ufual, their fituation to be in the highest degree profpe rous and flourishing, and offered to the house a new proof of the truth of his affertions, by concluding his eulogium, without asking a loan to enable them to avoid the horrors of infolvency. Through the wife and equitable adminif tration of lord Cornwallis, the revenues of Bengal had been advanced during the laft year, without the aid of any new impofition, from one million eight hundred thousand pounds to two millions one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. His lordship, on his acceffion to the high office of governor general had ftated the fituation of the pro❤ vinces as moft wretched and deplorable. In his dispatch to the court of directors, dated August 2, 1789, he lays, "Independent of all other confiderations, it will be of the utmost importance for promoting the folid intereft of the company, that the principal landholders and traders in the interior parts of the country should be restored to fuch circumstances as to enable them to fupport their families with decency, according to the cuftoins of their feveral cafts and religions. I am forry to be obliged to fay, that agriculture and internal commerce have for many years been gradually declining; and that at prefent, excepting the clafs of Shroffs and Banians, who refide almost entirely in great towns, the inhabitants of these provinces were advancing haftily to a general state of po verty and wretchednefs. In this defcription I must include almost every zemindar in the company's territories." And in his council minute of September 18, 1789, his lordfhip writes, "I can fafely affert, that one third of the company's territory is now a jungle inhabited by wild beafts!" One of the first and most important measures of the new governor general was to leafe the lands in perpetuity at an equal valuation to the actual occupants; and in alluding to this part of his conduct, his lordship thus forcibly expreffes himself to the directors. "The fecurity of property, and the certainty which each indi vidual will now feel of being allowed to enjoy the fruits of his labours, muft operate uniformly as incitements to labour and industry." This defcription cannot be con ftrued ftrued into an encomium on the character of his predeceffor, but appears very ftrongly to justify his accufers in the heavy charges they have advanced against his go vernment. XII. On the nineteenth of April, Mr. Pitt prefented to the house his annual statement of the national revenue and expenditure. He expreffed a peculiar degree of pleafure in being able to announce, that the receipt of the exchequer had furpassed that of the year preceding in the fum of half a million; and he rejoiced, that, from the profpect of an uninterrupted enjoyment of the bleffings of peace, ftill greater acceffions might reasonably be hoped. Before however the public had time to partake of the minister's joy, from the confolatory intinations of national peace and profperity, he was commiflioned to deliver to the houfe, May the fifth, a royal meflage of a very different import, and which excited inexpreffible aftonishment, by announcing a state of things which bore the undifguiled and dreadful afpect of war. To elucidate this matter, it is néceflary to mention that the celebrated circumnavigator Cook, in his laft voyage of difcovery, touching at different ports on the Western coast of North America, purchased from the natives a number of valu able furs bearing a high price in the Chinese market. In confequence of its being likely to prove a lucrative branch of commerce, a fmall affociation of British mer. chants, refident in the Eaft Indies, formed the project of opening a trade to this part of the world for the purpose of fupplying the Chinele with furs. Accordingly, in the year 1788, a spot of ground was procured from the Indians, and a regular fettlement, defended by a flight fortification, established at Nootka Sound, fituated about the 50th degree of latitude. This being regarded by the Spaniards as a flagrant encroachment on their exclusive rights of fovereignty, the Princeffa, a Spanish frigate of twenty-fix guns, was difpatched by the viceroy of Mexico, and in May 1789, feized upon the fort, and captured the Iphigenia, and Argonaut, two English veffels then trading on the coaft. At the fame time, the Spanish commandant, L. 3 A. D. 1793. mandant, hoifting the national standard, declared that the whole line of coaft from Cape Horn to the 60th degree of latitude belonged to the king of Spain. After fome delay and confiderable lofs to the proprietors, the captured veffels were restored by order of the viceroy, on the fuppofition, as he stated, " that nothing but ignorance of the rights of Spain could have induced the merchants in queftion to attempt an establishment on that coaft," This tranfaction was notified to the court of London fo long fince as the tenth of February by the Spanish ambassador; and his excellency at the same time requested, “that measures might be taken for preventing his Britannię majefty's fubjects from frequenting thofe coafts, and from carrying on their fitheries in the feas contiguous to the Spanish continent, asd erogatory to the inconteftible rights of the crown of Spain." The XIII, The English minifter did not receive this communication in a manner that indicated any difpofition to comply with the terms it contained. On