CHAPTER XVI
.
_Domestic Occurrences in Great Britain..... Trials of Dr. Hensey and Shebbeare..... Institution of the Magdalen Asylum..... Society for the encouragement of Arts..... Session opened..... New Treaty with the King of Prussia..... Supplies granted..... The King’s Message to the Commons..... Bill relating to ihe Distillery, and the Exportation of Corn..... Petition from the Justices of Norfolk---Bill for the Importation of salted Beef from Treland continued..... Regulations with respect to Privateers..... New Militia Laws..... Act for the Relief of Debtors revived..... Bills for the Importation of Irish Beef and Tallow..... Act relative to Milford-Haven..... Bill relative to the Duty on Pensions..... Act relative to the Duty on Plate..... Cambric Act..... Unsuccessful Bills..... Case of the Insolvent Debtors..... Case of Cant. Walker..... Remarks on the Bankrupt Laws..... Inquiry into the State of the Poor..... Regulations of Weights and Measures..... Resolutions concerning the Foundling Hospital..... Messages from the King to the Parliament..... Session closed..... Preparations for War..... Death of the Princess of Orange and Princess Elizabeth Caroline..... Examples made of Pirates..... Accounts of some remarkable Murders..... Murder of Daniel Clarke..... Majority of the Prince of Wales..... Resolutions concerning a new Bridge at Blackfriars..... Pire in Cornhill..... Method contrived to find out the Longitude..... Installation at Oxford..... Deplorable Incident at Sea..... Captures made by separate Cruisers..... Captain Hood takes the Bellona..... and Captain Barrington the Count do St. Florentin..... Captain Falkner takes a French East Indiaman..... Prize taken in the West Indies..... Engagement between the Hercules and the Florissant..... Havre-de-Grace bombarded by Admiral Rodney..... Admiral Boscawen defeats M. de la Clue..... Preparations made by the French for invading England..... Account of Thurot..... French Fleet sails from Brest..... Admiral Hawke defeats M. de Conflans..... Proceedings of the Irish Parliament..... Loyalty of the Irish-Catholics..... Dangerous Insurrection in Dublin..... Alarm of a Descent in Scotland_
While the operations of the war were prosecuted through the four quarters of the globe, the island of Great Britain, which may be termed the centre that gave motion to this vast machine, enjoyed all the tranquillity of the most profound peace, and saw nothing of war but the preparations and trophies, which served only to animate the nation to a desire of further conquest; for the dejection occasioned by the misfortune at St. Cas soon vanished before the prospect of victory and success. Considering the agitation naturally produced among the common people, by the practice of pressing men into the service of the navy, which, in the beginning of the year, had been carried on with unusual violence, the levy of so many new corps of soldiers, and the endeavours used in forming the national militia, very few disturbances happened to interrupt the internal repose of the nation. From private acts of malice, fraud, violence, and rapine, no community whatsoever is exempted. In the month of April, the temporary wooden bridge over the Thames, built for the conveniency of carriages and passengers, while the workmen should be employed in widening and repairing London bridge, was maliciously set on fire in the night, and continued burning till noon next day, when the ruins of it fell into the river. The destruction of this conveniency proved very detrimental to the commerce of the city, notwithstanding the vigilancy and discretion of the magistrates, in applying remedies for this misfortune. A promise of the king’s pardon was offered in a public advertisement, by the secretary of state, and a reward of two hundred pounds by the city of London, to any person who should discover the perpetrator of such wicked outrage; but nevertheless he escaped detection. No individual, nor any society of men, could have the least interest in the execution of such a scheme, except the body of London watermen; but as no discovery was made to the prejudice of any person belonging to that society, the deed was imputed to the malice of some secret enemy to the public. Even after a new temporary bridge was erected, another attempt was made (in all probability by the same incendiary) to reduce the whole to ashes, but happily miscarried, and a guard was appointed to prevent any such atrocious efforts in the sequel. Dangerous tumults were raised in and about Manchester, by a prodigious number of manufacturers who had left off working, and entered into a combination to raise, by force, the price of their labour. They had formed a regular plan, and collected large sums for the maintenance of the poorer sort, while they refused to work for their families. They insulted and abused all those who would not join in this defection, dispersed incendiary letters; and denounced terrible threats against all such as should presume to oppose their proceedings. But these menaces had no effect upon the magistrates and justices, who did their duty with such discretion and courage, that the ringleaders being singled out and punished by law, the rest were soon reduced to order.
TRIALS OF DRS. HENSEY AND SHEBBEARE
In the month of June, Florence Hensey, an obscure physician, and native of Ireland, who had been apprehended for treasonable practices, was tried in the court of king’s-bench, on an indictment for high treason. In the course of the trial it appeared that he had been employed as a spy for the French ministry; to which, in consideration of a paltry pension, he sent intelligence of every material occurrence in Great Britain. The correspondence was managed by his brother, a Jesuit, who acted as chaplain and secretary to the Spanish ambassador at the Hague. The British resident at that court having learned from the Spanish minister some secrets relating to England, even before they were communicated to him from the English ministry, was induced to set on foot an inquiry touching the source of this information, and soon received an assurance, that the secretary of the Spanish ambassador had a brother, a physician in London. The suspicion naturally arising from this circumstance being imparted to the ministry of England, Hensey was narrowly watched, and twenty-nine of his letters were intercepted. From the contents of these he was convicted of having given the French court the first notice of the expedition to North America, the capture of the two ships, the Alcide and Lys, the sailing and destination of every squadron and armament, and the difficulties that occurred in raising money for the service of the public. He had even informed them, that the secret expedition of the foregoing year was intended against Eochefort, and advised a descent upon Great Britain, at a certain time and place, as the most effectual method of distressing the government, and affecting the public credit. After a long trial he was found guilty of treason, and received the sentence of death usually pronounced on such occasions; but whether he earned forgiveness by some material discovery, or the minister found him so insensible and insignificant that he was ashamed to take his life, he escaped execution, and was pardoned, on condition of going into perpetual exile. The severity of the government was much about the same period exercised on Dr. Shebbeare, a public writer, who, in a series of printed letters to the people of England, had animadverted on the conduct of the ministry in the most acrimonious terms, stigmatized some great names with all the virulence of censure, and even assaulted the throne itself with oblique insinuation and ironical satire. The ministry, incensed at the boldness, and still more enraged at the success of this author, whose writings were bought with avidity by the public, determined to punish him severely for his arrogance and abuse, and he was apprehended by a warrant from the secretary’s office. His sixth letter to the people of England was pitched upon as the foundation of a prosecution. After a short trial in the court of king’s bench, he was found guilty of having written the sixth letter to the people of England, adjudged a libellous pamphlet, sentenced to stand in the pillory, to pay a small fine, to be imprisoned three years, and give security for his future good behaviour; so that, in effect, this good man suffered more for having given vent to the unguarded effusions of mistaken zeal, couched in the language of passion and scurrility, than was inflicted upon Hensey, a convicted traitor, who had acted as spy for France, and betrayed his own country for hire.
INSTITUTION OF THE MAGDALEN AND OTHER ASYLUMS.
Amidst a variety of crimes and disorders, arising from impetuosity of temper, unreined passions, luxury, extravagance, and an almost total want of police and subordination, the virtues of benevolence are always springing up to an extraordinary growth in the British soil; and here charities are often established by the humanity of individuals, which in any other country would be honoured as national institutions: witness the great number of hospitals and infirmaries in London and Westminster, erected and maintained by voluntary contributions, or raised by the princely donations of private founders. In the course of this year the public began to enjoy the benefit of several admirable institutions. Mr. Henry Baine, a private gentleman of Middlesex, had, in his lifetime, built and endowed an hospital for the maintenance of forty poor maidens. By his will he bequeathed a certain sum of money to accumulate at interest, under the management of trustees, until the yearly produce should amount to two hundred and ten pounds, to be given in marriage portions to two of the maidens educated in his hospital, at the age of twenty-two, who should be the best recommended for piety and industry by the masters or mistresses whom they had served. In the month of March, the sum destined for this laudable purpose was completed: when the trustees, by public advertisement, summoned the maidens educated in the hospital to appear on a certain day, with proper certificates of their behaviour and circumstances, that six of the most deserving might be selected to draw lots for the prize of one hundred pounds, to be paid as her marriage portion, provided she married a man of an unblemished character, a member of the church of England, residing within certain specified parishes, and approved by the trustees. Accordingly, on the first of May the candidates appeared, and the prize being gained by one young woman, in presence of a numerous assembly of all ranks, attracted by curiosity, the other five maidens, with a sixth, added in lieu of her who had been successsful, were marked for a second chance on the same day of the following year, when a second prize of the same value would be presented: thus a new candidate will be added every year, that every maiden who has been educated in this hospital, and preserved her character without reproach, may have a chance for the noble donation, which is also accompanied with the sum of five pounds to defray the expense of the wedding entertainment. One scarce knows whether most to admire the plan, or commend the humanity of this excellent institution.--Of equal and perhaps superior merit was another charitable establishment, which also took effect about this period. A small number of humane individuals, chiefly citizens of London, deeply affected with the situation of common prostitutes, who are certainly the most forlorn of all human creatures, formed a generous resolution in their favour, such as even the best men of the kingdom had never before the courage to avow. They considered that many of these unhappy creatures, so wretched in themselves, and so productive of mischief to society, had been seduced to vice in their tender years by the perfidious artifice of the other sex, or the violence of unruly passion, before they had acquired experience to guard against the one, or foresight to perceive the fatal consequences of the other; that the jewel, reputation, being thus irretrievably lost, perhaps in one unguarded moment, they were covered with shame and disgrace, abandoned by their families, excluded from all pity, regard, and assistance; that, stung by self-conviction, insulted with reproach, denied the privilege of penitence and contrition, cut off from all hope, impelled by indigence, and maddened by despair, they had plunged into a life of infamy, in which they were exposed to deplorable vicissitudes of misery, and the most excruciating pangs of reflection that any human being could sustain; that whatever remorse they might feel, howsoever they might detest their own vice, or long for an opportunity of amendment, they were entirely destitute of all means of reformation. They were not only deprived of all possibility of profiting by those precious moments of repentance, and becoming again useful members of society; but, in order to earn a miserable subsistence, were obliged to persevere in the paths of prostitution, and act as the instruments of heaven’s vengeance in propagating distemper and profligacy, in ruining the bodies and debauching the minds of their fellow-creatures. Moved to sympathy and compassion by these considerations, this virtuous band of associates determined to provide a comfortable asylum for female penitents, to which they might fly for shelter from the receptacles of vice, the miseries of life, and the scorn of mankind; where they might indulge the salutary sentiments of remorse, make their peace with heaven, accustom themselves to industry and temperance, and be profitably reunited to society, from which they had been so unhappily dissevered. The plan of this excellent institution being formed, was put in execution by means of voluntary subscription, and the house opened in Goodman ‘s-fields, under the name of the Magdalen-hospital, in the month of August, when fifty petitions were presented by penitent prostitutes, soliciting admittance. Another asylum was also opened by the hand of private charity, on the Surrey-side of Westminster-bridge, for the reception and education of female orphans, and children abandoned by their parents.
SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTS.
Nor was encouragement refused to those who distinguished themselves by extraordinary talents in any branch of the liberal and useful arts and sciences, though no Maecenas appeared among the ministers, and not the least ray of patronage glimmered from the throne. The protection, countenance, and gratification secured in other countries by the institution of academies, and the liberalities of princes, the ingenious in England derived from the generosity of a public, endued with taste and sensibility, eager for improvement, and proud of patronising extraordinary merit. Several years had already elapsed since a society of private persons was instituted at London, for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and commerce. It consisted of a president, vice-president, secretary, register, collector, and other officers, elected from a very considerable number of members, who pay a certain yearly contribution for the purposes of the institution. In the course of every year they held eight general meetings in a large assembly-room, built and furnished at the common expense; besides the ordinary meetings of the society, held every week, from the second Wednesday in November to the last Wednesday in May; and in the intermediate time, on the first and third Wednesday of every month. At these ordinary meetings, provided the number then present exceeded ten, the members had a right to proceed on business, and power to appoint such committees as they should think necessary. The money contributed by this association, after the necessary expense of the society had been deducted, was expended in premiums for planting and husbandry; for discoveries and improvements in chemistry, dying, and mineralogy; for promoting the ingenious arts of drawing, engraving, casting, painting, statuary, and sculpture; for the improvement of manufactures and machines, in the various articles of hats, crapes, druggets, mills, marbled-paper, ship-blocks, spinning-wheels, toys, yarn, knitting, and weaving. They likewise allotted sums for the advantage of the British colonies in America, and bestowed premiums on those settlers who should excel in curing cochineal, planting logwood-trees, cultivating olive-trees, producing myrtle-wax, making potash, preserving raisins, curing saffiour, making silk and wines, importing sturgeon, preparing isinglass, planting hemp and cinnamon, extracting opium and the gum of the persimon-tree, collecting stones of the mango, which should be found to vegetate in the West Indies; raising silk-grass, and laying out provincial gardens. They moreover allowed a gold medal in honour of him who should compose the best treatise on the arts of peace, containing an historical account of the progressive improvements of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce in the kingdom of England, with the effects of those improvements on the morals and manners of the people, and pointing out the most proper means for their future advancement. In a word, the society is so numerous, the contributions so considerable, the plan so judiciously laid, and executed with such discretion and spirit, as to promise much more effectual and extensive advantage to the public than ever accrued from all the boasted academies of Christendom. The artists of London had long maintained a private academy for improvement in the art of drawing from living figures; but in order to extend this advantage, which was not attained without difficulty and expense, the duke of Richmond, a young nobleman of the most amiable character, provided a large apartment at Whitehall, for the use of those who studied the arts of painting, sculpture, and engraving; and furnished it with a collection of original plaster casts from the best antique statues and busts at Rome and Florence. Here any learner had liberty to draw, or make models, under the eye and instructions of two eminent artists and twice a year the munificent founder bestowed premiums of silver medals on the four pupils who excelled the rest in drawing from a certain figure, and making the best model of it in basso-relievo. [479] _[See note 3 R, at the end of this Vol.]_
On the twenty-third day of November both houses of parliament met at Westminster, when his majesty being indisposed, the session was opened by commission, and the lord-keeper harangued them to this effect. He told them, his majesty had directed the lords of the commission to assure his parliament that he always received the highest satisfaction in being able to lay before them any event that might promote the honour and interests of his kingdoms; that in consequence of their advice, and enabled by the assistance which they unanimously gave, his majesty had exerted his endeavours to carry on the war in the most vigorous manner, in order to attain that desirable end, always to be wished, a safe and honourable peace:* that it had pleased the Divine Providence to bless his measures and arms with success in several parts, and to make the enemies of the nation feel, that the strength of Great Britain is not to be provoked with impunity: that the conquest of the strong fortress of Louisbourg, with the islands of Cape-Breton and St. John; the demolition of Frontenac, of the highest importance to his operations in America, and the reduction of Senegal, could not fail to bring great distress on the French commerce and colonies, and, in proportion, to procure great advantages to those of Great Britain.
* In the month of August, the king, in quality of elector of Hanover, having occasion for two hundred thousand pounds, a loan by subscription for that sum was opened at the bank, and filled immediately by seven or eight money-dealers of London.
He observed, that France had also been made sensible, that whilst her forces are sent forth to invade and ravage the dominions of her neighbours, her own coasts are not inaccessible to his majesty’s fleets and armies--a truth which she had experienced in the demolition of the works at Cherbourg, erected at a great expense, with a particular view to annoy England, as well as in the loss of a great number of ships and vessels; but no treatment, however injurious to his majesty, could tempt him to make retaliation on the innocent subjects of that crown. He told them, that in Germany his majesty’s good brother the king of Prussia, and prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, had found full employment for the enemies of France and her confederates, from which the English operations, both by sea and in America, had derived the most evident advantage: their successes owing, under God, to their able conduct, and the bravery of his majesty’s troops, and those of his allies, having been signal and glorious. The king, moreover, commanded them to declare, that the common cause of liberty and independency was still making noble and glorious efforts against the unnatural union formed to oppress it: that the commerce of his subjects, the source of national riches, had, by the vigilant protection received from his majesty’s fleet, flourished in a manner not to be paralleled during such troubles. In this state of things, he said, the king in his wisdom thought it unnecessary to use many words to persuade them to bear up against all difficulties, effectually to stand by and defend his majesty, vigorously to support the king of Prussia and the rest of his majesty’s allies, and to exert themselves to reduce their enemies to equitable terms of accommodation. He observed to the house of commons, that the uncommon extent of this war, in different parts, occasioned it to be uncommonly expensive: that the king had ordered them to declare to the commons, that he sincerely lamented, and deeply felt, for the burdens of his people: that the several estimates were ordered to be laid before them: and that he desired only such supplies as should be requisite to push the war with advantage, and be adequate to the necessary services. In the last place, he assured them the king took so much satisfaction in that good harmony which subsisted among his faithful subjects, that it was more proper for him now to thank them for it, than to repeat his exhortation to it: that this union, necessary at all times, was more especially so in such critical conjunctures; and his majesty doubted not but the good effects the nation had found from it would be the strongest motives to them to pursue it.--The reader will, no doubt, be surprised to find this harangue abound with harshness of period and inelegancy of expression; he will wonder that, in particularizing the successes of the year in America, no mention is made of the reduction of fort Du Quesne on the river Ohio; a place of great importance, both from its strength and situation, the erection of which had been one great motive to the war between the two nations; but he will be still more surprised to hear it declared from the throne, that the operations, both by sea and in America, had derived the most evident advantage from the war in Germany. An assertion the more extraordinary, as the British ministry, in their answer to the Parallel, which we have already mentioned, had expressly affirmed, that “none but such as are unacquainted with the maritime force of England can believe, that without a diversion on the continent, to employ part of the enemy’s force, she is not in a condition to hope for success and maintain her superiority at sea. That they must be very ignorant indeed, who imagine that the forces of England are not able to resist those of France unless the latter be hindered from turning all her efforts to the sea.” It is very remarkable that the British ministry should declare that the war in Germany was favourable to the English operations by sea and in America, and almost in the same breath accuse the French king of having fomented that war. Let us suppose that France had no war to maintain in Europe; and ask in what manner she, in that case, would have opposed the progress of the British arms by sea and in America? Her navy was reduced to such a condition that it durst not quit her harbours; her merchant ships were all taken, her mariners confined in England, and the sea was covered with British cruisers: in these circumstances, what expedients could she have contrived for sending supplies and reinforcements to America, or for opposing the naval armaments of Great Britain in any other part of the world?--None. Without ships and mariners, her troops, ammunition, and stores were, in this respect, as useless as money to a man shipwrecked on a desolate island. But granting that the war in Germany had, in some measure, diverted the attention of the French ministry from the prosecution of their operations in America, (and this is granting more than ought to be allowed,) the question is not, Whether the hostilities upon the continent of Europe prevented France from sending a greater number of troops to Canada; but whether the war in Germany was either necessary or expedient for distressing the French more effectually in other parts of the world? Surely every intelligent man of candour must answer in the negative. The expense incurred by England for subsidies and armies in the empire exceeded three millions sterling annually; and this enormous expense, without being able to protect Hanover, only served to keep the war alive in different parts of Germany. Had one half of this sum been employed in augmenting and extending the naval armaments of Great Britain, and in reinforcing her troops in America and the West Indies, France would have been, at this day, deprived of all her sugar colonies, as well as of her settlements on the continent of America; and being absolutely cut off from these sources of wealth, would have found it impracticable either to gratify her subsidiaries, or to maintain such formidable armies to annoy her neighbours. These are truths, which will appear to the conviction of the public, when the illusive spells of unsubstantial victory are dissolved, and time shall have dispersed the thick mists of prejudice which now seem to darken and perplex the understanding of the people.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
NEW TREATY WITH THE KING OF PRUSSIA.
