will become the just objects of suspicion. Ву воок being falsely branded as disaffected, they will

Thus the wisdom of antiquity pronounced. But in the view of fools, wisdom is doomed to appear as folly. A few extracts from the celebrated pamphlet ascribed to the present bishop of Rochester (Dr. Horsley), entitled "Review of the Case of the Protestant Dissenters," will afford a complete specimen of the language and sentiments which, since the revival of the TORY SYSTEM, have been most fashionable and acceptable at the court.-" That a dissenter, whatever may be his integrity and piety, is an unfit person to be intrusted with authority or influence in a state, is an axiom in politics," this high-church prelate affirms, "of which a regular proof is not wanting.-In this country the statesman finds an established church amidst a variety of brawling sects, all clamorous against the hierarchy, to whose candor and liberality they are in great part indebted for TOLERATION.-It becomes the friends of peace and order, whenever the universal acknowledgment of the right of private judgment is pretended, to protest ALOUD against it. The exclusions of the corporation and test acts hardly amount to incapacities"-and, for the reason which his lordship assigns, an auto da fé, by which the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition commits the bodies of heretics to the flames for the good of their souls, inflicts no punishments-" because they are only such as the delinquent hath, by a recantation of his errors, in his own power to remove." There is too much reason, as his lordship intimates, to suspect "that the principles of a nonconformist in religion and a republican in politics are inseparably united;" and yet the non-conformists are universally allowed to have been in fact the firmest friends of those monarchs who treated them as friends." The truth seems to be," says his lordship, contrary to the uniform and positive tenor of the historic evidence-" that the dissenters were equally with the

1761.

BOOK become truly disaffected: and though that disXIII. affection may not produce any immediately 1761. visible effect; nay, though the indiscreet expressions of anger and political alienation on their part, in consequence of great and recent provocations, should expose them to the temporary warmth of general resentment, yet in the ceaseless vicissitudes of human affairs an impression may, at some crisis favorable to a sudden and

papists the original objects of the test act!!! The corporation act with great wisdom and justice hath provided for the perpetual exclusion of the non-conformists, It matters little what might be the original purpose of the test act. It now stands in the statute-book a declared provision against the dissenters. This argument (the inefficacy of the test) proves the expediency of queen Anne's statute against occasional conformity, The NON-CONFORMISTS have no claim upon the GRATITUDE, the JUSTICE, of the IMPARTIALITY of the British government, Should the test laws be repealed, the work of reformation will go on till one stone will not be left standing upon another of the admired fabric of the British constitution."

Such are the maxims which constitute the wisdom and policy of the present reign with regard to the dissenters, and yet it is made a subject of wonder and reproach that the dissenters are become discontented and indignant as if dissenters did not participate of the common passions and teelings of human nature, REST, REST, IMMORTAL SPIRITS OF LOCKE, HOADLEY, AND SOMERS! Seek not to know by what improvements on your exploded principles the house of Brunswic now governs the empire of Britain !

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unexpected change of sentiment, be made on Book the public mind, which shall strikingly demonstrate this odious system of policy to be as de- 1761. - void of wisdom as it is of justice and magnanimity. On these general axioms the history of the present reign will afford in many respects an instructive and mournful comment.

In the month of March (1761) while the Commoparliament was yet sitting, very alarming com-ed by the motions took place in several of the northern counties, in consequence of the expiration of the three years' term of service prescribed by the militia act, and the new ballot now about to take place. At Hexham in the county of Northumberland, the justices being assembled for the purpose of enforcing the act, the populace, regarding this military compulsion as a tyrannical and insupportable grievance, collected to the number of many thousands, armed with clubs and other offensive weapons, with which they assaulted the guard of soldiers stationed for the protection of the magistrates. The riot act was read without effect, and they were proceeding to still greater outrages, when the military received orders to fire upon the assailants, five-and-forty of whom were killed on the spot, and no less than three hundred miserably wounded, amongst whom were many women and children; and various of the rioters were

BOOK in the sequel apprehended, tried, and executed. XIII. By a resolute exertion of military force, a general 1761. and sullen submission to the act was at length obtained; but the wisdom and humanity of those by whom the bill was originally framed still remained at least as problematic as before.

Marriage In the course of the summer the king declared

of the king..

in council his resolution to demand in marriage the princess Charlotte-Sophia of Mecklenburg Strelitz; and the earl of Harcourt being appointed ambassador plenipotentiary to the court of Strelitz, the contract of marriage, after a negotiation not very tedious, was signed, and the princess conducted to Stade, whence she embarked on board one of the royal yachts, and arrived at the palace of St. James's, September 8, the nuptial ceremony being the same evening performed in the chapel royal. And on the 22d of September the coronation of their majesties was celebrated with much pomp and magnifiThe new queen soon acquired great popularity by the sweetness and affability of her manners, which by the prudence and propriety of her conduct she for many years retained.

cence.

In the

The operations of the war were still carried on with the accustomed vigor and success. Dominique month of June, the island of Dominique, imporcaptured. tant from its situation between the islands of Martinico and Guadaloupe, was reduced with little diffi

XIII.

culty or loss, by an armament commanded by sir BOOK James Douglas and a body of troops under lord Rollo, A far more hazardous enterprise was un- 1761. dertaken about the same time against the island of Belleisle Belleisle, situated opposite the harbour of Vannes captured. on the coast of Bretagne. The island was defended by a strong fortress, constructed by the famous Vauban, near the town of Palais. On the first disembarkment of the troops, they met with a very severe repulse, being compelled precipitately to retreat, with the loss of near 500 men. But the English commanders, general Hodgson and commodore Keppel, secure of the zeal and ardor of their troops, rendered bold and sanguine by a long continuance of prosperity, determined to make another effort, which was attended with happier success and a body of marines and grenadiers, making good their landing on the craggy point of Lomeria, sustained their position with wonderful intrepidity against a very superior force, till joined by the remaining troops amounting to eight or ten thousand men. M. de St. Croix, the French commander, then recalled his detachments, and prepared for a vigorous defence of the citadel; the avenues to which he had fortified with six additional redoubts, which, with much effusion of blood, were successively attacked and carried by the English, who now urged, with the most persevering ardor, the