fing volunteer companies only remained; and in this ftate it was returned to the commons, to the great chagrin of the minifter, who openly complained of the defertion of his colleagues in office; nor was his mortification lessened by the taunts of the oppofition, who remarked, that the disunion and difcord which the administration had been the means of spreading throughout the empire, had now feized the cabinet, and was equally visible amongst themfelves.

On the 3d of July the king closed the feffion with a speech, in which his majesty mentioned it as a happy omen of the success of his arms, that the increase of difficulties seemed only to augment the courage and constancy of the nation. The memorial of count d'Almodovar, and a long justificatory manifesto, subsequently published by the court of Madrid, were filled with heavy complaints of the conduct of the English court for several years paft, though certainly grounded on no solid reason; the king of England truly affirming in his message to parliament, " That with regard to Spain he had nothing to reproach himself with; and that his defire to cultivate peace and amity with that power had been uniform and fincere." The court of Madrid pretended, that the infults and incredible violences offered to the Spanish traders by England from the year 1776 to the beginning of the present year 1779, were no less than 86 in number, fince which other infults and injuries had been offered; fo that the whole amount arose to the precife and full complement of one hundred. The only circumftance really important and interesting in this fingular manifesto, is the discovery that the mediation of Spain had been offered and accepted by Great Britain and France foon after the commencement of hoftilities, and that a negotiation between these two courts had been actually carried on for the space of eight months.

On

On the 14th of September, immediately subsequent to the arrival of the count d'Almodovar in London, lord Weymouth declared to his excellency, that the king of England most sincerely defired to terminate the prefent war, by the mediation of his catholic majesty. In confequence of which, the king of Spain, after much difcuffion, proposed a general truce for a term of years, in order to allow time for the final accommodation of differences. In his ultimatum of the 3d of April 1778, he offered the city of Madrid for the holding of a general congress for this purpose, to which the colonies should be admitted to fend commiffioners, and in the mean time to be treated as an independent power; and that a general disarming should take place within one month in Europe, and four months in America; his Catholic majesty offering at the fame time his guarantee of the definitive treaty. The manifesto states, "That the court of London objected to recognizing the independency of America during the continuance of the truce; and it forcibly urges, as a thing very extraordinary, and even ridiculous, that the minister, lord North, had, notwithstanding this objection, propofed in the English house of commons, that the congress should be treated with as the plenipotentiaries of independent states, on the very proviso suggested by Spain, that this conceffion should not be understood to preclude the subsequent poffible relinquishment of that independency. The convention of Saratoga, the cartel settled for the exchange of prisoners, the nomination of commissioners to fupplicate the Americans for peace at their own doors, are, it is afferted, real and unequivocal acknowledgements of the independency of America. The English nation itself is appealed to by his Catholic majesty: ' whether these acts are more confonant with the dignity of the British crown, than would be the granting, at the interceffion of his Catholic majesty, a fufpenfion of hoftilities for the adjustment of differences, and the treating them in this interval as independent states.'

frates. Nevertheless the English court positively refused, as the manifesto proceeds to affirm, its affent to the propositions contained in this ultimatum; declaring, moreover, that France should not interfere in the arrangement of the interests of those she affects to call her allies: and, in fine, the English court had the effrontery to say, that the drift of Spain was to form, from the pretensions of the colonies to independence, one common cause with them and with France. On the contrary, his Catholic majesty declares, that these last proposals were not even communicated to France before they were tranfmitted to the court of London; so that the haughty expreffions of the English ministry amount merely to this conclufion, ' that in spite of the overture made by themselves, they prefer war to peace, or a treaty under the mediation of the Catholic king, whom they provokingly infulted, treating him as partial, inconfiftent, and leagued with the enemies of Great Britain; notwithstanding which his Catholic majesty did not iffue orders for reprisals, but in consequence of the actual commencement of hostilities on the part of Great Britain." Upon the whole it is evident, from the explicit and curious detail of the whole negotiation given in this manifesto, clothed as it is in the stately language of Caftilian pride, tinctured with absurdity, that Spain acted in this business with generofity, openness, and honor. It was undoubtedly determined by both branches of the house of Bourbon, to establish the permanent independency of America; but this SPAIN at least wished to effect without involving herself in a war with England; and the expedient suggested by his Catholic majesty was certainly the wisest and best which in present circumstances could be adopted; but the pride of the English court was not yet sufficiently humbled to affent to the emancipation of America, though the idea of fubjugation became every day more palpably chimerical and extravagant.

During the recess of parliament, the earl of Stormont, late ambassador at Paris, was made secretary of state in the room of the earl of Suffolk deceased. The earl of Weymouth a second time resigned the feals of the fouthern department, which were transferred to the earl of Hillsborough; and earl Bathurst, late chancellor of Great Britain, was nominated president of the council, in the room of earl Gower. The great seal had been configned, in the course of the preceding year, to the attorney-general Thurlow, created baron Thurlow, a man endowed by nature with uncommon talents, which were concealed, and in effect, loft to the world, under an almost impervious veil of moroseness, bigotry, and malevolence.

The state of affairs on the other fide of the Atlantic once more demands our attention. The reduction of Georgia by general Prevost and colonel Campbell, though in itself of no great importance, excited just alarm in the inhabitants of the Carolinas, which were protected only by their own militia, and an inconfiderable body of continental troops under the command of general Lincoln, who lay encamped at Purisburg, on the north side of the river Savannah, about twenty miles above the town of that name. At the end of April 1779, this officer left that advantageous position, which enabled him effectually to cover the province, and marched along the banks of the river to Augusta, where he expected to be joined by powerful reinforcements; and he hoped, by paffing the river, to cut off the communication of general Prevost with the back country, whence he received his supplies. But general Prevost was no fooner apprised of this movement, than he determined to pass the Savannah at Purisburg, and make a rapid march towards Charlestown. This, the small force left by general Lincoln to guard the passage of the Savannah was not able to prevent; and the English army, confifting of about 4000 men, including Indians, arrived in the vicinity of that city on the 11th of May.

To

To the chagrin of the English general, he found the place strongly fortified and well secured by the numerous militia which had now collected for its defence. After summoning the city in vain to furrender, he determined, on hearing that general Lincoln was on his march back to Carolina, to decamp that very night, and took post, after some detours, in the island of Port Royal, to the south of Charlestown harbor. In the mean time Sir Henry Clinton was engaged, in conformity to the policy of the English court, whence he derived his instructions, in various predatory expeditions. Sir George Collier and general Matthew, in a descent upon Virginia, burnt the town of Suffolk, and destroyed the vessels, provisions and stores found there, and at Gofport, Jenner's Creek, and various other places in that quarter. Sir H. Clinton in person proceeded up the North River, and carried, by great exertions of gallantry, the two important posts of Stoney Point and Verplanks, which the Americans had diligently fortified to preserve the communication between the eastern and western colonies. Another expedition under Sir George Collier, governor Tryon commanding the land forces, was projected nearly at the fame time against Newhaven in Connecticut, which they plundered, and afterwards proceeded to Fairfield and Norwalk, which they laid in ashes; and also the buildings and farm-houses to the compass of two miles round. At the same time a proclamation was issued by them, declaring " the existence of a fingle house on the coast to be a striking monument of British mercy." A far more important enterprise was next undertaken by the same officer, for the relief of a fortress lately constructed at the mouth of the river Penobscot, in the eastern confines of New England, and garrisoned by a detachment of king's troops from Nova Scotia. This post had been for some time closely invested by an armament of confiderable force from Boston, which was attacked lying in the river and almost entirely destroyed by Sir George Collier, who