commenced, it was obviously the interest of Britain to make a common cause with the opponents of an enemy whose views were evidently hostile, and to become a participator in the contest, while exertion and union might yet be effectual. Whatever might be the disasters, the misfortunes, and the errors of the continental powers, it cannot be doubted that their alliance with England mitigated their distresses, and relieved their misfortunes, while it counteracted the triumphs and impeded the progress of the enemy. Had we persevered in the defensive system recommended by superficial politicians, we should first have witnessed the downfall of Austria and Prussia, and have been compelled to struggle single-handed, with the violence and the augmented power of an inveterate and triumphant enemy.

I have hitherto only considered the expedience of a war with France: in forming our opinions respecting the justice of our cause, we shall be assisted by reflecting on some events and transactions which preceded the commencement of the war. In proof of the pacific disposition of the British government before it had experienced extreme provocation from that of France, we may adduce the words of the emperor Leopold to the marquis de Bouillé, after the conferences at Pilnitz. Speaking of the invitation given to Spain, Russia, England, and the principal cities of Italy, to unite with him and the king of Prussia, he said, "I am assured of the co-operation of all these powers with the exception of England, which is resolved to preserve the most strict neutrality." As a further testimony of the same disposition, his majesty so lately as the beginning of the current vear, in his address to the two houses of parliament, proposed a reduction of the naval and military establishments. A yet stronger proof that the English government had not by any overt act discovered an hostile disposition towards France, till after the dreadful events of the 10th of August, is found in the words of Brissot himself, who acknowledged" that England had observed the most strict neutrality till that immortal day." The national convention itself

admitted that England had persevered in this line of conduct till the beginning of the present year.

Great Britain had indeed more than negative merit to plead in its conduct to wards France. It had the merit of dis playing the most generous friendship in return for the injuries she had so frequently received. When the negroes of St. Domingo were in a state of insurrection, when Blanchelande the governor, was in a state of extreme distress, and the planters would gladly have passed into the hands of the English to save them from impending ruin, lord Eflingham, governor of Jamaica, in compliance with Blanchelande's request, immediately dispatched two frigates to their relief, laden with necessaries and provisions. The words with which the president closed his address of thanks are deserving of notice. "We will avail ourselves of your benevolence, but the days you preserve to us will not be sufficient to manifest our gratitude; our children shall keep it in remembrance. Regenerated France, unapprised that such calamities might befal us, has taken no measures to protect us against their effects. With what admiration will she learn, that, without your assistance, we should no longer exist as a dependency to any nation." That France, though regenerated, had not yet learned to be grateful, appeared from her behaviour on this occasion. For when the British ambassador at Paris, in the month of November, 1791, as a testimony of his sovereign's amity, notified his approbation of lord Effingham's conduct, a motion was coldly passed in the National Assembly, that its thanks should be given neither to the British government nor to the government of Jamaica, but to the British nation." Nor was this the only testimony of amity shewn by the crown of England to regenerated France. When Lewis in the late autumn, wrote letters to the different courts of Europe, intimating his acceptance of the new constitution, his Britannic majesty immediately returned an answer in terms of great respect. When Chauvelin notified the French declaration of war against the king of Hungary and Bohemia, and demanded

that conformably with the treaty of 1786, his majesty should prohibit his subjects from committing hostilities against the French ships, he instantly complied by issuing a declaration to that effect; and so well satisfied was the French government with this conduct on the part of Great Britain, that Chauvelin was instructed to assure his majesty of" the sense which the French king entertained of the friendly dispositions, and of the sentiments of humanity, of justice, and of peace, which are so clearly manifested in his answer."

