ing the duties on foreign wines to the excise, introduced by Mr. Pitt-Arguments against it-Receives the royal assent -Mr. Burke prefers charges of high crimes and misde meanors against Mr. Hastings-Mr. Fox attacks Mr, Dun das-Mr. Pitt defends him-Mr. Hastings's defence-Mr. Pitt's Speech on the Charge respecting Cheit Sing-Exposes the insidiousness and acrimony of one part of the Charge-Offends b. th parties by his vote-His conduct explained and justified-Reflections on the influence of political prejudices on judicial decisions-Mr. Dundas's bill for the improvement of the government of India-Opposed by Mr. Burke-Carried-Parliament prorogued.

[1785.] THE appearances of a continental war, which had marked the opening of the present year, long continued to obscure the political horizon, and to bear every indication of a storm ready to burst upon Europe, But the emperor of Germany, with a mind fertile in expedients for the creation of difficulties, though barren of projects for their removal or their conquest, conceived so many plans of reform, devised so many political schemes, and advanced so many pretensions, that some of them necessarily interfered with, if they did not directly op pose, the others; and the whole together excited so much jealousy in the surrounding powers, that the execution of any part of them was rendered impracticable.

While his claims on the Scheldt remained VOL, I.

T

in suspense, and an appeal to the sword seemed the only mode of decision, Germany was thrown into consternation by the rumour of a projected exchange of the Austrian Netherlands for the electorate of Bavaria. By the acquisition of this important territory, the emperor would have consolidated his dominions, extended his power, and contracted his line of defence. On every account, therefore, the exchange was highly desirable to him. The empress of Russia had evidently lent her sanction to the plan, since sho took the trouble to write to the Duke of Deuxponts, who was heir to the electorate, to request his consent to it. The duke, however, rejected the proposal with little ceremony, and applied to the king of Prussia, as guarantee of the treaty of Teschen, to protect the Germanic empire against the intended innovation. The king readily complied with his request, as it afforded him an opportunity of enlarging the sphere of his own influence, while it perfectly accorded with his interested views, of preventing the aggrandizement of a power, which he considered as his only dangerous rival.-Through his zeal. and activity, operating on the jealousy and the apprehensions of other states, a treaty of union. and confederation was signed at Berlin on the 23d of July, 1785, between the king of Prussia, the king of Great Britain, as elector of Bruns

wick Lunenburgh, and the elector of Saxony: The professed object of this treaty was to maintain the indivisibility of the empire, the general rights of the Germanic body, and those of its individual members. After much altercation on the subject, and much political intrigue, the emperor, who had at first disavowed the plan, found himself reduced to the necessity of abandoning his designs. Meanwhile his impolitic reforms in Hungary had so far disgusted that brave people, as to induce them to take up arms in resistance of his authority. During four months the rebellion raged with great fury, much blood was shed, and many enormities were com mitted; but the insurgents, having risked a géneral action with the Austrian army, were easily defeated with considerable slaughter, when their chiefs were put to death, and themselves reduced to obedience.

The opposition and the disappointment which the emperor had experienced, in the pursuit of these projects, had probably no little effect in disposing him to accede to the proposals of France, for an amicable termination of his disputes with Holland. Two Dutch ambassadors having been sent to Vienna, in the summer, to satisfy his pride, which had been grievously offended by the insult offered to his flag on the Scheldt, he agreed to renew the negotiations at

Paris, under the immediate superintendence of the French minister, the Count de Vergennes, who exerted himself so successfully in accele rating their progress, that the definitive treaty between the emperor and the states-general was signed at Fontainbleau, on the 8th of November, under the guarantee of the king of France.

By this treaty the states acknowledged the emperor's absolute and independent sovereignty over every part of the Scheldt, from Antwerp to the limits of the county of Seftingen, conformably to a line drawn in 1664; they, consequently, renouncing the right of levying any tax or toll on that part of the river, and binding themselves not to interrupt, in any manner, the commerce or navigation of his subjects thereon; that the rest of the river beyond those limits to the sea, together with the canals of the Sas, the Swin, and the other neighbouring mouths of the sea, were to continue under the sovereignty of the states-general, conformably to the treaty of Munster: that the states should evacuate and demolish the forts of Kriuschans and Frederic Henry, and cede the territories to his imperial majesty that, in order to give a new proof to the emperor of their desire to establish the most perfect intelligence between the two countries, the states consented to evacuate, and to submit to his discretion, the forts of Lillo and of Lief

kenshock, with the fortifications, in their present condition, only reserving to themselves the right of withdrawing the artillery and ammunition.

The emperor, on his part, renounced all the rights and pretensions which he had formed, or could form, in virtue of the treaty of 1673, upon Maestricht and its depending or adjoining specified territories, and the states agreed to pay to his imperial majesty the sum of nine millions and a half of florins, in the current money of Holland. They likewise stipulated to pay him half a million of florins, as an indemnification to his subjects for the damages which they had sustained from the inundations. The other articles contained the renunciation of various claims and rights on both sides; mutual cessions of villages or districts; and various local or internal regulations No forts or batteries were to be raised in future within cannon-shot of the limits on either side, and those already constructed were to be demolished. All pecuniary claims or debts between the respective states were cancelled; and the contracting parties were bound to renounce, without any reservation, all further pretensions which either might have to prefer against the other.

Thus terminated this short-lived contest which had threatened to involve the greater part of Europe in the horrors of war;-a contest