ciety, diftinguished itself, by the refolute fpeeches of its principal members, at the several meetings that took place in the course of the year. That which was held near Copenhagen-house, in the neighbourhood of Iflington, was the most remarkable. The numbers that attended, either through zeal in the cause, or through curiofity, were computed at about fifty thousand. Some very daring addresses were made to the multitude: the conduct of ministers was arraigned in the most unqualified language, and a remonstrance to the king, on the neceffity of peace, and of a reform in parliament, was universally agreed on.

The proceedings, in these assemblies, were highly offenfive to ministry. As they confifted of individuals void of all hopes of rifing by interest or favour; and who, to a man, were inimical to the measures of government, they condemned them with a freedom of speech that knew no bounds. Often times too, those meetings were attended by persons of parts, who seized those opportunities of venting their difcontent at the system of the times, and of reprefenting administration in the fouleft colours, and imputing to them the most flagitious designs. Nor were there wanting, among the members of those focieties, though almost entirely composed of the commonest classes, individuals, who, though deficient in education, had received talents from nature, which frequently shone through coarse and vulgar language. The avowed aim of the divers institutions of this nature was to oppose government, and to bring about the two great objects, at this time, in general contemplation; a peace with France, and a reform in parliament. These

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two objects being incompatible with the views of ministry, the point at issue between these, and the various associations that were increasing in every part of the kingdom, was clearly this, that either the latter would overturn administration, or that administration would overturn them.

Prompted by this confideration, the principal heads of government had, it was rumoured, come to a determination, to take the first plaufible opportunity of putting an end to the meetings of these focieties, which they represented as wholly made up of the lowest populace, ready to imbibe every notion offered to them by evil-designing men, and to break out into the moft dangerous excesses of fedition. Under the pretext of inftructing them in their rights, the disaffected availed themselves of their ignorance, to mifrepresent the conduct of government, and to excite them to hold it in hatred and contempt; but a circumstance, still more alarming, was, that among those who took fuch pains to inflame the passions of the multitude, there were emiffaries from France, who, though natives of Great Britrin, or Ireland, had thrown off all attachment to their country, and were become its most violent and rancorous enemies. The danger accruing from fuch characters was obvious; the difficulty of detecting individuals connected with our foes, enabled them to affume the appearance of patriotism, and to delude, with facility, the majority of their hearers, into a perfuafion that they spoke and acted from principle, and had no other intention, than to expose abuses, and to induce the people, at large, to affert their rights.

Such was the description, given by the adherents to government, of the the numerous assemblies, and affociations, that had been instituted in oppofition to its measures. It was not on the other hand denied, that the outrages, ftill adopted in most of the popular meetings, was an object that called for fuppreffion. The warmest friends to the principles inculcated by them, did not deny the impropriety of attacking the ruling powers with fuch acrimony of fpeech, and prognosticated, that, through want of moderation in their invectives, these meetings exposed themselves to certain dissolution, as the powerful adverfaries they were continually provoking, would certainly labour to filence them, and probably find the means of doing it. To the agitation occafioned by political difputes, another was, at this period, fuperadded of a still more dangerous confequence. A fcarcity prevailed throughout the kingdom, and was woefully felt by the poorer fort, feveral of whom perished for want. The means of procuring sustenance were narrowed from various causes; but the difcontented attributed this evil to the war; and the fufferers, through defect of employment, were ready enough to believe those who reprefented all the calamities that afflicted the nation, as proceeding chiefly, if not folely, from that caufe. This prepared them for the commiffion of those exceffes, to which men are fo prone, when they find themselves aggrieved, and imagine they are punishing the authors of their grievahces.

The state of the nation, from these various circumstances, appeared so critical, that it was judged necessary to call parliament together at an earlier period than usual. It met, accordingly, on the twenty-ninth of

October, a day that will be long remembered, on account of the events that attended it, and of the confequences that followed them, and of which they were the immediate cause.

