ing scenes are left to the difcretion of the performers. However, in representation, this piece cannot fail of entertaining, though what Addifon faid of Cowley is not unapplicable," that it would pleafe us more, had it pleafed us lefs." : Mifs Leefon, who appeared in the character of Isabella, has an agreeable pleafing figure, a good face, and a marking eye; her voice is weak, but after fhe got rid of her fright, was fufficiently articulate there was an eafe and nature in her deportment and dialogue that entitles her to encouragement; her character was not calculated to call forth whatever abilities fhe may poffefs, but if a judgment can be formed from her firft appearance he has that kind of merit, which, if nourished, will raise her beyond 'what is understood by a decent perfor Duenna, Clara, Mr. Du-Bellamy. Mr. Quick. Mr. Leoni. Mr. Wewitzer. Mr. Mahon. Mr. Baker. Mr. Fox. Mr. Besford. Mrs. Mattocks, Mrs. Green. Mifs Brown. Friars, fervants, mafks, &c. SCENE, SEVILLE, in Spain. DON ANTONIO being in love with Louifa, Don Jerome's daughter, comes early one morning to ferenade her, when the old father difcovers their amour, and foon after locks her up, in order to prevent her elopement, till the arrival of Ifaac Mendoza, a rich Jew, whom he hourly expected to marry her; making an oath at the fame time never to fpeak to her more, till fhe had espoused this hufband he had defigned for her.-The old Duenna, however, lays the following scheme, which has the defired effect: She contrives to be catched by him in the act of carrying a letter between the young lovers; in confequence thereof, Don Jerome orders her to pack up her things, and to get out of his fervice immediately; ; upon which the flies to her mistress, tells her the plot had fucceeded, dreffes her up in her cloaths, puts her veil over Louifa, whom the old Don now turns out of doors for the Duenna. On her arrival in the ftreets, and contemplating how to make Antonio acquainted with her fituation, fhe meets Clara (who had likewife eloped from her father,) a young lady of her acquaintance, and the admired mistress of her brother Ferdinand; they freely impart to each other the fteps they have taken : Clara, on their parting, enjoins her friend to be fure not to tell her brother that he is going to the nunnery of St. Catherine's.-Louifa fpying Isaac Mendoza arrived, tells her, that as he is the only perfon in Seville who does not know her, fhe will make him the inftrument of the impofition fhe intends upon himself, by fending him to feek for her lover Antonio; in order to which, fhe entreats Clara to let her make ufe of her name, which she consents to, and retires. --Ifaac on their interview fo far complies with her request as to fend his friend Don Carlos in fearch of him, as the happy means of hampering Antonio, who he heard was his rival, and beloved by Louisa, whilft he himself goes to vifit Don Jerome and his daughter.-Don Jerome receives him very cordially; recounts the matchlefs beauties of his girl, whom he is going to bestow upon him, and then begs him to go to her in her chamber. alledging the oath he had made, as the reafon for his not being able himself to introduce him as he could with. Ifaac is petrified with furprize, when he fees his intended bride, on whom fuch a defcription had been lavifhed, in the perfon of the old Duenna, who had dreffed herself in Louifa's cloaths, in order to impofe upon the Jew:-Ifaac, however, gets the better of the difappointment, by reflecting on her vaft fortune, and finds even her perfon improve upon him, in proportion to the flattery fhe bestows on his :-He therefore refolves to go and afk the old gentleman to fix the time for their union, when the artfully tells him, that the cannot be his on thofe terms; for that the had fworn never to marry the man her father infifted on, and he had made an oath never to fee or speak to her till the was united according to his defire; fo that the only way was to prevail upon Don Jerome to let them walk out in the garden, from whence they might elope: Ifaac falls into this readily, as he thinks equally to fecure her fortune by this ftep, and yet be under no neceffity of making the fettlement required of Bbbbb 2 him 738 Hiftory of the British Parliament. him in the more formal mode of matri- Ifaac, in his fearch of a priest, meets on Don Jerome receives in the mean time a letter from Ifaac, telling him of their elopement, and foon after another from Louifa, praying forgivenefs for the rafh ftep fhe had taken; which he immedjately anfwers, by forgiving her, and telling her, he was at liberty to indulge her choice, having no doubt but that Louifa and Ifaac went off together.