desert Boston. The other provinces, he assured us, would, from a rooted jealousy, rejoice at her humiliation, and enjoy the prospect of dividing her trade. When the whole province became like one man, it was said the southern colonies however disapproved the conduct of New-England. After both the southern and northern colonies united, and made a common cause, we were told that means were found to Americans will, in case of general success | the rest of the Massachuset's Bay would on your part, give up the contest, and submit to the terms you prescribe. The late experience of general Burgoyne is the fullest answer to this objection. He tells us, that the very provincials, who were most forward to profess themselves loyalists, and to take the oaths of allegiance, and submit to lieut. colonel Baum, were the first to fire upon him; that he was attacked on all sides, that he shewed great personal courage, but was over-prevent the meeting of the Congress. powered by numbers. In short, Sir, there was a total destruction of that detachment. Mr. Burgoyne highly blames a provincial gentleman for being so incautious as to leave at liberty such as took the oath of allegiance, as if it were a better mode of persuading the others, to confine their countrymen the moment you consent to admit them to swear allegiance. Men are not converted, Sir, by the force of the bayonet at the breast, nor by imprisonment. It is employing the violence of the highwayman. He takes your purse indeed, but you recover it from him the instant you become stronger than the robber. Nor is this to be considered as treachery. It was a compact, not originating from free will, or mutual consent, but founded merely in force, and dissolved in the same manner. But I believe the Americans are neither to be cozened, nor by violence deprived of either liberty or property. I therefore recur, Sir, to the wise Amendment to the Address, which the excellent lord has moved, to supplicate his Majesty, that no time may be lost in proposing an immediate cessation of arms, as the only means of beginning a treaty, and effecting a reconciliation with our American brethren. The hostile measures echoed to the throne in the ministerial address will be ineffectual, and only serve to strengthen the independence of the colonies, and give additional vigour to their resistance. We cannot succeed by force, nor in this commercial country is the object worth our while, were it possible. Let us carry these plain and certain facts to the foot of the throne, and let parliament hold likewise to the nation the language of truth, a language very different from what we have hitherto heard from ministers. The nation, Sir, has been duped for several years by a succession of ministerial falsehoods. When the Boston Port Bill passed, the minister declared that we should soon have America at our feet, for General Gage publicly declared, that he would be in the midst of them. He chose however not then to change his position. The Congress met without him, and in a perfect spirit of unanimity, for their wranglings were never heard but by the gentlemen on our Treasury-bench, and the majority of this House. The non-importation and non-exportation agreements were likewise declared impossible to subsist in a nest of known smugglers; yet time has shewn how strictly they have been preserved. It was likewise most confidently averred, that the cowardly Americans dare not assemble in arms, and that two regiments were sufficient to march through, and subdue, the rebellious colonics. This however must be acknowledged to be prior to the siege of general Howe, and the twenty regiments, in Boston. I will not, Sir, tire the House with recapitulating the regular succession of court tales and fictions. They have long been the amusement of mankind, both at home and abroad. Even at the present period ministers give out, and affect to believe, that thirteen powerful colonies can be conquered, after having for three years baffled all the efforts of this country both by sea and land, trained and disciplined their people, settled to the satisfaction of the inhabitants their respective governments, raised large armies to serve during the war, provided for their pay, and collected immense stores of artillery, arms, and ammunition, seconded by the zeal of all America, and more than the good will and applause of all Europe-except the court faction among us. But, Sir, although America cannot be conquered, it may perhaps be regained by the mild arts of lenity and justice, by temper and moderation. The sword must first be sheathed, according to the proposed amendment of the noble lord, and then we may talk of peace on fair and solid terms, on terms of equality as brethren, as heirs of the same glorious free constitution. I indulge the hope that things are not yet quite desperate. I am sure peace will be the greatest blessing to both countries. It is perhaps even more necessary for us than for them. The infant American state seems already to possess the strength and vigour of the infant Hercules, ready to be exerted in a similar manner, in subduing the monsters of tyranny, cruelty, and violence. Our exhausted state is well known to our enemies, who triumph in our fatal distractions, and are preparing to avail themselves of our sinking condition. Sir, I must again and again repeat, that in my humble sentiment a reconciliation with America is necessary for the salvation of this country. I mean a firm, lasting agreement with the colonies on terms of a just equality as to rights and privileges. Any other agreement would not be permanent; that alone would save us from the impending ruin. The answer of the Privernates to the Ro mans should govern us, "si bonam pacem, et fidam, et perpetuam-si malam, haud diuturnam." The reception such an answer met with was worthy of the Roman people. Livy says, "pars melior senatûs ad meliora responsum trahere et dicere, viri et liberi vocem auditam." from a state of war. Are the scalpingknife