revenge, and at every risk to endeavour to keep their places as long as they can, without attending to reason, humanity, justice, or good policy; therefore, with them, as with the mercenary and necessitous, it may be in vain to argue, for they will probably be found as callous to conviction as the leaders of Administration are, who, instead of being convinced of the fatal errors they have already been guilty of, by the most horrid scenes of bloodshed, seem, with equal rashness to be precipitating the Colonies, the West-India Islands, this country, and all its dependencies, into every species of wretchedness, poverty, disorder, and distress, that can render us miserable or contemptible abroad. But, sir, a chance still remains that we shall be able to avert these impending dangers; it is, that we may meet protection from the independent gentlemen of England, and from those who have been deceived by the misrepresentations of such artful and designing men as I shall endeavour to mark, by separating the voice of faction from that of truth. We have found, sir, by woful experience, from which side of the House misinformation has hitherto come. The noble Lord and his adherents, to obtain the support of those whom no private interest or party zeal could bias, assured us in the last session of Parliament, with plausibility too sufficient to impose upon such as neither doubted their integrity, nor were aware of the enthusiastick spirit for liberty which at that time prevailed throughout all America, that the dispute was by no means of the alarming nature gentlemen apprehended; that it was a contest between a single Province and this country; that the Americans in general were friends to Government, and waited but the arrival of a single regiment to manifest their approbation of measures which, we were told, were just, politick, and necessary, and eventually would prove successful. The noble Lord had not a single doubt but that peace, reconciliation, and good fellowship would take place speedily, happily, and without bloodshed: but he assured us, if the contest continued, we stood upon, ground that would enable us to enforce by arms an acquiescence with those laws we had a right to impose; that the Insurgents neither merited protection from this nor from that side the water, for they had added the crime of the highest ingratitude to illegal resistance; that the late war was an American war, undertaken merely for their protection and support, which had involved this country in a heavy debt, and now they refused to contribute to it; in short, that the contest was, whether New-England or Old-England should get the better; though I fear this will prove the most losing game, on both sides, that ever was played; for no penetrating eye yet can discern if the victors or the vanquished will eventually be the greatest sufferers. Sir, a right honourable member, too, who enjoys a very beneficial employment, told us, for our comfort, that our fellow-subjects in America were indiscriminately a race of cowards; that they would not abide the resolves of the Congress, nor ever be brought to face General Gage’s Army. Sir, with language like this, dressed in the best attire of eloquence to render it persuasive, and the temporary bait of three shillings land tax, (of which, I fear, we may take our leave forever,) have Administration endeavoured to lull gentlemen into a political lethargy; if with success, I hope they will awake at this critical moment, and pause at least before they concur further in measures which must render us a nation bankrupt in men, in treasure, and in consequence. Now, sir, what did we learn from this side of the House, and from some gentlemen near me of rank, property, character, and integrity? Why, that Administration were either very ill-informed themselves, or meant to deceive us; that the dispute was unfortunately of a more serious tendency than probably any gentleman had formed an idea of; that it was by no means what the noble Lord represented—a partial dispute between a single Province and this country; but the manly, firm, laudable, and constitutional efforts of free-born subjects to preserve, at the risk of their lives, that liberty with which their forefather emigrated, and which have been hitherto (long may it continue so) the natural produce of this soil; that the late acts of Parliament respecting America were reprobated from one end of that Continent to the other, as the most arbitrary violation of the liberties of mankind in general, and of their rights and privileges as English subjects in particular, which they would never sacrifice to the pride, ambition, or persecution of any set of Ministers whatsoever. Now, sir, by truth’s fair test, let the foes as well as the friends of America be judged. Was the dispute of the trifling nature Government represented, and are the Americans so easily to be vanquished? Have they not hitherto conformed to the resolves of the Congress as minutely as to any laws upon the face of the earth? Will they not fight in a just cause? and may they not even be provoked to face General Gage’s Army? In short, sir, has not the notorious fallacy of every argument of Administration, in the course of a very few months, been made manifest to the universe? But I am aware it will be said by some, that the Americans are neither exonerated from the charge of ingratitude, nor an attempt to became an independent State. To these, I answer, that these are assertions, weak and absurd as those I have recapitulated, and will equally fail in proof; for you must either deny that America is like any other mercantile nation, which derives its wealth and consequence from commerce; or admit that, without one ship of force to boast of, she must, for the present at least, and probably for a century to come, seek the protection of some great maritime power, or be subject every day to have her coasts insulted, or her trade destroyed, by the most piratical petty States that can boast a moscheto fleet, in the like manner they now unfortunately and unjustly experience from the formidable navy of England, whose interest, as well as duty, it is to protect and defend them. Sir, on the score of ingratitude, I must observe, that where great nations, like France and England, ever jealous of the power of each other, feel themselves in a situation to take up arms, they will not be long finding an occasion; but it so happens that the first hostilities previous to the late war commenced in Asia, not in America; the battle of Arcot was fought by Lord Clive (then Captain Clive) against the French; that of Tritchinopoly by Major Lawrence, and a powerful fleet ordered to India, under the command of the Admirals Watson and Pocock, before the French were known to have committed any encroachments on the Ohio. But, sir, the Ministers of those days, in every respect very unlike the present, regarded America as a mine of inestimable value to this country, and were therefore tenacious of every acre of that possession. They had spirit enough to resent the insults of foreign powers, and wisdom enough to see the importance of the contest; that it was not merely whether you would suffer the French to harass our fellow-subjects in America, which humanity or justice ought to have forbade their acquiescence in, but that it was of no less moment than whether the Colonies should remain dependant upon England, or become an appendage to the Crown of France.

Sir, the French, at that time, were not only masters of the best fortresses and most accessible harbours in America, but of a vast tract of territory there, exclusive of the great possessions of the Indians, whom they had artfully, politicly, and industriously gained over to their religion and interest; by whose assistance they defeated your army under General Braddock, and would probably have become masters of the country, had you not fortunately intercepted their reinforcements, and beat them at sea. Sir, the advantages you derived from that victory, to the fatal hour in which you madly threw them away, I will not take up the time of the House to enumerate, though they are very many that fall within the scope of my superficial knowledge. I will only say, that in addition to the increase of some millions, annually, to your publick stock, the wealth, prosperity, and consequence of your West-India Islands are all derived from America. She, sir, has furnished them with the necessaries of life, and with almost every kind of store fitting to carry on their works. She has taken in barter their rum and molasses; the sugars have been mostly sent to this country, and the net produce of them circulated amongst us. Now, sir, the planter may seek a distant market for his commodities. He must purchase his stores with specie, at vast disadvantage. Part of his plantation will be turned into provision grounds, and the losses he daily sustains by this unfortunate dispute will inevitably increase every hour it continues.

But I expect to be told, as we were last year, that these are imaginary grievances, temporary inconveniences, and short-lived distresses. Here, sir, admitting that the late war was undertaken merely for the support and advantage of the Americans, then, sir, to them we fortunately owe the great and flourishing state of this nation at its conclusion. How unlike, sir, was that war to the present. It was constitutional,

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