announced the recall of Sir Home Popham in terms of severe reprehension; and on the seventeenth of February following, that officer arrived in London, when he was put under a formal arrest, preparatory to trial by a court-martial, for acting without orders, and for leaving the Cape in an unprotected state. After an able defence, the court adjudged him to be severely reprimanded. DISPUTE WITH AMERICA. DIFFERENCES had existed, for a considerable time, between the United States of America and Spain, arising out of the ill-defined boundaries of Louisiana, and the Spaniards had made inroads on the district of New Orleans and the Mississippi, even in those parts which had been unequivocally ceded to the United States. Some disputes between America and the English government also assumed an important character. The complaint of the United States involved three points: first, The practice of impressing British seamen found on board American merchant vessels on the high seas; second, The violation of their rights, as neutrals, by seizing and condemning their merchantmen, though engaged in what they considered a lawful commerce; and, third, the infringement of their maritime jurisdiction upon their own coasts. On the first point it was urged that native Americans were impressed on pretence of their being Englishmen, and forced to serve in the British navy; and the public mind in the United States was inflamed with exaggerated reports, stating that thousands of their citizens were in this situation. The secoud ground of complaint arose from a desire, on the part of the Americans, not only to trade with the colonies of a belligerent, in a manner that would not be allowed iu a time of peace, but to become the carriers of their produce to the mother country; protecting it, at the same time, under their neutral flag. The third point, which merely required that the extent of their maritime jurisdiction should be defined, admitted of easy arrangement. An amicable adjustment of these differences being equally desirable to both parties, a special mission was appointed to England, and conferences were opened in London by lords Holland and Auckland on the part of Great Britain, and by Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney on that of America. After some deliberations respecting an efficient substi tute for the practice of impressment, the latter consented, though in opposition to their instructions, to pass to the other subjects of negotiation, on receiving an assurance that the right should be exercised with great caution, and immediate redress afforded on representation of any injury. On the subject of intercourse with the colonies of the enemy, a rule was established for defining the difference between a continuous and an interrupted voyage; and it was expressly stipulated that on re-exportation there should remain, after the drawback, a duty to be paid of one per cent. ad valorem, on all European articles, and not less than two per cent. on colonial produce. The maritime jurisdiction of the United States was guaranteed, and some commercial stipulations were framed for the reciprocal advantage of the two countries; but the American president, Mr. Jefferson, refused to ratify the treaty. JOSEPH BUONAPARTE MADE KING OF NA PLES-BATTLE OF MAIDA. THE king of Naples, by a treaty concluded at Paris, in September, 1805, had engaged to repel by force every encroachment on his neutrality: scarcely, however, had six weeks elapsed, when a squadron of English and Russian vessels were permitted to land a body of forces in Naples and its vicinity. This being considered by Buonaparte as an act of perfidy deserving the severest punishment, he issued a proclamation, on the morning after the signature of the treaty of Presburg, declaring that the Neapolitan dynasty had ceased to reign; and a French army, under Joseph Buonaparte, who assumed the sovereignty, immediately marched into Naples, when all the fortresses, except Gaeta and another, surrendered by capitulation. The new king was received with those acclamations and addresses which can always be procured by power; and the heir-apparent retired into his dukedom of Calabria, where general Damas, a French emigrant, was endeavouring to organize a levy en masse: the province, however, was speedily reduced by general Regnier. Sir James Craig, with the English army, accompanied the royal family to Sicily, and in April was suc ceeded in his command by Sir John Stuart. Sir Sidney Smith took the command of the English squadron destined for the defence of Sicily. After throwing succours into Gaeta, which was gallantly defended by the prince of Hesse Philipstal, he took possession of the isle of Capri, and pro. ceeded along the coast, exciting alarm, and keeping up a communication with the Calabrese. At the urgent solicitation of the court of Palermo, the English general consented to employ a part of his force in Calabria, and, on the first of July, landed in the gulf of St. Eufemia, near the northern frontier of Lower Calabria, with about four thousand eight hundred men. The French general Regnier, made a rapid march from Reggio, and on the third encamped at Maida, about ten miles distant from the English army, with a force nearly equal, and in daily expectation of reinforcements. Being determined to give battle without delay, Sir John Stuart advanced the next