always within the limits of his controul. If he writes as a man, it must not be forgotten that he alfo writes to men. If he has paffions and failings, it must not be fuppofed that his readers are exempt from their share. That candour which they expect from him, they are not always prepared to concede in their turn; nor, while they are ready to detect his errors, are they always confcious of the prejudices which exift within their own bofoms. With these difadvantages, while it is the indifpenfable duty of the writer to adhere inflexibly to fact, by that criterion let him alfo be judged. Facts, if mifreprefented, will not efcape detection; and reflections or obfervations which do not flow naturally from the events as they are recorded, and which are not fupported by their evidence, can never make a permanent impreffion.

We have ever protefted against the pernicious doctrine, that the faithful hiftorian is bound in duty to fpeak in terms of lenity of political vices, or of flagrant mifconduct. General panegyric is not impartiality; and the writer who adopts the maxim that where blame is incurred it is not to be noticed, is not merely ufelefs-he is vicious. If he wrongfully accufes, he is then deferving of cenfure. If his inferences are unfupported by his documents, if his allegations fhould prove to be founded only on the uncertain bafis of conjecture, he is worthy of contempt. But if his information is corroborated by authentic testimony, if his predictions are confirmed by fubfequent experience, he evinces then that he has not been inattentive to his duty; and however his remarks may outrage our prejudices, he is ftill deferving of fome credit; and the

least that can be accorded is a patient hearing.

It is now nearly eighteen years fince we firft engaged in the fervice of the public. When we look back upon our paft labours, we find them to comprife fome of the most eventful periods of modern hiftory; and with pride we can reflect, that we have never fanctioned with our approbation any measure that proved afterwards injurious to our country. We have seen the British nation and the British power depressed and enfeebled by the calamitous American war; we have feen the energies and industry of the people rise fuperior to this temporary embarraffment. We have feen them again plunged into a conteft more fruitless, more inexcufable, more hopeless than the former. We have seen the expences of the ruinous American conteft diminish almost to a cypher in comparison with the prodigality of modern times. We have feen new taxes levied in the course of one year, greatly exceeding the whole charge created by the firft fix years of the American war; we have feen impofitions laid upon the people of this country, in a fingle day, nearly equal to the whole charge of lord Chatham's glorious war, which endured for seven years, and in which the British arms were triumphant in every quarter of the globe; nay, we have feen the charges incurred by an expendi ture of only four years exceed the total charge of the whole national debt antecedent to 1782.

We call our countrymen and our readers to witnefs, that, at the risk of fome unpopularity, we were the firft to raise our voices against the prefent war. We proved, from unquestionable documents, that it might have been avoided with honour and with fafety by the British ministry.

Yet to that crifis, which was the fatal origin of all our prefent calamities, it is neceffary once more to recur, fince by that it is that pofterity muft form their verdict on the conduct of the present rulers of this country. At that crifis the profperity of Britain was unexampled; her commerce was extended over the whole face of the ocean; the trade of the univerfe was in her grafp. Her manufactures pervaded every country; and if there was a complaint, it was for a lack of hands to conduct them with fufficient difpatch. By following the fuggeftions of that excellent patriot, and incomparable financier, the late Dr. Price, the minifter (though, of three plans prefented, he adopted the worst) had, according to his own calculations, liquidated nearly twenty millions of the national debt. In this ftate of things, what fatal infanity, what inexplicable infatuation could engage a miniftry to involve the nation again in the ruinous vortex of continental warfare? The motives are yet unexplained; and perhaps it is not for the credit of the authors of the measure, that they should be laid before the public.

Was it, as fome with equal igno

rance and effrontery pretended, to. preferve us from domeftic contefts? It is the first time, we believe, that peace and profperity were ever confidered as favourable to rebellion, and war, taxes, and mifery, as the fovereign antidotes for faction. The whole nation had risen as one man on the alarm of innovation, and had folemnly affociated to protect the conftitution, even with its abufes, rather than fubject a particle of it to experiment or change. Was it to anticipate the hoftile defigns of the enemy? Even prejudice muft confefs that it was the intereft of France, and particularly of the Girondifts, who were then predominant, to preferve the friendThip of Great Britain; and whoever peruses with attention the correfpondence of M. Chauvelin with the British secretary of state, muft perceive that the French republic threw itself at the feet and at the mercy of the British cabinet, but that the fupplicating envoy was fpurned away, with a degree of infolence and rafhnefs which involuntarily reminds us of the fantaftical glaffman in the oriental fable. Was it to obtain an acceffion of colonial poffeffions? We have hinted it before, and we now affert it for a fact, that M. Chauvelin was authorifed, and M. Maret exprefsly difpatched, to offer to the British cabinet their choice of the French poffeffions in the Eaft or Weft Indies, as the price of neutrality; and a certain fecretary of ftate replied, "That we had already colonies enough, and that we did not want to be burthened with any more." What

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What the object of the war then was, has never been ascertained; what its conduct has been, we have feen to our misfortune and our lofs.

