The transactions relative to Holland, and the present critical state of affairs on the continent, induced his majesty to convene the parliament in the late autumn, that he might have the sanction and aid of that assembly to the measures which he might find it advisable to adopt.-His majesty, in his address to the two houses, explained the motives of his conduct in the affairs of Holland, and particularly the treaty of subsidy which he had concluded with the landgrave of Hesse, and his negotiations with the crown of France, for the protection of the states: and he received their thanks for his interposition in defence of a government whose interests were so nearly connected with our own. On the reassembling of parliament after the christmas recess, its attention was called to a motion made by lord Rawdon, in consequence of the late promotion of flag officers. † After stating that many officers of merit had been put upon the superannuated list, he moved" that an address be pre"sented to his majesty, praying that he would take into his consideration "the services of such captains of the navy as were passed over in the "last promotion of admirals." The question which this brought before the commons was ably debated; and strong arguments were brought by his lordship, Mr. Fox, and others, to prove the injustice and ill tendency of the practice of the admiralty, in using a discretionary power in judging of the abilities of those whom they promoted to the commission of admiral. -But it was justified by lord Howe and the earl of Sandwich upon the grounds of precedent and the sense of the legislature, conveyed in the establishment made in 1747 for the provision of such officers; and the motion was rejected by a considerable majority.' b A subject of considerable importance was soon after brought before parliament by a motion of the premier relative to the troops ordered to India during the apprehensions of a war with France; which were now intended to be sent thither to form a permanent establishment of his majesty's troops in that country. A difference of opinion having arisen between the directors and the board of control, instituted in 1784, relative to the power of the latter to charge the expence of sending out and paying them to the East India company, Mr. Pitt moved for a bill "to " obviate 1788 VOL. III. + February 20. February 25. Ann. Regist. 107. M 1788 obviate the doubts in question by declaring the intention of the legisla"ture in the act of 1784 to have been agreeable to the construction put by the board of control."-The company being heard by counsel at the bar of the house, Mr. Erskine first denied the position which the motion expressed, and afterwards displayed the injury which such a power would do to the state as well as the company.-The same grounds of opposition, and especially the danger of enlarging the power and patronage vested in government by the late acts respecting the India company, were insisted on in the progress of the bill. But all the arguments brought by its opponents were combated with success by the premier, and it was passed by great majorities in both houses. In the course of this session, bills were passed for the more effectually preventing the exportation of wool.-For the amendment of what was called the Grenville act, for regulating trials of petitions relative to contested elections.-And for giving relief to such persons as have suffered in their property during the American war; the import of which last went to the grant of £.1,342,191 for this purpose. d However the questions which had been already debated might be dignified by the commercial or political interests which they involved, there was none which excited greater solicitude in the liberal and humane than an investigation of the merits of the slave-trade which now took place.— Mr. Wilberforce, to whom the conduct of this business was assigned, being disabled from attending the house by illness, Mr. Pitt, taking his place, moved a resolution, importing that the house would, in the ensuing session, take into consideration the circumstances of the slave-trade, complained of in the petitions to the house, and what may be proper to be done thereupon.-The final result of this motion, after various procrastinations, will be seen in the transactions of 1791. In the mean-time, in order to afford impartial relief to the unhappy sufferers, Mr. W. Dolben proposed a bill "to regulate the transportation of slaves from the coast "of Africa to the West Indies." To judge of the grounds of this motion, we need only consider the circumstances of the negroes on board the transports, as delivered in evidence at the bar of the lower house: " that "five feet six inches in length and sixteen inches in breadth was the 66 average average space allotted to each slave. The lower deck of the vessel was entirely covered with bodies. The space between the floor of that deck "and the roof above, in height about five feet eight inches, was "divided by a platform, also covered with human bodies. The slaves ແ were chained two and two by their hands and feet, and were, by means "of ring-bolts, fastened to the deck. In that sultry climate, their allow"ance was a pint of water each day; and they were usually fed twice a day "with yams and horse beans. After meals, they were compelled by the "whip to jump in their irons, which, by the slave-dealers, was called dancing."