It may be fairly deduced from the transactions of the convention, and from the language of its leading members, that they regarded the commencement of hostilities as necessary to the success of their ambitious designs. So early as the close of the year 1791, Brissot declared in the assembly that war was a real benefit to the nation, and that the only evil which they had reason to dread was the absence of war. A few days after, Isnard announced to the assembly that war was about to be kindled—“ war which is indispensible to the completion of the revolution." "Peace" exclaimed Roland, "is out of the question. We have 300,000 men in arms; we must make them march as far as their legs will carry them, or they will return and cut our throats." But it was not merely war on which they were so resolutely bent; it was war with royalty, the destruction of which the Jacobin party contemplated as the first object of their ambition. "It was," said Brissot, "the abolition of royalty which I had in view, when I provoked the declaration of war."-Let it be remembered that these declarations were unaccompanied by any offers of accomodation with the other continental powers; that the object specified is not the defence of their own territory or their own security, but the overthrow of every existing monarchy, and arbitrary interference with the rights and condition of every contemporary people. That the republican partizans were influenced by designs of hostility against Great Britain in particular, long before that crown had offended them by the recal of its ambassador: immediately after our

friendly offices in the West Indies, and while Great Britain was reducing her naval and military establishments, is proved by the report of Lameth deMARCH 18, 1792. livered to the National Assembly in the name of the committee for naval affairs, importing that “about 80,000 sailors would be necessary to man the vessels now at the disposition of the state, and which the honour of the nation as well as the interests of its commerce did not permit the assembly to reduce." A subsequent report of the minister of marine expressly declares, that so early as September 22nd, 21 ships of the line, 30 frigates, 10 vessels armed en flute, and 42 smaller vessels of war, were actually at sea; and that 34 ships of the line in addition to these were in a state to be commissioned, that 19 more were capable of being refitted, and that 7 were rebuilding: preparations which could only be designed against the two maratime powers, England, and Holland her ally.

The hostility of the government of France to that of England was still further exemplified, in the friendly intercourse subsisting between the republican partizans in France, and the malcontent societies of Great Britain. The addresses of the latter were received after the tenth of August by the convention itself, and every possible encouragement was given the addressers to rebel against the government. "What is liberty? Where are our rights?" said an address from the united English societies. "Frenchmen, you are already free, and Englishmen are preparing to become so." To which the president of the convention replied, Citizens of the world! principles are waging war against tyranny, which will fall under the blows of philoso phy. Royalty in Europe is destroyed, or is perishing on the ruins of feudality; and the declaration of rights placed by the side of thrones is a devouring fire which will consume them. Worthy republicans, congratulate yourselves on thinking that the festival you have celebrated in honour of the French revolution is the prelude to the festival of nations." Even Dumouriez himself, confesses that it required all the

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imprudence of Brissot, all the petulance of the national convention, and the murder of Lewis XVI. as atrocious as impolitic to drive the English from their system of neu'trality, and to plunge them into an expensive war, which gave them momentary advantages, balanced by great losses and enormous subsidies, without an assurance of preserving their conquests." But the danger to be apprehended from the diffusion of French principles and from the rapidity of their military progress; the influence of just indignation against open insult and secret, machination; and the obvious necessity of combining vigorous precaution with every demonstration of anxiety for the continuance of peace, at length induced the king of England to embody,his militia, and to augment his naval and military forces. He assembled the parliament on the 13th of December, 1792, and addressed them in a speech explanatory of the measures he had adopted. He observed that, notwithstanding the strict neutrality which he had uniformly observed in the war now raging on the continent, he could not, without concern, observe the strong indications of an intention, on the part of the French, to excite disturbances in other countries; to pursue views of conquest and aggrandisement, inconsistent with the balance of Europe; to disregard the rights of neutral powers, and to adopt towards his allies, the states-general, measures neither conformable to the public law, nor to the positive articles of existing treaties. He had therefore found it necessary to make some augmentation of his army and navy these exertions were demanded by the present state of affairs, to maintain internal tranquillity, and render a firm but temperate conduct effectual for preserving the blessings of peace.