The conduct of the administration was so agreeable to both houses of parliament, that in their address to the throne they expressed their unshaken zeal and loyalty to his majesty’s person, congratulated him on the success of his arms, and promised to support his measures and allies with steadiness and alacrity. *
* That the charge of disaffection to the king’s person, which was so loudly trumpeted by former ministers and their adherents against those who had honesty and courage to oppose the measures of a weak and corrupt administration, was entirely false and without foundation, appeared at this juncture, when in the midst of a cruel, oppressive, and continental war, maintained by the blood and treasure of Great Britain, all opposition ceased in both houses of parliament. The addresses of thanks to his majesty, which are always dictated by the immediate servants of the crown, were unanimously adopted in both houses, and not only couched in terms of applause, but even inflated with expressions of rapture and admiration. They declared themselves sensible, that the operations of Great Britain, both by sea and in America, had received the most evident and important advantages from the maintenance of the war in Germany, and seemed eager to espouse any measure that might gratify the inclination of the sovereign.
It was probably in consequence of this assurance that a new treaty between Great Britain and Prussia was concluded at London on the seventh day of December, importing, That as the burdensome war in which the king of Prussia is engaged, lays him under the necessity of making fresh efforts to defend himself against the multitude of enemies who attack his dominions, he is obliged to take new measures with the king of England, for their reciprocal defence and safety; and his Britannic majesty hath at the same time signified his earnest desire to strengthen the friendship subsisting between the two courts; and, in consequence thereof, to conclude a formal convention, for granting to his Prussian majesty speedy and powerful assistance, their majesties have nominated and authorized their ministers to concert and settle the following articles:--All formal treaties between the two crowns, particularly that signed at Westminster on the sixteenth day of January in the year 1756, and the convention of the eleventh of April in the year 1758, are confirmed by the present convention of the eleventh of April in the year 1758, in their whole tenor, as if they were herein inserted word for word. The king of Great Britain shall cause to be paid at London, to such person or persons as shall be authorized by the king of Prussia for that end, the sum of four millions of rix-dollars, making six hundred and seventy thousand pounds sterling, at one payment, immediately on the exchange of the ratification, if the king of Prussia should so require. His Prussian majesty shall employ the said sum in supporting and augmenting his forces, which shall act in such manner as shall be of the greatest service to the common cause, and contribute most to the mutual defence and safety of their said majesties. The king of Great Britain, both as king and elector, and the king of Prussia, reciprocally bind themselves not to conclude with the powers that have taken part in the present war, any treaty of peace, truce, or other such like convention, but by common advice and consent, each expressly including therein the other. The ratification of the present convention shall be exchanged within six weeks, or sooner, if possible. In effect, this treaty was no other than a renewal of the subsidy from year to year, because it was not thought proper to stipulate in the first subsidiary convention an annual supply of such importance until the war should be terminated, lest the people of England should be alarmed at the prospect of such successive burdens, and the complaisance of the commons be in some future session exhausted. On the whole, this was perhaps the most extraordinary treaty that ever was concluded; for it contains no specification of articles, except the payment of the subsidy; every other article was left to the interpretation of his Prussian majesty.
{1759}
SUPPLIES GRANTED.
The parliament, having performed the ceremony of addresses to the throne, immediately proceeded to the great work of the supply. The two committees in the house of commons were immediately established, and continued by adjournments to the month of May, by the twenty-third day of which all their resolutions were taken. They voted sixty thousand men, including fourteen thousand eight hundred and forty-five marines, for the service of the ensuing year; and for the operations by land, a body of troops amounting to fifty-two thousand five hundred and fifty-three effective men, besides the auxiliaries of Hanover, Hesse, Brunswick, Saxe-Gotha, and Buckebourg, to the number of fifty thousand, and five battalions on the Irish establishment in actual service in America and Africa. For the maintenance of the sixty thousand men employed in the sea-service, they granted three millions one hundred and twenty thousand pounds; for the land-forces, one million two hundred and fifty-six thousand one hundred and thirty pounds, fifteen shillings and two-pence; for the charge of the additional five battalions, forty thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine pounds, thirteen shillings and nine-pence; for the pay of the general and staff-officers, and hospitals of the land-forces, fifty-two thousand four hundred and eighty-four pounds one shilling and eight-pence; for maintaining the garrisons in the Plantations, Gibraltar, Nova-Scotia, Newfoundland, Providence, Cape-Breton, and Senegal, the sum of seven hundred and forty-two thousand five hundred and thirty-one pounds, five shillings and seven-pence; for the charge of ordnance for land-service, two hundred and twenty thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine pounds, eleven shillings and nine-pence; for extraordinary service performed by the same office, and not provided for by parliament in the course of the preceding year, three hundred and twenty-three thousand nine hundred and eighty-seven pounds, thirteen shillings and three-ponce; for the ordinary of the navy, including half-pay to sea-officers, two hundred and thirty-eight thousand four hundred and ninety-one pounds, nine shillings and eight-pence; towards the support of Greenwich-hospital, and for the out-pensioners of Chelsea-college, the sum of thirty-six thousand pounds. They allotted for one year’s expense, incurred by the foreign troops in the pay of Great Britain, one million two hundred thirty-eight thousand one hundred and seventy-seven pounds, nineteen shillings and ten-pence, over and above sixty thousand pounds for enabling his majesty to fulfil his engagements with the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, pursuant to the separate article of a new treaty concluded between them in the month of January of this current year, stipulating, that this sum should be paid to his serene highness in order to facilitate the means by which he might again fix his residence in his own dominions, and by his presence give fresh courage to his faithful subjects. Eighty thousand pounds were granted for enabling his majesty to discharge the like sum raised in pursuance of an act passed in the preceding session, and charged upon the first aids or supplies to be granted in this session of parliament. The sum of two hundred thousand pounds was voted towards the building and repairing ships of war for the ensuing year. Fifteen thousand pounds were allowed for improving London bridge; and forty thousand on account, for the Foundling-hospital. For the charge of transports to be employed in the course of the year they assigned six hundred sixty seven thousand seven hundred and twenty-one pounds nineteen shillings and seven-pence: for maintaining the colonies of Nova-Scotia and Georgia they bestowed twenty-five thousand two hundred and thirty-eight pounds thirteen shillings and five-pence. To replace sums taken from the sinking fund, thirty-three thousand two hundred and fifty-two pounds eighteen shillings and ten-pence halfpenny; for maintaining the British forts and settlements en the coast of Africa, ten thousand pounds, and for paying off the mortgage on an estate devised for the endowment of a professorship in the university of Cambridge, the sum of twelve hundred and eighty pounds. For the expence of the militia they voted ninety thousand pounds: for extraordinary expenses relating to the land-forces, incurred in the course of last year, and unprovided for by parliament, the sum of four hundred fifty-six thousand seven hundred and eighty-five pounds ten shillings and five-pence three farthings. For the purchase of certain lands and hereditaments, in order to secure the king’s docks at Portsmouth, Chatham, and Plymouth, they granted thirty-six thousand nine hundred and sixty-six pounds two shillings and ten-pence. They voted two hundred thousand pounds for enabling his majesty to give proper compensation to the respective provinces in North-America, for the expenses that had been incurred in levying and maintaining troops for the service of the public. They granted twenty thousand pounds to the East-India company, towards enabling them to defray the expense of a military force in their settlements: and the same sum was granted for carrying on the fortification to secure the harbour of Milford. To make good several sums issued by his majesty, for indemnifying the inn-holders and victuallers of Hampshire for the expenses they had incurred in quartering the Hessian auxiliaries in England; for an addition to the salaries of judges, and other less considerable purposes, they allowed the sum of twenty-six thousand one hundred and seventy-eight pounds sixteen shillings and six-pence. Finally, they voted one million, upon account, for enabling the king to defray any extraordinary expense of the war, incurred, or to be incurred, for the service of the current year; and to take all such measures as might be necessary to disappoint or defeat any enterprises or designs of his enemies, as the exigency of affairs should require. The sum of all the grants voted by the committee of supply, amounted to twelve millions seven hundred sixty-one thousand three hundred and ten pounds nineteen shillings and five-pence.
KING’S MESSAGE TO THE COMMONS.
The commons were still employed in deliberations on ways and means on the twenty-second day of May, when Mr. secretary Pitt communicated to them a message from the king, couched in these terms: “His majesty, relying on the experienced zeal and affection of his faithful commons, and considering that, in this critical conjuncture, emergencies may arise, which may be of the utmost importance, and be attended with the most pernicious consequences, if proper means should not immediately be applied to prevent or defeat them, is desirous that this house will enable him to defray any extraordinary expenses of the war, incurred, or to be incurred, for the service of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine, and to take all such measures as may be necessary to disappoint or defeat any enterprises or designs of his enemies, and as the exigencies of affairs may require.” This message being read, a motion was made, and agreed to _nem. con._ that it should be referred to the committee, who forthwith formed upon it the resolution, whereby one million was granted, to be raised by loans or exchequer bills, chargeable on the first aids that should be given in the next session. This produced a bill enabling his majesty to raise the sum of one million, for the uses and purposes therein mentioned, comprehending a clause, allowing the Bank of England to advance on the credit of the loan therein mentioned any sum not exceeding a million, notwithstanding the act of the fifth and sixth year in the reign of William and Mary, by which the bank was established.
BILLS RELATING TO THE DISTILLERY, &c.
The bills relating solely to the supply being discussed and expedited, the house proceeded, as usual, to an act other laws for the advantage of the community. Petitions having been presented by the cities of Bristol and New-Sarum, alleging, that since the laws prohibiting the making of low wines and spirits from grain, meal, and flour, had been in force, the commonalty appeared more sober, healthy, and industrious: representing the ill consequences which they apprehended would attend the repeal of these laws, and therefore praying their continuance. A committee of the whole house resolved that the prohibition to export corn should be continued to the twenty-fourth day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty nine; subject nevertheless to such provisions for shortening the said term of its continuance as should therefore be made by an act of that session, or by his majesty with the advice of his privy-council during the recess of parliament; that the act for discontinuing the duties upon corn and flour imported, or brought in as prize, was not proper to be further continued; and that the prohibition to make low wines or spirits from any sort of grain, meal, or flour, should be continued to the twenty-fourth day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine. Before the bill was formed on these resolutions, petitions arrived from Liverpool and Bath, to the same purport as those of Bristol and Sarum: while on the other hand, a remonstrance was presented by a great number of the malt-distillers of the city and suburbs of London, alleging, that it having been deemed expedient to prohibit the distilling of spirits from any sort of grain, to the twenty-fourth day of December then instant, some of the petitioners had entirely ceased to carry on the business of distilling, while others, merely with a view to preserve their customers, the compound distillers, and employ some of their servants, horses, and utensils, had submitted to carry on the distillation of spirits from molasses and sugars under great disadvantages, in full hope that the restraint would cease at the expiration of the limited time, or at least when the necessity which occasioned that restraint should be removed; that it was with great concern they observed a bill would be brought in for protracting the said prohibition, at a time when the price of all manner of grain, and particularly of wheat and barley, was considerably reduced, and, as they humbly conceived, at a reasonable medium. They expatiated on the great loss they, as well as many traders and artificers dependent upon them, must sustain in case the said bill should be passed into a law. They prayed the house to take these circumstances into consideration, and either permit them to carry on the distillation from wheat, malt, and other grain, under such restrictions as should be judged necessary; or to grant them such other relief, in respect of their several losses and incumbrances, as to the house shall seem reasonable and expedient. This petition, though strenuously urged by a powerful and clamorous body without doors, did not meet great encouragement within. It was ordered to lie upon the table, and an instruction was given to the committee, empowering them to receive a clause or clauses to allow the transportation of certain quantities of meal, flour, bread, and biscuit, to the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, for the sole use of the inhabitants; and another to prohibit the making of low wines and spirits from bran. Much more attention was paid to a petition of several farmers in the county of Norfolk, representing, that their farms consisted chiefly of arable land, which produced much greater quantities of corn than could be consumed within that county; that in the last harvest there was a great and plentiful crop of all sorts of grain, the greatest part of which had by unfavourable weather been rendered unfit for sale at London, or other markets for home consumption; that large quantities of malt were then lying at London, arising chiefly from the crops of barley growing in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven, the sale of which was stagnated; that the petitioners being informed the house had ordered in a bill to continue the prohibition of corn exported, they begged leave to observe, that, should it pass into a law, it would be extremely prejudicial to all, and ruin many farmers of that county, as they had offered their corn for sale at divers ports and markets of the said county: but the merchants refused to buy it at any price, alleging, its being unfit for the London market, the great quantity of corn with which that market was already overstocked, and their not being allowed either to export it or make it into malt for exportation. They therefore prayed this prohibition might be removed, or they the petitioners indulged with some other kind of relief. Although this remonstrance was duly considered, the bill passed with the amendments because of the proviso, by which his majesty in council was empowered to shorten the date of the prohibition with respect to the exportation of corn during the recess of parliament; but the temporary restraint laid upon distillation was made absolute, without any such condition, to the no small disappointment and mortification of the distillers, who had spared no pains and expense by private solicitation, and strenuous dispute in the public papers, to recommend their cause to the favour of the community. They urged that malt-spirits, when used in moderation, far from being prejudicial to the health of individuals, were in many damp and marshy parts of the kingdom absolutely necessary for preserving the field labourers from agues and other distempers produced by the cold and moisture of the climate; that if they were debarred the use of malt-spirits, they would have recourse to French brandy, with which, as they generally reside near the sea-coast, the smugglers would provide them almost as cheap as the malt-spirits could be afforded: thus the increased consumption of French spirit would drain the nation of ready money to a considerable amount, and prejudice the king’s revenue in the same proportion. They observed, that many distillers had already quitted that branch of trade and disposed of their materials; that all of them would probably take the same resolutions should the bill pass into a law, as no man could foresee when the prohibition would cease, should it be continued at a time when all sorts of grain abounded in such plenty, that the very waste of materials by disuse, over and above the lying out of the money, would be of great prejudice to the proprietor: thus the business of distilling, by which so many families were supported, would be banished from the kingdom entirely; especially, as the expense of establishing a large distillery was so great, that no man would choose to employ his money for this purpose, judging from experience that some future accidental scarcity of corn might induce the legislature to interpose a ruinous delay in this branch of business. They affirmed, that from the excessive use of malt-spirits no good argument could be drawn against this branch of traffic, no more than against any other conveniency of life; that the excessive use of common beer and ale was prejudicial to the health and morals of the people, yet no person ever thought of putting an end to the practice of brewing, in order to prevent the abuse of brewed liquors. They urged that in all parts of Great Britain there are some parcels of land that produce nothing to advantage but a coarse kind of barley called big, which, though neither fit for brewing nor for baking, may nevertheless be used in the distillery, and is accordingly purchased by those concerned in this branch at such an encouraging price, as enables many farmers to pay a higher rent to their landlords than they could otherwise afford; that there are every year some parcels of all sorts of grain so damaged by unseasonable weather, or other accidents, as to be rendered altogether unfit for bread or brewery, and would prove a very great misfortune to the farmer, if there was no distillery, for the use of which he could sell his damaged commodity. They asserted, that malt-spirits were absolutely necessary for prosecuting some branches of foreign commerce, particularly the trade to the coast of Africa, for which traffic no assortment could be made up without a large quantity of geneva, of which the natives are so fond, that they will not traffic with any merchant who has not a considerable quantity, not only for sale, but also for presents to their chiefs and rulers; that the merchants of Great Britain must either have this commodity of their own produce, or import it at a great national expense from Holland; that the charge of this importation, together with the duties payable upon it, some part of which is not to be drawn back on exportation, will render it impossible for the traders to sell it so cheap on the coast of Africa as it might be sold by the Dutch, who are the great rivals of Great Britain in this branch of commerce. To these arguments, all of which were plausible, and some of them unanswerable, it was replied, that malt-spirits might be considered as a fatal and bewitching poison which had actually debauched the minds, and enervated the bodies, of the common people to a very deplorable degree; that, without entering further into a comparison between the use and abuse of the two liquors, beer and geneva, it would be sufficient to observe, that the use of beer and ale had produced none of those dreadful effects which were the consequences of drinking geneva; and since the prohibition of the distilling of malt-spirits had taken place, the common people were become apparently more sober, decent, healthy, and industrious: a circumstance sufficient to induce the legislature not only to intermit, but even totally to abolish the practice of distillation, which has ever been productive of such intoxication, riot, disorder, and distemper, among the lower class of the people, as might be deemed the greatest evils incident to a well-regulated commonwealth. Their assertion with respect to the coarse kind of barley, called big, was contradicted as a deviation from truth, inasmuch as it was used in making malt, as well as in making bread: and with respect to damaged corn, those who understood the nature of grain affirmed, that it was spoiled to such a degree as to be altogether unfit for either of these purposes, the distillers would not purchase it at such a price as would indemnify the farmer for the charge of threshing and carriage; for the distillers are very sensible, that their great profit is derived from their distilling the malt made from the best barley, so that the increase of the produce far exceeded in proportion the advance of the price. It was not, however, an easy matter to prove that the distillation of malt-spirits was not necessary to an advantageous prosecution of the commerce on the coast of Guinea, as well as among the Indians in some parts of North America. Certain it is, that, in these branches of traffic, the want of geneva may be supplied by spirits distilled from sugars and molasses. After all, it must be owned, that the good and salutary effects of the prohibition were visible in every part of the kingdom, and no evil consequence ensued, except a diminution of the revenue in this article: a consideration which, at all times, ought to be sacrificed to the health and morals of the people: nor will this consideration be found of any great weight, when we reflect that the less the malt-spirit is drunk, the greater quantity of beer and ale will be consumed, and the produce of the duties and excise upon the brewery be augmented accordingly.
