524 ■^' ^- ^772* 



particularly of thofe, who, living in diftant places, could not have fuch 

 early or certain knowlege of the circumftances and connedions of the 

 debtor. The now enlarged commercial connedions ot Scotland ren- 

 dered this partial mode of proceedi^ig, which was a total bar againft 

 distant creditors having a chance of obtaining any lliare in the cfl'edts of 

 a bankrupt, a greater and more extenfive grievance than formerly ; 

 and therefor new regulations were made by parliament, whereby all 

 creditors upon proving their debts were entivled to an equal proportion 

 of the effeds of their debtor. At the fame time, for the further ad- 

 vantage of trade, the fiminuuy execution and other privileges, due 10 

 bills of exchange and inland bills, were, after the 15''' of May 1772, 

 extended to promiilbry notes in Scotland. [12 Geo. Ill, c. 72.] 



In this feffion many adts were alfo pafled for improving the ftreets, 

 buildings, and police, of London and other cities and towns in Eng- 

 land and Scotland ; as alio many ads for inland navigation, roads, and 

 bridges, throughout the united kingdom. 



The admiral on the American ftation had placed an armed fchooner 

 at Providence in Rhode-ifland to proted the trade and lupprefs fmug- 

 gling. The very adive exertions of the officer, who commanded this 

 veflel, fo provoked the people of the place, that a party of them, fup- 

 pofed to be about two hundred, boarded the fchooner at midnight, 

 took the people out of her, and fet her on fire (10" June). Such a 

 grofs aftfont to government was highly refented at home, and in Ame- 

 rica it contributed greatly to widen the breach between the people of 

 the country and thofe in the fervice of government, and perhaps to ac- 

 celerate the opener hoftilities which afterwards took place. 



There were fome great bankruptcies in London, which produced very 

 general diftrefs, and for fome time flruck an univerfal panic, till the 

 principal merchants had a meeting (June), at which they concerted mea- 

 sures for checking the progrefs of the evil, by which means, together 

 with the judicious interpofition of the bank of England, the calamity 

 was happily prevented from fpreading lb wide as it mufl otherways 

 have done, the public apprehenlions were quieted, and the national cre- 

 dit preferved. 



The firfl great failures were followed by fo many others in various 

 parts of the kingdom, that the bankruptcies of this year amounted to 

 the unprecedented nvimber of 525 *. 



* There were 415 in the year 1726, 446 in die remccly of an ovei-fullnefs of commercial pro- 



17J7, and 388 in 1728. In no other year till now fpcrity, as fome difordcrs in the human conllitu- 



did they ever amount to 300, except in 1764, tion proceed from too great a confidence in a fult- 



when there were 301. See Mr. Chahners's cla- nefs of health : and the export trade of Great 



borate table of the bankruptcies from the year Eiitaln appears tc liave attamcd a height in the 



17CO to 1793 in his EJl'imate of the Jlrcngth of years 1771 and 1772, to which it never rofe be- 



Creat Britain, p. y\v\, ed. 1794. Numerous bank- fore, and which it never again equaled till th« 



juplcies are frequently both the ccnfequence and year 1787. 



