From this time forward the two parties, the Orange party and that of the patriots, were to be considered as at open war. England and the princess incessantly added fuel to the flame of dissension, and the sea-fight off the Doggerbank gave the patriots a suitable pretext for new accusations and complaints. A small squadron had been at length fitted out in 1782, which was destined, under the command of admiral Cornelius Zoutmann and commodore Kinsbergen, to convoy a fleet of seventy-two merchant-vessels bound for the Baltic. The equipment of the fleet proceeded so slowly that a delay of three months intervened before the ships could sail, and even then they were in no very good condition.

An English fleet under Hyde Parker was lying off Elsinore to attack the Dutch; the English sailed into the Cattegat to meet them, and the two fleets met on the 5th of August, in the neighbourhood of a sand-bank called the Doggerbank. This battle with the Dutch, among whose fleet there was also an American ship of war of extraordinary length and an uncommon build, was the most severe which was fought at sea in the course of the war. The Dutch did not indeed gain a victory, but were still much encouraged by the result of this engagement, for all the cities and towns illuminated, and the newspapers of all the seven provinces boasted that the times of the Opdams and the De Ruyters were not yet quite gone. The ships did not begin to fire until within pistol-shot of each other; the firing was continued above three hours with extraordinary violence and perseverance on both sides, until neither fleet was in a condition to continue the fight. The only advantages which the English gained were, that the Dutch merchant-vessels were compelled to return to the Texel along with the ships of war, and that a Dutch ship of the line sunk before reaching the harbour. The three commanders of the Dutch fleet, Cornelius Zoutmann, Kinsbergen, and Van Braam, were honoured and praised by the people in Holland as if they had gained a complete victory, and the government took pains to distinguish in every possible way the heroes whom the people almost worshiped they complained notwithstanding, that the fitting out of their ships as was entirely incapable of such meanness; that they were of opinion however, that the unfavourable opinion of the duke, which had unhappily become general, and had excited a universal want of confidence in him, had rendered him useless, and even productive of harm to the service of the country and of his highness."

well as the ships themselves had been bad. It must be confessed also, that the orders given by the government of the hereditary stadtholder to the commanders by land and sea, who received their orders immediately from him, were very equivocal. The rage that inspired the combatants at the Doggerbank may be partly judged of by the fact, that many of the English ships fired upwards of 2500 shots during the engagement.

Sir Hyde Parker, who was received in England with the same signs of rejoicing as had been shown on the arrival of Cornelius Zoutmann in Holland, was as little satisfied with the English government and admiralty as his opponent was with that of the Dutch: inasmuch as Parker's discontent was well known (for he complained openly of the ships which had been given him, and of the mode of regulating promotion in the navy, according to which the ministry regarded nothing but the family influence and connexions of the officer in question), the king was prevailed upon to give him an extraordinary and very remarkable proof of his high opinion. King George III. was not born and educated like his son George IV., to represent the splendour of knighthood and the majesty of kingly power in his own person on particular occasions; he was not certainly on the other hand so deeply sunk, morally speaking, as his son; he had no pleasure therefore in appearing in public as king. In his family, in church, in his agricultural occupations and astronomical amusements, he was for Herschel a kind of divinity, and enchanted Lichtenberg by conducting him personally over his palaces and domains and explaining everything to him; but he only figured in state affairs when it was absolutely necessary. He made an exception however in favour of Hyde Parker. He himself, accompanied by the prince of Wales, went to the place where the admiral was lying with his ships*; he visited him on board of his vessel, but did not find him as much inclined to be pleased by this honour, as commanders, whether by sea or land, generally are. The old sailor rather roughly refused all proofs of the royal favour, and loudly and openly complained of the admiralty.

This scene, which is unique in English history, and may be classed with the speech of the lord-mayor Beckford to the king, on the occasion of the solemn audience, took place on board the Fortitude. This vessel, as well as the rest, was lying at the Nore to be repaired; the king sailed down the Thames therefore to visit the admiral on board his ship. The old sailor answered the compliments of the king with the words, He wished his majesty better ships and younger seamen ; for himself, he was too old for service.” He took his leave immediately afterwards.

"

§ III.

ENGLISH HISTORY.-NAVAL WAR.-SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR.MINISTRY TILL PITT'S INDIA BILL IN 1784.

The events in North America, and particularly the capitulation of lord Cornwallis in Yorktown, the expeditions of the marquis Bouillé in the West Indies, the defence of the Dutch possessions in the East Indies by the French admiral Suffrein, were all made matters of blame against the English admiralty; all the best naval officers were discontented. The more definite matters of complaint were the want of ability of the first lord of the admiralty, and that of the secretary of state for American affairs. Even lord North, obstinate as he was, acknowledged that he should be obliged to give up some of his colleagues were he to continue to endeavour to carry out his principles, confidently relying on the support of the king, who indeed did not desert him till the last moment. A man who had such an extraordinary talent for conducting the machine which is called the English government, perceived in 1781 that it would be difficult indeed to find new wheels and springs, without giving up the machine to another engineer and retiring himself. This was shown by the stormy sittings towards the close of the parliament of 1780, particularly the last of all.

