NOTE TO CHAPTER XIV.

1 Mr. Belsham: Memoirs of the Reign of George III. vol. ii.

CHAPTER XV.

Meeting of Parliament-Debates on the Manifesto of the Commissioners-Affairs of Ireland-Votes of Censure moved on Lord Sundwich-Return of the Howes-Debates thereon-Spaniards declare War -Regulation of Militia-War in East Indies-In America-Descent on Virginia-Capture of Stoney Point-British attack South Carolina-Repulsed at Charlestown-Operations of French Fleet-Siege of Savannah by the French and Americans—Siege raised—Capture of the British Settlements on the Coast of Africa by the French.

were issued for the attendance of general Robert | probably impracticable, or even dangerous, from son, general Jones, John Maxwell, and others. the apprehensions they had of its being violently During the time that intervened between the call-opposed by the people at large; and that along with ing and appearance of these gentlemen, evidence several other causes of objection, it would in its efwas heard on the part of general Burgoyne. The fect go to the annihilation of the regular or standing officers examined were Sir Guy Carleton, the earl army, in cutting off its usual and only means of supof Balcarras, captain Money, the earl of Harring. ply from the recruiting service. The raising of new ton, major Forbes, captain Bloomfield, and lieu- regiments appeared to them to be vastly preferable; tenant-colonel Kingston; all of whom, excepting the and they severely reproved ministers for the confirst, were present during the whole campaign. tinuance of that wretched system of policy which This evidence tended most clearly to acquit the gen had hitherto led them to reject with indifference, eral of every suspicion of misconduct, and to estab- and even contempt, the liberal and patriotic offers. lish his character as an officer of the first abilities, made by several of the peers in opposition for raisand peculiarly the favourite of his army. Whether ing regiments at their private expense for the dethe general's orders for proceeding to Albany were fence of their country. But that narrow predilecperemptory or conditional, was still a matter of tion in favour of men of a certain description, and opinion but two assertions were manifestly dis- particularly of the northern part of the island, was proved, viz. that general Philips at the time of the still predominant, and would continue while there convention offered to force his way, with a part of was any thing either to bestow or to lose; and thus the army, from Saratoga back to Ticonderoga ; and the duke of Rutland, the earl of Derby, and others that the late general Fraser had disapproved passing of the oldest English nobility, the hereditary sup the Hudson river. porters of the throne and constitution, met with inThis examination being closed, the witnesses, difference or insult in their generous offers for the brought in opposition to those examined on the part service and preservation of their country, in this of Sir William Howe, now attended. Their evi- season of peril and distress. It was observed, with dence tended to establish the most absurd of all great acrimony, on this occasion, that all these genassertions, that a great majority (two thirds, or four erous and disinterested offers came from such as fifths) of the people were attached to the British ministry had stigmatized with the title of leaders or government, and that the force sont out was entire-partizans of faction, and who were constantly reprely competent to have brought the war to a speedy sented as enemies to government; whilst not one of conclusion: that the country of America did not those who had grown rich in her spoils, or great in afford any extraordinary obstructions to military her ruin, whether ministers, contractors, court faoperations; that the rebel force was always inferior vourites, or king's friends, had offered to raise a to the reports spread concerning it. The particu- single man, or to expend a shilling in its defence. lar manœuvres of general Howe were reprobated As the minister did not profess any attachment by some of the witnesses, particularly one of the to this particular mode of defence, a great variety name of Galloway, who had been a lawyer in Ame- of amendments were proposed. The only one of rica, and a member of congress, and who had come any consequence, however, which was carried over to general Howe at a time when the American through, was for the raising of volunteer companies, cause was apparently ruined. In consequence of to be attached to the militia regiments of the county the charges which this person laid against Sir Wil- or district to which they belonged; and for this liam Howe, that commander requested that a par- purpose the lord-lieutenants of counties were emticular day should be appointed on which he might powered to grant commissions to officers, as high as bring witnesses to prove the falsity of the asser- the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in proportion to the tions; but this was refused, and the committee was number of men they were able to procure. But dissolved on the twenty-ninth of June, without when the committee had sat on this subject till coming to a single resolution on all the important midnight, the house was no sooner resumed, than matter which had been submitted to them. they were surprised by the introduction of a new bill of another nature. This was to take away, for a limited time, the legal exemptions from being pressed on board the navy, which several descriptions of men and apprentices belonging to the sea, or in some degree to maritime affairs, had hitherto enjoyed; and also for suspending, for a time, the right of suing out a writ of habeas corpus, for such breaches of these exemptions as had already taken place from the seventeenth of that month, or as might still take place before the final ratification of the bill.