morning, and found the French in a strong position below the village, their force augmented to seven thousand men, the expected detachments having joined. Regnier, con. fident in his superiority, quitted his post to meet the assailants on the plain, when the English, not dismayed at the unexpected increase of his numbers, advanced with alacrity to the attack, and, after some firing, both sides prepared for close combat; but the French gave way when the bayonets began to cross, and, the English receiving a reinforcement at this critical juncture, the French precipitately abandoned the field, with the loss of about seven hundred killed and a thousand prisoners. The British loss was forty-five killed and two hundred and eighty-two wounded. This brilliant action, though it did not lead to the recovery of Naples, preserved Sicily from invasion, and compelled the French to evacuate Calabria. General Stuart, however, aware that his small force would be inadequate to the permanent defence of the country, retired to Sicily, leaving a garrison in the strong fort of Scylla. The fall of Gaeta, which took place soon after the battle of Maida, set at liberty a force of sixteen thousand men, which, in conjunc tion with the powerful army under Massena, who was sent to subdue the Calabrese, slowly effected that purpose. OCCUPATION OF HANOVER BY PRUSSIACONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE. THE Court of Prussia, which still vacillated greatly in its politics, addressed a proclamation on the twenty-seventh of January to the inhabitants of Hanover, in which it was observed, that, after the events which terminated in the peace of Presburg, the only means of preserving the country from the flames of war consisted in forming a convention with Buonaparte, in virtue of which the states of his Britannic majesty in Germany were to be occupied and governed by Prussia till the return of peace. This proceeding called forth an official note from Fox, addressed to baron Jacobi, the Prussian minister in London, desiring him explicit. ly to inform his court that no convenience or political arrangement, much less any offer of equivalent or indemnity, would ever induce his majesty to consent to the alienation of the electorate. The disposition shown by Prussia to hold Hanover conditionally did not, however, please Buonaparte, who dictated new terms; and another treaty was signed on the fifteenth of February, by which Prussia was bound, not only to annex it to her dominions, but to exclude British vessels and commerce from her ports. The indignity offered to Great Britain by these proceedings demanded prompt retaliation the rivers Ems, Weser, Elbe, and Trave, were accordingly blockaded; a general embargo was laid on all Prussian vessels in British harbours; and the English mission at Berlin was recalled. These measures were announced to parliament, on the twenty-first of April, in a message which was answered by unanimous addresses of thanks from both houses; and the strongest animadversions were directed against Prussia for her abject submission to the will of Buonaparte. In addition to her war with England, the subserviency of Prussia to France involved her in hostilities with Sweden. The troops of that power, who occupied Luneburg on behalf of the king of England, having opposed the entrance of the Prussians, were compelled, after a slight resistance, to retreat into Mecklenburg; on which the king of Sweden laid an embargo upon all Prussian vessels in his harbours, and blockaded her ports in the Baltic. To counteract these measures, Prussia was preparing to expel the Swedes from Pomerania, when a new revolution in her politics took place, which gave a different direction to her arms. The feelings of the Prussian nation were hostile to France; and the queen, young, beautiful, and persuasive, indignant at the usurpations and insults of Buonaparte, joined in the same cause. The first public act of the cabinet of St. Cloud, which gave serious alarm to the court of Berlin, was the investiture of Murat with the dutchies of Berg and Cleves, the latter of which was one of the three provinces obtained from Prussia in exchange for Hanover; the other two, Anspach and Bayreuth, being transferred to Bavaria for the dutchy of Berg. But a deeper injury awaited the Prussian government: while La forest, the French resident at Berlin, was urging the ministers of that court to persist in the measures they had adopted for the retention of Hanover, Lucchesini, the Prussian minister at Paris, discovered that the French government had offered to Great Britain the complete restitution of the electoral dominions. Fortunately, however, as Prussia then thought, the negotiation between France and Russia was broken off by the refusal of the court of St. Petersburgh to ratify the treaty concluded by M. D'Oubril. But this event, while it opened to Prussia the prospect of assistance, in case she should be driven to a war with France, disclosed to her further proof of the secret enmity of the cabinet of St. Cloud; it now appearing, for the first time, that distinct hints had been given to M. D'Oubril, that, if his court was desirous of annexing any part of Polish Prussia to its dominions, no opposition would be interposed by France. The peace of Presburg had left the forms of the Germanic constitution entire: the residence of the French troops