fing volunteer companies only remained; and in this ftate it was returned to the commons, to the great chagrin of the minister, who openly complained of the desertion of his colleagues in office; nor was his mortification leffened by the taunts of the oppofition, who remarked, that the difunion and difcord which the administration had been the means of fpreading throughout the empire, had now feized the cabinet, and was equally visible amongst themfelves.

On the 3d of July the king clofed the feffion with a fpeech, in which his majesty mentioned it as a happy omen of the fuccefs of his arms, that the increase of difficulties feemed only to augment the courage and conftancy of the nation. The memorial of count d'Almodovar, and a long justificatory manifefto, fubfequently published by the court of Madrid, were filled with heavy complaints of the conduct of the English court for feveral years paft, though certainly grounded on no folid reafon; the king of England truly affirming in his meffage to parliament, "That with regard to Spain he had nothing to reproach himself with; and that his defire to cultivate peace and amity with that power had been uniform and fincere." The court of Madrid pretended, that the infults and incredible violences offered to the Spanish traders by England from the year 1776 to the beginning of the prefent year 1779, were no lefs than 86 in number, fince which other infults and injuries had been offered; fo that the whole amount arofe to the precife and full complement of one hundred. The only circumstance really important and interesting in this fingular manifefto, is the difcovery that the mediation of Spain had been offered and accepted by Great Britain and France foon after the commencement of hoftilities, and that a negotiation between these two courts had been actually carried on for the space of eight months.

On

On the 14th of September, immediately fubfequent to the arrival of the count d'Almodovar in London, lordWeymouth declared to his excellency, that the king of England moft fincerely defired to terminate the prefent war, by the mediation of his catholic majefty. In confequence of which, the king of Spain, after much difcuffion, proposed a general truce for a term of years, in order to allow time for the final accommodation of differences. In his ultimatum of the 3d of April 1778, he offered the city of Madrid for the holding of a general congrefs for this purpose, to which the colonies fhould be admitted to fend commiffioners, and in the mean time to be treated as an independent power; and that a general disarming should take place within one month in Europe, and four months in America; his Catholic majefty offering at the fame time his guarantee of the definitive treaty. The manifefto ftates, "That the court of London objected to recognizing the independency of America during the continuance of the truce; and it forcibly urges, as a thing very extraor dinary, and even ridiculous, that the minifter, lord North, had, notwithstanding this objection, proposed in the Englifh house of commons, that the congrefs fhould be treated. with as the plenipotentiaries of independent ftates, on the very provifo fuggefted by Spain, that this conceffion fhould not be understood to preclude the fubfequent poffible relinquifhment of that independency. The convention of Saratoga, the cartel fettled for the exchange of prifoners, the nomination of commiffioners to fupplicate the Americans for peace at their own doors, are, it is afferted, real and unequivocal acknowledgements of the independency of America. The English nation itself is appealed to by his Catholic majesty: whether these acts are more confonant with the dignity of the British crown, than would be the granting, at the interceffion of his Catholic majefty, a fufpenfion of hoftilities for the adjustment of differences, and the treating them in this interval as independent

ftates.'

ftates. Nevertheless the English court pofitively refufed, as the manifefto proceeds to affirm, its affent to the propofitions contained in this ultimatum; declaring, moreover, that France fhould not interfere in the arrangement of the interefts of thofe fhe affects to call her allies: and, in fine, the English court had the effrontery to say, that the drift of Spain was to form, from the pretensions of the colonies to independence, one common cause with them and with France. On the contrary, his Catholic majesty declares, that these last propofals were not even communicated to France before they were transmitted to the court of London; so that the haughty expreffions of the English ministry amount merely to this conclufion, that in spite of the overture made by themfelves, they prefer war to peace, or a treaty under the mediation of the Catholic king, whom they provokingly infulted, treating him as partial, inconfistent, and leagued with the enemies of Great Britain; notwithstanding which his Catholic majefty did not iffue orders for reprisals, but in confequence of the actual commencement of hoftilities on the part of Great Britain." Upon the whole it is evident, from the explicit and curious detail of the whole negotiation given in this manifeito, clothed as it is in the ftately language of Casti lian pride, tinctured with absurdity, that Spain acted in this business with generofity, openness, and honor. It was undoubtedly determined by both branches of the house of Bourbon, to establish the permanent independency of America; but this SPAIN at leaft wifhed to effect without involving herself in a war with England; and the expedient fuggefted by his Catholic majefty was certainly the wifest and best which in present circumftances could be adopted; but the pride of the English court was not yet fufficiently humbled to affent to the emancipation of America, though the idea of fubjugation became every day more palpably chimerical and extravagant.

