faw the howitzer difconcert them very much; but as it was our object to clofe with them as foon as poffible, I had determined to get on the fame ridge with them, or, if I saw an opening, to attempt the redoubt by affault: For this purpose I thought it neceffary to try to diflodge fome ftrong parties of the enemy, which we faw pofted on the heights on our left, as if intending to turn or diftrefs that flank; I accordingly detached a ftrong Black Corps, with 50 of the 88th regiment, the whole under Major Houfton; owing to the difficulty of the ground, it was near two hours before they could get near the enemy, when a heavy but diftant fire commenced on both fides. I had previously concerted with him, that in cafe of attaining a particular point, which would have covered our approach to Port Royal, he was to make a fignal, on which the Light Company of the Buffs, the detachments of the 8th and 63d regiments, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Dawfon, were to ́advance, while the part of the battalion of the Buffs that had landed were to form a reserve, the whole under Brigadier-General Campbell; but fo far from diflodging the enemy, I faw with regret, our Black Corps and the 88th regiment retiring, Major Houfton having tried, without fuccefs, to accomplish the object he was fent on this obliged me to detach the 8th regiment to fupport them, which it did effectually.

At this moment an alarming fire broke out in our rear, near the place where all the ftores we had landed were depofited; but by the great exertions of our people, under the order o. Lieutenant Colonel Dyott, they were all preferved. In the the midft of thofe untoward circumftances, we heard a firing from our fhips of war that lay at anchor, and were foon informed it was at two French fchooners that were making into Marquis; the truth of this was foon confirmed, for we faw them enter and anchor. I had one of the fix-pounders turned on them, as they were well within reach, but unluck ily we never firuck them. The fituation of affairs was now fo critical that an infant was not to be loft. I accordingly directed Brigadier General Campbell to proceed to the affault, and I brought up every thing in my power to fupport him: he therefore advanced with only the Buffs and 63d regiment, the 8th having, as I before stated, been detached on another fervice. I ordered up half of the 29th regiment to replace them, and half

of the 9th alfo to affift if neceffary; but the 29th, that I had to bring from Grand Bacolet, though they came as foon as poffible, did not join him till after the Buffs had met with a check, from the advantage the enemy had of the ground, and from a very galling fire to which they were expofed; they however foon formed again under the cover of a hedge, and being then joined by the 29th regiment, under Captain Clavy, BrigadierGeneral Campbell ordered the whole to advance to the affault, which they did in the most determined manner, led by the Brigadier himself. They foon gained the top of the ridge: the enemy then ran towards their redoubt, and were followed by our people, who fcrambled in at the embratures; Captain Clavy, of the 29th regiment, being the first that entered. The enemy then flew in the utmost terror in all directions, fome throwing themfelves down precipices, whilft others tried to efcape down the hill, through brush and other wood; but there was to heavy a fire kept on them from the top by our people, that they were forced to try to escape along a bottom, where the detachment of the light dragoons, under Captain Black, and the St George's troop of light cavalry, under Captain M. Burney, (that had previously been formed under the hill to profit of any occafion that offered,) feeing the enemy flying, rushed on them through a fire of grape from the French fchooner, and cut down every man they faw, fo that very few, if any, efcaped that had been in Port Royal.-That poft was chiefly garrifoned, as I hear, from the few prifoners we have taken, by the Sans Culotte Companies from Guadaloupe.We have to regret the lofs of fome gallant men, and of two Officers, Major Edwards and Lieutenant Williams of the 3d, who fell, leading on their men moft fpiritedly. Colonel Dawfon, at the head of the 3d, was wounded through the neck, before they got to the bottom of Port Royal Hill. Major Baillie, of the 63d regiment, was then next in command to Brigadier-General Campbell, whofe conduct, the General reports to be fteady, collected, and Officer-like. The command of the 3d devolved on Captain Blunt, whofe light company, as leading the firft attack, fuffered feverely. Both he, as oldeft Captain, and Lieut. Gardner, I beg leave to recommend to your Excellency's notice and favour. We have taken but fix prifoners; among them are second and third in command

to

to Mr Joffey, who commands the people that came from Guadaloupe. Inclofed is a return of the killed and wounded. Our fuccefs at Port Royal has been followed by the evacuation of Pilot Hill by the enemy.