This parliament, the last sittings of which had been so stormy and of such a threatening character, was dissolved in September 1780; and it was necessary to make use of extreme measures to secure even an absolute majority for the ministerial party in the new parliament, which met for the first time in October. Among the various means employed for this purpose by lord North and his colleagues was one which has since been adopted in France with similar effect; the richer classes of society were thrown into a state of anxiety respecting their property by a report which was industriously circulated among them, that at the time of the riots in London Wilkes had been at his post, and Fox had disguised himself and mixed with the mob, exciting them to further outrages. The less such a report could be proved or disproved, the more it was spread abroad. The danger of the state also and that of the coasts, which rendered a sort of military order necessary, was made use of to prevent the opponents of the ministry from voting. Every civil officer

was required to be at his post on pretence that danger was impending, and hundreds were kept away on military duty, inasmuch as they were then serving in the militia. Notwithstanding all this, the two men, who from their influence and property, by means of their clients and relations, had long been the principal opponents of the ministry, namely Rockingham and Shelburne, of whom the former particularly professed liberal opinions, and endeavoured to introduce liberal members into parliament, at the opening of parliament not only found all their old friends, who had been distinguished for eloquence, but two new ones were added.

The two men who strengthened the opposition against lord North in the new parliament, and from this time rose to a high degree of importance in England and consequently in Europe, were Sheridan and William Pitt, the younger son of the earl of Chatham. The former of these, after shining for a number of years as an orator and a poet, died in the present century in a state of misery not entirely undeserved; the latter lived as the protector of aristocratic and monarchical Europe, and died in full possession of the royal power, which he had enjoyed from 1784. Both made their appearance at the same time in the year 1781, but under different colours. Sheridan joined Rockingham's friends, particularly Fox, and was as violent as the latter; Pitt, as lawyers and diplomatists generally are, suffered himself to be guided by circumstances, for he did not seek for England freedom, economy and sober family happiness, but riches, influence, power, splendour, and consequently aristocracy. Pitt more nearly agreed with Shelburne in his opinions, but did not serve under him; he spared the name of the king, whom Fox treated very rudely; for he purposed to found his own power and that of his friends upon the name of the king, and he fully accomplished his purpose.

Both Sheridan and Pitt made their first appearance as speakers in February 1781, but with very different results; because Pitt, born and educated for a skilful diplomatist and wary statesman, although then only twenty-two years old, knew how to choose the proper subject, as well as the proper time for speaking; Sheridan, however, did not. The latter was certainly even then acknowledged to be a man of talents; but the more far-sighted perceived at the same time that he was merely a good speaking-trumpet, such as could be used when the house wished to amuse and deVOL. V.

T

ceive itself and the people by words during a tedious deliberation. He took the same side as Fox, and shone by his wit, which however, as generally happens in such cases, frequently degenerated into mere punning. Sheridan therefore, by his flickering light, was often very useful to cheer and enliven the gloomy bombast of Burke's speeches. Pitt, on the contrary, showed himself to be a prudent statesman and man of business, declaring himself sometimes for, sometimes against, the court, whose favour was too necessary for his designs to allow him to neglect it entirely, but never allowed himself to be misled in practice by any theories, and was consequently a man exactly suited to king George III. Sheridan was not at all suited to the king, but seemed born to be the companion of the prince of Wales, which he afterwards became. Sheridan was a literary man; he wrote plays, and had at the time some reputation as a dramatist, a writer, an acute and prepossessing speaker, and as an agreeable companion; and he would probably have continued to enjoy this fame, had he not latterly sunk so low by his love of dissipation: but he never was, and never could have been, a statesman or a diplomatist. Pitt was entirely a practical man, had exactly as much honesty and conscience as are necessary for a statesman of the nineteenth century, and not an atom more; and his style of eloquence was one entirely suited to his character.

Both Sheridan and Pitt came into parliament by those means which were employed by the more influential families to introduce into parliament men of talents, who were to be made useful to their party; they were elected for so-called rotten boroughs: Pitt was only enabled, after having become prime minister, to free himself entirely from his dependence on the family which had given him a seat in the house. Sir James Lowther at this time supplied the English people with several members of that assembly on which its government and legislation depended; that is, he had the power of nominating members of parliament for several of the rotten boroughs; and young Pitt was thus elected member for the borough of Appleby. He was unable therefore to make his appearance immediately after the opening of parliament, because Sir James wished first to be sure that the borough was not required for some member of the Lowther family who might happen to lose his election for some other place.

Fox had begun the session by a long speech made in November 1780, on the subject of the troops having been used against