HISTORY OF EUROPE. feffional judgment and dexterity The French commanders were, [125 Near 1100 land-forces, and be The value or importance of A great clamour was С НА Р. 1 CHA P. VI.. State of parties at the meeting of parliament. Debates on the speech from the throne. Addreffes moved in both Houses, and amendments propofed and rejected. Debate refumed on the report of the address from the Committee. Motion for granting a fupply to his Majefty oppofed by Mr. T. Pitt, and after a warm debate carried, on a divifion, in the affirmative. Mr. Burke's motion for a committee of the whole Houfe to inquire into the confifcation and fale of the effects and merchandize taken on the ifland of St. Euftatius, rejected. Motion by Mr. Huffey for adding 10,000 feamen to the number moved for by government for the fervice of the year 1782. Sir James Lowther's motion for putting an end to the American war rejected, after a long debate, by a majority of only 41. Debate on the army eftimates. Converfation relative to the exchange of prifoners with America. Debate on the motion for adjournment. Petition from Mr. Laurens, presented by Mr. Burke. Recefs. URING the recefs of par ing transferred to our enemies, Dliament no material change without its exciting any other had taken place, either in the general temper of the nation, or in the political state of the contending parties. A total indifference to the defperate fituation of affairs, or at least to the means of retriev ing them, feems to have marked, at this time, the character of the people, beyond any former period of our history. The unfuccefsful operations of the campaign, a circumftance which in former times had fhaken the stability of the moll popular adminiftrations, fcarcely raited a murmer against the prefent. The retreat of the Channel fleet recurred with the regularity of an annual review, and was regarded with as much unconcern. Our commerce was intercepted, the coafts of Great Britain and Ireland threatened and infulted; the ancient boaft and fecurity of this kingdom, the dominion of the fea, was feen in danger of be feeling than what the imminence of danger at the time produced. Our very fucceffes had unfortunately been confined against a power whofe interefts had hitherto been confidered as in fome meafure involving our own; and the inconfiderate joy with which these triumphs over on ancient ally and a weak and unprovided enemy were received by the people, afforded matter of no fmall concern to those who revered the old and approved maxims of English policy. In fuch a ftate of things, it cannot be wondered that the enormous weight of influence which minifters derived from the ordinary and established power of the crown, the patronage of immenfe military establishments, and the annual expenditure of upwards of 20 millions of the public money*, fhould overpower the unaided and difpirited The fupplics voted for the year 1781 amounted to 25,390,3244. 105. 84d. efforts efforts of thofe who wifhed to Touze the nation to a fenfe of its real fituation. The only hope, therefore, that remained of refcuing it from the effects of a falfe fyftem of politics, under which its ruin feemed no longer problematical, was from the vigour and independence of parliament. It was evident, from the numbers whith divided on the fide of oppofition during the first feffion of the new parliament, that, notwithstanding the advantage the court-party had derived from a fudden diffolution, the ftrength of the minister had declined in the Houfe of Commons. The calamitous event of the campaign in Virginia, the news of which arrived in England but a few days before their fecond meeting, was likely to increase this defection, and threatened him with confequences not lefs fatal to his power at home than it was decifive on the object in difpute abroad. The conteft in America had hitherto operated as an infuperable obftacle to the free exercife of parliamentary deliberation and control. The patient acquiefcence of fo large a majority in both houfes, under the repeated difgraces, in which the pursuance of that object had involved the country, could be attributed to no other caufe than the neceffity they found themfelves under of fupporting the minifter at all events, or of abandoning a favourite war, connected in fome measure with their political preju dices, and in which their paffions had been artfully and fuccefsfully inflamed. But the event, alluded to above, having cut up from the root all hope of fubjugating the revolted colonies, in the minds even of the most fanguine adherers to that fyftem, it was not to be expected they would fo readily overlook the errors, or connive at the misconduct of thote under whole mitmanagement they had reaped nothing but mortification and dif grace. What effect an event of fuch magnitude would produce in the councils of government, was looked for with an uncommon degree of anxious expectation. The ground on which minifters ftood, was known to be extremely flippery and dangerous. The profecution of the American war was generally underfood to be the tenure by which they held their offices from the court. To abandon the war, was at once inevitably to forfeit the fupport of that fecret influence, of which they had too long experienced the effects to be ignorant of its power. To venture to look that power in the face, to bring a full expofure of the flate of affairs before the public, and to ftand on their own merits, was an experiment which more fortunate minifters might have thought too hazardous to be lightly rifked. It was this view of affairs which appears to have directed adminiftration in the first step that was neceffary to be taken at the opening of the feflions, on the 27th day of November, 1781. fpeech from the throne continued to hold the fame determined language with which both houfes had been laft difmiffed. The con tinuance of the war was afcribed to that reftlefs ambition which firft excited our enemies to commence it; and his Majefty was made made to declare, that he fhould not answer the truft committed to the fovereign of a free people, nor make a