Return of his Majesty's troops Killed and Wounded at the attack of Port Royal,

Grenada, 25 March 1796.

17th Light Dragoons-1 horfe killed; 4 rank and file, and 2 horfes wounded. 3d Foot or Buffs-1 major, I lieutenant, II rank and file killed; 2 lieutenants; 2 ferjeants, 49 rank and file wounded.

8th Foot, or King's-I lieutenant-colonel wounded.

29th Foot-3 rank and file killed; 1 lieutenant, I enfign, I ferjeant, 13 rank and file wounded. 63d Foot-2 rank and file killed; I ferjeant, I drummer, 12 rank and file, I furgeon wounded.

88th Foot-2 rank and file killed; 1 ferjeant, 5 rank and file, wounded, Total-1 major, 1 lieutenant, 18 rank and file, and I horse killed; 1 lieutenant colonel, 3 lieutenants, I enfign, 5 ferjeants, 1 drummer, 83 rank and file, I furgeon, and 2 horfes wounded. Names of Officers Killed and Wounded. 3d Regiment, or Buffs-Major Edwards and Lieut. Williams killed; Lt. Campbell and Lieut. Harding wounded. 8th, or King's-Lieut.-Colonel Dawson,

Capt. John Forbes, killed; Lieut. Porter, wounded.

Captain Brander's Black Company-Capt. Brander wounded.

(Signed) ` J. G. Drew, M. of Brig. Admiralty Office, 14 May 1796. Extract of a Letter from Admiral Sir 3. Laforey, Commander in Chief of his Majefty's fhips and veffels at the Leeward lands, to Evan Nepean, Efq. dated Majeftic, at Martinico, 19 March 1796.

La Pique and the Charon have sent here a privateer brig of 14 guns and 90 men, taken to the windward of Barbadoes; and I have intelligence that Capt. Vaughan in the Alarm, with one of the floops of war, has taken and deftroyed three privateers in the Gulph of Paria, and retaken four of their captures. Since my letter of the 17th of January, a fourth fhip, under Danish colours, has been ta ken, attempting to convey French people from Havre de Grace into Guadaloupe.

Admiralty-Office, 14 May 1796. Extract of a Letter frem Lieut. Richards of his Majefly's fhip Alfred, to Evan Nepean, Efq. dated Barbadoès 12 April 1796.

to acquaint the Lords Commiflioners of I have to requeft you will be pleased

the Admiralty with my arrival at this ifland in the late National Corvette La Favourite, a prize to his Majefty's fhip Alfred; which corvette was captured on the 5th of March laft, with two merchant fhips that she had taken the morning previous, a part of Admiral Cornwallis's convoy.

Admiralty-Office, 14 May 1796. Copy of a Letter from Vice Admiral King fmill, Commander in Ghief of his Majefty's Ships and Veffels at Cork, to Mr Nepean, dated 9 May 1796.

Please to inform my Lords Commiffioners of the Admiralty, that another French National Cutter, Le Cigne, of 14 guns and 60 men, clinker built, is juft brought in here: She had been out nine days from the Ifle of Bas, but had not taken any thing when the fell in with Doris, having the Hazard floop in comand was captured by his Majefty's fhip pany, on the 7th inftant, after a chace of 24 hours, Scillybearing S. E. diftant 8 leagues.

This prize parted from the Doris, off Cape Clear, at one P. M. yesterday, and fhall

fhail be fent along with L'Abeille to England.

[Here end the Gazettes.]

SCOTLAND.

