The Reign of George III. - (Continued.) page 12

On the 2nd of April, Mr. Duncombe, one of the members for the county of York, presented a general petition embracing almost every subject of reform. This petition, it was well known, had sprung from the associations and corresponding societies which had been established last year in the different counties, that of York taking the lead. The delegates from these county associations had met in London, and had taken means to make their proceedings conspicuous. A considerable number of them were members of parliament themselves. They had got up and signed this petition, but, knowing the jealousy with which they were regarded, they had signed it, not in their character of delegates, but of freeholders. Sir George Saville, the other member for Yorkshire, moved that this petition be referred to a committee; but government had too great a dread of a machinery which had worked so effectually in America, and complaining of the unconstitutional proceeding of delegates meeting in London, publishing their resolutions, and acting as a representative body independent of parliament, they rejected the motion by a large majority.

The subjects which occupied principally the notice of parliament during the remainder of the session were two bills for altering the marriage act of 1751, and one regarding America. The first bill affecting the marriage act was introduced by lord Beauchamp on the 28th of May, to alter a clause in the act, which it was discovered by a late decision of the Court of King's Bench went to render all marriages, the banns for which had been published in any church or chapel erected since the passing of the act, invalid. This was of such moment that it passed immediately. The next bill was introduced by Fox, who, like his father, had a decided aversion to the whole act, and would have obliterated nearly every part of it, except the mere registration of the; marriages. Burke, for the first time, opposed the motion- of his friend Fox; the bill was thrown out without a division. The bill regarding the American colonies was moved for by colonel Hartley on the 30th of May, and the proposal went to empower the king to come to some terms of reconciliation with the insurgent states. It was rejected, and the news of the retrogressing of the royalist cause in North Carolina arriving a few days afterwards, Fox, on the 17th of June, moved that the house should resolve itself into a committee to consider the necessity of making peace with the American states. The old ground was again widely travelled over by the opposition, charging the ministers with being the cause of all the disaster and disgrace: first, by the tyrannous nature of their measures, and secondly by the imbecility of their management; and by the ministerial party charging the opposition with being the real cause by their inciting and encouraging the insurgents. The late lord Chatham's memory having been impugned, his son, William Pitt, warmly and eloquently defended it, declaring the whole war " was a most accursed, wicked, barbarous, cruel, unnatural, unjust, and diabolical war; conceived in injustice, nurtured and brought forth in folly, its footsteps marked with blood, slaughter, persecution, and devastation!" Fox's motion was rejected by one hundred and seventy-two against ninety-nine.

Numbers of petitions poured in from the West India Islands praying for peace with America; representing the imminent danger to which they were exposed by the powerful fleets of France and Spain; the loss of some of them already, and the destitution to which the rest were reduced. The corporation of London presented a memorial to the king, stating in very plain terms that he had been deluded by his ministers into this ruinous contest, and that every class and interest in the country was rapidly sinking into ruin from the destruction of trade and the enormous mass of debt and taxes which it was heaping upon the kingdom. But on the 18th of July the king, on proroguing parliament, still avowed his hopes of concluding the contest by success, and his determination to admit of no terms inconsistent with the dignity of the crown and the interest and security of the realm. He turned with evident pleasure from this disagreeable topic to congratulations of the rapid progress of our power and the successes of our arms in India.

The enemy, meantime, were on the alert, trying, by their fleets and armies, to assail us in almost every quarter. In the very opening days of the year - at the very commencement of January, 1781 - the French made a second attack on the island of Jersey. They had sent across the channel a fleet carrying nearly two thousand men; but their ships met the common fortune of those which in all ages have invaded these islands: they were scattered by tempests, many of them dashed on the rocks of those iron-bound shores, and some driven back to port. They managed, however, to land eight hundred men by night, and surprised the town of St. Helier's, taking prisoner its lieutenant-governor, major Corbet, who thereupon thinking all lost, agreed to capitulate. But the next officer in command, major Pierson, a young man of only twenty-five, refused to comply with so pusillanimous an order. He rallied the troops and encouraged the inhabitants, who fired on the French from their windows. The invaders, surrounded in the market place, were compelled to surrender, after their commander, the baron de Rullecourt, and many of his soldiers, were killed. The gallant young Pierson was himself killed by nearly the last shot. Corbet himself escaped, though he was placed by the French commander in the very first line, to prevent the English firing upon them; but he escaped only to be tried and cashiered.

