their enthusiasm. At least, nothing has hitherto happened in America that gives the least ground for a contrary suspicion.

Much, indeed, has been said of our corruption and degeneracy, and still more of the heroism and rising glories of America. What, then, is become of those heroes who, ten years ago, made England the arbitress of Europe? I hope they are not all extinct, and that their fire is not yet quenched. I hope they did not exhaust all their vigour in the last war, but left a little to their posterity, to keep us in countenance during the present contest. Was it ever heard before, that a nation confessedly distinguished for every virtue, civil and military, should have lost them all in so short a space of time, and become totally corrupt and degenerate? The supposition is, at least, improbable. Let me look around. Methinks I recognise faces that assisted in the deliberations, aye, and in the campaigns, of the last war. Let us, then, assume a little courage, and not give ourselves up as lost, because a few gentlemen choose to be jocular, for they cannot seriously think what they speak. They cannot seriously think that Heaven has wrought a miracle in favour of the rising glories of America, and suddenly converted a nation of heroes into cowards. They will, at least, except themselves, that they may be thought the only persons capable of saving this sinking land. This, indeed, they with great modesty affirm, and I cannot see what other reason they had for making England undergo such a wondrous metamorphosis—a metamorphosis which has not only affected our hearts and made us cowards, but also weakened our understandings and reasoning faculties. Sir, our lawyers, pace tua dixerim, nam tua res agitur, our lawyers are the worst statesmen in the world; our lawyers, if you believe these sagacious gentlemen, are totally incapable of all political discernment. And why are they incapable? Autos epha, these prophets, as they would be thought, these oracles have said it; and what further proof can you desire? To be serious, if a lawyer is a sorry politician, it is the fault of the man and not of the profession. To be a complete lawyer, it is necessary for a man to have the most liberal and extensive education, to be a master not only of our own history and Constitution, but of the history and Constitution of all European States, as well as of ancient Kingdoms and Re-publicks. To acquire any degree of eminence, he must be thoroughly versed in our own municipal laws, and in everything that affects publick or private property. With all this acquired knowledge, he must be possessed of an intuitive quickness of discernment, to separate truth from falsehood, and by practice must have improved this faculty into a habit approaching to nature; and, as Cicero held that none but a good man can be a complete orator, so I hold that none but a good man can be a complete lawyer. See, then, how many qualities of a politician he derives from his profession, or rather, of how few, if of any, he is destitute. Do not imagine that I am here arrogantly describing myself; I am too well acquainted with my own defects to be so presumptuous; I only plead the cause of a profession of which I am an unworthy member, and which, without including its present luminaries, has produced as many great men, I had almost said, as all the other professions taken collectively, certainly more than any one of them singly; of a profession which, from its nature, seems peculiarly calculated for expanding the human mind, for giving it scope for its utmost exertions, and for training legislators and statesmen. If not from among the lawyers, whence will you take your politicians? From the order of country gentlemen? Their profession is to attend to the culture of their lands, to take care of the game, and of their hounds and horses. From the order of the nobility? They stand in the same predicament as the country gentlemen. From the order of merchants or physicians? The latter have studied the preservation and reparation of the human body, and the former the preservation and reparation of their own fortune. Each, I own, may have treasured up political knowledge as an ornament or an amusement, but cannot claim it as a necessary requisite to his condition of life. The lawyer, alone, asserts as his peculium, as a property inseparable from his station, this most perfect branch of ethicks, the science of legislation, and of regulating the commonwealth. He may never be called to this arduous task, but, if called, and a complete lawyer, he is qualified, and is not the less fit for his own employment when he descends from a publick to a private station. In short, politicks are in no shape incompatible with his profession; the smiles or frowns of a Minister may sometimes increase or diminish, but cannot destroy his practice. Not so with the soldier: when he forsakes the war of swords for the war of tongues, and commences a candidate for civil instead of military fame, he frequently becomes, if unsuccessful, a pernicious member of society. I wish the same observation were not applicable to the other orders that I have mentioned; and that, soured by disappointment and urged by want, they did not proceed to unjustifiable lengths, but preserve that moderation and decorum for which lawyers, not past the Chancellorship, have, from the permanence of their business, been hitherto distinguished. Of publick characters, I know none more dangerous than a disappointed politician by profession. He is ever restless, ever plotting; constantly thwarting Government in laudable no less than in blameable plans. Would to God the present age were less fertile of this breed, and that the people addressing the Sovereign had less reason to brand them as the primary authors of our present calamities. Pudet hac approlria nobis et dici potuisse et non potuisse refelli.

Mr. Burke rose at ten o’clock, and spoke for near two hours. He repeated some expressions of Lord North, on American affairs, some time since; such as, that he would bring the Americans to his feet, &c., and contrasted them with the late events in America, which caused a good deal of laughter. He then drew their serious attention to the present situation of affairs. He compared the Americans to a people who had emancipated themselves, and described the mother country as a piratical disturber of the ports and trade of the Colonies. He spoke largely on the disgrace brought upon the British arms, by being cooped up a whole campaign in Boston, by those who had been called an undisciplined cowardly rabble. He strongly represented the danger to Great Britain in carrying on the American war; and concluded with advising the Minister no longer to make England appear like a porcupine, armed at all points with Acts of Parliament, oppressive to the trade and freedom of America; but to show a friendly countenance, and to meet the Colonists with open arms.

Mr. Fox described Lord North as the blundering pilot who had brought the nation into its present difficulties. Administration, he said, exult at having brought us into this dilemma. They have reason to triumph. Lord Chatham, the King of Prussia, nay, Alexander the Great, never gained more in one campaign than the noble Lord has lost—he has lost a whole Continent. Although he thought the Americans had gone too far, and were not justifiable in what they had done, yet they were more justifiable for resisting, than they would have been had they submitted to the tyrannical acts of a British Parliament; that when the question was, whether a people ought to submit to slavery, or aim at freedom by a spirited resistance, the alternative which must strike every Englishman was, the choice of the latter. He took occasion to speak of his father, and the fluctuation of Ministers at the commencement of the last war. He declared his father was Secretary of State only four months, and finding himself without power, and merely a nominal Minister, he did as every man of spirit should do on such an occasion, he gave up his place. He then applied this observation to the noble Lord on the Treasury bench, and in a very pointed manner intimated that it was high time a change of men took place, that a change of measures might accompany it. He took occasion to mention the political distinctions of Whig and Tory, and describing the present Ministers as enemies to freedom, declared they were Tories. He made a comparison between the conduct of Administration and the conduct of America, showing the weakness, the error, and the imprudence of the former, and the firmness, the spirit, and the just pursuits of the latter. He combated the argument of the King’s Speech which inferred that America aimed at independency; and by a chain of reasoning he showed, that to be popular in America it was necessary to talk of dependance on Great Britain, and to hold that out as the object in pursuit. He rallied Lord North on the rapid progress he had made in misfortune, having expended nearly as large a sum to acquire national disgrace, as that most able Minister, Lord Chatham, had expended in gaining that glorious lustre with which he had encircled the British name. He did not approve of everything done by Lord