-In an age when science had enlarged the minds of men, and social and commercial intercourse had softened their passions, when even despots began to blush at the idea of slavery, and some of them had recommended themselves to the praise of posterity by its abolition, could it have been thought possible that this motion would have been powerfully opposed, not only by the merchants of London and Liverpool who were concerned in this horrid trade, but by a great number of persons in both houses! Even thus it was in fact. Many persons of repute brought reproach on themselves by sacrificing the feelings of human nature to individual and national profit. The lord chancellor called the motion, in derision, a fit of philanthropy: and the members for Liverpool asserted, that the trade could not be carried on in any other manner. The motion was, however, supported, with success, by the premier; who replied, in the language which a generous indignation inspired, that, were that the case," he would instantly give his vote for the annihilation of a traffic "thus shocking to humanity." He then exhorted the house "to extricate "themselves from the guilt and remorse which every man ought to feel " for having so long overlooked such cruelty and oppression."-His sentiments prevailing, the bill was passed in both houses. с His majesty, soon after, || closed the session with a speech expressive of his satisfaction with the proceedings of the legislative bodies, and congratulating the nation on the prosperous state of our affairs. During these parliamentary transactions, some incidents relative to foreign affairs had occurred which deserve our notice, as they shew the sentiments 1788 1788 sentiments entertained by the British cabinet respecting the conduct of the imperial courts.-A part of that formidable apparatus, which was intended to crush the Ottoman power, consisted of a fleet of eighteen sail of the line, destined to the Mediterranean. And, notwithstanding the empress's uniformly unfriendly behaviour towards his Britannic majesty, she appears to have expected the same sacrifice to the desire of preserving her amity as had been made before she had formed the armed neutrality, before she had shewn a decided preference to France in the late commercial treaty which she had concluded with that crown. But she was in this instance, disappointed in her presumptuous expectations. To facilitate the enterprise, eighteen merchant ships had been hired in the port of London, to serve as tenders to the Russian fleet, and pilot boats had been hired to conduct it. On information of which, his majesty, actuated by resentment of her conduct, by a regard for the commercial interests of his subjects and the independency of Europe, which was endangered by her growing power and her confederacy with the emperor, prohibited the contractors from performing their engagements, and declared his determination to adhere strictly to a neutrality during the war. The same motives induced his majesty to renew his treaties with Holland † and Prussia, and to unite with the Prussian monarch in forcing the Danes to relinquish the war in which they were engaging with Sweden, as allies of Russia."— And never was there a more timely or fortunate interposition. In the present state of imbecility into which France was fallen, they were the only means left to balance the power of the confederate imperial courts, and to prevent the other northern powers from becoming entirely subservient to the empress. Thus did Great Britain hold its proper dignified station of protector of the liberties of Europe. In the midst of national prosperity, a sudden gloom and consternation was spread over the kingdom by an indisposition of his majesty, which terminated in mental alienation.-The parliament being assembled with all possible dispatch,|| and the king's incapacity for business of state being proved by an examination of his physicians before the privy council, the manner in which the defect in the constitution was to be supplied became a + April 25. August 30. matter November 20. 8 Ann. Regist, 62. h Idem. 272. 75. matter of the most serious consideration; and this was the more warmly contested because the continuance or change of the ministry was certainly to depend upon it. The premier and his strong phalanx, on this occasion, maintained the rights of the people: and Mr. Fox and other champions of liberty pleaded the cause of prerogative. Such inconsistencies are sometimes seen to occur in the political world.-Mr. Fox asserted as a proposition deducible from the principles of the constitution and the analogy of the law of hereditary succession, "that whenever the sovereign was incapable of exercising the functions of royalty, the heir apparent, if "of full age and capacity, had as indisputable a claim to the exercise of "the executive authority, in the name and on behalf of the sovereign, during his incapacity, as in the case of his natural demise."—Mr. Pitt, seizing the opportunity afforded by this assertion to promote his immediate views and ingratiate himself with the nation, declared, with a warmth which his zeal for the constitution seemed to inspire, that these words were little short of treason against the constitution; and pledged himself to prove that the heir apparent, in such cases, had no more right to the exercise of the executive power than any other person, and that it belonged entirely to the two remaining branches of the legislature to make such a provision for supplying the temporary deficiency as they might think proper, to preserve unimpaired the interests of the sovereign and the national welfare. 66 This important point was elaborately discussed in both houses of parliament and all the powers of rhetoric were exhausted, by the speakers on each side, in support of their respective positions. When it was seen that the ministry would derive strength from a discussion of abstract right in the prince, the duke of York came forward in the house of peers, and, in his brother's name, expressed his wishes that this might be waved; and said that he was confident that his brother too well understood the sacred principles which seated the house of Brunswick on the throne, to assume "or exercise any power, be his claim what it might, that was not derived "from the will of the people expressed by their representatives and their lordships assembled in parliament.”* 66 The report of a committee appointed to search for precedents in point having been heard, Mr. Pitt, in a committee of the whole house, proposed two 1788 |