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city of Kaminieck, after a great mortality among its garrison and inhabitants, was totally deserted, and continued abandoned for several months, neither Poles nor Russians venturing to take possession of the infected spot. The confederaçies were still numerous over the country, and desolation usually followed their steps.

The rapacious spirit which had long characterised the court of Prussia, displayed itself in this year by its treatment of the commercial city of Dantzic. The magistrates of that place having prohibited the Prussian recruiting officers from levying men within their jurisdiction, and the postmaster (who is an officer of Poland and not of Dantzic) having refused to pass without examination some casks of silver sent to the Prussian resident, these acts were made the pretext for sending a body of Prussian troops into the territory of the city, which surprised the out-posts, seized the cannon, and made prisoners of the men; and then, being reinforced, encamped four miles from the city. The alarmed Dantzickers having shut their gates, applied to the foreign ministers for the intercession of their courts; and at length, on agreeing to the payment of 75,000 ducats, and subscribing certain conditions sufficiently humiliating, they were permitted to depute two of their counsellors to make their submission to his Prussian Majesty.

The Danes, having causes of complaint against the Algerines, sent a squadron to demand satisfaction, and the negociation proving fruitless, an intention was manifested by the Danish admiral to bombard Algiers, and reciprocal hostilities followed for some days; after which the Danish fleet sailed away without having effected any thing. In this year several rapid and unexpected changes took place in the Danish ministry, denoting that weakness in the sovereign which was afterwards too manifestly apparent.

In France, much public commotion arose from the contests between the court and the parliaments. The Duke d'Aiguillon, who had many years been governor of Britany, had incurred great ill-will in the province from his

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arbitrary administration, and in particular for his vindictive persecution of M. de Chalotais, attorney-general of Britany, a person highly venerated for the zeal with which he had supported the cause of freedom. The parliament of the province, having obtained evidence concerning some of the duke's nefarious proceedings, instituted a prosecution against him, and in the month of April his trial commenced in the presence of the king, the princes of the blood and peers, and the parliament of Paris. In the midst of the proceedings, when papers had been produced which appeared to bring home the charges against the duke, the king interposed his regal authority to prevent all farther enquiries. He afterwards held a bed of justice at Versailles, in which he caused letters patent to be registered, by which a stop was put to the trial, the accusations were suppressed, and all persons were prohibited from taking further notice of them. This manifestation of the royal favour to the Duke d'Aiguillon, did not secure him from other attacks. The parliament of Paris published an arret, forbidding him to exercise any of the functions of the peerage, till the stains of his character should be effaced by a legal trial; which arret was immediately annulled by a counter-decree issued by the king in council. The princes and peers then strongly remonstrated against the arbitrary proceedings of the crown; and the parliament sent to Versailles a solemn deputation to the same purpose, which was answered by a peremptory command to oppose no more obstacles to the duke's enjoyment of the rights of peerage. The parliament, however, on the next day confirmed all its former resolutions. The parliaments of Bourdeaux, Toulouse, and Rennes, displayed equal vigour and perseverance in the same cause. A deputation from that of Britany having received permission to wait on the king at Compeigne, were not allowed to speak a word, and two of their members were arrested and sent to the castle of Vincennes. The parliament of Paris having persisted in its remonstrances, the king came suddenly to the capital on the morning of

September 3d, and surrounding the parliament-house with his guards, held a bed of justice, at which, after severely upbraiding the members with their disobedience, he dismissed the chambers of inquests and requests, and calling for all the acts and decrees against the Duke d'Aiguillon, he caused them all to be erased. The chancellor, then, in the king's name, made a speech imposing absolute silence for the future on this subject. Notwithstanding this prohibition, the parliament held another meeting, and issued an arret, in which, after some remarks on the arbitrary power which had been exercised contrary to the letter and spirit of the constitution, an intention was expressed of persevering to carry truth to the foot of the throne. Violent measures were in the mean time carried on against the other parliaments, in which officers of the army were sent to compel the registering of the royal edicts, or to tear in pieces the arrets of the parliaments, and banish or confine some of their members. On one side strong remonstrances were made in assertion of privilege; on the other, arrets were issued, laying down maxims of the most unlimited monarchial authority; and these disputes must be always memorable in French history, as sure indications of that rising storm which, in the next reign, was to overthrow the whole fabric of the existing government.

In the month of May, the Dauphin of France was married to the Archduchess Antoinetta Maria. A grand exhibition of fire-works at Paris, in honour of the event, was attended, through mismanagement, with a most shocking loss of lives among the crowded spec

tators.

In Corsica so much disaffection prevailed against the dominion of France, that the governor was obliged in the summer to take the field in order to reduce the malcontents, who had rendered it unsafe to go beyond the walls of the fortified towns. Many of the natives were executed, and others were sent for transportation to the West Indies; but a number still remained in arms in their inaccessible posts.

The Tunisians, who had made a treaty with the Corsicans as an independent people, having, since the conquest of the island, made prize of all Corsican vessels under French colours, and also expelled the African company from a coral fishery on their coasts, a small French squadron was sent against Tunis, which having bombarded Biserta and threatened other places, brought the Bey to terms, and obtained reparation for the injuries committed.

101

A. D. 1771.

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YEAR OF GEORGE III. 11 & 12.

PARLIAMENT 3 & 4.

Changes in the Ministry. Convention with Spain. - Motion concerning the Middlesex Election.- Borough of New Shoreham.Newspaper Writers proceeded against by the House of Commons, and consequences. Lord Mayor and Alderman Oliver sent to the Tower. - Election of Scotch Peers. War between Turks and Russians.· Plague at Moscow. - Polish Confederacies: Attempt on the King of Poland. - Death of the King of Sweden, and Accession of Gustavus III. Contests in France: Parliaments abrogated. Corsica. -Floods in England: Eruption of Solway Moss.

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Ar the beginning of the year Sir Edward Hawke resigned his place at the head of the admiralty, and was succeeded by the Earl of Sandwich. The Earl of Halifax was made secretary of state in the room of the latter, and his post of lord-privy-seal was filled by the Earl of Suffolk. Judge Bathurst was promoted to the office of lord-chancellor with the title of Baron Apsley; and various other promotions took place in the law departments, among which were the names of De Grey, Thurlow, and Wedderburne.

Negotiations had been carrying on with the Spanish court, relative to the dispute between the two nations on the affair of Falkland islands, which, at the latter end of November, had been broken off, and the English minister had been directed to quit Madrid, in the expectation of an inevitable rupture. In the beginning of this year, however, they had been resumed, and on January 22d, a declaration was signed by the Spanish ambassador in London, Prince Masserano, and ac

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