264 



A. D. 1793. 



vldence, and Captain Portlock in the Affiflant, from the South fea at 

 S'. Vincents with a cargo of feveral hundred Hving plants of the bread- 

 fruit tree, that prctious gift of the bountiful Author of nature, which 

 may be faid to enable the natives of the happy iflands of the South fea 

 to eat their bread without the fweat of their brows. A number of 

 them were immediately planted in the public garden of S'. Vincents ; 

 and the reft were carried down to Jamaica, where the thriving condi- 

 tion of them before the expiration of the year 1793 encouraged the 

 friends of the Weft-Indies to hope that they will in future be exempted 

 from the horrors of famine, which, when the imported fupplies of pro- 

 vifions happened to fail, has fometimes carried off many thoufands of 

 the unhappy negroes, whereby (independent of what humanity muft 

 feel for the milerable fate of thofe poor unoffending creatures) the 

 whole fyftem of the Britifli commerce with the Weft-Indies was endan- 

 gered. 



In Auguft 1792 Lord Gower, the Britifh ambaffidor at Paris, was re- 

 called. Mr. Chauvelin, the French ambaffador, ftill remained in Lon- 

 don ; but, after the depofition of the king of France, he was no longer 

 acknowleged by the Britifli court in the character of a public minifter ; 

 and on the 24'" of January he was ordered to leave the country. On 

 the 28'" the king announced to the parliament a neceffity of augment- 

 ing his forces by fea and land : and on the i'' of February the French 

 government iifued a proclamation, wherein they complain of the iniult , 

 offered to their ambaffador, and of the ftoppage of the corn {hipped for 

 France, while the exportation of it to other countries was free : they 

 alio -omplain of fmiilar injurious treatment from the Dutch govern- 

 ment ; and therefor they declare, that they ' are at war with the king 

 ' of England and the ftadtholder of the United provinces.' The events 

 of the war, except as they affeded commerce or the commercial fettle- 

 ments abroad, do not belong to this work. 



The funds immediately felc the fliock. The three-per-cents, which 

 had been at 97! in March 1792, and had been gradually deprefled by 

 the apprehenfion of war, now, on the certainty of it, fell almoft inftant- 

 aneoufly from 79I to 707. But they rofe again as foon as April to 81 ; 

 and, though they never afterwards came near to 80, yet they kept for a 

 long time at prices rather higher than could be expeded, owing to the 

 men of property on the continent pouring their money into our funds, 

 which they thought the moft fecure depofit in Europe. 



March 25'" — The commercial treaty, concluded between Great Brit- 

 ain and Ruffia in the year 1766, had been allowed to expire, the Ruf- 

 fian government having thought it too favourable to the Britilh fub- 

 ]e6fs. It was now, however, apparently on account of the different 

 afped of the politics of Europe, renewed for the term of fix years. 



The firft enterprife of the Britifli forces in the Weft-Indies was di- 



