774 ENG1 
contained nothing remarkable. It (lightly glanced on 
the affairs of France, in declaring, “the internal fituation 
of the different parts of Europe, to have been produftive 
of events which had engaged his majefty’s moft ferious 
attention.” But early indications appeared of the mif- 
chiefs with which the recent tranfaftions in that kingdom 
were likely to involve this country. The bufinefs rela¬ 
tive to the abolition of the (lave-trade was now refumed ; 
but it went on (lowly and heavily. Every artifice of 
.procraftination was ufed on the part of the (lave-mer- 
chants and planters, and the whole (edion palled over in 
the hearing of evidence and examination of witneffes. 
The trial of Mr. Haftings alfo proceeded with equal 
languor. On the 16th of February, 1790, the charge re- 
fpeiSlingcorrupt prefents was recapitulated by Mr. Burke; 
but in the entire courfe of the feffion the court fat only 
thirteen days. The entliufiafm of tliofe who expe&ed to 
have feen a great public delinquent brought to juftice, 
■was fad changing to companion for the man who feemed 
deftined to live a life of impeachment, and to have be¬ 
come the object of a relentlefs perfecution. The evi¬ 
dence on three articles only of the general charge out of 
twenty-two was as yet clofed, after which Mr. Haftings 
was to enter upon his defence, and the commons were to 
reply ; fo that in all probability the judges and the wit- 
nelT'es, the accufers and the accufed, would be all fwept 
away by the hand of time before the trial could arrive at 
its legal termination. The common fenfe of mankind 
revolted at this procedure. It appeared manifeft to all, 
that this was not the mode in which human affairs could 
or ought to be conducted. The real merits of the caufe 
were loft in the immenfity of the detail. It was not to 
be expected or imagined that the public at large could 
pretend to form any judgment refpefting it. This only 
without helitation they inferred, that if Mr. Haftings was 
fo criminal as he was reprefented, a fhort.and fimple ftate- 
ment of faffs would fuffice to prove his guilt. But Weft, 
minder-hall was converted into a lyceum, a fchool of elo¬ 
quence, and all was feen confufed and magnified through 
the mift of rhetorical declamation. 
On the 31ft of March, 1790, Mr. DundSs brought for¬ 
ward his annual ftatement of the debts and revenues of 
the Eaft-India company, as required by the regulation 
act. He reprefented their fituation as in the higheft de¬ 
gree profperous and flouriftiing; and what is very re¬ 
markable, he did not conclude his eulogium of the pre- 
fent year with afking a loan to enable them to avoid the 
horrors of infolvency. Through the wife and equitable 
adminiftration of lord Cornwallis, the revenues of Ben¬ 
gal had been advanced during the laft year, without the 
aid of any new impofition, from one million eight hundred 
thoufand pounds to two millions one hundred and fifty 
thoufand pounds. The prefent governor-general, on his 
acceftion to his high office, had (fated the fituation of the 
provinces as moft wretched and deplorable. In his dif- 
patch to the. court of directors, Auguft 2, 1789, he fays, 
“ Independent of all other confiderations, it will be of 
tl\e utmoft importance for promoting the (olid intereft of 
the company, that the principal landholders and traders 
in the interior parts of the country fhould be reftored to 
fuch circu'mftances as to enable them to fupport their 
families with decency, according to the cuftonis of their 
feveral cades and religions. I am forry to be obliged to 
fay, that agriculture and internal commerce have for 
many years been gradually declining ; and the inhabitants 
of thefe provinces were advancing haftily to a general 
date of poverty and wretchednefs. In this defcription I 
mu(t include almoft every zemindar in the company’s 
territories.” And in his council-minute of September 
18, 1789, his lordfnip writes, “ I can fafely affert, that 
one-third of the company’s territory is now a jungle, 
inhabited by wild beafts!” One of the primary and moft 
important meafures of the new governor-general was, to 
leafe the lands in perpetuity at an equitable valuation to 
the actual occupants j in allufion to which momentous 
a A N B. 
tranfadtion his lordfhip thus forcibly exprefies himfelf to 
the directors : “ The Security of property, and the cer¬ 
tainty with which each individual will now feel of being 
allowed to enjoy the fruits of his labours, muff operate 
uniformly as incitements to labour and induftry.” This 
could not but be conftrued as a bitter fatire on the condudl 
of his predecelfor ; and as amounting to a very explicit 
acknowledgment of the mifery and oppreftion which the 
inhabitants had long buffered under the former capricious 
government. 
