tody, demanded his release on various grounds; but general Washington summoned a council of officers to determine on the case. André's own confession was sufficient to fix upon him the character of a spy; and the dangerous extent of the attempted treachery, in their opinion, prohibited any relaxation of the punishment attached to it by the laws of war. The unfortunate officer only deprecated the ignominious mode in which he was doomed to forfeit his life; but, though he was treated in every other respect with humane sympathy, his sentence was rigorously executed, and not the smallest remission of it could be obtained. He met his unhappy fate with the bravery of a man and a soldier, and his memory was honoured with a monument in Westminster Abbey. Arnold, who had made good his escape to the British army, was made a brigadiergeneral, and now declared the most violent hostility to the American cause.

During the autumnal months of this year, the West Indies experienced one of the most tremendous hurricanes ever known in those parts. This long remembered tempest commenced at Jamaica, on the 3d of October, and sweeping across a part of the island, it produced a dreadful scene of destruction. While the wretched inhabitants of Savannahla-mar, in Westmoreland parish of that island, were gazing with astonishment at such a swell of the sea as they had never before witnessed, a sudden sweep of its waters overwhelmed the town, and left no trace of living being or habitation behind it. The islands of St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent were likewise nearly laid waste; at the last mentioned place, it was said, not a house was left standing. The ships in those seas were either driven on shore, or swallowed up in the waves. One ship of the British line went down in a single moment, and left not even a wreck behind. This terrible hurricane did

not reach the island of Barbadoes until the 10th of October, when Bridgtown, the capital, was destroyed with the loss of some thousand lives, the wretched victims of its fury being either buried under the ruins of its track, or swept into the sea. Thunder and lightnings, whirlwinds, earthquakes, torrents of rain, air, earth and water, appeared to vie with each other in rapidity of devastation. Plantations were destroyed, the produce of the earth torn up, animals perished, and numbers of human beings fell victims to the fury of the elements or the fall of buildings. The dread of a pestilence from the multitude of dead bodies in so putrefying a climate, compelled the survivors instantly to bury the dead, without allowing to their relatives and friends the melancholy pleasure of a distinguishing attention to the object of their affection. The black population of the island increased the general calamity by acts of rapine and violence; and being much more numerous than the whites, they might have entirely ruined the island; had not general Vaughan, with a considerable body of troops, been stationed on it, and awed them to quietness and submission. The prisons being involved in the common destruction, the criminal prisoners joined in the outrages; but the prisoners of war, especially a party of Spaniards, conducted themselves in the most humane and praiseworthy manner, in assisting the distressed inhabitants and preserving public order. To perfect the work of desolation, this dreadful scourge, by covering the most fertile tracks with sand and other barren substances, sterilized the ground, and rendered it for a long time insusceptible of culture. In two parishes of Jamaica alone, the loss of property was estimated at upwards of a million sterling. Their neighbours exerted themselves to alleviate the intensity of their sufferings: but their principal and efficient relief came from England, from the munificence of the

government, and the benevolent exertions of individuals.

It deserves to be recorded, to the honour of humanity, that the Marquis de Bouillé sent a flag of truce to commodore Hotham, with a message, accompanying some English sailors, declaring that he could not consider as enemies men who had escaped on his coast from the rage of the elements, and who from mere compassion were entitled to every relief which, in such a season of general calamity, could be afforded. The British squadron under admiral Rowley, convoying the Jamaica trade to Europe, also suffered severely from the hurricane; several of the ships, with that of the admiral, were obliged to put back disabled, and two ships of the line, one a sixty-four, and the other a seventy-four, were totally lost, in addition to which several frigates and other armed vessels were wrecked.

