and, to my apprehension, except a certain degree of address necessary to meet the prejudices which have been wickedly and industriously excited here, there cannot be a fairer opportunity offered of extricating this country from the ruinous situation in which the folly of Administration has involved us. It furnishes the fairest foundation for an honourable and advantageous accommodation. I have been long and intimately known to some gentlemen of that country, one of whom now takes a considerable share in their proceedings; and I have ever found them and their correspondents constant and earnest in the wish for conciliation, upon the terms of ancient connection.

My Lords, you have heard two of his Majesty’s Ministers acknowledge they were deceived in their information, and have erred in their measures respecting America. There wants only a similar acknowledgment from a certain law Lord, who was forward to pledge himself last year for the success of their plans. A little blood, indeed, he owned, they might cost; but with that, their efficacy was inevitable. The noble Lord’s political sagacity has for once forsaken him. A great deal of blood has been unhappily shed, to no purpose, but to sever us more, if not put us asunder forever.

But is it possible that your Lordships should not have marked, and marked with indignation, the levity, and even ridicule, with which the noble Lord at the head of the Admiralty has treated this most solemn subject? No man who did not feel himself secure in the promise of impunity from some quarter, would proclaim his mistakes in triumph, and sport with the calamities of his country. It is astonishing that any one should have dared to promise impunity to such fatal errors, and a conduct so criminal: it is your Lordships’ business to look to this. Should such men not only be at large unaccused, but highly trusted, adding fresh insults, misleading by fresh misinformation, and manifesting a total contempt of the publick, both here and in America? The noble Lord laughs at all propositions of conciliation; repeats his imputation of cowardice against the Americans; says the idea of rights is to be driven out of their heads by blows; and ridicules the objections to employing foreigners and papists. Is this a language, my Lords, becoming so great an officer of state? Is it decent thus to stigmatise so great a part of the empire with so base a calumny? It is impossible that noble Lord can have less intolerancy in his disposition than I have; but it does not therefore follow that I should think it a measure of no moment, or of inconsiderable danger, to arm the hands of those who are strangers to toleration, and who pant for the extirpation of the Protestant religion. By what authority is it, that the Crown has put the strong fortresses of this empire into the possession of foreign troops? I do not inquire whether it is with or against the letter of any particular law. I see it fundamentally infringing the first principles of our Government; and do not hesitate to pronounce it high treason against the Constitution. I foretell it is a measure which the indignation of this country will pursue, till it is utterly condemned. For, my Lords, if there were a settled plan to subdue the liberties of this country, what surer means could be adopted than those of arming Roman Catholicks and introducing foreign troops? Before you venture to make Roman Catholicks soldiers, let them be made citizens. They will otherwise willingly employ the arms in their hands, to destroy those privileges of which they are not suffered to partake. If Hanover assists us, we must defend her when invaded. This involves us in Continental connections and wars, which have already almost overwhelmed us with debt. In every view, then, these measures are impolitick, unconstitutional, and dangerous.

Much has been said, my Lords, about not distrusting the present Prince upon the throne, though we may be jealous of trusting such powers with those who may succeed him. It is not now a time for compliments. I do not distrust the King that is now upon the throne. I have more veneration for the character of King William than for that of any Prince that ever swayed a sceptre. The greatness of his talents, the virtues and the heroism of his heart, render him, in my estimation, the first of men. Yet had I been in that Parliament which refused him his Dutch guards, I should have been the foremost in so wise and constitutional a measure. My vote, my Lords, shall never be given for trusting the dangerous power of the sword in foreign hands. And however I may trust English swords will never be employed against English liberties, yet I hold it my duty, as a guardian of the Constitution, to look ever with a jealous eye on the augmentation even of an English army.

My Lords, the Ministers lament that it is their task, in this American business, to support the measure of another Administration. This is some acknowledgment, at least, that the measure was wrong. Why, then, did they support it? What secret influence has compelled them to heap errors on errors, grievance upon grievance, till they have shaken the Constitution to its foundation, and brought the whole empire into danger and confusion? The Americans judge from facts. They have seen a uniform lurking spirit of despotism pervade every Administration. It has prevailed over the wisest and most constitutional counsels; it has precipitated us into the most pernicious of all wars—a war with our brothers, our friends, and our fellow-subjects. It was this lurking spirit of despotism that produced the Stamp Act in 1765; that fettered the repeal of that act in 1766; that revived the principles of it in 1767; that has accumulated oppression upon oppression since, till at length it has openly established, by the Quebeck Bill, Popery and arbitrary power over half America.

It is the constant endeavour, my Lords, of those who lend themselves as the instruments of all the measures prompted, by that pernicious spirit, for the emoluments it yields, to throw upon us the imputation of being prompted to opposition solely by a desire of the same emoluments. But, my Lords, whatever may be the object in ordinary times, the present are big with dangers that absorb every other consideration. The inevitable consequence of persevering in these measures must be such a depreciation of our estates, that opulence will be reduced to competence, and that to indigence. In contemplation of this adversity, I feel it a happiness that I have been bred a soldier; accustomed to the moderation of that life, my fall from opulence will be easy; such may it be with the rest of your Lordships! But as you would avoid this, and still greater calamities, let me beseech you to temper, and restrain with your wisdom, the violence of this fatal address.

The question was put, Whether the words proposed as an amendment shall be inserted in the said motion?

It was resolved in the negative. Contents 29; Non-contents 69.

Then it was moved, “To agree to the said motion for an Address as at first proposed.”

Which being objected to;

The question was put thereupon.

It was resolved in the affirmative. Contents 66, and proxies 10—in all 76; Non-contents 33;* no proxies.

The following Protest was entered:

“Dissentient,

“1st. Because we cannot, as Englishmen, as Christians, or as men of common humanity, consent to the prosecution of a cruel civil war, so little supported by justice, and so very fatal in its necessary consequences, as that which is now waging against our brethren and fellow-subjects in America. We have beheld, with sorrow and indignation, session after session, and notwithstanding repeated warnings of the danger, attempts made to deprive some millions of British subjects of their trade, their laws, their constitution, their mutual intercourse, and of the very food which God has given them for their subsistence. We have beheld endeavours used to enforce these impolitick severities at the point of the bayonet. We have, on the other hand, beheld so large a part of the empire, united in one common cause, really sacrificing, with cheerfulness, their lives and fortunes, and preferring all the horrors of a war, raging in the very heart of their country, to ignominious ease. We have beheld this part of his Majesty’s subjects, thus irritated by resistance, and so successful in it, still making professions (in which we think it neither wise nor decent to affect a disbelief) of the utmost loyalty to his Majesty; and unwearied with continued repulses, repeatedly petitioning for conciliation, upon such terms only as shall be consistent

* List of the Minority.

DUKES.—Richmond, Grafton, Devonshire, Portland, Manchester.

MARQUIS.—Rockingham.

EARLS.—Stamford, Thanet, Abingdon, Scarborough, Coventry, Jersey, Cholmondeley, Tankerville, Effingham, Fitzwilliam, Radnor.

VISCOUNT.—Torrington.

LORDS.—Craven, Sondes, Boyle, Monson, King, Chedworth, Archer, Romney, Ponsonby, Lyttelton, Wycombe, Beaulieu, Camden.

BISHOPS.—St. Asaph, Peterborough.