In the meantime, all sorts of grain continuing to fall in price, and great plenty appearing in every part of the kingdom, the justices of the peace, and of the grand juries, assembled at the general quarter sessions of the peace held for the county of Norfolk, composed and presented to the house of commons, in the beginning of February, a petition, representing, that the weather proving unfavourable in the harvest, great part of the barley raised in that county was much damaged, and rendered unfit for any other use than that of being made into malt for exportation; that unless it should be speedily manufactured for that purpose, it would be entirely spoiled, and perish in the hands of the growers; a loss that must be very sensibly felt by the land owners: they, therefore, entreated that leave might be given for the exportation of malt; and that they might be favoured with such further relief, as to the house should seem just and reasonable. In consequence of this petition, the house resolved itself into a committee to deliberate upon the subject; and as it appeared, upon examination, that the price of grain was reduced very low, and great abundance diffused through the kingdom, they resolved, that the continuance of that part of the act, prohibiting the exportation of grain, ought to be abridged and shortened, and the exportation of these commodities allowed under proper regulations, with respect to the time of such exportation and the allowance of bounties thereupon. A bill being founded on these resolutions, was discussed, and underwent several amendments: at length it was sent with a new title to the lords, who passed it without further alteration, and then it obtained the royal sanction. While this affair was under the deliberation of the committee, the commons unanimously issued an order for leave to bring in a bill to continue, for a limited time, the act of last session, permitting the importation of salted beef from Ireland into Great Britain, with an instruction to receive a clause extending this permission to all sorts of salted pork, or hog-meat, as the officers of the customhouse had refused to admit hams from Ireland to an entry. The bill likewise received another considerable alteration, importing, That, instead of the duty of ona shilling and three-pence, charged by the former act on every hundred weight of salted beef or pork imported from Ireland, which was found not adequate to the duty payable for such a quantity of salt as is requisite to be used in curing and salting thereof; and to prevent as well the expense to the revenue, as the detriment and loss which would accrue to the owner and importer from opening the casks in which the provision is generally deposited, with the pickle or brine proper for preserving the same, in order to ascertain the net weight of the provision liable to the said duties: for these reasons it was enacted, That from and after the twenty-fourth day of last December, and during the continuance of this act, a duty of three shillings and four-pence should be paid upon importation for every barrel or cask of salted beef or pork containing thirty-two gallons; and one shilling and three-pence for every hundred weight of salted beef called dried beef, dried neats-tongues, or dried hog-meat, and so in proportion for any greater or lesser quantity.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
REGULATIONS with RESPECT to PRIVATEERS.
Repeated complaints having been made to the government by neutral nations, especially the Dutch, that their ships had been plundered, and their crews maltreated by some of the English privateers, the legislature resolved to provide effectually against any such outrageous practices for the future: and with this view the commons ordered a bill to be brought in for amending and explaining an act of the twenty-ninth year of his late majesty’s reign, intituled, “An act for the encouragement of seamen, and more speedy and effectual manning of his majesty’s navy.” While the committee was employed in perusing commissions and papers relating to private ships of war, that they might be fully acquainted with the nature of the subject, a considerable number of merchants and others, inhabiting the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, presented a petition to the house, alleging, that the inhabitants of those islands which lie in the British channel within sight of the French coast, had now, as well as in former wars, embarked their fortunes in equipping small privateers, which used to run in close with the French shore, and being disguised like fishing boats, had not only taken a considerable number of prizes, to the great annoyance of the enemy, but also obtained material intelligence of their designs on many important occasions; that these services could not be performed by large vessels, which durst not approach so near the coast, and indeed could not appear without giving the alarm, which was communicated from place to place by appointed signals. Being informed that a bill was depending, in order to prohibit privateers of small burden, they declared that such a law, if extended to privateers equipped in those islands, would ruin such as had invested their fortunes in small privateers, and not only deprive the kingdom of the before-mentioned advantages, but expose Great Britain to infinite prejudice from the small armed vessels of France, which the enemy, in that case, could pour abroad over the whole channel to the great annoyance of navigation and commerce. They prayed, therefore, that such privateers as belonged to the islands of Guernsey and Jersey might be wholly excepted from the penalties contained in the bill, or that they, the petitioners, might be heard by their counsel, and be indulged with such relief as the house should judge expedient. This representation being referred to the consideration of the committee, produced divers amendments to the hill, which at length obtained the royal assent, and contained these regulations: That, after the first day of January in the present year, no commission should be granted to a privateer in Europe under the burden of one hundred tons, the force of ten carriage guns, being three-pounders or above, with forty men at the least, unless the lords of the admiralty, or persons authorized by them, should think fit to grant the same to any ship of inferior force or burden, the owners thereof giving such bail or security as should be prescribed: that the lords of the admiralty might at any time revoke, by an order in writing under their hands, any commission granted to a privateer; this revocation being subject to an appeal to his majesty in council, whose determination should be final: that, previous to the granting any commission, the persons proposing to be bound, and give security, should severally make oath of their being respectively worth more money than the sum for which they were then to be bound, over and above the payment of all their just debts: that persons applying for such commissions should make application in writing, and therein set forth a particular and exact description of the vessel, specifying the burden, and the number and nature of the guns on board, to what place belonging, as well as the name or names of the principal owner or owners, and the number of men: these particulars to be inserted in the commission; and every commander to produce such commission to the custom-house officer who should examine the vessel, and, finding her answer the description, give a certificate thereof gratis, to be deemed a necessary clearance, without which the commander should not depart: that if, after the first day of July, any captain of a privateer should agree for the ransom of any neutral vessel, or the cargo, or any part thereof, after it should have been taken as prize, and in pursuance of such agreement should actually discharge such prize, he should be deemed guilty of piracy; but that with respect to contraband merchandise, he might take it on board his own ship, with the consent of the commander of the neutral vessel, and then set her at liberty; and that no person should purloin or embezzle the said merchandise before condemnation: that no judge, or other person belonging to any court of admiralty, should be concerned in any privateer: that owners of vessels, not being under fifty, or above one hundred tons, whose commissions are declared void, should be indemnified for their loss by the public: that a court of oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery, for the trial of offences committed within the jurisdiction of the admiralty, should be held twice a-year in the Old Bailey at London, or in such other place within England as the board of admiralty should appoint: that the judge of any court of admiralty, after an appeal interposed, as well as before, should, at the request of the captor or claimant, issue an order for appraising the capture, when the parties do not agree upon the value, and an inventory to be taken; then exact security for the full value, and cause the capture to be delivered to the person giving such security; but, should objection be made to the taking such security, the judge should, at the request of either party, order such merchandise to be entered, landed, and sold at public auction, and the produce to be deposited at the bank, or in some public securities: and in case of security being given, the judge should grant a pass in favour of the capture. Finally, the force of this act was limited to the duration of the then war with France only. This regulation very clearly demonstrated, that whatever violences might have been committed on the ships of neutral nations, they were by no means countenanced by the legislature, or the body of the people.
NEW MILITIA LAWS.
Every circumstance relating to the reformation of the marine, must be an important object to a nation whose wealth and power depend upon navigation and commerce; but a consideration of equal weight was the establishment of the militia, which, notwithstanding the repeated endeavours of the parliament, was found still incomplete, and in want of further assistance from the legislature. His majesty having, by the chancellor of the exchequer, recommended to the house the making suitable provision for defraying the charges of the militia during the current year, the accounts of the expense already incurred by this establishment were referred to the committee of supply, who, after having duly perused them, resolved, that ninety thousand pounds should be granted on account, towards defraying the charges of pay and clothing for the militia, from the last day of the last year, to the twenty-fifth day of March in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty, and for repaying a sum advanced by the king for this service. Leave was given to bring in one bill pursuant to this resolution, and another to enforce the execution of the laws relating to the militia, remove certain difficulties, and prevent the incenveniencies by which it might be attended. So intent were the majority on both sides upon this national measure, that they not only carried both bills to the throne, where they received the royal assent, but they presented an address to the king, desiring that his majesty would give directions to his lieutenants of the several counties, ridings, and places in England, to use their utmost diligence and attention for carrying into execution the several acts of parliament relating to the militia. By this time all the individuals that constituted the representatives of the people, except such as actually served in the army, were become very well disposed towards this institution. Those who really wished well to their country had always exerted themselves in its favour; and it was now likewise espoused by those who foresaw that the establishment of a national militia would enable the administration to send the greater number of regular troops to fight the battles of Germany. Yet how zealous soever the legislature might be in promoting this institution, and notwithstanding the success with which many patriots exerted their endeavours through different parts of the kingdom, in raising and disciplining the militia, it was found not only difficult, but almost impracticable, to execute the intention of the parliament in some
## particular counties, where the gentlemen were indolent and enervated,
or in those places where they looked upon their commander with contempt. Even Middlesex itself, where the king resides, was one of the last counties in which the militia could be arrayed. In allusion to this backwardness, the preamble or first clause in one of the present acts imported, that certain counties, ridings, and places in England had made some progress in establishing the militia, without completing the same, and that, in certain other counties, little progress had been made therein, his majesty’s lieutenants and the deputy-lieutenants, and all others within such counties or districts, were therefore strictly required speedily and diligently to put these acts in execution. The truth is, some of these unwarlike commanders failed through ignorance and inactivity; others gave, or offered commissions to such people as threw a ridicule and contempt upon the whole establishment, and consequently hindered many gentlemen of worth, spirit, and capacity, from engaging in the service. The mutiny-bill, and that for the regulation of the marine-forces while on shore, passed through the usual forms, as annual measures, without any dispute or alteration. [485] _[See note 3 S, at the end of this Vol.]_
ACT FOR THE RELIEF OF DEBTORS REVIVED.
A committee having been appointed to inquire what laws were expired, or near expiring, and to report their opinion to the house touching the revival or continuation of these laws, they agreed to several resolutions; in consequence of which the following bills were brought in, and enacted into laws; namely, an act for regulating the lastage and ballastage of the river Thames; an act for continuing the law relating to the punishment of persons going armed or disguised; an act for continuing several laws near expiring; an act concerning the admeasurement of coals; an act for the relief of debtors, with respect to the imprisonment of their persons. This last was almost totally metamorphosed by alterations, amendments, and additions, among which the most remarkable were these: that where more creditors than one shall charge any prisoner in execution, and desired to have him detained in prison, they shall only respectively pay him each such weekly sum, not exceeding one shilling and sixpence per week, as the court, at the time of his being remanded, shall direct; that if any prisoner, described by the act, shall remain in prison three months after being committed, any creditor may compel him to give into court, upon oath, an account of his real and personal estate, to be disposed of for the benefit of his creditors, they consenting to his being discharged. Why the humanity of this law was confined to those prisoners only who are not charged in execution with any debt exceeding one hundred pounds, cannot easily be conceived. A man who, through unavoidable misfortunes, hath sunk from affluence to misery and indigence, is generally a greater object of compassion than he who never knew the delicacies of life, nor ever enjoyed credit sufficient to contract debts to any considerable amount; yet the latter is by this law entitled to his discharge, or at least to a maintenance in prison; while the former is left to starve in gaol, or undergo perpetual imprisonment amidst all the horrors of misery, if he owes above one hundred pounds to a revengeful and unrelenting creditor. Wherefore, in a country, the people of which justly pique themselves upon charity and benevolence, an unhappy fellow-citizen, reduced to a state of bankruptcy by unforeseen losses in trade, should be subjected to a punishment, which of all others must be the most grievous to a freeborn Briton, namely, the entire loss of liberty; a punishment which the most flagrant crime can hardly deserve in a nation that disclaims the torture; for, doubtless, perpetual imprisonment must be a torture infinitely more severe than death, because protracted through a series of years spent in misery and despair, without one glimmering ray of hope, without the most distant prospect of deliverance? Wherefore the legislature should extend its humanity to those only who are the least sensible of the benefit, because the most able to struggle under misfortune? and wherefore many valuable individuals should, for no guilt of their own, be not only ruined to themselves, but lost to the community? are questions which we cannot resolve to the satisfaction of the reader. Of all imprisoned debtors, those who are confined for large sums may be deemed the most wretched and forlorn, because they have generally fallen from a sphere of life where they had little acquaintance with necessity, and were altogether ignorant of the arts by which the severities of indigence are alleviated. On the other hand, those of the lower class of mankind, whose debts are small in proportion to the narrowness of their former credit, have not the same delicate feelings of calamity: they are inured to hardship, and accustomed to the labour of their hands, by which, even in a prison, they can earn a subsistence: their reverse of fortune is not so great, nor the transition so affecting: their sensations are not delicate; nor are they, like their betters in misfortune, cut off from hope, which is the wretch’s last comfort. It is the man of sentiment and sensibility, who, in this situation, is overwhelmed with a complication of misery and ineffable distress: the mortification of his pride, his ambition blasted, his family undone, himself deprived of liberty, reduced from opulence to extreme want, from the elegancies of life to the most squalid and frightful scenes of poverty and affliction; divested of comfort, destitute of hope, and doomed to linger out a wretched being in the midst of insult, violence, riot, and uproar; these are reflections so replete with horror, as to render him, in all respects, the most miserable object on the face of the earth. He, alas! though possessed of talents that might have essentially served and even adorned society, while thus restrained in prison, and affected in mind, can exert no faculty, nor stoop to any condescension, by which the horrors of his fate might be assuaged: he scorns to execute the lowest offices of menial services, particularly in attending those who are the objects of contempt or abhorrence; he is incapable of exercising any mechanic art, which might afford a happy though a scanty independence: shrunk within his dismal cell, surrounded by haggard poverty, and her gaunt attendants, hollow-eyed famine, shivering cold, and wan disease, he wildly casts his eyes around; he sees the tender partner of his heart weeping in silent woe; he hears his helpless babes clamorous for sustenance; he feels himself the importunate cravings of human nature, which he cannot satisfy; and groans with all the complicated pangs of internal anguish, horror, and despair. These are not the fictions of idle fancy, but real pictures, drawn from nature, of which almost every prison in England will afford but too many originals.
BILLS FOR THE IMPORTATION OF IRISH BEEF AND TALLOW.
Among other new measures, a successful attempt was made in favour of Ireland, by a bill, permitting the free importation of cattle from that kingdom for a limited time. This, however, was not carried through both houses without considerable opposition, arising from the particular interests of certain counties and districts in several parts of Great Britain, from whence petitions against the bill were transmitted to the commons. Divers artifices were also used within doors to saddle the bill with such clauses as might overcharge the scheme, and render it odious or alarming to the public; but the promoters of it being aware of the design, conducted it in such a manner as to frustrate all their views, and convey it safely to the throne, where it was enacted into a law. The like success attended another effort in behalf of our fellow-subjects of Ireland. The bill for the importation of Irish cattle was no sooner ordered to be brought in, than the house proceeded to take into consideration the duties then payable on the importation of tallow from the same kingdom; and several witnesses being examined, the committee agreed to a resolution, that these duties should cease and determine for a limited time. A bill being formed accordingly, passed through both houses without opposition, though in the preceding session a bill to the same purpose had miscarried among the peers: a miscarriage probably owing to their being unacquainted with the sentiments of his majesty, as some of the duties upon tallow constituted part of one of the branches appropriated for the civil list revenue. This objection, however, was obviated in the case of the present bill, by the king’s message to the house of commons, signifying his majesty’s consent, as far as his interest was concerned in the affair. By this new act the free importation of Irish tallow was permitted for the term of five years.
In the month of February the commons presented an address to his majesty, requesting that he would give directions for laying before the house an account of what had been done, since the beginning of last year, towards securing the harbour of Milford, in pursuance of any directions from his majesty. These accounts being perused, and the king having, by the chancellor of the exchequer, exhorted them to make provision for fortifying the said harbour, a bill was brought in to explain, amend, and render more effectual, the act of the last session relating to this subject; and, passing through both houses, received the royal assent without opposition. By this act several engineers were added to the commissioners formerly appointed; and it was ordained that fortifications should be erected at Peter-church-point, Westlanyon-point, and Neyland-point, as being the most proper and best situated places for fortifying the interior parts of the harbour. It was also enacted, that the commissioners should appoint proper secretaries, clerks, assistants, and other officers, for carrying the two acts into execution, and that an account of the application of the money should be laid before parliament, within twenty days of the opening of every session. What next attracted the attention of the house was an affair of the utmost importance to the commerce of the kingdom, which equally affected the interest of the nation, and the character of the natives. In the latter end of February complaint was made to the house, that, since the commencement of the war, an infamous traffic had been set on foot by some merchants of London, of importing French cloths into several ports of the Levant, on account of British subjects. Five persons were summoned to attend the house, and the fact was fully proved, not only by their evidence, but also by some papers submitted to the house by the Turkey company. A bill was immediately contrived for putting a stop to this scandalous practice, reciting in the preamble, that such traffic was not only a manifest discouragement and prejudice to the woollen manufactures of Great Britain, but also a relief to the enemy, in consequence of which they were enabled to maintain the war against these kingdoms.
