the other islands in the gulph and river of St. Laurence. In the West Indies, the island of Grenada and the Grenadines were ceded to England, in full right; alfo, of the neutral islands, Dominique, St. Vincent, and Tobago. In Africa, Senegal with its dependencies is guarantied to England. In the Eaft Indies, his moft chriftian majefty acknowledges Mahomed Aly Khan, as nabob of the Carnatic; and Salabat Zing, as fubah of the Decan-renouncing all ácquifitions made on the coaft of Coromandel fince the year 1749, and engaging not to erect fortifications in any part of the kingdom of Bengal. In Europe, he agrees to reftore Minorca in the fame condition as when conquered by the arms of the most christian king. He confents that the harbor and fortifications of Dunkirk fhall be demolished. Finally, he ftipulates that the territories belonging to the elector of Hanover, the landgrave of Heffe, &c. now occupied by the armies of France, fhall be evacuated, together with the fortreffes of Cleves, Wefel, Gueldres, &c. belonging to the king of Pruffia; and the two monarchs of France and England engage not to furnish fuccors of any kind to their refpective allies in Germany. The difficult queftion relative to the validity of the prizes captured before the declaration of war, is palled over in profound and dif creet filence. 1 The king of Spain on his part cedes and guaranties in full right to England the eastern and weftern Floridas, and in general all that Spain poffeffes on the continent of America, to the eaft or to the fouth-east of the Miffifippi; in confequence of which important ceffion, in conjunction with that of the eastern part of Louifiana, and the entire province of Canada, an immenfe country, capable of unlimited improvement, and bounded by a line of demarcation the most clear and definite, was gained to the empire of Britain. His catholic majesty also relinquishes for himfelf and his fucceffors all pretenfions which he may have formed to the right of fishing on the banks of Nefound land. land. He confirms and establishes for ever the privilege or indulgence enjoyed by the English of cutting logwood on the coaft of Honduras, ftipulating only, that no fortifications fhall be erected upon the territorial dominions of Spain. Finally, his catholic majesty engages entirely to evacuate, on the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty, all the lands, cities, and caftles, belonging to his most faithful majefty, in the fame condition they were in when conquered by the arms of Spain. In return for these great and important ceffions, Great Britain engages to restore to France, in Europe, the island of Belleifle-in Africa, the island of Goree-in the Weft Indies, the islands of Guadaloupe, Martinique, and St. Lucie-in the Eaft Indies, Pondicherri and Chandernagore. The right of France to fifh on the banks of Newfoundland is recognized, and the small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon are ceded as a fhelter for the fishermen. The fortress of the Havannah, and the other acquifitions of England, without referve, including the recent and as yet unascertained conqueft of the Manillas, are restored to Spain. A great obftacle to the conclufion of the treaty had been removed by the alteration which had taken place in the politics of England respecting the king of Pruffia, and in the beneficial change in the fituation of that monarch, who had now concluded a peace with Ruffia and Sweden, and to whom notice had been already given, that the annual fubfidy treaty would be no more renewed. The territories of Pruffia occupied by the French being evacuated, that monarch had, however, upon the face of the treaty of Fontainebleau, no just ground of complaint, his native force being equal to his own defence against the House of Auftria; or, if it were not, England was under no obligation farther to exhauft her treafures in order to defend him. Both parties being however weary of a war which had been fo long continued with alternate lofs and advantage, they foon came to terms of accommodation*. Although * If, however, the teftimony of the king of Pruffia may be confided in, that monarch had great reafon to complain of what he ftyles the "odious" conduct of the English court, from the æra that lord Bute's influence began to predominate. It muft indeed be acknowledged, that England by her alliance with Pruffia was placed in circumftances fo embarraffing, that it was very difficult, or, to speak the truth, wholly impracticable, at once to confult the interests and to maintain the honor of the kingdom. To continue the war for the fole purpose of compelling France to RESTORE Cleves, Wefel, and Gueldres, to the king of Pruffia-a condition to which France, equally perplexed by her engagements with the court of Vienna, could not without extreme difgrace fubmit-would, on the part of England, have been carrying the point of honor to a degree of ro mantic extravagance. On the other hand, entirely to abandon the interefts of the king of Pruffia with the cold unfeeling apathy of Lord Bute, which the warmth of resentment exprefied in the remonftrances of the court of Berlin seems at length to have converted into abfolute malignity, can never be reconciled to our ideas of good faith, and much less to any fentiment of national dignity and generofity. The king of Pruffia, in evident allufion and intentional contraft to the character of the reigning monarch, fays of the late king George II. Il termina fon regne glorieux par une mort douce et prompte. Ce prince, entr'autres bonnes qualités, avoit une fermeté héroique, qui faifoit que fes alliés pouvoient prendre une confiance entière en fa perfonne." Speaking of the state of affairs on the confequent acceffion of the new monarch, he fays, "Deux hommes fe trouvoient à la tête de ce gouvernement. L'un étoit PITT; il avoit l'ame élevée, un efprit capable de grands projets, de la fermeté dans l'exécution, un attachement inflexible à fes opinions, parcequ'il les croyoit avantageuses à fa patrie, qu'it aimoit. L'autre c'étoit BUTE; il avoit été gouverneur du roi. Plus ambitieux qu'habile, vouloit domainer à l'ombre de l'autorité fouveraine." After Mr. Pitt, finding the abfolute afcendant acquired by his antagonist, had retired