The year was memorable for the declaration, by the powers of Europe, of that armed new rainy, by which they engaged to resist the British in the exercise of the right of searching neutral vessels. The intentions of Holland, which before had been suspicious, were brought to a proof by the discovery of a treaty with America, which was thrown overboard one of her captured ves sels, but was rescued by the intrepidity of au English seaman before it sunk. Letters of reprisal were issued against her on the 20th of December.
The war between Britain and Spain had scarcely commenced, when the blockade of Gibraltar was formed by sea and land. Sir George Rodney was sent out with the command of a fleet to the relief of that place. After capturing a squadron of seven ships of war on the north of Spain, he next engaged a fleet of fourteen sail of the line off Cape St Vincent, where he captured and de stroyed several of the enemy's largest ships ; and, after effecting the relief of Gibraltar, proceeded to the West Indies. In this quarter he had an indecisive engage ment with the French admiral De Guichen, (on the 17th of April,) in which the enemy retired, and, from unfor tunate circumstances, could not he pursued. The Span ish governor of Louisiana reduced the British settle ments on the Mississippi, and made considerable pro gress in West Florida. Our East and \Vest India merchant fleets were captured in the autumn of the year : a loss scarcely paralleled in our naval and com mercial history.
A new parliament met on the 3Ist of October 1780. In the first session, it appeared that ministers had se cured in this new parliament the superiority of numbers, which they had lost and recovered in the former. The famous reform bill of Mr Burke was revived, but reject ed in tote, and all the calls of the nation for economical reform were set at defiance by ministers. Towards the end of the session, Mr Fox made a motion for devising means of accommodation with America. His motion was supported, in an animated speech, by Mr Pitt, who expressed his utter abhorrence of a war, was conceived," he said, " in injustice, nurtured in folly, and whose footsteps were marked with slaughter and de vastation. It exhibited the height of moral depravity and human turpitude. The nation was drained of its
best blood and its vital resources, for which nothing was received in return, but a series of inefficient victories, or of disgraceful retreats: Victories obtained over men fighting in the holy cause of liberty, or defeats which filled the land with mourning s, for the loss of dear and va luable relations, slain in a detested and impious quarrel." The first important military affair of the year, was an attempt of the French to recover the island of Jersey. On the 16th of January, early in the morning, a landing was effected by the Baron de Rullecourt, at the head of SOO men ; and, to the astonishment of the inhabitants, when the day began to dawn, the market phIce of St lIclier, was found occupied by French troops. The governor's house being surrounded, he was compelled, by threats, to sign a capitulation ; but when Elizabeth Castle was summoned, Captain Aylward, refusing to abide by the orders of a governor already a prisoner in the enemy's hands, fired upon the French, and, by the efforts of the gallant Major Pierson, who unhappily fell in the action, the militia and troops at last obliged the enemy to surrender.
In February, Admiral Rodney and General Vaughan, made an easy prize of the island of St Eustatia, an im mensely valuable depot of wealth and traffic. The Dutch settlements of Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo, on the southern main, also submitted, without resistance, to our arms. Tobago, however, was taken by the French, and St Eustatia was soon after recovered. Spain was also successful in completely conquering West Florida. In the course of the summer (August 5) an engagement took place off the Dogger Bank, between an English squadron, commanded by Admiral Hyde Parker, and a Dutch squadron of equal force, under Ad miral Zoutman, who had under convoy the Baltic trade bound to the Texel. The fleets approached within musket shot of each other before they opened their fire, and, after a cannonade of three hours and a half, they both lay like logs in the water, incapable of mutual an noyance. The Dutch after some time bore away with their convoy for the Texel, which they reached with great difficulty, the Hollandia, one of their largest ships, having sunk the night after the action.