unfortunately lived but a short time to enjoy this liberality of parliament: he died on his travels at Monaco on the seventeenth of November; and on the very day when his remains, which had been brought over to England, were interred in Henry VII.'s chapel, her majesty was safely delivered of her fourth son, prince Edward.

During the recess another event occurred, which appeared to threaten a total overthrow of the tottering cabinet, now no longer benefited by the advice, or supported by the popularity of lord Chatham. Charles Townshend, 'that prodigy,' as Mr. Burke denominated him, who was expected to surpass even the earl of Chatham in parliamentary eloquence, expired on the fourth of September; prevented only by his premature death from forming a new administration which he was then projecting, and from being handed down to posterity as the author of the American war. Soon afterwards several necessary changes took place among the great officers of state. On the first of December, lord North became chancellor of the exchequer, and Mr. T. Townshend succeeded him as paymaster of the forces. The Bedford party having been gained over, earl Gower accepted the president's chair, which was resigned to him by lord Northington: lord Weymouth was soon after nominated secretary for the northern department, in room of general Conway; and the earl of Hillsborough was appointed to the new office of secretary of state for the colonies: Mr. Charles Jenkinson also at this time made his entrance into public life as a lord of the treasury: during a long portion of his political career he was unpopular, on account of a generally-received opinion, countenanced by Mr. Burke, that he was the secret adviser of his sovereign, or leader of the king's friends: but he outlived this unpopularity, and became esteemed in parliament as a very respectable debater, a skilful politician, and an able expositor of international law. The ministry, thus remodelled, took the name of its leader, the duke of Grafton; 'a submissive administration,' as Junius calls it, 'gradually collected from deserters of all parties, interests, and connexions.' Inefficient, and without character, it began its inauspicious career with a failing revenue; with convulsions in the whole mercantile system; with a populace at home prepared for the most violent excesses; and with the colonists already in an uproar, disputing the rights of the mother country, and defying her authority. Two parties in opposition were ready to seize every opportunity of attack; the one headed by the cool and cautious Grenville, the

other led on and inspired by the vivid eloquence of Burke: differing amongst themselves on most points of policy, they were only kept together by their hostility to the feeble, fluctuating cabinet, whose overthrow they meditated. Without admitting the truth of those scurrilous charges and virulent invectives so unsparingly put forth against the duke of Grafton, it may be affirmed, that neither by force of moral character, nor depth of political wisdom, was he qualified to take the reins of government in such trying 'circumstances: in fact, he became minister almost by accident; nor did he ever possess the confidence either of the sovereign or the people.

On the twentieth of October, viscount Townshend, who had been appointed to the high office of lord lieutenant of Ireland, met the parliament of that country, and addressed them in a speech which appeared to give great satisfaction to its members. In their addresses to the king, they acknowleged his goodness in sending a chief governor so well qualified to represent his majesty in that assembly; and to his lordship himself they expressed the most flattering assurances of confidence in the appointment of a nobleman, who, being descended from ancestors distinguished by their inviolable attachment to the cause of liberty, and its great support, the succession of the house of Hanover, inherited the same principles, and steadily adhered to the same sentiments.

When the British parliament met on the twenty-fourth of November, the principal point recommended to its attention from the throne was the relief of the people from the distress still existing on account of the high price of provisions; and general Conway concluded his speech in support of an address of thanks, with a warm eulogy on the late chancellor of the exchequer, whose fertility in resources and soundness of judgment were particularly to be regretted in this juncture of affairs. His much lamented friend,' he said, 'had engaged to prepare a plan for the effectual relief of the poor in the article of provisions; and he had no doubt, if that great man had lived, but he would have been able to perform his promise: unfortunately for the public, his plan was lost with him; and though it was easy to find a successor to his place, it was impossible to find a successor to his abilities, or one equal to the execution of his designs.' Petitions from the city of London and other places were received on this subject; all the provision bills of last session, with regard to importation and exportation, were continued, and some of them amended: a new bill also was brought in for the importation of wheat and

flour from America. With the exception of these expedients for lowering the price of food, very little business of importance was transacted; and on the twenty-first of December the house of lords adjourned to the twentieth, and the commons to the fourteenth of January.

The principal event which occurred on the continent was the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain. This order of men, which had so long ruled the cabinets and guided the consciences of monarchs, which had been the principal support of the papal authority, and had extended its influence into every quarter of the globe, now saw its ruin approaching. The marquis Pombal struck the first blow at its power even in the place where it seemed most firmly established: but though discarded from Portugal and France, it still lingered in Spain: yet in the early part of the present year the cabinet of Madrid took the resolution of precipitating its downfall. The real motives for this expulsion were not declared; since the king, in his decree of banishment, spoke only in general terms of keeping his people in a state of due subordination, tranquillity, and justice; though he professed other just, urgent, and necessary causes, which he kept within his own breast: the secresy however with which this stroke of state policy was prepared and executed, is very remarkable. The measure being once resolved on by the king, the conde d'Aranda and three other confidants of this great project were commissioned to concert the means of carrying it into effect: they met for this purpose in an old ruined house, at a distance from every other habitation; and the manner of the affair being settled, his majesty and the count took on themselves the execution of it. The orders to be sent into the four quarters of the world were all minuted, transcribed, and despatched by d'Aranda, signed by the king, and countersigned by himself as president of the council of Castile; so that, notwithstanding their extensive correspondence, connexions, and usual means of good intelligence, every member of the fraternity was surprised in his bed, without the least time to avert the danger, or the slightest warning of the impending blow.

