XXI. 1782. or a government to support you-you have con- BOOK ducted the great military contest with wisdom and fortitude, invariably regarding the rights of the civil power through all disasters and changes-you have, by the love and confidence of your fellow-citizens, enabled them to display their martial genius, and to transmit their fame to posterity. Having defended the standard of liberty in this new world, having taught a lesson useful to those who inflict and to those who feel oppression, you retire with the bless. ings of your country; but the glory of your virtues will not terminate with your military command-it will continue to animate remotest ages. May the Almighty foster a life so beloved with his peculiar care, and may your future days be as happy as your past have been illustrious!" The grand and interesting scenes which crowded upon the imagination of the general and the president almost deprived them of the power of articulation; and the mingled emotions of joy, regret, and admiration, which agitated the minds of the spectators, were expressed more forcibly by looks and gestures than they could have been by words. Immediately on this resignation, the late commander "hastened," to use his own words, "with ineffable delight to his seat at Mount Vernon, on the banks of the Potowmac ;" whence, at the powerful call of his country, he in a short time again emerged in order to assume the high station 1 BOOK of president and guardian of that new and noble XXI. 1782. Session of parliament, constitution which, by one of the happiest and most extraordinary efforts of human virtue, wisdom, and ability, has been substituted in America to her former feeble, inefficient, and defective form of go vernment. In Great Britain, to the affairs of which we must Dec. 1782. now revert, the session of parliament commenced December 5, 1782, with a very excellent speech from the throne, in which his majesty, reverting after a long and inglorious series of years to the genuine principles of Whig policy, declared, that he had lost no time in giving the necessary orders for prohibiting offensive operations against America, and had been directing his views to a cordial reconciliation with her. Such being his own inclination, and such the sense of his parliament and people, he had not hesitated to conclude with them provisional articles of peace, by which they were acknowledged free and independent States. He deplored this dismemberment of the empire, which had become a matter both of policy and prudence; but testified a hope that religion, language, interest, and affection, would yet prove a permanent tie of union between the two countries. He spoke with pride and satisfaction of the late gallant defence of Gibraltar he recommended an immediate attention to the great objects of public receipt and expenditure, and above all to the state of the national debt. XXI. 1782. He applauded the liberal principles which had ac- BOOK tuated the conduct of parliament respecting Ireland; he pressed a revision of the whole system of trade, with a view to its fullest extension and turning his attention to Asia, pointed out our vast possessions there as a most important object of regulaHe declared that the true spirit of tion and care. the constitution would be the invariable rule of his conduct, and called upon parliament to exercise their temper, wisdom, and disinterestedness." the mini ster. Loyal addresses were voted in both houses with- Strength of out a division; but some severe remarks having been directed in the house of peers against the inconsistency of the minister, who had at a former period so strongly opposed the recognition of American independence, his lordship declared "that he had exerted every effort to preserve America to this country;" and with great animation exclaimed, "that he had not voluntarily yielded up this independency-he had merely submitted to the controlling power of necessity and fate. It was not I (said he) that made this cession—it was the evil star of Britain-it was the blunders of a former administration-it was the power of revolted subjects, and the mighty arms of the House of Bour bon." Doubts having arisen whether the acknowledgment of independency was absolute or conditional, BOOK and lord Shelburne declining to communicate any XXI. particulars of a negotiation actually pending, Mr. 1782. Fox moved in the house of commons an address to the king, to lay before the house copies of such parts of the provisional articles as related to the same; but this was opposed as inexpedient and improper, not only by the chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Pitt, but by the late minister lord North; and the question being put, Mr. Fox's motion was negatived by a majority of 219 against 46-a division perhaps fatal to the minister, by inspiring him with high and lofty ideas of his own strength and security. Preliminaries of peace signed at Paris, Jan. 1783. On the 23d of December the parliament, after with France Voting one hundred thousand seamen and marines and Spain for the service of the ensuing year, adjourned to the 21st of January 1783-the day preceding which, preliminary articles of peace were signed between Great Britain, France, and Spain, which immediately after the recess were submitted to the consideration of the two houses. By this treaty Great Britain guarantied to France the island of Tobago, and restored that of St. Lucia; also the settlements of Goree and Senegal in Africa; and the city of Pondicherri, with her other conquests in the East, accompanied by some additions of ter ritory. Lastly, the claims of Britain respecting Dunkirk were expressly relinquished; and on her XXI. 1782. part, France agreed to restore, Tobago excepted, BOOK all her valuable and important conquests in the West Indies. His Catholic majesty was allowed to retain Minorca and West Florida, East Florida being also ceded in exchange for the Bahamas. These islands had however already been recovered to the dominion of Great Britain in consequence of the success of an adventurous enterprise, gallantly conducted by colonel Devaux, without the knowledge, and much less the support or assistance of government. Holland having rejected the former advances of the English court towards an accommodation, it was resolved that she should not escape with total impunity; and the British plenipotentiaries were directed to offer the restitution of the Dutch settlements in the possession of England, with the important exception of Trincomalee, which their High Mightinesses declared they could not reconcile with the professions of moderation on the part of his Britannic majesty. On the other hand, Holland demanded an indemnification for the losses and expences of the war-a pretension which the English negotiators peremptorily rejected as totally inadmissible. These opposite claims for the present impeded the conclusion of the treaty with that power; but the preliminaries of peace actually signed were laid before the two houses of parliament by the secretaries of state, lord Grantham and Mr. Townshend, on the 17th of February, and |