Ratisbon a declaration from the minister of foreign affairs of France (Talleyrand), communicating the result of the consulta at Lyons. This instrument declared the appointment of the first consul to the presidency of the Italian republic; that he conceded to the voluntary wish of its most enlightened citizens; that the measure was indispensable to its freedom, and solely undertaken by him to prevent rivalry of pretensions, and the perpetual feuds which might be expected, but which must, under his government (which he assures the diet shall be energetic, paramount, and ascendant,) be harmonized and tranquil.

On the 12th, the long expected intelligence arrived at Brest from St. Domingo, and was considered upon the whole as highly favourable to the parent country; not that there was no resistance on the part of Toussaint and the blacks to the repossession of the island by the French, but that such resistance was impotent and ineffectual. The general Le Clerc debarked in force on the 4th of February, and got possession of several forts and the whole of the country between the Cape and Fort Dauphine. The negroes, by the orders of general Christophe, had set fire to the Cape Town, but the French arrived in time to save a part of that devoted city. The letters of the commanders of the army and fleet were couched in the most triumphant terms: complete success, and the reestablishment of the French power in the settlement, in a very short time, was by them confidently promised.

Whether the opposition which was experienced by general Le Clerc at St. Domingo was of as trifling a nature as his letters announced, or whether it was considered by Bonaparté as likely to throw serious obstacles in the way of his great object, certain it is that about this period some degree of activity began to prevail at the congress of Amiens.

Hitherto the situation of the marquis of Cornwallis had been extremely irksome and disagreeable: the definitive treaty had been ingering now more than three months, during which time Bonaparté had realized every project his wildest ambition could form, without check or interruption; and while thus occupied, it became notorious to all Europe that the ultimate pacification with Great Britain was. designedly protracted: means were not wanting for such an object; the delay of the Dutch and Spanish ministers, and the absence of the first consul in the south, presented plausible excuses for dilatoriness in the early part of the negotiation; but when those causes no longer existed, vexatious and frivolous impediments were suggested on the part of Spain and Holland, evidently for the purposes of delay. With the British minister it was far otherwise the alarming increase of power, since the signing the preliminaries, to France was no obstacle, although, as we have shown, some of the articles of the preliminaries could not now be executed either in the letter or in the spirit. The British minister hurried on the negotiation to the utmost of his power, but ineffectually.

At

At length some faint remains of British spirit began to appear: the disarming system, which had proceeded to a considerable extent, was suspended; we had already sent out a strong fleet of observation to the West Indies, to watch the motions of the Brest fleet; a squadron had also sailed from the Mediterranean*, in consequence of the sailing of Gantheaume with a reinforcement for St. Domingo. Those movements, however, arose from the original source of so much disquietude and expense; the impolitic and unprecedented permission of the vast fleet and army of Brest to sail from France, before peace had been concluded: but the armaments which the ministry now thought it necessary to equip, were calculated to coerce France to the concluding the definitive treaty at all events, and upon whatever terms she might dictate; accordingly, orders were issued, about the beginning of March, for the fitting out and victualling the whole of the men of war at Portsmouth capable of being sent to sea, frigates and sloops included, in all about thirty sail.

And in consequence of similar orders, admiral Cornwallis, who still commanded the channel fleet, dispatched from Torbay six sail of the line on a cruize, and victualled for five months: all the different offices connected with the naval department, the dock-yards, &c. were put in motion; and at the crisis when the country at large was cherishing the hopes of a happy and permanent peace, every symptom appeared of fresh warfare and contention.

Whether this manifestation of displeasure on the part of Great Britain, and the consequences it threatened; or whether the opposition experienced at St. Domingo, or from the coeperation of both causes on the mind of Bonaparté, he now, without further shift or subterfuge, seemed to wish to expedite the negotiation at Amiens to a conclusion.

There remained now apparently but two points to occupy the attention of the French government; the definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain, and the German indemnities. The latter arrange

ment was permitted to slumber, and the pressure now caused by the angry measures of Great Britain, and the partial failure of the Brest armament, disposed measures of an active nature to supersede the supineness that had hitherto prevailed at Amiens.

Yet at the close of this long protracted negotiation, so far from receding from the advantages which France clearly had in the preliminary treaty, her minister absolutely insisted on higher terms than even that had given her. Nor did the aggrandizement of that power in the intervening period, in violation of all subsisting treaties, and of the spirit of the basis of that which they were about to conclude, produce in the slightest degree (although the British minister offered to throw into the same scale Egypt, Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, and all the conquests we had made during the war,) the disposition to recede from her exorbitant demands.

