take any thing confiderable towards the defence of that country. Thus they overrun the dutchies of Troppaw and lagerndorf without much difficulty, and took fuch

measures with the inhabitants, as ftrongly indicated a defign of annexing them to the King's dominion, and thereby entirely rounding his poffeffion of Silefia

III.

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O equal fpace of time for feveral years paft, afforded fo little domeftic matter worthy of obfervation, as that part of the year 1777, which elapfed during the recefs of Parliament. Neither the town nor the country prefented any new object of party contention. The American war, and many of its confequences, were now fcarcely objects of curiofity, much lefs of furprize: and being in the habit of deriving no benefit from our colonies, and of confidering them only in a state of enmity and hoftility, it feemed as if their total lofs would be no longer a matter of much wonder or concern; but that rather, on the contrary, that event would be felt as a ceflation from war, expence, and trouble, ufually is felt in other cafes.

by this time, confiderably embarraffed, and loaded with extraordinary charges; although it was al ready reduced in fome of its parts, and in others, fuch as the African branch, nearly annihilated; it had not yet received those strokes, or at least they were not yet fo fenfibly felt, which have fince fhaken the mercantile intereft of this country to a degree which it had not often before experienced.`

Indeed that commerce, which had fo long equally excited the envy of other nations, and the admiration of mankind, was fo immenfe in its extent, and involved fuch a multitude of great and material objects in its embrace, that it was not to be fhaken by any ufual convulfion of nature, nor to be endangered by any common accident of fortune. It accordingly bore many fevere fhocks, and fuftained loffes of a prodigious magnitude, before they were capable of apparently affecting its general fyftem.

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conducted

conducted and fupplied, had produced a new fpecies of commerce, which, however ruinous in its ultimate effects, had for the prefent a flattering appearance. For this fubftitute, including all the traffick appertaining to or confequent of the war, as well as the commercial fpeculations which arofe by licenced exception, or evafion of the feveral retraining acts of parliament, afforded employment, like a great and legitimate commerce, to an infinite number of perfons, and quantity of fhipping, yielding at leaft equal benefits to the grofs of those who were concerned; and far greater emoluments, devoid of rifque, or even of the employment of much capital, to the principals, than the profits of any real or open trade could poffibly admit.

Thus, however frail its eftablishment, and neceffarily fhort its duration, a new, powerful, and nu merous connexion was formed, totally diftinct from the great, ancient, mercantile intereft; and thus, although our Gazettes teemed with bankruptcies, generally doubling and trebling in number whatever had been usually known, in the fame time, in this country, yet the gainers, or the candidates for gain, in the new adventures, were fo numerous, and prefented fuch an appearance of eafe, affluence, and content, that the plaintive but feeble voice of the unfortunate was little attended to; and the cheatfulness which the fplen. dour and happiness of the former ipread all around, prevented any gloomy reflections from arifing in the minds of thofe who had as yet no fenfible feeling of the public calamity.

It is true, that the coafts of Great Britain and Ireland were infulted by the American privateers, in a manner which our hardieft enemies had never ventured in our most arduous contentions with foreigners. Thus were the inmoft and most domeftic receffes of our trade rendered infecure; and a convoy for the protection of the linen fhips from Dublin and Newry, was now for the first time feen. The Thames alfo prefented the unufual and melancholy fpectacle, of numbers of foreign fhips, particularly French, taking in cargoes of English commodities for various parts of Europe, the property of our own merchants, who were thus reduced to feek that protection under the colours of other nations, which the British flag ufed to afford to all the world.

Against this must be fet, that his Majefty's fhips took a prodigious number of American veffels, both on their own coafts, and in the

Weft Indies. The perfeverance with which the Americans fupplied the objects for thefe captures, by continually building new fhips, and feeking new adventures, feemed almost incredible. At a time when the whole of a trade, carried on under fuch difcouraging circumftances, feemed to be extinguifhed, the Gazettes teemed again with the account of new captures; which, though for the greater part they were not of much value fingly, yet furnished, at times, fome very rich prizes; and, in the aggregate, were of a vaft amount They probably much overbalanced the loffes which we fuftained from their privateers. But it was, to a thinking mind, melancholy, that

We'

we had a computation of that kind to make.