The garrison of Gibraltar was all this time hard pressed by the Spaniards. Florida Bianca had made a convention with the Emperor of Morocco to refuse the English any supplies; those thrown in by Rodney the year before were nearly exhausted, and they were reduced to great straits. Admiral Darby was commissioned to convoy one hundred vessels laden with provisions, and to force a way for them into the garrison. Darby not only readily executed his commission to the great joy of the poor soldiers, but he blockaded the great Spanish fleet under admiral Cordova, in the harbour of Cadiz, whilst the stores were landing.

In America, all at the opening of the campaign seemed to favour the English cause. The army of Washington, still suffering the utmost extremities of cold and starvation, began in earnest to mutiny. A Pennsylvanian division of one thousand three hundred men marched out of their camp at Morristown, and proceeded to Princeton, carrying with them six field-pieces and their stores. In attempting to stop them, Captain Billing was killed, and several other officers were wounded. General Wayne drew his pistol, and threatened to shoot the first man that moved; but a bayonet clapped to his breast caused him to stand aside, and they went on. At Princeton they declared that they would only return to their duty on condition that congress should grant their discharge to all who had not engaged for the war, and had served their three years; should pay up all arrears, and give real pay, and when due, to those who remained on service. Washington did not move to put down the insurrection, probably, because he knew that the demands of the soldiers were just, and partly also because he was afraid to issue from his lines, lest Clinton should fall on him. Congress was compelled to consent to the terms of the mutineers; and they were in such haste that, before the rolls of enlistment could be brought, they admitted the troops to swear as to the term of their enlistment; and before the rolls arrived nearly all the artillery and five regiments of this division had sworn that they were only enlisted for three years, and were discharged, the rolls, on their arrival, proving that the great majority of these men had perjured themselves, being enlisted for the whole war!

With still greater disregard of every generous principle, these men seized three commissioners, whom Sir Henry Clinton had sent to them on hearing of their abandonment of the republican colonies, to offer them enrolment in his lines on honourable terms, and, after they had obtained their demands, gave them up to the American commander, who hanged them for spies!

The success of this revolt encouraged others to repeat the manoeuvre. On the night of the 20th of January, a part of the Jersey brigade, stationed at Pompton, marched to Chatham, and made precisely the same demands. But now seeing that, if this were suffered, the whole army would quickly go to pieces, Washington sent general Howe after them, with orders to surround them, and shoot them down, if they did not surrender; and if they did surrender, immediately to seize the most active ringleaders, and execute them. Howe readily accomplished his mission; he reduced the mutinous, and shot their leaders.

These alarming transactions had far more effect in rousing congress to supply the troops than all the remonstrances of Washington. They got together three months' pay in specie for them, and some clothes; but the difficulty was to continue these supplies. They had neither money nor credit. The seizure of Henry Laurens, and the consequent failure of the hoped-for Dutch loan, left them in despair. They then dispatched lieutenant-colonel Laurens, nephew of the ex-president, now in the Tower of London, to Paris, accompanied by Thomas Paine. Before their departure, it was impressed upon them that both the people and the army were now so weary of the war, and so thoroughly exhausted by it, that, unless they could procure a supply of money, and a fleet to defend the coasts, it was impossible to go on. La Fayette wrote the same things to M. Vergennes, the French minister. He assured him that the resources of America were completely at an end; that the last campaign had been conducted without a dollar; that the army was in want of clothes, arms, ammunition, everything; and that, if the power of the English on that continent was to be destroyed, there must be a strong fleet, a fresh army of ten thousand men, and funds sent, in time. Pressing messages were also sent to Mr. Jay, who was now become minister to. the court of Madrid, to induce the Spaniards to advance a loan, by offers of territory and privileges. New England and North Carolina, however, protested against these sacrifices to Spain, and, as the Spanish money was not promptly forthcoming, the temptations to that country to come into the league were abandoned.