Proceeding on this principle, the French government interposed so

many unexpected points of debate, during the negotiation, which protracted it to such a length, that the inhabitants of both countries, who were equally anxious and sincere for the amicable termination of the treaty, were in constant apprehension of its being broken off abruptly. At length, either from the causes we have already alluded to, or because nothing more was to be gained by procrastination, it became the will and pleasure of the first consul that the long expected treaty should be signed; accordingly that ceremony took place on the 27th of March.

The inhabitants of Amiens were apprized of the moment of the signature's taking place, and were invited to witness the solemnity. The welcome event was announced the next day at Paris by the minister for foreign affairs, and proclaimed under the firing of cannon, and every demonstration of joy usual on the receipt of the most flattering and welcome intelligence.

On the 29th of March, Mr. Moore, assistant secretary to the mission, arrived in London at nine o'clock in the morning of that day, with the news of the definitive treaty of peace having been signed at Amiens, at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 27th instant, by the plenipotentiaries of the different powers, parties thereto. Thus, after a feverish interval of five months, during which period the most important revolutions had taken place in the states of Europe, whilst the scale of French power was daily preponderating, and that of England visibly "kicking the beam;" the great object of the

British ministers and the general wish of the people of England was accomplished.

The domestic events which preceded this celebrated treaty, from the commencement of the year, were few and unimportant. The trial and punishment of the infatuated and misguided mutincers at Bantry Bay, which took place early in the month of January, we have already noticed; and the account of the crime and execution of governor Joseph Wall, in command at Goree, 1782, which engrossed an uncommon share of the public interest, we have gone into at some length in another part of this work*. Those severe but salutary acts of justice, which regarding only the crime, equally awarded death to disobedience to the officer, and to the extreme severity of those in command, were satisfactory proofs of the equitable and sound principles of the English law.

On the 18th of March there was a numerous meeting of the livery of London, assembled in common hall, in order to take into consideration the propriety of petitioning for the repeal of the income tax. The measure met with universal approbation, and it was carried unanimously. In the resolutions on this subject were enumerated the serious evils attending this tax; its destructive operation upon the trading world, and its injustice in making no discrimination between fluctuating and certain income They tated, that it was hostile to the liberties and morals of the people, and that no modification could render it equitable, just, or efficient,

and

and that for these, and many other reasons too numerous to be here detailed, that a petition should be presented to parliament, praying its. repeal, by Mr. alderman Combe; that the representatives for the city of London should be instructed to support it; and that every exertion should be made to get rid of a tax, at once so oppressive and inquisitorial. It was accordingly presented to parliament, which, with its consequences, we shall notice in its proper place.

The deaths of John Fitzgibbon, earl of Clare, lord high chancellor of Ireland, and of Francis Russell, duke of Bedford, about this period, both characters of no common stamp, are worthy of commemoration in our historic page. Of the former we have taken particular notice in our selection appropriated for such purposes, and the latter gave occasion for an eulogium, pronounced upon him in the house of commons by Mr. Fox, and which shall be noticed in its place.

We shall briefly enumerate the leading and material points which the treaty of Amiens embraced, and shall defer our particular consideration of them till we shall have laid before our readers the parliamentary proceedings of the year prior thereto, and connected with it*.

Art. I. declares the reestablishment of peace between the contracting parties, and that each shall use their utmost endeavours towards its maintenance.

Art. 11. stipulates for the restoration of all prisoners of war or hostages, within six weeks from the date of the ratification; each party

respectively discharging all advances made by any of the contracting parties for the maintenance of the prisoners in the countries where they have been detained. A commission to be appointed to determine the compensation to be made under this article.

Art. III. His Britannic majesty restores to France, Spain, and Batavia, all the possessions and colonies which may have been occupied or conquered during the war, with the exception of Trinidad and Ceylon, which, by articles IV. and V. Spain and Batavia severally cedes and guaranties in full possession and sovereignty to his majesty.

Art. VI. The port of the Cape of Good Hope remains to the Batavian repub ic in full sovereignty, in the same manner as previous to the war, and the ships of every kind belonging to the other contracting parties shall be allowed to enter the said port, and there purchase provisions as heretofore, without being liable to pay other imposts than such as the Batavian republic subjects its own ships to.

Art. VII. The territories and possessions of her most Faithful majesty are maintained in their integrity, such as they were antecedent to the war, excepting at the river Arowari, from where it empties itself into the ocean above Cape North, near the islands Nuove and Penetentia, about 1 and 1-3d degrees of north latitude to its source, and afterwards in a right line drawn from that source to the Rio Ranto, towards the west;— the northern bank being the French boundary of the French Guiana, and the south bank the boundary of the Portugueze Guiana; the navigation

of