The Reign of George III. (Continued.) page 10

On the 25th of November the British parliament assembled. The king, in his speech, complained bitterly of the conduct of France, who, in defiance of her engagements, had encouraged his rebellious subjects, first, by clandestinely sending them money and arms; and since then by an open treaty with them, and by furnishing them with the aid of a fleet and army. Not content with this, she had next proceeded to invade our West Indian islands. He also allied to the preparations making in Spain, which contradicted the pacific words of that country, and he confessed that it was a conjuncture of circumstances which demanded the most serious attention.

The opposition were extremely vehement in condemnation of the stupidity with which ministers had conducted the whole war. They very justly declared that, with prompt and vigorous measures, no fleet of the French could ever have conveyed troops to the aid of the Americans, and this led to the discussion of the conduct of admirals Keppel and Palliser in the fight off Ushant. Both these officers were members of the commons, and they there defended themselves, and accused one another, demanding an inquiry, which was finally agreed to. Keppel, who was a whig, was supported by the whole body of the opposition. The trials were to take place at Portsmouth, that of Keppel to be conducted on shore, instead of on board ship, the usual custom, on account of the admiral's health; and thus closed the year 1778.

The first thing which occupied the government on the opening of the year 1779 were the trials of Keppel and Palliser. That of Keppel commenced on the 7th of January, and lasted till the 11th of February. The court consisted of five admirals and eight captains; Sir Thomas Pye, admiral of the white, being president. Keppel was acquitted, and pronounced to have behaved like a brave and experienced officer, and to have rendered essential service to the state, This sentence occasioned a wonderful rejoicing in the city, where Keppel's political principles prevailed. The portico of the Mansion-house was illuminated two successive nights, and there were general illuminations throughout London and Westminster. It had been well had the demonstration ended there; but the mob took the opportunity of the guard which had been stationed before the house of Palliser in Pall-mall being withdrawn at midnight to smash in his windows, burst in the doors, and destroy his furniture. The work of destruction once begun was soon extended. The mob demolished the windows of lord North and lord George Germaine, as well as of the Admiralty, government being looked upon as the real enemies of Keppel and accessories of Palliser. They forced the iron gates of the Admiralty from their hinges, and, collecting all the sedan chairs in the neighbourhood, made a bonfire of them in the Admiralty court. They then proceeded to the residences of lord Mulgrave and captain Hood, and destroyed the glass there. Lord North's house was only just saved from being forced open and gutted by the arrival of a party of horse-guards at nearly four o'clock in the morning. Palliser was burnt in effigy, but the riot act being read, the crowd was dispersed, and sixteen of the rioters secured; but these were not supposed to be the real instigators, for well-dressed men were observed among the mob busy giving directions.

The next day, the 12th of February, both the parliament and the city corporation gave the most unmistakable sanction to these proceedings. Both houses of parliament voted thanks to Keppel: the lords unanimously; the commons with only one dissenting voice. The court of common council not only voted thanks to Keppel, but presented him the freedom of the city in a box of heart of oak, richly ornamented, and the city was more brilliantly illuminated than before, the monument with coloured lamps.

Palliser, incensed at these marked censures on himself, vacated his seat in parliament, and resigned his governorship of Scarborough Castle, his seat at the board of admiralty, his colonelcy of marines, retaining only his post of vice- admiral, and demanding a court-martial. This was held on board the Sandwich, in Portsmouth harbour, and lasted twenty-one days, pronouncing finally a sentence of acquittal, though with some censure for his not having acquainted his commander-in-chief instantly that the disabled state of his ship had prevented his obeying the signal to join for the renewal of the fight. This sentence pleased neither party. Keppel thought Palliser too easily let off - Palliser that he was sacrificed to a party feeling against government.

Various debates followed on the subject in the house of commons, in which Fox made some attacks on lord Sandwich and the state of the navy. Lord Howe, who had now returned, complained bitterly of the way he had been left with defective forces on the American coast, and declared that he would never serve again under an administration which had shown so much weakness and treachery. In the lords, the earl of Bristol made a similar motion; and such was the dissatisfaction that Keppel resigned the command of the fleet, and his example was followed by Sir Robert Harland, Captain Leveson Gower, Sir John Lindsey, and other officers.