The year 1795 concluded with little confolatory abroad, and with a general and torpid defpondency at home, as far as refpected the pub, lic affairs. The meeting of parlia ment was fixed for an unufually early period, the latter end of October; and previous to its affembling, fome meetings were held by the London Correfponding Society for the avowed purpose of petitioning the king and parliament in favour of peace and reform. As the meetings were held in the open fields, they were numerously attended, as was noticed in our laft volume: and as the great majority of the people who compofed these meetings were certainly not members of that affociation, and were drawn together by no ftronger motive than curiofity, when that paffion of the moment was gratified, they difperfed without any further confequences.

A dreadful and oppreffive fcar city at this crifis pervaded the kingdom; feveral inftances occurred of perfons who perified through abfolute want; and the poor were every where defpairing and defperate. To the calamitous war, and to the mifconduct of minifters, all the mifery under which the nation fuffered was (perhaps rafhly) attribut. ed. From thefe circumftances we muft account for the daring and deteftable infults and outrages which were offered to his majefty on his way to and from the house of lords on the 29th of October. An effort

was made by the adherents of miniftry to connect these outrages with the meetings which had been previously held by the Correfponding Society; and, on the other hand, their advocates have retorted the accufation, and afcribed them to the emiffaries of the minifter. We must in juftice declare that neither of thefe opinions feems warranted by the depofitions at the bar of the houfe of lords, nor by the appearance of the multitude which was affembled on that occafion, the majority of whom confifted, as ufual, of women and children; and thefe were, in general, the most active and clamorous.

His majefty proceeded from the palace to open the feffion of parliament, at the ufual hour, between two and three o'clock; and the crowd in St. James's park, which is always confiderable on thefe occafions, was certainly greater than ufual, though we conceive it must have been over-rated, when it was eftimated at 150,000 perfons. A fine day, and a rumour which had been circulated, with what view it is impoffible to afcertain, that a riot was likely to take place, contributed greatly to increase the multitude of the fpectators.

As the royal carriage paffed along the park, the predominant exclamations were, "Peace!-Peace!Give us bread!-No Pitt!-No famine!-No war!"-A few voices were heard to exclaim, "Down with George!" or words to that effect. In the park, and in the ftreets adjacent to Westminster Hall, fome ftones and other things were thrown, nine of which, it is

afferted,

afferted, ftruck the ftate coach; and one of them, which was fufpected to have proceeded from a window in Margaret-ftreet, near the abbey, perforated one of the windows by a fmall circular aperture; and from these circumftances it was fuppofed by fome to have been a bullet difcharged from an air-gun, or from fome fimilar engine of deftruction; but no bullet was found; and whatever it was, it neither touched the king, nor the noblemen who attended him.

As we have already intimated, this outrage was by fome confidered as a confpiracy on the part of the Correfponding Society; and on the other hand, the accufation was retorted on their adverfaries by the adherents of that society, who have afferted (though, we muft believe, without reafon) that if there was a plot, it must have originated in a different quarter, and for very different purposes. They obferve, that, according to the unguarded admiffion of Mr. fecretary Dundas, the bills, which were immediately upon this event introduced into parliament for reftricting the liberty of the prefs, and for preventing public meetings, had been in the contemplation of minifters ever fince the failure of the profecution of Hardy, &c. and that a fair opportunity was wanting to bring them forth. They remark, that in other countries fimilar outrages have been committed, not by the populace, but by perfons hired for particular views; that the attack on the late king of Portugal, which proved the deftruction of the popular party there, was now generally confidered by hiftorians as the ftratagem of one of his minifters. They affert, that in the late outrage the royal carriage was accompanied by a particular fet of perfons who were the most clamorous, and

had frequent opportunities of perfonally affaulting the king, but who on the contrary feemed ftudious to keep off the reft of the mob. They remark, in fine, as a most extraor dinary and unprecedented fact, that not one of those who threw the ftones, or otherwife attacked the king, was brought to juftice, though a reward of one thousand pounds was offered. Thefe mutual recriminations we only state to fhew the violence and the artifices of the party; for, from various circumftances, we are of opinion that no confpiracy whatever exifted; and that the whole was a fudden ebullition of popular fury, exafperated by the misfortunes of the war, and by the evils of famine.

As his majesty returned from the houfe through the park, though the gates of the Horfe-Guards were shut to exclude the mob, yet even this precaution was not fufficient to prevent a renewal of the outrages; and another stone was thrown at the carriage as it paffed oppofite to Spring Garden terrace. After the king had alighted at St. James's, the populace attacked the ftate carriage; and in its way through PallMall to the Mews, it was almost demolished.

It was a very fingular circumftance that his majefty was permitted to return from the house of lords without any additional guard or efcort. The hoftile difpofitions evinced by the populace ought certainly to have induced the minifters to have taken fome precaution, had they been actuated by a proper affection for their fovereign, who was exposed to infult only by their mifconduct." No friend of monarchy, no man who admires and reveres the private virtues of his fovereign, could re,. flect without indignation, that the fame minifters who did not dare to venture their own perfons in the A 4

city