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 "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.

Order of

council for

tion of com

In the course of the summer, the king, as lethe regula-gally empowered by an act passed for that purmerce be- pose, issued an order in council, limiting the comcontinent merce between the continent of America and the of America British West India islands to ships British built.

tween the

and the

West Indies. This was conformable to the grand principle on

which the Act of Navigation was originally founded;

XXI.

1789.

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 peace signtive 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 Mightinesses 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 ric Cornwallis, primate of England, who filled the Cornwallis,

archbishop

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

XXI.

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 unwilling 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 general 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.

BOOK
XXI.

The king of Prussia, who regarded with a jealous eye whatever tended to the aggrandizement 1783. of the house of Austria, assumed, as well became him, the lead in this important and common concern. His several memorials on this subject to the court of Vienna, and to the diet of the empire assembled at Ratisbon, were however extremely guarded and temperate, whilst the replies of the imperial court were in the highest degree haughty and supercilious.-"The court of Vienna knew her own rights, and was the proper judge of them. An amicable arrangement had taken place, and his imperial majesty did not think himself accountable to any prince of the empire for the measures he had pursued; and, being thoroughly satisfied with the JUSTICE of his CAUSE, was resolved to support his pretensions by force of arms.'

The king of Prussia, who evidently appears to have been reluctant to proceed to extremities, at length proposed to the emperor to guaranty to him in full right the cession of two considerable districts of the duchy of Bavaria, contiguous to the Austrian territories, on condition that the court of Vienna would relinquish her remaining claims. But this being refused with disdain, his Prussian majesty published a manifesto early in July 1778, stating "the unwarrantable and violent conduct of the imperial court, which, if suffered to proceed