in Germany, however, in consequence of the protracted occupation of Cattaro by the Russians, matured the establishment of a new confederation of princes, at the head of which Buonaparte should himself be placed. This project was arranged with extraordinary promptitude; and on the twelfth of July the act of confederation was executed at Paris. The members were, the emperor of the French, the kings of Bavaria and Wirtemberg, the archbishop of Ratisbon, the elector of Baden, the duke of Berg, the landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, and several minor German princes, who, separating themselves from the Germanic empire, appointed a diet to meet at Frankfort to manage their public concerns, and settle their differences; and chose Buonaparte for their protector. They established among themselves a federal alliance, by which, if one of them engaged in a continental war, all the others were bound to take part in it, and to contribute their contingent of troops in the following proportions:-France, two hundred thousand; Bavaria, thirty thousand; Wirtemberg, twelve thousand; Baden, three thousand; Berg, five thousand; Darmstadt, four thousand; Nassau, Hohenzollern, and others, four thousand; making a total of two hundred and fiftyeight thousand men. A number of petty princes were deprived of their ancient rights of sovereignty, and these were transferred, without equivalent or indemnity, to the members of this federal union. The imperial city of Nuremberg was given to the king of Bavaria, and that of Frankfort on the Maine to the archbishop of Ratisbon, formerly elector and archchancellor of the empire, and now prince primate of "the confederation of the Rhine." The house of Austria, thus stripped of its honours, was compelled to lay down the title of Emperor of Germany, which, by a formal deed of renunciation, was resigned by Francis the second, retaining only the more humble one of Emperor of Austria. The acquiescence of Prussia in these arrangements was purchased by the delusive bope that she would be permitted to form a confederation of states in the north of Germany, under her protection, as the confederation of the Rhine was under that of France; but no sooner had the submission of Austria been secured than Prussia was told that Buonaparte could not permit her to include the Hanseatic towns in her plan, being determined to take them under own states. his own protection; and, as the elector of Saxony was unwilling to contract the new obligations which Prussia wished to impose on him, Frauce could not see him forced to act against the interests of his people. The elector of Hesse Cassel was invited to join the confederation of the Rhine, and some te ritorial addition was offered him, but he rejected the proposal, and a resolution was passed, by which he was cut off from access to part of his TITLES CONFERRED BY BUONAPARTE ON HIS FOLLOWERS-MURDER OF PALM. BUONAPARTE had no sooner abolished the name of republic in France, than he sought to extinguish that appellation in the other states of Europe. Amongst other transformations, his younger brother, Louis, was selected to be king of Holland, and un willingly dragged from the gayeties of Paris, to rule over a laborious and impoverished people. The new constitution which accompanied the king had no guarantee but the will of its author, nor did he attempt to disguise that he considered Holland as virtually a province of France. Buonaparte also strengthened his connection with Bavaria by the union of a princess of that house with his step-son, Eugene Beauharnois, whom he adopted as his successor in the kingdom of Italy. He created a number of dutchies in the countries conquered by France, and chiefly in Italy, which he conferred on those who had distinguished themselves in his service. Berthier was created prince of Neufchatel; Bernadotte, prince of Ponte Corvo ; and Talleyrand, prince of Benevento. Many of the marshals and generals were raised to the rank of dukes. Buonaparte's sister, Paulina, the wife of the prince Borghese, received the principality of Guastalla; and his uncle, Cardinal Fesch, was ap pointed coadjutor and successor of the archbishop of Ratisbon. Whilst Buonaparte was carrying these projects into effect, the pressure of the French armies upon Germany was extreme, and a spirit of resistance was excited in a variety of publications, which soon attracted the notice of the French government. Orders were in consequence given for the apprehension of various booksellers, among whom the fate of John Palm, a resident of Nuremberg, an imperial town of Germany, possessing laws and tribunals of its own, attracted particular notice. This person, the publisher of a pamphlet, entitled, " Germany in the lowest state of degrada tion," was arrested by order of the French government, and dragged to Braunau, charged with the publication of a libel against the French emperor. A court-martial was immediately summoned, and, after sitting for three days, M. Palm was sentenced to be shot, which was carried into execution on the following day. FOURTH COALITION AGAINST FRANCE- The French, who had for some time been concentrating their forces at Bamberg, advanced in three divisions against the Prussian army, which had taken a strong position along the north of Frankfort on the Maine. The campaign opened on the ninth of October, when the