ed and undeserved had been the extremities that had been employed against him. The inhabitants of the Hague depended upon his court for the half of their fubfiftchce, and would join to compel the states to pacific proceedings. All the princes of Europe would be ftruck with the misfortunes of fo illuftrious an exile. Great Britain, in whose cause he had fuffered, and whofe influence in Holland fo evidently depended upon the continuance of his power, would loudly declare herself in his favour; and the king of Pruffia, the uncle of his confort, would bring forth his innumerable troops to revenge his multiplied wrongs.

If the oligarchical party were judicious in feizing upon and improving every opportunity that favoured their defigns, it is equally true that the opportunities which occurred were beyond all expectation aufpicious to the revolution they meditated. The war with Great Britain' had ftruck a deep and dangerous blow at the power of the fladtholder, at the fame time that it had been the natural occation of leading the republic into the alliance, and putting them under obligations to the generofity of the court of France. The incroachments and the plan of refumptions, that had been formed by the emperor, obliged them to advance ftill farther in the fame direction. The claims of Maeftricht and the Schelde inevitably thruft the Dutch out of the habits of confederacy, in which they had food during the prefent century with Great Britain and the houfe of Auftria. Of courfe fe was obliged to recur to the example of a more difant period, and the intervention of the French king in faving them from the humiliation that would otherwife have

been impofed upon them by the emperor, gave him a title to their moft fervent gratitude. Such were the events, which conftituted the field upon which politicians were to difplay their ingenuity; and the profoundnefs and fagacity of the leaders of the party in the states of Holland on the one fide, together with the dexterity and infinuation of the ministry of Verfailles on the other, derived every poffible advan tage from fo uncommon a fituation. The inquifition into the failure of the expedition to Breft in the month of September 1783, was not the least important engine in the hands of these able statesmen.

This inquifition had commenced in the clofe of the year 1783. But, owing partly to the obftacles, which, either in appearance or reality, were oppofed to its progrefs by the party of the ftadtholder, and partly to the tardinefs of all proceedings in this complicated republic, the commillioners appointed for this purpofe, did not make their report till the month of June 1785. In this paper no accufations were brought home to the prince of Orange or his minifters. Many judicious remarks were exhibited upon the imperfection of the conftitution of the admiralties of Holland. It feems, that, according to the ftanding orders of their navy, the captains of each fhip in the fervice of government, were obliged to take provifions on board at their own rifque; and were not permitted to charge any more to the public account than appeared to have been actually contumed. Owing to this injudicious regulation, the commanders were in the habit of providing their flips with as fmall a ftore of provifions as the exigency of the public fervice would allow; and the admiralties, aware of the fcantinefs of the

demand,

demand, did not keep their magazines in fufficient abundance to fupply any fudden and unforefcen occafion. In the mean time the comwitioners, though they admitted the difadvantages under which the fquadron confequently laboured, did not allow them to amount to an evident impoffibility of performing the voyage to Breft. They maintained that the commanders of the fquadron had allowed themfelves too wide a difcretion upon the fubject, and were unjustifiable, after having received the pofitive orders of the ftates, in affuming to judge for themfelves upon the expediency and eligiblenefs of the meafure. The criminal profecution of the officers, though not directly recommended, feemed to be the inevitable inference from the report of the commiffioners.

The clote of the year 1784, fhould appear actually to have terminated all profpect of a war between the emperor and Holland. The decitive and peremptory countenance that was then affumed by the court of France, and the humane averfion to war, that we have remarked in the imperial claimant, amounted to a fufficient guarantee of the truth of this prediction. But a fecret determination not to enter upon actual hostilities, did not preclude the emperor from gaining as much as he could in the mode of negociation. This way of thinking in the court of Vienna, together with the reluctance of the Dutch in yielding to any important conceffion, drew out the fettlement of the affair, and afforded a theme for the conjectures of fpeculators during the greater part of the year 1785. A condition required by the emperor, before he would admit of any interview between his ambaffadors and the commiffioners of Hol

land, was the fending on the part of the Dutch, two envoys to the capital of their adverfary, whose bufinefs fhould be to make a formal and public fubmiffion and apology to the emperor, for the infult that had been committed upon his flag in the affair of Lillo. To this condition the Dutch were obliged to fubmit, and the barons Waffenaer and Leyden, two very diftinguished members of the nobility of the republic were selected for this purpose, and executed their commiffion on the twenty-fifth of July. The humiliation was undoubtedly fuch, as could fcarcely have been expected to take place between two equal powers; and fuch an oftentation of hauteur on the part of the head of the empire, would in other circumftances have excited an univerfal indignation in Europe. But the character of the emperor was too well understood, and his verfatility and want of fyftem too notorious, to render the meafure in the prefent inftance in any degree alarming.

