The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 174: LETTERS OF MARQUE GRANTED.

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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

LETTERS OF MARQUE GRANTED.

On the meeting of parliament, after the recess, a bill was brought into the commons for enabling the admiralty to grant letters of marque and reprisal to privateers against vessels belonging to the revolted colonies, which were now doing much mischief, not only among our West India Islands, but also in the narrow seas of Europe. This bill passed the commons without a debate, and it went through the lords without any amendment, except that the words “letters of permission” were substituted for “letters of marque.”