Under such discouraging circumstances, the American campaign began. Whilst insurrection was in their camp, Sir Henry Clinton dispatched general Arnold to make a descent upon the coast of Virginia. That general had been dispatched into that quarter, at the close of the year, with one thousand six hundred men, in ships so bad, that they were obliged to fling overboard some of their horses. Arnold, however, first sailed up the river James, and landed at Westover, only twenty-five miles from Richmond, the capital of Virginia. Jefferson, who was governor of Virginia, was seized with great alarm; for, though the militia of the state were nominally fifty thousand, he could only muster a few hundreds. He therefore hastily collected what property he could, and fled up the country, dreading to fall into the hands of a man so embittered against the Americans as Arnold was, who was himself well aware that they had determined to hang him without mercy if they caught him. Arnold did not allow much time to elapse without action. The next day he was in Richmond, and sent word to Jefferson that, provided British vessels might come up the river to take away the tobacco, he would spare the town. Jefferson rejected the proposal, and Arnold burnt all the tobacco stores and the public buildings, both there and at Westham, with the cannon-foundries, boring- mills, powder-magazines, &c. After committing other ravages, he returned to Portsmouth, on Elizabeth River, where he entrenched himself.

The Americans, enraged at the successful raid of Arnold, were now all on fire to capture and hang him. Washington was as eager and vindictive, on this head, as any of the rest. He now planned that a number of French ships, under admiral Destouches, which had been able to escape from the blockade at Rhode Island by a storm scattering the British fleet, should sail up the Chesapeake and blockade Arnold in Portsmouth, while La Fayette from the head of the Chesapeake was to blockade him on the land side. The French admiral found Arnold, however, too well fortified to venture on attacking him. Defeated in this scheme, Jefferson offered five thousand guineas to any select band of men who would make a rush into Arnold's camp and assassinate him. None dared to do so, and Washington again endeavoured to stimulate the French admiral to the enterprise. He met the French commanders at Newport, in Rhode Island, on the 6th of March, and prevailed on them to set sail for the Chesapeake with the whole French fleet. They were soon followed by Arbuthnot, and were glad to put about, after some fighting off Cape Henry, and return to their anchorage at Rhode Island.

Soon after this Arnold was superseded in the chief command by general Phillips, who had been prisoner ever since the surrender of Saratoga, but was now exchanged for general Lincoln; the Americans, in defiance of all stipulations, still retaining the soldiers of Burgoyne. La Fayette was sent to defend Virginia, and collected his forces on the Elk river; but these men, who were chiefly New Englanders, not liking a campaign in the heat of a Virginian summer, deserted rapidly, in spite of all his appeals and protestations.

On the 26th of March, general Phillips having assumed the command, in company with Arnold, ascended James River with two thousand five hundred men, took and destroyed much property in Williamsburg and York Town, ravaged the country around, and then sailed to the mouth of the Appomatox, and driving Steuben thence with his militia, burnt all the shipping and tobacco in Petersburg. After! other depredations, and forcing the Americans to destroy their own flotilla betwixt Warwick and Richmond, Phillips ' and Arnold descended the James River to Manchester, and proposed to cross over to Richmond. But La Fayette having just reached that place before them with upwards of two thousand men, they re-embarked, and, after destroying much other property, especially shipping and stores, at Warwick* and other places, they fell down to Hog Island, where they awaited further orders.