AMERICAN STATES. UNDER these distressful circumstances of the state and nation, when the people were disabled from indulging in those luxuries which habit had rendered necessary to their enjoyment by the failure of their resources, and the government was reduced to the dilemma of either forfeiting its credit, or making such demands on the nation as it could not comply with, without a sacrifice of the comforts of life, it could scarcely be expected that public tranquillity would be long preserved.-Pensylvania engaged to pay the interest of what was estimated as its share of the public debt: but even that wealthy state was unable to make its payments punctually. The government of Massachusets, desirous to comply with the requisitions of congress, and to discharge their own peculiar debts, imposed a heavy tax for these purposes. But the people, actuated by their feelings of distress, which were aggravated by the pressure of this additional burthen, and instigated by those seditious demagogues who embraced every opportunity to disturb the public peace, rose in arms to resist the levy of it. The province was in a state of mutiny during several months, and appeared again to be threatened with the calamities of civil war.General Lincoln was employed to suppress the mutineers, with instructions to act on the defensive with the troops under his command.—The insurgents challenged him to a battle. But either the want of an able commander, or the consciousness of a bad cause, prevented them from behaving with courage or firmness. Lincoln, assisted by general Shepherd, obtained an easy victory. The insurgents were dispersed. Good order was restored. And an act of indemnity, with an exception of the most notorious offenders, was published to appease the angry passions of the people, and conciliate their attachment." Amidst these pecuniary embarrassments and domestic troubles, the states steadily pursued the means of remedying them at some future period by the extension of their foreign trade.-Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Jefferson, 1786 1786 Jefferson, had been appointed commissioners for forming commercial treaties with foreign powers during the negotiations for peace. They, this year, concluded a treaty with the king of Prussia. And they, about the same time, succeeded in opening a commercial intercourse with the empire of Morocco; which was particularly desirable to the states, as a means of procuring protection to their merchantmen against the depredations of the Algerine corsairs. b Ramsay. 2. 335. 39. GREAT GREAT BRITAIN. 1787. ON the assembling of parliament, early in the year, † his majesty congratulated the two houses on the good disposition of the European powers towards us, and informed them of the commercial treaty concluded with France, the merits of which were afterwards elaborately discussed. The arguments brought on each side are too voluminous to be inserted here: the measure was sanctioned by a great majority in both houses, and an address was presented to his majesty, declaring their approbation of it in terms that deserve our notice: " it is our firm persuasion that we cannot "more effectually consult the general interest of our country, and the glory of your majesty's reign, than by concurring in a measure which "tends to the extension of trade, and the encouragement of industry and "manufacture, the genuine sources of national wealth, and the surest "foundation of the prosperity and happiness of your majesty's domi"nions."-Their sentiments were, indeed, fully justified by the event; there being few periods of our history in which the state and nation have been more flourishing than that which ensued on the establishment of a commercial intercourse with our ancient rival; when the sources of wealth afforded by agriculture and internal commerce were assisted by the copious stream which flowed from foreign trade. May those times return when two of the greatest powers in the world may rival each other in nothing but efforts of genius, and the means of diffusing more complete happiness through their respective dominions! 1787 VOL. III. Among + January 23. a Anderson. 5. 640. 1787 Among the expedients adopted by the English government for that laudable purpose was a new arrangement of the customs. The increase of commerce and the repeated additions made to this branch of the revenue since its first establishment, had rendered it complicated in itself, and the collection of it difficult, and attended with much inconvenience to the mercantile part of the nation.-To free it from all unnecessary embarrassments, the premier now proposed "to abolish all the duties now subsisting "in this confused and complex manner, and to substitute in their stead one single duty on each article, amounting as nearly as possible to the aggregate of all the various duties already paid."-So general was the approbation of this measure, that, having received the parliamentary and royal sanctions, it was immediately carried into execution. 16 During the proceedings relative to this and other measures of finance of smaller importance, some questions had been debated in which different descriptions of persons in the kingdom felt themselves warmly interested.The first of these related to the rights of the Scottish peerage; the discussion of which was occasioned by the creation of two of the sixteen peers to be peers of Great Britain.-The house being resolved into a committee of privileges, for the purpose of considering it, lord Stormont moved, "that it is the opinion of this committee that the earl of Abercorn, who was chosen to be of the number of the sixteen peers, who, by the treaty "of union, are to represent the peerage of Scotland in parliament, having "been created viscount Hamilton by letters patent, doth hereby cease to "sit as a representative of the peerage of Scotland."-The question was stated in the clearest manner by his lordship; the impropriety of the same persons sitting in a double capacity, and its inconsistency with the principles of the union, were displayed, as well as the cruelty and bad policy of wounding the feelings of the Scottish nation. And such was the effect of his reasonings, that his motion, though opposed by the earl of Morton and the lord chancellor, was carried by a majority of fifty-two to thirtyeight voices. This decision was followed by the discussion of two other questions relative to the Scottish peerage. The first of these, which was analogous to the preceding, was, whether the dukes of Queensbury and Gordon, Anderson, 5. 641. February 23. Ann. Regist. 98. d Gordon, who had lately been created peers of Great Britain, were entitled Whilst these questions were debated in the lower house the proceedings against Mr. Hastings had been resumed, as soon as the parliament assembled, and became more interesting from the nature of the charges brought against him. The charge respecting the resumption of the jaghires and the confiscation of the treasures of the princesses of Oude, the mother and grand-mother of the reigning nabob, was opened by Mr. Sheridan.— In descanting on the merits of this affair, he addressed the understandings and roused the passions of his audience in one of the most animated, forcible, and pathetic pieces of rhetoric that ever was delivered in the British senate. All parties, whatever were their sentiments respecting the conduct of the accused governor, united in their admiration of a speaker whose eloquence equalled that of the greatest orators of antiquity.-We must applaud the caution with which Mr. Pitt, after hearing this harangue, gave his vote on the matter of it: and those who are not provided with the arguments brought by each party cannot have a better guide by which to form their judgment. After cautioning the house against deciding on a matter of such importance without a comparison of the whole evidence adduced, so that, on which ever side they should give their votes, it might be on the fullest conviction that they had discharged their duty honestly, and declaring that this had been the line of conduct which he had himself March 28. a Ann. Regist. 144. pursued, с Idem. 114. 1787 |