XXI.

1783.

of the executive power, and was continued in office, BOOK during the first and last years of his administration at least, by the influence of the same power, in daring contrariety to the clear, unanimous, and decided sense of the nation. His lordship's compulsive resignation at the last proved only that there are limits, beyond which even the complaisance of the representative body does not extend and the infatuation of the ministers became at length so notorious, that parliament, alarmed at their rashness, and astonished at their folly, happily and critically interposed to save the nation from destruction.

Quakers.

A bill for regulating the trade of the African Remarkable petiCompany being introduced towards the close of tion of the the session, with a clause prohibiting the officers of the company from exporting negroes, exporting negroes, that humane, intelligent, and respectable class of citizens known by the appellation of Quakers, convened in their annual assembly in the metropolis, embraced this favorable occasion to petition the house of commons, "That the clause in question might be extended to all persons whatsoever; professing themselves deeply affected with the consideration of the rapine, oppression, and blood, attending this traffic. Under the countenance of the laws of this country," say the petitioners, " many thousands of these our fellow-creatures, entitled to the NATURAL RIGHTS OF MANKIND, are held as personal pro

1783.

BOOK perty in cruel bondage. Your petitioners regret, XXI. that a nation professing the Christian faith should so far counteract the principles of humanity and justice." This petition excited in a remarkable degree the attention of the house and of the public, and laid the foundation of the subsequent noble and generous efforts, to effect a total abolition of this detestable commerce, and restore to the common rights of humanity that despised and unfortunate race born only to misery, and to whose wretched and most compassionable lot it has fallen

Order of

66

to plough the winter's wave and reap despair." Much business, comprehending details not sufficiently important to demand a place in general history, having been completed, the parliament was at length prorogued, July 16, 1783, by a speech in which his majesty intimated his intention of calling them together at an early period, in order to resume the consideration of the affairs of the East Indies, which would demand their most serious and unintermitted attention.

In the course of the summer, the king, as lethe regula-gally empowered by an act passed for that pur

council for

tion of com

tween the

merce be- pose, issued an order in council, limiting the commerce between the continent of America and the of America British West India islands to ships British built.

continent

and the

West Indies. This was conformable to the grand principle on

which the Act of Navigation was originally founded;

XXI.

1788.

peace sign

England

and though this restriction gave extreme offence to BOOK the inhabitants of the United States, they could not in reason complain that they were precluded from enjoying the advantages of dependence and independence at one and the same time. The defini- Treaty of tive treaties with France, Spain, and America, were ed between at this period signed with no material alteration; and Holalso preliminaries of peace with the States General, by which all the conquests of England were restored, except the town of Negapatnam on the coast of Coromandel, which their High Mighti nesses found themselves, however reluctantly, at length compelled to cede.

Nearly at this time an ambassador from the United States of America, Mr. Adams, arrived in London. On his first audience at St. James's, the king, addressing himself with much politeness to him, said, "that he had been the last man in his kingdom who had assented to the recognition of American independence; but, now it was actually established, he would be the last man in the kingdom to violate it."-A lively illustration on one hand of the invincible pertinacity, and on the other of the probity of intention, which enter so conspicuously into the character of this ill-advised, misguided, and unfortunate monarch.

land.

In the course of the present year died Dr. Frede-Death of archbishop ric Cornwallis, primate of England, who filled the Cornwallis,

BOOK archiepiscopal see of Canterbury almost fifteen years. XXI. He was a churchman moderate in principle, and

1783.

State of
Europe.

amiable in manners.
profound learning of a Potter, or the exalted be-
neficence of a Herring, much less could he be
charged with the deep malignity of a Wake, or
the narrow bigotry of a Secker. By a wise and
happy choice he was succeeded by Dr. Moore,
bishop of Bangor-a prelate who, in difficult times
and circumstances, has acquired universal esteem
by his mildness of disposition, his good sense, dis-
cretion, and general liberality of sentiment and
conduct.

If he could not boast the

During this interval of political repose in England, it will not be improper to cast a transient view at the general posture and relative situation of the great continental powers.

One of the most interesting events which, since our last notice of foreign politics, had taken place in Europe, was the death of the elector of Bavaria, December 30, 1777. This prince was the last of the Ludovician line of electors, which had been in possession of the duchy and its appendages near five hundred years. These dominions reverted to the heir general of the deceased, Charles Theodore elector Palatine; who being now himself advanced in life, and having no issue, both electorates seemed likely soon to fall into the possession of the duke

1

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1783.

of Deux-ponts, his nearest relation in the male BOOK
Palatine line. Scarcely, however, had the new
elector arrived at Munich, before he found that
he was opposed by a rival of such superior force as
to leave him no room to hope, however clear his
right, for success in the competition.

invasion of

This was no other than the emperor, who ad- Austrian vancing, on grounds of which it would be idle to Bavaria. examine into the validity, his imperial claim to the whole of the Lower Bavaria, and to all those districts of the Upper which had been formerly fiefs of the kingdom of Bohemia, caused a vast army to enter the electorate, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the regency, who in vain pleaded the laws of the empire and the rights of sovereignty.

The elector Theodore, equally unable and un willing to risk the contest, signed a convention with the emperor in January 1778, in which all the pretended rights of the court of Vienna were allowed and conceded in their fullest extent. This transaction, however, could not fail to excite a ge neral alarm throughout the empire.

The duke of Deux-ponts formally protested against this invasion and dereliction of his rights, and called upon the princes and co-estates of the empire, as members of the Germanic body, and guarantees of the treaty of Westphalia, to interpose for the preservation of the constitution, thus openly violated.