ing foreign troops into any part of the dominions of the crown of Great Britain, without the pre. vious confent of parliament." This motion again united the country gentlemen, with those who were averse to the address at large. The minifter at length feeling the affair more ferious than he have apprehended, and dreading to come to a divifion until the country gentlemen were recalled to their ftandard, with great addrefs, converted to immediate ufe, a hint which was thrown out on purpose by one of the law officers. He all at once changed his ground, quitted the high and peremptory tone of authority, faid, that though he had advised the measure as believing it right, and though he ftill continued to think fo, yet as other gentlemen, for whom he had ever held the highest deference, seemed to be of another opinion, he had no objection that the queftion fhould be brought in a regular and parliamentary manner before the house, when he would chearfully abide by their determination; and if it was their general fenfe, that the meafure was illegal, or unconftitutional, he fhould reft the defence on the ground of neceffity only, and then its advifers might receive the protection, as was always practifed in fuch cafes, of an act of indemnity.

This conceffion fet every thing to rights. The country gentlemen being now fatisfied, returned to their ufual temper and difpofition, and the oppofition was again reduced to what was properly fo called. In this ftate of things, 27th. the queftion being put about one o'clock in the morning, the amendment was re

jected, and the addrefs in its original ftate accordingly paffed upon a divifion, by a majority of 176, to 72.

Among feveral peculiar circumftances which attended the debates of both these days, was the total defection of Gen. Conway from adminiftration upon the firft, who after expreffing the utmoft deteftation of that official principle, that perfons holding places muft implicitly fupport government in all cafes whatsoever, and however contrary to their opinion, he then condemned in the moft decifive terms, the American war, which he declared to be cruel, unneceffary and unnatural; calling it in plain terms a butchery of his fellow fubjects, and to which his confcience forbade him to give his affent. He reprobated every idea of conquering America, upon all the grounds of juftice, expediency, and practicability. He declared in the moft unreferved terms against the right of taxation; and wished to fee the declaratory law repealed, though it had been paffed under his own aufpices when in adminiftration, and though on abftra&t legal principles he thought it right, and at the time of pafling it proper and neceffary, rather than it thould be employed to colour defigns, the moit oppofite to the intentions publicly declared of thofe who fupported it in parliament; and particularly oppofite to the fulleft declaration of his own at the time of his moving it.

He, as well as feveral other gentlemen, repeatedly called upon the minifter, to give them fome information of the state of affairs in America, that they might know with certainty upon what ground they [E] 2

food,

ftcod, and were likely hereafter to ftand, before they paffed a bloody addrefs, which would be a ftanding record against them, and which notwithstanding the profufion of fophiftical arguments that were now ufed to palm it upon them, by endeavouring to explain away its fubftance, and to reprefent it only as froth and compliment, would not only be found a curb upon, but muft in a great degree influence their conduct throughout the feflion, notwithstanding any information they might hereafter obtain. Some of the country gentlemen likewife, faid they had gone with the minifter in the preceding feffion, upon a fuppofition that he had given them authentic information with regard to America; but now finding by the event that they had been totally deceived, it became abfolutely neceffary to have a full and clear ftate of affairs laid before them, prior to their entering into any bufinefs upon the fubject.

This matter preffed very hard upon, and was extremely vexatious to adminiftration. The accounts from America were at that time far from favourable. It was even doubtful whether we had any thing left there. The giving of any particular information, with the power which the minifter now poffeffed in the houfe, was indeed eafily flaved off. But too much was already publicly known from other fources, not to render it difficult to account for the failure of fuccefs in many inftances, and to guard against the cenfure which of courfe attended it. One gentleman in adminiftration acknowledged that there had been mifmanagement fomewhere; but whe

ther by the parliament, in not granting a fufficient force; by the miniflry, in an improper application of the force granted; or by the officers who commanded, in not carrying the defigns which were formed into execution, he would not determine. He however feemed to lean upon the latter, by talking of a parliamentary enquiry. He alfo made an apology for adminiftration upon the ground of the peculiar fituation of the minifter in this country, who, notwithstanding any fagacity or prefcience he might be endued with, muft wait for the opinion of the people, before he could attempt to carry any great defign into execution; and that if government had demanded a force of 40 or 50,000 men in the preceding feffion, parliament, perhaps, might not have granted them.