While such were the disgraceful proceedings of the commous, the duke of Richmond was engaged in strenuously promoting an inquiry into the abuses of Greenwich hospital in the house of lords. The rejection of the inquiry through the influence of the execrable Sandwich and the other ministers, is perhaps the best proof that could be adduced that the complaint was well founded.

WAR DECLARED BY SPAIN.

THE Spanish manifesto declaring war against Britain, was introduced by a royal message, June seventeenth, 1779. As this event had been repeatedly foretold by the minority, and all along treated with contempt by the ministry, it is not to be supposed but the verification of these predictions must now produce the most severe reproaches on those who had despised them. They were indeed reminded with great severity of their obstinacy, blindness, and absurdity; of the contempt with which they had treated every warning of dauger, the triumph which they had constantly expressed at the folly and ignorance of opposition for entertaining such ideas. Spain, said the ministry, could have no interest in joining our enemies: they had colonies of their own, and would never set such an ill example to them, as to assist our rebellious colonists. Nay, those ministers, whose daily conduct proved them to be incapable of managing their own affairs with any degree of propriety, had the matchless effrontery of setting themselves up as statesmen and politicians for the house of Bourbon, and of knowing the interests of France and Spain better than they did themselves.

MILITIA REGULATIONS.

ALL these heavy charges, however, were disregirded. A resolution was taken to oppose this new enemy as well as the others, and at the same time hever to submit to the idea of American indepen'dence. As the national danger was now undeniably very great, it was proposed by the minister to increase the militia to double its number. To this the opposition consented; though they considered it as

Such an extraordinary proposal, militating so strongly against the liberty and security of the subject, was severely censured. The manner of bring. ing it forward indeed, at so late an hour, and in a very thin house, became a subject of complaint even more than the proposal itself, which was likewise condemned upon many accounts, but particularly for being a breach of faith between the legislature and the people, which should ever be held most sacred. All this, however, was justified on the plea of necessity; and the time of bringing it in was said to be chosen on purpose for the greater secrecy and despatch, and to prevent the effect of the bill from being defeated by the knowledge of its design, which the public prints would have spread through the whole nation. The measure itself was justified upon the ground already mentioned, and the proposer remarked, that he could not avoid be. ing astonished at the horror which was now expressed with respect to compulsion, when they were but newly risen from a committee wherein they had been for ten hours engaged in framing a compulsive law whereby arms would be forced into the hands of thirty thousand men contrary to their inclination.

The militia bill, like all others proposed by ministry, was easily carried through the house of commons; but in that of the lords, it not only met with a vig orous opposition from the adverse party, but was even much more coolly received by the friends of government themselves than might have been expected. Neither were the lords-lieutenants of Counties in general at all satisfied with the bill. In

this state of things, the question being at length put, Whether the clause empowering his majesty to order the militia to be augmented to double its present number, should stand as part of the bill? It was carried in the negative by thirty-nine to twenty-two. In this debate it was remarkable, that the lord president of the council, and both secreta ries of state, voted against the compulsory principle of the bill.

Lord North could not conceal his chagrin, nor his dissatisfaction with the conduct of his colleagues. A new question, however, now arose, which produced a considerable debate: For the militia being considered by several members as a money-bill, they insisted, that no amendment of the lords could be admitted, without a surrender of their own most valuable and peculiar privilege; for which reason the bill ought now to be totally rejected. But the minister, considering that it was absolutely incumbent on him to do something which might at least have the appearance of regarding the public defenc, and security, determined in the present instance to overlook the point of privilege. After many ingenious arguments on both sides, therefore, the bill was carried by a majority of sixty-three to forty-five.

The parliament was not prorogued till the third of July.

WAR IN INDIA.

