y circumstances of that affair,
except such as relate to its connexion with the proceedings of
parliament. In the beginning of this session, lord Barrington, as
secretary at war, informed the house, by his majesty's command, that
lieutenant-general sir John Mordaunt, a member of that house, was in
arrest for disobedience of his majesty's orders, while employed on
the late expedition to the coast of France. The commons immediately
resolved, that an address should be presented to his majesty, returning
him the thanks of this house for his gracious message of that day, in
the communication he had been pleased to make of the reason for putting
lieutenant-general sir, John Mordaunt in arrest.--Among the various
objects of commerce that employed the attention of the house, one of
the most considerable was the trade to the coast of Africa, for the
protection of which an annual sum had been granted for some years, to be
expended in the maintenance and repairs of castles and factories. While
a committee was employed in perusing the accounts relating to the sum
granted in the preceding session for this purpose, a petition from the
committee of the African company, recommended in a message from his
majesty, was presented to the house, soliciting further assistance for
the ensuing year. In the meantime, a remonstrance was offered by certain
planters and merchants, interested in trading to the British sugar
colonies in America, alleging, that the price of negroes was greatly
advanced since the forts and settlements on the coast of Africa had been
under the direction of the committee of the company of merchants trading
to that coast; a circumstance that greatly distressed and alarmed the
petitioners, prevented the cultivation of the British colonies, and was
a great detriment to the trade and navigation of the kingdom; that
this misfortune, they believed, was in some measure owing to the
ruinous state and condition of the forts and settlements; that, in their
opinion, the most effectual method for maintaining the interest of
that trade on a respectable footing, next to that of an incorporated
joint-stock company, would be putting those forts and settlements under
the sole direction of the commissioners for trade and plantations; that
the preservation or ruin of the American sugar colonies went hand in
hand with that of the slave trade to Africa; that, by an act passed
in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty, for extending and