left of the Prussians was turned, and they were compelled to retreat with considerable loss: on the tenth, the left wing of the French army, under marshal Lannes, was successful at Saalfield, where prince Louis of Prussia was killed. The main body of the Prussians occupied Eysenach, Gotha, Erfurt, and Weimar, but the arrangements of the duke of Brunswick, to whom, at the advanced age of seventy-one, the chief command was confided, were suddenly changed in con sequence of his right wing being unexpectedly All the principal towns in the electorate of Brandenburg, though strongly garrisoned, surrendered almost without resistance. Spandau and Stettin opened their gates on being invested, and Magdeburg, with a garrison of twenty-two thousand men, capitulated to Ney, after a few bombs had been thrown into the city. Berlin was entered on the twenty-fifth, and the king of Prussia retreated to Konigsberg, where, with scarcely fifty thousand men he awaited the arrival of whatever assistance might be afforded by Russia. Mecklenburg was also taken possession of by the French; and Hanover was occupied by general Mortier. Their next object was the possession of Hamburgh, where all British property was placed under sequestration; the merchants and bankers were required to exhibit their accounts, summary punishment, by martial law, being denounced against those who should make false returns; and the English who remained in the city were put under arrest. These proceedings were the prelude to a decree issued by Buonaparte at Berlin on the twentieth of November, which afterwards became so memorable under the designation of the "Berlin decree." This edict alleged that England had violated the laws of nations, in considering every individual belonging to a hostile state as an actual enemy, whether found on board vessels of merchandize, or otherwise engaged in commercial occupations; that she had extended her right of blockade beyond all reasonable limits-to places where, with all her naval superiority, it was impossible for her actually to maintain it; that the monstrous abuse of this right had no other object but to aggrandize England by the ruin of the continent; that all who dealt in English commodities, might, therefore, be justly regarded as her accomplices; and that, as it was a right conferred by the laws of nature and of nations, to oppose to an enemy the weapons he employs against bis adversary, it was decreed, that till the English government should abandon this system, the British isles should be placed in a state of blockade, and all correspondence with her interdicted. This violent decree, and the apprehension of retaliatory measures on the part of England, occasioned great may in the commercial cities of the continent. OPERATIONS IN SILESIA AND SWEDISH The emperor Alexander and the king of Prussia, who had been there during the last three weeks, retired to Memel, that town and its territory being all that remained in the possession of the latter sovereign. Buonaparte entered Tilsit on the nineteenth of June; and on the twenty-second an armistice was concluded, by which it was agreed that there should be an immediate exchange of prisoners, and that plenipotentiaries should be instantly appointed to negotiate a peace. Three days afterwards an interview took place between the emperor Alexander and Buonaparte, on a raft which had been constructed upon the Niemen. The conference lasted two hours, and was attended with mutual expressions of regard. On the seventh of July the arrangements of pacification were completed. Prussia was deprived of all her territories on the left bank of the Eibe, and of all her Polish provinces, except those situated between Pomerania and the Newmarke, and ancient Prussia, to the north of the little river Netz. The elector, now king of Saxony, took also the title of duke of Warsaw, and was to have free communication by a military road through the Prussian territory, with his new dominions, which were to consist of Thorn, Warsaw, and the rest of Prussian Poland, except that part to the north of the Bug, which was incorporated with the dominions of the emperor Alexander. Dantzic was in future to be an independent town; east Friesland was added to the kingdom of Holland; a new dominion, under the designation of the kingdom of Westphalia, was formed of the provinces ceded by Prussia, and others in the possession of Buonaparte; and the recognition of Jerome Buonaparte as its sovereign, also of the kings of Holland and Naples, and of alĺ the present and future members of the confederation of the Rhine, was stipulated. Prussia consented to become a party in the maritime war against England; the emperor of Russia and Buonaparte mutually guaranteed to each other the integrity of their possessions, and of those of the other powers included in the treaty; the offer of a mediation to effect a peace between France and England was accepted, on the condition that England should, within one month, admit it; and the emperor of Russia agreed to accept the mediation of Buonaparte for the conclusion of peace with the Ottoman porte. The king of Sweden refused to accede to the treaty of Tilsit, and attempted the defence of Pomerania; but his efforts were unavailing. He, how. ever, succeeded in withdrawing his forces from Stralsund, and returned into Sweden. WAR WITH TURKEY AND RUSSIA-EXPE- TOWARDS