Between eleven and twelve at night, the six different houses of Jesuits in Madrid were surrounded by large detachments of troops; who having procured means of entrance, secured the bells, and placed a sentry at the door of each cell : the brethren were then ordered to rise; and being assembled, they were made acquainted with the king's orders, and assisted in packing up such things as might be necessary for

their voyage in the mean time, all the hired coaches and chaises in the city, as well as several waggons, had been secured and distributed in proper places; so that they began their journey to Carthagena very early in the morning, escorted by a numerous guard; and all this was effected without the least noise or disturbance; the inhabitants of Madrid being in their beds, and knowing nothing of the matter till next morning. On the third day following, the Jesuits' college at Barcelona was invested by the civil and military powers; its members were sent off guarded for transportation, like those at Madrid; and their effects seized and sealed up: the same measures were put into execution at the same hour in every part of Spain: the strictest watch was kept at all the sea-ports, to prevent any of the fraternity from escaping in disguise to the Spanish Indies; and ships having been provided, the prisoners were, by different embarkations, conveyed to Italy; after which the king published a royal ordinance, for the expulsion of the order.

The news of this event was received at Rome with the greatest astonishment; and before it could in any degree subside, fourteen transports, convoyed by three Spanish men of war, arrived at Civita Vecchia, with 970 brethren on board, but were not permitted to land them: for his holiness rightly observed, that if all the catholic states should think proper to expatriate their Jesuits and consign them to his disposal, not only the states of the church, but all Italy would be too small to support its new inhabitants.

In the mean time, the convoy, after lying for some time in harbor, was ordered to proceed to Corsica, where it was detained, until it was joined by three other convoys, which had taken the same route from different parts of Spain during three months the brethren had been closely kept in crowded vessels, in the hottest season of the year; men of all ages, not inured to hardships, with constitutions impaired by sedentary habits, afflicted also by grief, anxiety, and horror on account of this cruel separation from their native land and all human ties that are dear to mankind. The consequences were what might have been expected: they died in great numbers and great misery; but at length, when arrangements were completed with the republic of Genoa for their reception, the transports were disburdened of their unhappy freight, and the survivors were landed, to the number of about 2300.

As if to complete the sum of their misfortunes, the parlia

ment of Paris at this time published an arrêt against them, in which they were declared enemies to sovereigns and to the public tranquillity of states; and all who had been indulged with the liberty of staying in the kingdom by the edict of November, 1764, were ordered to quit it for ever in fifteen days, under pain of criminal prosecution. Besides, the Spanish monarch's orders were executed in the colonies as they had been at home: 700 were suddenly arrested in Mexico alone, and secured till ships could be provided; so that cargoes of these miserable men were continually arriving in the ports of Spain. In the mean time, most of the catholic powers had published edicts, to forbid, under severe penalties, the reception of the expelled Jesuits in any part of their dominions; so that there is scarcely an instance in history of any body of men so intirely cut off and separated from the rest of mankind.

When affairs were settled in Spain, the storm, which had been some time expected, fell on the order in Naples and Sicily, where they were suddenly seized, and their effects confiscated: the prisoners, in this case, without ceremony, or leave being asked, were conveyed into the pope's dominions, the vicinity of which made every plan of opposition useless. His holiness indeed complained bitterly of the outrage, and presented memorials to all the foreign ministers resident at Rome; but these produced the same effect which the remonstrances of weak princes made to their powerful neighbors generally produce: they were carelessly answered, and no farther notice was taken of them. To increase the evil, there were at this time 800 of the Portuguese Jesuits still alive at Rome, where a scarcity of corn had for some years existed; and it was only with great care and difficulty that the horrors of a famine could be warded off: the present inundation from Naples brought 1500 additional mouths, exclusive of those that were transported from Sicily. Parma soon followed the example set her, and expelled the Jesuits from her dominions: but the vengeance of the princes, whose resentment they had provoked by their conspiracies, or whose cupidity they had excited by their wealth, was not satisfied: the most urgent applications for the intire abolition of the society were made to pope Clement XIII. who, in consequence of his refusal, involved himself in disputes which terminated only with his life. In 1773 the order was suppressed by Clement XIV. who is said to have been raised to the papacy for that express purpose; yet even Ganganelli, who for his liberal opinions