liament
for their magnanimity and perseverance for prosecuting the "just and
necessary war," in which the country was engaged. Their exertions, he
said, had been attended with success by sea and land, and he trusted
that the late important and prosperous turn of affairs in North America
would lead to the return of loyalty in the colonists to his person, and
to their re-union with their mother-country. The events of the war
by this time had given some ground of hope, but in the end it proved
illusory.

TRIAL OF LORD GEORGE GORDON AND THE RIOTERS.

Immediately after the riots had subsided, Lord George Gordon was
apprehended upon a warrant from the secretary of state, and after
a brief examination before several lords of the privy council, was
committed to the Tower on a charge of high-treason. While he was immured
within the walls of his prison, during the month of July, the vengeance
of the law fell upon those of the rioters which had been captured
in then lawless depredations. No less than fifty-nine were capitally
convicted, and twenty were executed: the rest were transported for life.
Lord George was not tried till the month of January, 1781, when he
was acquitted; his counsel showing that he was insane, and the jury
conceiving that his case did not amount to high-treason. He afterwards
gave undoubted proof of his insanity by turning Jew! Finally, he died
in Newgate, where he was imprisoned for various libels on foreign
potentates.

ADMIRAL RODNEY'S SUCCESS AGAINST THE SPANIARDS.

The opening of this year added to the naval renown of England. As the
Spanish persevered in their siege of Gibraltar, and as their treaty
with the Barbary States stopped the supplies of provisions, the garrison
began to feel the effects of famine, and it was necessary to send them
supplies from England. Admiral Rodney, who had recently been appointed
to the chief command in the West Indies, was therefore ordered to
relieve Gibraltar on his way thither. He had only been a few days at sea
when he fell in with a rich Spanish convoy, going from St. Sebastian to
Cadiz, and consisting of fifteen merchantmen, four frigates, and three
armed vessels; one being a fine new ship of sixty-four guns. These were
all captured, and while he took those with him which were laden with
wheat, flour, and other provisions, the rest were sent to England.
It was expected by the Bourbon cabinets that Rodney would leave his
transports in a certain lat