nia. On the tenth of May they saŭed for Ports mouth, and on their arrival took possession of that defenceless town. The remains of Norfolk on the opposite side of the river, fell of course into their hands. The Americans burned some of their own vessels, but others were made prizes by the invaders. The British guards marched eighteen miles in the night, and arriving at Suffolk by morning, proceeded to the destruction of vessels, naval stores, and of a large magazine of provisions, which had been deposited in that place. A similar destruction was carried on at Kemp's Landing, Shepherd's Gosport, Tanner's Creek, and other places in the vicinity. The frigates and armed vessels were employed on the same business along the margin of the rivers. Three thousand hogsheads of tobacco were taken at Portsmouth. Every house in Suffolk was burnt except the church and one dwelling-house. The houses of several private gentlemen in the country shared the same fate. Above a hundred and thirty vessels were either destroyed or taken. All that were upon the stocks were burned, and every thing relative to the building or fitting of ships, was either carried off or destroyed. The fleet and army, after demolishing Fort Nelson, and setting fire to the store-houses, and other public buildings in the dockyard at Gos port, embarked from Virginia, and returned with their prizes and booty safe to New-York, in the same mouth in which they had left it. This expe dition into Virginia distressed a number of its inhabitants, and enriched the British forces, but was of no real service to the royal cause. It was presumed, that by involving the citizens in losses and distresses, they would be brought to reflect on the advantages of submitting to a power, against which they had not the means of defending themselves: But the temper of the times was unfavourable to these views. Such was the high-toned state of the American mind, that property had comparatively lost its value. It was fashionable to suffer in the cause of independence; some hearty whigs gloried in their losses, with as much pride as others gloried in their possessions. The British, supposing the Americans to be influenced by the considerations which bias men in the languid scenes of tranquil life, and not reflecting on the sacrifices which enthusiastic patriotism is willing to make, proceeded in their schemes of distress: but the more extensively they carried on this mode of warfare, the more obstacles they created to the reunion of the empire. In about five weeks after the termination of the expedition to Virginia, a similar one was projected against the exposed margin of Connecticut. Governor Tryon was appointed to the command of about two thousand six hundred land forces, employed on this business, and he was supported by general Garth. The transports which conveyed these troops, were covered by a suitable number of armed vessels, commanded by Sir George Collyer. On the fifth of July they proceeded from New-York by the way of Hell-Gate, and landed at East-Haven. The royal commanders issued an address to the inhabitants, in which they invited them to return to their duty and allegiance, and promised protection to all who should remain peaceably in their usual place of regovernment. It also stated "that their property lay still within the grasp of that power, whose lenity had persisted in its mild and noble efforts, though branded with the most unworthy imputation: that the existence of a single house on their defenceless coast, ought to be a constant reproof of their ingratitude: that they who lay so much in the British power, afforded a striking monument of their mercy, and therefore ought to set the first example of returning to their allegiance."

ABOUT the latter end of the preceding year hos tilities had commenced in the East Indies. The East India company having formed a design of extirpating the French power in India, transmitted instructions for an attack upon Pondicherry. Major-general Munro, commander of the company's troops on the coast of Coromandel, about the twenty-first of August found his troops in sufficient strength for the siege, and immediately took possession of the bound-hedge, within cannon shot of the fortifications, by which all communication with the country was cut off. Some unavoidable delays prevented the farther operations of the besiegers until the sixth and seventh of September, when they broke ground both on the north and south sides of the town. By this time their operations were greatly assisted by the English fleet under Sir Edward Vernon, who had sailed from Madras, at the end of July to block up Pondicherry. As soon as he arrived on his station he perceived a French fleet, under M. de Tronjolly, consisting of one ship of sixty-four, one of thirty-six, one of thirtytwo guns, and two French East India ships armed. Sir Edward Vernon's fleet consisted of one sixty, one twenty-eight, one twenty gun-ship, a sloop, and an East Indiaman. An engagement ensued, and with so much loss to the French, that they dared not to hazard another, but abandoned Pondicherry, which now was blocked up both by sea and land. The garrison, under M. de Bellecombe, governor and general commandant of all the French settlements in India, made a brave defence. Before the middle of October, however, the artillery of the besicgers had gained so much superiority, that preparations were made for a general as sault. On the day preceding, the governor, in or der to save useful lives, and prevent bloodshed without advantage or honour, offered to capitulate.sidence, except the civil and military officers of the The conditions were generous, and agreeable to the conquered. About thirty pieces of artillery, serviceable and unserviceable, fell into the hands of the victors, together with all public property; the private was secured to the owners. The company's troops, which amounted to ten thousand five hundred men, lost about two hundred and twenty-four slain, and six hundred and ninety-three wounded; the garrison, amounting to three thousand, had two hundred men killed, and four hundred and eighty wounded.

CAMPAIGN IN AMERICA. 1779. THE British army in America seem to have aimed at little more, during the campaign of 1779, in the states to the northward of Carolina, than distress and depredation. Having publicly announced their resolution of making "the colonies of as little avail as possible to their new connections," they planned several expeditions on this principle.

One of these, consisting of both naval and land force, was committed to Sir George Collyer and general Matthews, who made a descent on Virgi

One of the many addresses, from which the above extract is taken, was sent by a flag to colonel Whiting of the militia near Fairfield. The colonel was allowed an hour for his answer, but he had scarcely time to read it before the town was in flames. He nevertheless returned the following answer: "Connecticut having nobly dared to take up arms against the cruel despotism of Great Britain, and the flames having preceded the answer to your flag, they will persist to oppose to the utmost, the power exerted against injured innocence." The British marched from their landing to NewHaven. The town, on their entering it, was delivered up to promiscuous plunder, a few in