feffional judgment and dexterity by which he was eminently difinguifhed, determined to profit of the prefent fituation, by endeavouring to cut off the convoy, in the first instance, and to fight the enemy after. In the move ment for this purpofe, the Triumphant of 84 guns, which had tayed back to collect the convoy, in her way now to rejoin the fleet, came across the Edgar of 74 guns, which led the English van: a fharp though fhort fire enfued, in which the former fuftained fome confiderable apparent lofs. The defign in part took place; and if there had been a fufhcient number of frigates (which are particularly neceffary in all attacks upon convoys) the effect would have been fill much more confiderable. About twenty of the prizes arrived fafe in England, two or three were faid to be funk, and feveral that ftruck efcaped in the night. A great difperfion of the convoy neceffarily took place, and a number of the hips were reafonably fuppofed to have lost their

voyage.

The French commanders were, in the mean time, collecting their Beer, and forming the line of battle. Admiral Kempenfeldt likewife, having collected bis fhips in the evening, and being still ignorant of their force, got upon the fame tack with the enemy, under a full determination of engaging them in the morning. At daylight, perceiving them to leeward, he immediately formed the line; but difcovering their force upon a nearer approach, he found the neceffity of changing his refolution; and the adverse fleets, after a full view of each other, feemed to part with equal confent on both fidés.

Near 1100 land-forces, and between 6 and 700 feamen, were taken in the prizes. They were mostly freighted on the French king's account, and were chiefly laden with the following articles, which will fufficiently fhew of what importance their capture was in the prefent feafon, viz. brafs and iron ordnance; gunpowder; fmall arms; flints; bomb-fhells; cannon balls and grenades in a prodigious quantity; iron bars and fheet lead; travelling magazines and forges; all kinds of ordnanceftores; tents, camp equipage, and utenfils of all forts; foldiers clothing, and accoutrements; with woollen and linen goods for the land and fea fervice, in great quantities; bricks; great cables; failcloth and cordage, with every fupply for fhipping, to a great amount; wine, oil, brandy, rum, flour, bifcuit, and falted provifions, all. in great, and the most neceffary. in prodigious quantities.

The value or importance of . the capture ferved, however, only. to excite the diffatisfaction of the public. It was faid, that, when fortune had thrown fo fair an opportunity in our way, of retriev ing our affairs, and recovering our former rank and fituation, the golden moment was loft, through the negligence of thofe who had not fupplied Admiral Kempenfeldt with fuch a force as would have enabled him to take or deftroy the whole French fleet and convoy. A great clamour was accordingly raifed, which doubtedly was not leffened by the attempts which were made in both houfes of parliament, to render this bufinefs a ground of complaint and charge against the first lord of the admiralty.

CHAP.

efforts of those who wished to rouze the nation to a fenfe of its real fituation. The only hope, therefore, that remained of refeuing it from the effects of a falfe fyllem of politics, under which its ruin feemed no longer problematical, was from the vigour and independence of parliament.

It was evident, from the numbers which divided on the fide of oppofition during the first feffion of the new parliament, that, not withstanding the advantage the court-party had derived from a fudden diffolution, the frength of the minister had declined in the Houfe of Commons. The calamitous event of the campaign in Virginia, the news of which arrived in England but a few days before their fecond meeting, was likely to increase this defection, and threatened him with confequences not lefs fatal to his power at home than it was decifive on the object in difpute abroad.

The conteft in America had hitherto operated as an infuperable obftacle to the free exercife of parliamentary deliberation and control. The patient acquiefcence of fo large a majority in both houses, under the repeated difgraces, in which the purfuance of that object had involved the country, could be attributed to no other caufe than the neceffity they found themfelves under of fupporting the minifter at all events, or of abandoning a favourite war, connected in fome meafure with their political prejudices, and in which their paffions had been artfully and fuccefsfully inflamed. But the event, alluded to above, having cut up from the root all hope of fubjugating the

revolted colonies, in the minds even of the most fanguine adherers to that fyftem, it was not to be ex pected they would so readily overlook the errors, or connive at the mifconduct of thofe under whofe mifmanagement they had reaped nothing but mortification and difgrace.

What effect an event of fuch magnitude would produce in the councils of government, was looked for with an uncommon degree of anxious expectation. The ground on which minifters ftood, was known to be extremely flippery and dangerous. The profecution of the American war was generally understood to be the tenure by which they held their offices from the court. To abandon the war, was at once inevitably to forfeit the fupport of that fecret influence, of which they had too long experienced the effects to be ignorant of its power. To venture to look that power in the face, to bring a full expofure of the fate of affairs before the public, and to ftand on their own me rits, was an experiment which more fortunate minifters might have thought too hazardous to be lightly rifked.

It was this view of affairs which appears to have directed adminiftration in the first step that was neceflary to be taken at the opening of the feflions, on the 27th day of November, 1781. The fpeech from the throne continued to hold the fame determined, language with which both houfes had been laft difmiffed. The continuance of the war was afcribed to that reftless ambition which first excited our enemies to commence it; and his jelly was

made

made to declare, that he fhould not answer the truft committed to the fovereign of a free people, nor make a fuitable return to his fubjects for their conftant, zealous, and affectionate attachment to his perfon, family, and government, if he confented to facrifice either to his own defire of peace, or to their temporary eafe and relief, thofe effential rights and permanent interefis, upon the maintenance and prefervation of which the future ftrength and fecurity of the country muft ever principally depend. The loffes in America were neither diffembled nor palliated, but ftated as the ground for calling for the firm concurrence and fupport of parliament, and a more vigorous, animated, and united exertion of the faculties and refources of the nation. This, with the mention of the fafe and profperous arrival of our numerous commercial fleets, the tavourable appearance of affairs in the East Indies, and a strong recommendation to parliament to refume their enquiries into the ftate and condition of our dominions in that country, formed the dubitance of the King's fpeech.

In the House of Commons, the motion for an addrefs, framed in the ufual form, produced on the part of oppofition a warm and animated debate, which continued till two in the morning The alarming declaration, contained in the speech from the throne, of the intentions of government to continue the profecution of the American war to the last extremity; the infidious attempt to pledge the Houle, by the propofed addrefs, to the unqualified fupport of a determination fo frantic and

defperate, in the fpite of feven years dear-bought experience, and in the teeth of national bankruptcy and ruin; the audacity of holding fuch language at the very inftant when the calamitous effects of the misconduct of ministers called for penitence and humiliation, were topics urged by Mr. Fox with great eloquence and ability, and followed by a fevere reprehenfion of the principles of the war, of the delusions by which parliament had been led on, year after year, to fupport it, and of the grofs and criminal inifmanagement that ap peared in every branch of adminiftration, and particularly in the marine department. To the neg ligence and incapacity of the mi nifter at the head of that board, he afcribed the lofs of the army under Lord Cornwallis. That minifter, he said, had declared in another affembly, that a first lord of the admiralty who fhould fail in having a fleet equal to the com bined naval force of the house of Bourbon, would be unworthy of his fituation, and deserve to be dragged to condign punishment. The cafe, he contended, was now before them. The inferiority of the British fleet, in every quarter of the globe, he endea voured to prove from the events of the campaign; and he conjured the Houfe not to delay that juftice which the noble earl had called down on his guilt. After appeal ing to the cool and difpaffionate fenfe of the Houfe upon the utter impracticability of reducing the colonies by force, of which they had now had full experience, and calling particularly on the member who at that time held the office of paymaster-general, and

who