nothing, it is now said, will satisfy America but independence; that the people of that country have almost universally taken up arms; they act not only on the defensive, but have endeavoured to deprive you of all Canada; an inquiry, they say, would produce a fatal procrastination; the urgency and necessity of the case demand and justify immediate vigour and execution. These must be pursued, or the government of the Colonies surrendered to an ambitious Congress.

Such are the reasons advanced to preclude inquiry, and to procure a hasty acquiescence in schemes of policy, on which the fate of the empire so materially depends. By such arguments as these our jealousy is excited, and our resentment inflamed against a people who, after the most earnest endeavours to preserve their liberties from invasion by petition and remonstrance; after having repeatedly submitted their complaints, without effect, to the justice of Parliament, and laid them humbly at the foot of the Throne; after beholding the most formidable preparations to divest them of their rights by the sword; after finding hostilities already commenced and fresh violences threatened,—have taken up arms in their own defence, and endeavoured to repel destructive force by force.

The complexion and character of their present opposition (whether unjust or honourable) rests not on their present measures, but arises from, and must be weighed by, the causes which have made such a conduct and such measures necessary. A free and impartial inquiry, therefore, into the leading and primary causes, is indispensably necessary to a just decision of the case. If their claims of exemption from Parliamentary taxation are founded in equity and the principles of the Constitution; if they have been driven by a wanton, cruel, and impolitick attack on their privileges to their present desperate defence; then the whole guilt and censure is chargeable on those, and those alone, whose ambition and ill-directed measures have forced them to these extremities. Thus, also, if a form of Government is introduced into Canada, breathing little of the spirit of English liberty, and intending to link the Canadians to the chain of Ministerial influence; if they scrupled not to make a religion which has so often deluged Europe with blood, an engine of their despotism to crush the Protestant Colonies; if every artifice was used to seduce and employ a servile, bigoted people to subvert the liberties of America,—can we wonder, can we complain, if the Colonists wisely diverted the storm, and secured a country to their own alliance, the strength and arms of which were avowedly to be directed to their destruction?

When what was dearer to them than their lives—their liberties, were at stake; when their opposition to Government reached no higher than petition and resolves, then they were stigmatized with want of courage. Every method was taken to irritate them. Insults on their character as a people were added to encroachments on their rights as citizens. The pencil of confident oppression described them as a herd of pusillanimous wretches, whom the appearance of martial array would terrify into submission. How unjust, how impolitick, to reduce men to the miserable alternative of being branded with the epithet of cowards, or of taking up arms to vindicate their injured honour and liberties; first to compel them to resistance, and then derive arguments of their guilt from their vigour, courage, and success. How contemptible the cause which pleads the misfortunes it has occasioned as reasons for its support!

The arguments of Administration, stripped of their false colourings, with all humility, I conceive to be these: “We have plunged Great Britain into a most expensive and ruinous contest with her Colonies; we have opened the door for endless animosities, by reviving disputed questions and claims which shake the foundation of empire; the measures we have pursued have increased the storm, and multiplied the common misfortunes; we have joined all America in a firm league against you; your trade has been impaired, your ships insulted and taken; we have lost for you every place of strength or importance in the Colonies, and have left you an army broken by sickness, fatigue, and want, and now perishing under all the mortifications, ignominy, and miseries of an inglorious imprisonment. These are our pleas for support; these are the recommendations of our Councils. We lay before you the miscarriages and evils which our past measures have produced, to persuade you to place new confidence in our wisdom, and to give more liberal aid to our judicious schemes for the future.”

These, however, are not the only blushing honours which deck the temples of Administration. They have lately displayed the happy art of drawing arguments in their favour from the misfortunes of their friends, as well as from the success of their enemies, and prove that they are as incapable of gratitude as of justice. When gentlemen in this House (influenced by motives of humanity) recommended an exception of the friends of Government in the Colonies from the rigours of the late Prohibitory Bill, Administration suddenly changed its voice; and they who just before had boasted that a majority of the Americans were friendly to their cause, and only waited an opportunity to declare it with safety, now pronounced, that no distinction could be made, for that they had preserved at best “a shameful neutrality,” and deserved to be subject to the common calamity of their country. This was the liberal reward bestowed on men who espoused their cause from principle, and maintained it, undaunted and unsupported, through obloquy and the most imminent danger to their fortunes, families, and lives.

I will not at present trespass on the patience of the House by entering into particulars; but I cannot forbear saying, the friends of peace and good order in the Province of New-York did not deserve to be reproached with a shameful neutrality; they stood forth, and opposed, as long as they were able, the increasing current of tumult and disorder, and exposed themselves, by their endeavours to preserve their Colonial Constitution, to the resentment and vengeance of their incensed neighbours. In a dutiful manner they submitted their grievances to the clemency of this House, and the justice of their Sovereign. I need not insist on the consequence. I shall not dwell on the contempt with which their zealous advances to a reconciliation were rejected. But I must desire all those who declaim on their ignominious neutrality, to remember that Administration not only neglected to aid them with a force sufficient to maintain their opposition against the zealots in their own Province, and the united powers of the adjacent Colonies, but withdrew to Boston the few troops under the command of General Haldimand, which might have assisted in preserving order, and the freedom and impartiality of publick proceedings. By such means the Colony was laid open to incursions; many were obliged to secure their persons from danger, by forsaking their friends and country, and leaving their property at the discretion of their enemies, whilst a greater number waited, with silent patience, under every affliction, for the vigorous protection of Great Britain.

Their zealous and firm adherence to their principles crown them with honour. That they have not been successful, that they were borne down by the superior force of their opponents, that they are left to share in the common distress and common punishments of their unfortunate countrymen, beams no lustre, however, on the characters of those by whom they were neglected, betrayed, and sacrificed. By this impolicy, the command and management of the key and mainspring of America has been lost to this country; a speedy and effectual security of which might have saved us from the present gloomy prospect of intestine carnage and accumulating misery. Surely, the representative body of the nation are bound, in duty to their constituents, to examine the reasons of such neglect and misconduct; and they, in particular, who are the asserters of Parliamentary supremacy, are concerned to inquire why so effectual a method of weakening the opposition in America, and supporting their own adherents, has been totally omitted. But there is no necessity of dwelling on this circumstance to prove the obligations this country is under to Ministers; disappointment and disgrace have marked all their measures, and, as if miracles had been wrought to strike conviction on this House, they have not once even blundered into success. It may, therefore, reasonably be hoped, that before we blindly follow any farther, we may not only contemplate our present situation, and the ground we have already passed, but pay particular attention to that which lies before us.

Admitting, however, sir, that a force sufficient to subdue them can be sent out; admitting that this country will patiently bear the enormous weight of accumulated taxes, which so distant and unequal a war will require; admitting that foreign Powers (the natural enemies of Britain) will, with composure and self-denial, neglect so favourable an