and tomahawk necessary calamities of war? Are they inseparable from it? God forbid! I have read a late proclamation of that great general and preacher, Mr. Burgoyne, which is shocking to a civilized and generous nation. As a statepaper it disgraces our country. The imperial court have often employed many kinds of irregular troops, Croats, Pandours, and Hussars; but their names disgrace no public act. If they plunder, they do not torture. The pious preacher, Mr. Burgoyne, complains of this froward and stubborn generation, and at the very moment of mentioning his consciousness of Christianity, displays a spirit of cruelty, which is repugnant to every principle of humanity. He boasts that he will give stretch to the Indian forces under his direction, and they amount to thousands. Merciful heaven! Thousands of Indian savages let loose, by the command of a British general, against our brethren in America! Human nature shrinks back from such a scene. "At his heels, leasht in, like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, crouch for employment."* Mr. Burgoyne's feelings as a man, I fear, will not The speech, Sir, seems to flatter us hereafter be as universally acknowledged with a promise of attention to this great as the military talents of the great general. object, the restoration of peace to our In the present case I have that pity for distracted and dismembered empire. It him, and his employers, which they have says, "I shall ever be watchful for an op- not shewn to others. What, Sir, has been, portunity of putting a stop to the effusion and still continues, the conduct of Indian of the blood of my subjects, and the cala- savages in war? Is it not to exercise the mities, which are inseparable from a state most shocking cruelties on their enemies, of war." The ministers, Sir, rejected without distinction of age or sex? The with indignity one happy opportunity of conduct of this war goes on a par with its putting a stop to the effusion of blood, principle. Has the feeble old man, the when, even after the battles of Lexington, helpless infant, the defenceless female, Concord, and Bunker's-hill, the Congress ever experienced the tender mercies of an humbly supplicated his Majesty, "to di- Indian savage? He drinks the blood of rect some mode, by which the united ap- his enemy, and his favourite repast is huplication of his faithful colonists to the man flesh! Is a stretch given to thousands throne may be improved into a happy and of these cannibals by the command, in a permanent reconciliation." To the mad public manifesto, of one of the King's geinsult of the American secretary, lord nerals? I am bold, Sir, to declare that Dartmouth, in September 1775, when he such orders are unworthy the general of told the agents of the colonies, in the any Christian king. They are only beKing's name, that no answer would be coming a Jewish priest to a Jewish king, given, all the subsequent calamities of this in the most bloody and barbarous of all civil war are to be attributed, and perhaps histories, the history of the Jewish nation. the loss of half our empire. Many cala- The orders of the Jewish priest were, mities, Sir, are undoubtedly inseparable" now go and smite Amalek, and utterly from a state of war; yet the present war against our brethren in America has been attended with peculiar circumstances of cruelty, which fill the mind with horror, with calamities which are not inseparable destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and *Shakspeare's Prologue to King Henry 5. ass." [1 Samuel, ch. xv. v. 3.] General Burgoyne threatens the Americans with "all the vengeance of the state," not its justice, that "the messengers of wrath will meet them in the field, devastation, famine, and every concomitant horror." Not the sword of even-handed justice, falling only on the guilty heads of the bold rebels, but the savage tortures of a tomahawk from the thousands of Indians under his direction, on the innocent women and children. I remember, Sir, an hon. gentleman (Mr. Henry Dundas), whom I see in his place, a gentleman very high in the law, not only humanely proposing, according to the ideas, and in the language of his country, but dwelling with rapture on what he classically called a Starvation Bill for the poor Americans. I rely, however, Sir, on the spirit and prowess of the Americans, that they will neither suffer the fate of the Amalekites, nor retaliate the attempt on the savages of Europe. This year, Sir, we have again in the Speech repeated assurances from foreign powers of their pacific dispositions. The noble lord who moved the Address, thinks France will not change, and the hon. gentleman who seconded the motion, assures the House of the perfect amity of the neighbouring powers. Can any change, Sir, be equally advantageous to France as a perseverance in the present system? America now pours all her wealth into the lap of the House of Bourbon, which sees her ancient enemy daily perishing by a fatal civil war. Even the minister seems to awake from his long lethargy; for the Speech says, "at this time, when the armaments in the ports of France and Spain continue, it is thought advisable to make a considerable augmentation to our naval force." Parliament ought to have been informed of the whole truth with respect to the treachery of France. I am sure, Sir, I shall not be contradicted, when I affirm, that France, the government of France, not covertly, nor underhand, not secretly by merchants only, but directly and openly as a government, assist the Americans. The two Congress ships of war, which had the engagement with the Druid, are now refitting at L'Orient, on the coast of Brittany, and furnished with every necessary from the French king's stores at that place. The fact is well known to the minister, and tamely submitted to; but this open insult on the nation is endeavoured to be carefully concealed. The old ally of this nation, Portugal, is not honoured with the slightest mention in the