bare recital of them was more than fufficiently painful for the purpofe of exciting condemnation and abhorrence. On a conftant and clofe investigation of this fubject, which appeared to us to involve a very interefting question concerning our common nature, we have found for certain, that, although not a few of the barbarities faid to have been committed were exaggerated, and fometimes diftorted into fhapes very different from their original and natural appearances, yet enough of reality remained to prove how largely human beings participate in the ferocity of animal nature! and what tygers they quickly become when freed from the muzzle of the law! Among British planters, but oftener overfeers, and above all among Dutch planters and overfeers, it fully appears, that cruelties are fometimes carried far beyond the original point of punishment, either as an example, or a atification of refentment; and egenerate into a kind of horrid and relentless triumph over all that can be urged in commiferation of the tortured victim, either by the compaffion of the fpectators, or the ftill voice of confcience in the tormentor's own breast. With regard to the inefficacy of our abolition of the flave trade to any fubftantial purpose of humanity, it was admitted that other nations might purfue the trade if we abandoned it. From this, how ever, they might, in a great meafure, be restrained by proper regulations at the worst, we fhould have the fatisfaction of reflecting that the guilt would not reft on our heads. : In answer to the objection that the intended abolition would prove the ruin of our colonies, it was con fidently afferted, that the ftock of flaves which they at prefent contained, if well managed and mildly treated, would be fully competent to all the requifite labour, and furnifh a fufficient fupply for future exigencies. Mr. Wilberforce's motion, after a debate of two days, was negatived by a majority of 163 to 88. The attention of the House of Commons was not confined to civil flavery, but extended to the remains of religious oppreffion. The diffenters, in their last application to parliament for the repeal of the teft laws, had included the cafe of their brethren, as they called them, who embraced the catholic reli gion. The Roman Catholic chriftians in England were a quiet people, in general averfe to innovation and commotion, and true friends to the prefent government: yet there were a few reftlefs fpirits among them, of atrabilarious conftitutions and monastic habits, who, endeavouring to raise new fchifms in the ancient church, attempted to form a fect, afferting the liberty not only of kicking against the authority of the catholic church, but even, in many inftances, against that of the facred fcriptures. These, in unifon and concert with some diffenting agitators, formed the plan of making one common caufe between the English catholics and diffenters: but neither were the genuine catholics themselves ambitious of fuch an union; nor did the friends of the catholics think that the adoption of fuch a union was the beft mode of ferving their caufe. A bill was therefore brought into parliament for the relief of the catholics, not in conjunction, but taken taken as a feparate body from the other diffenters from the church of England. On February 26, Mr. Mitford, the Solicitor-General, moved for a committee of the whole Houfe of Commons to enable him to bring in a bill to relieve, upon condition, and under certain reftrictions, perfons called Protefting Catholic Diffenters *, from certain penalties and disabilities to which papifts, or perfons profeffing the popifh religion, are by law fubject. Mr. Mitford prefaced this motion, by fhewing that the feverity of the penal laws against the catholics was much greater than was generally known or imagined. The motion was feconded by Mr. Windham; who did not conceive that the conduct of Roman catholics had been fuch as to warrant the feverity with which they had been treated in the laft century. At any rate, it was impoffible to deem them formidable at the prefent moment, when the power of the Pope was confidered as a mere spectre, capable of frightening only in the dark, and vanifhing before the light of reafon and knowledge. Mr. Fox thought the propofed bill too confined in its views. He wifhed it to go farther, and to eftablifh complete toleration. Mr. Mitford's motion was agreed to unanimously.-Mr. Mitford, on the Ift of March, in a committee of the whole Houfe, moved for leave to bring in his propofed bill. wifhed not for the general repeal of the ftatutes in queftion; but merely for an exemption from their operation in favour of a few. It He was not his intention to admit Ro. man Catholics of any defcription to places of truft under government, but only to have them confidered as men of honour and loyalty. The motion was put and carried without opposition. On the fecond reading of the bill in the Houfe of Lords, on the 31ft of May, a difcuffion took place of the propriety of feveral claufes; which were afterwards amended in a committee. The Bishop of St. David's (Dr. Horley) obferved, that the form of the oath of alle giance, which it enjoined, would most probably offend the feelings of thofe whom the bill itself was intended to relieve. The doctrine, That princes excommunicated by the fee of Rome might be depofed and murdered by their fubjects, was declared by the oath to be impious, heretical, and damnable. The catholics felt not the leaft difinclination to exprefs their difapprobation of fuch a doctrine; but, from fcruples founded on a tender regard for the memory of their progenitors, they could not induce themfelves to brand it with the harfh terms which the oath prefcribed. In a committee of the whole Houfe on this bill, June 4, the oath, as it first stood, was, on the Bishop's motion, expunged; and the fame oath which was taken by the Roman Catholics in Ireland, in 1774, with fome flight altera tions, fubftituted in its ftead. To this bill, in favour of the Roman Catholics, a very cordial fupport was given by the fame bench of Bifhops, who had fet their faces very ftrongly, in the preced Who protested against certain odious and dangerous opinions imputed to papifts. raifed, or had the profpect of being called to ecclefiaftical preferment. This gave the more pleasure to the zealous friends of the established church, that it was a little mingled with furprife; as the preaching of St. Paul alfo