The same spirit pervaded the war-office. Lord Barrington had resigned last November, having long disapproved of the whole conduct of the war, his able plan for its management having been systematically ignored; and now not only Burgoyne but the brothers Howe had met at home, and all in the house were loudly calling for inquiry and as loudly condemning the whole conduct of the war by government. Burgoyne attributed the whole of his failure to the meddling and restricting orders and letters of lord George Germaine at home. He demanded that officers who had been present should be heard in his favour; and Sir Guy Carleton, the earls of Balcarras and Harrington, and a number of others, were accordingly heard, who bore testimony to the bravery of Burgoyne, which no one doubted, but they failed to show that his judgment was equally good. In fact, Burgoyne had committed the most palpable blunders. He had suffered his communication with Canada to be cut off before he knew that he would be met by Sir William Howe at Albany. The expedition to Bennington and other movements were too clearly ill-planned; at the same time, they showed that the American army under Gates amounted to nineteen thousand men, of whom upwards of thirteen thousand were regular troops, so that the surrender of three thousand five hundred famished English and Germans in the midst of such a country was a victory not to be boasted of, except by a people whose only victory it was as yet.

Howe, on his part, called on lord Cornwallis, who warmly defended the generalship of his commander-in-chief; but this partial evidence was not borne out by the notorious facts, nor by the evidence of general Robertson, general Jones, colonel Dixon, and other officers, who demonstrated that whilst the Americans were divided amongst themselves, and Washington was left with a much inferior army in destitution of almost everything, Sir William had made no effort to defeat him; that his neglect to send the necessary force to co-operate with Burgoyne, at Albany, was the cause of the defeat and disgrace there, and that after the affair at Trenton his conduct had been nothing but a series of blunders or neglects. Sir William insisted on bringing up fresh witnesses on his side, but the committee had now sate till the end of June, and it was dissolved, leaving the impression much against him, as it deserved to be.

Great as the discussions were in the houses of parliament, the discontent out of doors was still greater. In Scotland these took the form of resentment at the relief given to the catholics. In January and February there were riots in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The houses of the catholics were assailed, their furniture destroyed, and their persons insulted in the streets. At Edinburgh a new house was burnt down in Leith Wynd, because it had a room in it appropriated to catholic worship. Wilkes, in the commons, demanded of the lord advocate when he meant to introduce his promised bill for the relief of the Scotch catholics; but he replied that the catholics themselves had entreated him to defer it, as its agitation was certain to draw down furious persecution on them. Lord George Gordon was made president of Protestant associations, both in Scotland and England, and this hot-headed fanatic boldly declared that the king himself was a papist at heart, that he had tens of thousands of men ready at his call to put down all popery..

In Ireland the effervescence assumed the shape of resistance to commercial injustice. It was, indeed, impossible to condemn too strongly the injustice which that country had endured for ages, and in nothing more than in the flagrant restrictions heaped upon its commerce and manufactures in favour of English interests. The Irish now seized on the opportunity while America was waging war against the very same treatment, to imitate the American policy. They formed associations in Dublin, Cork, Kilkenny, and other places, for non-importation of any British goods which could be manufactured in Ireland, till England and Ireland were placed on an equal' footing in all that related to manufactures and commerce. Ministers, who had turned a deaf ear for years, and almost for ages, to such complaints, were now alarmed, especially as there was a rumour of French invasion, which might be so materially aided by disaffection in Ireland. They therefore made a pecuniary grant to relieve the commercial distress in Ireland, and passed two acts for the encouragement of the growth of tobacco and hemp, and the manufacture of linen in that island. These concessions, however, were not deemed sufficient, and the people formed themselves into volunteer associations, appointing their own officers, and defraying the cost of their own equipments. This was done under the plea of the danger of invasion; but government knew very well that American agents had been very busy sowing discontent in Ireland, and they saw too much resemblance in these things to the proceedings on the other side of the Atlantic, not to view them with alarm. The marquis of Rockingham, who had been well instructed in the real grievances of Ireland by Burke, moved in the house of lords, on the 11th of May, for the production of all papers necessary to enable the house to come to a. full understanding of the trade and of mercantile restrictions on Ireland, with reference to-doing impartial justice to that kingdom. Lord Gower promised that these should be ready for production next session.

