775 
ENGLAND. 
feffion, and in his fpeech fignified the probability of a 
fpeedy diffolution of the prefent parliament ; affuring 
the members in handfome terms of “ the deep and grate¬ 
ful fenfe which he entertained of that affectionate and 
unfliaken loyalty, that uniform and zealous regard for the 
true principles of the conditution, that unremitted atten¬ 
tion to the public happinefs and profperity, which had 
invariably directed all their proceedings and on the day 
following the parliament was ditlolved by proclamation. 
Confcious of her inability to contend alone with the 
power of England, Spain had in an early dage of the ne- 
gociation applied to the court 1 of France, to know how far 
the could depend, in prefent circumdances, upon the ful¬ 
filment of the conditions of the family compact, in cafe of 
a rupture with Great Britain. But fuch was the tumul¬ 
tuous (fate of affairs at Paris, that the court of Madrid 
plainly faw the inability of the French nation to engage 
in a war with England ; and, yielding to neceffity, com¬ 
plied firft with the harfh demand of previous reflitution 
and indemnification; and at length, on the 2d of'October, 
1790, a convention was (igned at the Efcurial, by which 
every point in difpute was conceded by Spain. The fettle- 
mVnt at Nootka was reftored ; the free navigation and right 
of fifiiery in the Southern Pacific Ocean, were confirmed to 
Britain ; a full liberty of trade was granted to all the north- 
veff coafts of America, beyond the mod: northerly of the 
Spanifh fettlements, unaccompanied, however, by any 
formal renunciation of their right of fovereignty. And 
the two povyerswere, on the other hand, equally redrain- 
ed from attempting any fettlement nearer to Cape Horn 
than the mod foutherly of the fettlements actually formed 
by Spain. A very wife article was inferted likewife in 
this treaty : 'that in all future cafes of complaint, or fup- 
pofed infraction of the prefent convention, no aCt of vio¬ 
lence (hall be committed, but an exadt report diall be 
made of the affair to the refpeCtive courts, who will ter¬ 
minate fuch difference amicably. 
The new parliament adembled on the 25th of Novem¬ 
ber, 1790. In his opening fpeech, the king fignified 
“ his fatisfadlion that the differences with Spain were 
brought to an amicable termination. He obferved, that 
lince the lad fefiion of parliament a foundation had been 
laid for a pacification between Audria and the Porte ; 
but that the war between Ruffia and the Porte dill con¬ 
tinued. “ The principles on which I have hitherto 
aided (faid the monarch,) will make me always defirous 
of employing the weight and influence of this country 
in,contributing to the redoration of general tranquillity.” 
The termsof theconvention with Spain were approved 
and ratified in both houfes by great majorities. To de¬ 
fray the expence of the armament which had taken place, 
Mr. Pitt, with the laudable refolution to fuffer no per¬ 
manent increufe of debt, propofed various temporary 
taxes, which would difcharge the incumbrance in four 
years, with the aflidance of five hundred thoufand pounds, 
■which he had it in contemplation to take from the un¬ 
claimed dividends lying in the Bank of England, the 
amount of which he edimated at 66o,oool. This propo- 
fition excited a jud alarm in all the great chartered com¬ 
panies, and in the commercial and mercantile world in 
general ; and was, therefore, drongly and ably oppofed. 