did, for a like reafon, to the first chriftians, after his converfion, on his way to Damafcus. ing year, against an attempt to ob-. A petition from the General Af fembly of the church of Scotland, for a repeal of the test acts as far as relates to Scotland, was brought forward in the House of Commons on the 10th of May, by Sir Gilbert Elliot; who concluded a speech replete with all that elegant delicacy of manner, and that argumentative precifion by which he is fo eminently diftinguifhed, by moving in behalf of the petitioners, for a committee of the whole House "to confider how far the provisions of the act, 25th Car. II. cap. ii. which requires perfons holding any offices, civil or military, or any place of truft under the crown, to receive the facrament of the Lord's fupper according to the ufage of the church of England, extend, or ought to extend, to perfons born in that part of Great Britain called Scotland." This motion was fupported by Mr. Pulteney, Mr. Anftruther, Sir Adam Ferguson, and Mr. Fox. It was oppofed by the Lord Advocate for Scotland, the Mafter of the Rolls, Mr. Dundas, and Mr. Pitt. In fupport of the motion, it was urged, among other arguments, that Scotland, by its conftitution, and by treaty, had a feparate church and a feparate form of religion. By the treaty of union, the was to have a free communication of civil rights. But a test which, as a condition for attaining thofe civil rights, impofed on her a neceflity of of departing from the form of her eftablished religion, and to fubmit to that of England, either abridged =her religious liberty by means of the civil attainments, or abridged O her civil attainments by means of the obligations of religion. Mr. Fox reminded the Houfe of what, he faid, was fometimes forgotten: that the two nations were, at the time of entering into the treaty of union, independent kingdoms meeting to treat, and meaning to form the treaty, on terms of perfect equality. Was it not an infringement of that equality, that a Scotchman, entering into any British office, fhould make a folemn profeffion of his attachment to the church of England; which to a fcrupulous man might imply a dereliction of the principles of his native church, while there was no fimilar obligation on an Englishman appointed to an office in Scotland? Mr. Pitt infifted that the teft which was now the fubject of difcuffion, must have been understood as a ftipulation at the time of the union, fince it had been acquiefced in, from that period to the prefent, without the fmalleft complaint by thofe most interested to complain of the hardship, and who had it most in their power to claim with effect any right or privilege. The hardship was merely imaginary, and arofe folely from a falfe view of the teft in queftion. It was not Sir Gilbert Elliot's motion was therefore negatived by a confiderable majority: the numbers being 149 to 62 CHAP. XII. The Order proper to be observed in Narration. Apology for not always adbering frictly to that of Time. Meffage from his Majefty relative to Ruffia, and the Augmentation of our Naval Force, The only Terms on which alone the Czarina was willing to make Peace with the Turks. The Mediation of the Allies for effecting that Object, bitberto fruitless. Growing Coldness and Jealoufies between the Empress of Ruffia and the British Government. The The Pride and Ambition of the Empress excite a Spirit of Refifiance in va rious European Nations. Motion for an Addrefs to his Majefly on the Occa fton of his Meffage to Parliament. Debates thereon; but the Motion carried in both Houses. Various Motions against the Ruffian Armament. Conduct of Mr. Pitt. Character of a Great Minifter. Two Great Political S:bools. Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Fox approve and applaud the French Revolution. Mr. Burke provoked, makes a violent Attack on this Revolution, and the New French Conflitution. This Subject conftantly introduced into all Debates on all Queftions. Altercations between Mr. Burke and Mr. Fox. Rupture between thefe Old Friends, and final Separation. State of the Province of Quebec. Bill for the Government of Canada. Debates thercon in both Houfes. The Bill passed. WE 7E have not deemed it neceffary, as our readers will have perceived, in what we have hitherto related of the parliamentary bufinefs of 1791, to adhere strictly to the order of the time when the particular fubjects of difcuffion and decifion were first brought forward; but have purfued different fubjects, without interruption, to certain marked periods in their progreffion, if not to the'r final determination, and paffed on, in our narrative, from certain things to others, to which they bear an evident analogy or refemblance. It is not the aim of this annual ketch of the paffing years, to give a mere chronicle of facts, but to arrange the principal events and fubjects of attention, in fuch a manner as to form a picture that may be contemplated without diftraction, and with fome degree of intereft and fatisfaction. But for this end, the arrangement of tranfactions and events, in the mere order of time, is not fufficient; it is neceffary to clafs them together as much as potlible, without deviating too far from the chronological order, under general heads and common principles; and as they are connected together by the relation of cause and effect *. We are abundantly fenfible of the disadvantages under which we labour, in attempting to view events fo recent, in their true light, and to give to all things their juft places and proportions. This will be more happily effected by future hiftorians, for whofe ufe we transmit materials; but these, for the convenience of tranfmiffion, shaped into a kind of imperfect mould or form, like thofe rude resemblances of various utenfils that are fome. times brought in fhips, rather than mere blocks of wood, from the forefts of Norway. It was announced to the parlia ment, in his Majesty's speech from the throne, that a separate peace had taken place between Ruffia and Sweden, but that the war between *The three great bands of affociation among our ideas, as has been obferved by metaphyficians, from the time of Ariftotle to the present, are fimilitude or diffimilitude, caufe or effect; and contiguity in time and place. In proportion as variety of matter acquires an appearance of uniformity, by means of these bandsof connection, compofitions of all kinds take hold of the mind, and become interest the |