The next object that employed the attention of the commons, was to explain and amend a law made in the last session for granting to his majesty several rates and duties upon offices and pensions. The directions specified in the former act for levying this imposition having been found inconvenient in many respects, new regulations were now established, importing, that those deductions should be paid into the hands of receivers appointed by the king for that purpose; that all sums deducted under this act should be accounted for to such receivers, and the accounts audited and passed by them, and not by the auditors of the impress, or of the exchequer: that all disputes relating to the collection of this duty should be finally, and in a summary way, determined by the barons of the exchequer in England and Scotland respectively: that the commissioners of the land-tax should fix and ascertain the sum total or amount of the perquisites of every office and employment within their respective districts, distinct from the salary thereunto belonging, to be deducted under the said act, independently of any former valuation or assessment of the same to the land-tax; and should rate or assess all offices and employments, the perquisites whereof should be found to exceed the sum of one hundred pounds per annum, at one shilling for every twenty thence arising; that the receivers should transmit to the commissioners in every district where any office or employment is to be assessed, an account of such officers and employments, that, upon being certified of the truth of their amount, they might be rated and assessed accordingly; that in all future assessments of the land-tax, the said offices and employments should not be valued at higher rates than those at which they were assessed towards the land-tax of the thirty-first year of the present reign; that the word perquisite should be understood to mean such profits of offices and employments as arise from fees established by custom or authority, and payable either by the crown or the subjects, in consideration of business done in the course of executing such offices and employments; and that a commissioner possessed of any office or employment, might not interfere in the execution of the said act, except in what might relate to his own employment. By the four last clauses, several salaries were exempted from the payment of this duty. The objections made without doors to this new law, were the accession of pecuniary influence to the crown by the creation of a new office and officers, whereas this duty might have been easily collected and received by the commissioners of the land-tax already appointed, and the inconsistency that appeared between the fifth and seventh clause: in the former of these the commissioners of the land-tax were vested with the power of assessing the perquisites of every office within their respective districts, independent of any former valuation or assessment of the same to the land-tax; and by the latter, they are restricted from assessing any office at a higher rate than that of the thirty-first year of the reign of George II.
In the beginning of March, petitions were offered to the house by the merchants of Birmingham in Warwickshire, and Sheffield in Yorkshire, specifying that the toy trade of these and many other towns consisted generally of articles in which gold and silver might be said to be manufactured, though in a small proportion, inasmuch as the sale of them depended upon slight ornaments of gold and silver: that by a clause passed in the last session of parliament, obliging every person who should sell goods or wares in which any gold or silver was manufactured to take out an annual license of forty shillings, they the petitioners were laid under great difficulties and disadvantages; that not only the first seller, but every person through whose hands the goods or wares passed to the consumer, was required to take out the said license: they therefore requested that the house should take these hardships and inequalities into consideration, and indulge them with reasonable relief. The committee, to which this affair was referred, having resolved that this imposition was found detrimental to the toy and cutlery trade of the kingdom, the house agreed to the resolution, and a bill being prepared, under the title of “An act to amend the act made in the last session, for repealing the duty granted by an act of the sixth year of the reign of his late majesty, on silver plate, and for granting a duty on licenses to be taken out by all persons dealing in gold and silver plate,” was enacted into a law by the royal sanction. By this new regulation, small quantities of gold and silver plate were allowed to be sold without license. Instead of the duty before payable upon licenses, another was granted, to be taken out by certain dealers in gold and silver plate, pawnbrokers, and refiners. This affair being discussed, the house took into consideration the claims of the proprietors of lands purchased for the better securing of his majesty’s docks, ships, and stores at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth; and for better fortifying the town of Portsmouth, and citadel of Plymouth, in pursuance of an act passed in the last session. We have already specified the sum granted for this purpose, in consequence of a resolution of the house, upon which a bill being founded, soon passed into a law without opposition.*
* The next bill which was brought into the house related to the summons issued by the commissioners of the excise, and justices of the peace, for the appearance of persons offending against, or for forfeitures incurred by, the laws of excise. As some doubts had arisen with respect to the method of summoning in such cases, this bill, which obtained the royal assent in due course, enacted, that the summons left at the houses, or usual place of residence, or with the wife, child, or menial servants of the person so summoned, should be held as legal notice, as well as the leaving such notice at the house, workhouse, warehouse, shop, cellar, vault, or usual place of residence, of such person, directed to him by his right or assumed name; and all dealers in coffee, tea, or chocolate, were subjected to the penalty of twenty pounds, as often as they should neglect to attend the commissioners of excise, when summoned in this manner.
In the month of April, a bill was brought in for the more effectual preventing the fraudulent importation of cambrics; and while it was under deliberation, several merchants and wholesale drapers of the city of London presented a petition, representing the grievances to which they, and many thousand of other traders, would be subjected, should the bill, as it then stood, be passed into a law. According to their request, they were heard by their counsel on the merits of this remonstrance, and some amendments were made to the bill in their favour. At length it received the royal assent, and became a law to the following effect: It enacted, that no cambrics, French lawns, or linens of this kind usually entered under the denomination of cambrics, should be imported after the first day of next August, but in bales, cases, or boxes, covered with sackcloth or canvas, containing each one hundred whole pieces, or two hundred half pieces, on penalty of forfeiting the whole; that cambrics and French lawns should be imported for exportation only, lodged in the king’s warehouses, and delivered out under like security, and restrictions as prohibited East India merchandise, and, on importation, pay only the half subsidy: that all cambrics and French lawns in the custody of any persons should be deposited, by the first of August, in the king’s warehouses, the bonds thereupon be delivered up, and the drawback on exportation paid; yet the goods should not be delivered out again but for exportation: that cambrics and French lawns exposed to sale, or found in the possession of private persons, after the said day, should be forfeited, and liable to be searched for, and seized, in like manner as other prohibited and uncustomed goods are; and the offender should forfeit two hundred pounds over and above all other penalties and forfeitures inflicted by any former act: that if any doubt should arise concerning the species or quality of the goods, or the place where they were manufactured, the proof should lie on the owner: finally, that the penalty of five pounds inflicted by a former act, and payable to the informer, on any person that should wear any cambric or French lawns, should still remain in force, and be recoverable, on conviction, by oath of one witness, before one justice of the peace.--The last successful bill which this session produced, was that relating to the augmentation of the salaries of the judges in his majesty’s superior courts of justice. A motion having been made for an instruction to the committee of supply, to consider of the said augmentation, the chancellor of the exchequer acquainted the house, that this augmentation was recommended to them by his majesty. Nevertheless, the motion was opposed, and a warm debate ensued. At length, however, being carried in the affirmative, the committee agreed to certain resolutions, on which a bill was founded. While it remained under discussion, a motion was made for an instruction to the committee, that they should have power to receive a clause or clauses for restraining the judges, comprehended within the provisions of the bill, from receiving any fee, gift, present, or entertainment, from any city, town, borough, or corporation, or from any sheriff, gaoler, or other officer, upon their several respective circuits, and from taking any gratuity from any officer or officers of any of the courts of law. Another motion was made, for a clause restraining such judges, barons, and justices, as were comprehended within the provisions of the bill, from interfering, otherwise than by giving their own votes, in any election of members to serve in parliament; but both these proposals, being put to the vote, were carried in the negative. These two motions being over-ruled by the majority, the bill underwent some amendments; and having passed through both houses in the ordinary course, was enacted into a law by the royal sanction. With respect to the import of this act, it is no other than the establishment of the several stamp-duties, applied to the augmentation, and the appropriation of their produce in such a manner, that the crown cannot alter the application of the sums thus granted in parliament. But on this occasion, no attempt was made in favour of the independency of the judges, which seems to have been invaded by a late interpretation of, or rather by a deviation from, the act of settlement; in which it is expressly ordained, that the commissions of the judge? should continue in force _quamdiu se bene gesserint_; that their salaries should be fixed, and none of them remove-able but by an address of both houses of parliament. It was then, without all doubt, the intention of the legislature that every judge should enjoy his office during life, unless convicted, by legal trial, of some misbehaviour, or unless both houses of parliament should concur in desiring his removal: but the doctrine now adopted imports, that no commission can continue in force longer than the life of the king by whom it was granted; that therefore the commissions of the judges must be renewed by a new king at his accession, who should have it in his power to employ either those whom he finds acting as judges at his accession, or confer their offices on others, with no other restraint than that the condition of new commissions, should be _quamdiu se bene gesserint_. Thus the office of a judge is more precarious, and the influence of the crown receives a considerable reinforcement.
Among the bills that miscarried in the course of the session, we may number a second attempt to carry into execution the scheme which was offered last year for the more effectual manning the navy, preventing desertion, and relieving and encouraging the seamen of Great Britain. A bill was accordingly brought in, couched in nearly the same terms which had been rejected in the last session; and it was supported by a considerable number of members, animated with a true spirit of patriotism: but to the trading part of the nation it appeared one of those plausible projects, which, though agreeable in speculation, can never be reduced into practice, without a concomitancy of greater evils than those they were intended to remove. While the bill remained under the consideration of the house, petitions were presented against it by the merchants of Bristol, Scarborough, Whitby, Ivingston-upon-Hull, and Lancaster, representing, that by such a law, the trade of the kingdom, which is the nursery and support of seamen at all times, and that spirit of equipping private ships of war, which had been of distinguished service to the nation, would be laid under such difficulties as might cause a great stagnation in the former, and a total suppression of the latter; the bill, therefore, would be highly prejudicial to the marine of the kingdom, and altogether ineffectual for the purposes intended. A great number of books and papers, relating to trading ships and vessels, as well as to seamen and other persons protected or pressed into the navy, and to expenses occasioned by pressing men into the navy, were examined in a committee of the whole house, and the bill was improved with many amendments: nay, after it was printed and engrossed, several clauses were added by way of rider; yet still the experiment seemed dangerous. The motion for its being past was violently opposed; warm debates ensued; they were adjourned, and resumed; and the arguments against the bill appeared at length in such a striking light, that, when the question was put, the majority declared for the negative. The regulations which had been made in parliament during the twenty-sixth, the twenty-eighth, and thirtieth years of the present reign, for the preservation of the public roads, being attended with some inconveniencies in certain parts of the kingdom, petitions were brought from some counties in Wales, as well as from the freeholders of Hertfordshire, the farmers of Middlesex, and others, enumerating the difficulties attending the use of broad wheels, in one case, and the limitation of horses used in drawing carriages with narrow wheels, in the other. The matter of these remonstrances was considered in a committee of the whole house, which resolved, that the weight to be carried by all waggons and carts, travelling on the turnpike roads, should be limited. On this resolution a bill was framed, for amending and reducing into one act of parliament the three acts before mentioned for the preservation of the public highways; but some objections being started, and a petition interposed by the land-holders of Suffolk and Norfolk, alleging that the bill, if passed into a law, would render it impossible to bring fresh provisions from those counties to London, as the supply depended absolutely upon the quickness of conveyance, the further consideration of it was postponed to a longer day, and never resumed in the sequel: so that the attempt miscarried.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
CASE OF THE INSOLVENT DEBTORS.
Of all the subjects, which, in the course of this session, fell under the cognizance of parliament, there was none that more interested the humanity, or challenged the redress, of the legislature, than did the case of the poor insolvent debtors, who languished under all the miseries of indigence and imprisonment. In the month of February a petition was offered to the commons in behalf of bankrupts, who represented, that having scrupulously conformed to the laws made concerning bankruptcy, by surrendering their all upon oath, for the benefit of their creditors, they had nevertheless been refused their certificates, without any probability of relief; that by this cruel refusal, many bankrupts have been obliged to abscond, while others were immured in prison, and these unhappy sufferers groaned under the particular hardship of being excluded from the benefit of laws occasionally made for the relief of insolvent debtors; that the power vested in creditors of refusing certificates to their bankrupts, was, as the petitioners conceived, founded upon a presumption that such power would be tenderly exercised, and never but in notorious cases; but the great increase in the number of bankrupts within two years past, and in the small proportion of those who had been able to obtain their certificates, seemed to demonstrate that the power had been used for cruel and unjust purposes, contrary to the intention of the legislature: that as the greater part of the petitioners, and their fellow-sufferers, must inevitably and speedily perish, with their distressed families, unless seasonably relieved by the interposition of parliament, they implored the compassion of the house, from which they hoped immediate favour and relief. This petition was accompanied with a printed case, explaining the nature of the laws relating to bankrupts, and pointing out their defects in point of policy as well as humanity; but little regard was seemingly paid to either remonstrance. Other petitions, however, being presented by insolvent debtors, imprisoned in different gaols within the kingdom, leave was given to bring in a bill for their relief, and a committee appointed to examine the laws relating to bankruptcy.
CASE OF CAPTAIN WALKER.
Among other petitionary remonstrances on this subject, the members were separately presented with the printed case of captain George Walker, a prisoner in the gaol of the king’s bench, who had been declared a bankrupt, and complained, that he had been subjected to some flagrant acts of injustice and oppression. The case contained such extraordinary allegations, and the captain’s character was so remarkably fair and interesting, that the committee, which were empowered to send for persons, papers, and records, resolved to inquire into the particulars of his misfortune. A motion was made and agreed to, that the marshal of the prison should bring the captain before the committee; and the speaker’s warrant was issued accordingly. The prisoner was produced, and examined at several sittings, and some of the members expressed a laudable eagerness to do him justice; but his antagonists were very powerful, and left no stone unturned to frustrate the purpose of the inquiry, which was dropped of course at the end of the session. Thus the unfortunate captain Walker, who had, in the late war, remarkably distinguished himself at sea by his courage and conduct, repeatedly signalizing himself against the enemies of his country, was sent back without redress to the gloomy mansions of a gaol, where he had already pined for several years, useless to himself, and lost to the community, while he might have been profitably employed in retrieving his own fortune, and exerting his talents for the general advantage of the nation. While this affair was in agitation, the bill for the relief of insolvent debtors was prepared, printed, and read a second time; but, when the motion was made for its being committed, a debate arose, and this was adjourned from time to time till the end of the session. In the meantime, the committee continued to deliberate upon the laws relating to bankruptcy; and in the beginning of June reported their resolution to the house, that, in their opinion, some amendments might be made to the laws concerning bankruptcy; to the advantage of creditors, and relief of insolvents. Such was the notice vouchsafed to the cries of many British subjects, deprived of liberty, and destitute of the common necessaries of life.
REMARKS ON THE BANKRUPT-LAWS.
It would engage us in a long digressive discussion were we to inquire how the spirit of the laws in England, so famed for lenity, has been exasperated into such severity against insolvent debtors; and why, among a people so distinguished for generosity and compassion, the gaols should be more filled with prisoners than they are in any other part of Christendom. Perhaps both these deviations from a general character are violent efforts of a wary legislature made in behalf of trade, which cannot be too much cherished in a nation that principally depends upon commerce. The question is, whether this laudable aim may not be more effectually accomplished, without subjecting individuals to oppression, arising from the cruelty and revenge of one another. As the laws are modelled at present, it cannot be denied that the debtor, in some cases, lies in a peculiar manner at the mercy of his creditor. By the original and common law of England, no man could be imprisoned for debt. The plaintiff in any civil action could have no execution upon his judgment, against either the body or the lands of the defendant: even with respect to his goods and chattels, which were subject to execution, he was obliged to leave him such articles as were necessary for agriculture. But, in process of time, this indulgence being found prejudicial to commerce, a law was enacted, in the reign of Edward I. allowing execution on the person of the debtor, provided his goods and chattels were not sufficient to pay the debt which he had contracted. This law was still attended with a very obvious inconvenience: the debtor, who possessed an estate in lands, was tempted to secrete his moveable effects, and live in concealment on the produce of his lands, while the sheriff connived at his retirement. To remove this evil, a second statute was enacted in the same reign, granting immediate execution against the body, lands, and goods of the debtor; yet his effects could not be sold for the benefit of his creditors till the expiration of three months, during which he himself could dispose of them for ready money, in order to discharge his incumbrances. If the creditor was not satisfied in this manner, he continued in possession of the debtor’s lands, and detained the debtor himself in prison, where he was obliged to supply him with bread and water for his support, until the debt was discharged. Other severe regulations were made in the sequel,
## particularly in the reign of Edward III. which gave rise to the writ
of _capias ad satisfaciendum_. This indeed rendered the preceding laws, called statute-merchant, and statute-staple, altogether unnecessary. Though the liberty of the subject, and the security of the landholder, were thus in some measure sacrificed to the advantage of commerce, an imprisoned debtor was not left entirely at the mercy of an inexorable creditor. If he made all the satisfaction in his power, and could show that his insolvency was owing to real misfortunes, the court of chancery interposed on his petition, and actually ordered him to be discharged from prison, when no good reason for detaining him could be assigned. This interposition, which seems naturally to belong to a court of equity, constituted with a view to mitigate the rigour of the common law, ceased, in all probability after the restoration of Charles the Second, and of consequence the prisons were filled with debtors. Then the legislature charged themselves with the extension of a power, which perhaps a chancellor no longer thought himself safe in exercising; and in the year one thousand six hundred and seventy, passed the first act for the relief of insolvent debtors, granting a release to all prisoners for debt, without distinction or inquiry. By this general indulgence, which has even in a great measure continued in all subsequent acts of the same kind, the lenity of the parliament may be sometimes misapplied, inasmuch as insolvency is often criminal, arising from profligacy and extravagance, which deserve to be severely punished. Yet, even for this species of insolvency, perpetual imprisonment, aggravated by the miseries of extreme indigence, and the danger of perishing through famine, may be deemed a punishment too severe. How cruel then must it be to leave the most innocent bankrupt exposed to this punishment, from the revenge or sinister design of a merciless creditor; a creditor, by whose fraud the prisoner became a bankrupt, and by whoso craft he is detained in gaol, lest by his discharge from prison, he should be enabled to seek that redress in chancery to which he is entitled on a fair account! The severity of the law was certainly intended against fraudulent bankrupts only; and the statute of bankruptcy is, doubtless, favourable to insolvents, as it discharges from all former debts those who obtained their certificates. As British subjects, they are surely entitled to the same indulgence which is granted to other insolvents. They were always included in every act passed for the relief of insolvent debtors, till the sixth year of George I. when they were first excepted from this benefit. By a law enacted in the reign of queen Anne, relating to bankruptcy, any creditor was at liberty to object to the confirmation of the bankrupt’s certificate; but the chancellor had power to judge whether the objection was frivolous or well-founded: yet, by a latter act, the chancellor is obliged to confirm the certificate, if it is agreeable to four-fifths in number and value of the creditors; whereas he cannot confirm it, should he be opposed, even without any reason assigned, by one creditor to whom the greatest part of the debt is owing. It might, therefore, deserve the consideration of parliament, whether, in extending their clemency to the poor, it should not be equally diffused to bankrupts and other insolvents; whether proper distinction ought not to be made between the innocent bankrupt who fails through misfortune in trade, and him who becomes insolvent from fraud or profligacy: and finally, whether the inquiry and trial of all such cases would not properly fall within the province of chancery, a tribunal instituted for the mitigation of common law.
INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE POOR.
The house of commons seems to have been determined on another measure, which, however, does not admit of explanation. An order was made in the month of February, that leave should be given to bring in a bill to explain, amend, and render effectual, so much of an act passed in the thirteenth year of George II. against the excessive increase of horse-races, and deceitful gaming, as related to that increase. The bill was accordingly presented, read, printed, and ordered to be committed to a committee of the whole house; but the order was delayed from time to time till the end of the session. Some progress was likewise made in another affair of greater consequence to the community. A committee was appointed in the month of March, to take into consideration the state of the poor in England, as well as the laws enacted for their maintenance. The clerks of the peace belonging to all the counties, cities, and towns in England and Wales, were ordered to transmit, for the perusal of the house, an account of the annual expense of passing vagrants through their respective divisions and districts for four years: and the committee began to deliberate on this important subject. In the latter end of May the house was made acquainted with their resolutions, importing, that the present methods of relieving the poor in the respective parishes, where no workhouses have been provided for their reception and employment, are, in general, very burdensome to the inhabitants, and tend to render the poor miserable to themselves, and useless to the community: that the present method of giving money out of the parochial rates to persons capable of labour, in order to prevent them from claiming an entire subsistence for themselves and their families, is contrary to the spirit and intention of the laws for the relief of the poor, is a dangerous power in the hands of parochial officers, a misapplication of the public money, and a great encouragement to idleness and intemperance; that the employment of the poor, under proper direction and management, in such works and manufactures as are suited to their respective capacities, would be of great utility to the public: that settling the poor in Workhouses, to be provided in the several counties and ridings in England and Wales, under the direction and management of governors and trustees to be appointed for that purpose, would be the most effectual method of relieving such poor persons, as, by age, infirmities, or diseases, are rendered incapable of supporting themselves by their labour: of employing the able and industrious, reforming the idle and profligate, and of educating poor children in religion and industry: and that the poor in such workhouses would be better regulated and maintained, and managed with more advantage to the public, by guardians, governors, or trustees, to be especially appointed, or chosen for that purpose, and incorporated with such powers, and under such restrictions, as the legislature should deem proper, than by the annual parochial officers: that erecting workhouses upon the waste lands, and appropriating a certain quantity of such lands to be cultivated, in order to produce provisions for the poor in the said houses, would not only be the means of instructing and employing many of the said poor in agriculture, but lessen the expense of the public: that controversies and law-suits concerning the settlements of poor persons, occasioned a very great, and in general an useless expense to the public, amounting to many thousand pounds per annum; and that often more money is expended in ascertaining such settlements by each of the contending parishes than would be sufficient to maintain the paupers: that should workhouses be established for the general reception of the poor, in the respective counties and ridings of England, the laws relating to the settlements of the poor, and the passing of vagrants, might be repealed: that while the present laws relating to the poor subsist, the compelling parish-officers to grant certificates to the poor, would in all probability prevent the hardships they now suffer, in being debarred gaining their livelihood, where they can do it most usefully to themselves and the public. From these sensible resolutions, the reader may conceive some idea of the misconduct that attends the management of the poor in England, as well as of the grievous burdens entailed upon the people by the present laws which constitute this branch of the legislature. The committee’s resolves being read at the table, an order was made that they should be taken into consideration on a certain day, when the order was again put off, and in the interim the parliament was prorogued. While the committee deliberated upon this affair, leave was given to prepare a bill for preventing tenants, under a certain yearly rent, from gaining settlements in any particular parish, by being there rated in any land-tax assessment, and paying for the landlord the money so charged. This order was afterwards discharged; and another bill brought in to prevent any person from gaining a settlement, by being rated by virtue of an act of parliament for granting an aid to his majesty by a land-tax, and paying the same. The bill was accordingly presented, read, committed, and passed the lower house; but among the lords it miscarried. It can never be expected that the poor will be managed with economy and integrity, while the execution of the laws relating to their maintenance is left in the hands of low tradesmen, who derive private advantage from supplying them with necessaries, and often favour the imposition of one another with the most scandalous collusion. This is an evil which will never be remedied, until persons of independent fortune, and unblemished integrity, actuated by a spirit of true patriotism, shall rescue their fellow-citizens from the power of such interested miscreants, by taking the poor into their own management and protection. Instead of multiplying laws with respect to the settlement and management of the poor, which serve only to puzzle and perplex the parish and peace officers, it would become the sagacity of the legislature to take some effectual precautions to prevent the increase of paupers and vagrants, which is become an intolerable nuisance to the commonwealth. Towards this salutary end, surely nothing would more contribute than a reformation of the police, that would abolish those infamous places of entertainment, which swarm in every corner of the metropolis, seducing people of all ranks to extravagance, profligacy, and ruin; and would restrict within due bounds the number of public-houses, which are augmented to an enormous degree, affording so many asylums for riot and debauchery, and corrupting the morals of the common people to such a pitch of licentious indecency, as must be a reproach to every civilized nation. Let it not be affirmed, to the disgrace of Great Britain, that such receptacles of vice and impurity subsist under the connivance of the government, according to the narrow views and confined speculation of those shallow politicians, who imagine that the revenue is increased in proportion to the quantity of strong liquors consumed in such infamous recesses of intemperance. Were this in reality the case, that administration would deserve to be branded with eternal infamy, which could sacrifice to such abase consideration the health, the lives, and the morals of their fellow-creatures: but nothing can be more fallacious than the supposition, that the revenue of any government can be increased by the augmented intemperance of the people; for intemperance is the bane of industry, as well as of population; and what the government gains in the articles of the duty on malt, and the excise upon liquors, will always be greatly overbalanced by the loss in other articles, arising from the diminution of hands, and the neglect of labour.
REGULATION OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
Exclusive of the bills that were actually prepared, though they did not pass in the course of the session, the commons deliberated on other important subjects, which, however, were not finally discussed. In the beginning of the session, a committee being appointed to resume the inquiry touching the regulation of weights and measures, a subject we have mentioned in the history of the preceding session, the box which contained a troy pound weight, locked up by order of the house, was again produced by the clerk in whose custody it had been deposited. This affair being carefully investigated, the committee agreed to fourteen resolutions. [490] _[See note 3 T, at the end of this Vol.]_ In the meantime, it was ordered that all the weights referred to in the report, should be delivered to the clerk of the house, to be locked up and brought forth occasionally.
THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.
The house of commons, among other articles of domestic economy, bestowed some attention on the hospital for foundlings, which was now, more than ever, become a matter of national consideration. The accounts relating to this charity having been demanded, and subjected to the inspection of the members, were, together with the king’s recommendation, referred to the committee of supply, where they produced the resolutions which we have already specified among the other grants of the year. The house afterwards resolved itself into a committee to deliberate on the state of the hospital, and examine its accounts. On the third day of May, their resolutions were reported to the following effect: that the appointing, by the governors and guardians of the said hospital, places in the several counties, ridings, or divisions in this kingdom, for the first reception of exposed and deserted young children, would be attended with many evil consequences; and that the conveying of children from the country to the said hospital is attended with many evil consequences, and ought to be prevented. A bill was ordered to be brought in, founded upon this last resolution, but never presented; therefore the inquiry produced no effect. Notwithstanding the institution of this charity, for the support of which great sums are yearly levied on the public, it does not appear that the bills of mortality, respecting new-born children, are decreased, nor the shocking crime of infant-murder rendered less frequent than heretofore. It may, therefore, not be improperly styled a heavy additional tax for the propagation of bastardy, and the encouragement of idleness among the common people; besides the tendency it has to extinguish the feelings of the heart, and dissolve those family ties of blood by which the charities are connected. In the month of March, leave was given to bring in a bill for the more effectual preventing of the melting down and exporting the gold and silver coin of the kingdom, and the persons were nominated to prepare it; but the bill never appeared, and no further inquiry was made about the matter. Perhaps it was supposed that such a measure might be thought an encroachment on the prerogative of the crown, which hath always exercised the power of fixing the standard, and regulating the currency of the coin. Perhaps such a step was deferred on account of the war, during which a great quantity of gold and silver was necessarily exported to the continent, for the support of the allies and armies in the pay of Great Britain. The legislature, however, would do well to consider this eternal maxim in computation, that when a greater quantity of bullion is exported, in waste, than can be replaced by commerce, the nation must be hastening to a state of insolvency. Over and above these proceedings in this session of parliament, it may not be unnecessary to mention several messages which were sent by the king to the house of commons. That relating to the vote of credit we have already specified in our account of the supply. On the twenty-sixth day of April, the chancellor of the exchequer presented to the house two messages signed by his majesty, one in favour of his subjects in North America, and the other in behalf of the East India company: the former recommending to their consideration the zeal and vigour with which his faithful subjects in North America had exerted themselves in defence of his just rights and possessions; desiring he might be enabled to give them a proper compensation for the expenses incurred by the respective provinces in levying, clothing, and paying the troops raised in that country, according as the active vigour and strenuous efforts of the several colonies should appear to merit: in the latter, he desired the house would empower him to assist the East India company in defraying the expense of a military force in the East Indies, to be maintained by them, in lieu of a battalion of regular troops withdrawn from thence, and returned to Ireland. Both these messages were referred to the committee of supply, and produced the resolutions upon each subject which we have already explained. The message relating to a projected invasion by the enemies of Great Britain, we shall particularize in its proper place, when we come to record the circumstances and miscarriage of that design. In the meantime, it may not be improper to observe, that the thanks of the house of commons were voted and given to admiral Boscawen and major-general Amherst, for the services they had done their king and country in North America; and the same compliment was paid to admiral Osborne, for the success of his cruise in the Mediterranean.
The session was closed on the second day of June, with a speech to both houses from the commissioners appointed by his majesty for that purpose. In this harangue the parliament was given to understand, that the king approved of their conduct, and returned them his thanks for their condescension; that the hopes he had conceived of their surmounting the difficulties which lay in the way, were founded on the wisdom, zeal, and affection of so good a parliament, and that his expectations were fully answered; that they had considered the war in all its parts, and notwithstanding its long continuance, through the obstinacy of the enemy, had made such provision for the many different operations as ought to convince the adversaries of Great Britain, that it would be for their interest, as well as for the ease and relief of all Europe, to embrace equitable and honourable terms of accommodation. They were told that, by their assistance, the combined army in Germany had been completed; powerful squadrons, as well as numerous bodies of land-forces, were employed in America, in order to maintain the British rights and possessions, and annoy the enemy in the most sensible maimer in that country: that, as France was making considerable preparations in her different ports, he had taken care to put his fleet at home in the best condition, both of strength and situation, to guard against and repel any attempts that might be meditated against his kingdoms: that all his measures had been directed to assert the honour of his crown; to preserve the essential interests of his faithful subjects; to support the cause of the protestant religion, and public liberty: he therefore trusted that the uprightness of his intentions would draw down the blessing of heaven upon his endeavours. He expressed his hope, that the precautions they had taken to prevent and correct the excesses of the privateers would produce the desired effect: a consideration which the king had much at heart; for, though sensible of the utility of that service, when under proper regulations, he was determined to do his utmost to prevent any injuries or hardships which might be sustained by the subjects of neutral powers, as far as might be practicable and consistent with his majesty’s just right to hinder the trade of his enemies from being collusively and fraudulently covered. He not only thanked the commons, but applauded the firmness and vigour with which they had acted, as well as their prudence in judging, that notwithstanding the present burdens, the making ample provision for carrying on the war was the most probable means to bring it to an honourable and happy conclusion. He assured them that no attention should be wanting, on his part, for the faithful application of what had been granted. They were informed he had nothing further to desire, but that they would carry down the same good dispositions, and propagate them in their several counties, which they had shown in their proceedings during the session. These declarations being pronounced, the parliament was prorogued.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.
The people of England, provoked on one hand by the intrigues, the hostilities and menaces of France, and animated on the other by the pride and triumph of success, which never fails to reconcile them to difficulties, howsoever great, and expense, however enormous, at this period breathed nothing but war, and discoursed about nothing but new plans of conquest. We have seen how liberally the parliament bestowed the nation’s money; and the acquiescence of the subjects in general under the additional burdens which had been imposed, appeared in the remarkable eagerness with which they embarked in the subscription planned by the legislature; in the vigorous assistance they contributed towards manning the navy, recruiting the army, and levying additional forces; and the warlike spirit which began to diffuse itself through all ranks of the people, This was a spirit which the ministry carefully cherished and cultivated, for the support of the war, which, it must be owned, was prosecuted with an ardour and efficacy peculiar to the present administration. True it is, the German war had been for some time adopted as an object of importance by the British councils, and a resolution was taken to maintain it without flinching: at the same time, it must be allowed, that this consideration had not hitherto weakened the attention of the ministry to the operations in America, where alone the war may be said to have been carried on and prosecuted on British principles, so as to distress the enemy in their most tender part, and at the same time, acquire the most substantial advantages to the subjects of Britain. For these two purposes, every preparation was made that sagacity could suggest, or vigour execute. The navy was repaired and augmented; and, in order to man the different squadrons, the expedient of pressing, that disgrace to a British administration, was practised both by land and water with extraordinary rigour and vivacity. A proclamation was issued, offering a considerable bounty for every seaman and every landman that should by a certain day enter voluntarily into the service. As an additional encouragement to this class of people, the king promised his pardon to all seamen who had deserted from their respective ships to which they belonged, provided they should return to their duty by the third day of July; but at the same time he declared, that those who should neglect this opportunity, at a time when their country so much required their service, would, upon being apprehended, incur the penalty of a court-martial, and if convicted, be deemed unfit objects of the royal mercy. All justices of the peace, mayors, and magistrates of corporations throughout Great Britain, were commanded to make particular search for straggling seamen fit for the service, and to send all that should be found to the nearest sea-port, that they might be sent on board by the sea-officer there commanding. Other methods, more gentle and effectual, were taken to levy and recruit the land-forces. New regiments were raised, on his majesty’s promise that every man should be entitled to his discharge at the end of three years, and the premiums for enlisting were increased. Over and above these indulgences, considerable bounties were offered and given by cities, towns, corporations, and even by individuals, so universally were the people possessed with a spirit of chivalry and adventure. The example was set by the metropolis, where the common-council resolved, that voluntary subscriptions should be received in the chamber of London, to be appropriated as bounty-money to such persons as should engage in his majesty’s service. The city subscribed a considerable sum for that purpose; and a committee of aldermen and commoners was appointed to attend at Guildhall, to receive and apply the subscriptions. Asa further encouragement to volunteers, they moreover resolved, that every person so entering should be entitled to the freedom of the city, at the expiration of three years, or sooner if the war should be brought to a conclusion. These resolutions being communicated to the king, he was pleased to signify his approbation, and return his thanks to the city, in a letter from the secretary of state to the lord-mayor. Large sums were immediately subscribed by different companies, and some private persons; and, in imitation of the capital, bounties were offered by many different communities in every quarter of the United Kingdom. At the same time, such care and diligence were used in disciplining the militia, that, before the close of the year, the greater part of those truly constitutional battalions rivalled the regular troops in the perfection of their exercise, and seemed to be, in all respects, as fit for actual service.
DEATH OF THE PRINCESS OF ORANGE, &c.
Before we proceed to record the transactions of the campaign that succeeded these preparations, we shall take notice of some domestic events, which, though not very important in themselves, may nevertheless claim a place in the History of England. In the beginning of the year, the court of London was overwhelmed with affliction at the death of the princess dowager of Orange and Nassau, governante of the United Provinces in the minority of her son, the present stadtholder. She was the eldest daughter of his Britannic majesty, possessed of many personal accomplishments and exemplary virtues; pious, moderate, sensible, and circumspect. She had exercised her authority with equal sagacity and resolution, respected even by those who were no friends to the house of Orange, and died with great fortitude and resignation.*
* Feeling her end approaching, she delivered a key to one of her attendants, directing him to fetch two papers, which she signed with her own hand. One was a contract of marriage between her daughter and the prince of Nassau Weilburgh; the other was a letter to the states-general, beseeching them to consent to this marriage, and preserve inviolate the regulations she had made touching the education and tutelage of the young stadtholder. These two papers being signed and sealed, she sent for her children, exhorted them to make proper improvements on the education they had received, and to live in harmony with each other. Then she implored Heaven to shower its blessings on them both, and embraced them with the most affecting marks of maternal tenderness. She afterwards continued to converse calmly and deliberately with her friends, and in a few hours expired.
In her will she appointed the king her father, and the princess dowager of Orange her mother-in-law, honorary tutors, and prince Louis of Brunswick acting tutor to her children. In the morning after her decease, the states-general and the states of Holland were extraordinarily assembled, and having received notice of this event, proceeded to confirm the regulations which had been made for the minority of the stadtholder. Prince Louis of Brunswick was invited to assist in the assembly of Holland, where he took the oaths, as representing the captain-general of the union. Then he communicated to the assembly the act by which the princess had appointed him guardian of her children. He was afterwards invited to the assembly of the states-general, who agreed to the resolution of Holland, with respect to his guardianship; and in the evening the different colleges of the government sent formal deputations to the young stadtholder, and the princess Caroline, his sister, in whose names and presence they were received, and answered by their guardian and representative. A formal intimation of the death of the princess was communicated to the king her father, in a pathetic letter, by the states-general; who condoled with him on the irreparable loss which he as well as they had sustained by this melancholy event, and assured him they would employ all their care and attention in securing and defending the rights and interest of the young stadtholder and the princess his sister, whom they considered as the children of the republic. The royal family of England suffered another disaster in the course of this year, by the decease of the princess Elizabeth-Caroline, second daughter of his late royal highness Frederick prince of Wales, a lady of the most amiable character, who died at Kew in the month of September, before she had attained the eighteenth year of her age.