The conduct of France during this whole year, in every thing that regarded England and America, was fo flightly covered, and fo little qualified, that it feemed to leave no room for any doubt, (excepting with thofe who were de. termined to place fo implicit a faith in words, as to admit of no other fpecies of evidence) as to the part which the would finally take in the conteft. As fhe was not yet, however, in fufficient preparation for proceeding to the utmost extremities, nor her negociations with the Americans advanced to an abfolute determination, fhe occa fionally relaxed in certain points, when he found herfelf fo clofely preffed by the British minifters, that an obftinate perfeverance would precipitate matters to that conclufion, which the wifhed for fome time longer to defer.

Thus, when a bold American adventurer, one Cunningham, had taken and carried into Dunkirk, with a privateer fitted out at that port, the English packet from Holland, and fent the mail to the American minifters at Paris, it then feemed neceffary, in fome degree, to discountenance fo flagrant a violation of good neighbourhood, as well as of the standing treaties between the two nations, and even of the particular marine laws and regulations established in France, in regard to her conduct with the people of other countries. Cunningham, and his crew, were accordingly committed for fome fhort time to prifon. Yet this appearance of fatisfaction was done away by the circumstances which attended it. For Cunningham's impri

fonment was reprefented to the Americans as proceeding merely from fome informality in his commiflion, and irregularity in his proceedings, which had brought him to, if not within, the verge of piracy, and which were too glaring to be entirely paffed over without notice. And he was, with his crew, not only fpeedily released from their mock confine. ment, but he was permitted to purchase, fit out, and arm, much ftronger veffel, and better failor than the former, avowedly to infeft, as before, the British commerce.

a

It was in the fame line of policy, that when the French Newfoundland fifhery would have been totally intercepted and deftroyed in cafe of an immediate rupture, and that the capture of their feamen would have been more ruinous and irreparable than the lofs even of the hips and cargoes, Lord Stormont obtained, in that critical fituation, an order from the minifters, that all the American privateers, with their prizes, fhould immediately depart the kingdom. Yet, fatisfactory as this compli ance, and conclufive as this order appeared, it was combated with fuch ingenuity, and fuch expedients practifed to defeat its effects, that it was not complied with in a fingle inftance throughout the kingdom, It, however, anfwered the purpofe for which it was intended, by gaining time, and opening a fubject of tedious and indecifive controverty, until the French fhips were fafe in their refpective ports.

It would feem, that Monfr. de Sartine, the French minister of the marine, and great advocate for [C] 3

the

the American caufe, was determined, that whatever charges of duplicity might be brought against his country, they fhould not reft perfonally with himself. For this minifter, upon fome reports which tended to difcourage the commerce with the Americans, as if the court would not protect its fubjects in conveying the products of that continent in their veffels, which would accordingly become legal prizes to the English, if taken, affured the feveral chambers of com

July 4th, merce, by a public inftru

ment, and in direct con1777. travention of all our na vigation laws, that the King was determined to afford the fulleft protection to their commerce, and would reclaim all fhips that were taken under that pretext.

Upon the whole, whatever evafion or duplicity might have appeared in the language or profeffions of France, her conduct was To unequivocal in the courfe of this bufinefs, that the only matter of furprize would be, if it could be thought poffible that the impofed upon any people by the one, or that they could miftake her defigns in the other. It indeed required no great fagacity to difcover, that fhe had now acquired fo thorough a relifh for the fweets of the American commerce, that nothing lefs than the most irrefiftible neceffity could induce her to forego the pof feffion of what he had obtained, and the vaft hopes with which the flattered herself in future. But as yet he waited the event of the American campaign, and the completion of her naval equipments, (which were carried on with the greatest diligence and in the moit public manner at Breft and Tou

lon,) before the rifqued any decifive ftep.

