accused them of temerity. They knew,' it was exclaimed, that the allies had a formidable force at Cadiz; why did they not direct the convoy to avoid the coasts of Spain ?"

The events of maritime war, did not divert attention from the siege of Gibraltar. Spain, as we have already seen, attached an extreme importance to the conquest of this place. She appeared to make it the capital object of the war, and the aim of all her efforts. It must be admitted, in effect, that, apart from all political considerations, so powerful a monarch could not have seen without indignation, a fortress upon his own territory possessed by foreigners, who, from its summit, appeared to set him at defiance. Gibraltar revived the bistory of Calais, which had also long appertained to England, but which the French at length recovered; the Spaniards promised themselves the like good fortune. Accordingly, after that place had been revictualled by Rodney, the Spanish admiral, don Barcelo, exerted all his vigilance to prevent its receiving any fresh succours. On the other hand, general Mendoza, who commanded the troops on shore, endeavored to press the fortress on the land side. He daily added new works to his camp of St. Roch, and pushed his approaches with all possible diligence. But whatever was the assiduity and ability of the Spanish commanders, they were so thwarted by the instability of the winds and sea, and the British officers displayed so much talent and activity, that, from time to time, victualling transports found their way into the place. The garrison forgot their sufferings, and resumed courage, while the Spaniards could but gnash with rage at seeing the resistance protracted so long beyond their confident expectations.

The efforts of the garrison were powerfully seconded by some ships of war which admiral Rodney had left in the port; one of this number was the Panther, of seventy-four guns. To remove so troublesome an obstacle, the Spaniards formed a design to burn this squadron with the transport vessels at anchor behind it. They hoped even to involve in the conflagration the immense magazines of munitions which had been constructed upon the shore. They prepared for this purpose seven fire-ships, which were to be accompanied by an immense number of armed gallies and boats. Don Barcelo advanced his fleet, and formed it in line of battle across the mouth of the harbor, as well to direct and second the attack, as to intercept any vessel that should attempt to escape. On the side of the land, don Mendoza held himself in readiness to menace the garrison upon all points; he was to commence the most vigorous bombardment as soon as the fire should break out on board the British squadron. The night of the sixth of June was chosen for the enterprise. The darkness, the wind, and the tide, were alike propitious. The English manifested a perfect security. The fire-ships advanced, and every thing promised success, when the Spaniards, either through impatience, or, from the extreme obscurity of the night, misjudging their

distance, or else not wishing to approach nearer, applied the fire with too much precipitation. This unexpected sight apprised the English of their danger. Immediately, without terror, and without confusion, officers and soldiers throw themselves into boats, intrepidly approach the fire-ships, make fast to them, and tow them off to places where they can do no mischief. The Spaniards, after this fruitless attempt, withdrew.

Meanwhile, don Mendoza busied himself with unremitting ardor in urging the labors of his lines. General Elliot, to whom the king of England had confided the defence of the place, suffered his adversary to go on; but when he saw his works well nigh completed, he opened upon them so violent a cannonade, that in a short time he demolished and ruined them entirely. He also made frequent sallies, in which he filled up the trenches and spiked the artillery of the besiegers. The English became daily more confident, the Spaniards, on the contrary, seemed less animated and sanguine. Chagrined that a handful of men, since the garrison of Gibraltar, including officers, did not exceed six thousand combatants, should not only presume to resist them, but even to attack them with success, they had recourse to an expedient, which at length rendered the defence of the place exceedingly difficult and perilous, and finally operated the total destruction of the city; and that was, to construct an immense number of craft, which they called gun-boats. Their burthen was from thirty to forty tons, and their crew from forty to fifty men; they were armed at the prow with a twenty-six pounder; others mounted mortars. Besides a large sail, they had fifteen oars on each side. As they were easily worked, it was intended to employ them to overwhelm the town and forts with bombs and balls during the nights, and even, if the opportunity should present itself, to attack the frigates. It was believed that two of these gun-boats might engage a frigate with advantage, because of their little elevation above the water, and the diminutive scope they afforded to the balis of the The governor of Gibraltar, not having a similar flotilla at his disposal, it became almost impossible for him to avoid its effects. The Spaniards were sensible of it, and this consideration revived their ardor, and reanimated their hopes.

While the arms of England prevailed upon the American continent; while those of the two ancient rivals balanced each other in the West Indies, and the war was carried on in Europe with such variety of success that it was singularly difficult to conjecture what would be the issue of the mighty struggle, the situation of affairs in the United Provinces, which had hitherto offered only doubt and incertitude, began to assume a less ambiguous aspect. It seemed to have been decreed by destiny, that the quarrel of America should shake the whole globe. The coalition of the arms of Holland with those of the Bourbons and of the Congress, seemed to consummate the formida