Another gentleman in high power and office, though not properly a member of administration, acknowledged there were faults fomewhere, but afterwards confined them, by faying he did not know whether they were in the fea, or the land department. Some of thofe who were particularly attached to the minifter, charged him, notwithstanding, with want of vigour in the American bufinefs; but confoled him with the affurance that it was not yet too late, and recommended an immediate adoption of the most coercive measures. They alfo condemned feverely the inactivity of the preceding campaign; but left the blame at large as to the objects.

The minifter pledged himself to proceed with vigour and activity. Acknowledged that he had been deceived in events; but that

he

the fame line it was replied, that it was beneath the dignity, and contrary to the liberal conftruction and comprehenfive views of that houfe, to enter into the quibbles and diftinctions of WestminsterHall; to weigh words and fentences, to define their diftin&t, legal, or grammatical import, was for others, not for them. They were to confider the fpirit, the intention, the circumftances that led to, and the evils that were to be cured, by that folemn compact between the King and the people, the Bill of Rights. Thefe they were to confider as legislators, as the hereditary guardians of that new magna charta, which includes within its pale all the liberties of the people of England, not as lawyers, who wanted to explain away its fubftance, or to find loopholes to creep through. That bill was a capitulation between the people and their newly elected fovereign; a compact to be for ever binding on their respective pofterity and fucceffors. It claimed no new rights, it required no favours; it declared old rights; what was already the law and the conftitution; and particularly provided against thofe violations of them, which were then more immediately felt. Of thefe, the keeping of a ftanding army, without the confent of parliament, was the first in danger and magnitude, and had been recently experienced; this giant evil had already fubverted the liberties of all the other ftates in Europe, and had nearly fwallowed up our own. This deftroyer of the rights of nations was accordingly provided againft, as far as compacts can bind man

kind, and as wisdom can govern futurity.

The conftruction now attempted to be put upon the words "within the kingdom," it was faid, might be carried to an extent, which the noble lords on the other fide might not be willing to avow. If thefe terms did not include all the poffeflions belonging to this country, then armies of foreigners, to any amount, might be introduced into Jerfey. Guernsey, Ireland, and even Scotland, which was not at that time within the kingdom. Can it be feriously confended, that this is in the intention or fpirit' of the Bill of Rights? Or that when the maintaining an army of natives within England and Wales, was deemed dangerous to the rights and liberties of the people, the furrounding and befieging them with hotts of foreigners, was an object neither of jealoufy nor apprehenfion. The diftiactions made between a time of peace or war, and the great latitude of power attributed to the crown in the latter inftance, were equally controverted, and faid neither to be warranted by the law, nor by any cuftomary ufage; that if the arguments ufed on that head were carried to their full extent, it would neceffarily follow, that an infurrection, or war, in the remoteft part of this widely-extended empire, would render it legal in the crown to introduce armies of foreigners, of any nation, and to any amount, even into this kingdom. The inference attempted to be drawn from the word foreigners not being expreffed in the law, was, it was faid, too puerile to deferve a ferious confideration, if

it

it had not been for the great stress which feemed to be laid upon it by fome lords on the other fide; but can it be thought or believed, that when it was deemed dangerous to entrust the fword in the hands of a standing army of natives, it fhould be confidered as perfectly wife, legal, conftitutional, and fafe, to place it in those of foreigners?

It was abfolutely denied that foreign troops had been brought into the kingdom at any time fince the Revolution, without the previous confent of parliament, either by an addrefs, or by fome former treaty which it had ratified, Such was the cafe of the Heffians in the years 1745 and 1756, upon which fo much weight had been laid; in the first inftance, the measure had the fanction of an addrefs from both houfes to the throne; and in the fecond it was covered by an exifting treaty, which had already received the approbation of parliament. As to the hiring of foreign troops, and afterwards prevailing on parliament to ratify the engagements, it did not at all come up to the point in queftion, though it could be fhewn, that even this practice had, in other times, been an object of much animadverfion and cenfure.