Speech. I will give the House the reason. Portugal is not only lost to us, but is become an acquisition to the House of Bourbon, by acceding to the Family Compact. By that treaty, Sir, the substance of which was published in the French Gazette, all the subjects of the House of Bourbon were to be equally favoured with the natives of each respective state, as to every privilege of navigation and commerce. Such a treaty, Sir, directly militates against many former treaties, of Utrecht, Aix-la-Chapelle, and others, particularly those with Spain. It will be a fatal blow to the commercial interests of this kingdom, whenever it is carried into execution by the whole House of Bourbon. An universal gloom, Sir, seems to be spreading over our political hemisphere; yet we are called upon by ministers to address the throne in such terms, as if we were only suffering a slight and transient misfortune, not groaning under the load of exorbitant and enormous taxes, and on the brink of ruin. Since the late augmentation of the Civil List, we seem to be wonderfully improved in chirping addresses. This is not, however, a piping time of peace. Compliments during the calamity' of a wide extended civil war, brought on by ministerial oppression, are absurd. The prospect from America is covered with clouds and darkness. A pleasing ray of light seems at the present moment to beam upon us from the noble lord's proposition for an immediate cessation of arms. If that is rejected, I fear the nation will sink in despair. That proposition I consider as the first, most necessary step to a reconciliation. After a cessation of arms, I hope our fleets and armies will be withdrawn, all the late unjust acts repealed, and the charters restored. Let us treat with the liberal spirit of freemen and Englishmen. Unconditional submission, is unconstitutional submission, and becomes only the slaves of an arbitrary monarch. Force against the vast American continent, we have found, avails us nothing. All coercion appears to be impossible. The attempts of violence have been followed with deep distress, disgrace, shame and disappointment. Let us, therefore, at last hear, and obey, the voice of reason, which calls aloud upon us to save ourselves and our brethren. The times teem with events, which must determine the fate of this once great and powerful empire. Let us be guided by the principles of lenity and justice, that the blessings of peace and union may be restored, and permanently remain, to the whole empire. Mr. Alderman Bull. Sir, the motion of the noble marquis is, in the present situation of our affairs, of so much importance, that I cannot satisfy myself without giving my public testimony in favour of it. The distracted state of this empire demands the most earnest attention of each individual of the representatives of the people. Divided and distressed as we are at home, convulsed and distracted as they are in our once valuable colonies, uncertain as are the events of war, it behoves us to turn our thoughts to conciliation and peace; to restore, if possible, and to establish on a basis that may be immovable, that good understanding which once so happily subsisted betwixt us and our brethren on the other side of the Atlantic. To enter into the question of taxation without representation, after it has been so frequently and fully debated, would be a waste of time; I will therefore only declare, that, in my opinion, property taken without the consent of the owner, or his representative, is robbery; it is what our constitution never warranted; and any body of men who tamely submit to such an alienation of their birth-right, are utterly unworthy of the exalted name of freemen. This Amendment has peace for its object, and is founded upon the generous principle of equality. Can there be any reason urged why our brethren in America should not enjoy as fully all the privileges of the constitution, as our brethren in Ireland? Can there be any reason urged, why our brethren in Ireland should not enjoy all the privileges to which Englishmen are entitled? I am confident there cannot.Sir, it is the boast, it is the glory, it is the perfection of our constitution, that every subject of it is equally interested in its privileges. To preserve this equality, our heroic forefathers suffered and bled; they counted not their lives dear, but exposed them to dangers and to death, in defence of their right of giving and granting their own money. A noble lord, once a valuable member of this House, declared within these walls, that he rejoiced that America had resisted. I, Sir, rejoice that the spirit of our forefathers, is seen to animate their descendants on the other side of the globe; and if ever such a claim should be exercised in our sister kingdom of Ireland, as that we are now unjustly and cruelly exercising in America, I hope that a spirit of genuine liberty and resistance will arise, sufficient to overwhelm it. Hitherto, Sir, we have been fascinated with the unmeaning parade of the uncontroulable authority of the parent state, and the supremacy of parliament. We have been shedding the blood of many brave men, and wasting the money of the people, for a mere phantom; and have, at length, been hurried on, by our mad ideas of superiority and invincibility, to the very brink of destruction. The predictions long since declared in this House, have in part already been accomplished; injustice has its reward; disappointment and disgrace its portion. In this horrid contest, we have gained nothing but unhappy experience; experience, however, by which wise men would profit. What has it opened to us? Scenes of returning commerce and felicity? No:-on the contrary, nothing but scenes of general distraction and misery. Let us, therefore, seize the present favourable opportunity. Let us bury in eternal oblivion our past animosities; and. by an offer of peace and of liberty, reconcile those whose friendship is our interest, but whose enmity, in the end, will certainly be our