ble league that was to level the last stroke at the British power. From the very commencement of the troubles of America, her cause had found many more partisans in Holland than that of England. Many motives concurred to this disposition of minds; the political opinions which obtained generally in Europe; the persuasion that prevailed among the Hollanders that the interests of protestantism were inseparable from this discussion; the apprehension entertained by the dissenters of the usurpations, real or supposed, of the church of England; and, finally, the similarity of the present condition of the Americans to that in which the United Provinces found themselves in the time of their wars against Spain. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at if the French party in Holland gained every day upon the English party. It is also to be observed, that even those most attached to the latter party by the remembrance of ancient friendship, by the community of commercial predilections, and by the apprehension of the evil that France might do them in future, were among the most forward to condemn the policy pursued by the British government towards its colonies. They censured it the more sincerely, as they foresaw that one of its inevitable consequences would be to interrupt the good understanding they wished to preserve, and to confirm the ascendency of French politics in Holland. To these considerations should be added, the jealousy that existed of the power of the Stadtholder, allied by consanguinity to the king of England, it was feared lest that monarch might lend him support to accomplish the usurpations he meditated, or was suspected of meditating. The republicans, therefore, were not without anxious apprehensions respecting the intentions of the British government. They dreaded the dark reach of its policy; they shuddered in thinking that it might one day subject them by the hand of the Stadtholder to that same destiny which it was now striving to entail on America. Every day these sinister images were presented to all eyes; they had a powerful influence on public opinion. Of the seven United Provinces, that which inclined the most decidedly for France was by far the most wealthy and powerful, Holland. The first of the cities of the republic, Amsterdam, manifested the same sentiments. To foment these dispositions, and to draw other provinces and other cities into the same way of thinking, the French government had recourse to the agency of that love of gain, whose empire is particularly so despotic with those who apply themselves to commerce. It declared that it would cause to be seized upon sea every Dutch vessel found employed in any sort of trade with Great Britain, those only excepted which belonged to the cities of Amsterdam and Harlem. The effect of this measure was, that several important cities, among others Rotterdam and Dordrecht, had gone over to France, in order to participate in the privileges she granted.

It was already two years since from this complication of different interests, there had resulted a standing negotiation, at Aix la Chapelle, between John Neuville, acting in the name of the pensioner Van Berkel, a declared partisan of France, and William Lee, commissioner on the part of Congress. Van Berkel, as chief of the government of the city of Amsterdam, succeeded, after many and protracted discussions, in bringing about a treaty of amity and commerce between that city and the United States of America. This treaty, it was said, was merely eventual, since it was not to take effect until the independence of the colonies should have been acknowledged by England. But was it not a recognition of that independence as already absolute, to negotiate and treat with the United States? The treaty, it is true, had only been concluded with the single city of Amsterdam; but it was hoped that the preponderance of that capital in the province of Holland would easily draw after it the rest of that province, and that the example of Holland would guide the other six.

These negotiations were conducted with so much secrecy, that no whisper of them had reached England. But the Congress, ardently desirous that the result of these mysterious stipulations should be as public as possible, appointed to this effect their president, Laurens, minister plenipotentiary to the States-General. This resolution was the more readily adopted, since it was not doubted in America, and the correctness of the opinion was demonstrated by the event, that the Dutch were exasperated to the last degree by the insulting shackles which England attempted to impose on their commerce with France, and especially by that intolerable seizure of the convoy of the count de Byland. Far from attempting to palliate these outrages, and to appease discontents, M. York, ambassador of the king of England at the Hague, had just delivered the States-General a memorial, framed in so arrogant a style, that it was universally considered as offensive to the dignity of a free and independent nation.

But fortune, who seems to make her sport of the best concerted projects, willed that those of the Hollanders should come to the knowledge of the British ministers before they could receive their accomplishment. No sooner was Laurens departed from the American shores, than he was encountered and captured off Newfoundland, by the British frigate Vestal. At sight of the enemy, he had thrown all his papers overboard; but by the celerity and dexterity of a British sailor, they were rescued from the water before they were materially injured. Laurens was carried to London, and shut up in the tower as a state prisoner. Among his papers, the British ministers found the treaty above mentioned, and some letters relative to the negotiations at Aix la Chapelle. Forthwith, M. York made a great stir at the Hague. He required the States-General in the

name of his master, not only to disavow the doings of the pensioner Van Berkel, but also to make instant reparation to his Britannic majesty, by the exemplary punishment of that magistrate and his accomplices, as perturbators of the public peace, and violators of the laws of nations. The States-General withholding their answer, the British envoy renewed his instances with excessive fervor; but the Dutch government either from its reluctance to drop the mask at present, or merely from the accustomed tardiness of its deliberations, signified to York that the affair should be taken under serious consideration. The States-General were inclined to gain time to recall into their ports the rich cargoes they had afloat upon the ocean, as well as those which, in the security of a long peace, had been deposited in their islands.

On the other hand, the British ministers, goaded by impatience to lay hand upon those riches, and little disposed to allow the Dutch sufficient leisure to make the necessary war preparations, pretended not to be at all satisfied with the answer of the States-General. They recalled the ambassador at the Hague immediately. A little after, there followed on both sides the usual declarations. Thus were dissolved all those relations of good understanding, which had so long existed between two nations connected by reciprocal congenialities, and by many and important common interests. This new enemy was the more to be apprehended for England, as his dexterity in maritime war was rendered more formidable by his proximity. But on the one hand pride, perhaps necessary to a powerful state, and the thirst of conquest, always blameable and never satisfied; on the other, intestine dissentions, and the debility of land force, which inspired more dread of continental neighbors than could well comport with independence, precipitated Great Britain and Holland into a war decidedly and openly condemned by all sound statesmen.

It is time to remand our attention upon the American continent. After the capture of Charleston and invasion of South Carolina, a great and astonishing change was wrought in the minds of the colonists. Their salvation resulted from those very causes which seemed to prognosticate an impending perdition. So true it is that the spur of adversity forces men to exert for their own interests, efforts to which the sweets of prosperity cannot induce them! Never was this truth better exemplified than in the present conjuncture; the reverses of Carolina, far from having dejected the Americans, developed in them on the contrary a courage more active, and a constancy more pertinacious. They could no longer be reproached with that torpor which they had manifested in the preceding years, with that apathy which had been the source of so much pain to their chiefs, as of such heavy disasters to the republic. A new ardor inflamed every heart to fly to the succour of country; there seemed a rivalry for the glory of immolating all to the republic; things looked