As a fpecimen of the fpirit which infpired this piece, and the acrimony with which it abounds, we fhall give the following paffage, in their own language. "They have made a mock of humanity, by the wanton deftruction of men: they have made a mock of religion, by impious appeals to God, whilft in the vio lation of his facred commands: they have made a mock even of reafon itself, by endeavouring to prove, that the liberty and happiness of America could fafely be intrusted to those who have fold their own, unawed by the fense of virtue, or of shame."

They conclude the piece with the following threat of retaliation.

"But fince their incorrigible difpofitions cannot be touched by kindness and compaffion, it becomes our duty by other means to vindicate the rights of humanity.

We therefore, the Congrefs of the United States of America, do folemnly declare and proclaim, That if our enemies prefume to execute their threats, or perfift in their prefent career of barbarity, we will take fuch exemplary vengeance as fhall deter others from a like conduct, We appeal to that God who fearcheth the hearts of men, for the rectitude of our intentions. And in his holy prefence we declare, That as we are not moved by any light and hafty fuggeftions of anger or revenge, fo, through every poffible change of fortune, we will adhere to this our determination." [40. 654.]

Thus, unhappily, did the fecond commiffion for the restoration of peace in America, prove as futile in the event as the former. Although it would be too much VOL. XLIII.

commiffioners, or any circumstances attending their miffion, could have been productive of the defired effect, after the conclufion of the French treaties; it would, however, feem, that nothing could have been more untoward in point of time, and more fubverfive of the purpofes of their commiffion, than the fudden retreat from Philadelphia, which took place almost at the inftant of its being opened. However neceffary this meafure might have been, confidered in a military view, the difgrace of a retreat, and the lofs of a province, were undoubtedly omens very inaufpicious to the opening of a negotiation. It has been publicly faid, (however ftrange it muft appear), that one of the commiffioners, at least, was totally unacquainted, even at the time of their arrival, that this measure was not only intended, but that the orders for its execution actually accompa nied their miffion. [41.23.]

As if Fortune had defigned that this commiffion should have been distinguished in every part of its existence from all others, it was alfo attended with the fingular circumstance, of a letter from the Marquis de la Fayette, (whofe military conduct had placed him very high in the opinion of the Americans, as well as in their fervice), to the Earl of Carlile, challenging that nobleman, as firft commiffioner, to the field, there to answer, in his own person, and in fingle combat, for fome harshness of reflection upon the conduct of the French court and nation, which had appeared in thofe public acts or inftruments that he and his brethren had iffued in their political capacity. It is almoft needlefs to obferve, that fuch propofal, which could only be excused by national levity, or the heat and inexperience of youth, was rejected by the Noble Lord to whom it was addreffed [40.656.], with the flight that it deferved.

Whilft, &c. [To be continued.]

State of Holland at the end of the year 1779 and the beginning of 1780.

Popu Rom the accounts which are lation. laid annually before the Prince of Orange, by the tax-office at the Hague, it appears, that there were 4,875,000 fouls in the United Provinces in the month of June 1779.

Revenue. The amount of the Dutch revenue was calculated in 1780, as follows. K £. Sterling.

ed accufation against his fuperior officer. -This produced then a debate.

Lord Nugent called Mr Fox to order, and Sir Robert Smith called his Lordship to order. Mr Fox, after difclaiming all perfonalities, and declaring that he acted only from his duty to the public, proceeded.It was not, he faid, merely fails, mafts, rigging, and timber, that made the navy of England; it was the fpirit and high sense of honour of its of ficers! a fpirit and a fenfe of honour which could not exift, but under a proper administration of juftice in the admiralty, by a proper distribution of rewards and punishments. How then was the navy to be expected to flourish, when the perfon convicted of having preferred a falfe and malicious accufation against his fuperior officer, and who was barely acquitted when tried by a court-martial upon charges exhibited against himself, was promoted to a post of diftinction, of honour, and of profit. He did not blame that person; it was the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich, who was alone to blame, who ought to be made the subject of that Houfe's inquiry! When the accufation was brought against Adm. Keppel, what had been faid? Why, that the accufer was only the inftrument, but the Admiralty were the principals. It was they who fuggefted, prompted, and spurred on the accu fation. It was attempted to be denied on the part of the Admiralty; but what muft men say now, when the accufer, after being pronounced by the fenfe of one court-martial, a falfe and malicious accufer, and being barely, not honourably, acquitted by another, was rewarded with an office of high honour, of great emolument! What had been the accufer's own sense of his conduct after the first sentence? Had he not refigned his feat in parliament, his feat at the Admiralty-board? His Hon. friend below him had asked, Why was not Adm. Kep. pel, Lord Howe, and others employed? His Hon. friend, from a lapse of memo. ry only, he was fure, had omitted the name of another great officer; he meant Sir Robert Harland. The motives why thefe great officers refused to serve were obvious; they were not private motives, but public motives. The reafon was, they could not ferve with confidence nor with fafety under an adminiftration guilty of convicted falfehood, and guilty not merely of notorious, but