It was urged, “ that agreeably to the terms of the origi¬ 
nal contrail between the government and the public cre¬ 
ditors, the directors of the bank are condituted trudees 
for the public creditor. When the money is once paid 
into the bank, it ceafes to be public money, and is indantly 
converted into private property ; which mud there re¬ 
main a facred depofit till it is claimed by the private in¬ 
dividuals to whom it appertains. And even in cafe of 
the expiration of the charter of the bank of England, 
the diredtors dill remain a corporation by law, for the 
exprefs purpofe of executing their delegated trud. What 
mifehief may not refult from the admiffion of a power in 
government, arbitrarily to depart from the conditions of 
She contract actually made with the public ? Under the 
the very term unclaimed dividends , is indeed veiled a grofs 
fallacy. Exclufive of the dividends of the lad three years, 
which are not properly unclaimed but merely unreceived 
dividends, the balance amounts fcarcely to a fifth part ot 
the fum which the minider propofes to feize. If the re¬ 
cent and fluctuating balances of the bank are thus liable 
to feizure, the minider may one day order the money to 
be paid into the bank, and the next he may without any 
violation of public faith command it to be repaid into the 
exchequer.” After much hefitation and conted, the 
minider confented, by way of compromife, to accept of 
a loan of five hundred thoufand pounds from the bank, 
without intered, fo long as a floating balance to that 
amount fliould remain in the hands of the calhier. 
On the 17th of December, 1790, Mr. Burke moved, 
11 that the houfe do refolve itfelf into a committee, to 
take into confideration the date of the impeachment of 
Warren Hadings, efq.” This being done, he made a 
fecond motion, “ that an impeachment by this houfe, in 
the name of the commons of Great Britain, againd War¬ 
ren Hadings, efq. for high crimes and mifdemeanours, is 
dill pending.” From this propofition, the entire corps 
of lawyers in the houfe with fcarcely an exception de¬ 
clared their total diffent : and Mr. Erfkine, in an elabo¬ 
rate fpeech, endeavoured to flieiv that in confequence of 
the diffolution of parliament the impeachment had abated, 
and on this ground he was fupported by Mr. Hardinge, 
Mr. Mitford, and fir John Scott. 
Upon this great quedion, in the decifion of which the 
honour, the dignity, and the authority, of the houfe, were 
fo deeply involved, the fpeaker with great propriety rofe 
to deliver his opinion: “ If-the maxim laid down by 
the lawyers were admitted as jud, the confequence was 
obvious. The impeachment of a profligate or corrupt 
minider might, by the infidious intervention of the pre¬ 
rogative, at any time be rendered nugafory and abortive. 
In the view of the conftitution, and even by the forms of 
parliament, the impeachment is preferred not by the 
houfe of commons merely, but by all the commons of 
England ; and the houfe can be confidered in relation to 
the profecution as no more than the agents and attornies 
of the people at large. A fecond houfe of commons 
therefore, though certainly poffeffing a difcretionary 
power of dropping the profecution, if upon due confidc- 
ration they are of opinion that it does not red upon a jud 
foundation, are as certainly at full liberty to proceed in 
it, if in their judgment conducive to the fafety or the 
intereds of the date. In an impeachment of the nature 
of the prefent, it would fcarcely be imagined that twenty- 
two complex articles could by any mode of invedigation 
be decided upon in a fingle feffion. If then, agreeably to 
the genius of the ancient conditution, parliaments them- 
felves were to be made annual, the labour would be truly 
Syfiphean; as fuch a trial never could arrive at a legal 
termination. Such were the plain didlates of common 
fenfe; which pointed to rules of law, and precedents of 
parliament.” Upon a general review of thefe tadts and 
precedents, the fpeaker gave it as his deliberate and de¬ 
cided judgment, that the impeachment was dill legally 
pending: in this opinion Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and the 
mod eminent parliamentary authorities on both fides con¬ 
curred. But very little progrefs was made in it during 
the fhort remainder of the feflion. 
The date of affairs in France, though paffed. over in 
total filence in the king’s fpeech, was now become very 
critical. In England, the anniverfary of the French re¬ 
volution was celebrated, not without a certain mixture of 
indifcretion, confidering the lowering afpedt of the poli¬ 
tical horizon in France, and the party fpirit which at this 
period raged throughout England. The latter months 
of the year paffed over in gloomy filence. The parlia¬ 
ment was not convened till the 3rd of January, 1792. 
The king announced in his fpeech the marriage of his foil, 
the duke of York, with the princefs Frederica, daughter 
of the king of Pruflia. The general Hate of affairs in 
3 Europe,, 
