ties, Sir George Saville said, " that he meant to vindicate the honor and affert the principles of the Protestant religion, to which all persecution vvas foreign and adverse. The penalties in questi on were disgraceful, not only to religion, but to humanity. They were calculated to loosen all the bands of society, to dissolve all social, moral, and religious obligations and duties; to poison the fources of domestic felicity, and to annihilate every principle of honor." The motion was received, to the infinite credit of the House, with such high and marked approbation, that the bill found led upon it passed without a fingle negative, and soon afterwards acquired, by the cordial concurrence of the Peers and the Monarch, the force of alaw. About this time General Burgoyne returned to England, being released on his parole by Congress; but he met, probably to his furprise, with a very cold and indifferent reception from the Minifiers, and, in a manner which clearly indicated his difgrace, was refused admission to the Royal prefence. The General, highly resenting this treatment, avenged himself by loud complaints in the House of Commons of the misconduct of Ministers, describing them as totally incompetent to sustain the weight of public affairs in the present critical and dangerous emergency. This mode of retaliation, however, contributed little to raise his character in the estimation of the public, who clearly clearly difcerned the real causes of his defection from the Court, who were not ignorant that the plan of the Canada expedition had his entire previous approbation, and that, in the execution of it, his valor was much more confpicuous than his judgment or difcretion. In the sequel, he was ordered to rejoin his troops in America, whom, on various frivolous pretences, the Congress refused to release, till the Convention of Saratoga was formally ratified by the Court of Great Britain. With this injunction, though coming from the highest authority, the General refusing to comply, he was divested of all the posts and offices which he held under the Government. This feffion is diftinguished above all others for a multiplicity, of motions in both Houses, by different Members, chiefly of the Oppofition, on various fubjects of political concern, which gave rise to long and tedious debates; and which being fucceffively negatived by the influence of the Court, it is fruitless to particularife. The most remarkable of these was a refolution moved by Mr. Gilbert, in the Committee of Supply, March 2, that a tax of five fhillings in the pound be laid on penfions and falaries issuing out of the Exchequer, during the continuance of the war; which was carried by 100 to 82 voices, but, on the report, rejected by 147 to 141. A bill for the exclufion of Contractors from the House House of Commons was also loft by a majority of two voices only; on the motion of commitment, the numbers on the division being 115 to 113. Upon the whole, it appeared that the Minority gained strength, and a dawn of hope arose that the reign of the present Ministry might not be immortal. On the 3d of June 1778 the Parliament was prorogued, and thanks were returned by the King, in his speech, for the zeal shewn by Parliament in supporting the honor of the Crown, and their attention to the real interesfts of the Nation, manifested in the wise, just, and humane laws which had been the refult of their deliberations." At the eve of a war with France, and a war with Spain in no very distant prospect, two different lines of conduct now obviously presented themselves. Either, ist, to withdraw our fleets and armies from America, and to direct the whole force of the empire against the House of Bourbon, in the hope of fuccess so decisive as to enable us in the result to conclude an advantageous accommodation with America, conformably to the general ideas of Lord Chatham; or, 2dly, which would have been infinitely the wisfer, though the less splendid and attractive plan, unreservedly to recognise the independency of America, which would have opened the way, without difficulty, to an immediate and general pacification. But the present Minifters, in the same spirit of folly and phrenfy which had invariably marked their conduct, determined to adhere to their former project of conquering America; contenting themselves with oppofing such part of the general force of the empire as could be spared for this fecondary and inferior purpose, to the whole undivided strength of the House of Bourbon. "The King of England," says the celebrated Monarch of Pruffia, speaking of the state of affairs of Great Britain at this period, "who still acted upon the system of BUTE, combated with inflexible obstinacy the obstacles which on all fides presented themselves. Insensible to the miseries and misfortunes of his people, he only became, in confequence of the resistance he met with, the more eager for the accomplishment of his projects." In the beginning of June 1778, the new Commiffioners, Lord Carlifle, Mr. Eden, and Mr. Johnstone, formerly Governor of Florida, arrived at Philadelphia, more than a month after the ratifications of the treaty between France and America had been formally exchanged. The reception they met with was such as men the most oppofite in their politics had foreseen and foretold. Dr. Fergufon, fecretary to the commiffion, was refused a pafsport to Congress, and they were compelled to forward their papers by the common means. The Commiffioners, at the very outset, made conceffions far greater than the Americans, in their several petitions to the King, had requested or defiredgreater indeed than the powers conferred upon them by the act seemed to authorise. Amongst the most remarkable of these was the engagement " to agree that no military force should be kept up in the different States of America, without the confent of the General Congress, or of the several Afsemblies to concur in measures calculated to difcharge the debts of America, and to raise the credit and value of the paper circulation-to admit of Representatives from the several States, who should have a feat and voice in the Parliament of Great Britain-to establish a perfect freedom of legislation and internal government, comprehending every privilege short of a total separation of interefts, or confiftent with that union of force on which the safety of the common religion and liberty depends." These papers, when laid before the Congress, were read with astonishment and regret; but from the declaration of INDEPENDENCE they had neither the will nor the power to recede. An answer therefore, brief but conclusive, was returned by the Prefident, Henry Laurens, declaring, "that nothing but an earnest defire to spare the farther effufion of human blood, could have induced them to read a paper containing expreffions so disrespectful to |