While so many important objects divided the attention of the British government, the war in India attracted a considerable share of the public interest. The peace of Mangalore endured no longer than the weakness of Tippoo Saib continued. Inheriting the views and passions of his father, he sought the empire of India, and as a step to its attainment, the expulsion

of the English, his most powerful rivals. For several years he had been collecting and disciplining large armies, and, though hopeless of assistance from France or the native powers, was not afraid singly to provoke England to war. Lord Cornwallis being sent out to India in the spring of 1786, with the double 1786, with the double appointment of governor-general and commander-in-chief, arrived in September at Calcutta, and found the different presidencies in a state of rising prosperity. He availed himself with moderation, firmness, and temper, of the best arrangements of his predecessors, and introduced several new regulations that contributed still further to the public welfare, and to the security and happiness of the natives. In Madras and Bombay affairs were proportionably flourishing, and the British presidencies were secured by a powerful military force. The Nizam and the Mahrattas, as well as less considerable powers in the southern parts of the Peninsula, were in alliance with the English. Such was the state of India when Tippoo Saib commenced hostilities by attacking our ally, the Rajah of Travancore, to whom the English had guaranteed the possession of his dominions. Early in the year 1790 some attempts were made by the government of Madras, to effect an accomodation between Tippoo and the Rajah, but they were attended with the ill success which might reasonably be expected from the duplicity and faithlessness of the sultan's character: and the council of Bengal found it necessary to issue against him a declaration of war. In June, general Meadows, from the Carnatic, invaded Tippoo's dominions, while general Abercrombie from the west, having conquered Cananore, advanced towards Seringapatam. Tippoo, with masterly skill, eluded all the efforts of Meadows, to bring him to battle, and after a long and tiresome succession of marches and counter-marches, the English general was obliged, by the rainy season, to return to Madras. Nor were the exertions of Abercrombie, after the reduction of Cananore, during the first campaign, attended with any decisive effects. Though the campaign in all its

operations very honourably displayed the valor and conduct of the British, it did not answer expectation, and lord Cornwallis found it expedient to take the field in person in the course of the following year. In March 1791, he proceeded to Mysore by the eastern Gauts, and having surmounted the passes, attacked Bangalore, the second city of the Mysorean empire. Tippoo marched to its relief, and for an object so important, ventured a pitched battle. He was defeated, and the town taken by storm. Lord Cornwallis now proceeded towards the capital of Mysore, whither Abercrombie was advancing with the western army. In the month of May he arrived in the neighbourhood of Seringapatam, where he found Tippoo very strongly posted, and protected in front and flank by swamps and mountains. Not deterred by these difficulties, the British general attacked the enemy, and though the Mysoreans made a gallant resistance, entirely defeated them, and compelled them to seek shelter under the guns of the capital. The sun was about to set when the victorious English, pursuing the enemy, first beheld the city of Seringapatam, rising upon an island in all the splendor of eastern magnificence, decorated with sumptuous buildings, encircled by beautiful and extensive gardens, and defended by strong and extensive fortifications. The grand object of their pursuit now appeared to the English within their immediate grasp, but unexpected disasters obstructed its attainment. They had experienced the inclemency of the weather, and the season of the year led them to expect its continuance. They had occasion for a covering army, not only to facilitate the means of procuring a regular supply of provisions, but to protect the besiegers. When lord Cornwallis set out on this expedition, he had trusted to the co-operation of the Mahrattas, but was disappointed. Continuing to expect the arrival of general Abercrombie, he marched up the Cavery to secure and facilitate the advance of the western army; but the unexpected swelling of the river rendered the junction of the two armies impracticable. The troops from Bombay

reluctantly yielding to necessity, departed for the western coast, exposed to all the fury of the monsoon, which was then raging on the Malabar side of the mountains. Cornwallis having halted some days to cover the retreat of the other army, deemed it expedient to defer the siege of Seringapatam till the following campaign, and spent the remainder of the season in reducing the interjacent country and forts, securing communication with the allies, preparing plentiful supplies of provision, and making other dispositions for commencing the investment as soon as the monsoon should be over. The most difficult and important acquisitions during the remainder of the campaign were Nundydroog, the capital of a rich district, and Savendroog, or the Rock of Death, a fortress which commanded a great part of the country between Bairgalore and Seringapatam.

