charge to any particular person or set of men; but it was well known it had been frequently practised by the confidential people in office.

Lord North knew nothing of what had been done by such people, but believed upon his honour that none of the present confidential servants in office did game in the funds; for it would, be basely betraying the confidence of their Prince.

Lord John Cavendish and Colonel Barré accused the noble Lord of great inconsistency, in thinking so far to blind the House as to have it believed that the augmentation asked for could answer any purpose but to convince the Americans of the inveteracy of the mother country against them, and to throw a reconciliation to a yet greater distance; that a few thousand seamen added to the service would never effectually answer the purpose, if that purpose was to prohibit the trade of the most commercial Colonies in America; that the noble Lord must mean only to trifle with the House and with mankind, in declaring one day America to be in rebellion, the next prohibiting the commerce of Massachusetts Bay, and the third coming for so insignificant an augmentation; that the gentlemen on the same side of the House had repeatedly asserted that the commerce of the New Englanders, and much of that of the other Colonies, was contraband; and that America was peopled with smugglers, to the great detriment of that advantage which would otherwise flow to this country. How could Administration, therefore, with any degree of consistency, suppose that such a system of smuggling, added to a new created system of the same, the Fishery, be all kept under by any thing less than the most powerful armaments?

Mr. Cornwall, taking an historical circuit of American affairs, in order to shew the connection and dependence of the Minister's measures on each other, replied to the objections that had been started. He remarked, that to pass Acts to restrain commerce, and to declare the extra Provincial meetings in the Colonies illegal, whose object principally was to import Arms and Ammunition, in order for the purposes of rebellion, would be nugatory and absurd, unless corresponding measures were taken to enforce those Acts; that as to great Armaments and Fleets of Men-of-War of the Line, the gentlemen of the House in that line of the military well knew them to be unnecessary and out of the question; that Sloops and the smaller Frigates would answer all the purposes by being properly stationed; that the Newfoundland Fishery was so local that a few Sloops-of-War would nearly command the whole, unless some foreign Power had a superiour force there, with whom we were at war, or on ill terms that in regard to the objections which had generally been made against using force with the Americans, he could not see their propriety, since he was persuaded that the Americans were determined to make the dispute a question of dependency on the Crown of this Realm.

Mr. Charles Fox contended strongly, that taking the affairs of America on the very footing upon which the honourable Member had thrown them, that their conduct betrayed nothing but incapacity; that the gentlemen on the Treasury bench were repeatedly telling the House of the rebellion of the Americans, and how strongly they are persuaded that they mean to throw off all dependence on this country; how then, said he, are we to account for that slothful, dilatory conduct of Administration, to sit quiet for so many months, and to seem in their management to have no idea that force could ever be used or would ever be necessary. If Administration were really persuaded of the views and intentions of the Americans; if rebellion was written among them in such legible characters, why did they not take the earliest opportunity of preventing those intentions and of stifling that rebellion. Had they conducted themselves upon the principles of common sense, they certainly would have been earlier in their intelligence to Parliament, earlier in their application, and more vigorous in their measures. But this, sir, is under the supposition that they knew the rectitude of their intentions, and approved of their own conduct. He then deviated into a personal attack on Lord North, but was uncommonly spirited throughout.

Captain Walsingham insisted that our present Naval force, was by no means adequate to the execution of our professed intentions; for that the squadron we designed for America would answer no purpose of stopping their commerce; or, if we did send a sufficient one, our own Coasts, comparatively speaking, must be left totally defenceless, as he was well informed that France alone had seventy-five Men-of-War of the Line now, more than one half of which were manned and fit for actual service. He then gave an account of a conversation which passed lately between him and a French gentleman well acquainted with the state of their Navy, from which he was fully satisfied that the whole of our force, in every part of the world, would not be sufficient to defend us at home, should we blindly rush into a civil war.

Mr. Temple Luttrell. I rise up under a number of disadvantages, and shall scarce be able to express my sentiments without much agitation and embarrassment, a novice as I am at political disquisitions, and attempting, (from a seat which till this hour I might not call my own) to speak on a subject of such high import, in the presence, and possibly against the opinion of the most experienced statesmen in any country of the universe. But, sir, it has been earnestly recommended to me, as well by the electors of the Borough of which I have the honour to be a Representative, as by several other persons of respectable consideration, that I will exert the utmost of my humble endeavours and faculties, towards the establishing of peace, and conciliating the affections of the American Colonies with their parent state of Great Britain, and to promote the joint happiness of both divisions of this mighty Empire, on the firm basis of equity and mutual good offices; and I should hold it an unpardonable omission of duty, were I to remain now silent, especially as I was precluded by the dependence before Parliament of a controverted return, from declaring my disposition towards the oppressed Colonists, at the opening of the present session, when a Speech from the Throne, of the most inimical tendency to America, and therefore the most alarming and dangerous tendency to the whole British Realm, received the thanks of this House. I was under the same preclusion when Commerce here stood a dejected supplicant, in just apprehension from the impending storm. Well, sir, might she be alarmed, to see a pilot at the helm, as the winds and the billows arise, who, rather than part with the guns, throws the merchandise overboard; save them sir, he may, by so costly a sacrifice, but not for jubilee or triumph; they shall be saved for signals of distress, and to solemnize the obsequies of your Empire.

The Merchants were not then to be heard, lest their candid story should set in the proper point of view those insidious fragments of official letters laid on your table. What human understanding could cement such a mangled correspondence together, so as to derive any clear accurate knowledge of the real condition or sentiments of the Americans? Whatsoever might extenuate offences, excuse errour, and restore perfect amity between the two countries, did the partial hand of Administration wickedly suppress, while in too glaring a light was exhibited every fact that could serve to widen the breach and inflame the passions, and blow up a faint, luckless spark of animosity to the full combustion and horrours of a civil war! These misrepresentations, however, answered the ends proposed, for both Houses were blindly entrapped to give their sanction to as sanguinary a scroll, (in the form of an Address) as was ever laid by a prostitute Senate at the feet of deluded Majesty. Did not your ancestors, sir, manfully fight, did not some of them heroically fall, to preserve those constitutional rights of the subject to every Briton, which you have now, by one vote, pledged yourself, at the hazard of life and fortune, to subvert and to annihilate throughout the better part of the whole British Monarchy?

I do not conceive it possible that any man here present can feel as he ought, be conscious of the least participation in the superintendence of the Commonwealth, and remain a mere tranquil observer, when so interesting a subject comes before you; a subject on the issue of which, perhaps, his own individual happiness or misery, doubtless the happiness or misery of his nearest posterity, will depend. With what hebitude, sir, must the blood circulate through his veins! What must his definition be of an ignominious supineness and apathy? This is not a debate of slow animation, in which few persons are concerned, and of limited