suitable return to his fubjects for their conftant, zealous, and affectionate attachment to his perfon, family, and government, if he confented to facrifice either to his own defire of peace, or to their temporary eafe and relief, thofe effential rights and permanent interefts, upon the maintenance and prefervation of which the future ftrength and fecurity of the country must ever principally depend. The loffes in America were neither diffembled nor palliated, but ftated as the ground for calling for the firm concurrence and fupport of parliament, and a more vigorous, animated, and united exertion of the faculties and resources of the nation. This, with the mention of the fafe and profperous arrival of our numerous commercial fleets, the favourable appearance of affairs in the East Indies, and a ftrong recommendation to parliament to resume their enquiries into the ftate and condition of our dominions in that country, formed the fubftance of the King's fpeech. In the Houle of Commons, the motion for an addrefs, framed in the ufual form, produced on the part of oppofition a warm and animated debate, which continued till two in the morning The alarming declaration, contained in the fpeech from the throne, of the intentions of government to continue the profecution of the American war to the last extremity; the infidious attempt to pledge the Houte, by the propofed addrefs, to the unqualified fupport of a determination fo frantic and defperate, in the fpite of feven years dear-bought experience, and in the teeth of national bankruptcy and ruin; the audacity of holding fuch language at the very inftant when the calamitous effects of the mifconduct of minifters called for penitence and humiliation, were topics urged by Mr. Fox with great eloquence and ability, and followed by a fevere reprehenfion of the principles of the war, of the delufions by which parliament had been led on, year after year, to fupport it, and of the grofs and criminal mifmanagement that appeared in every branch of adminiftration, and particularly in the marine department. To the negligence and incapacity of the minifter at the head of that board, he afcribed the lofs of the army under Lord Cornwallis. That minifter, he faid, had declared in another affembly, that a first lord of the admiralty who fhould fail in having a fleet equal to the combined naval force of the house of Bourbon, would be unworthy of his fituation, and deferve to be dragged to condign punishment. The cafe, he contended, was now before them. The inferiority of the British fleet, in every quarter of the globe, he endeavoured to prove from the events of the campaign; and he conjured the Houfe not to delay that justice which the noble earl had called down on his guilt. After appealing to the cool and difpaffionate fenfe of the House upon the utter impracticability of reducing the colonies by force, of which they had now had full experience, and calling particularly on the member who at that time held the oflice of paymafter-general, and who nuance of the war, the queftion, he afferted, was in no fhape before the Houfe; and that therefore no gentleman voting for the addrefs, would, as the neceffary refult of fuch a proceeding, pledge himself to affent either to any fpecific mode of operations, or to the fupport of a war at all against the colonifts. who had declared on a former oc- lature to the dominion of Amecafion, "that if the capture of rica, independent of the other Charles-Town produced no decifive two. With respect to the conticonfequences, he should grow weary of the American war," to join him in obliging adminiftration to put an end to it, he concluded a fpeech of great length, with moving, [that after the first paragraph of the addrefs, the following words fhould be fubftituted in the place of the fubfequent claufes: "And we "will, without delay, apply our"felves with united hearts to pro"pofe and adjuft fuch councils "as may in this crifis excite the "efforts, point the arms, and by "a total change of fyftem, com"mand the confidence of all his "Majefty's fubjects." The impreffion which this fpeech feemed to make on the Houfe, and the filence of those who had formerly been the most forward, on all occafions, to juftify the principles and the policy of the American war, called up the minifter early in the debate. He defended, with his ufual dexterity and addrefs, the grounds of the contest between Great Britain and her colonies. It did not, he faid, originate, as had been falfely reprefented, in any defign of mínifters to aggrandize the power or increase the influence of the crown had that been their object, they had thrown away and rejected the opportunity. It was not the prerogative of the crown, but the claims of parliament, that America had refifted. It was, therefore, to preferve the fupremacy of parliament, and to maintain its juft rights and privileges, that they had engaged in the war, and forborne the offer of advancing one branch of the legifVOL. XXV. Though this explication of the addrefs was alfo fupported by the third fecretary of state, and by the right honourable member who had been fo particularly alluded to in the debate, it was ftill contended on the part of oppofition, that whatever fenfe his Majefty's fervants might, for the prefent, find it convenient to put upon it, the language was too infidious and delufive for the Houle to adopt; and on a divifion there. appeared for the amendment 129; against it 218.. The attack which had been made, during the courfe of the debate, on the conduct of the first lord of the admiralty, drew from one of the members of that board a reply in his defence. He aíferted, that the crippled ftate in which the noble lord had found the navy, and which had been owing to the parfimonious conomy of Lord Hawke's adminiftration, was the caufe of its prefent weakness, if fuch a fact really exifted. This, however, he po fitively denied, and endeavoured to prove that it was even stronger than its boafted ftate in 1759. He afferted, that the first fleet fent out by Lord Sandwich, was fuperior to that of the enemy; [n that |