A feeble attempt was indeed made to continue a min istry on the system of excluding from office the states man who possessed the greatest share of public estima tion, but it did not succeed. Lord Hawkesbury declined the succession to 1\ Ir Pitt's situation ; and, after some discussions with the court, Mr Fox and Lord Grenville obtained the chief terms which they sought, and came with their respective friends into office. These discus sions were understood to relate to the share of authority which his Royal Highness the Duke of York was to pos sess over the army. Lord Sidmouth acceded to the new ministry, and, with several of his friends, also came into power.• One of the first objects of the attention of the new ministers, was the alteration of the system of military defence organized by their immediate predecessors. By the defence bill enacted under Mr Pitt, 40,000 men had been raised for the army of reserve ; but of those, there were only two thousand that were drawn who scre ed in person. Thirty-eight thousand were thus raised by private individuals. The operation of the ballot was not only partial and unjust, as it fell not upon the state, but on private individuals ; but in consequence of the competition of so many unpractised recruiting officers, the price of substitutes rose to such a height. as to im pede the recruiting for the regular service, and the fre quency of desertions was alarmingly increased. In the new plan of defence, it was proposed to substitute regu lar enlisting for balloting, and to hold out additional mo tives for men to embrace the military life, by improving the condition of the soldier, and changing the duration of his service from a lifetime to a limited period. In their financial schemes, the new ministers wisely adhered to a system on which their predecessors had for some time acted, of rather pressing on the present generation than leaving loads to posterity. They raised the war taxes from fourteen to nineteen millions. They increas ed the income-tax to 10 per cent. on all incomes exceed ing 501. with great allowances, however, to those under 1001.
Whatever popularity the new ministers might lose by this heavy tax, they certainly redeemed it by the lauda ble attention which they sheaved to deliver the public from the enormous abuse of inaudited public accounts. These accounts, when they came into office, amounted to upwards of five hundred millions. Not a single ac count in the army office had been audited since 1782. The store accounts had been suffered to lie over since the same period. The navy accounts were greatly in arrear. When Mr Pitt began his long administration, he had found a similar accumulation of inaudited ac counts, and had established a new board of auditors. But fresh accumulations had arisen from many obvious imperfections in his first plan of the board of auditors. Nor had the same minister's later bill in 1805, for in creasing the number of auditors, provided effectually for the regular execution of their duty.
It was the object of the present plan to secure that the public accounts of. of ery year should be regularly audited in the course of very ensuing year, so that no fresh accumulation should occur. At the same time, the wholesome principle of the great reforming revenue bills, viz. that of Mr Burke for regulating the office of the paymaster of the forces, and Mr Dundas's bill for regulating the office of the treasurer of the navy, was applied to the excise office, the post-office, and the cus tom-house.
It has been already noticed, that the whole of Mr Pitt's influence, while yet a minister, could not avert from his late associate in office, Lord Melville, a vote of the House of Commons, that there were grounds for cri minal impeachment against his Lordship in the man agement of public money.
The trial of that nobleman commenced in Westmin ster-hall on the 29th of April. Ten days were employed
by the managers in bringing forward and examining their evidence, and in the speeches of Mr Whitbread, who opened the case, and of the Solicitor General, who summed up the evidence. The evidence and argu ments of the counsel on both sides, closed on the 17th of May, and sentence of not guilty was pronounced by a majority of the peers on the 12th of June.* An expedition against the Cape of Good Hope had sailed from England in the autumn of 1805, at the mo ment when hostilities were breaking out on the Conti nent. The force destined for the conquest of the Cape, consisted of about 5000 land troops, under Sir David Baird, and a proportional naval force, commanded by Sir Home Popham. They reached their destination on the 4th of January 1806. Sir David Baird commenced his march to Cape Town on the 8th. On the same clay, when the ar my had reached the summit of the Blue Mountains, they perceived the enemy to the number of 5000, drawn up on the plain to receive them. By the gallantry of the Highland brigade, under General Ferguson, who com menced the attack, they were routed, after a short re sistance, and General Jansens, the commander in chief, who retired with a remaining body to a pass in the in terior of the country, soon after accepted of honourable terms : he was allowed with his troops to return to Hol land, on condition of the colony and its dependencies surrendering.
Sir Home Popham, the naval officer, whose co-opera tion had so materially aided this conquest, had held several consultations with the late ministers (Mr Pitt and lord Melville,) about the project of invading Span ish America ; but he had been afterwards distinctly in formed, that no such measure should be adopted at pre sent, from deference to Rhssia. Flushed, however, with his conquest at the Cape, and influenced by the hope of public, as well as private gain, he embraced the bold and unauthorized resolution of attempting some ex ploit in the Rio Plata ; and persuaded Sir David Baird to acquiesce in his plans, so far as to furnish him with a small portion of his troops. In the month of June, he entered the Rio Plata with a force under General Beres ford, not exceeding 1600 men. On the 24th of June, having disembarked about 12 miles from the city of Buenos Ayres, the British forces captured the place with great facility, the enemy flying before them where ever they appeared, and abandoning their artillery. While our little army was thus employed in the con quest of Buenos Ayres, the line of battle ships made de monstrations before Monte Video and Maldonado, to alarm the garrisons. At those two places all the regu lar troops had been detained ; while the city, defended by a raw militia under the conduct of a timid and unskil ful viceroy, had yielded by surprize to its assailants. An important conquest was thus achieved, and a booty to the amount of several millions of dollars was acquir ed. But when the Spaniards beheld with shame the small number of their conquerors, a project was soon matured for rising upon the British troops. Liniers, a colonel in the French service, landed above Buenos Ayres with above 1000 men, armed levies from the country, attacked the town, and though repulsed, perse vered in returning to the charge. At last, after a hard battle with the insurgents in the streets of the town, the English were overpowered, and obliged to surrender as prisoners. Sir Home Popham, with reinforcements from the Cape, made an attempt to recover Monte Vi deo, but was obliged to desist. A body of troops, under Colonel Vassal, were more successful in securing the post of Maldonado, where they remained to receive fresh succours from home, and to prepare for another campaign, still more disastrous than the last.