thus no resolution was
passed upon this subject. Burgoyne was somewhat more fortunate than
Howe, as witnesses were heard in his favour and none against him. His
witnesses were Sir Guy Carleton, the Earls of Balcarras and Harrington,
Major Forbes, and Captain Bloomfield, who deposed that no general could
be braver or more beloved by his army. At the same time they could not
make out a case of good generalship in Burgoyne's crossing the Hudson,
after the expedition to Bennington, or even give a good colour to that
expedition, so that their only evidence went to show that which all men
knew; namely, that Burgoyne was brave, persevering, and humane, and that
in advancing to and staying so long at Saratoga, he had acted according
to the best of his judgment. In the course of the examination, some of
the witnesses extolled the bravery of the Americans in action; but it
was also shown that Gates's army were nearly six times as numerous as
that of Burgoyne's, and that the latter were half-famished, so that it
did not require any extraordinary bravery to accomplish a victory other
them.

RELIEF TO PROTESTANT DISSENTERS.

The spirit of toleration which displayed itself during the last session
in favour of Roman Catholics, was again exerted in the present session
on behalf of Protestant Dissenting ministers and school-masters. A bill
to relieve them from some painful and absurd restrictions, was carried
with great facility.

DEBATES ON THE TRADE OF IRELAND.

During the month of January, Lord Nugent, after drawing a forcible
picture of the distress which existed in Ireland, gave notice
of his intention to move for the establishment of a cotton-manufactory
in Ireland, with a power of exportation to Great Britain, and a free
trade to America, Africa, and the West Indies. Subsequently a
committee was formed to consider the acts of parliament relating to the
importation of sugars into Ireland. The intended relief, however, was as
usual counteracted by commercial jealousy in England, and all that was
done by the commons was to pass two acts, for the growth of tobacco and
hemp, and the manufacture of linen in Ireland, and to make a pecuniary
grant, in consequence of a message from the throne. But this boon was
not sufficient to satisfy the desires of the Irish people, and possibly
had it been a hundredfold greater, it would not have been deemed
sufficient. It has always been the fate of that unhappy country to be
disturb