Before the close of the session, his majesty announ ced to parliament, that Spain had been added to the number of our enemies. By the manifesto of the new enemy, it appeared, that her mediation had been asked by Britain, and obtained. When the terms of peace, however, came to be discussed, it was obvious that Spain, as well as France, were determined to make the recognition of American independence the basis of peace. Spain, however, declared her unwillingness to have commenced hostilities, even after the rejection of this basis, and taxed the British government with inju ries and hostilities, exactly amounting to an hundred acts. Their assiduity in collecting such a number of pretexts, bespoke no great confidence in the strength of any one of them.
During the recess of parliament, the Earl of Stor mont succeeded the deceased Lord Suffolk as secretary of state. The Earl of Weymouth, a second time, re signed the seals of the southern department, to the Earl of Hillsborough; the Earl Bathurst succeeded the Earl Gower, as president of the council ; and the Attorney General Thurlow, was created lord chancellor.
The commander in chief, in America, continued to conduct the war, by indecisive and predatory expedi tions, either unable or afraid to bring the main force of the enemy to a general action. Sir George Collier and General Matthew made a descent upon Virginia, and laid the town of Suffolk in ashes. Governor Tryon, accompanied by the former officer, plundered and burnt Newhaven, in Connecticut, and some other places ; and Collier succeeded in destroying a small squadron of the Americans, at the mouth of the river Penobscot, in New England. The Americans, on the other hand, were not without their successes. Two important posts on the north river, Stoney Point and Verplanks, had been carried by Sir Harry Clinton, in person, and had been diligently and strongly fortified. These places were recovered, by the troops of General Wayne, with circumstances of remarkable gallantry. The provincials carried the fortified lines of the British, with fixed bay onets, in the face of a tremendous fire ; and disdaining to retaliate, for former cruelties, they signalized their vic tory no less by clemency than courage. At Paulus Hook, they surprised the British in a similar manner ; but a better defence being made, they retired, though not without bringing off 200 prisoners.
In the \Vest Indies, the island of St Vincent's was captured by D'Estaign ; and Grenada, though bravely defended by the efforts of Lord Maeartney, yielded to the arms of the same invader. A warm but indecisive action took place, between the fleet of D'Estaign and the British, under the Admirals Byron and Barrington ; after which, the French Admiral anchored off the town of Savannah, and attempted, in conjunction with the American General Lincoln, to take that town ; but was repulsed, by the British lines, with great gallantry.
On the 26th of December 1779, Sir Harry Clinton sailed, with the greater part of the army, from New York ; and, in the spring of the succeeding year, ar rived before Charleston, the capital of South Carolina. The city was defended by General Lincoln, in person, at the head of a numerous garrison, but yielded, on the prospect of a general assault, to the summons of the besiegers, and 6,000 of the continental troops, militia, and sailors, became prisoners of war. Leaving Lord Cornwallis to prosecute the war in that quarter, Sir Henry Clinton returned after the capture of Charleston, to his former head-quarters. Cornwallis immediately crossed the Santee, and carried the terrors of the British arms to the borders of North Carolina, cutting off seve ral corps of the Americans ; in which expeditions his lieutenant-general, then Colonel Tarleton, distinguished himself by peculiar bravery.
During these transactions, considerable alarm was excited in England by the junction of the French and Spanish fleets in the Channel, which took place soon after the Spanish declaration of war. Sixty-five ships of the combined line, with a prodigious cloud of frigates and fire-ships, swept the Channel from shore to shore ; obliged the British Channel lket, under Sir C. Hardy, to retire into harbour ; and, menacing the British coast with impunity, while Plymouth, by the negligence of ministers, was left so defenceless, that it escaped de struction only by the ignorance of the enemy respecting its true situation. On the approach of the equinox, the hostile fleet retired. The most remarkable result of the appearance of their vast armament on our coast was, the vigour and resolution with which it inspired the people of Ireland, who, seeing themselves neglected by England, their commerce unprotected, and their grievances unredressed, determined, by one effort, both to defend their country, and to assert their political rights. In a short time 50,000 volunteers were disci plined and equipped. By resolutions against the use of British manufactures, they taught England the im mediate expediency of coming to an agreement with their demands ; and these were extended, not to a par tial, but a complete emancipation of their trade.