17776 picture of the weak and unprepared condition of the CIA P. country. "Not five thoufand troops in England! xxxII Hardly three thoufand in Ireland! Scarcely twenty fhips of the line fully or fufficiently manned for any admiral of reputation to command. The river of Lisbon in poffeffion of our enemies! The feas fwept by American privateers: our channel torn to pieces by them! Weakness at home and calamity abroad, terrified and infulted by the neighbouring powers, unable. to act in America, or acting only to be destroyed! Where is the man, with the forehead to promise or hope for fuccefs in fuch a fituation, or, from perfeverance in the measures that have driven us to it? Who has the forehead to do fo? Where is the man? I fhould be glad to fee his face. "You cannot conciliate America by your prefent meafures; you cannot fubdue her by any meafures. What then can you do? You cannot conquer, you cannot gain, but you can addrefs; you can lull the fears and anxieties of the moment into an ignorance of the danger that fhould produce them. But the time demands the language of truth; we must not now apply the flattering unction of fervile compliance, or blind complaifance. To fupport a just and neceffary war, to maintain the rights or honour of my country, I would ftrip the fhirt from my back: but in fuch a war as this, unjust in its principle, impracticable in its means, and ruinous in its confequences, I would not contribute a single effort, nor a fingle fhilling. I do not call for vengeance on the heads of thofe who have been guilty; I only recommend retreat; let them walk off, and let them make hafte, or fpeedy and condign punishment will overtake them. We have been deceived and deluded too long; but let us now ftop fhort: this is the crifis, may be the only crifis of time and fituation to give us a poffibility of efcape from the fatal effects of our delufions. But if, with an obftinate and infatuated perfeverance in folly, we meanly echo back the peremptory words this day prefented to us, nothing can fave this devoted country from complete and final ruin. B 4 We CHAP. We madly rufh into multiplied miferies, and con. fufion worse confounded"." XXXII. 1777. A LONG and vehement debate enfued; but the exalted character of the fpeaker, his venerable age, and impreffive dignity of manner, occafioned those who widely diffented from his opinions, to treat him with profound and flattering refpect. Lord Sandwich, expreffing all these sentiments, afferted, that when the matter urged by lord Chatham fhould be feparated from his manner and oratorical powers, it would be found to contain nothing that could influence the house to refuse the addrefs. He difplayed the ftate of the navy in advantageous terms, overbalanced British loffes by enumerating captures from the enemy, and contended, that should France and Spain entertain hos tile difpofitions, the British force was far fuperior to any they could mufter. France did not afford unbounded affiftance to the Americans; but, in compliance with remonftrances of the English court, had iffued ordinances forbidding American privateers to enter their ports, and compelled the reftitution of prizes. Unjuftifiable tranfactions might have taken place, but the time was not yet come for demanding full reparation. He readily agreed in lord Chatham's bafis of conciliation, the fupremacy of the mothercountry, and the act of navigation; but did not believe his lordship's most fanguine expectations amounted to an acquiefcence in them: the majority of those who would vote with him, would not adopt thofe fentiments. THE affertions of the fufficiency of the navy did not meet with implicit belief; and the firft lord of the admiralty was cautioned, that he made them at his peril, and was anfwerable for their truth. Lord Camden analyzed the whole conduct of the war, declaring that if hoftilities were profecuted to the iffue of this alternative, fhall America be fubdued, or fhall fhe render herself independent? he fhould favour inde In abridging this fpeech, I have incorporated the report published in the parliamentary regifter, with that preferved by Hugh Boyd. See his works, vol. i. p. 283. pendence, pendence, because fuccefs in fuch a war would not CHA P. only fubjugate America, but enflave England. In this difcuffion, the fupporters of the amendment fhewed fuch diverfities of opinion among themselves, as rendered the defence of administration not difficult. Respecting the independence of America, they could form no common principle of concord: 'the hopes and terms of fubmiffion were equally doubtful; the prospects of obedience, and limits of conceffion, were not accurately defined, and lord Chatham was fuccefsfully affailed on the difference of his prefent opinions from thofe he had maintained, in the laft feffion, on the dignified pofition which Great Britain ought to affume, if French interference were fo much as intimated. XXXH. 1777. Obfervations on the in war. IN one point, the lords in oppofition were in perfec accord; they declaimed, with uniform violence, on the employment employment of favages, and arming flaves against their of favages mafters. The duke of Richmond styled the inhumanity of the war fhocking beyond defcription to every feeling of a chriftian and a man; it claimed the vengeance of the Deity: the favages