view to
indemnify himself for the expense of the war, projected the conquest
of Corunna in Biscay, and of Peru in South America. Four thousand men,
commanded by lord Cobham, were embarked at the Isle of Wight, and sailed
on the twenty-first day of September, under convoy of five ships of war
conducted by admiral Mighels. Instead of making an attempt upon Corunna,
they reduced Vigo with very little difficulty; and Point-a-Vedra
submitted without resistance: here they found some brass artillery,
small arms, and military stores, with which they returned to England. In
the meantime captain Johnson, with two English ships of war, destroyed
the same number of Spanish ships in the port of Ribadeo, to the eastward
of Cape Ortegas, so that the naval power of Spain was totally ruined.
The expedition to the West Indies was prevented by the peace. Spain
being oppressed on all sides, and utterly exhausted, Philip saw the
necessity of a speedy pacification. He now perceived the madness of
Alberoni's ambitious projects. That minister was personally disagreeable
to the emperor, the king of England, and the regent of France, who had
declared they would hearken to no proposals while he should continue in
office: the Spanish monarch, therefore, divested him of his employment,
and ordered him to quit the kingdom in three weeks. The marquis de
Beretti Landi, minister from the court of Madrid at the Hague, delivered
a plan of pacification to the states; hat it was rejected by the allies;
and Philip was obliged at last to accede to the quadruple alliance.

BILL FOR SECURING THE DEPENDENCY OF IRELAND UPON THE CROWN.

On the fourteenth day of November, king George returned to England, and
on the twenty-third opened the session of parliament with a speech, in
which he told them that all Europe, as well as Great Britain, was on the
point of being delivered from the calamities of war by the influence
of British arms and councils. He exhorted the commons to concert proper
means for lessening the debts of the nation, and concluded with a
panegyric upon his own government. It must be owned he had acted with
equal vigour and deliberation in all the troubles he had encountered
since his accession to the throne. The addresses of both houses were
as warm as he could desire. They in particular extolled him for having
interposed in behalf of the protestants of Hungary, Poland, and Germany,
who had been oppressed by the practices of the popish clergy