tration, with only an augmentation of two thousand men. He added further on the same head, that we had a Fleet superiour to any that the combined force of France and Spain could fit out; that our Ships were all clean, well provided, rigged, and ready to proceed to Sea on a few days notice; and that we had a supply of seasoned Timber in our Yards equal to three years consumption. That this was a force fully sufficient to defend us against any sudden attack of the combined Fleets of France, and Spain, though he was well assured they had no such intention; but if they had, we were prepared for them; and that he would now pledge himself to the House, and the publick, that with an augmentation of two thousand Seamen more, he would supply Government with such a Naval Force as would at once protect us at home, and be sufficient to enforce its measures respecting America. He begged, however, that the House would not understand that he arrogated any peculiar merit to himself relative to the present state of the Navy, compared to what it was when he was called to the head of the Admiralty, for very little of it fell to his share. He had only performed his official duty; it was to Lord North, who had been the means of so amply providing for it in the House; and to his Lordship, therefore almost the sole merit was due, that our Navy was now put on so respectable a footing.

The Duke of Richmond controverted several of the positions laid down by the noble Earl, (Sandwich,) both respecting the disposition of the French and Spaniards, and the force sufficient to resist them, should they make any attempt on these Kingdoms, or give an occasion for a rupture by their conduct in the American Seas. He again commented very ably on the answer given by the French Minister. What does this answer import, says his Grace, supposing it to be literally kept on their part? That if you detect any of their Ships trading with our American subjects, we shall be at liberty to seize them, and confiscate their cargoes. Does the noble Earl pretend to interpret this explanation, generally, so as to authorize our taking their Vessels at Sea? If he does not, what can such a vague deluding promise avail? If he does, then I will venture to assure his Lordship that he is miserably deceived; and that the first attempt to prevent French or Spanish Ships from navigating the American Seas, for pretences will never be wanting on such occasions, will furnish them with an opportunity of asserting their maritime freedom, of making reprisals, and of justifying their conduct to the other great states of Europe, who are known to be long jealous of what they are pleased to call our despotick claim to the sovereignty of the Ocean. The noble Earl gives us a melancholly account of the deplorable, ruinous state of our Navy, at the time he came to preside over our Naval concerns. He said our Ships were rotten, and our Guard-Ships useless. I would be glad to know from his Lordship what have been the means employed to work this miraculous change. He speaks of so many Ships-of-the-Line proceeding to Sea in three days; and of Captain Barrington's great merit in that business. No Lord in this House has a higher opinion of that gentleman's merit as an officer than I have I remember well the time the Royal Naval review was at Portsmouth, that able officer had his Ship some hours ready to proceed to Sea, before the Division under the command of a noble Lord in this House, (Lord Edgcumbe.) The noble Earl dwelt greatly on the manner our Guard-Ships are manned and provided; yet I well recollect that in the Royal presence, when we may presume every nerve would have been strained, the Plymouth Division took above three hours in weighing. The apology then made was that the Ships had not more than half their complement of men; and I can affirm, that Captain Barrington's Ship was the only one which seemed to answer the anxious expectations of the spectator.

The Earl of Sandwich replied humorously, in the words of the old ballad of Chevy Chase, written, as he said, in the time of Henry the Fourth. I trust we have many as good as he. He insisted, without any disparagement to the honourable Captain, there were several as able officers in the Navy as he; that wind and tide, and a variety of circumstances attendant on them, were not to be commanded. He assured the noble Duke, let the consequences be what they might, they would not wait for the French Ships being in Port, or even in with the land; but would seize them without ceremony in the first instance, and trust to the event, be it what it might; Administration being determined to abide, and, if necessary, to enforce the true terms of the explanation, in the sense only it was desired and given. As to the other pan relative to the state of the Navy, and his reasons for pronouncing, with so much confidence, concerning it, he told the noble Duke that the case was now entirely different from what it was in 1770; for that towards the conclusion of the late war, when the publick exigencies called for a powerful Fleet, they were obliged to make use of green Timber, of any kind of Timber in the construction of our Ships-of-War; that those Ships rotted at the end of five or six years; whereas these built lately would stand thirty, as they were built of seasoned Timber, of which we had a large three years' stock; and that besides we made use of another precaution, which was still seasoning the Timber while the Ship was building, by giving orders that no Man-of-War should be hastily built, or launched in less than three years after she was put upon the stocks,

The Bishop of Peterborough (Doctor John Hinchcliffe.) Throughout the whole of this day's debate, and indeed on every question relative to America, it has been to me of very serious concern to see so much of your Lordships' time taken up in mutual charges and recriminations. It is but too evident that a complicated variety of very untoward circumstances have combined to bring Great Britain and her Colonies into so great difficulty and embarrassment, that to extricate them requires all your Lordships temper as well as wisdom. Yet while we have beard, on the one hand, Lords, eminent for their abilities and experience, assert that the Constitution is violated, and the sacred rights of our fellow-subjects encroached upon by principles of arbitrary power, till resistance itself is thought justifiable; we are assured, on the other, by authority no less respectable, that opulence and security have begot a desire of independence in our Colonies; that a spirit of discontent and disaffection is gone forth, which has been unhappily increased by the arts and encouragement of some men here at home, under the influence of like passions, till America is become impatient of all legal restraint, and determined to break through every tie which has hitherto connected her with the mother country.

I rise not to trouble your Lordships as an advocate for either extreme of opinion, but profess that, above all things, I wish for reconciliation upon the' very easiest term's that, consistently with the just authority and preeminence of this country can be admitted as a ground of reunion. Yet sensible as I am that it is my duty, nor is it less my inclination, to promote peace, yet cannot I, for fear that our commercial concerns should suffer a temporary interruption, wish to see the honour and lasting prosperity of this country sacrificed to its temporary interests. For, waiving all discussion of that great constitutional question, whether or not the Legislative supremacy implies or not the right and power of taxation, there is, to my understanding, a very evident distinction between an Internal General Tax, and a Port Duty, upon any article of trade, which the subject is at liberty to purchase or not, as he thinks proper.

I am aware that the advocates for the total independence of America have endeavoured to prove that a duty so raised is illegal and oppressive as any other tax whatever; but to have made it so, Parliament must have done by the Tea in America, what is done in France by the Salt, have obliged every family to have bought, not as much as they were willing, but as much as it was thought they were able to consume.

That there is a power in this country to regulate the trade throughout all the Ports of the whole British Empire, is what, I believe, hardly one of your Lordships will contest. It would be of use, therefore, in shortening this debate, to recollect that it was for the tumultuous resistance to this acknowleged right of the Legislature, that the Port of Boston was shut up. I am free to own that there may be an oppressive exercise of even an acknowledged right; but it will be a difficult matter to bring the duty upon Tea under that description. The noble Lord (Camden) before me, acknowledges that he made no objection to it at the times it was laid, though he was then in the highest department of the law, with so much credit to himself and satisfaction to the publick; he will allow, there-