No change of any fort, whether by death, removal, or internal arrangement, had taken place in adminiftration during the recefs. Every day of the American war rivetted the minifters fafter in their feats. Good and bad fuccefs produced the fame effect in that refpect. In the former inftance, who could be deemed fo fitting to conclude the business, as thofe by whom it was framed, and fo far

happily conducted? In the other, who could be found hardy enough to undertake the completion of a tuinous fyftem, which, befides its failure already in the execution, was originally, and in its nature, clogged with infinite difficulty and danger? Thus fituated, and fupported by an uncontrollable force in parliament, it feemed that nothing could difturb their repofe, until the prefent American fyftem was in fome manner difpofed of.

General Burgoyne's fuccefs at Ticonderoga, with the total dif comfiture and ruin which every where attended the Americans in their precipitate flight on the borders of Lake George, excited the greateft triumph on the fide of adminiftration; and whilft it won. derfully elevated the fpirits, was confidered nearly as crowning the hopes of all those who had fupported or approved of the war. have already feen, that the northern expedition was looked upon as the favourite child of government. The operations on the fide of the Jerfeys and Philadelphia were evidently confidered in a very fecondary point of view. As the noble Lord who conducted the American affairs had all the applaufe of this

We

measure,

measure, which was confidered entirely as his own, it is not to be wondered at, that both himself and his brethren in office should be deeply interested in the event, and value themfelves highly on the appearance of fuccefs.

were

The fubfequent difpatches from General Burgoyne did not long fupport the hopes which founded on the firft fucceffes. The unexpected difficulties and delays which the army experienced in advancing a few miles from Skenef. borough to the fouthward, were, however, counterbalanced in opinion by its arrival on the Hudfon's River, the retreat of the enemy from Fort Edward, their abandoning Fort George and the Lake, by which a free paffage was opened from Ticonderoga, and St. Leger's fuccefs in defeating and ruining the Tryon county militia near Fort Stanwix.

All the former and prefent fanguine expectations which had been formed, were, however, in a great Oa gift. meafure, overthrown by the advices which were received fome time previous to the meeting of parliament; an event which was probably this year held back, in the full confidence of its being ufhered in with the particulars of fome great and decifive fuccefs. Thofe which came to hand, after a tedious feafon of expectation, bore a very different complexion. The infuperable difficulties that neceffarily fufpended the operations of an army in fuch a country, and under fuch circumftances, were now practically difcovered. The double defeat of Baum and Breyman, by a fuppofed broken and ruined militia, in an attempt to remove or to leffen fome

of thofe difficulties, was ftill more difpiriting; and was not in any degree cured by the hope which the General expreffed, of fupport and affiftance from the co-operation of Sir William Howe's army; both as it marked a defpondency of fuccefs from its own force, and that the minifters knew the impoffibility of his receiving any fupport from that quarter. But, as if it had been to crown the climax of ill news and ill fortune, the fame difpatches were accompanied with others, from Sir Guy Carleton, which brought an account of the failure of the expedition to Fort Stanwix, the bold and unexpected attack of the rebels on the fide of Ticonderoga, and of a ftill more unexpected and extraordinary event, in a fhort fetch of the defperate and doubtful action which was fought on the 19th of September between Generals Burgoyne and Arnold; which, naked as it was of circumftances, feemed to fhew the latter to be the affailant, by the mention of his retiring to his camp when the darkness had put an end to the combat.

Although the knowledge of thefe events feemed to open a view to fome of the fucceeding misfortunes, and even afforded room to prefage a part of thofe unparalleled calamities which befel the northern army, it was ftill hoped, by thofe who were most fanguine in their expectations, that General Bure goyne, being fo near Albany, could not fail of making his way good to that place; and that being then fecurely lodged, he would have an opportunity of concerting with Sir Henry Clinton, the means, either feparately or jointly, of diftreffing the northern colonies; or if the

feafon