ous conflict. Now, I can tell the noble Lord that this is exactly the situation of all the heroes in North America; they are all Romans. And are these the men to fright us from the post of honour? Believe me, my Lords, the very sound of a cannon would carry them off, in Sir Peter's words, as fast as their feet could carry them. This is too trifling a part of the argument, to detain your Lordships any longer. The noble Earl then went on to abuse the Americans for not paying their debts; he made no doubt that the real motive of their Associations, was to defraud their creditors; that the Congress, on which the noble Lord has passed high encomiums, was a seditious and treasonable meeting of persons assembled to resist the legal and just authority of the supreme Legislative power; and however dignified by his Lordship, or any other noble Lord, he should always continue to describe it by the latter appellation, as its only true and proper name. His Lordship entered into a long examination of the purport of the evidence given at the bar by Messrs. Lyster, Davis, Shuldham, and Paliser; and laboured to prove that the present Bill, whatever other objects it might take in, was not, nor ought to be, a bill of intimidation or experiment, but a perpetual law of commercial regulation, operating to extend our trade, to increase our seamen, and strengthen our Naval power.

The Earl of Shelburne, after stating at large the nature of the Newfoundland Fishery, and its great importance to this country, observed, that unless the present Bill was taken up as a permanent commercial regulation, however great an object it might be, it was by no means at present before the House. You are told it is in proof before you, that the people of Nantucket, the unoffending, peaceable inhabitants of that Island, will be deprived of every means of sustenance and support, should this Bill pass into a law. It remains yet uncontradicted, that the people of New England have not Corn nearly sufficient for their own consumption; and this Bill says they shall not be supplied elsewhere. How nugatory and ridiculous it is, then, to talk of commercial regulation, which is supposed to include improvement and protection, when that regulation is immediately directed to starve and oppress one part of your subjects, to whom there is not so much as any crime or offence imputed, in order to give commercial advantages to another. But if the several laws in being, for the improvement of the Newfoundland Fishery, are not sufficient, or that the Admiralty, in whose department it is, satisfy Parliament that those powers have been properly exerted, and are found to be inadequate, let a Bill be brought in for that purpose. I am convinced of the very great importance of the Fishery; and no man in this House will be more zealous to give it his most warm support, than I shall be. His Lordship next adverted to the sedentary Fishery, given up to Canada by the Quebec Bill, and fully explained the great pains taken by the two very able men who preceded him at the Board of Trade, Charles Townshend and a certain noble Lord and himself, to annex the Fishery of Labrador, &c., to that of Newfoundland. He gave the most flattering testimony to the attention and great abilities of Sir Hugh Palliser, to whom he entrusted the entire negotiation of that difficult affair with the Count De Guerchy, the French Minister. He entirely coincided in sentiments with the noble Lord (Camden) who called this a Bill of Pains, Penalties, and Coercion, not of Commercial Regulation. He agreed with him likewise, that the popular tide was against him; but he was certain it would not be long before it took a different turn, as the people would find they were deceived, and Parliament would at length discover they were misinformed and misled. He therefore, as a member of that body, put in his early claim of objecting to the current Ministerial language, that Parliament did this, and Parliament did that, for he insisted that Parliament had done nothing; it was the Ministry had done all. Attend only a minute to their conduct, said his Lordship, and you will see that what I have now advanced is strictly true. They have laid before us a mutilated correspondence, precisely calculated to answer certain purposes. On one hand they have suppressed whole letters, and of such as they have laid before us, they have only given partial extracts; on the other, they have held back the whole of the official letters on this side of the water, one or two of no consequence only excepted. Will any noble Lord seriously affirm, that whatever proceedings have been taken on such information, can be deemed the proceedings of Parliament? Or that any set of Ministers will be permitted to screen themselves under the protection of Parliament, when it shall be discovered that the measures recommended and adopted, were framed on facts misstated, or for want of material ones designedly suppressed? His Lordship concluded, with observing the strange diversity of sentiment which prevailed among the several leading members in Administration. He alluded to the plan of conciliation proposed by Lord North, which was instantly reprobated. He then observed, that of several of the noble Lords, no two of them scarcely thought alike; some were for commercial regulation, others for asserting the right, without wishing for a paltry revenue, and a very considerable body for the right and revenue both. This state of things put him in mind of a General whom he served under in Germany, a native of that country, who first desired the Regiments at the right to form to the left, then again to the right, then to the rear, again to the right-about; that the Troops, after being harassed for two days by these absurd, contradictory manoeuvres, at last found themselves in the place they set out from, without making the least way, on which the General desired every Corps to march as they liked, so as to make their way in the most speedy manner to the place of their destination. He hoped, however, that Englishmen would never copy the slavish obedience of Germans, but would learn to act for themselves, and spurn the direction of those who knew neither to lead them to victory, nor protect them from ruin.

The Earl of Suffolk totally disapproved of some of the reasoning employed, and facts alluded to, by Lord Sandwich. He said, that noble Lord's insinuations and assertions, that the Americans would not fight, were what he could not approve of. He believed, there were as brave men in that country as in any other; and though the fact were otherwise, he could never hear it asserted, with any degree of satisfaction, that there was any part of the King's subjects deficient in that degree of personal courage for which the whole were so justly renowned. There was another point much laboured by the same noble Lord, to which he could never give his assent; and he was sorry to hear it relied on, and so much adverted to in the course of the debate; that was, that the present Bill was meant to be a measure of permanent commercial regulation, distinct from its main object. This, he said, was by no means the intention of its original framers; it was intended as a bill of coercion, to oblige the people of New England to submit to the legal and just power of the mother country, and that the faith of Parliament would be pledged to them to restore the Fishery as soon as it should appear that they had returned to their former obedience. His Lordship then proceeded to defend the Bill on that idea; and, in answer to what had been said relative to the diversity of opinions which prevailed among the King's servants, he was certain there was not a second among them as to the material question of the right, and the means of exerting it. As to the conciliatory motion in the other House, he owned that many of the Members of it were much staggered, and very justly so, till it came to be explained; and, for his part, he should be much grieved if there was not as great a majority against it as there appeared for it, if the motion had not admitted of the obvious sense it did when it came to be examined. He repeated how happy he was in being one of the persons who advised the dissolution of Parliament, as the designs and expectations of America were at once frustrated and broken by that measure; and concluded in replying to what the noble Marquis dropped early in the debate, that the repeal of the Stamp Act was the source from which all our present confusions had totally originated.

The Earl of Radnor said, he was at the throne, going out, not intending to vote on either side, when he heard the last noble Earl pledge the faith of Parliament that so valuable a branch of our commerce was intended to be given up to the New Englanders, as a sacrifice for their returning to their duty. It was an improper language to be held in that House, nor was the policy in every respect less exceptionable; for both which reasons he had returned to give his voice against the Bill.

The Earl of Suffolk said, he did not mean, as a Minister, to pledge the faith of Parliament, nor did he promise the