Early in 1792 the Nizam and the Mahrattas joined the British army, now on its march, and on the 5th of February the British troops, the auxiliary Nizamates, and the Mahrattas who still remained with him, moved under Cornwallis to Seringapatam. Every attempt to convey just ideas of the several bodies which composed this huge mass must fall miserably short of the original. Regular columns of infantry ready to act on the appearance of an enemy, extended (to use the words of captain Mackenzie) along the front and left flank, wherever danger was to be apprehended. The train and heavy carriages of every description, moved on better ground to the right of the infantry, in general at the distance of 100 yards. Stores, suttling vehicles, and private carriages of various kinds, advanced on a third road to the right of the other two, and elephants, camels, buffaloes, bullocks, and asses, with myriads of followers that defy description, kept pace with these lines on the baggage flank. In the rear and to the right were large bodies of horse from the army of Nizam Ally, connected with powerful divisions from Hurry Punt. These in their turn, co-operating with the cavalry of colonel Floyd, extended to the infantry in front. One immense chain of cavalry

and infantry embracing the whole mass, afforded complete protection to the several component parts. From this moving world swarms of irregular horse branched out in every direction as far as the eye could reach. The capital of Mysore, besides the natural strength which it derived from its insular situation in the Cavery, was secured by batteries placed along the banks of that river. The position which Tippoo had taken for its defence on its north side was fortified by six well-constructed redoubts, and was guarded by the river Lockani, which covered part of his front, and by ravines and marshy ground in other quarters.

The commander-in-chief having encamped within eight miles of the island, formed his British forces into three divisions: the centre, commanded under himself by Stuart, the right by Meadows, and the left by Maxwell. The artillery corps was commanded by Montague, and the defence of the camp was committed to Duff. They moved from the camp in the dusk of the evening, a full moon affording them light, and the stillness of night adding to the solemnity of the scene.

Maxwell's division began its operations before midnight by an assault on one of the enemy's redoubts. It was guarded by a double breast-work; but the assailants bore down all resistance, and, driving the enemy before them, they entered the sultan's lines, and formed a junction with the centre division. The successive assaults were furious and attended with prodigious slaughter, and besides those who perished by the sword, multitudes were driven into the Cavery. A body of troops under Stuart, Maxwell, Knox, and Baird, fording the river, made a lodgment on the island; and the sultan, when light returned, had the mortification of beholding the grounds adjacent to his capital, and a great part of the island of Seringapatam, in possession of his enemy.

The enemy having quitted every post on the north side of the river, the camp was advanced on the succeeding days as near to the bound hedge as the guns of the fort would permit, and a chain of posts

connecting along the northern and eastern faces of the fort, were formed, so as strongly to invest the capital of Mysore on its two principal sides.

Thus pressed by the invaders in every quarter; his palace and beautiful gardens in the possession of the enemy, and his whole power reduced within the narrow limits of a citadel, the possession of which was even uncertain, the hitherto unsubdued spirit of the sultan seems to have given way with his tottering fortunes; and peace, almost upon any terms, appeared a desirable acquisition. As a preliminary step towards an accommodation, he determined to release lieutenants Chalmers and Nash, who had been captured at Coimbettore. On the evening of the 8th of February these officers were introduced into the sultan's presence. They found him in a small tent on the south glacis of the fort, very plainly dressed, and with few attendants. After acquainting them with their release, he asked Mr. Chalmers, if on going to the camp he was likely to see lord Cornwallis; and on being answered in the af firmative, he requested that he would take charge of a letter to his lordship on the subject of peace. He afirmed solemnly that it never had been his wish or intention to break with the English; that from the first commencement of hostilities he had been extremely anxious for the restoration of peace. He expressed a wish that Mr. Chalmers would return with the answer; and concluded, by presenting him with two shawls and 500 rupees. Lieutenants Chalmers and Nash had been remarkably well treated while detained by Tippoo.

While the sultan was thus anxiously endeavouring to restore tranquillity to his exhausted country, his mind was still fertile in the expedients and stratagems of war.. By one master-stroke of policy, that of capturing the commander-in-chief, he hoped to effect his purpose in a shorter and more honourable mode than by the slow and precarious method of negotiation. On the 8th and 9th of February, small parties of his cavalry were observed to cross the Cavery at the ford near Arrakerry (the station which lord Cornwallis had occupied