EXAMPLES MADE OF PIRATES.
Certain privateers continuing their excesses at sea, and rifling neutral ships without distinction or authority, the government resolved to vindicate the honour of the nation, by making examples of those pirates, who, as fast as they could be detected and secured, were brought to trial, and upon conviction sacrificed to justice. While these steps were taken to rescue the nation from the reproach of violence and rapacity, which her neighbours had urged with such eagerness, equal spirit was exerted in convincing neutral powers that they should not with impunity contravene the law of nations, in favouring the enemies of Great Britain. A great number of causes were tried relating to disputed captures, and many Dutch vessels, with their cargoes, were condemned, after a fair hearing, notwithstanding the loud clamours of that people, and the repeated remonstrances of the states-general.
The reputation of the English was not so much affected by the irregularities of her privateers, armed for rapine, as by the neglect of internal police, and an ingredient of savage ferocity mingled in the national character; an ingredient that appeared but too conspicuous in the particulars of several shocking murders brought to light about this period.--One Halsey, who commanded a merchant ship in the voyage from Jamaica to England, having conceived some personal dislike to a poor sailor, insulted him with such abuse, exposed him to such hardships, and punished him with such wantonness of barbarity, that the poor wretch leaped overboard in despair. His inhuman tyrant envying him that death, which would have rescued a miserable object from his brutality, plunged into the sea after him, and brought him on board, declaring, he should not escape so while there were any torments left to inflict. Accordingly, he exercised his tyranny upon him with redoubled rigour, until the poor creature expired, in consequence of the inhuman treatment he had sustained. This savage ruffian was likewise indicted for the murder of another mariner, but being convicted on the first trial, the second was found unnecessary, and the criminal suffered death according to the law, which is perhaps too mild to malefactors convicted of such aggravated cruelty.--Another barbarous murder was perpetrated in the country, near Birmingham, upon a sheriff’s officer, by the sons of one Darby, whose effects the bailiff had seized, on a distress for rent. The two young assassins, encouraged by the father, attacked the unhappy wretch with clubs, and mangled him in a terrible manner, so that he hardly retained any signs of life. Not contented with this cruel execution, they stripped him naked, and dragging him out of the house, scourged him with a waggoner’s whip, until the flesh was cut from the bones. In this miserable condition he was found weltering in his blood, and conveyed to a neighbouring house, where he immediately expired. The three barbarians were apprehended, after having made a desperate resistance. They were tried, convicted, and executed; the sons were hung in chains, and the body of the father dissected.--The widow of a timber-merchant in Rotherhithe being cruelly murdered in her own house, Mary Edmonson, a young woman, her niece, ran out into the street with her arms cut across, and gave the alarm, declaring her aunt had been assassinated by four men, who forced their way into the house, and that she (the niece) had received those wounds in attempting to defend her relation. According to the circumstances that appeared, this unnatural wretch had cut the throat of her aunt and benefactress with a case-knife, then dragged the body from the wash-house to the parlour; that she had stolen a watch and some silver spoons, and concealed them, together with the knife and her own apron, which was soaked with the blood of her parent. After having acted this horrid tragedy, the bare recital of which the humane reader will not peruse without horror, she put on another apron, and wounded her own flesh, the better to conceal her guilt. Notwithstanding these precautions she was suspected, and committed to prison. Being brought to trial, she was convicted and condemned upon circumstantial evidence, and finally executed on Kennington-common, though she denied the fact to the last moment of her life. At the place of execution she behaved with great composure, and, after having spent some minutes in devotion, protested she was innocent of the crime laid to her charge. What seemed to corroborate this protestation, was the condition and character of the young woman, who had been educated in a sphere above the vulgar, and maintained a reputation without reproach in the country, where she was actually betrothed to a clergyman. On the other hand, the circumstances that appeared against her almost amounted to a certainty; though nothing weaker than proof positive ought to determine a jury in capital cases to give a verdict against the person accused. After all, this is one of those problematic events which elude the force of all evidence, and serve to confound the pride of Iranian reason.--A miscreant, whose name was Haines, having espoused the daughter of a farmer in the neighbourhood of Gloucester, who possessed a small estate, which he intended to divide among seven children, was so abandoned as to form the design of poisoning the whole family, that by virtue of his wife he might enjoy the whole inheritance. For the execution of this infernal scheme, he employed his own father to purchase a quantity of arsenic; part of which he administered to three of the children, who were immediately seized with the dreadful symptoms produced by this mineral, and the eldest expired. He afterwards mixed it with three apple-cakes, which he bought for the purpose, and presented to the three other children, who underwent the same violence of operation which had proved fatal to the eldest brother. The instantaneous effects of the poison created a suspicion of Haines, who, being examined, the whole scene of villany stood disclosed. Nevertheless, the villain found means to escape.--The uncommon spirit of assassination which raged at this period, seemed to communicate itself even to foreigners who breathed English air. Five French prisoners confined on board the king’s ship the Royal Oak, were convicted of having murdered one Jean de Manaux, their countryman and fellow-prisoner, in revenge for his having discovered that they had forged passes to facilitate their escape. Exasperated at this detection, they seized this unfortunate informer in the place of their confinement, gagged his mouth, stripped him naked, tied him with a strong cord to a ring-bolt, and scourged his body with the most brutal perseverance. By dint of struggling, the poor wretch disengaged himself from the cord with which he had been tied: then they finished the tragedy, by leaping and stamping on his breast, till the chest was broke, and he expired. They afterwards severed the body into small pieces, and these they conveyed at different times into the sea, through the funnel of a convenience to which they had access: but one of the other prisoners gave information of the murder; in consequence of which they were secured, brought to trial, condemned, and punished with death.--Nor were the instances of cruel assassination which prevailed at this juncture confined to Great Britain. At the latter end of the foregoing year, an atrocious massacre was perpetrated by two Genoese mariners upon the master and crew of an English vessel, among whom they were enrolled. These monsters of cruelty were in different watches, a circumstance that favoured the execution of the horrid plan they had concerted. When one of them retired to rest with his fellows of the watch, consisting of the mate and two seamen, he waited till they were fast asleep, and then butchered them all with a knife. Having so far succeeded without discovery, he returned to the deck, and communicated the exploit to his associate: then they suddenly attacked the master of the vessel, and cleft his head with a hatchet, which they likewise used in murdering the man that stood at the helm; a third was likewise despatched, and no Englishman remained alive but the master’s son, a boy, who lamented his father’s death with incessant tears and cries for three days, at the expiration of which he was likewise sacrificed, because the assassins were disturbed by his clamour. This barbarous scene was acted within sixty leagues of the rock of Lisbon; but the vessel was taken within the capes Ortugal and Finisterre, by the captain of the French privateer called La Favourite, who seeing the deck stained with blood, and finding all the papers of the ship destroyed, began to suspect that the master and crew had been murdered. He accordingly taxed them with the murder, and they confessed the particulars. The privateer touched at Vigo, where the captain imparted this detail to the English consul; but the prize, with the two villains on board, was sent to Bayonne in France, where they were brought to condign punishment.
MURDER OF DANIEL CLARKE.
We shall close this register of blood with the account of a murder remarkable in all its circumstances, for which a person, called Eugene Aram, suffered at York, in the course of this year. This man, who exercised the profession of a schoolmaster at Knaresborough, had, as far back as the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-five, been concerned with one Houseman, in robbing and murdering Daniel Clarke, whom they had previously persuaded to borrow a considerable quantity of valuable effects from different persons in the neighbourhood, on false pretences, that he might retire with the booty. He had accordingly filled a sack with these particulars, and began his retreat with his two perfidious associates, who suddenly fell upon him, deprived him of life, and, having buried the body in a cave, took possession of the plunder. Though Clarke disappeared at once in such a mysterious manner, no suspicion fell on the assassins; and Aram, who was the chief contriver and agent in the murder, moved his habitation to another part of the country. In the summer of the present year, Houseman being employed, among other labourers, in repairing the public highway, they, in digging for gravel by the road side, discovered the skeleton of a human creature, which the majority supposed to be the bones of Daniel Clarke. This opinion was no sooner broached, than Houseman, as it were by some supernatural impulse which he could not resist, declared that it was not the skeleton of Clarke, inasmuch as his body had been interred at a place called St. Robert’s Cave, where they would find it, with the head turned to a certain corner. He was immediately apprehended, examined, admitted as evidence for the crown, and discovered the particulars of the murder. The skeleton of Clarke being found exactly in the place and manner he had described, Eugene Aram, who now acted as usher to a grammar-school in the county of Norfolk, was secured, and brought to trial at the York assizes. There, his own wife corroborating the testimony of Houseman, he was found guilty, and received sentence of death; notwithstanding a very artful and learned defence, in which he proved, from argument and example, the danger of convicting a man upon circumstantial evidence. Finding all his remonstrances ineffectual, he recommended himself in pathetic terms to the king’s mercy; and if ever murder was entitled to indulgence, perhaps it might have been extended not improperly to this man, whose genius, in itself prodigious, might have exerted itself in works of general utility. He had, in spite of all the disadvantages attending low birth and straitened circumstances, by the dint of his own capacity and inclination, made considerable progress in mathematics and philosophy, acquired all the languages ancient and modern, and executed part of a Celtic dictionary, which, had he lived to finish it, might have thrown some essential light upon the origin and obscurities of the European history. Convinced, at last, that he had nothing to hope from the clemency of the government, he wrote a short poem in defence of suicide; and, on the day fixed for his execution, opened the veins of his left arm with a razor, which he had concealed for that purpose. Though he was much weakened by the effusion of blood, before this attempt was discovered, yet, as the instrument had missed the artery, he did not expire until he was carried to the gibbet, and underwent the sentence of the law. His body was conveyed to Knaresborough-forest, and hung in chains, near the place where the murder was perpetrated.--These are some of the most remarkable that appeared amongst many other instances of homicide: a crime that prevails to a degree alike deplorable and surprising, even in a nation renowned for compassion and placability. But this will generally be the case among people whose passions, naturally impetuous, are ill restrained by laws, and the regulations of civil society; which the licentious do not fear, and the wicked hope to evade.
MAJORITY OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.
The prince of Wales having, in the beginning of June, entered the two-and-twentieth year of his age, the anniversary of his birth was celebrated with great rejoicings at court, and the king received compliments of congratulation on the majority of a prince, who seemed born to fulfil the hopes, and complete the happiness, of Great Britain. The city of London presented an address to the king on this occasion, replete with expressions of loyalty and affection, assuring his majesty, that no hostile threats could intimidate a people animated by the love of liberty, who, confiding in the Divine Providence, and in his majesty’s experienced wisdom and vigorous councils, were resolved to exert their utmost efforts towards enabling their sovereign to repel the insults and defeat the attempts made by the ancient enemies of his crown and kingdom. Congratulations of the same kind were offered by other cities, towns, corporations, and communities, who vied with each other in professions of attachment; and, indeed, there was not the least trace of disaffection perceivable at this juncture in any part of the island.
A NEW BRIDGE AT BLACKFRIARS.
So little were the citizens of London distressed by the expense, or incommoded by the operations of the war, that they found leisure to plan, and funds to execute, magnificent works of art, for the ornament of the metropolis, and the convenience of commerce. They had obtained an act of parliament, empowering them to build a new bridge over the Thames, from Blackfriars to the opposite shore, about midway between those of London and Westminster. Commissioners were appointed to put this act in execution; and, at a court of common-council, it was resolved that a sum not exceeding one hundred and forty-four thousand pounds should be forthwith raised, within the space of eight years, by instalments, not exceeding thirty thousand pounds in one year, to be paid into the chamber of London; that the persons advancing the money should have an interest at the rate of four pounds per cent, per annum, to be paid half-yearly by the chamberlain, yet redeemable at the expiration of the first ten years; and that the chamberlain should affix the city’s seal to such instruments as the committee might think fit to give for securing the payment of the said annuities. Such were the first effectual steps taken towards the execution of a laudable measure, which met with the most obstinate opposition in the sequel, from the narrow views of particular people, as well as from the prejudice of party.
FIRE IN CORNHILL.
The spirit that now animated the citizens of London was such as small difficulties did not retard, and even considerable losses could not discourage. In the month of November the city was exposed to a dangerous conflagration, kindled in the night by accident in the neighbourhood of the Royal Exchange, which burned with great fury, and, notwithstanding the assistance of the firemen and engines, employed under the personal direction of the magistracy, consumed a great number of houses, and damaged many more. That whole quarter of the town was filled with consternation: some individuals were beggared; one or two perished in the flames, and some were buried in the ruins of the houses that sunk under the disaster.
METHOD CONTRIVED TO FIND OUT THE LONGITUDE.
The ferment of mind so peculiar to the natives of Great Britain, excited by a strange mixture of genius and caprice, passion and philosophy, study and conjecture, produced at this period some flowers of improvement, in different arts and sciences, that seemed to promise fruit of public utility. Several persons invented methods for discovering the longitude at sea, that great _desideratum_ in navigation, for the ascertainment of which so many nations have offered a public recompense, and in the investigation of which so many mathematical heads have been disordered. Some of those who now appeared candidates for the prize deserved encouragement for the ingenuity of their several systems; but he who seemed to enjoy’ the pre-eminence in the opinion and favour of the public was Mr. Irwin, a native of Ireland, who contrived a chair so artfully poised, that a person sitting in it on board a ship, even in a rough sea, can, through a telescope, observe the immersion and emersion of Jupiter’s satellites, without being interrupted or incommoded by the motion of the vessel. This gentleman was favoured with the assistance and protection of commodore lord Howe, in whose presence the experiment was tried in several ships at sea with such success, that he granted a certificate, signifying his approbation; and in consequence of this, Mr. Irwin is said to have obtained a considerable reward from the board of admiralty.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
INSTALLATION AT OXFORD.
The people of England, happy in their situation, felt none of the storms of war and desolation which ravaged the neighbouring countries; but, enriched by a surprising augmentation of commerce, enjoyed all the security of peace, and all the pleasures of taste and affluence. The university of Oxford having conferred the office of their chancellor, vacant by the death of the earl of Arran, upon another nobleman of equal honour and integrity, namely, the earl of Westmoreland, he made a public entrance into that celebrated seat of learning with great magnificence, and was installed amidst the Encaenia, which were celebrated with such classical elegance of pomp, as might have rivalled the chief Roman festival of the Augustan age. The chancellor elect was attended by a splendid train of the nobility and persons of distinction. The city of Oxford was filled with a vast concourse of strangers. The processions were contrived with taste, and conducted with decorum. The installation was performed with the most striking solemnity. The congratulatory verses and public speeches breathed the spirit of old Rome; and the ceremony was closed by Dr. King, that venerable sage of St. Mary Hall, who pronounced an oration in praise of the new chancellor with all the flow of Tully, animated by the fire of Demosthenes.
We shall conclude the remarkable incidents of this year:*
* In the spring of the year the liberal arts sustained a lamentable loss in the death of George Frederick Handel, the most celebrated master in music which this age had produced. He was by birth a German; but had studied in Italy, and afterwards settled in England, where he met with the most favourable reception, and resided above half a century, universally admired for his stupendous genius in the sublime parts of musical composition.
One would be apt to imagine, that there was something in the constitution of the air at this period, which was
## particularly unfavourable to old age; inasmuch as, in the
compass of a few months, the following persons, remarkable for their longevity, died in the kingdom of Scotland. William Barnes, who had been above seventy years a servant in the family of Brodie, died there, at the age of one hundred and nine. Catherine Mackenzie died in Ross-shire, at the age of one hundred and eighteen. Janet Blair, deceased at Monemusk, in the shire of Aberdeen, turned of one hundred and twelve. Alexander Stephens, in Banffshire, at the age of one hundred and eight. Janet Harper, of Bainsholes, at the age of one hundred and seven. Daniel Cameron, in Rannaeh, married when he was turned of one hundred, and survived his marriage thirty years.
These are detached from the prosecution of the war, with the detail of an event equally surprising and deplorable:--A sloop called the Dolphin, bound from the Canaries to New York, met with such unfavourable weather, that she was detained one hundred and sixty-five days in the passage, and the provision of the ship was altogether expended before the first fifty days were elapsed. The wretched crew had devoured their dog, cat, and all their shoes on board: at length, being reduced to the utmost extremity, they agreed to cast lots for their lives, that the body of him upon whom the lot should fall might serve for some time to support the survivors. The wretched victim was one Antoni Ga-latia, a Spanish gentleman and passenger. Him they shot with a musket; and having cut off his head, threw it overboard; but the entrails and the rest of the carcase they greedily devoured. This horrid banquet having, as it were, fleshed the famished crew, they began to talk of another sacrifice, from which, however, they were diverted by the influence and remonstrances of their captain, who prevailed upon them to be satisfied with a miserable allowance to each per diem, cut from a pair of leather breeches found in the cabin. Upon this calamitous pittance, reinforced with the grass which grew plentifully upon the deck, these poor objects made shift to subsist for twenty days, at the expiration of which they were relieved, and taken on board by one captain Bradshaw, who chanced to fall in with them at sea. By this time the whole crew, consisting of seven men, were so squalid and emaciated, as to exhibit an appearance at once piteous and terrible; and so reduced in point of strength, that it was found necessary to use ropes and tackle for hoisting them from one ship to the other. The circumstance of the lot falling upon the Spaniard, who was the only foreigner on board, encourages a suspicion that foul play was offered to this unfortunate stranger; but the most remarkable part of this whole incident is, that the master and crew could not contrive some sort of tackle to catch fish, with which the sea every where abounds, and which, no doubt, might be caught with the help of a little ingenuity. If implements of this kind were provided in every ship, they would probably prevent all those tragical events at sea that are occasioned by famine.
CAPTURES MADE BY CRUISERS.