the close of the year 1806, war had been declared by Turkey against Russia; and to oblige the Turks to accede to terms of accommodation, by which a force would be released from this southern warfare, and enabled to swell the Russian army in Poland, a British fleet, under the command of Sir J. T. Duckworth, advanced through the Dardanelles on the nineteenth of February, with orders to bomdis-bard Constantinople, if certain terms were not acceded to. In passing between Sestos and Abydos they sustained a heavy fire, which they retaliated very severely, and the Turkish squadron was driven on shore and burnt by Sir Sidney Smith. The English theu anchored near the Prince's Isles, about eight miles from Constantinople; and a proposal was made to spare the city on condition that the Turkish fleet should be surrendered, which was of course rejected, and defensive measures being pursued with the greatest activity, Sir J.T. Duckworth prepared for his departure while the passage of the Dardanelles was still practicable. On the first of March he repassed the castles, in which he sustained con siderable loss, and thus, instead of producing ac commodation between Russia and the Porte, a new power was added to the list of England's enemies. The British agents and settlers in the Turkish territories were exposed to considerable annoyance; the seizure and sequestration of English property at Smyrna, Salonica, and other places, were ordered by the Porte, with a promptitude which precluded all opportunity for precaution; the power of France over the divan became materially strengthened; aud Sebastiana, the French ambassador at Constan POMERANIA-TREATY OF TILSIT. AFTER the battle of Jena Buonaparte obtained further success over the detached and broken forces of the king of Prussia, and over several bodies of Russian troops which crossed the vistula to assist Prussia, he thus was enabled to overrun all Silesia, to take Breslau and other fortresses, and to lay siege to the city of Dantzic; but that important place did not surrender till the twenty-seventh of May. He then penetrated into Poland, and after a series of severe conflicts the French and Russian armies fought on the fourteenth of June the sanguinary and decisive battle of Friedland, which the French classed among their most splendid victories. One of its immediate consequences was the capture of Konigsberg, containing large stores of grain, and one hundred and sixty thousand English muskets, which had not yet been landed. The Russians retreated towards the Niemen, crossed that river at Tilsit, burned the oridge, and continued their march to the eastward. tinople, was consulted on almost every emergency. In this war between Russia and the Porte, the former was, however, generally successful; and, to add to the disasters of the Turks, an insurrection arose during its progress, owing to some new regulations in the dress and discipline of the troops, which terminated in the deposition of the grand seignior, Selim the third, and the proclamation of Mustapha the fourth. By sea, the Russians were equally successful as by land; and in an engagement between the Russian and Turkish fleets, fought on the 1st of July, near the entrance to the Dardanelles, the latter, consisting of eleven sail of the line, was nearly annihilated. The failure of the weak and injudicious attempt on Constantinople was followed by the disappointment of another expedition which was sent against another seat of the Ottoman power. On the sixth of March a force of five thousand men, under the command of major-general Mackenzie Fraser, sailed from Messina, and having effected a landing near Alexandria, speedily compelled that city to capitulate. Ulterior operations against Rosetta and Rhamanie were unsuccessful, and the troops retreated, fighting all the way to Alexandria, where they re mained till September; when general Fraser, unable to cope with the enemy, entered into a negotiation; and having obtained the restoration of the British prisoners, consented to evacuate Egypt. CAPTURE OF MONTE VIDEO-UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK ON BUENOS AYRES-GENE RAL WHITELOCKE CASHIERED. SOME hopes were entertained that these reverses in the Mediterranean would be compensated by successes in South America. In October, 1806, ministers had sent out a reinforcement to the river Plate, under the command of Sir Samuel Auchmuty, and convoyed by Sir Charles Stirling, who was appointed to supersede Sir Home Popham in the naval command on that station. On arriving at Maldonado, Sir Samuel determined to attack the strong fortress of Monte Video, the key of the river Plate; and on the eighteenth of January the troops, amounting to about four thousand men, were landed near the place, and repulsed a superior force which had been ordered out against them. A battery was erected, which, though exposed to the incessant fire of the enemy, effected a practicable breach on the second of February; and orders were issued that the assault should be made next morning, an hour before day-break. The enemy, in the mean time, had so barricaded the breach with hides, that the head of the assailing columu could not in the darkness distinguish it from the untouched wall; and he men remained under a galling fire for a quarter of an hour, when it was at length discovered by captain Renny, who fell gloriously as