to turn into ridicule the extravagant pretensions of Spain respecting the empire of Southern America, and the ideas entertained by her of British encroachment and ufurpation; but this certainly would be neitherpolitic nor just on the part of Great Britain, who advances pretenfions in her own favor at leaft as chimerical and ridiculous:

diculous and if Spain had attempted to form a fettlement, or to establish a garrifon, in any part of the immense and frozen regions of Hudfon's Bay, or the difmal wilds of Labradore, ftretching to the Arctic Pole, the pride of Great Britain would have been no doubt equally alarmed, and her interefts fuppofed equally endangered. Let us then at least at confiftently, and respect thofe rights whether real or imaginary in others which we dare unblufhingly to claim for ourselves.

A remarkable bill was introduced into the house of commons, and paffed into an act in the course of the prefent feffion, which, by the unanimous and zealous concurrence of all parties in its fupport, reflected much honor on the houfe. This was a bill for disfranchifing a very large proportion of the freemen of the borough of New Shoreham, and for extending the right of voting to the contiguous hundreds. It appeared in evidence before the felect committee, appointed under the Grenville act to try the merits of the late election for this place, that a great number of the freemen of the borough had formed themfelves into a fociety under the name of the chriftian club. This chriftian club was in fact no better than a mart of venality. A junto was appointed to difpofe of the borough to the highest bidder; and after the election was decided, the profits were fhared equally amongst the whole. The attorney general was, in confequence of an addrefs of the houfe to the king, ordered to prosecute the persons compofing the junto of this club, and who had diftinguished themselves as the peculiar agents of infamy on this occafion. The nation, angry and disgusted as they were, could not avoid applauding the spirit and constitutional tendency of this bill, which fhewed that the house was neither inattentive nor infenfible to the prefervation of its own dignity or the national honor.

: Unfortunately about the fame time an incident occurred, which revived in an alarming degree the indignation and

refentment

refentment of the people againft their reprefentatives. Though nothing can appear more reasonable than that the public at large fhould be furnished with all fuch means of information refpecting the conduct of their reprefentatives in parliament as may confift with the order and dignity of the house, it had been long a fubject of complaint, that the speeches of the members were, in contempt of the refolutions of the house, regularly printed in the public papers; and several members of the house having formally ftated that their fpeeches had been mifreprefented in the report, although fuch mifreprefentation, if of any real importance, might doubtless have been eafily corrected, a motion was made and carried, not indeed unanimously, that the printers Wheble and Thompson should appear to answer this complaint at the bar of the house. The printers taking no notice of this general fummons, a fecond order was iffued, and declared to be final. No more regard being paid to the fecond order than to the first, a motion was made, that Wheble and Thompfon should be taken into the cuftody of the ferjeant at arms. The minority, who had objected to the original motion, now strongly urged that the prefent irritable temper of the public rendered it very improper for the house to commit itself by engaging in a doubtful and invidious conteft-that the executive authority of the house was restrained within very narrow limits and that the present moment was by no means favorable to the full exertion, and much lefs to the extenfion of it. The majority nevertheless vehemently infifted upon the neceffity of fupporting the DIGNITY of the houfe, which, whenever paffion in any degree influences the determination, is generally facrificed by the very means adopted to preserve it,

In confequence of information from the ferjeant at arms that the parties had abfconded, a royal proclamation was iffued, offering a reward of 50l. for apprehending the two printers. In the mean time fix other printers were for fimilar offences ordered to the bar of the house, five of

whom