of that territory had no right of control. He pretended that the characters of neutral powers ought to be respected at sea, while by land he flagitiously invaded their rights. If he threatened that we should have no trade, we had a right to annihilate his commerce; and, if we could not effectually injure him in that respect without inflicting wounds upon neutrals, they must submit to that detriment which arose from their connexions

with an unprincipled enemy. Before the orders were promulgated, France, by the aid of neutrals, enjoyed the benefit of a flourishing trade, and procured almost every requisite article and commodity. Could we tamely suffer this course to be continued, while our trade was fettered and circumscribed by an arrogant and unwarrantable edict? The distress of our manufacturers arose from this decree, not (as had been affirmed) from the orders of the council, which tended to secure to our merchants the general trade of the world, if not the particular traffic of the European continent.-Dr. Laurence protested against all imitation of the injustice of a profligate enemy, who ought to be resisted in a more regular and manly way. The orders, he thought, were very unjust toward neutrals; and they could not properly be vindicated as measures of retaliation, because the French decree had not been enforced. But the master of the rolls did not conceive that neutral traders had any strong grounds of complaint; for, by signing certificates which asserted that their respective cargoes did not consist of British articles of traffic, they suffered France to legislate for them, and were thus subservient to the views of our adversaries. If they did not oblige the French to adhere to the law of nations, they ought not to complain of our constrained deviation from it.

In the house of peers, likewise, the orders, were as strongly defended as they were boldly attacked. Lord

Auckland denied their justice and legality: lord King asserted, that they were prejudicial only in a trifling degree to the enemy, but severely injurious to the neutral; and the earl of Lauderdale deprecated the rupture with the American republic, to which they seemed likely to lead but lord Bathurst, declaring that the French decree had been executed with rigor, maintained the necessity of counter-action; yet not so rigidly, as to prevent the Americans from being favored, in many instances, with an exemption from the new transit-duty, or to preclude the commerce of neutrals with the French colonies.

The bill, by which the orders were modified and confirmed, received many rude assaults in its progress. The opposers of the novel system were numerous and alert; and their arguments and illustrations were urged with plausibility and force: but the ministers prosecuted their scheme, and triumphantly secured the assent of the parliament.

Some debates on the affairs of India varied the business of the session, without exciting extraordinary interest. The arbitrary conduct of the marquis Wellesley toward the nabob of Oude was clearly stated by lord Folkestone and Mr. Grant; but, as it was only a part of the general system avowedly pursued in the company's territories, and declared to be necessary for their security, it was not marked by parliamentary censure. On the contrary, a great majority exculpated the marquis, and applauded his vigilant super-intendence of the concerns of Oude, as the fruit of political wisdom, and of an ardent zeal for the service of his country and the prosperity of British India. The same subject was again discussed in consequence of a series of motions from lord Archibald Hamilton, who reprobated the injustice and tyranny of the zealous patriot, and particu

larly proposed, but without effect, a revision of the treaty of 1801, with a view to the rescue of the nabob from oppression. When sir Thomas Turton afterward revived the question respecting the deposition of Mohammed Ali, nabob of the Carnatic, and endeavoured to procure a criminating vote against lord Wellesley, his efforts only served to draw from the house a declaration, not indeed panegyrising the regard displayed by that nobleman or by his contemporary lord Clive for strict justice, but approving the anxious zeal of both statesmen for the security and interest of the provinces which they governed.

Military arrangements formed another topic of animated discussion. Lord Castlereagh boasted of the augmentation of the army, as being much more considerable, since the appointment of the new ministers, than any accession which the measures of their predecessors had produced. The land-force for which the parliament provided, exceeded 200,800 men, without including in the calculation the regiments serving in India, or the foreign troops in British pay. On the commitment of the bill against mutiny, his lordship, without objecting to the limitation of the military term, proposed a clause for an allowance of the option of permanent service. It was supported by general Tarleton and other speakers, because the periodical discharge of a multitude of soldiers would seriously impair the national strength, and leave the country, for a long interval, in a state of insecurity. Mr. Windham and lord Henry Petty, contended for the preference of limitation, and resisted the clause as wholly unnecessary: but it was sanctioned by a majority of 69. Its most strenuous opposer in the upper house was the king's nephew, the duke of Gloucester, who alleged that the new system had operated beneficially in promoting enlistment, and

in diminishing the practice of desertion. In answer to a recommendation of different terms of enlistment, which might suit the various caprices of men, lord King properly observed, that it was much better to have a repeated option, which they would have without the clause, than to be confined to one choice. Lord Melville took a survey of the frame and constitution of the army, and attributed its excellent state, not to any one plan, but to a succession of schemes and exertions, adapted to the ordinary nature of mankind, and to the varying circumstances of the country. Of those schemes, that which pleased him the least was the system of limited service, which did not tend to render men complete soldiers; and he therefore wished that an option for life might be allowed. The clause was at length adopted without a division.

The continued necessity of providing for the defence of the realm, suggested the expediency of additional arrangements. It was proposed, that a local militia should be chosen by ballot in every county; and that substitution should not be allowed, but that particular exemptions might be granted in consideration of a high fine. The amount was to be proportioned to the deficiency of volunteers in each county; and it was supposed that 60,000 men would at first be sufficient; ➡a number which would contribute, with the ordinary militia and the voluntary associations, to make up a regimental force of 400,000 men, ready to act in a crisis of danger. This scheme was combated on various grounds, more particularly for its tendency to injure the recruiting service; but ministerial influence overwhelmed all objections to the measure.

VOL. IV.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

GEORGE III. (Continued.)

A. D. 1808-1809.

WHEN the new military plan was in its progress to accomplishment, an urgent occasion arose for the use of that force which was thus left at full liberty for the exigencies of foreign service. The war with Spain had for some time languished; but the critical state of that kingdom excited the anxious attention of Europe. It might have been supposed, that the subserviency of Charles IV. and his favorite to the arrogant dictates of Napoleon, would have contented even that aspiring potentate: but there seemed to be nothing, within the bounds of possibility, that would satisfy his thirst of power. The crown of an ancient monarchy, he thought, would throw a lustre over the obscurity of his family; and all the resources of Spain would be more effectually at his disposal, if he should be able to extinguish in that country the sway of the house of Bourbon. He allured the king and his minister by a treaty for the partition of the feeble realm of Portugal, which, he said, all the power of Great-Britain could not secure against a vigorous and formidable attack. Having easily obtained permission for the march of a French army through Spain, with a view to the execution of the treaty, he gave directions to his officers to take possession of the most important fortresses. By the connivance of the prince of the Peace, he succeeded in this part of his artful and flagitious scheme; and his next object was the seisure or the expulsion of the king. The people, enraged at the intrusion of hated foreigners,