steered the helm of government :an outcry was speedily raised in parliament, and through the country the bill in favour of a more extensive toleration, which had passed some of its stages, was given up, and ministers were obliged to resign their several posts to others who seemed to possess more of the confidence of their Sovereign. An appeal was again made to the people, by a dissolution of the newly elected parliament; another was immediately chosen in its stead, which it was expected would feel more in unison with those who had assumed the reins of power; and which met for the dispatch of business on the 22d of June 1807, being the space of six months and one week from the first assembling of a former parliament. A circumstance of a similar nature has not occurred for more than a century, and that indeed happened at the demise of William III.

Before we come to the immediate business of parliament, it may not be amiss to refresh the minds of our readers with a brief survey of the prominent incidents of the former year. Political events, like those of common life, depend upon those which have preceded them; the only difficulty in the historian is to trace the clue, and thus exhibit at once in a luminous and forcible point of view the consequences and their causes. On this account it is frequently necessary, in writing detached annals, to recur to circumstances not immediately concerned, for the sake of ellucidating others with which they are connected, and upon which they seem to hinge.

The treaty of Presburg between France and Austria had left the emperor of France and his allies, if such they may be called, who are

rather the servants of his power than the advisers of his councils, triumphant in the south of Germany and the north of Italy, and had dissolved the confederacy which, at one time, had excited the hopes of those who wished to see Europe restored in some measure to what it formerly was. The emperor of Russia, as we have seen in our former volume, returned to his own country, disabled for the present, at least, from further exertion: and the British troops which had been landed in the north of Germany re-embarekd for their native shores.

At the commencement of the year the Cape of Good Hope was captured by British valour, under the conduct of sir Home Popham and general Baird. In the succeeding month Bonaparte put in execution his threats against the king of Naples, by invading his territories, of which every part submitted, except the citadel of Gaeta and the remote districts of Ca labria. The king retired to Sicily, protected by a British force, and his crown was transferred to Joseph the brother of the French emperor, who, unmolested, took possession of the capital. From Italy we turn to Hanover, which the king of Prussia, apparently devoted to the interests of France, thought proper to occupy in his own name, at the same time excluding the British shipping from his own ports. This was regarded as an act of hostility which required the immediate recall of the English minister from the Prussian court, and the detention of all ships be longing to that nation. At this period Sweden was at variance with Prussia, and acted as an ally of Great Britain.

The Cape of Good Hope had

not

not long been in the possession of the British, before its conquerors planned and executed an expedition against the Spanish settlement of Buenos Ayres. Sir Home Popham and general Beresford, whose conduct will become the subject of our discussions, arrived in the river de la Piata in June, and after a defeat of the Spanish troops in the beginning of the succeeding month the town surrendered. Its port was immediately opened for the reception of British merchandise, and the demand, at first, gave a general activity to several branches of our manufacture, which had too long been in a languid state.

In Holland the constitution which had formerly been imposed upon the people by Bonaparte, was exchanged by the same power for a sort of mixed monarchy, with Louis, another brother of the emperor, as "king." Thus in the course of a very few months did the ambitious Corsican give thrones to two of his own nearest relations. About the same time the British army, under the command of general Stuart, gained a complete and very signal victory over the French, commanded by Regnier, at Maida, near the Gulf of Euphemia, the consequences of which were of little more value than to display the valour of our countrymen, against whom the best troops of France were unable to contend with their usual success.

Without adverting to the negotiation between France and England, we may observe that from the time in which the house of Austria bowed to the power of the French, Bonaparte manifested an open intention of gaining a complete ascendency in Germany, to prevent if possible any future resistance to his own extensive projects. He