Previous to the more capital operations in war, we shall particularize the most remarkable captures that were made upon the enemy by single ships of war, during the course of this summer and autumn. In the month of February, a French privateer belonging to Granville, called the Marquis de Marigny, having on board near two hundred men, and mounted with twenty cannon, was taken by captain Parker, commander of his majesty’s ship the Montague; who likewise made prize of a smaller armed vessel, from Dunkirk, of eight cannon and sixty men. About the same period, captain Graves, of the Unicorn, brought in the Moras privateer, of St. Maloes, carrying two hundred men, and two-and-twenty cannon. Two large merchant-ships, laden on the French king’s account for Martinique, with provisions, clothing, and arms, for the troops on that island, were taken by captain Lendrick, commander of the Brilliant; and an English transport from St. John’s, having four hundred French prisoners on board, perished near the Western islands. Within the circle of the same month, a large French ship from St. Domingo, richly laden, fell in with the Favourite ship of war, and was carried into Gibraltar.
In the month of February, captain Hood, of his majesty’s frigate the Vestal, belonging to a small squadron commanded by admiral Holmes, who had sailed for the West Indies in January, being advanced a considerable way ahead of the fleet, descried and gave chase to a sail, which proved to be a French frigate called the Bellona, of two hundred and twenty men, and two-and-thirty great guns, commanded by the count de Beauhonoire. Captain Hood, having made a signal to the admiral, continued the chase until he advanced within half musket-shot of the enemy, and then poured in a broadside, which was immediately retorted. The engagement thus begun was maintained with great vigour on both sides for the space of four hours; at the expiration of which the Bellona struck, after having lost all her masts and rigging, together with about forty men killed in the action. Nor was the victor in a much better condition. Thirty men were killed and wounded on board the Vestal. Immediately after the enemy submitted, all her rigging being destroyed by the shot, the topmasts fell overboard; and she was otherwise so much damaged, that she could not proceed on her voyage. Captain Hood, therefore, returned with his prize to Spithead; and afterwards met with a gracious reception from his majesty, on account of the valour and conduct he had displayed on this occasion. The Bellona had sailed in January from the island of Martinique, along with the Florissant, and another French frigate, from which she had been separated in the passage. Immediately after this exploit, captain Elliot, of the AEolus frigate, accompanied by the Isis, made prize of a French ship, the Mignonne, of twenty guns, and one hundred and forty men, one of four frigates employed as convoy to a large fleet of merchant-ships, near the island of Rhé.
In the month of March, the English frigates the Southampton and Melampe, commanded by the captains Gilchrist and Hotham, being at sea to the northward on a cruise, fell in with the Danaë, a French ship of forty cannon, and three hundred and thirty men, which was engaged by captain Hotham in a ship of half the force, who maintained the battle a considerable time with admirable gallantry, before his consort could come to his assistance. As they fought in the dark, captain Gilchrist was obliged to lie by for some time, because he could not distinguish the one from the other; but no sooner did the day appear, than he bore down upon the Danaë with his usual impetuosity, and soon compelled her to surrender: she did not strike, however, until thirty or forty of her men were slain; and the gallant captain Gilchrist received a grape-shot in his shoulder, which, though it did not deprive him of life, yet rendered him incapable of future service: a misfortune the more to be lamented, as it happened to a brave officer in the vigour of his age, and in the midst of a sanguinary war, which might have afforded him many other opportunities of signalizing his courage for the honour and advantage of his country. Another remarkable exploit was achieved about the same juncture by captain Barrington, commander of the ship Achilles, mounted with sixty cannon; who, to the westward of Cape Finisterre, encountered a French ship of equal force, called the Count de Saint Florintin, bound from Cape François, on the island of Hispaniola, to Rochefort, under the command of the sieur de Montay, who was obliged to strike, after a close and obstinate engagement, in which he himself was mortally wounded, a great number of his men slain, and his ship so damaged, that she was with difficulty brought into Falmouth. Captain Barrington obtained the victory at the expense of about five-and-twenty men killed and wounded, and all his rigging, which the enemy’s shot rendered useless. Two small privateers from Dunkirk were also taken: one called the Marquis de Bareil, by the Brilliant, which carried her into Kin-sale in Ireland; the other called the Carrilloneur, which struck to the Grace cutter, assisted by the boats of the ship Rochester, commanded by captain Duff, who sent her into the Downs.
About the latter end of March, captain Samuel Falkner, in the ship Windsor, of sixty guns, cruising to the westward, discovered four large ships to leeward, which, when he approached them, formed the line of battle ahead, in order to give him a warm reception. He accordingly closed with the sternmost ship, which sustained his fire about an hour: then the other three bearing away with all the sail they could carry, she struck her colours, and was conducted to Lisbon. She proved to be the Duc de Chartres, pierced for sixty cannon, though at that time carrying no more than four-and-twenty, with a complement of three hundred men, about thirty of whom were killed in the action. She belonged, with the other three that escaped, to the French East India company, was laden with gunpowder and naval stores, and bound for Pondicherry. Two privateers, called Le Chasseur and Le Conquérant, the one from Dunkirk, and the other from Cherbourg, were taken and carried into Plymouth by captain Hughes, of his majesty’s frigate the Tamer. A third, called the Despatch, from Morlaix, was brought into Penzance by the Diligence sloop, under the command of captain Eastwood. A fourth, called the Basque, from Bayonne, furnished with two-and-twenty guns, and above two hundred men, fell into the hands of captain Parker of the Brilliant, who conveyed her into Plymouth. Captain Antrobus of the Surprise, took the Vieux, a privateer of Bourdeaux; and a fifth, from Dunkirk, struck to captain Knight of the Liverpool, off Yarmouth. In the month of May, a French frigate called the Arethusa, mounted with two-and-thirty cannon, manned with a large complement of hands under the command of the marquis de Vaudreuil, submitted to two British frigates, the Venus and the Thames, commanded by the captains Harrison and Colby, after a warm engagement, in which sixty men were killed and wounded on the side of the enemy. In the beginning of June, an armed ship belonging to Dunkirk was brought into the Downs by captain Angel, of the Stag; and a privateer of force, called the Countess de la Serre, was subdued and taken, after an obstinate action, by captain Moore, of his majesty’s ship the Adventure.
PRIZES TAKEN IN THE WEST INDIES.
Several armed ships of the enemy, and rich prizes, were taken in the West Indies, particularly two French frigates, and two Dutch ships with French commodities, all richly laden, by some of the ships of the squadron which vice-admiral Coats commanded on the Jamaica station. A fifth, called the Velour, from St. Domingo, with a valuable cargo on board, being fortified with twenty cannon, and above one hundred men, fell in with the Favourite sloop of war, under the command of captain Edwards, who, after’ art obstinate dispute, carried her in triumph to Gibraltar. At St. Christopher’s, in the West Indies, captain Collingwood, commander of the king’s ship the Crescent, attacked two French frigates, the Améthyste and Berkeley; the former of which escaped, after a warm engagement, in which the Crescent’s rigging was so much damaged that she could not pursue; but the other was taken, and conveyed into the harbour of Basseterre. Notwithstanding the vigilance and courage of the English cruisers in those seas, the French privateers swarmed to such a degree, that in the course of this year they took above two hundred sail of British ships, valued at six hundred thousand pounds sterling. This their success is the more remarkable, as by this time the island of Guadaloupe was in possession of the English, and commodore Moore commanded a numerous squadron in those very latitudes.
ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE HERCULES AND THE FLORISSANT.
In the beginning of October, the Hercules ship of war, mounted with seventy-four guns, under the command of captain Porter, cruising in the chops of the channel, descried to windward a large ship, which proved to be the Florissant, of the same force with the Hercules. Her commander, perceiving the English ship giving chase, did not seem to decline the action, but bore down upon her in a slanting direction, and the engagement began with great fury. In a little time, the Hercules having lost her top-mast, and all her rigging being shot away, the enemy took advantage of this disaster, made the best of his way, and was pursued till eight o’clock next morning, when he escaped behind the isle of Oleron. Captain Porter was wounded in the head with a grape-shot, and lost the use of one leg in the engagement.
HAVRE-DE-GRACE BOMBARDED.
Having taken notice of all the remarkable captures and exploits that were made and achieved by single ships since the commencement of the present year, we shall now proceed to describe the actions that were performed in this period by the different squadrons that constituted the naval power of Great Britain. Intelligence having been received that the enemy meditated an invasion upon some of the British territories, and that a number of flat-bottomed boats were prepared at Havre-de-Grace, for the purpose of disembarking troops, rear-admiral Rodney was, in the beginning of July, detached with a small squadron of ships and bombs to annoy and overawe that part of the coast of France. He accordingly anchored in the road of Havre, and made a disposition to execute the instructions he had received. The bomb vessels, being placed in the narrow channel of the river leading to Ronfleur, began to throw their shells, and continued the bombardment for two-and-fifty hours, without intermission, during which a numerous body of French troops were employed in throwing up intrenchments, erecting new batteries, and firing both with shot and shells upon the assailants. The town was set on fire in several places, and burned with great fury; some of the boats were overturned, and a few of them reduced to ashes, while the inhabitants forsook the place in the utmost consternation: nevertheless, the damage done to the enemy was too inconsiderable to make amends for the expense of the armament, and the loss of nineteen hundred shells and eleven hundred carcasses, which were expended in this expedition. Bombardments of this kind are at best but expensive and unprofitable operations, and may be deemed a barbarous method of prosecuting war, inasmuch as the damage falls upon the wretched inhabitants, who have given no cause of offence, and who are generally spared by a humane enemy, unless they have committed some particular act of provocation.
BOSCAWEN DEFEATS M. DE LA CLUE.
The honour of the British flag was much more effectually asserted by the gallant admiral Boscawen, who, as we have already observed, was intrusted with the conduct of a squadron in the Mediterranean. It must be owned, however, that his first attempt savoured of temerity. Having in vain displayed the British flag in sight of Toulon, by way of defiance to the French fleet that lay there at anchor, he ordered three ships of the line, commanded by the captains Smith, Harland, and Barker, to advance and burn two ships that lay close to the mouth of the harbour. They accordingly approached with great intrepidity, and met with a very warm reception from divers batteries, which they had not before perceived. Two small forts they attempted to destroy, and cannonaded for some time with great fury; but being overmatched by superior force, and the wind subsiding into a calm, they sustained considerable damage, and were towed off with great difficulty in a very shattered condition. The admiral seeing three of his best ships so roughly handled in this enterprise, returned to Gibraltar in order to refit; and M. de la Clue, the French commander of the squadron at Toulon, seized this opportunity of sailing, in hopes of passing the Straits’ mouth unobserved, his fleet consisting of twelve large ships and three frigates. Admiral Boscawen, who commanded fourteen sail of the line with two frigates, and as many fire-ships, having refitted his squadron, detached one frigate to cruise off Malaga, and another to hover between Estepona and Ceuta-point, with a view to keep a good look-out, and give timely notice in case the enemy should approach. On the seventeenth day of August, at eight in the evening, the Gibraltar frigate made a signal that fourteen sail appeared on the Barbary shore, to the eastward of Ceuta; upon which the English admiral immediately heaved up his anchors and went to sea. At day-light he descried seven large ships lying-to; but when the English squadron forbore to answer their signal, they discovered their mistake, set all their sails, and made the best of their way. This was the greater part of the French squadron, commanded by M. de la Clue, from whom five of his large ships and three frigates had separated in the night. Even now, perhaps, he might have escaped, had he not been obliged to wait for the Souveraine, which was a heavy sailer. At noon the wind, which had blown a heavy gale, died away, and although admiral Boscawen had made signal to chase, and engage in a line of battle ahead, it was not till half an hour after two that some of his headmost ships could close with the rear of the enemy, which, though greatly out-numbered, fought with uncommon bravery. The English admiral, without waiting to return the fire of the sternmost, which he received as he passed, used all his endeavours to come up with the Ocean, which M. de la Clue commanded in person; and about four o’clock in the afternoon, running athwart her hawse, poured into her a furious broadside: thus the engagement began with equal vigour on both sides. This dispute, however, was of short duration. In about half an hour admiral Boscawen’s mizen-mast and topsail-yards were shot away, and the enemy hoisted all the sail they could carry. Mr. Boscawen having shifted his flag from the Namur to the Newark, joined some other ships in attacking the Centaur, of seventy-four guns, which, being thus overpowered, was obliged to surrender. The British admiral pursued them all night, during which the Souveraine and the Guerrier altered their course, and deserted their commander. At day-break, M. de la Clue, whose left leg had been broke in the engagement, perceiving the English squadron crowding all their sails to come up with him, and finding himself on the coast of Portugal, determined to burn his ships rather than they should fall into the hands of the victors. The Ocean was run ashore two leagues from Lagos, near the fort of Almadana, the commander of which fired three shots at the English; another captain of the French squadron followed the example of his commander, and both endeavoured to disembark their men; but the sea being rough, this proved a very tedious and difficult attempt. The captains of the Téméraire and Modeste, instead of destroying their ships, anchored as near as they could to the forts Xavier and Lagres, in hopes of enjoying their protection; but in this hope they were disappointed. M. de la Clue had been landed, and the command of the Ocean was left to the count de Carne, who, having received one broadside from the America, struck his colours, and the English took possession of this noble prize, the best ship in the French navy, mounted with eighty cannon. Captain Bentley of the Warspite, who had remarkably signalized himself by his courage during the action of the preceding day, attacked the Téméraire, of seventy-four guns, and brought her off with little damage. Vice-admiral Broderick, the second in command, advancing with his division, burned the Redoubtable, of seventy-four guns, which was bulged, and abandoned by her men and officers; but they made prize of the Modeste, carrying sixty-four guns, which had not been much injured in the engagement. This victory was obtained by the English admiral at a very small expense of men; the whole number of the killed and wounded not exceeding two hundred and fifty on board of the British squadron, though the carnage among the enemy must have been much more considerable, as M. de la Clue, in his letter to the French ambassador at Lisbon, owned, that on board of his own ship, the Ocean, one hundred men were killed on the spot, and seventy dangerously wounded. But the most severe circumstance of this disaster was the loss of four capital ships, two of which were destroyed, and the other two brought in triumph to England, to be numbered among the best bottoms of the British navy. What augmented the good fortune of the victors was, that not one officer lost his Life in the engagement. Captain Bentley, whom the admiral despatched to England with the tidings of his success, met with a gracious reception from the king, who knighted him for his gallantry.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
PREPARATIONS MADE BY THE FRENCH FOR INVADING ENGLAND.
As we propose to throw together all the naval transactions of the year, especially those that happened in the European seas, that they may be comprehended, as it were, in one view, we must now, without regarding the order of time, postpone many previous events of importance, and record the last action by sea, that in the course of this year distinguished the flag of Great Britain. The court of Versailles, in order to embarrass the British ministry, and divert their attention from all external expeditions, had in the winter projected a plan for invading some part of the British dominions; and in the beginning of the year had actually begun to make preparations on different parts of their coast for carrying this design into execution. Even as far back as the latter end of May, messages from the king to both houses of parliament were delivered by the earl of Holdernesse and Mr. Pitt, the two secretaries of state, signifying that his majesty had received advices of preparations making by the French court, with a design to invade Great Britain: that though persuaded, by the universal zeal and affection of his people, any such attempt must, under the blessing of God, end in the destruction of those who engaged in it; yet he apprehended he should not act consistent with that paternal care and concern which he had always shown for the safety and preservation of his subjects, if he omitted any means in his power which might be necessary for their defence: he, therefore, acquainted the parliament with his having received repeated intelligence of the enemy’s preparations, to the end that his majesty might, if he should think proper, in pursuance of the late act of parliament, cause the militia, or such parts thereof as should be necessary, to be drawn out and embodied, in order to march as occasion should require. These messages were no sooner read, than each house separately resolved to present an address, thanking his majesty for having communicated this intelligence; assuring him, that they would, with their lives and fortunes, support him against all attempts whatever; that, warmed with affection and zeal for his person and government, and animated by indignation at the daring designs of an enemy whose fleet had hitherto shunned the terror of the British navy, they would cheerfully exert their utmost efforts to repel all insults, and effectually enable their sovereign not only to disappoint the attempts of France, but, by the blessing of God, turn them to their own confusion. The commons at the same time resolved upon another address, desiring his majesty would give directions to his lieutenants of the several counties, ridings, and places within South Britain, to use their utmost diligence and attention in executing the several acts of parliament made for the better ordering the militia.
ACCOUNT OF THUROT.
These and other precautionary steps were accordingly taken; but the administration wisely placed their chief dependence upon the strength of the navy, part of which was so divided and stationed as to block up all the harbours of France in which the enemy were known to prepare any naval armament of consequence. We have seen in what manner rear-admiral Rodney visited the town and harbour of Havre-de-Grace, and scoured that part of the coast in successive cruises: we have also recorded the expedition and victory of admiral Boscawen over the squadron of La Clue, which was equipped at Toulon, with a design to assist in the projected invasion. Not withstanding this disaster, the French ministry persisted in their design; towards the execution of which they had prepared another considerable fleet, in the harbours of Rochefort, Brest, and Port-Louis, to be commanded by M. de Conflans, and reinforced by a considerable body of troops, which were actually assembled under the duc d’Aiguillon, at Vannes, in Lower Bretagne. Flat-bottomed boats and transports to be used in this expedition, were prepared in different ports on the coast of France: and a small squadron was equipped at Dunkirk, under the command of an enterprising adventurer called Thurot, who had, in the course of the preceding year, signalized his courage and conduct in a large privateer called the Belleisle, which had scoured the North Seas, taken a number of ships, and at one time maintained an obstinate battle against two English frigates, which were obliged to desist, after having received considerable damage. This man’s name became a terror to the merchants of Great Britain; for his valour was not more remarkable in battle than his conduct in eluding the pursuit of the British cruisers, who were successively detached in quest of him, through every part of the German Ocean and North Sea, as far as the islands of Orkney. It must be likewise owned, for the honour of human nature, that this bold mariner, though destitute of the advantages of birth and education, was remarkably distinguished by his generosity and compassion to those who had the misfortune to fall into his power; and that his deportment in every respect entitled him to a much more honourable rank in the service of his country. The court of Versailles was not insensible to his merit. He obtained a commission from the French king, and was vested with the command of the small armament now fitting out in the harbour of Dunkirk. The British government, being apprized of all these particulars, took such measures to defeat the purposed invasion, as must have conveyed a very high idea of the power of Great Britain, to those who considered, that, exclusive of the force opposed to this design, they at the same time carried on the most vigorous and important operations of war in Germany, America, the East and West Indies. Thurot’s armament at Dunkirk was watched by an English squadron in the Downs, commanded by commodore Boys; the port of Havre was guarded by rear-admiral Rodney; Mr. Boscawen had been stationed off Toulon, and the coast of Vannes was scoured by a small squadron detached from sir Edward Hawke, who had, during the summer, blocked up the harbour of Brest, where Conflans lay with his fleet, in order to be joined by the other divisions of the armament. These different squadrons of the British navy were connected by a chain of separate cruisers; so that the whole coast of France, from Dunkirk to the extremity of Bretagne, was distressed by an actual blockade.