Election of Peers. Edinburgh June 30. This day about 12'clock, the Peers affembled in the Long Gailery, Holyroodhoufe

After prayers were faid by Dr Somerville, and the proclamation for the election read over, their Lordships took and figned the oaths of allegiance, abjuration, &c.

The roll of the Peers being called

over,

Lord Lauderdale rofe, and presented a proft aamft the votes of British Peers cate! fince the Union being received at this election, as he prefumed would be the cafe from the names being called over. To this proteft he doubted not but most of the Peers prefent would adhere, as they had on a former occafion put their names to one precifely fimilar.

Lord Kinnoul faid, that he flood in the predicament alluded to by the Noble Lord, and as other Peers fo fituated had availed themselves of the decifion of the Houfe of Peers, he should do the fame, till the point was otherwife fettled. At the fame time, he declared his adherence to his former opinion, that such votes were illegal.

The following is Lord Lauderdale's proteft:

I James Earl of Lauderdale do hereby proteft, That the Clerks of Seffion, offi ciating at this election of Peers to fit in the enfuing Parliament, fhall not receive the votes of any Peer of Scotland, created a Peer of Great Britain fince the Union, and not having in his perfon an English Peerage created before that period, for the following, among other rea fons:

That it is incónfiftent with the law and conftitution of this country, and with every principle of reprefentation by election, as alfo with the true intent and meaning of the 22d article of the Union, and of the 8th act of the Parliament of Scotland 1707, confirmed in the Parliament of England, and declared by both to be equally valid as if it had been en groffed in the Treaty of Union, that a Peer of Scotland, fitting in the Parliament of Great Britain, by virtue of a patent of Peerage granted fince the faid Union, fhould alfo elect a Peer to reprefent him. (Signed)

Lauderdale.

To this proteft Lord Sempil adhered. Lord Lauderdale again rofe, and ob ferved, that, in the objection he was now about to bring forward, he felt confiderable pain and uneafinefs; for perhaps in the whole Peerage there was not one he had more perfonal refpect for than the Noble Lord who was the object of it. In the prefent fituation of this country, however, and with the fupport he had received, and which he should ever recollect with heart-felt gratitude, it was his duty to ufe every endeavour to procure a feat in Parliament, to enable him to oppofe that deftructive fyftem, the perfeverance in which he firmly believed would prove the ruin of the country. The Noble Lord against whofe vote he protefted was alfo a candidate; and should the objection be fuftained, he himself would of course be one of the fixteen.

His Lordfhip, before naming the Earldom of Errol as the Peerage to which he meant to object, affured the Noble Earl, and the Peers prefent, that he fincerely wifhed the fituation was reverfed, and that the objection was to proceed from that Noble Earl against the title which he, the Earl of Lauderdale, poffeffed.

Lord Errol declared he was never more aftonished in his life. Had his Lordfhip given him the fmalleft previous notice, he should certainly have been prepared to answer the objection; at prefent he was not; and fhould therefore leave the confideration of it to the only competent judicature, the Houfe of Peers.

Lord Lauderdale faid, that, from his. acquaintance with the forms of this election, he underflood that whatever obfervations on this proteft Lord Errol might have ready by to-morrow, could be entered in the minutes; and for the accuracy of this affertion he referred to Mr Home, who admitted that his Lordship was perfectly correct.

His Lordship's proteft was then read, and is as follows:

I James Earl of Lauderdale do proteft, That the earldom of Errol was, from its original creation, a male fee, as fufficient. ly appears from many documents in the public records of this country; and more particularly from a charter under the great feal of James V. dated the 13th of December 1541, to George Hay of Lo giealmond, as heir-male to William Earl of Errol, of the eftate and heritable office of Conftabulary, upon the narrative, that the King was defirous that the family honours and heritable office of the Con

fta

Aabulary should remain and continue "Hæredibus mafculis cum cognominibus de Hay in omnibus temporibus feturis prout feurunt in temporibus futuris prout fuerunt in temporibus elapfis."