-Antonio and Louifa being arrived at the friary, meet with Ifaac, who is come on the fame errand, to whom father Paul enters, being called out from the Bacchanalian vefpers of the order of St. Anthony. After each of the lovers had calmed the qualms of his confcience refpecting the impropriety of marrying eloped couples, Ferdinand breaks in abruptly upon them, and demands fatisfaction of Antonio; however, Clara, who followed him in her nun's habit from the garden, entering immediately, the deception is difcovered, and they confent to a general union, which takes place, as does that between Ifaac and the Duenna. Don Jerome hearing, and furprized at, the fudden and fecret marriage of Ifaac and his daughter, accounts for it, that the did it out of pique at Antonio's marriage with Clara, which he learnt from Ifaac; he however prepares a grand Dec. fupper for their reception, when lo, Antonio arrives wedded to Louifa, Ferdidoza to the Duenna! After the old Don's nand (his fon) to Clara, and Ifaac Menfurprize, he is let into the plot; Antonio produces the confent Louifa had from his own letter, to marry according to her whim, when he thought she was gone off with Ifaac. Don Jerome is now convinced of his folly, and being pleased with the prudent choice that the two young couple had made, he laughs at Ifaac, for becoming the dupe of his own knavery, orders his doors to be thrown open, when all the neighbours, in masks, enter, and conclude the piece with a glee and a chorus expreffive of the general happiness. duction of Mr. Sheridan, jun.) is written. The lively part of this opera (the prowith ftrong characteristic humour; the ferious part does not manifest equal abilities in the writer, whofe genius appears entirely to bend towards the humorous. In regard to the mufic, it must be acknowledged that the felect tunes were judiciously chofen, and well adapted both to the words and fituation. The new mufic compofed for the opera fhews the fkill of the compofer, and a perfect knowledge of harmony; the pallages but fometimes too ferious for the dialogue, were diftinct, without the leaft confufion, which abounds with wit. There is good poetry in the fongs, but they are fometimes injudicioufly difpofed of; giving two fongs in a fhort fcene to the fame performer, without a fufficient length of dialogue to relieve the ear, deftroys in a great measure the effect. Hiftory of the Proceedings of the prefent Sef IR Charles Whitworth, chairman of the eftimates ordered to be referred to it. the (peaker took the chair, Lord Barrington that day the particular condition and ftate of with this requifition, the state of our forces at Boston, Bofton, as they stood on the 19th of July, which, independent of the marines ferving on fhore, amounted to 8,500 men. The house then resolved itself into a committee of supply, and after fome time, the following refolution was agreed to: Refolved, That 28,000 feamen, including 6,665 marines, be voted for the fervice of the year 1776, at the rate of 41. per month, per man, for maintaining them for thirteen months. November 3.] Sir James Lowther made the following motion, That the introducing his majesty's Electoral troops into any part of the dominions of Great Britain without the confent of parliament first had and obtained, is contrary to law.' Sir James fupported his motion with great spirit and ability, and adverted to the scandalous means that had been employ ed to obtain addresses in almost every part of the kingdom. He was followed by Governor Johnstone, who, among a number of strong reasons to fhew the impropriety of the measure, appealed to the conduct of the parliament after the peace of Ryfwick, who reduced the ftanding army to 7000 men, and obliged king William to difband his Dutch guards; fo wifely jealous were they of permitting foreigners to remain within the kingdom. He ordered the journals of March, 1698, to be read, where the king's request, and pofitive refufal of parliament to grant it, are both stated, Lord Barrington defended the measure, and infifted that the bill of rights never was intended to extend further than the kingdom; he instanced several matters in proof of this construction, particularly Dunkirk and Tangier, in Charles the fecond's time, and Calais at a much earlier date. Mr. Solicitor-general made a very long fpeech against the motion, and entered into a full confideration of the measure, and defended it on a variety of grounds. The question began at half after ten, that the question be now put; the house divided, Ayes, 81-Noes, 203. November 8.] Lord Barrington ftated the army eftimates for the fervice of the year 1776. He faid that the whole of the force intended to be raised and maintained was 55,000 men, the ordinary expence of which would be 1,300,000l. and a fraction; that the expence of last year was fomething above 1,000,000l. confequently th the increase would be 