The conferences were now opened without delay between the am baffadors of Holland and Austria at the court of Verfailles, under the aufpices of the count de Vergennes. The difcuffion however was yet far from being eafy; and the emperor, having long infifted in vain upon the ceffion of Maeftricht, now changed his demand into that of a confiderable fum of money, as a compenfation for his claim upon this important fortrefs. The amount of this fum was eagerly debated; and at length, after both fides had yielded fomewhat in their determi nations upon the fubject, it was fixed that nine millions five hundred thoufand florins fhould be the compenfation for Maestricht, and five hundred thousand florins for the damage which had been fuffer

ed

ed by the Auftrian farmers, from the inundations of Lillo; the whole being equal to 70,000 750,000 pounds fterling. This was the principal article of the treary, the preliminaries of which were figned on the twelfth of September. The emperor at the fame time renounced his claims upon Macftricht, and the Dutch agreed to destroy the forts of Kruickshank and Frederic Henry, and to cede to the emperor the forts of Liefkenfhoek and Lillo, with their fortifications. The definitive treaty was concluded on the eighth of November.

A treaty of perpetual friendship and alliance had been for fome time in negociation between the courts of France and the Hague, and it was concluded with respect to its fubftance, in the beginning of the present year. From an idea of what it was that was becoming in the office of a mediator, which was the fituation in which France food between Holland and the emperor, the publication of the treaty was fuppreffed, till the final arrangement fhould be formed of the differ ences between thefe two powers. It accordingly appeared from authority on the tenth of November, two days after the fignature of the definitive treaty of peace. Thus it was that the party of the fates in the republic of Holland, arrived at one of the most confiderable ob

jects in their fyftem of politics. The alliance between the govern ments of Verfailles and the Hague was of the most intimate and cordial nature. They agreed for mutual affiftance in all cafes of attack that fhould be made upon either party, the auxiliary force to be proportioned to the occasion, and its expences to be defrayed by the government by which it was furnished.

Such indeed are the nature of the articles, that, taken together, they feemed to amount to a counterpart of the celebrated family compact. A revolution of a very memorable nature was thus introduced into the affairs of Europe. The policy, which had been voluntarily chofen by Louis the Fourteenth, and which had afterwards been continued contrary to the inclinations of France, by the powers which had entered into alliance against him, was now reverfed. The ambitious ideas of univerfal monarchy, which had fearcely been formed by that monarch, and had fpeedily been renounced, ceafed to be any longer the terror of the neighbouring countries. France, from being avoided as a monster, entered once more into the list of the members of the European com monwealth, and was confidered upon a level with her neighbours in the delineations of policy, and the fpeculations of commerce.

TH

the

HERE were two trains of events, which took place in year 1785, and which might be

expected to have confiderable influ ence upon the proceedings of the feffion of 1786, the third feffion of

the

the existing parliament. Trade and commerce had always been the object of a very principal attention of the miniftry of Great Britain; and now that the tranquility of Europe was once again restored, and that we had been weaned by a feries of the most mortifying humiliations from the ideas of conqueft and warlike fplendor, it was to be expected that we should return with double elasticity to fo favourite a purfuit. It was neceffary to this end, if the ideas of national independence and political confequence fhould even be put out of the confideration, that we fhould maintain an alliance and good understinding with fome of the more confiderable powers of the continent. The events of 1785 were by no means favourable to either of thefe views. When the public alarm was excited by the difcovery of the meditated exchange of Bavaria, the king of Great Britain was induced, as elector of Hanover, to enter into a league with the king of Pruffia, the elector of Saxony, and certain other princes, for maintaining the independence of the Germanic conftitution, and defending the indivifibility of the empire. The particulars of this league, which was concluded on the 23d of July, will naturally come before us, when we proceed to treat of the concluding tranfactions of the life of the immortal Frederic. In the mean time it was fuggefted, that this treaty was extremely inimical to the interests of Great Britain, fince, of all the powers of the continent, the emperor was fuppofed to be one of our most natural allies; and fince he would not fail to be irritated by the circumftance of the British fovereign entering into an alliance that had first been inftituted in direct oppofition to his views.

