it took place in the session I am describing, I will not unfold here; for though the regulation was enacted now, the consequences did not appear to this country till the winter following. I shall be obliged to say so much on that head hereafter, that to avoid repetition, and to introduce the detail where it will come in with more propriety, and be more useful to the reader, I shall pass it over now;--and would to God that at the moment I am writing, at the end of 1768, the subject was not only fresh, but threatening a scene of long and terrible calamity both to England and her colonies! His object, he said, was to make them maintain their own army. Till the last war they had never contributed to their army at all. The extraordinaries of the American war had cost England 36,000_l._ a year. He had, additionally, a plan for preventing the colonies from trading directly to France, Holland, Portugal, or the French islands. Thus did this pedlar in revenue confound the tranquillity both of America and Great Britain; and to realize farthings, set both countries at variance, at the risk of treasure, human lives, liberty, and common and mutual preservation. On the 12th, at the East India House, which had been a theatre of disputes and clashing interests, Mr. Amyand,[450] having quarrelled with Sullivan, the leader of the faction opposite to Lord Clive, suddenly proposed to give the government of Bengal, with full powers over their affairs, to that Lord, if he would undertake the commission. Lord Clive, then present, said, this motion was totally unexpected; yet would he accept the offer, if a board of directors on whom he could depend should be chosen. The election was then at hand. The train caught so rapidly, that it was proposed directly to invest him with his jaguire, which had been voted as precipitately too, if somebody[451] had not observed that a lawsuit being commenced on that subject, the law must decide it. The City of London applied to Parliament for more money for their new bridge at Blackfriars. James Grenville objected to it. Dr. Hay broke out and abused the Common Council, whose late behaviour, he said, entitled them to no favour. He alluded to their thanking their members for voting against general warrants. This produced as warm language in return from Beckford and Onslow. George Grenville interposed, and said, the question was not whether the City deserved money, but whether it could be afforded. That their temporary bridge having been burnt by accident, they ought to have a gift of six or seven thousand pounds. Sir William Baker[452] in disdain moved to adjourn, that they might not accept it.