During the recefs of parliament, the earl of Stormont, late ambassador at Paris, was made secretary of state in the room of the earl of Suffolk deceased. The earl of Weymouth a fecond time refigned the feals of the fouthern department, which were transferred to the earl of Hillsborough; and earl Bathurst, late chancellor of Great Britain, was nominated prefident of the council, in the room of earl Gower. The great feal had been configned, in the course of the preceding year, to the attorney-general Thurlow, created baron Thurlow, a man endowed by nature with uncommon talents, which were concealed, and in effect, loft to the world, under an almost impervious veil of morofenefs, bigotry, and malevolence.

The ftate of affairs on the other fide of the Atlantic once more demands our attention. The reduction of Georgia by general Prevost and colonel Campbell, though in itself of no great importance, excited juft alarm in the inhabitants of the Carolinas, which were protected only by their own militia, and an inconfiderable body of continental troops under the command of general Lincoln, who lay encamped at Purisburg, on the north fide of the river Savannah, about twenty miles above the town of that name. At the end of April 1779, this officer left that advantageous pofition, which enabled him effectually to cover the province, and marched along the banks of the river to Augufta, where he expected to be joined by powerful reinforcements; and he hoped, by paffing the river, to cut off the communication of general Prevost with the back country, whence he received his fupplies. But general Prevoft was no fooner apprifed of this movement, than he determined to pafs the Savannah at Purisburg, and make a rapid march towards Charlestown. This, the fmall force left by general Lincoln to guard the paffage of the Savannah was not able to prevent; and the English army, confifting of about 4000 men, including Indians, arrived in the vicinity of that city on the 11th of May.

To

.

To the chagrin of the English general, he found the place ftrongly fortified and well fecured by the numerous militia which had now collected for its defence. After fummoning the city in vain to furrender, he determined, on hearing that general Lincoln was on his march back to Carolina, to decamp that very night, and took poft, after fome detours, in the island of Port Royal, to the fouth of Charlestown harbor. In the mean time Sir Henry Clinton was engaged, in conformity to the policy of the English court, whence he derived his inftructions, in various predatory expeditions. Sir George Collier and general Matthew, in a descent upon Virginia, burnt the town of Suffolk, and deftroyed the veffels, provifions and ftores found there, and at Gofport, Jenner's Creek, and various other places in that quarter. Sir H. Clinton in perfon proceeded up the North River, and carried, by great exertions of gallantry, the two important pofts of Stoney Point and Verplanks, which the Americans had diligently fortified to preferve the communication between the eastern and weftern colonies. Another expedition under Sir George Collier, governor Tryon commanding the land forces, was projected nearly at the fame time against Newhaven in Connecticut, which they plundered, and afterwards proceeded to Fairfield and Norwalk, which they laid in afhes; and alfo the buildings and farm-houfes to the compafs of two miles round. At the fame time a proclamation was iffued by them, declaring "the existence of a fingle house on the coast to be a striking monument of British mercy." A far more important enterprife was next undertaken by the fame officer, for the relief of a fortrefs lately constructed at the mouth of the river Penobscot, in the eastern confines of New England, and garrifoned by a detachment of king's troops from Nova Scotia. This poft had been for fome time clofely invested by an armament of confiderable force from Bofton, which was attacked lying in the river and almost entirely deftroyed by Sir George Collier, who

took