XXII. 1786. BOOK James's to present an address to his majesty on his happy escape from assassination. This example was followed by nearly all the corporate bodies throughout the kingdom; and the popularity of the king was sensibly increased by this trivial and almost ludicrous incident. The number and quality of knighthoods conferred on occasion of these addresses were such as completed the ridicule, so successfully levelled since the days of Cervantes, against that once honourable and envied distinction.* In the month of September 1786, the king was pleased to appoint a new Committee of Council, for the consideration of all matters relating to trade and foreign plantations. Of this board the famous Charles Jenkinson, now for his long and faithful services created lord Hawkesbury, and constituted chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, was declared president. Under the auspices of this new comTreaty of mission a TREATY of COMMERCE was signed bewith France.tween the two courts of England and France (Sep commerce tember 26, 1786) on the liberal principles of equality and reciprocity. Its general principle was to According to an anecdote somewhere related of Charles II. the witty and profligate, that monarch observing a person on whom he was about to confer the honour of knighthood to hang down his head and blush, as if conscious of the deficiency of his pretensions, exclaimed with his usual good humour and pleasantry, "Don't be ashamed-'Tis I who have most reason." XXII. 1786. admit the mutual importation, and exportation of BOOK the commodities of each country at a very low ad valorem duty. The negotiator of this treaty was Mr. Eden, who under the coalition administration had filled the lucrative office of vice-treasurer of Ireland. This was the first memorable defection from that ill-starred and heterogeneous alliance: and it was the more remarkable, as Mr. Eden had himself been generally considered as the original projector of the coalition, or at least as the man who might contest that honour with Mr. Burke. He was soon afterwards rewarded for this desertion by a peerage, under the title of baron Auckland, and, gaining the entire confidence of the minister, was appointed in the sequel ambassador to the Hague. with Spain the Mos ments. About the same time a convention was signed Convention with Spain of some importance, as it finally termi- relative to nated the long-subsisting disputes respecting the quito settlesettlements of the English nation on the Mosquito shore and the coast of Honduras. The Mosquito shore extends by sea eastward from Point Castile, the boundary dividing it from the Bay of Honduras, to Cape Gracios-a-Dios, 87 leagues; and southward from Cape Gracios-a-Dios to the river of St. Juan, 94 leagues. The interior part of the country is bounded by the Lake of Nicaragua, and fenced by mountains stretching to the west. In magnitude it considerably exceeds the kingdom XXII. 1786. BOOK of Portugal; is excellently watered by navigable rivers and lagunes; abounds in fish, game, and provisions of all sorts; furnishes every necessary for raising cattle and stock, and is clothed with woods producing the most valuable kinds of timber. The soil is said to be superior to that of any of our West-India islands, the air incomparably more salubrious, and the climate more healthy. In this beautiful country the native Indians have yet been able to maintain their independence in opposition to the power of Spain; and they have invariably indicated a disposition to cultivate the alliance and friendship of Great Britain. By the present treaty the Mosquito settlements were formally and explicitly relinquished, as they had already virtually been by the 6th article of the general treaty of 1783. In return the boundaries of the English settlements on the coast and bay of Honduras were somewhat extended, but in such manner, and on such conditions, as to leave the king of Spain in full possession of his territorial rights and exclusive dominion. In a political view this convention answered a valuable purpose, as it removed a probable source of national disagreement. But the claims of humanity and justice were not sufficiently attended to. For the Mosquito settlers, who had from time immemorial occupied their lands and habitations under the protection of the English government, XXII. 1786. and who amounted to many hundred families in BOOK number, were peremptorily commanded to evacuate the country of the Mosquitoes, without exception, in the space of eighteen months, nothing farther being stipulated in their favor, than that his Catholic majesty "shall order his governors to grant to the said English so dispersed all possible facilities for their removal to the settlements agreed upon by the present convention.” The greatest confusion, consternation, and distress, among this unhappy people, was the inevitable result of this barbarous edict of expulsion, which, with the cold-blooded politicians of Europe, at the distance of 3000 miles, passed only for a regulation of commerce. An affecting representa tion of their distresses, and an humble petition for some sort of indemnification from the government which had thus carelessly abandoned them to their fate, was subsequently presented to the Board of Treasury; but it does not appear to have excited any attention. By "the insolence of office," the sighs of the oppressed are regarded as a species of insult. On the 31st of October in the present year (1786) died the princess Amelia, last survivor of the nu merous issue of king George II. at the advanced age of 75 years. Her immense riches she devised, by a gross affront to the reigning family, and by a species of flagrant injustice to the nation, by whose XXII. 1787. BOOK bounty she had acquired them, to the landgrave of Hesse, nearest in blood of her German relations. She had not appeared at court for many years, being highly disgusted, not merely with the personal disrespect with which she conceived herself treated, but with the Tory and high-church maxims and policy of the present reign, so different from those of the former. Scarcely were the ap. pearances of decency preserved by the court on the occasion of her decease. Session of Debates on mercial France. On the re-assembling of parliament, January 23, parliament. 1787, the first object of debate which presented the com- itself was the commercial treaty with France. On treaty with the 12th of February the house resolved itself into a committee on this subject, when Mr. Pitt entered into a most able and eloquent vindication of the measure, though, in the opinion of impartial persons, the treaty sufficiently spoke its own merits. Mr. Pitt declared in energetic terms his abhor. rence of the maxim, that any nation was destined to be the natural and unalterable foe of another. It had no foundation in the experience of nations, or in the history of men. It was a libel on the constitution of political societies, and supposed the existence of infernal malignity in our original frame. "France (Mr. Pitt said) in most of our wars had been the aggressor; but her assurances and frankness in the present negotiation were such as to entitle her to a return of confidence. It |