That the faid earldom continued to defcend under the original limitation till the year 1666, when, by a charter, dated Whitehall 13 November 1666, under the great feal of Charles II. proceeding on. his Majefty's fign manual, the original limitations of this title were confiderably altered.

That by this charter it was given, firft, to Earl Gilbert and the heirs male of his body; fecondly, to the heirs female of his body; thirdly, to the heirs he should appoint by a writing under his hand, and under the conditions to be therein expreffed; fourthly, to the heirs-male, and of tailzie and provifion in the former limitations; fifthly, to Earl Gilbert's heirs male whatsoever.

That under none of the limitations of this charter, unless a nomination had been executed by the faid Gilbert Earl of Errol, could the perfon now affuming that title claim the honours of Errol; yet there nowhere exifts fuch a nomination, nor any future confirmation of it by the Crown, without which, if fuch a nomination did exift, it would be invalid, as no deed of nomination can operate as a conveyance, or limitation of a Peerage, unlefs fubfequently confirmed by the Soyereign.

That fubfequent to this charter, in the year 1666, there exifts no alteration in the limitations of the honours of Errol; for the charter granted by Charles II. of date the 4th March 1674, to John Earl of Errol, under which the perfon now affuming the title of Errol, as heir of line, is fuppofed to hold his eftates, never can be deemed effectual to convey any title of honour; it does not fpecify the dates of the deeds of nomination, fuppofed to be executed by Gilbert Earl of Errol; neither does it state whether they contained procuratories of refignation for refigning the titles of dignity into the hands of the Sovereign. On the contrary, this charter feems rather to proceed on the tailzie executed by Earl Gilbert on the aft September 1666, which was the warrant of, and muft have been exhaufted by, the charter páft by Earl Gilbert on the 13th of November that year. That, further, this charter is dated a Edinburgh, and not at the refidence of the Sovereign; it is alfo paffed on a com

mon fignature, dated at the fame place like grants of lands, and not on a fign manual, or royal fignature, dated at the refidence of the Sovereign, which is by law deemed neceffary to convey,confirm; or alter the limitations of a Peerage.

That it cannot be pretended, that antecedent to the Union there exifted any fitting in Parliament on the faid charter 1674, as John of Killour, Earl of Errol, and Charles Earl of Errol, were entitled to this dignity as well under the old limitation of the honours to heirs male, as under the third, fourth, and fifth limitations, in the charter 1666 to Earl Gilbert, proceeding on his Majefty's fign manual, as above recited.

That, referring your Lordships to the documents in the public records of this country, with which you must be prefumed to be acquainted, and which, for your more accurate information I have this day called for, I do proteft againft the vote of the perfon prefent being received as Earl of Errol, and I do here intimate to the Peers, that any votes given in favour of the perfon now affuming the title of Errol, must be of no avail; for which reafon I further proteft against the Clerks receiving or reckoning upon fuch votes in making their re

turn.

(Signed) Lauderdale.

The votes of the Peers prefent were then called. The four firft were read by the Clerk; but, on the fuggeftion of Lord Lauderdale, the remainder were read by the Peers themselves.

Lord Lauderdale, in tendering his vote, obferved, that though he thought there might be many perfons in the Peerage better qualified to reprefent them than the candidates who had come forward, yet as he had no objections to thofe candidates, and particularly wifhed that the Scottish Peerage fhould be fully reprefented, (which it was not in the laft Parliament,) he should vote for them, with one exception. His Lordship then repeated the names of fifteen of the candidates-" And, (added his Lordship,) in room of the Earl of Errol, for whom, upon my honour, I fhould have voted with as much fatisfaction as for any of the Peers I have named, the circumftances of the cafe compel me to fubstitute the Earl of Lauderdale.

Lord Sempil, in giving his vote, faid he was well aware that that was not a time, or place, to fpeak on any queftion but fuch as might arife from the bufinefs of the election. But, as he intend ed to use the privilege, which he was

call