of recorded treachery! This was the reason, the true, the only reafon! There were certainly in the navy several very worthy and refpectable officers; men who, having no fituation like his Hon. relation, had not the fame risk to run; men who had no parliamentary connections, no connections which rendered it, in their opinions, likely that the minifter fhould endeavour to ruin them. They had his applaufe and his thanks for ferving, as heartily as he gave his applaufe to Sir George Rodney, to whom it was fo eminently due. It was the conftant wifh of his heart, his conftant endeavour, to do his country effential service; and therefore he hoped that the sentence of the fecond court-martial would be moved for after the holidays, at which time he fhould move for an inquiry into the conduct of the Earl of Sandwich; and he did not fcruple to say his first and principal motive for it was, that the First Lord of the Admiralty had promoted an Hon. Gentleman, who had been convicted of having preferred a malicious and ill-founded charge againft his fuperior officer; and his fecondary motive was, because the Hon. Gentleman fo promoted, when tried by a second courtmartial, had been not honourably, but very barely acquitted. He concluded after many more obfervations and affertions, that the inquiry was effential to the public, and effential to the navy, and that it ought to be brought on as soon as poffible after the holidays.

Lord North declared, that with regard to the prefent threatened inquiry, he cared not how foon it was brought on; the fooner the better; he was ready to meet it fully and frankly, and to join iffue upon it with the Hon. Gentleman, and go into the merits without reserve. The Hon. Gentleman had refted his reafons for an inquiry, principally on the fentence of the court martial which tried Adm. Keppel, in which fentence the perfon who preferred the charges was deemed a falfe and malicious accufer: he would only now fay fhortly, what he had before said more at large, and should fay more at large again; the court-martial was convened for the purpose of trying Mr Keppel, and not Sir Hugh Palli. fer; they had a regular charge fubmitted to their confideration against the one, they had no charge whatever before them against the other; in pronouncing therefore fentence upon the motives of K 2

the

the accufer, they had exceeded the line of their jurifdiction, and had condemned a man unheard, who had no opportunity of trial, no opportunity of entering upon his defence. Refpecting the promotion of Sir Hugh Pallifer to the government of Greenwich hofpital, he was ready to avow his fhare of the meafure, and to defend and support it in that Houfe, or where ever it should happen to be agitated. The Hon. Gentleman had termed the words of the second court-martial a bare acquittal; but he read that fentence under a widely differ ent conftruction. His Lordship then read the following part of the fentence: "That the court having taken the whole of the evidence into confideration, both on the part of the profecution, as well as in favour of the prifoner, were of opinion, fo far from the conduct of Sir Hugh Pallifer,, Vice-Admiral of the Blue, being reprehenfible on the 27th and 28th of July, that in many parts thereof, it appeared examplary, and high ly meritorious." [41.714.]. If he understood the meaning of the word meri torious, according to its true acceptation, it was, that an officer whofe conduct had been declared, after a most strict inquiry into it, to have been highly meritorious, was an officer who deferved reward; and that examplory conduct meant fuch conduct as was a proper example for other officers to follow, and a fit object for imitation. Under this, which appeared to him to be the true and natural reading of the fentence, Sir Hugh Pallifer was undoubtedly an object of reward; and after his conduct had been declared highly meritorious and examplary, adminiftration would have been crimi nally neglectful not to have given him reward. This his Lordship emphatically declared was his opinion of the cafe, he avowed it fully, and he was ready to ftand or fall by it.

Let gentlemen recollect the particular circumstances that made Sir Hugh Pallifer's acquittal more than commonly honourable to him; let them call to mind the art that was used to fet the public in a flame against him previous to the trial, the great pains that were taken to run him down, to render him the object of univerfal indignation! Let gentlemen alfo call to mind what was the language of the other fide of the Houfe, on the fubject of his impending trial. What had been faid by an Honourable Gentle

man [Mr Burke.]. Don't fend Sir Hugh Pallifer to trial! For God's fake have mercy! Mens minds are fo inflamed againft Sir Hugh Pallifer, that his judges cannot furmount their prejudices. If you fend him to trial now, let him be either innocent or guilty, you fend him to certain death." When this language is recollected, furely every difpaffionate man, every impartial reader of the sentence would regard it, under the circumstances in which Sir Hugh Pallifer went to trial, as an acquittal which did him the higheft honour, and which it was the duty of the King's minifters to pay proper attention to, and to follow with reward and honour.