A report had been spread, that an immenfe multitude, of difcontented people, had agreed to take this opportunity of manifefting their fentiments to the king in perfon. This, of course, excited the curiofity of the public, and the park was crowded in a manner unprecedented fince the king's accellion to the throne. In his way to the house of lords, which lay through the park, his coach was furrounded, on every fide, by persons of all descriptions, demanding peace, and the difmiflion of Mr. Pitt. Some voices were even heard exclaiming no king, and ftones were thrown at the state-coach as it drew near to the Horfe-guards. In passing through Palace-yard, one of the windows was broken, it was faid, by a bullet, difcharged from an air-gun. These outrages were repeated on the king's return from the house, and he narrowly escaped the fury of the populace, in his way back from St. James's Palace to Buckingham House.

All reafonable people were deeply affected at this treatment of the king. They were duly sensible that it would produce effects highly difagreeable to the public, and, inftead of answering the purposes proposed, by those who were fo mifled as to approve of it, that, on the contrary, it would tend to strengthen the hands of ministers, by enabling them to bring forward fuch reftrictive measures, as would confiderably abridge the freedom of speech and action, hitherto enjoyed by the people at large.

The

The speech from the throne, was, in the mean time, allowed to be as well appropriated to the circumstances of the time, as any that had been delivered fince the commencement of the war. It mentioned the disappointment, of the French in their attempts in Germany, and the internal difficulties under which they continued to labour. Their present situation af forded a well-founded prefumption, that they would liften to equitable and moderate terms of peace. In order to obtain fuch terms, it would be neceffary to shew that Great Britain was able to maintain the conteft, till fuch a peace ensued, as accorded with its dignity and interest. The other particulars of the fpeech referred to the preparations for a vigorous continuance of the war, the treaties concluded with foreign powers, the profperous state of commerce, and the means of providing against the present scarcity.

Lord Dalkeith moved the address, and was seconded by Mr. Stuart: the latter gentleman dwelt chiefly on the exhaufted fituation of France, and the oppressive methods it was reduced to adopt for the raifing of fupplies. The fituation of this country was the reverfe: whatever money was demanded was instantly found, without oppreffing the fubject; the confidence of monied men in government keeping pace with all its exigencies. Much had been faid of the conquest of Holland by the French, but they were obviously indebted much more to fortunate cafualties, than to their own prowess, and could place little reliance on the attachment of the natives, who were now convinced of their imprudence, in trusting to the friendship of the French.

Mr. Sheridan was extremely severe in the reply which he made on this occafion. Among other invectives, he reproached ministers for their unskilful management in the West Indies, where the force employed was totally inadequate to the objects proposed, and numbers of the men had been loft through negligence, and want of medical afsistance, in that unwholesome climate. He accused ministers of designing to restore despotism.in France. He called upon them to act as Spain and Prussia had done, by treating with those persons whom the republican armies looked upon as entitled to their obedience. He advised ministers to beware of a connection with the house of Bourbon. It was through such connections that the Stuart's had been expelled. The Bourbons had invariably proved the enemies to Great Britain; and this enmity would revive, were they to be re-established on the throne of France. The rash, and fruitless, attempts to restore that family ought, therefore, to be totally relinquished, and government should declare itself willing to treat with the French republic.

He was replied to by Mr. Jenkinfon, with the many arguments, fo frequently repeated, in justification of minifterial measures. He added, that the retention of the United Provinces, by the French, rendered all treating with them inadmissible. It was necessary, therefore, to compel them to abandon this new conquest, or to make such acquifitions as might counter-balance it, and induce them to give up the poffeflion of that country. Had the members of the coalition acted with fidelity to the cause they had efpoused, the French would, by this time,

time, have been forced to abadon their lofty pretenfions.

In answer to this, the profpect of affairs was reprefented, by general Tarleton, as very difadvantagecus. The numerous army, with which the French had lately obliged the king of Spain to come into their own terms, would now be employed in the invafion of Italy, while our efforts against the French poffeffions, iu the West Indies, would probably be fruftrated, as they had been on the coaft of France, through misconduct on our fide, and the difficulty of the very attempt itself. It was vain to repeat exertions that had been so successively foiled. Minifters were no longer deserving of confidence; their evident incapacity required their immediate dismision, and the trial of new men, as well as of new measures.