FRENCH FLEET SAILS FROM BREST.
The French fleet being thus hampered, forbore their attempt upon Britain; and the projected invasion seemed to hang in suspense till the month of August, in the beginning of which their army in Germany was defeated at Minden. Their designs in that country being baffled by this disaster, they seemed to convert their chief attention to their sea armament; the preparations were resumed with redoubled vigour; and, even after the defeat of La Clue, they resolved to try their fortune in a descent. They now proposed to disembark a body of troops in Ireland. Thurot received orders to sail from Dunkirk with the first opportunity, and shape his course round the northern parts of Scotland, that he might alarm the coast of Ireland, and make a diversion from that part where Conflans intended to effectuate the disembarkation of his forces. The transports and ships of war were assembled at Brest and Rochefort, having on board a train of artillery, with saddles, and other accoutrements for cavalry, to be mounted in Ireland; and a body of French troops, including part of the Irish brigade, was kept in readiness to embark. The execution of this scheme was, however, prevented by the vigilance of sir Edward Hawke, who blocked up the harbour of Brest with a fleet of twenty-three capital ships; while another squadron of smaller ships and frigates, under the command of captain Duff, continued to cruise along the French coast, from Port L’Orient in Bretagne, to the point of St. Gilles in Poitou. At length, however, in the beginning of November, the British squadron, commanded by sir Edward Hawke, sir Charles Hardy, and rear-admiral Geary, were driven from the coast of France by stress of weather, and on the ninth day of the month anchored in Torbay. The French admiral, Conflans, snatched this opportunity of sailing from Brest, with one-and-twenty sail of the line and four frigates, in hopes of being able to destroy the English squadron commanded by captain Duff, before the large fleet could return from the coast of England. Sir Edward Hawke, having received intelligence that the French fleet had sailed from Brest, immediately stood to sea in order to pursue them; and, in the meantime, the government issued orders for guarding all those parts of the coast that were thought the most exposed to a descent. The land-forces were put in motion, and quartered along the shore of Kent and Sussex: all the ships of war in the different harbours, even those that had just arrived from America, were ordered to put to sea, and every step was taken to disconcert the designs of the enemy.
ADMIRAL HAWKE DEFEATS M. DE CONFLANS.
While these measures were taken with equal vigour and deliberation, sir Edward Hawke steered his course directly for Quiberon, on the coast of Bretagne, which he supposed would be the rendezvous of the French squadron: but, notwithstanding his utmost efforts, he was driven by a hard gale considerably to the westward, where he was joined by two frigates, the Maidstone and the Coventry. These he directed to keep ahead of the squadron. The weather growing more moderate, the former made the signal for seeing a fleet on the twentieth day of November, at half an hour past eight o’clock in the morning, and in an hour afterwards discovered them to be the enemy’s squadron. They were at that time in chase of captain Duff’s squadron, which now joined the large fleet, after having run some risk of being taken. Sir Edward Hawke, who, when the Maidstone gave the first notice, had formed the line abreast, now perceiving that the French admiral endeavoured to escape with all the sail he could carry, threw out a signal for seven of his ships that were nearest the enemy to chase, and endeavour to detain them, until they could be reinforced by the rest of the squadron, which were ordered to form into a line-of-battle ahead, as they chased, that no time might be lost in the pursuit. Considering the roughness of the weather, which was extremely tempestuous; the nature of the coast, which is in this place rendered very hazardous by a great number of sand-banks, shoals, rocks, and islands, as entirely unknown to the British sailors as they were familiar to the French navigators; the dangers of a short day, dark night, and lee-shore--it required extraordinary resolution in the English admiral to attempt hostilities on this occasion: but sir Edward Hawke, steeled with the integrity and fortitude of his own heart, animated by a warm love for his country, and well acquainted with the importance of the stake on which the safety of that country in a great measure depended, was resolved to run extraordinary risks in his endeavours to frustrate, at once, a boasted scheme projected for the annoyance of his fellow-subjects. With respect to his ships of the line, he had but the advantage of one in point of number, and no superiority in men or metal; consequently, M. de Conflans might have hazarded a fair battle on the open sea, without any imputation of temerity; but he thought proper to play a more artful game, though it did not succeed according to his expectation. He kept his fleet in a body, and retired close in shore, with a view to draw the English squadron among the shoals and islands, on which he hoped they would pay dear for their rashness and impetuosity, while he and his officers, who were perfectly acquainted with the navigation, could either stay and take advantage of the disaster, or, if hard pressed, retire through channels unknown to the British pilots. At half an hour after two, the van of the English fleet began the engagement with the rear of the enemy, in the neighbourhood of Belleisle. Every ship, as she advanced, poured in a broadside on the sternmost of the French, and bore down upon their van, leaving the rear to those that came after. Sir Edward Hawke, in the Royal George, of one hundred and ten guns, reserved his fire in passing through the rear of the enemy, and ordered his master to bring him alongside of the French admiral, who commanded in person on board the Soliel Royal, a ship mounted with eighty cannon, and provided with a complement of twelve hundred men. When the pilot remonstrated that he could not obey his command without the most imminent risk of running upon a shoal, the veteran replied, “You have done your duty in showing the danger; now you are to comply with my order, and lay me alongside the Soleil Royal.” His wish was gratified: the Royal George ranged up with the French admiral. The Thesée, another large ship of the enemy, running up between the two commanders, sustained the fire that was reserved for the Soliel Royal; but in returning the first broadside foundered, in consequence of the high sea that entered her lower deck-ports, and filled her with water. Notwithstanding the boisterous weather, a great number of ships on both sides fought with equal fury and dubious success, till about four in the afternoon, when the Formidable struck her colours. The Superb shared the fate of the Thésée in going to the bottom. The Hero hauled down her colours in token of submission, and dropped anchor; but the wind was so high that no boat could be sent to take possession, By this time day-light began to fail, and the greater part of the French fleet escaped under cover of the darkness. Night approaching, the wind blowing with augmented violence on a lee-shore, and the British squadron being entangled among unknown shoals and islands, sir Edward Hawke made the signal for anchoring to the westward of the small island Dumet; and here the fleet remained all night in a very dangerous riding, alarmed by the fury of the storm, and the incessant firing of guns of distress, without their knowing whether it proceeded from friend or enemy. The Soliel Royal had, under favour of the night, anchored also in the midst of the British squadron; but at day-break M. de Conflans ordered her cable to be cut, and she drove ashore to the westward of Crozie. The English admiral immediately made signal to the Essex to slip cable and pursue her; and, in obeying this order, she ran unfortunately on a sand-bank called Lefour, where the Resolution, another ship of the British squadron, was already grounded. Here they were both irrecoverably lost, in spite of all the assistance that could be given; but all their men, and part of their stores, were saved, and the wrecks were set on fire by order of the admiral. He likewise detached the Portland, Chatham, and Vengeance, to destroy the Soleil Royal, which was burned by her own people before the English ships could approach; but they arrived in time enough to reduce the Hero to ashes on the Lefour, where she had been also stranded; and the Juste, another of their great ships, perished in the mouth of the Loire. The admiral, perceiving seven large ships of the enemy riding at anchor between Point Penvas and the mouth of the river Vilaine, made the signal to weigh, in order to attack them; but the fury of the storm increased to such a degree, that he was obliged to remain at anchor, and even ordered the top-gallant masts to be struck. In the meantime, the French ships being lightened of their cannon, their officers took advantage of the flood, and a more moderate gale under the land, to enter the Vilaine, where they lay within half a mile of the entrance, protected by some occasional batteries erected on the shore, and by two large frigates moored across the mouth of the harbour. Thus they were effectually secured from any attempts of small vessels; and as for large ships, there was not water sufficient to float them within fighting distance of the enemy. On the whole, this battle, in which a very considerable number of lives was lost, may be considered as one of the most perilous and important actions that ever happened in any war between the two nations; for it not only defeated the projected invasion, which had hung menacing so long over the apprehensions of Great Britain; but it gave the finishing blow to the naval power of France, which was totally disabled from undertaking anything of consequence in the sequel.*
* During this war, the English had already taken and destroyed twenty-seven French ships of the line, and thirty- one frigates: two of their great ships and four frigates perished; so that their whole loss, in this particular, amounted to sixty-four: whereas, the loss of Great Britain did not exceed seven sail of the line and five frigates. It may be easily conceived how the French marine, at first greatly inferior to the naval power of Britain, must have been affected by this dreadful balance to its prejudice.
By this time, indeed, Thurot had escaped from Dunkirk, and directed his course to the North Sea, whither he was followed by commodore Boys, who nevertheless was disappointed in his pursuit; but the fate of that enterprising adventurer falls under the annals of the ensuing year, among the transactions of which it shall be recorded. As for sir Edward Hawke, he continued cruising off the coast of Bretagne for a considerable time after the victory he had obtained, taking particular care to block up the mouth of the river Vilaine, that the seven French ships might not escape and join M. Conflans, who made shift to reach Rochefort with the shattered remains of his squadron. Indeed, this service became such a considerable object in the eyes of the British ministry, that a large fleet was maintained upon this coast, apparently for no other purpose, during a whole year; and, after all, the enemy eluded their vigilance. Sir Edward Hawke, having undergone a long and dangerous conflict with tempestuous weather, was at length recalled, and presented to his sovereign, who gratified him with a considerable pension, for the courage and conduct he had so often and so long displayed in the service of his country; and his extraordinary merit was afterwards honoured with the approbation of the parliament. The people of France were so dispirited by the defeat of their army at Minden, and the disaster of their squadron at Lagos, that the ministry of Versailles thought proper to conceal the extent of their last misfortunes under a palliating detail published in the gazette of Paris, as a letter from M. Conflans to the count de St. Florentin, secretary of the marine. In this
## partial misrepresentation, their admiral was made to affirm, that the
British fleet consisted of forty ships of the line of battle, besides frigates; that the Soleil Royal had obliged the Royal George to sheer off; that the seven ships which retreated into the river Vilaine had received very little damage, and would be soon repaired; and that, by the junction of Bompart’s squadron, he should be soon able to give a good account of the English admiral. These tumid assertions, so void of truth, are not to be imputed to an illiberal spirit of vain glory, so much as to a political design of extenuating the national calamity, and supporting the spirit of the people.
THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.
The alarm of the French invasion, which was thus so happily frustrated, not only disturbed the quiet of Great Britain, but also diffused itself to the kingdom of Ireland, where it was productive of some public disorder. In the latter end of October, the two houses of parliament, assembled at Dublin, received a formal message from the duke of Bedford, lord-lieutenant of that kingdom, to the following effect: That, by a letter from the secretary of state, written by his majesty’s express command, it appeared that France, far from resigning her plan of invasion, on account of the disaster that befel her Toulon squadron, was more and more confirmed in her purpose, and even instigated by despair itself to attempt, at all hazards, the only resource she seemed to have left for thwarting, by a diversion at home, the measures of England abroad in prosecuting a war which hitherto opened, in all parts of the world, so unfavourable a prospect to the views of French ambition: that, in case the body of French troops, amounting to eighteen thousand men, under the command of the duc d’Aiguillon, assembled at Vannes, where also a sufficient number of transports was prepared, should be able to elude the British squadron, Ireland would, in all probability, be one of their chief objects; his grace thought it therefore incumbent upon him, in a matter of such high importance to the welfare of that kingdom, to communicate this intelligence to the Irish parliament. He told them, his majesty would make no doubt but that the zeal of his faithful protestant subjects in that kingdom had been already sufficiently quickened by the repeated accounts received of the enemy’s dangerous designs and actual preparations, made at a vast expense, in order to invade the several parts of the British dominions. He gave them to understand he had received his sovereign’s commands, to use his utmost endeavours to animate and excite his loyal people of Ireland to exert their well-known zeal and spirit in support of his majesty’s government, and in defence of all that was dear to them, by timely preparation to resist and frustrate any attempts of the enemy to disturb the quiet and shake the security of this kingdom; he therefore, in the strongest manner, recommended it to them to manifest, upon this occasion, that zeal for the present happy establishment, and that affection for his majesty’s person and government, by which the parliament of that nation had been so often distinguished. Immediately after this message was communicated, the house of commons unanimously resolved to present an address to the lord-lieutenant, thanking his grace for the care and concern he had shown for the safety of Ireland, in having imparted intelligence of so great importance; desiring him to make use of such means as should appear to him the most effectual for the security and defence of the kingdom; and assuring him, that the house would make good whatever expense should be necessarily incurred for that purpose. This intimation, and the steps that were taken in consequence of it for the defence of Ireland, produced such apprehensions and distraction among the people of that kingdom, as had well nigh proved fatal to the public credit. In the first transports of popular fear, there was such an extraordinary run upon the banks of Dublin, that several considerable bankers were obliged to stop payment; and the circulation was in danger of being suddenly stagnated, when the lord-lieutenant, the members of both houses of parliament, the lord-mayor, aldermen, merchants, and principal traders of Dublin, engaged in an association to support public credit, by taking the notes of bankers in payment: a resolution which effectually answered the purpose intended.
LOYALTY OF THE IRISH CATHOLICS.
Howsoever the court of Versailles might have flattered itself that their invading army would in Ireland be joined by a great number of the natives, in all probability it would have been disappointed in this hope, had their purposed descent even been carried into execution, for no signs of disaffection to the reigning family appeared at this juncture. On the contrary, the wealthy individuals of the Romish persuasion offered to accommodate the government with large sums of money, in case of necessity, to support the present establishment against all its enemies; and the Roman catholics of the city of Cork, in a body, presented an address to the lord-lieutenant, expressing their loyalty, in the warmest terms of assurance. After having congratulated his grace on the unparalleled success which had attended his majesty’s arms, and expressed their sense of the king’s paternal tenderness for his kingdom of Ireland, they acknowledged, with the deepest sense of gratitude, that protection and indulgence they had enjoyed under his majesty’s mild and auspicious reign. They professed the warmest indignation at the threatened invasion of the kingdom by an enemy, who, grown desperate from repeated defeats, might possibly make that attempt as a last effort, vainly flattered with the imaginary hope of assistance in Ireland, from the former attachment of their deluded predecessors. They assured his grace, in the most solemn manner, that such schemes were altogether inconsistent with their principles and intentions: that they would, to the utmost exertion of their abilities, with their lives and fortunes, join in the defence and support of his majesty’s royal person and government against all invaders whatsoever: that they should be always ready to concur in such measures, and to act such parts in defence of the kingdom, in common with the rest of his majesty’s subjects, as his grace in his great wisdom should be pleased to appoint; and think themselves particularly happy to be under the direction and command of so known an assertor of liberty, such an important and distinguished governor. Finally, they expressed the most earnest wish, that his majesty’s arms might be crowned with such a continuance of success as should enable him to defeat the devices of all his enemies, and obtain a speedy and honourable peace. This cordial address, which was transmitted to the earl of Shannon, and by him presented to the duke of Bedford, must have been very agreeable to the government at such a critical conjuncture.
INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN.
Although no traces of disaffection to his majesty’s family appeared on this trying occasion, it must nevertheless be acknowledged, that a spirit of dissatisfaction broke out with extraordinary violence among the populace of Dublin. The present lord-lieutenant was not remarkably popular in his administration. He had bestowed one place of considerable importance upon a gentleman whose person was obnoxious to many people in that kingdom, and perhaps failed in that affability and condescension which a free and ferocious nation expects to find in the character of him to whose rule they are subjected. Whether the offence taken at his deportment had created enemies to his person, or the nation in general began to entertain doubts and jealousies of the government’s designs, certain it is, great pains were taken to propagate a belief among the lower sort of people, that an union would soon be effected between Great Britain and Ireland; in which case this last kingdom would be deprived of its parliament and independency, and be subjected to the same taxes that are levied upon the people of England. This notion inflamed the populace to such a degree, that they assembled in a prodigious multitude, broke into the house of lords, insulted the peers, seated an old woman on the throne, and searched for the journals, which, had they been found, they would have committed to the flames. Not content with this outrage, they compelled the members of both houses, whom they met in the streets, to take an oath that they never would consent to such an union, or give any vote contrary to the true interest of Ireland. Divers coaches belonging to obnoxious persons were destroyed, and their horses killed; and a gibbet was erected for one gentleman in particular, who narrowly escaped the ungovernable rage of those riotous insurgents. A body of horse and infantry were drawn out on this occasion, in order to overawe the multitude, which at night dispersed of itself. Next day addresses to the lord-lieutenant were agreed to by both houses of parliament, and a committee of inquiry appointed, that the ringleaders of the tumult might be discovered and brought to condign punishment.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
ALARM OF A DESCENT IN SCOTLAND.
When the ministry of England received the first advice, that M. Thurot had escaped from Dunkirk with a small squadron of armed ships, having on board a body of land-troops, designed for a private expedition on the coast of Scotland or Ireland, expresses were immediately despatched to the commanding officers of the forces in North Britain, with orders to put the forts along the coast of that kingdom in the best posture of defence; and to hold every thing in readiness to repel the enemy, in case they should attempt a descent. In consequence of these instructions, beacons were erected for the immediate communication of intelligence; places of rendezvous appointed for the regular troops and militia; and strict orders issued that no officer should absent himself from his duty, on any pretence whatever. The greatest encomium that can be given to the character of this partisan, is an account of the alarm which the sailing of his puny armament spread through the whole extent of such a powerful kingdom, whose fleets covered the ocean. Perhaps Thurot’s career would have been sooner stopped, had commodore Boys been victualled for a longer cruise; but this commander was obliged to put into Leith for a supply of provisions, at the very time when Thurot was seen hovering on the coast near Aberdeen; and, before the English squadron was provided for the prosecution of the cruise, the other had taken shelter at Gottenburgh, in Sweden.
##