With regard to the fort of reward beftowed, his Lordship was aftonished to hear that called in queftion, after what had been said previously to the second court-martial by the Hon. Gentleman before alluded to. That gentleman, with his ufual benevolence, had earnestly recommended it to minifters, to apply to his Majefty to beftow upon Sir Hugh Pallifer, for his long and meritorious fervices previous to the 27th of July, an ample annuity or penfion; and this requeft he had preffed with all the force of his eloquence, How happened it then that the tone was fo different at prefent, when, if he recollected rightly, the government of Greenwich hofpital added only to the Hon. Admiral's income about 600 1. or 700 l. a-year, his half-pay ceafing from the hour of his promotion.

The Hon. Gentleman had used some very fine words against administration, but unfortunately there was not the leaft truth in them. He had faid, that officers who had been named, refused to serve, "having no confidence in an adminiftration guilty of convicted falsehood and recorded treachery." In what did the falsehood and treachery of adminiftration confift? Another Hon. Gentleman had faid, that other officers would be thought fit for Bedlam, if they served under the prefent miniftry [42. 678.]; it was therefore furely equally fair for him to fay, that the prefent miniftry would be fit for Bedlam if they employed these admirals.

His Lordship then stated, that Sir Hugh Pallifer's promotion was not folely imputable to Lord Sandwich; the whole bufinefs had been confulted and conferred on by others of his Majefty's minifters; he was one confulted; he ad

vised

vised and acceded to the measure, as well as his brethren in office; he made no fcruple to avow it, he was confcious of having acted a becoming part, he was ready to meet any inquiry upon the fubject, and he wished that inquiry might foon be instituted.

Sir Hugh Pallifer began with declaring, that the Hon. Member in his eye [Mr Fox] had given him abundant caufe for calling him to order, had he chosen to do it; but that he had fat a patient auditor, that the Hon. Gentleman might know he was not afraid to hear any thing he could say of him, at any time, in any place, or on any occasion.

Such attacks as the Hon. Gentleman had now made on him, he understood had been frequent in that House, while he was abfent, and incapable of defending himself. The manlinefs of fuch conduct he left to the confideration of others. But knowing how unqualified he was to speak in public, both from want of custom and want of ability, and expecting that the virulence which dictated former attacks, would occafion a renewal of them that day, he had committed a few thoughts and obfervations to writing, which he trufted the Houfe would grant him permiffion to read, as fome defence of the moft injured character in the kingdom. To the Noble Lord [Lord North] who fat near him, he thought himself highly indebted for the very able manner in which he had fupported his caufe, and controverted the arguments of his enemies; to the Noble Lord fome apology was due, for the fimilarity to his fpeech which would ap. pear in parts of the manufcript he was a bout to read, which having been drawn up before he had heard that Noble Lord, would undoubtedly ftrike the hearers, as containing fomewhat of the fame chain of reafoning.

After this exordium, Sir Hugh began with ftating, that he felt lefs wonder at the misconception of the public, as to the motives that impelled him to prefer the accufations againft Adm. Keppel, which had loaded him with so much misfortune, because he never had explained them himself. When the proper opportunity offered of juftifying himself, he had endeavoured to profit by it, but it had been with-held from him. Since that time, various reafons had co-operated to induce him, great as the facrifice was, to remain a filent fufferer. At pre

fent he conceived, not to fay fomething in his defence, would be confidered a tacit admiffion of that baseness and criminality which had been fo cruelly, fo falfely, and fo unjuftly imputed to him, both within doors and without.

The juftification of himself, and the defence of the motives upon which he acted, in preferring the accufation against Adm. Keppel, had been committed to paper, and tendered by him to the court-martial which tried Adm. Keppel. The court feemed inclined to admit it; but Adm. Keppel denied his right, faying," he would oppofe it to the last minute." After fome conference between the members of the court-martial, Adm. Montagu said, “When the witnesses in fupport of the defence were all examined, he fhould be ready to hear any thing the profecutor had to fay." This declaration was apparently acquiefced in by the reft of the court, and by that he was milled into an idea that he should be fully heard; otherwise ie had determined to quit the court immediately upon their denial to admit his paper, and to protest against the irregularity of their proceedings, of which their conduct had furnished him with various inftances. When Adm. Keppel clofed his evidence, Sir Hugh faid, he again offered to address the court with some observations; but Adm. Keppel again refifted the endeavour, and the court, altho' one of its own members, Adm. Montagu, had promifed he should be heard when the evidence for the defence was clofed, refolved not to hear him; and three days afterwards delivered their judgement, by which, contrary to all juftice, the accufed was acquitted, and the accufer convicted without a trial, and without being heard, either in explanation or juftification of the motives upon which he had ground ed his accufation.

Extraordinary as the proceedings were, yet it was on the ground of these proceedings only, that the Hon. Gentleman who spoke latt had fo frequently attacked him, and on which he refted the notice he had given to pursue him still farther, to impeach one of the King's minifters, and to attempt a final blow to his deftruction. Before the Hon. Gentleman ventured to go fo great a length, he might poffibly think it convenient to confider the difficulty of the task, and to weigh well the probability of his fuccefs. Whoever made the attempt, would have

fo