he mounted it; the gallant soldiers then forced their way into the town, overturning the cannon which had been placed at the head of the principal avenues, and clearing the batteries and the streets with their bayonets. By sunrise all was in possession of the British except the citadel, which soon surrendered; and early in the morning, highly to the credit of the troops, all was perfectly quiet. When intelligence arrived in England of the recapture of Buenos Ayres by the Spaniards, orders were sent by a fast-sailing vessel to direct general Craufurd, who had been sent against Chili with four thousand two hundred men, accompanied by a naval force under admiral Murray, to proceed with his armament to the river Plate. On the four teenth of June he reached Monte Video, where be found general Whitelocke, who had arrived on the ninth of May from England, with a reinforcement of sixteen hundred men, and to whom was intrusted the chief command of the British forces in South America, with orders to reduce the whole province of Buenos Ayres. Having, after fatiguing marches, nearly surrounded the town, he ordered a general attack to be made on the fifth of July, each corps to enter by the streets opposite to it, and all with unloaded muskets. The service was executed with great intrepidity, but with the loss of two thousand five hundred men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners. No mode of attack could have been so ill adapted against a town consisting of flat-roofed houses, dis posed in regular streets, intersecting each other at right angles. Volleys of grape-shot were poured on our columns in front and in flank as they advanced; and they were assailed also from the house tops with hand-grenades and other destructive missiles. Sir Samuel Auchmuty succeeded in making himself master of the Plaza de Toros, where he took eightytwo pieces of cannon and an immense quantity of ammunition. General Craufurd with his brigade was cut off from all communication with the other columns, and obliged to surrender; as was also lieutenant-colonel Duff, with a detachment ander his command. On the following morning, general Liniers offered to deliver up the prisoners taken on this occasion, and also those taken from general Be resford, on condition that the attack on the town should be discontinued; and that within two months from that date, Monte Video, and the other stations on the river Plate, occupied by the English troops, should be evacuated. He added that the exasperation of the populace against the English prisoners was unbounded; and that if hostilities were contr nued, it would be impossible to ensure their safety. These terms were no sooner proposed than they were yielded to by general Whitelocke, whose cou duct called forth the most severe reprehension; and on his return to England he was tried by a court martial, cashiered, and declared totally unfit and unworthy to serve his majesty in any military capacity. CAPTURE OF CURACAO-INSURRECTION IN INDIA. AGAINST these misfortunes, the solitary acquisi tion of the Dutch island of Curacao is to be recorded. On the first of January, 1807, the capture was ef fected with inconsiderable loss, by a squadron of four frigates under the command of captain Bris bane. The tranquillity of British India was interrupted in July, 1806, by an insurrection of the sepoys or native troops in the pay of the company, who at tacked the European barracks at Vellore, and mas sacred one hundred and sixty-four men before they were quelled. A rumour, that it was the wish of the British government to convert the sepoys by forcible means to Christianity, was the cause of this disaffection. CHAPTER XXXVII. A new Parliament-The late Negotiations-Finance-Abolition of the Slave Trade-Change of Administration-Dissolution of Parliament-New Election-New Military Plan-Bill respecting Ireland Reversions-Prorogation-Expedition against Copenhagen-Capture of the Danish fleet-War with Denmark With Russia-Restrictions on Commerce-Action between a British and American frigate -Capture of the Danish West India Islands-The French enter Portugal-The Royal Family em bark for Brazil—Affairs of Spain-Buonaparte's efforts to pluce his Brother on the throne-Expedi tion to Portugal-Convention of Cintra-Advance of the British forces into Spain, under Sir John Moore-His retreat-Battle of Corunna, and death of Sir John Moore. NEW PARLIAMENT THE LATE NEGOTIA A TIONS-FINANCE. T the meeting of the new parliament on the fifteenth of December, 1806, the royal speech animated the nation to exertions against the ene. my. On the second of January, 1807, the subject of the late negotiation with France for the restoration of a general peace was brought under consideration. On this occasion Canning condemned the policy of breaking with Prussia for the sake of Hanover. Prussia had, in the first instance, accepted the transfer of that electorate from France, on condition that the possession should not be considered as valid until a general peace should be concluded, or until the consent of the king of Great Britain should be obtained. Buonaparte acquiesced for a time; but no sooner was he relieved from anxiety respecting the Russian armies, than he insisted that the occupation should be absolute, and Prussia had then no choice but war, or compliance at the risk of war with England: she saw this risk, but could