It was fhewn, that former adminiftrations had been fo tender and cautious with refpect to employing foreigners, and the vigiJance and jealoufy of parliament upon that fubject was fo well underftood, that in the height of the turbulence, heat, and danger of the late war, when the fate of empires feemed at flake, and our annual levies for the army and navy, were not much fewer than twenty

thousand; yet in such a season of urgent neceflity, when the propriety of the measure did not admit of a doubt, that great ftatesman the Earl of Chatham, would not venture upon raifing a German regiment of 40co meh for the American fervice, under any colour of the royal prerogative, but waited to go through the formalities, and to receive the fanction of an act of parliament for that purpose. And fuch precautions were taken at that time to fecure the rights of the people, and fuch an attention paid even to their opinions, that the number of foreign officers was li mited to fifty, which was less than one third of the whole; the foldiers were also to be proteftants, to become naturalized fubjects, and to take the oath 1ft George I. And fo tenacious was the minifter and parliament then with respect to the act of fettlement, fo careful of the fmalleft violation, that the law which enabled the crown to take thofe Germans into its fervice, provided that they fhould. ferve in America only, and that none of the foreign officers fhould bear any commiflion higher than that of Lieutenant-Colonel. far were we then from putting the ftrong fortreffes of this empire into the poffeffion of foreigners, that a very deferving naturalized officer could never arrive at the command of a regiment of his own countrymen, which he had a principal fhare in raifing and forming. And fo widely different were the principles and modes of acting a few years back, from the doctrines which are held out at present.

So

They alfo obferved, that fo lately as the year 1768, when the crown thought an augmentation of

the

the army in Ireland, from 12000 to 15000 men neceffary, in order thereby to ftrengthen the foreign garrifons, without leaving that kingdom defenceless, however ne ceffary the measure was, and though the Irish parliament, which was to provide the expence, feconded the King's views, yet he did not think himielf authorifed at the head of that body to make any addition to his forces, though of natural-born fubjects, without the fanction of the British parliament, which was accordingly obtained by an act paffed for that purpose.

As to what had been repeatedly faid, of not fhewing any diftrust of the Prince upon the throne, it was replied, that no diftruft was meant or entertained; compliments were not to be thought of in queftions of great national concern; nor a precedent effablished as a matter of compliment, which might prove fatal in its confequences to the rights of a people. No Prince ever fat upon a throne that deferved a more unlimited confi. dence, than our great deliverer King William; yet, with all his virtues, and all the obligations we were under to him, parliament would not indulge him in that measure which went fo near to his heart, of keeping a fingle regiment of Dutch guards here. They who refufed him in that inftance, notwithflanding all his great virtues and qualities, deferve the higheft applaufe and honour for their firmnefs in fo doing. If they had been ceremonious, a precedent would not now have been wanting; and the ufage being once eftablished, would, upon fome future occafion, be applied to the moft dangerous purposes.

Upon the whole, the oppofition

infifted, that the measure was highly illegal and unconftitutional; that it was directly contrary both to the letter and fpirit of the law; but that if it had militated with no pofitive law, it would ftill have been a total infraction, and fundamentally fubverfive, of the first principles of our government. A noble Earl went fo far, as to pronounce it decifively, to be high treafon against the conflitution.

A great Lord at the head of the law, and Speaker of that house, gave up the point, as to Gibraltar and Minorca, not being fuppofed, within the kingdom, in the intention and fpirit of the law; he befides allowed that the law applied to foreigners; but juftified the measure upon the fame principle, for as America was alfo included in the description of within the kingdom, and a rebellion and war were now existing there, fo the operation of the Bill of Rights must ceafe, until peace was restored.

A noble Lord, high in office, had moved the previous queftion early in the debate, upon a fuppofition that a bill of indemnity would be brought into the Houfe of Commons by the minifter, in order to remove the fcruples, and quiet the apprehenfions. of the country gentlemen. The idea of an act of indemnity, was however, totally reprobated by the other Lords in office, and the noble author endeavoured, as well as he could, to explain away the subftance of what he had thrown out upon that fubject. The previous queftion being at length put, it was carried by a majority of 75, including 22 proxies, to 32, including one proxy, who fupported

the motion.

In the mean time, the minifter

was