300,000l. Col. Barre made feveral obfervations upon Lord Barrington's account of the prefent ftate of the army, the propofed augmentation of it, and the means that had been tried to recruit it. He said, that the nation had paid this year for an army of 11,000 men to ferve under the command of Gen. Gage in America; yet, after all the unufual means employed to recruit it to its full complement, after making drafts for that purpose from almost every corps of infantry in Great Britain or Ireland, the army now in Boston, according to his Lordfhip's own returns, was short of 7000 effective men, fit to do duty, exclufive of thofe fick in the hofpitals, or langu fhing under their wounds. As to the augmentation now ftated, it propofed that the army deflined to ferve in America, in the course of the enfuing campaign, fhall consist of 32 battalions of infantry, and 2 regiments of light cavalry, with a confiderable train of artillery; amounting in the whole to 25,000 men. If he confidered the force which had been made under Gen. Gage last year, confifting of the very flower of the British army, who, during the whole fummer, lay cooped up within their lines at Boston, without being able to penetrate a fingle mile beyond their own works into the country, when he confidered the very great change which had and would be effected, not only in the fentiments of the people of America, but in the means of refiftance, and the mode of carrying it into execution; he had not a single doubt, but our efforts to reduce these rebels, as they were termed, would prove, if poffible, more unsuccessful and disgraceful in the enfuing than even they had during the last campaign. On the last head, that of the endea vours that had been made to recruit the army, there was very little left for him to animadvert on; the noble Lord had already performed the task himself: He had informed the committee of the affiduities that had been used, of the expedients that had been reforted to, in order to procure men to complete the corps ferving in America almost in any manner, and almost by any means. Irish Catholics had been enlifted; fo had fingle foreigners; the bounty had been raised, the ftandard had been lowered, yet all to little or no purpofe; the men were not to be obtained upon any terms. He faid, he fhould not proceed to combat the feveral plaufible arguments urged, nor ingenious reasons affigned by the noble lord, to perfuade the committee, that this difficulty of raising recruits did not proceed from a dislike to the service; it was fufficient for the use he intended to apply the fact to, that the men voted were not to be had, and that confequently any expectations which might be formed, on an army nominally confifting of fuch a number of men not in being, nor to be obtained, would prove as idle and as delufory as all the other promises given by administration fince the commencement of our military operations in America. Last year, according to an expreffion of another noble lord (lord North) the force then voted was to hook the people of the Maffachufet's Bay into fubmifion. In what manner they performed this new mode of making war, without the effufion of human blood, he had before oblerved. Now all America is in arms, and its inhabitants daily improving themselves in the art military, an army of 25,000 men on paper, which it is im poffible to recruit, will do what he would venture to foretell, though it were recruited, and much more numerous, it would never be able to perform. He condemned the military ar rangements in a variety of inftances, and the eftimates as being much too expensive, nearly a third, as the men did not bear a proper pro portion portion to the officers, on the footing of a war eftablishment. He replied particularly to feveral of the arguments used, and facts stated by the noble lord, and condemned the measures of administration throughout, as cruel and oppreffive, and the execution of them as equally blundering and ridiculous. Such was the general out-line of that gentleman's obfervations and reply. We must not omit one fact, on which he founded a charge of ignorance and folly united, which was fending out five regiments of infantry from Ireland, in order to re-inforce general Carleton at Quebec, late in the month of October. General Conway spoke very warmly against coercive measures, and was extremely fevere on the conduct of administration. He defended the colonies, infifted that they had been compelled to take up arms in their own defence, against the most cruel, wanton, and unheard of oppreffions; and that, under fuch circumstances, they would not have deferved the name of Englishmen, if they had not refifted. He likewife defied adminiftration to produce a single military man in that houfe, or out of it, who would venture to