He was followed by Mr. Fox, who inveighed, with great animation, against the assertions made by miniftry, as fallacious and delusive. Inftead of the flattering description they had given of the fituation of this country, the fact was, that one hundred millions had been added to the national debt, and four millions a year to the standing taxes. In lieu of reducing the enemy within his former bounds, he was master of all the Austrian territories on the west of the Rhine; nor was there any well-grounded hope of our recovering them. He was preparing to invade Italy with a great and victorious army. The scarcity that afflicted the kingdom had been foretold; but minifters disdained to liften to the warning, though enforced from the most respectable quarter. The propriety of perfifting in the war was argued from the distress to which France was reduced by

the depreciation of its paper currency: but was this an argument proper to be adduced by men acquainted with the transactions of the American war, and who must be confcious of the futility of pecuniary calculations, when people were determined to fuffer every hardthip that human nature could bear, and to try every expedient that neceffity could fuggeft, rather than admit the idea of fubmiffion? It was time to abandon fo hopeless a cause as that of the royal family of France. The opinions of fo mighty a nation were not to be fubdued by force of arms. When pressed to liften to pacific language, minifters alleged the incapacity of the French government to maintain the usual relations of harmony between different states: but had such objections held good in the cause of Spain, Pruffia, and even the king of Great Britain himself, in the quality of elector of Hanover. Had not this far-fetched and absurd obstacle vanished before the reasonableness of putting an end to the calamities of war? It was ridiculous to infift upon danger from treating with the French, because they had fubverted their former, and adopted a new conftitution: the permanence of a treaty depending on its equitableness, and correfpondence, with the reciprocal interests of the contracting parties. It was become nugatory to talk of our allies: we had, indeed, mercenaries in our pay, whom we could only retain by exceffive bribes, and who were, every moment, hefitating, whether to accept of them, or of the terms proffered by our enemies, to detach them from this country. Adverting to the fcarcity fo heavily complained of, Mr. Fox observed, that war, and its fatal concomitants, comitants, tended, undeniably, to impede cultivation, and to defolate the countries where it was waged: the most fertile parts of Europe haying lately heen the continual scenes of this deftructive war, the productions of the earth had been neceffarily diminished, and it was unreafonable to deny that the war was, in a very confiderable degree, the caufe of a deficiency in the necellaries of life. He concluded by moving, that fuch conditions of peace frould be offered, to the French, as would confift with the fafety and dignity of Great Britain.

The ideas of peace and security, were, in answer to Mr. Fox, reprefented by Mr. Pitt, as incompatible with the fituation of this country refpecting France. Every motive militated for a perfeverance in the conteft. The enemy felt his increafing debility, and, notwithstanding his fucceffes in the field, betrayed a confcioufnefs that his ftrength was materially diminished. Hence it was that he had latterly shewn a difpofition to peace. But the interest of this country required a deliberate confideration of the ftate of France, in order to judge of the expediency of entering into negociations at the present moment. Such was the fall of the French paper in circulation, that it was now funk to one and a half for every hundred of nominal value. Seven hundred and twenty millions fterling had been fabricated and made current, and this enormous quantity was still on the increase. Was it credible that a nation, reduced to fuch straits, would be able to make head against the fornidable enemies that were preparing to aflail it with redoubled vigour, and whose fituation was so much more advantageous in point

of pecuniary resources? However fuccefsful on their frontiers, through military efforts, and the chances of war, the system of the French was fo radically heinous, that it could not last. Were the European powers to reunite against them, they could no longer ftand their ground. The interior parts of that large kingdom were in a state of the utmost wretchedness. Trade and cozamerce were annihilated, and industry found no occupation. Hence proceeded the facility with which the French recruited their armies, and the defperate fpirit, that animated men, who could procure no fostenance but at the point of their swords. But energies of this kind were not in their nature durable, and would certainly terminate in a short lapfe of time. So great was the difficulty of procuring specie for the moff urgent demands, that neceffary articles, in kind, were given in payment, and people were glad to accept of any thing that bore the femblance of pay. Would it not, therefore, be the height of imprudence, after reducing them to fuch a fituation, to pass by fo favourable an opportunity of reducing them still lower, and of fecuring, to ourfelves, the advantages refulting from their evident and undeniable depreffion? After adducing farther arguments, in vindication of his conduct, a division took place, when two hundred and forty voted for the address. and fifty-nine for the amendment, moved by Mr. Fox.

On the next day, which was the thirtieth of October, the address was moved, in the house of lords, by lord Mountedgecomb, who fupported it with much the fame reasonings that had been used in the house of commens. He was feconded by lord Walfingham,