An affair happened in the month of September which proved of considerable political importance, in as much as it developed the hostile views of the States of Holland towards Great Britain. The Mercury, an American packet, having been captured by the Vestal frigate, Mr. Laurens, late president of the American congress, was found on board; and his papers, which had been thrown overboard and dexterously fished up again, disclosed the sketch of a treaty of amity and commerce between the Statesgeneral and the American provinces. Mr. Laurens was brought to England on the 6th October, and committed to close confinement in the Tower, under a charge of high treason as a British subject. On his examination he declined answering questions, but his papers furnished sufficient information of the projected treaty, which he was bringing to a conclusion with M. Van Berkel, the grand pensionary, who was the ostensible party on the side of Holland. Sir Joseph Yorke, the British ambassador at the Hague,

was instructed to lay those papers before the Statesgeneral, with a strong memorial, in the way of complaint, respecting such a correspondence carried on with his majesty's rebellious subjects, at the same time demanding a formal disavowal on the part of the States, and the punishment of Van Berkel, as well as the other persons engaged in it. No immediate answer was given to this memorial, but a counter remonstrance was made by the Dutch minister in London, respecting some violence said to have been committed at the Dutch West India island of St. Martin, in seizing some American vessels under the cannon of the fort. A second memorial was presented to the States by sir Joseph Yorke in December, requiring a categorical answer; and no other being given than that the States had taken the matter ad referendum, the English ambassador was ordered to withdraw from the Hague, and war was declared against Holland on the 20th of December. Thus was Great Britain engaged with a fourth enemy, without a single ally.

A dissolution of parliament unexpectedly took place in the month of September of this year, and a general election ensued, when many of the opposition members were thrown out; it being the usual effect of accumulated danger and alarm to strengthen the hands of the existing administration2.

2 Parliamentary History of England. Dodsley's Annual Register. Thackery's Life of the Earl of Chatham. Dr. Aikin's Annals of George III. Stedman's History of the American War. London Gazette.

CHAP. VII.

Retrospect of the Affairs of Great Britain....The Country grows tired of the War....Meeting of Parliament, 1781....Proposed Vote of Censure on the Conduct of Lord Sandwich....Mr. Burke renews his Reform Bill....Mr. Pitt's maiden Speech.... Mr. Fox's Eulogy on it....Affairs of India.... Introduction of the English Criminal Code there.... Execution of Nundcomar. ...Riotous Proceedings at Bengal....Petitions from India to the House of Commons....General Smith's Bill for regulating Proceedings at Bengal....Estimates of the current Year.... Mr. Atkinson the Contractor....Mr. Sheridan enters Parliament....His Speech for regulating the Police of Westminster. ....The War in the Carnatic....American Affairs....The French make an Attempt on the Island of Jersey....The Spaniards attack Gibraltar....General Elliot's gallant Defence....The Inhabitants abandon the Town....General Elliot attacks the Spanish Works...and totally destroys them.... Lord Cornwallis's Campaign of 1781....He obtains a Reinforcement from England, and penetrates into Virginia....Colonel Tarleton is defeated by General Greene....Lord Cornwallis marches to the Relief of Tarleton....Engages General Greene near Guildford Court House....Defeats the Americans, but is himself obliged to retreat....Deplorable Situation to which he is now reduced....Lord Rawdon engages Greene at Hobkirk's Hill....Lord Rawdon's active and successful Operations.... Greene declines an Engagement....Cornwallis's march from Wilmington to Petersburg....Proceedings between Sir H. Clinton and General Washington....Intercepted Letters of the latter impose on the former, and prevent his relieving Cornwallis....The French and English Fleets engage in the Chesapeak....Lord Cornwallis is surrounded in his Intrenchment.... Surrenders his whole Army Prisoners of War.... Reflections on this disastrous Event....Naval Occurrences of the Year.... The Spaniards take possession of West Florida, and threaten the Island of Minorca.... The combined Fleets enter the British Channel....Admiral Darby offers them Battle, which they decline....Kempenfeldt intercepts a Convoy of Merchantmen. ...Admiral Parker engages the Dutch Fleet off the Dogger Bank....Commodore Johnstone's Affair with the Dutch and French in the Indian Seas....Exploits of the British Forces under Admiral Rodney in the West Indies....Capture of the