Bagnal, an English Roman Ca- compenfation and relief to the tholic; who being a native of fufferers, until the minifter gave Staffordshire, had introduced the an affurance, that the matter art peculiar to his own country would be privately fettled to their into Glafgow, where he had efta fatisfaction. Upon these occablifhed, and for feveral years con- fions, the conduct of the magifducted a confiderable manufacto- tracy of Edinburgh underwent no ry of ftone ware. The mob fmall degree of animadverfion; burned his houfes; totally de- and the affumption of the chief troyed his manufactory and flock magiftrate, in venturing to anfwer in trade; and obliged himself in his proclamation for the fuand his family to fly for their ture conduct and measures to be lives into the fields. But the purfued or adopted by the Brilaudable meatures parfued by the tifh legiflature, was particularly magistrates and principal inhabi- and feverely reprehended. Neitants for reftoring the public peace ther did the minifters, nor parand tranquillity were fo effica- liament itself, efcape a fhare of cious, that the mifchief went no that cenfure, which was upon farther, and order and fecurity this occafion freely adminiftered were foon restored. Being alfo, by one or two members of the opat the fame time, equally afham- pofition; who obferved, that it ed and concerned, that the cha- was too near and too cruel an inracter and government of fo ex- fult, fo foon after the immenfe tenfively commercial a city fhould facrifices which we had made to faffer under the imputation and the falfe pretence of fupporting difgrace of fuch an act of outrage the fupremacy and dignity of the and perfecution, they feemed British legiflature in every part of willing, fo far as it could be the empire, to fuffer a frantic done, to obliterate every trace of and contemptible rabble at home, it from the memory. Bagnal was not only to fly in the face of its accordingly speedily acquainted, prefent authority, but to prefcribe that he should be reimbursed for limits, beyond which it was not every part of his loffes to the ut- to pafs, to its future operation. termolt farthing; and feveral of Thus, and feveral of Thus, they faid, fowing, under the principal inhabitants, includ- the fanction of a recorded preceing refpectable names among the dent, the feeds of diforder, outclergy, acquired no fmall honour, rage, contempt of authority, and by the attention and tenderness abfolute rebellion, in every which the wife and family of the maining part of the British domifufferer experienced from them, nions. during the immediate preffure of their terror and distress. Thefe matters were of courfe agitated more than once in parliament during that feffion; and a patriotic member of the houfe of commons was upon the point of bringing in a bill for affording re However unequal to the caufe the effect may feem, it was through this religious combuftion, and the circumftances attending it, that adminiftration loft that firm hold of the temper and difpofition of the people of Scotland, which nothing elfe, perhaps, could have loofened. in the fouth feems to have pro duced. 66 gion feems to be the only "confiftent, and (we obferve it "with pain) the only fuccessful "measure, which the prefent "miniftry have adopted. "perhaps this fingle principle " And loofened. For the cry and alarm of popery being once raised, and freely propagated by the prefs in With respect to the charge of every part of the country, the fupporting popery, they hold the violent fpirit thus conjured up, following language, having first was not fatisfied to confine its laid it down as a poftulatum, that wrath to the immediate objects of whenever that religion is establishapprehenfion and averfion; but ed, liberty is banished; viz. tracing the fuppofed grievance "We are certainly authorized to and danger to its primary fource, "fay, that, from the paffing the would fix the more refined part " Quebec bill to the prefent of its refentments much higher. "hour, the encouraging and Thus, by degrees, not only the tolerating that bloody reliminifters were held out as objects of public execration; but every department of the ftate, includ ing the highest and most facred fources of the legislative and executive government, were little, if any thing, lefs than directly charged and reprefented with forming a confpiracy for the deftruction of the protellant religion, and the establishment of popery on its ruins. Under this perfuafion or pretence, the zealots in Scotland, not content with combating and defeating the phantom of danger which had to' perdition," whether her appeared in their own country, would purfue it to its last refuge in England; and eagerly undertook to preferve or free their brethren in the fouthern part of the united kingdom from thofe religious dangers, to which they had themfelves been hitherto totally infenfible. may account for all that feem"ing weakness and fluctuation "of councils which have fo re con markably characterized their "adminiftration." - They clude the charges against minifters by this declaration or opinion, that," If Great Britain "for manifold fins is devoted "minifters have acted from weak "nefs or defign,"—" her a"venging angel could not have "hit On more proper inftru. "ments to haften her ruin." Nor is parliament treated with much more ceremony. They difclaim all hope of redress from that body; which, they fay,"Not fatisfied with repealing One, among the reft of these publications, being a kind of their own foolish acts, have proteft, iffued by the heritors of the town and parifh of Carluke, in the county of Lanerk, feems a more direct and pointed libel upon administration in particular, and government in general, than the licence of the prefent times "dared to repeal the wife-enact"ed penal ftatutes against pa" pifts, the palladium of our et "tablished religion and civil li "berties," &c. Thefe fpecimens will afford fome idea of the fpirit and tem per of the time in that country. The original of this curious publication, was ordered to be depofited in the archives of the committee of correfpondence in Glafgow, and copies of it to be publifhed in the Edinburgh and Glafgow newspapers. It was probably about this time they opened a correfpondence with fome fanatics in London, then obscure and little noticed, calling themselves the Proteftant Affociation, whofe