from court, to ufe the expreffion of the royal hiftorian, "plein d'indignation,," the minifter Bute not only refufed to renew the fubfidy, but actually made propo fitions to the emperor Peter the third, through the medium of prince Gallitzin, to prevent his concluding a feparate peace with Prufsia. The emperor fent a copy of Prince Gallitzin's difpatch to the king of Pruffia, in order that he might be apprized of the treachery of the English court. Lotd Bute alfo made fecret advances to the court of Vienna, offering very liberally the fpoils of Pruffia to the emprefs queen, in cafe fhe was difpofed to come to an accommodation; but prince Kaunitz, in the name of the emprefs, declared, "that fhe would accept of no peace of which England was the mediatrix." The English minister had, as the king of Pruffia afins, no fcruple to permit France to keep poffeffion of the countries of Cleves, Wefel, and Gueldres, though it was at length agreed that they fhould be evacuated; after which, as lord Bute hefitated not to exprefs himself in the houfe of peers, they were to be fcrambled for." And on the figning of the preliminaries, large bodies of Auftrians and Pruffians were actually beginning their march to the Weftphalfan frontier, in order to dispute the poffeffion. But France, alarmed at the idea of a war in the Low Countries, thought proper to affent to the restoration of these territories, on condition that Pruffia fhould agree to figna treaty of neutrality for the Netherlands. But, before this neutrality could take effect, the treaty of Hubertsburg was concluded. The change of minifters and counfels which took place at the acceffion of the prefent king, excited fcarcely lefs aftonishment abroad than the difmiffion of the famous Whig Adminiftration of Queen Anne half a century before. Vide Œuvres du Roi de Pruffe. Although the peace of Fontainebleau was almoft univerfally unpopular in the nation at large, the decided approbation of the parliament feemed to enfure the permanency of the minifter's power; and the real intrinfic merits of the treaty, with the beneficial confequences neceffarily refulting from the restoration of peace, might reasonably be supposed gradually to conciliate the minds of the public. But other causes of diffatisfaction foon arofe, which heightened almost to phrenfy the popular odium against the minifter and the court, and converted the national ebullitions of discontent into a tempeft of faction, which most alarmingly agitated, and in the progress of its fury feemed at one period to threaten fcarcely lefs than the abfolute wreck and deftruction of the political veffel*. In the courfe of the feffion it was found neceffary, the increasing expence of the war having left an immenfe arrear of debt, to negotiate a new loan to a very large amount; for difcharging the intereft of which, amongst other taxes a duty was moved by the chancellor of the exchequer of four fhillings upon every hogfhead of cider, to be paid by the maker, and with certain qualifications fubjected to all the laws of excife. No fooner was this moft unpopular, and therefore most imprudent, propofition brought forward, than the oppofition, eager and joyful to embrace fo inviting an opportunity of attack, opened all their batteries against it. Certain of the support and concurrence of the nation at large, * In comparing the brilliant and aufpicious commencement of the reign of the prefent monarch with the dark and dreadful fcenes which enfued (and it is painful to add, with those which at a much more advanced period feem yet impending), the imagination is led forcibly to advert to the fublime fymbolical reprefentations introduced by a poet of the highest order, Mr. Gray, into his cejebrated ode of the BARD, in allufion to the catastrophe terminating the reign of Richard II.; in the fplendor of its opening dawn, and its fubfequent fatal indifcretions, bearing no yery diftant analogy to the present. Fair laughs the morn, and foft the zephyr blows; In gallant trim the gilded veffel goes; Youth at the prow, and Pleasure at the helm ; That huih'd in grim repofe expects his evening prey, large, they inveighed with great plaufibility and vehemence against this extenfion of a fyftem reprobated as oppreffive, arbitrary, and odious. The arguments by which the nation had been fo much inflamed thirty years before, at the period when Sir Robert Walpole attempted to carry into effect his famous project, were now revived, and anew enforced. The clamor against the cider bill became loud and general; and the city of London prefented, at the bar of the houfe of commons, a petition against it. The bill, nevertheless, paffed both houses by confiderable majorities, though in the house of lords 43 peers divided, and two protefts were figned against it. When it lay ready for the royal fanction, the city of London, rather to exprefs its deteftation of the bill than from any hope of fuccefs, petitioned the crown to refufe its affent. In the cider counties thè abhorrence of the measure was fo general, that it was found very difficult to carry the act into execution; and it appears indeed to have been confidered by impartial perfons as liable to objections not applicable to other branches of the excife revenue. Still, however, it cannot be justly doubted, that the duties of excife, levied on the proper objects, and guarded from abuse by juft and equitable regulations, conftitute incomparably the faireft, the eafieft, the most productive of all the various modes of national taxation. But a wife government will and ought to confult the general temper and difpofition of the people in all the measures of government, and more especially in the manner of raising the national fupplies. For when a specific revenue is to be exacted by the fupreme authority of the ftate, it is furely no exceffive indulgence to permit them to pay it in the manner most agreeable, though in reality leaft advantageous to themselves. All that the wisdom and beneficence of government united can do in fuch a cafe, is to introduce by gradual and infenfible fteps to the amelioration of any actually exifting fyftem, however clearly perceived to be abfurd and pernicious. In the prefent inftance, though the object was comparatively trivial |