conjecture might choose to specify; was it certain that, by the conquest of this or that town, the spirit of the people would be broken, or the ferocity of their passion for liberty restrained within just such bounds of decorum as Parliament might prescribe? If this could not be ensured, the depopulation of villages, or the levelling of towns, were triumphs which cruelty only could delight in, or a thirst for blood propose. What proofs, however, had we to exhibit, that even our arms would be attended with such success as to carry fire and sword undefeated throughout the continent? The troops under the command of General Gage had acted bravely; but what victory had they achieved? The unhappy affair at Lexington evinced, that those regiments which were to “look” the Americans into subjection, did not altogether carry such terrour in their countenances. Hence, in his judgment, from the specimens already afforded; from considering the state of the country on the one hand, the disposition of the people on the other, and the various accumulating difficulties attending the subsistence of the army, in proportion as it was further advanced from the mart of supplies—all these circumstances collectively taken, formed grounds sufficient to pronounce on the impracticability of the conquest.

But laying aside for one moment the practicability of conquest, whither were we to turn our eyes for that colossal army by which the reduction of America was to be effected? The noble Duke had heard of twenty thousand Russians. This might be mere matter of report; but as Ministry did not think it expedient to afford Parliament any solid information, report was all that Peers now had to debate on. There was such a fluctuation of men, though no change of measures, that it was impossible for him to conjecture to whom he should apply for information. Whether or not the noble Lord in red [Lord Lyttelton] was now a Minister of the day, could not with certainty be pronounced; if the Peer alluded to was in the secrets of Government, he might possibly indulge the House with some information respecting the twenty thousand Russians intended to be sent against America. In the interim, the noble Duke thought it by no means inexpedient to state the expensiveness of the measure, as a principal reason why it should be reprobated. The transportation of twenty thousand Russians would cost Government five hundred thousand pounds. An equal number of British troops should be sent at the same period, or Ministry might find that the Russians, instead of conquering America for England, would take possession of it themselves, in virtue of that law of conquest, acknowledged by all freebooters. That the Russians would gladly emigrate to America, no person could doubt who was in the smallest degree acquainted with the dispositions of those people. Shoals of Cossacks were continually deserting their country, to seek more comfortable settlements in the north of China: seventy thousand of these Cossacks, proceeding on such a plan, had lately bidden adieu to the Russian empire. It could not, therefore, • be imagined, that twenty thousand Russians would have the least objection to be sent, free of expense, to America; but there was much reason to suspect, that, when there, they might think the advantages resulting from submitting to the American Congress preferable to those they could derive from defending the measures of a British Parliament.

His Grace next treated the plan of sending live stock to Boston, in order to supply the King’s troops with fresh meat, with great ridicule, and showed the difficulties the army would have to encounter, supposing they should be able to penetrate into the country: a close country in some places, in others abounding in forests and underwoods, intersected by deep and broad rivers; but, above all, a country where every bush would conceal an enemy; where the cultivated parts would be laid waste, and the army, (if any army could march or subsist,) would be obliged to draw all its provisions from Europe, and all its fresh meat from Smithfield market. Supposing, then, that the troops had scarcely anything to impede their progress, yet the necessity of carrying along with them everything they wanted, through a country thus rendered a desert, would give birth to such an innumerable train of difficulties, as no General, however experienced, would be able to obviate; nor no troops, however brave, be able to surmount. To this picture he contrasted the contents of the paper now on their Lordships’ table-the Petition from the Continental Congress to the King-which breathes nothing but loyalty and obedience to his Majesty, and submission to the constitutional claims of Parliament. Here his Grace referred to several passages, expressive of those sentiments, and again alluded to several parts of the evidence in affirmance of their sincerity; and concluded by drawing a picture of the various blessings that would, be derived, and the innumerable evils that would be averted, should their Lordships think proper to take the Petition into consideration, on the foot of deeming it a proper foundation of treaty and concession. His Grace then moved,

“That the matter of the said Petition affords ground of conciliation of the unhappy differences subsisting between the mother country and the. Colonies; and that it is highly necessary that proper steps be immediately taken for attaining so desirable an object.”

The Earl of Dartmouth contended, it was impossible to recognise the Petition which was the subject of the present motion, without at the same instant relinquishing the sovereignty of the British Parliament. It was no longer a question about taxation, about the quantum to be raised, or the mode of raising it; it was not the conquest, but the allegiance of the Colonies, which Administration were desirous of obtaining. In estimating the force necessary for the subjugation of America, as well as in stating the necessity of immediate conciliation, the noble Duke had proceeded on the supposition of there being two equal belligerent Powers engaged in a contest which it was the interest of both to have decided by accommodation. Had the noble Duke purposely forgotten that the belligerent Power, whose prowess he had so much extolled, was composed of subjects, now in open rebellion against the parent State? In proportion as the Americans were more capable of resistance, the virtue of abstaining from such an unjustifiable conduct, would have been more conspicuous. To extol, therefore, the power of the Colonists, was only to heighten the degree of their guilt in exerting that power against the very state which had afforded them protection through an age of infancy, and had nurtured them to manhood at the expense of blood and treasure. The noble Lord adverted to a question which had been propounded to Mr. Penn, respecting “the silence of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, when the Petition from the Congress to the King was delivered for presentation.” It had been remarked, with some degree of surprise, that not a syllable of answer had been returned. Was not silence in matters of this nature perfectly conformable to the usage of office? Was it not a fact of notoriety, that the King is not expected to give an answer to any Petition, unless presented to him on the throne? It would have been highly indecent, therefore, in the Secretary, to have given an answer unauthorized. If the silence was construed into a disapprobation of the Petition, it was, in the noble Lord’s opinion, a very justifiable construction. The Petition, in terms, was unexceptionable, but there was every reason to believe that the softness of the language was purposely adopted to conceal the most traitorous designs. Did it become the offending party to dictate the terms on which peace would be accepted?

The Earl of Shelburne began with observing, that this was not a time to enter into the conduct of the Americans on the one hand, or that of Ministers on the other; yet he could not think it possible but that a day must come, when the conduct of Ministers would be inquired into. For the arrival of that day his Lordship reserved himself; in the interim, he could not return to his habitation with an approving sense of having discharged his duty, without delivering those sentiments which, after making up his mind on the subject, he professed to flow from the principles of his heart. His Lordship entirely concurred with the motion; he adopted the Petition from the Congress to the King, as affording grounds of conciliation : he closed with those grounds, and he thought Administration should do the same, for this, amongst other cogent reasons-because there remained no other alternative.

In his apprehension, there were only two obstacles which could be urged against the motion for accepting the Petition from the Congress as a basis for reconciliation. It might be urged, in the first place,

That to yield to the proposal of the Colonists was to give up the point of taxation.

In the next place it might be censured,

As derogating from the dignity of Parliament to treat with an assembly not legalized as a Congress.