sion, and contempt; to remember the forgot, ten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries. His plan is original, and it is full of genius as it is of humanity. It was a voyage of discovery; a circumnavigation of charity. Already the benefit of his labour is felt more or less in every country; I hope he will anticipate his final reward, by seeing all its effects fully realized in his own. He will receive not by retail, but in gross, the reward of those who visit the prisoner; and he has so forestalled and monopolized this branch of charity, that there will be, I trust, little room to merit by such acts of benevolence hereafter."

During the year 1780, affairs in America, and indeed in Europe, wore a more favourable appearance to Britain. Charlestown and the whole province of South Carolina was reduced; and the British forces made every exertion that courage and conduct could produce. Still, however, the Americans exhibited no signs of submission. The authority of Britain was acknowledged in no part, but those occupied by her forces. A hatred of the mo ther country was generally prevalent through. out the colonies. In Europe, Admiral Rodney had, by a signal victory over the Spanish fleet, displayed the valour and superior skill of the British navy. He led his victorious fleet to the

West Indies, and there maintained the pre. eminence of our fleets by considerable advantages, a prelude to a decisive victory, equalling any in the former annals of British glory, though since equalled by the victories of the present war, of the present year, and of the present month.* The efforts of Rodney could not have been successful, but with a force that shewed that the First Lord of the Admiralty was not inattentive to his duty, and that Burke, in his imputation of negligence and incapacity to Lord Sandwich, was a party speaker, not an impartial thinker.

7

From the commencement of the American war, Holland had leaned to the colonies, and had supplied them with stores. After France and Spain had become hostile to Britain, she had also supplied those nations with warlike stores, contrary to the general principles of neutrality and particular treaties subsisting between her and Britain. Various remonstrances on this subject had been made to the Dutch, which were disregarded. The Ministry, therefore, resolving to imitate the example of the illustrious Pitt during the former war, gave orders for the seizure of ships laden with contraband goods. This order was rigorously executed; the Dutch ships were searched, and contraband articles

* Written Oct. 19, 1797.

The

taken from them; the full value being paid to
to the owners. The Dutch, very unreasonably,
complained of this proceeding. The British
seeing them hostilely inclined, in order to put
their disposition to the test, demanded succours
stipulated by treaty. To this the States Gene-
ral returned no satisfactory answer.
It ap.
peared evident that Holland had determined to
abandon Britain, and join her enemies.
northern powers entered into an association for
promoting a scheme that altered the received
law of nations concerning the right of neutral
states to carry naval stores to the belligerent
powers, and notified to the states at war, that
they had prepared an armed force for protect-
ing every species of neutral trade. It was evi-
dent to every one acquainted with the mari-
time power and situation of the several nations,
that this plan, ostensibly impartial, was really
meant to injure Britain. Thus, from Norway
to Spain, the naval powers were either avow-
edly hostile, or really inimical to Great Britain.
All Europe seemed to have combined to pull
down her naval power. Such a situation, though
alarming, was not without its use. It had a
tendency to STIMULATE THE EXERTIONS OF EVERY
TRUE LOVER OF HIS COUNTRY, AND TO SACRIFICE
NARROWNESS OF PARTY SPIRIT TO GENUINE PATRIO-
TISM. The question was not now, were or were
we not right in attempting to impose taxes on
America, but what were the most efficacious

'

means for defending ourselves against so formidable a combination? Those were to be considered as true patriots, not who declaimed most fluently against the war, but who endeavoured to find out the most efficacious measures for national vigour, as the only means of peace. Out of parliament, disapprobation of the individual Ministers was in many absorbed in their wishes to support Government in general.

1

On February 19th, 1781, Burke revived his plan of economy, in hopes of better success than he had experienced the preceding session. He supported his motion, by a speech necessarily consisting, as the subject was the same, of many arguments similar to those which he had used the year before; but there was a great accession of new reasoning, new imagery, new illustrations, which the extent of his knowledge and fertility of his invention never failed to throw on any subject, however much it might to other orators appear exhausted.

A circumstance distinct from the intrinsic merit of the question rendered it at this time remarkable: on it WILLIAM PITT made his first. speech in the House of Commons.

Mr. Pitt was now in the twenty-second year of his age, when he entered parliament, with the expectations of all ranks and parties highly excited in his favour. It was publicly known that the illustrious Earl of Chatham had conceived.

{

the highest opinion of the talents and acquire. ments of his second son. William had been educated and formed under the eye of that eminent statesman, who, oppressed with bodily infirmities, immersed in public business, and loaded with years, with the most earnest anxiety and delight tutored and directed the opening understanding of his favourite son. From his earliest age the youth had given the most undoubted proofs of intellectual vigour, A regu lar, judicious, and persevering application did justice to his great powers. After he had acquired a considerable share of classical literature, he applied himself sedulously to mathematical studies. This branch of learning was probably instrumental in forming his masculine understanding to the precision of thought and closeness of argument which distinguish his speeches. He was sent to an university, of which the exercises have a peculiar tendency to sharpen, invigorate, methodize, and expand the mind; and soon impressed both the scholars and masters of Cambridge with an idea of the superior figure he was destined to make. Devoting himself to the studies most prevalent at his college, more, as Burke had done at Dublin, for the sake of acquirement than display, he also treasured up in his mind moral and political history and science. Nature had given him uncommon talents. The plan of his education was peculiarly adapted for forming and