pledge himself, or ftake his opinion, that the prefent force, allowing that the army was every way complete and effective, would be fufficient to conquer America. He was convinced there was not; and he knew that the first general in Europe (fuppofed to mean Sir Jeffery Amherst) was of a contrary opinion. The debate took another turn: Governor Pownal defended administration; and Mr. Burke was, as ufual, extremely witty on the governor; when the houfe adjourned. Nov. 13.] The house refolved itself into a committee of ways and means for raifing the fupply granted to his majefty. As foon as Sir Charles Whitworth had taken the chair, lord North rose, and, after briefly ftating the amount of the supply, and the ways and means, pointed out the probable neceffity there would be of Jaying another fhilling on the land, as the produce of land and malt, with the overplus monies arifing from the finking fund, would not be fufficient to provide for the military and naval arrangements already made; that is, when the land and malt deficiencies of laft year were deducted out of the present grants. If America fhould fubmit, and the war ceafe, it was very probable there might be confiderable favings, but in the prefent fituation of things, nothing certain could be depended on. He thould therefore move the committee, that the land tax for the year 1776 be 4s. in the pound.' Sir Jofeph Mawbev objected very strongly to the additional fhilling. He faid, the war was unneceffary and wanton; and it was difficult to determine whether it was most founded in folly or injustice. Mr. Byng congratulated the country gentlemen on the additional fhilling land tax, as the firft happy fruits of American measures. Several other gentlemen spoke against the minifterial proceedings, when lord North entered into a wide field; for he endeavoured to answer almost every objection that had been urged in the courfe of the debate. He said he was fure the hon. gentleman who fuppofed the finking fund would, in the course of the year 1776, be anticipated 700,000l. was egregiously mistaken, according to the prefent eftimates; and it was impoffible to provide against every exigency, or to foresee or prevent accidents. He faid, the hon. gentleman had pointed out how much more meritorious it would have been to pay his majesty's debts, than fquander away the national treasure in acts of fuch a nature as would make the most obdurate feel and tremble. He suspected the hon. member was as ignorant of the true dif pofition of the gracious prince, who, for so long a time, has filled the throne of thefe kingdoms, as he was of the nature of the dif pute, which he called a wanton effufion of blood. I will tell him then, continued his lordship, that his majefty, like the true father of his people, more zealous and anxions for their interefts, their reputation, and their ho nour, than his own, has foregone every private confideration; he has kept back his own wants, in order to make room for those of his country. Inftead, therefore, of fpeaking bout his own affairs, inftead of reminding parliament of his very urgent neceffities, he has only defired it to take care of the general interefts of his fubjects, and their own ho nour; carefully avoiding so much as to hint at his own wants till the great national objects fhall be first adjusted. A motion had been early made in the de bate, that Three fhillings ftand part of the motion, and the queftion being put at feven o'clock, the committee divided, Ayes 47, Noes 182. The main queftion was then put, and paffed in the affirmative, and was ordered to be reported. Nov. 15.] The house went into the order of the day, and refolved itself into a committee of the whole house, on the bill for impowering his majefty to affemble the militia in cafes of rebellion in any of the dominions of the crown of Great Britain: A motion was made and feconded, to amend and explain the preamble, by adding the following reftrictive words, that the faid power should not extend beyond the continuance of the prefent rebellion ' The lord mayor spoke for the amendment very warmly. He contended, that it would throw an additional weight into the hands of the crown, already become too powerful, which might and probably would be productive of very dangerous confequences. Lord North faid he faw no occafion; if the law was a good law, it ought not to be reftrained to the continuance of the prefent dif turbances in America. Mr. Adair and Mr. J. Johnstone spoke a few words. The question being put at eight o'clock on the amendment, the committee divided, Ayes 55, Noes 140. Mr. Adair propofed another amendment, that the militia fhould not be called out of their respective counties, unlefs in cafe of ac tual invafion,'-It paffed in the negative. Mr. Mr. Hartley offered a