had kept, under various pretexts, a large body of troops in that country, the purpose of which was to enforce his own schemes. A confederation of the Rhine, comprising the newly created kings of Bavaria and Wurtemburg, with other neighbouring sovereigns under the protection of France, was announced in August, and at the same moment Bonaparte's minister, at the diet, openly declared that his master no longer recog nised the existence of a German empire or its head. The emperor of Austria was reduced too low in the scale of power to oppose the decree: he submitted to sign an act, by which he renounced his au thority over the late Germanie body. The king of Prussia felt that his own political consequence would be materially affected by the exertion of French domination, and endeavoured to counteract it by a Northern confederacy. Preparations for war were accordingly made, and the hostility manifested by the king of Prussia against France naturally produced his reconciliation with England. The king of Sweden and the emperor of Russia united with Prussia, in hope of striking an effectual blow against the overgrown power of France. Troops were accordingly assembled, and the two main ar mies came in sight of each other on the northern borders of Franconia ; and after some fruitless negotia tions, the king of Prussia declared war against France, issuing at the same time an elaborate manifesto, in which he exposed his numerous grievances, and the boundless ambition of his adversary. The French emperor, without deigning to give an answer, only thought of the best means to bring the quar rel to an immediate decision. A

A 3

general

general engagement was fought at Auerstadt, near Jena, on the 14th of October: the armies exceeded 200,000 in number, and the contest was obstinate and bloody; but victory decided for the French. Bonaparte advanced through Saxony to Berlin without resistance, where he issued his orders for the conduct of the north of Germany as its sovereign. His troops seized Hamburgh on the 12th of November; and as a sort of retaliation for the maritime policy of England, he declared the British islands to be in a state of blockade: he decreed that all English subjects found in countries occupied by his troops should be deemed prisoners of war, and that all British produce and manufactures should be confiscated. On the 15th of November Breslaw was entered by the French, and on the following days several other strong fortresses surrendered. An armistice was proposed by the conqueror, upon terms, however, to which the king of Prussia refused to submit, and Napoleon immediately left Berlin for the frontiers of Poland: at the same time addresses were forwarded to the Poles, exhorting them to free themselves from their masters, and to reclaim their national existence under the protection of the French emperor. These addresses were seconded by the presence of a large part of the army which directed its course to wards Poland and the banks of the Vistula. A treaty of peace was signed in December between the elector of Saxony and Bonaparte, by which the former was admitted to the confederation of the Rhine with all its privileges, and allowed to take the title of king. Such was the state of things on the continent of Europe.

With regard to America, a considerable ferment was excited in the beginning of the year respecting the conduct of the English cruisers in making prizes of American vessels laden with the produce of the French West India islands, and conveying them to Europe; and a non-importation act passed in congress relative to articles of British produce, to take place in the November following. The differences between the countries were unfortunately aggravated by the conduct of the commander of an English frigate stationed off the harbour of New York. Commissioners were appointed by both nations to discuss in an amicable manner the subjects in dispute. Contests likewise arose between the United States and the Spaniards on the borders of Louisiana and the Mexican territory, which threatened immediate hostilities; but upon the advance of some troops of the States, the Spaniards retired from the disputed territory.

We now turn our eyes to the principal events that occurred at home. In the spring a loan of twenty millions was readily negotiated; and the property-tax was increased from 6 to 10 per cent. During the session of parliament much time and attention was given to Mr. Windham's bill for regulating the military, which was not suffered to pass the usual forms of the house without much and very violent opposition. The trial of lord Melville, the death of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, the two political characters who stood highest in the esti mation of the public, and the scenes which always accompany a general election, were among the most prominent events of the year in this part of the united kingdom. In Ireland disturbances prevailed,

chiefly

chiefly in the province of Connaught, excited by a set of banditti calling themselves threshers, whose avowed object was to resist the payment of tithes, but who adopted principles of hostility to government in general.

This brief outline brings us to the assembling of the new parliament on the 15th of December, when the lord chancellor, in the house of peers, informed their lordships that his majesty had been pleased to cause a commission to be issued under the great seal, in order to the opening and holding of parlia ment. The usher of the black rod was dispatched to desire the immediate attendance of the commons; who in a few minutes appeared at the bar in great numbers, when the lord chancellor, after the usual forms, said:

"My lords and gentlemen of the house of commons: we have it in command from his majesty to let you know, that as soon as the members of both houses shall be sworn, the cause of his majesty's calling his parliament will be declared unto you;-and it being necessary that a speaker of the house of commons should be first chosen, it is his majesty's pleasure that you, gentlemen of the house of commons, do repair to the place where you are to sit, and there proceed to the choice of some proper person to be your speaker; and that you present here such person whom you shall so choose, to-morrow, at twelve o'clock, for his majesty's royal approbation."

