lowed some days after, by a successful motion of lord 1780. Shelburne, the purport of which was, to consider of the appointment of a committee for inquiring into the feveral parts of the public expenditure, as also of the reductions or savings that could be made with confiftency. In the house of commons Mr. Burke proposed a plan of economy and reform; and gave notice of his intending to bring it shortly before them, as a business that was become indispensible. Schemes of economy and reform were highly adapted to the prevailing taste of the nation as was foon apparent; for during the recefs of parliament, the business of public meetings, of petitions to the house of commons, and of associations for the redress of grievances, was commenced. The adoption of these means for procuring a reform in the executive departments of the state soon became very general; and the minds of the public being agitated and warmed by these meetings, the views of many persons of no mean weight and confequence were extended ftill further. They gradually began to confider, that nothing less than shortening the duration of parliament, and the obtaining a more equal representation of the people, could reach to a perfect cure of the present, and afford an effectual preservative against the return of fimilar evils The large, populous and opulent county of York, led the way and fet the example to the rest of the kingdom. A very numerous and respectable meeting of the gentlemen, clergy and freeholders, including persons of the first confideration and property, was held at the city of York on the 30th of last December. Their petition to the house of commons was unanimously agreed upon; and 1780. accompanied with a resolution, that a committee of fixty-one gentlemen be appointed, to carry on the neceffary correfpondence for effectually promoting the object of the petition; and likewise to prepare a plan of an association, on legal and constitutional grounds, to support a laudable reform, and fuch other measures as may conduce to restore the freedom of parliament. Jan. 7 Feb. The counties of Middlesex and Hants stood forth as the seconds of Yorkshire; and adopted similar meafures. The example was foon followed by the county palatine of Chester; and in a close fucceffion of time, by the counties of Herts, Suffex, Huntingdon, Surrey, Cumberland, Bedford, Effex, Somerset, Gloucester, Wilts, Dorfet, Devon, Norfolk, Berks, Bucks, Nottingham, Kent, Northumberland, Suffolk, Hereford, Cambridge and Derby. The Welsh counties of Denbigh, Flint and Brecknock, likewise petitioned, as did the cities of London, Westminster, York, Bristol, Gloucester, and Hereford, with the towns of Nottingham, Reading, Cambridge, Bridgewater, and Newcastle upon Tyne. Northamptonshire declined petitioning, but voted resolutions and instructions to their reprefentatives, including the purport of the petitions. The measure of forming committees and entering into associations, was a great stumbling block in some of the counties, and was omitted by several. The members of adminiftration and men in office, were not wholly deficient in their endeavours to prevent the county meetings: but they were generally overborne by the torrent. The Yorkshire petition, subscribed by upward of 8. eight thousand freeholders, was the first presented. Sir George Saville introduced it, and in his fpeech faid 1 ** It was first moved in a meeting of fix hundred gentle- 1780, into confideration the petitions of the people of England and Wales, amounting to about forty, and signed by above a hundred thousand electors. Mr. Dunning opened the business in an accurate and weighty speech, and then moved" That the influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished." The lord advocate of Scotland, to obtain a negative, moved an amendment in the following words" That it is now necessary to declare;" the opposition readily agreed to it, and the question thus amended was carried by a majority of 18-233 to 215. Mr. Dunning then moved a second proposition" That it is competent to this house to examine into, and to correct abuses in the expenditure of the civil lift revenues, as well as in every other branch of the public revenue, whenever it shall seem expedient to the wisdom of this house so to do;" which was carried without a division. Mr. Thomas Pitt then moved the following refolution-" That it is the opinion of this committee, that it is the duty of this house to provide, as far as may be, an immediate and effectual redress of the abufes complained of in the petitions presented to this house, from the different counties, cities and towns in this kingdom;" which was carried in the affirmative without any apparent diffent. 6. : 1780. The house which had been in a committee, being re fumed, Mr. Fox moved that the resolutions should be immediately reported. This was opposed by the minifter with all the force he yet retained; but the stream was too strong to be resisted. The resolutions were severally reported and received, agreed to and confirmed by the house without a division. Such was the complete and decisive victory gained by the opposition, in behalf of the petitions on that extraordinary and memorable day. Without doors, the joy and triumph in most parts of England was great and general; and perhaps would scarcely have been exceeded on occasion of the completest victory over a foreign enemy. 24. April A motion of Mr. Dunning's which had been poftponed was taken up. It was for an address to his majesty, requesting that he would not diffolve the parliament, nor prorogue the present session, until proper meafures should be taken by that house, to diminish the influence of the crown, and to correct the other evils complained of in the petitions of the people. After great and long debates the motion was rejected by a majority of 51-254 to 203. Thus all hopes of obtaining any redress for the people in that house, was at an end. But though the freemen of England could obtain no relief from their burdens by a house of reprefentatives; the non-freemen of France were relieved by their grand monarch, who issued several edicts for the better administration of his finances, and for the fuppreffion of divers places and offices. The committee in London for raising and applying monies for the relief of the American prisoners, began in March to call upon the public afresh for new fubscriptions, as the war continued beyond expectation: 1780. the fame were readily made. Many individuals exhibited a compaffion and liberality to the Americans, that does honor to human nature. On the 28th of April, Don Joseph Solano failed from 28. Cadiz with 12 ships of the line and several frigates, and convoyed a fleet of 83 transports, having eight regiments of Spanish infantry, of two battalions each, and a confiderable train of artillery on board: the whole land force, including 100 engineers, amounted to 11,460 effective men. They are to join the French in the West Indies; and in that case will bring the British fleets and islands into the most imminent danger. Jamaica is generally supposed to be the first and principal object. In the beginning of June, the cities of London and Westminster were convulfed from end to end, by fome of the most extraordinary risings that ever happened. When the law for relieving the English Roman catholics was passed in May 1778, a number of persons in Scotland, actuated by a mistaken zeal, associated for the prefervation of the protestant religion, and called themselves a protestant association, at the head of which was a lord George Gordon. The associators became fo formidable, that the Scotch papists were greatly alarmed, and begged that the laws relating to them might not be altered. The fuccess which had attended the affociation in North Britain, might give the hint for forming a fimilar one in London, to those whose jealousy for the protestant interest was increased by the apparent growth of popery, which of late years had been esteemed very confiderable. A fociety accordingly was formed in the metropolis, which in a few months gathered great con |