In April, 1790, Mr. Pitt prefented his ftatement of the 
national revenue and expenditure of the date ; and it was 
very confolatory to the public to be informed that the 
receipt of the exchequer had furpaffed that of the year 
preceding in the fum of half a million, and more fo to be 
told that (Fill greater acceffions might reasonably be hop¬ 
ed from the uninterrupted enjoyment of the ineftimable 
bleftings of peace. It therefore excited peculiar'aftonifti- 
ment, when in about a fortnight from this period, viz. 
May 5th, 1790, a royal melfage was delivered by the 
rninifter, announcing a date of tilings which bore the un- 
difguifed and menacing afpect of war. To elucidate this 
matter, it is neceffary to mention that the celebrated cir¬ 
cumnavigator Cook, in his laft voyage of difcovery, touch¬ 
ing at divers ports on the weftern coaft of North America, 
purchased from the natives a number of valuable furs 
bearing a high price in the Chinefe market. This branch 
of commerce proving very lucrative, a fpot of ground was, 
in 1788, procured from the Indians, and a regular efta- 
blifliment, defended by a (light fortification, formed at a 
place called Nootka Sound, Situated about the fiftieth 
degree of latitude. This being regarded by the Spaniards 
as an encroachment on their exclufive rights of fovereign- 
ty, the Princeffa, a Spanifh man of war dilpatched tor 
this purpofe by the viceroy of Mexico, in the following 
Spring, feized without ceremony upon the fort, and cap¬ 
tured fuch EngliHi veffels, the Iphigenia, Argonaut, &c. 
as were found trading on the coaft. At the fame time 
the Spanifh commandant holding the national ftandard, 
declared that the whole line of coaft from Cape Horn to 
the Sixtieth degree of latitude belonged to the king of 
Spain. After fome delay, and much lofs and vexation 
to the proprietors, the captured veffels were reftored by 
order of the viceroy, on the fuppofition, as he declared, 
“ that nothing but ignorance of the rights of Spain could 
have induced the merchants in queftion to attempt an 
eftablifhment on that coaft.” This was the exatt coun¬ 
terpart of the memorable affair of Falkland Iflands, 
which had fo nearly involved Europe in a war twenty 
years before. _ * 
The claims of Spain, in relation to her rights of do¬ 
minion and Sovereignty in America, were doubtlefs in the 
higheft degree chimerical. By the treaty of 1763, the 
river Miftiflippi, flowing from north to fouth in a direfl 
courfe of fifteen hundred miles, was made the perpetual 
boundary of the two empires ot Spain and Great Britain; 
and the whole country to the weft of that vaft river be¬ 
longed to his catholic majefty, by juft as valid a tenure 
as the country eaftward of the river to the king of Eng¬ 
land. Exclufive of this recent and decifive line of de¬ 
marcation, by which the relative and political rights of 
both nations were clearly afcertained, the Spanifh court 
referred to ancient treaties, by which the rights ot the 
crown of Spain were acknowdedged in their full extent 
by Great Britain. Charles III. king of Spain, died De¬ 
cember, 1788, and his fon, Charles IV. confiding in the 
juftice of his claims, offered to fubmit.the decilion of this 
queftion to any one of the kings of Europe, leaving the 
choice wholly to his Britannic majefty. The reply of 
the court of London to the Spanifh ambaffador, was full 
of dignity and fpirit: “ The aft of violence mentioned 
in the memorial, neceffarily fulpended any difcuflion till 
an adequate atonement had been made for a proceeding 
fo injurious to Great Britain.” 
On the 10th of June, 1790, the king terminated the 
feffiojij 