The commons then returned to their own house, where, as soon as they had taken their seats,

Mr. Bragge Bathurst rose for the purpose of calling the attention of the house to the exercise of one of its most antient, most undoubted,

and most important privileges, without which the functions of the commons house of parliament would be imperfect, and its deliberations ineffectual. The privilege, to the exercise of which he proposed to call the attention of the house, was that of selecting a proper person to preside over their proceedings, to be the organ of the people's voice to the Crown, to watch over the rights of the subject and the privileges of parlia ment; to alarm the jealousy of that house against any encroachment that might be attempted upon either by any of the other orders of the state, and to maintain consistency and order in the various proceedings of the house of commons. The great increase of parliamentary business which in modern times had usually occupied the attention of that house, rendered the duties of the person selected for this office, at the same time, arduous to himself, and interesting and important to parliament and the country. The just application of the various precedents standing upon the recorded authority of their proceedings, as well as of the no less established, though unwritten, forms and regulations which constitute the law of parliament, was a task difficult in itself, and of the last consequence to the house to have it well executed. He could allude to many illustrious instances of characters, now no more, who had with equal firmness and success maintained the imprescriptible rights of that house, which, whatever might be thought of them in their exercise, were in truth and effect the best and

strongest bulwarks of the laws and of the rights and liberties of the people. They, like the constitution, from an apparent discordancy Ꭺ Ꮞ

of

of the parts, produced the real symmetry, order, and harmony of the whole. The talents necessary for the due discharge of the arducus duties of this situation were not of an ordinary description. An impartiality that secures confidence, a dignity that commands respect, a temper, demeanour, and affability, that reconcile differences and disarm contentions, were enly among the accessary additions to the more solid qualities requisite in a person that was to be called to that station. They were secondary to that sound judgment, that culti vated mind, that general and comprehensive knowledge of parliamentary practice and forms, that ought invariably and inseparably to belong to the individual filling so exalted an office. To a person possessing these qualifications, the house would entrust its powers, and with unlimited confidence. While possessed of that confidence, he might, in the exercise of a just discretion, relax the assertion of its undoubted rights, and would be able, on just occasions, to identify with the house in the vindication of its imprescriptible privileges. Having thus described, imperfectly he admitted, the qualifications ne cessary in the person that should be the object of their choice, he should scarcely have ventured on his own opinion, if he had not perceived that the sentiments of the house had gone before him, to point out the person whom he considered most proper to be the object of their choice on that occasion. To direct them in their present selection, they had but to recur to the experience of the past. If the sight of the speaker's chair reminded him of the duties to be performed by the person appointed to fill it, he was sure it would also

call to the recollection of the house, the manner in which they had lately seen those duties discharged by Mr. Abbot. The right honourable gentleman's conduct, in performing the duties of the chair, had fully justified the eulogium that had been passed upon him in a former instance, and had far surpassed any idea he had conceived of the exemplary performance of the duties of the arduous office. The other topics on which he might have insisted, but had passed over, were, that extreme facility of private intercourse on every question of business, and that dignified hospitality that confirms and corresponds so well to the wise munificence of parliament. These were qualities that had been well known, and often experienced by those present who had been members of the late parliament. But he might also have adverted to that indefatigable industry with which he had applied himself to public business in general, and par ticularly to that inquiry into the state of the public records of the house which had been instituted on his own suggestion. Through this inquiry, the public would have the benefit of those stores of antient wisdom, which had hitherto been contined to the Record office, and were sought after as objects of cu rions investigation and research. This topic was by no means foreign from the question at the present moment, because the same indefatigable application and industry, that had led to such important beneficial results in that instance, would be equally exerted in the discharge of the other various and important duties of the high and dignified office. Upon all these considerations, he begged leave to propose the right honourable

Charles