n resisting injustice and oppression. To prevent such
a consummation, in conclusion, he urged the necessity of redressing the
grievances, and of adopting some remedy to the deplorable distresses
under which the Irish people were groaning. The Marquess of Rockingham
was warmly supported by the Earl of Shelburne; and the only arguments
urged against the address by ministers were, the late period of the
session, and the necessity of proceeding with caution, and upon minute
inquiry and investigation. The result was that there was a kind of
compromise between the Marquess of Rockingham and the Earl of Gower,
president of the council--the latter pledging himself that a proper plan
for the relief of Ireland should be concocted by ministers during the
recess, and be ready to be laid before parliament at the opening of the
next session. Ireland, therefore, for the present, was obliged to put up
with a promise.

WAR WITH SPAIN.

On the 15th of June Mr. Thomas Townshend moved for an address, praying
his majesty not to prorogue parliament, until the inquiry into the
conduct of affairs in America should be completed. This motion was
negatived, but, on the next day, Lord North gave some information which
necessarily prolonged the session. He acquainted the house that
the Spanish ambassador, after delivering a hostile manifesto to the
secretary of state, had suddenly quitted London. This manifesto, North
said, together with a message from the king, would be laid before
parliament on the morrow. On the 17th, therefore, the message and the
manifesto were introduced. In the message, his majesty declared, in the
most solemn manner, that he had done nothing to provoke the court of
Spain; that his desire to preserve peace with that court was uniform and
sincere; and that his conduct towards that power had been guided by
the principles of good faith, honour, and justice. He was the more
surprised, he said, at the declaration of Spain, as some of the
grievances enumerated in that paper had never come to his knowledge,
and as those which had been made known to him had been treated with
the utmost attention, and put into a course of inquiry and redress. His
majesty's message concluded by expressing the firmest confidence in the
zeal and public spirit of parliament, and the power and resources of the
nation. His majesty's declarations concerning his conduct towards Spain
were fully borne out by the manifesto, which was a loose rigmarole,