A

Other events of the year 1785. had a more immediate connection with the balance of commerce. convention had been concluded on the first of July 1784, between the courts of Stockholm and Verfailles, and was published in the fpring of 1785. The object of this treaty was to cede to the French, on the part of Sweden, the port of Gottenburg at the entrance of the Baltic, as a free port and magazine of commerce, in the room of Wifmar in the circle of Lower Saxony, which had been felected for that purpofe by a convention concluded between thefe powers in the year 1741, and which was faid to be found inadequate to this purpofe. In return for this valuable conceffion, the court of France ceded to the king of Sweden, in full fovereignty, the island of Saint Bartholomew in the West Indies. An edict was published on the feventeenth of July 1785, by the court of France, abfolutely prohibiting the fale of various English manufactures within that kingdom, particularly fadlery, holiery, woollen cloths, and hardware; and permitting them to be purchased by individuals for their own confump tion, fubject to a double duty of thirty per cent. in the first intance, and ten pence in the pound in the fecond. An edict fill more imports ant and alarming was published in the month of December by the emperor, totally prohibiting the importation of British manufactures through every part of the Auftrian dominions. In oppofition to the fe proceedings, by which the commerce of England muft eventually be narrowed, a treaty was at this time negociating with the court of Peterburg, and another more me. morable in its nature, and confiderable in its confequences, was opened

opened relatively to the subject of commerce, with the court of Verfailles. This was undertaken in pursuance of a provifion for that purpose, in the definitive treaty of peace, and the negociator appointed, under the appellation of envoy extraordinary, and minifter plenipotentiary, on the ninth of December, was Mr. William Eden. This appointment was the object of confiderable animadverfion, and was reprefented as a fignal example of political apoftacy, fince Mr. Eden had been both the original projec. tor of the celebrated coalition in 1783, and a principal mover of the ftong refolutions against the administration of Mr. Pitt, in the commencement of 1784.

Belide the confiderations of commerce, together with that of the national debt, which naturally fell under the difcullion of the feffion of parliament upon which we are about to enter, there were fome circumstances which tended to revive at this time the inexhaustible fubject of our oriental politics. Many of the provifions of Mr. Pitt's India bill had been very little relifhed by the European inhabitants of that country, particularly those which took froin them the trial by jury, and which eftablifhed an inquifition into the amount of the fortunes they accumulated; and feveral petitions were remitted from India in relation to this fubject. Mr. Haflings, who had governed Bengal during the fpace of near thirteen years, and who by his conduct had furnished fo many fubjects of acrimonious difcuffion to the English parliament, had quitted Calcutta in the month of January, and arrived at Fal. mouth on the fixteenth of June. Lord Macartney, the great rival and antagonist of Mr. Haftings,

had been appointed his fucceffor in the government general on the twenty-feventh of February; but owing to his difapprobation of the meafure of relinquishing the affignment of the nabob of Arcot, or to fome other circumftance, he did not think proper to accept the of fice, and, having quitted India, arrived in England on the ninth of January 1786. Mr. Haltings was therefore fucceeded in his government by Mr. John Macpherson, fenior counfellor on the fpot, the first object of whofe adminiftration was to introduce feveral reforms in our Indian government, and retrenchments in our establishments in that country.

The commencement of the sel fion took place on the twenty-fourth of January. In the fpeech from the throne, the king informed his parliament, that the difputes, which appeared to threaten an interrup tion to the tranquility of Europe, had been brought to an amicable conclufion, and that he continued to receive from foreign powers the ftrongest affurances of their friendly difpofition. At home, his fubjects experienced the growing blethings of peace in the extenfion of trade, the improvement of the revenue, and the increase of the public cre dit. He farther obferved, that the refolutions of the last feffion for the adjustment of the commercial intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland, had been by his direction communicated to the parliament of that kingdom, but that no effectual step had hitherto been taken by which they could be enabled to make any further progrefs in that falutary work. He remarked to the Houfe of Commons, that it was his earnest with to enforce economy in every department; at the fame time that he particularly recommended

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