not avoid it; and we fell into the snare. Buonaparte had apprehended the union of Prussia with the two great surviving powers of the confe. deracy, and wished to have her at his mercy. In the space of three months he beheld her at war with England, and England and Russia separately negotiating for peace. He found means to continue this state of things until the arrangements for the overthrow of Prussia were matured: then the farce was ended, and he hastened to the field of battle. Parliament, after providing for an augmentation of the sea and land forces, directed its attention to the improvement of the revenue. Lord Henry Petty, having stated the total amount of the supplies for the year 1807 at forty million five hundred and twenty-seven thousand sixty-five pounds eleven shillings and eight pence, and the ways and means at forty-one million one hundred thousand pounds, brought forward a permanent plan of finance, which professed to have for its object to provide the means of maintaining the honour and independence of the British empire during the necessary continuance of the war, without perceptibly increasing the burdens of the country, and with manifest benefit to the interest of the public creditor. This plan was adapted to meet a scale of expenditure nearly equal to that of 1806; and assumed that, during the war, the annual produce of the permanent and temporary revenue would continue equal to the produce of that year. Keeping these premises in view, it was proposed that the war loans for the years 1807, 1808, and 1809, should be twelve million pounds annually; for 1810, fourteen million pounds; and for each of the ten following years, sixteen million pounds. Those several loans were to be made a charge on the war taxes, which were estimated to produce twenty-one million pounds annually: this charge to be at the rate of ten per cent. on each loan; five per cent. for interest, and the remainder as a sinking fund, which, at compound interest, would redeem any sum of capital debt in fourteen years. The portions of war taxes thus successively liberated, might, if the war should still be prolonged, become applicable in a revolving series, and be again pledged for new loans; it was, however, material, that the property-tax should, in every case, cease on the sixth of April next, after the ratification of a definitive treaty of peace. In the result therefore of the whole measure, there would not be imposed any new taxes for the first three years from this time. New taxes of less than three hundred thousand pounds, on an aver age of seven years, from 1810 to 1816, both inclu sive, were all that would be necessary, in order to procure for the country the full benefit of the plan here described, which would continue for twenty years; during the last ten of which again no new taxes would be required. After repeated discussions the plan was agreed to, and the funds advanced considerably, which gave the minister an opportunity of negotiating a loan on terms highly advantageous to the public, and yet not unproductive to the contractors. ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. Ar this period the total abolition of the African slave trade was finally accomplished. On the second of January lord Grenville introduced a bill for effecting this glorious object, which was read a first time, and printed. On the fourth of February, counsel were heard at the bar of the house, in favour of the continuance of the trade, and on the following day lord Grenville concluded an elaborate speech on the subject, by moving the second reading of the bill, which was principally opposed by the duke of Clarence, earls Westmoreland and St. Vincent, and lords Sidmouth, Eldon, and Hawkesbury. At four o'clock in the morning the house divided, when there appeared for the motion one hundred, and against it thirty-six voices. On the tenth the bill was read a third time, and ordered to the commons for the concurrence of that assembly. On the twenty-third lord Howick moved for its commitment, when the opponents of this humane law were so much diminished that there appeared, ou a division, for the question two hundred and eightythree, and against it only sixteen voices. The bill, which was debated with great animation in all its stages, enacted, that no vessel should clear out for slaves from any part within the British dominions after the first of May, 1807, and that no slave should be landed in the colonies after the first of March, 1808. On the sixteenth of March, on the motion of lord Henry Petty, the bill was read a third time, and passed without a division. On the eighteenth the bill was carried to the lords for their concurrence in some amendments, when lord Grenville instantly moved that it should be printed, and taken into consideration on the twenty-third, on which day the alterations were agreed to. The reason of this haste was, that his majesty, displeased with the introduction of a bill for granting some concessions to Roman catholic officers, had resolved to displace the existing administration. Though the bill had passed both houses, there was an awful fear, lest it should not receive the royal assent before the ministry was dissolved. On the twenty-fifth of March, at half past eleven o'clock in the morning, his majesty's message was delivered to the different members of administration, commanding them |