would not only torture and kill, but literally eat their prifoners. The ferocity and licentioufnefs of foreign and Indian auxiliaries would corrupt the foldiers of Britain. Such an army, on its return, might totally fubvert the remains of freedom. If disbanded, the foldiers would become a lawless banditti; if kept together, a moft dangerous weapon in the hands of minifters, who had fhewn fo little regard to the rights of freemen. LORD CHATHAM approved thefe obfervations. "The houfe, the parliament, the nation at large," he said, "ought to have the opportunity of clearing themfelves of that heavy load of black and bloody imputed guilt, under which they fuffer. I pledge myself to fet on foot an enquiry into the state of the nation; and as one of its leading objects, I fhall endeavour to discover who were the authors and advisers of letting loofe those blood-hounds and hell-hounds, the favages of America, upon our brethren. I hope to ftamp a proper mark both on the illegality and inhumanity of this fatanic measure; XXXII. CHAP. measure; and, I truft, I fhall have the pious affistance of the facred bench, and the no lefs conftitutional and efficacious aid of the fages of the law, to drag the authors into broad day-light, and inflict the most exemplary and condign punishment." 1777. Defended by lord Suffolk. Animated fpeech of lord Chatharu. LORD SUFFOLK repeated, that the Americans had emiffaries among the favages, and would gain them if we did not; and it was perfectly justifiable, in such a war, to use every means that God and nature had put into our hands. "I AM aftonifhed," lord Chatham exclaimed, indignantly rifing. "I am fhocked to hear fuch principles confeffed, to hear them avowed, in this house, or in this country: principles equally unconftitutional, inhuman, and unchriftian! My lords, I did not intend to have encroached on your attention; but I cannot reprefs my indignation, I feel myself impelled by every duty; we are called upon as members of this houfe, as men, as christian-men, to protest against fuch notions ftanding near the throne, polluting the ear of majesty. That God and nature put into our hands:' I know not what ideas that lord may entertain of God and nature, but I know that fuch abominable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What! attribute the facred fanction of God and nature to the maffacres of the Indian fcalping knife, to the cannibal favage, torturing, murdering, roafting, and eating-literally, my lords, eating the mangled victims of his barbarous battles! Such horrible notions fhock every fentiment of honour; they fhock me as a lover of honourable war, and a detefter of murderous barbarity. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decifive indignation. I call upon the right reverend bench, thofe holy minifters of the gofpel, and pious paftors of our church: I conjure them to join in the holy work, and vindicate the religion of their God: I appeal to the wisdom and the law of this learned bench, to defend and fupport the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to interpofe the unfullied fanction of I their 1777. their lawn; upon the learned judges to interpofe the CHA P. purity of their ermine, to fave us from this pollution: XXXII. I call upon the honour of your lordships, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own: I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country, to vindicate the national character; I invoke the genius of the conftitution! From the tapestry that adorns thefe walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble lord, frowns with indignation at the difgrace of his country. In vain he led your victorious fleets/ against the boafted armada of Spain; in vain he defended and established the honour, the liberties, the religion, the Proteftant religion of this country, against the arbitrary cruelties of Popery, and the inquifition: if these more than popish cruelties, and inquifitional practices, are let loofe among us; to turn forth into our fettlements, among our ancient connexions, friends and relations, the merciless cannibal, thirsting for the blood of man, woman, and child! to fend forth the infidel favage, against whom? against your Proteftant brethren; to lay wafte their country, to defolate their dwellings, and extirpate their name and race; with thefe horrible hell-hounds of favage war! hell-hounds, I fay, of favage war. Spain armed herfelf with bloodhounds to extirpate the wretched natives of America; and we improve on the inhuman example of Spanish cruelty; we turn loose these favage hell-hounds against our brethren and countrymen in America, of the fame language, laws, liberties, and religion; endeared to us by every tie that could fanctify humanity. This awful subject, so important to our honour, our conftitution, and our religion, demands the moft folemn and effectual inquiry and I again call upon your lordfhips, and the united powers of the ftate, to examine it thoroughly and decifively, and to fiamp upon it an indelible ftigma of public abhorrence. And I again implore thofe holy prelates of our religion, to do away thofe iniquities from among us. Let them Lord Effingham.-Lord Effingham Howard was lord high-admiral of England against the Spanish armada; the deftruction of which is reprefented in the tapet: y. perform |