the contrary, a demand was immediately advanced on their part, that the veffels feized fhould be reftored and adequate fatis= faction granted previous to any other difcuffion, claims of Spain, in relation to her rights of dominion and fovereignty in America were doubtlefs in the higheft degree chimerical; and could perhaps only be equalled in extravagance by the claims of Great Britain, By the treaty of 1763, the river Miffiffippi, flowing in a direct courfe of fifteen hundred miles, was made the perpetual boundary of the two empires, and the whole country to the Weft of that vaft river belonging to his catholic majefty, by juft as valid a tenure as the country eastward of the river to the king of England. Exclufive of this recent and decifive line of demarkation, by which the relative and political rights of both nations were clearly afcertained, the Spanish court referred to ancient treaties, by which the rights of the crown of Spain were acknowledged in their full extent by Great Britain, Charles the third, king of Spain, died December 1788, and his fon Charles the fourth, the prefent fovereign, confiding in the juftice 127 juftice of his claims, offered with dignified candor to fubmit the decifion of this quefton to any one of the kings of Europe, leaving the choice wholly to his Britannic majesty. "It is fufficient" fays the Spanish minifter, count Florida Blanca, "for the Spanish monarch, that a crowned head, from full information of the facts, fhall décide as he thinks just; adding, that on a late application to the court of St. Petersburgh, in relation to fimilar encroachments on the part of the Ruffians, the empress had given the moft pofitive orders that no fettlement fhould be formed on that line of coaft. As to the non-occupancy of the particular fpot in queftion by the Spaniards, the court of Madrid juftly obferved, that fuch a plea, if admitted, would tend, by the incongruous intermixture of fettlements, to the utter annihilation of all definite and permanent boundaries. XIV. The royal meffage presented a statement of the facts relative to this bufinefs, and the house unanimously joined in an addrefs to the king, affuring his majefty of "the determination of his faithful commons to afford his majesty the moft zealous and affectionate fupport, in fuch meafures as may become requifite for maintaining the dignity of his majesty's crown, and the effential interefts of his dominions." A vote of credit paffed the houfe for the fum of one million, and vigorous military and naval preparations were made in both kingdoms, in the contemplation of an immediate declaration of war.It must be acknowledged that the hoftile procedure of Spain had reduced the English miniftry to a difficult dilemma. The value of the fettlement at Nootka, in a commercial and national view, was beneath all calculation of infignificance; and it argued culpable inattention in the British minifters not to have been better and earlier apprifed of the extent of the real or imaginary rights of Spain, whofe jealoufy at the fligheft infringement upon thofe rights was fufficiently notorious. A moment's reflection must have fufficiently evinced, that a British settlement on the coaft of California would be eventually productive of a serious contention with the court of Ma drid and a fmall degree of difcretion might have fufficed to obviate this ground of national quarrel. But in confequence of the rafh ftep taken by Spain, the national honour was now at stake: and Mr. Grey, in moving for papers relative to this tranfaction, juftly obferved "that national honour was not, as foine reprefented it, a vifionary thing: a nation without honor was a nation without power. In lofing this inestimable attribute, it inevitably loft the genuine fpring of its spirit, energy, and action. Every nation therefore ought to be careful of its honour; to be careful left by one mean fubmiffion it encouraged an attack upon the dignity of its character→→ that beft fecurity for the prefervation of its peace." Mr. Burke however, whofe antipathies extended not to Spain, was on this occafion particularly anxious for the prefervation of peace. "He hoped," he said, "that the na tional honor would not be found incompatible with the means of amicable accommodation. As we never ought to go to war for a profitable wrong, fo we ought never to go to war for an unprofitable right. He therefore trusted that the intended arinament would be confidered not as a measure calculated to terminate the war happily, but to carry on the negotiation vigorously. He wifhed the war might be avoided. He had fen three wars, and we were gainers by none of them. Our abilities and refources were doubtlefs great; but then did a country prove its magnanimity moft clearly, when the manifefted her moderation to be proportionate to her power. What indeed had we to contend for? If all the diftant territories of Spain were thrown into the scale of England, we fhould, like Spain, be only the weaker for our acquili tions." XV. On the tenth of June 1790, the king terminated the feffion, and in his fpeech fignified the probability of a fpeedy diffolution of the pretent parliament, affuring them in the warmest terms of " the deep and grateful fenfe which he entertained of that affectionate and unfhaken loyalty, that uniform and zealous regard for the true principles of the conflitution, that unremitted at tention |