That there shall be a perpetual peace between the contracting parties, and all hostilities both by sea and land shall forthwith cease; that the troops of his Britannic Majesty shall be immediately withdrawn, and that all American artillery shall remain in the forts and places that shall be evacuated.
The navigation of the Mississippi, from its source to the Ocean, to be free to the subjects of both States.
A VIOLENT ELECTION CONTEST (1784).
Source.—Cowper’s Letters. Thomas Wright. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1904. Vol. ii., pp. 194-197.
To Rev. John Newton, April 26, 1784.
... The candidates for this county have set an example of economy, which other candidates would do well to follow having come to an agreement on both sides to defray the expenses of their voters, but to open no houses for the entertainment of the rabble; a reform, however, which the rabble did not at all approve of, and testified their dislike of it by a riot. A stage was built, from which the orators had designed to harangue the electors. This became the first victim of their fury. Having very little curiosity to hear what gentlemen could say who would give them nothing better than words, they broke it in pieces, and threw the fragments upon the hustings. The sheriff, the members, the lawyers, the voters, were instantly put to flight. They rallied, but were again routed by a second assault, like the former. They then proceeded to break the windows of the inn to which they had fled; and a fear prevailing that at night they would fire the town, a proposal was made by the freeholders to face about and endeavour to secure them. At that instant a rioter, dressed in a merry-andrew’s jacket, stepped forward, and challenged the best man among them. Olney sent the hero to the field, who made him repent of his presumption. Mr. Ashburner was he. Seizing him by the throat, he shook him,—he threw him to the earth, he made the hollowness of his skull resound by the application of his fists, and dragged him into custody without the least damage to his person. Animated by this example, the other freeholders followed it: and in five minutes twenty-eight out of thirty ragamuffins were safely lodged in gaol....
THE COUNTRY POST (1785).
Source.—William Cowper, The Task. Book iv.
Hark! ’tis the twanging horn! O’er yonder bridge,
That with its wearisome but needful length
Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon
Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright,
He comes, the herald of a noisy world,
With spattered boots, strapped waist, and frozen locks,
News from all nations lumbering at his back.
True to his charge, the close-packed load behind,
Yet careless what he brings, his one concern
Is to conduct it to the destined inn,
And having dropped the expected bag—pass on.
He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch,
Cold and yet cheerful: messenger of grief
Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some,
To him indifferent whether grief or joy.
Houses in ashes, and the fall of stocks,
Births, deaths, and marriages, epistles wet
With tears that trickled down the writer’s cheeks
Fast as the periods from his fluent quill,
Or charged with amorous sighs of absent swains,
Or nymphs responsive, equally affect
His horse and him, unconscious of them all.
But oh the important budget! ushered in
With such heart-shaking music, who can say
What are its tidings? have our troops awaked?
Or do they still, as if with opium drugged,
Snore to the murmurs of the Atlantic wave?
Is India free? and does she wear her plumed
And jewelled turban with a smile of peace,
Or do we grind her still? The grand debate,
The popular harangue, the tart reply,
The logic, and the wisdom, and the wit,
And the loud laugh—I long to know them all;
I burn to set the imprisoned wranglers free,
And give them voice and utterance once again.
HIS MAJESTY’S SPEECH (1787).
Source.—Annual Register. Vol. xxix., pp. 268 et seq. of State Papers.
His Majesty’s most gracious Speech to both Houses of Parliament, on the opening of the fourth Session of the sixteenth Parliament of Great Britain, on Tuesday the 23d of January, 1787.