On the 16th of June, just as the house was growing impatient for prorogation, lord North announced intelligence which put such prorogation out of the question. He informed the house that the Spanish ambassador had delivered a hostile manifesto, and had thereupon quitted London. On the 17th, a royal message was delivered, asserting his majesty's surprise at this act of Spain, and declaring that nothing on his part had provoked it. But it by no means took anybody else by surprise, and the opposition strongly reproached government for not giving credit to their warnings on this head. In the commons, lord John Cavendish, and, in the lords, the earl of Abingdon and the duke of Richmond, moved that the fleet and army should be immediately withdrawn from America, that peace be made with those states, and all our forces be concentrated in chastising France and Spain, as they deserved, for their treachery and unprovoked interference. They called for a total change of ministers and measures.

These motions were defeated, and lord North, on the 21st of June, moved for the introduction of a bill to double the militia and raise volunteer corps. The proposal to double the militia was rejected, that to raise volunteer corps accepted. To man the navy a bill was brought in to suspend for six months all exemptions from impressment into the royal navy. In fact, the moment that the rupture took place with Spain, press-warrants were issued, and press- gangs were in full activity in all our ports. This bill was, therefore, termed a bill of indemnity, as it was necessary to indemnify ministers for so strong and unpopular a measure, adopted on their own responsibility. The attorney-general did not attempt to vindicate so odious a measure, except on the ground of urgent necessity. He declared that there were six or eight ships of the line lying at Portsmouth ready for sea, but destitute of crews. The bill was introduced on the night of the 23rd of June, at the extraordinary hour of twenty minutes past twelve o'clock, just as the house was on the point of adjourning, and that on the plea that, if not carried at once, the newspapers would sound the alarm, and defeat the measure by putting every one on his guard. The opposition violently opposed it, and Sir George Saville declared that it was reducing the house to a body of midnight conspirators, coming like hired ruffians with poniards under their cloaks. "Metninks," he said, "I hear the heartfelt shrieks of the miserable wife, or the aged and helpless parent, entreating the midnight ruffians not to drag from them a tender husband, or a dutiful and beloved son." The measure, however, was passed through two stages before rising, and carried the next morning, and sent up to the lords. There it met with strong opposition, and did not receive the royal assent till the last day of the session This was the 3rd of July, and was followed, on the 9 th, by a royal proclamation ordering all horses and provisions, in case of invasion, to be driven into the interior. The batteries of Plymouth were well manned, and a boom drawn across the harbour at Portsmouth. The duke of Richmond, indeed, asserted in parliament, before it closed, that he had been down to Plymouth and found five thousand land forces, but only about forty invalid artillerymen set to attend to one hundred guns on the batteries. This was instantly contradicted by the first lord of the admiralty, who stated that there were five hundred seamen on shore there well acquainted with the working of artillery. A large camp of militia was established at Cox-heath, in front of Maidstone, and, in truth, this demonstration of a patriotic spirit was unequivocal in the public. Both private gentlemen and public bodies - the East India Company conspicuous amongst them - came forward with liberal subscriptions for raising troops, enlisting seamen, and equipping privateers. It was said that fifty thousand militia were in arms, and the king declared that, if the French landed, he would put himself at their head. Such was the enthusiasm that, in a dramatic piece by Sheridan, called "The Camp," Sir Harry Bouquet is made to say, " As I travelled down, the fellows of the turnpikes demanded the counter-sign of my servants, instead of the tickets! Then, when I got to Maidstone, I found the very waiters had got a smattering of tactics; for, inquiring what I could have for dinner, a drill-waiter, after reviewing his bill of fare with the air of a field-marshal, proposed an advanced party of soup and bouille, to be followed by the main body of ham and chickens, flanked by a fricassee, and with a corps-de-reserve of sweetmeats."