claufe to impower the king to call the parliament together in 14 days.' It was agreed to without a divifion. Nov. 16.] Mr. Burke, in a fpeech which lafted 3 hours, entered into a full view of our American affairs, from the time of the ftampact till the prefent time. He fhewed, in a variety of cafes, that we had not only been the aggreffors at the first period alluded to, but continued to uniformly, till in April laft we made war upon them by the attack at Lexington. After proving in the molt able and convincing manner the folly, abiurdity, and injuftice of our meatures, of the two laft years in particular; he reminded the houfe how often adminiftration had been warned, and foretold that the confequences of thofe oppreffive meatures, of fhutting up their port, deltroying their cha.ters, depriving them of a trial by the vicinage, and endeavoring to ftarve them, would be just as they turned out. He now for the laft time told them that any means. -ring an end to the troubles in America, but Conciliation, if not of conceflion, would anwhich-ever fwer no manner of purpose, fo, party prevailed in the contelt, B. itain must be lure to be undone. To follow this able gentleman through but a twentieth part of the matter he travelled over, would infinitely exceed the limits we generally prefcribe in narratives of this kind: Let it fuffice, that his keenest adverfaries allowed that feveral of his arguments were irrefiftible, and that nothing but the propriety of first hearing the terms the king's minifters had to propole, in purfuance of the speech from the throne, could prevail on them to vote for the motion with which he concluded his fpeech: It was conceived in the following terms: That leave be given to bring in a bill for compofing the prefent troubles, and quieting the minds of his majefty's fubjects in America.' A little before four o'clock the previous queftion was put that the question be now put. The houfe divided, Ayes, 105; Noes, 210. Nov. 20.] Lord North made the motion he had given notice of a few days before, relative to the laying a foundation for fettling the prefent disputes between Great Britain and America. His fordship, after explaining the -general out-lines of his plan, which he executed in a flovenly, ungraceful manner, though with great art, for it was impoffible to know by his fpeech, whether his lordship contended for a complete unconditional fupremacy, a modified power of taxation, a right only of inforcing commercial regulations, or, in fhort, breaking off all political connection whatever with that country, moved the houfe in the following words: That leave be given to bring in a bill, to prohibit all trade and intercourfe with the colonies of New Hampshire, Maffachufett's Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jerfey, Pennsylvania, the three lower counties, Kent, Newcastle, and Suffex, on Delawar River, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, during the continuance of the prefent rebellion within the &c.' to the end. [To be contre to The Hiftory of the prefent Seffion of the Irish Parliament. (Continued from p. 689.) INCE the printing of our last month's ma SINCE gazine, we are informed, that the moLion for granting a fupply to his majefty was not carried without a negative, for that Sir Edward Newenham gave it a negative, and laid, he would not vote for a supply of money to his majesty, until the many grievances of the Jubject were redreffed. WedneJday, November 1. The committee of accounts fat. Sir Edward Newenham moved for a return of the particulars of the expence of 26431. 7s. 5d. paid to Thomas Adderley, Elq; treaturer to the commiflioners, and overfeers of barracks for repairing the bailiff's lodge in the Phoenix park, which was carried nem. con. Mr. Pontonby then called on Sir John Bla quiere, to give his ftate of the arrear, as he had promiled; to which Sir John replied, if the nonourable gentleman, whofe motions were poftponed yesterday, (Mr. Yelverton) would now make them, his ftate would then come in with propriety, as his reafon for giving thele motions a negative. Mr. Yelverton then made the postponed Relolved, that the debt of motion, viz. “ the nation, on Latly-day 1775, as returned by the accomptant general, was the fum of 976,1171. 68. 3d. f. in which the fum of 265,000l. borrowed on the credit of life annuiHe added, that if ties, was not included." this motion was carried, he should then move, "That the revenues of this kingdom were infufficient to antwer the expences of the eftablishments;" and after that he should make, in the houte, at a convenient time, another motion of great importance. [This motion was, as afterwards appeared by the speeches of other gentlemen, to lay these facts before the king, by an address of the house, and thereby shew |