ruin. Sir Philip Jennings Clerk. I shall heartily concur in the first part of the proposed Address, which is to convey our dutiful congratulations to the King, on the safe delivery of the Queen, and the birth of another princess; but having constantly opposed the American war, from the commencement, as thinking it might and ought to have been avoided; it will not be wondered at, that I should now refuse to give my assent to those other parts of this Address, which are to convey as'surances to the throne, of our intentions to furnish means of prolonging and continuing the war. I do most heartily adopt the Amendment made by the noble lord: it is of a conciliating nature, tending to put an end to this unfortunate quarrel, which has brought this country to the eve of its ruin, and which, if persevered in, must end in its destruction. A motion of a nature similar to this, was made by a noble earl in another House, in the early part of these troubles. That noble earl, the greatest minister and the ablest statesman this country ever boasted, wishing to save this country a second time from impending ruin, stepped forth in its distress, and produced a plan of a Bill, which would at once have prevented all the ca lamities which since that time have befallen us. He forewarned you at that time of all the distresses and dangers which have since happened. Unhappily for this country, little credit was given to his predictions; his plan of accommodation was rejected, not because it was disapproved, but there is too much reason to think that a jealousy of that great man's abilities deprived us of the benefit of his proffered services. His plan, so dissimilar to that of gentlemen in administration, could not be accepted without depriving them of their places. A reason which, I fear, will protract this war, as long as any honest man has a guinea left in his pocket, or a man, woman or child left alive in America, if we continue to furnish ministers with means to destroy them. A great price indeed for their services! Had that noble earl's plan been accepted, we should be considered as their friends, not their murderers; and should now probably be in quiet possession of our colonies. The people of that country would be now looking up to us for protection. Then, by a revival of trade and their assistance, we should be in a situation not to cringe to any foreign power, but to demand, if necessary, that justice by the sword, which we are now obliged to implore by memorials and petitions. Mr. Serjeant Adair said he was astonished that on the first day of the session, when parliament, particularly under such critical circumstances as the present, should expect every information that ministry were able to furnish, in order to justify the House in pledging itself to supply government, not one man in administration had deigned to stand up to give parliament the smallest ray of light on the present state of affairs. It was unknown how we stood with respect to France and Spain; and it was strongly suspected that Portugal had acceded to the Bourbon compact. These were circumstances that should have some influence on our measures, and whatever knowledge government had of those matters, ought of course to be laid before the House; and the withholding such information, was a sufficient reason for the House to postpone the Address till they should be better instructed. Lord North said, he thought it necessary to clear up the point started by the learned serjeant respecting the information he hinted at; for, that in the course of twenty years attendance in that House, he never remembered it to be the business of the minister to give a comment on the King's speech. And in answer to a charge of another hon. gentleman, it was the first he heard of general Burgoyne, like Samuel, putting man, woman, and ass, to the sword, as had thus been wantonly imputed to him. That the Indian savages in the King's service were headed by proper officers, who had it in charge to prevent the inhumanities complained of: that, lest it be deemed improper to have secured the Indians, it was necessary to inform the House, that the Americans had made overtures to gain them to their service, and therefore it was thought prudent to engage them, as an effectual means, aniong many others, of suppressing the rebellion. With respect to the odious aspersion thrown on the character of that military senator, now in his country's service, he trusted he should see him take his seat again in that House, when, he had no doubt, he would be able to defend himself fully against any man, who would rise up and accuse him. As to the unhappy war itself, he wished as heartily as any member for the happy moment to arrive, when something might be chalked out to effect the wished-for accommodation; but that happy moment must be the moment of victory. He confessed they were in the dark with respect to the late operations, having received no intelligence from sir W. Howe since a day or two after his landing at the head of the Elk river: he said, it would be absurd to order a cessation of arms on the part of the King's troops, as such a step would naturally imply that their original claim would be admitted; but said, the commanding officers had a power of granting a cessation whenever they deemed it expedient. With respect to foreign powers, he assured the House, that from every thing he had been able to collect, he could not find it was the interest, nor did he believe it was the intention of France or Spain to go to war with us; but as they thought proper to keep on foot great armaments in their several ports, he deemed it prudent to put this country in an equal state of defence, to guard against the possibility of an attack; that the language of the court of France was by no means that of war; whenever it had been deemed unintelligible, strong remonstrances had been made, and redress had been received; that they had published the strongest declarations, forbidding any countenance being shewn |