lent attempt was made to force open the gates of Newgate, in order to release the rioters who were confined there; and the keeper having refused to deliver them, his house was set on fire, the prison was soon in flames, and great part of it consumed, though a new stone edifice of uncommon strength; and more than three hundred prisoners made their escape, many of whom joined the mob.

Before this, a committee of the Protestant Association had circulated hand-bills, requesting all true Protestants, to shew their attachment to their best interest, by a legal and peaceable deportment. But this produced little effect. Violence, tumult, and devastation still continued. The Protestant Association, as they thought proper to style themselves, had been chiefly actuated by ignorance and bigotry. But their new confederates were animated by the love of mischief, and the hope of plunder. Two other prisons, the houses of lord Mansfield and Sir John Fielding, and several other private houses, were destroyed the same evening. The following day, the king's Bench Prison, the New-Bridewell in St. George's Fields, some Popish chapels, several private houses of Papists, and other buildings were destroyed by the rioters.-Some were pulled down, and others set on fire; and every part of the metropolis exhibited violence and disorder, tumults and conflagrations.

During these extraordinary scenes, there was a shameful inactivity in the lord-mayor of London, and in most of the other magistrates of the metropolis, and its neighborhood; and even the

ministry appeared to be panic-struck, and to be only attentive to the preservation of their own houses, and of the royal palace. Some of the common people engaged in these riots, with the more readiness, on account of the unpopularity of the ministry; nor could so much violence and disorder have happened under any administration which had been generally respected. Even some persons in better circumstances, who totally disapproved of the bigotry of the Protestant Association, were yet induced at first to oppose the rioters with less vigor, from entertaining ideas, that these tumults might possibly inspire terror into the administration, and occasion a change of measures. The event, however, was directly the reverse.-The fears of the ministry were only temporary; and the riots, and their consequences, greatly contributed, in fact, to strengthen the hands of government.

The magistrates, at the beginning of the riots, declined giving any orders to the military to fire upon the insurgents; but at length, as all property began to be insecure, men of all classes began to see the necessity of a vigorous opposi tion to the rioters. Large bodies of troops were brought to the metropolis; and an order was issued, by the authority of the king in council, "for the military to act, without waiting for directions from the civil magistrates, and to use force for dispersing the illegal and tumultuous assemblies of the people." The troops exerted themselves with diligence, in the suppression of these alarming tumults; great numbers of the rioters were killed; many were apprehended,

who were afterwards tried and executed for felony; and the metropolis was at length restored to order and tranquility.

It is pretended, that no member of the Protestant Association was executed, or tried, for any share of these riots. What truth there may be in that assertion, we cannot determine. The fact can only be ascertained, by comparing the names of the persons tried or convicted, with the numerous names on the petition, to which few persons have had access; and there can be no doubt, but that many who were engaged in the riots, were neither convicted nor tried.

At all events, it was manifestly the bigotry of the Protestant Association, to which these riots owed their origin. The manner in which these tumults were suppressed, by the operations of the military, without any authority from the civil magistrate, however necessary from the peculiar circumstances of the case, was thought to be a very dangerous precedent; and it was the opinion of many, that an act of indemnity ought to have been passed, not only with regard to inferior persons, who had acted in the suppression of these riots, but also with respect to the ministry themselves, for the part they had taken in this transaction, in order to prevent its being estab lished as a precedent.

z 2

CHAP. XCIV.

The Independence of America is acknowledged by the English House of Commons, A. D. 1782.

AFTER the surrender of earl Cornwallis, our affairs in America seemed desperate, and every one seemed desirous of bringing the war to a conclusion, except those who were generally thought to be the cause of it. Sir James Lowther, now Lord Lonsdale, therefore moved in the house of Commons, that all further attempts to reduce the Americans by force, would be injurious to the true interest of Great Britain. After a long and vigorous debate, the motion was rejected. The mode of exchanging prisoners was next canvassed; and Mr Laurens was ordered to be released from the Tower.

A motion was next made for addressing his majesty to put a stop to the American war; and the motion was lost by one vote only. A second motion was then made and agreed to. Addresses were presented to the king, a complete change in administration followed, the negociations for a general peace commenced, and the independence of America was allowed.

In 1783, the provisional articles between England and America were made public. By which it appeared, that his Britannic majesty ac knowledged the independence of the United States of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode Island and Providence-Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania,

Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. He also relinquished all claims to the government of them, and consented to treat with them as free and independent states. Their boundaries were also settled, and they were allowed the liberty of fishing, and drying fish, as usual. It was agreed, that the creditors on both sides, should meet with no impediment in the prosecution of their claims. The restoration of confiscated property was also recommended, and all prisoners were to be set at liberty. The English troops were to be immediately drawn from America, and a firm and perpetual peace was concluded between the contracting parties. In these articles, no provision was made for the American loyalists. The line of boundary was blamed as inaccurate, and the liberty of fishing was condemned, as an instance of extravagant liberality.

The definitive treaty was next signed. In our treaty with the French, after settling the fisheries, the islands of St. Pierre, St. Lucia, Tobago, and Goree, were surrendered to France, with the river Senegal and its dependencies, and the forts of St. Louis and others. The islands of Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, were left to the English; and the islands which the English had taken from the French in the EastIndies, were restored. The prisoners also, on both sides, were to be surrendered without ran

som.

With the Dutch, our negociations were not so easily settled. However, after much deliber