against St. Lucia, and on the 22d the troops carried by storm the fort of Morne Fortunée, which produced the unconditional surrender of the island. To the honour of the British character, it is mentioned in the general's dispatch, that notwithstanding the enemy's severe and spirited resistance, no sooner were the works taken, than all animosity on the part of the assailants ceased, and not one French soldier was killed or wounded. The expedition then proceeding to Tobago, that island was also reduced to the British authority, the commander of its fortress capitulating without resistance. The Dutch colonies of Demarara, Essequibo, and Berbice, surrendered in September on a summons from Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholson, commander of a force detached against them by General Grinfield. At St. Domingo, the renewed insurrection of the negroes had produced a war attended with the most horrid cruelties on both sides. The black chiefs, Dessalines, Clervaux, and Christophe, were strong enough, in the reduced state of the French forces, to invest the town of Cape Francois, where General Leclerc lay in the last stage of the fatal fever which was melting away the army with which he promised to reduce the whole island. He died on November 2d, and was succeeded in the chief command by General Rochambeau. The Cape and other posts on the sea-coast were effectually defended by the French as long as their fleet was master of the sea; but after the war with England broke out, and their principal positions were blockaded by British squadrons, they were soon reduced to great difficulties. Several places fell successively into the hands of the insurgents, the_garrisons of which were generally carried off by the English ships to protect them from the vindictive rage of the assailants. At length, Fort Dauphin having been taken by the English, Rochambeau made proposals for the capitulation of Cape Francois, the only place remaining to the French on the northern side of the island. Čonditions were signed on November 30th, by which all the ships of war and merchant vessels belonging to France were 2 surrendered to the English, and the garrison became prisoners of war. The principal part of this important island was thus left in the occupation of the negroes, while the French retained only St. Domingo, the capital of the part formerly belonging to Spain. In India, this year was distinguished by a very active campaign of the English in alliance with the Peishwa, or Mahratta sovereign of Poonah, and with the Nizam of the Decan, against the Mahratta chiefs Scindiah Holkar, and the Rajah of Berar, supported by the French General Perron. The Peishwa having, in 1802, been expelled from his dominions by Holkar, negotiated a subsidiary treaty with the English Company, which was concluded at Bassein on the last day of the year. In consequence of this treaty it was resolved to attempt the restoration of the Peishwa, for which purpose a detachment of troops was placed under the command of Major-General Arthur Wellesley, who entered the Mahratta territories in March. Holkar having precipitately retreated on the approach of the British, General Wellesley pushed forward with great rapidity for Poonah, which was re-entered by its sovereign on May 13th. During these proceedings, Scindiah and the Rajah of Berah were negotiating an alliance with Holkar, of which the Governor General, Marquis Wellesley, at length obtaining positive evidence, it was resolved to employ the whole military force of the Bengal, Madras, and Bombay establishments to break a confederacy rendered particularly dangerous by the junction of Perron, who had obtained almost the power and influence of a sovereign prince, and possessed an army trained in the European discipline. It was a fortunate occurrence that the French Admiral Linois, arriving with a reinforcement of French troops before Pondicherry, was prevented from forwarding them to Perron, and that upon the intelligence of the war between France and England, all those whom he had landed were made prisoners of war. As soon as it was determined that warlike operations should begin, General Wellesley, who was opposed to Scindiah and the Rajah of Berar, marched against the fortress of Ahmednughur, which he reduced on August 12th, and then advanced to Aurungabad. On September 23d, he gained a complete victory at Assye over the combined enemy, more than six times his number, but at a considerable cost of men. In the meantime the Bombay army had been successful in Guzerat, where Lieutenant-Colonel Woodington took by assault, on August 29th, the town of Baroach, and reduced its whole district, and afterwards gained possession of the only territory remaining to Scindiah in that province. The town and province of Cuttack, on the eastern side of India, was conquered from the Rajah of Berar