BRITAIN. 



651 



other party, which, since the death of Lord Chatham, 

 had regarded Lord Shelburne as its political leader.* 

 ' The Marquis of Rockingham was appointed first 

 lord of the treasury; the Earl of Shelburne and Mr 

 Fox, secretaries of state ; Lord Camden, president of 

 the council ; Lord John Cavendish, chancellor of the 

 exchequer; the Duke of Grafton, privy seal; the 

 Duke of Richmond, master of the ordnance ; Lord 

 Keppcl, first lord of the admiralty ; General Con- 

 xvay, commander in chief; Mr Burke, paymaster of 

 the forces ; Lord Thurlow was continued lord chan- 

 cellor; and Mr Dunning, created Baron Ashburton, 

 was made chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 

 The first act of the new administration was to accept 

 an otter already made by Russia, of her mediation 

 between Holland and Great Britain. This offer 

 their High Mightinesses did not chuse to accept; but 

 negotiations for a general peace were almost imme- 

 diately commenced, and Mr Grenville was sent to Paris 

 with full powers to treat with all the parties at war. 



In consistency with the principles which they had 

 avowed, the new ministry began their career by the 

 most popular and promising acts of reformation. 

 Their resolutions for the better management of In- 

 dian affairs, are too complicated to be detailed in 

 the present sketch, and we must refer the reader 

 for them to a different article : (See INDIA.) A 

 retrenchment in the expenditure of the civil list was 

 accomplished. The independence of the Irish parlia- 

 ment was declared. Two acts were also passed, ex- 

 cluding revenue officers from parliamentary elections, 

 and contractors from sitting in parliament^; and mini- 

 sters, to record those intentions which unhappily they 

 were never suffered to fulfil, moved, in a committee 

 of the whole house, a series of resolutions for econo- 

 my in the revenue, and the abolition of useless offices, 

 with which they were to have proceeded very early 

 in the ensuing session. 



To return to the events of America : no action of 

 any importance took place after the capture of the 

 British army at Yorktown. The Spaniards, embark- 

 ing from Cuba, invaded and took from us the Bahama 

 islands. Nevis, Montserrat, and St Kitts, had been 

 taken from us before the end of the former year; and 

 Jamaica, the great object of Spanish ambition, was 

 threatened fry the combined fleets of France and 

 Spain, which, if successful, would have poured upon 

 it a l.in.l force of 20,000 invaders. To prevent the 

 of the hostile fleets, Admiral Rodney for- 

 tuiuiely reached the West Indies in the month of 

 Febr ary, and brought the fleet of De Grasse to ac- 

 tion, between the islands of Guadeloupe and Domi- 

 n : quc, while the Frenchman was attempting to reach 

 tin' Spanish fleet at Hispaniola. Rodney's force con- 

 sisted of 86, De Grasse's of 34 ships of the line. 

 After a glorious action, which lasted with few inter- 

 vals, from seven in the morning till night, the Briti?h 

 had tak'jn or destroyed eight capital ships of the ene- 

 my, and among these De Grasse's own ship, the 

 \?.< ~\\ .it that had ever been built in Europe. 



The island of Minorca, after a siege of 171 days, 

 surrendered to the power of Spain. Its emaciated 

 garrison, scarcely able to pile their arms at surrender- 





ing, gave up rather to famine and sickness, than to Britain. 

 the bravery of their captors, who were commanded 

 by the Duke deCrillon, and amounted to 16,000 men. 

 The defence of Gibraltar was one of the few bril- 

 liant events of this disastrous war. A sortie of the 

 garrison, during the former year, had destroyed the 

 principal works of the besiegers ; but the arrival of 

 the conqueror of Minorca, with 20,000 French and Siege of 

 Spanish troops, the presence of a powerful fleet, and Gibraltar. 

 the invention of floating batteries, which were deem- 

 ed impregnable, gave new hopes to the besiegers. 

 On the lath of September, the combined fleets ha- 

 ving anchored the preceding day between Orange- 

 grove and Algesiras bay, moored about 1000 yards 

 from the walls of the garrison, and opened a fire from 

 4-00 pieces of artillery. The garrison directing their 

 fire chiefly on their battering ships, beheld, for some 

 time with uneasiness, their heaviest shells rebounding 

 from the roofs of those bulwarks, while the largest 

 cannon balls made no visible impression on their hull?. 

 Governor Elliot, however, was still confident in the 

 effects of the heated balls, which had been ascertained 

 in former experiments, and encouraged his men to re- 

 double their efforts. Symptoms of confusion and 

 combustion were at last discovered on board the Spa- 

 nish admiral's chief battering ship. Towards even- 

 ing a general disorder was visible in their line ; their 

 fire slackened, and almost ceased before night. Du- 

 ring the night, their signals and cries of distress, and 

 the arrival of a floating wreck, with only twelve sur- 

 vivors, gave sufficient proof of what the red hot balls 

 had produced. An hour after midnight, the Spanish 

 admiral's ship was in one blaze. Others succeeded 

 to rise in conflagration, till in the progress of the 

 succeeding morning the chief business of the British, 

 besides completing the destruction of the gun-boats, 

 was to save numbers of the crews of the hostile ves- 

 sels from the sea, or from destruction by fire. The 

 enemy lost 2000. The garrison had not an hundred 

 killed. The sole hopes of the enemy now rested OB 

 their fleet, which was still superior to that of Lord 

 Howe: yet that gallant admiral sailed boldly into the 

 place, and returned, after a partial encounter with 

 the enemy's ships, having performed, in relieving the 

 garrison before so superior a force, an act which 

 astonished all Europe. 



The happy prospects which the nation enjoyed in , 



i -ir i j v Change 01 



a skilful and popular cabinet, were unfortunately m j n j s t r y. 



clouded within a year, by the death of the Marquis 

 of Rockingham. Of the Whig parties, who were 

 more than ever divided by this event, that of the 

 Earl of Shelburne was the most agreeable to the 

 crown, and that nobleman was appointed to succeed 

 the Marquis as first lord of the treasury ; Mr Fox, 

 Lord John Cavendish, and Mr Burke, declaring that 

 they could not act with a cabinet in which the prin- 

 ciples of the old system were to be revived, imme- 

 diately resigned. Mr Pitt was appointed chancellor 

 of the exchequer, and other vacancies were filled up 

 by the friends of the Earl of Shelburne. 



The treaty, which had been begun by the former 

 administration, was brought to a conclusion by the 

 present. On the SOth of November 1782, provi- 



Though the Shelburne party coincided with the other opponent of ministry in their present efforts against the original 

 makers of the American war, they *poke with great caution on the subject of its continuance, and some Of them openly ie- 

 probated the idea of conceding the independence of America. 