object feems to have been the fame with theirs, but yet purfued with lefs violence. Such was the state of public affairs in Ireland and Scotland. In England, befides all other or former real or fuppofed caufes of diffatisfaction, the long continuance, contrary to the expectations held out, of the American war, and its hopeleffnefs of ultimate fuccefs in the minds of many, began now to affect the feelings of the people, fo generally and powerfully, as to open a fource of difcontent, which, by degrees, feemed to grow wider, than any other of which they had hitherto complained. Many of thofe who had been among the foremost in fupporting, and the warmest in approving, the meafures which led to that iffe, and the principle on which they were founded, were now among the loudeft in lamenting the confequences of the war, and the moft eager for its being brought to a speedy conNo change, they faid, had taken place in their original principle or opinion, but they were compelled to conform their fentiments, and to fubmit, to the prefent neceflity of the times. The weakness of the counfels and mea. VOL. XXIII. clufion. fures, under which the American Such was now the language [C] The The danger held out of an invafion, and the proclamation ordering provifions to be made against it, were feverely criticized by oppofition; as tending more to alarm the people than to fecure the country; as weak and indefinite in its directions, and only calculated to draw out a few miferable fubferiptions, which might lay a claim of merit for individuals, but, could never be a fubftantial aid to government. It was only indeed a little trick, to confound an attachment to minifters with a regard to the fafety of the country. On the other hand it was contended, that to caution without alarming was a thing impoffible. That future directions, when occafions arofe, would render the proclamation more explicit. That the whole intent was to make the people alert, and to call forth the general exertion. And as for fubfcription, if it fhould fhew a confidence in administration, it was a confidence deferved, and would be repaid in the honour and fafety of the nation. The measure was not without effe&t. Large fums were raised in feveral counties, and applied to the levying of independent corps or companies. About 20,000l. was fubfcribed in the city of Westminster, although fome confiderable parishes refuted to concur in the measure. Some of the inhabitants alfo of that city affociated, and were formed into diftinét bodies, armed and officered, with a view of being fo far trained in military difcipline and exercife, as would enable them to act with effect, under the immediate neceffity of common defence. In fome counties, how ever, the measure was rejected; and in others it was not propofed. In one, where a confiderable subfcription was made, the money was tranfmitted to the difpofal of the Marine Society; as a more ufeful and conftitutional application than to the raifing of land forces. In London, the propofal brought out another for a ftrong petition to the throne, as a previous meafure, requiring the difmiffion of incapable minifters and evil counfellors, and the employment of men in whom the nation could place a confidence, and who might be capable of retrieving its affairs. The final confequence was, that the first propofal, after much difcuffion, was rejected, and the petition then laid by. In the trading cities and towns, the money was applied to the manning of the navy; by which means, the various bounties to feamen, accumulated in fome places, particularly Liverpool, to a height before unheard of. The Eaft India company behaved with a magnificence, fuited greatness, and to the apparent profperity of its affairs. Befides a confiderable bounty for the raif ing of oco men for the naval fervice, it made a liberal offer to the crown, which was accepted, of building and furnishing three feventy-four gun fhips, as an addition to the royal navy. to its The measures of home defence met with fimilar animadverfion. The vast military force which was kept for our internal defence, a purpofe to which, they faid, the minifter had avowedly in parliament facrificed all other confiderations, and parti cularly cularly hazarded the prefervation of our Weft India Iflands, was faid to be fo injudiciously difpofed, as to be rendered incompetent to its only defign. Towns of the greatest commercial confequence, and garrisons which defended the moft valuable inlets and harbours, were left in a state of nakednefs. The defenceless ftate in which even the great fecurities to our ftrength, Portsmouth and Plymouth, were afterwards reported to be, and the confequent danger to which they were fuppofed to be expofed, upon the approach of the enemy, ferved much to corroborate thefe affertions and opinions; and even afforded a degree of ftrength to others of a fimilar teft for fo many years) fo the war would have been carried on in the enfuing campaign, with a degree of vigour and activity hitherto unknown. At the fame time, the declaration made by the American minifter in parliament, that a vast majority of the people on that continent were zealously attached to the interefts and government of Great Britain, and that even the remainder were eiter tired out and heartily fick of the war, or torn to pieces by factions and diffenfions among themfelves, fpread an opinion no lefs general, that the defence on the one fide would be proportionally as weak and ineffective, as the coercion on the other would be powerful and conclufive. In, proportion to the fanguine expectations thus raifed, was the difappointment and concern which prevailed towards the clofe of the year, as the failure of fuccefs or inactivity in the American campaign, and the lofs and danger in the Weft Indies, came by degrees to be known. The people were wearied out by the tedioufnefs and length of that war, and difgufted by the continued repetition of hopes and difappointments which they had so long ex perienced. In this ftate of danger fron without, and of difcontent within, the minifters feemed as little united among themfelves, as any clafs or part of the people who were committed to their government. At the fame time, the feveral parties which formed the oppofition feemed to be drawing closer together, and to act with more apparent union and concert than hitherto they had done. At [C] 2 |