by Colonel Harcourt, in the months of September and October. In the north of India the Bengal army, commanded by General Lake, advanced at the close of August against Perron's troops encamped near the fortress of Ally Ghur, and on his retreat took that strong place by storm. On September 11th, General Lake defeated, near Dehli, Scindiah's army commanded by a Frenchman; the consequence of which victory was the release of the Mogul Emperor, Shah Aulum, who had been kept in a very degraded state by the French party, and who now put himself under the protection of the English. He afterwards reduced Agra and its fort; and pursuing the remainder of Scindiah's force, in which were 15 of Perron's regu lar battalions, he defeated it in a decisive engagement at Laswaree on November 1st. General Wellesley was in the meantime following up his victory at Assye by a warm pursuit of the Rajah of Berar, whom he drove into his own territories, and entirely defeated on November 28th, on the plains of Argaum, which victory was succeeded by the reduction of the strong fortress of Gawil Ghur. These successes produced an immediate application for peace from that sovereign, which was concluded on December 17th, on the con ditions of his renouncing the confederacy against the British government, and the cession of the province of Cuttack, and of some other territories, with the en gagement never to take into his service the subject of any state at war with the English. A treaty with Scindiah speedily followed, in which he agreed to a number of cessions, to a renunciation of all claims upon Shah Aulum, and to the same engagement respecting foreigners with that of the Rajah. Thus was gloriously terminated a war which dissolved a powerful confederacy against the English, annihilated the French interest in India, and made important additions to the power and possessions of the Company. During the course of this year, the French government made over their late acquisition of Louisiana to the United States of America for the sum of three millions of dollars; a purchase very advantageous to the States by consolidating their territory, and securing them from any future molestation by an ambitious neighbour, and also by removing a cause of dispute with Spain, which had commenced in the last year, respecting the warehousing of American goods at New Orleans. Parliament re-assembled on November 22d, when the session was opened by a speech from the throne, in which the successes in the West Indies, and the suppression of the Irish insurrection, were alluded to, and the conclusion of a convention with Sweden was announced, the purpose of which was the adjustment of certain differences arising from an article in the treaty of 1661, relative to maritime rights. The accustomed addresses were agreed to without opposition. The parliamentary business previous to the Christmas recess was chiefly the passing of acts continuing the suspension of the habeas corpus and the existence of martial law in Ireland, and for granting certain exemptions in favour of the volunteers in Great Britain. A.D. 1804. PARLIAMENT Return of the King's Malady.- Bill respecting the Volunteers. Irish Militia. Mr. Pitt's Conduct towards the Ministry. Budget. Mr. Addington resigns, and Mr. Pitt occupies his Place. New Ministry. Motion carried for a Committee on the Slave Trade. Additional Force Bill. Parliament prorogued, and King's Speech. Goree taken by the French. Attack on an East India Fleet by Linois repulsed. Surinam taken. Failure of the Catamaran Expedition. - Capture of Spanish Frigates off Cadiz. Conspiracy against the Government in France. - Death of Pichegru and Exile of Moreau. Seizure and Execution of the Duke D'Enghien. Complaints against British Envoys. - Buonaparte elected Emperor of France. Disputes between Russia and Sweden, and the French Government. Sir G. Rumbold seized by the French. Convention between Genoa and France. Coronation of Buonaparte. - Dessalines proclaimed Emperor of Hayti. - Difference between Spain and the United States respecting Louisiana. War in the East Indies against Holkar. War declared by Spain against England. - Pestilential Disease at Gibraltar. -- ON February 14th, it was announced by a bulletin issued at St. James's, that his Majesty was much indisposed; and although all the cautious obscurity of language customary on such an occasion was then and afterwards employed, it was well understood by the public, that the royal sufferer was labouring under a return of that mental malady of which he had now undergone several relapses. This calamity occurring at such a period, occasioned much anxiety in the nation, which was not alleviated by the indistinct accounts given from time to time of his Majesty's state. That the attack, however, was not very severe, might be inferred by the declaration in parliament of the |