opportunity of distressing their rivals; admitting that your fleets, unopposed, level with the ground those cities which rose by your protection, were the pillars of your commerce, and your nation’s boast; admitting that foreign mercenaries spread desolation, that thousands fall before them, and that, humbled under the combined woes of poverty, anarchy, want, and defeat, the exhausted Colonies fall suppliant at the feet of your conquerors; admitting all this will be the case, (which cannot well be expected from the past,) here necessarily follows a most momentous question: What are the solid advantages which Great Britain is to receive in exchange for the blessings of peace and a lucrative commerce? for the affections, for the prosperity, for the lives of so many of its useful subjects sacrificed? Will the bare acknowledgment of a right in Parliament to tax them compensate for the millions expended, the danger incurred, the miseries entailed, the destruction of human happiness and life that must ensue from a war with our Colonies, united as they are in one common cause, and fired to desperate enthusiasm by apprehensions of impending slavery? Or can we be so absurd as to imagine concessions, extorted in a time of danger and urgent misery, will form a bond of lasting union? Impoverished and undone by their exertions and the calamities of war, instead of being able to repay the expenses of this country, or supply a revenue, they will stand in need of your earliest assistance to revive depressed and almost extinguished commerce, as well as to renew and uphold their necessary civil establishments.

I am well aware that it is said we must maintain the dignity of Parliament. Let me ask, what dignity is that which will not descend to make millions happy; which will sacrifice the treasures and best blood of the nation to extort submissions, fruitless submissions, that will be disavowed and disregarded the moment the procuring oppressive force is removed? What dignity is that which, to enforce a disputed mode of obtaining a revenue, will destroy commerce, spread poverty and desolation, and dry up every source from which revenue or any real substantial benefit can be expected? Is it not high time, then, to examine the full extent of our danger, to pause and mark the paths which have deceived us, and the wretched, bewildered guides, who have led us into our present difficulties? Let us find the destroying angel, and stop his course, while we have yet anything valuable to preserve. The breach is not yet irreparable; and permit me, with all deference, to say, I have not a doubt but that liberal and explicit terms of reconciliation, with a full and firm security against an oppressive exercise of Parliamentary taxation, if held out to the Colonies before the war takes a wider and more destructive course, will lead instantly to a settlement, and recall the former years of peace, when the affections and interests of Great Britain and America were one. But if, on the contrary, we are to plunge deeper in this scene of blood; if we are to sacrifice the means and materials of revenue for idle distinctions about modes of raising it; if the laurels we can gain, and the dignity of Parliament we are to establish, can be purchased only by the miseries of fellow-subjects, whose losses are our own; if the event is precarious, the cause alien to the spirit and humanity of Englishmen; if the injury is certain, and the object of success unsubstantial and insecure,—how little soever the influence my poor opinion may have on this House, I shall free my conscience, by having explicitly condemned all such unprofitable, inadequate, injudicious measures, and by giving my hearty concurrence to the motion.

Mr. Burke showed, from the records of Parliament and from history, that nothing was more frequent than inquiries of the kind now proposed; and observed, at no time within the course of his reading, did he ever recollect a period at which such a proceeding was more absolutely necessary than the present.

Mr. Graves wished to wait for the event of another campaign before the House should go into an inquiry; and as for what had already passed, justice required that the parties should be in a situation to answer for themselves.

Mr. Solicitor-General defended Administration throughout, not only what they had already done, but every action of theirs, and every consequence arising from their conduct. He insisted that the war was just, proper, and expedient, that the Ministers abounded in wisdom, and the Army and Navy in military prowess.

Colonel Barré was extremely severe on several of the positions laid down by the last honourable gentleman.; he compared him to the Abbé Polignac, whom he described as a pert, affected, little, political prater; with some personal allusions to the talents, manner, and disposition of the man, which created some mirth. But in a serious manner he charged the gentlemen opposite to him [Messrs. Elliot, Ellis, Wedderburn, &c.] with the loss of America. With an emphasis he said, Give us back our Colonies! You have lost America! It is your ignorance, blunders, cowardice, which have lost America. He had heard the noble Lord [George Germaine] called “the Pitt of the day.” He saw no great sense in the words. They conveyed to him that there had been a Mr. Pitt, a great man, but he did not see how the noble Lord was like him. He said, that the troops, from an aversion to the service, misbehaved at Bunker’s Hill on the 17th of June. He condemned Administration in the strongest terms, and told them, that their shiftings and evasions would not protect them, though they should be changed every day, and made to shift places at the pleasure, and sometimes, too, for the sport, of their secret directors. He observed, that the late appointment of a new Secretary of State was a proof that some weak, and perhaps foul proceedings had happened, which made such an arrangement necessary; but though changes might happen every day, he was well convinced measures never would, till the whole fabrick of despotism fell at once, and buried in its ruins the architects, with all those employed under them. He reminded the House how often, in the course of the last two years, he had foretold almost every matter that has happened. He begged once more to assure them, that America would never submit to be taxed, though half Germany were to be transported beyond the Atlantick to effect it.

General Burgoyne rose with warmth, and contradicted the last honourable member in the flattest manner. He allowed that the troops gave way a little at one time, because they were flanked by the fire out of the houses, &c., at Charlestown; but they soon rallied and advanced; and no men on earth ever behaved with more spirit, firmness, and perseverance, till they forced the enemy out of their intrenchments.

Colonel Barré observed, that the honourable gentleman had contradicted him in a very extraordinary and unbecoming manner, and maintained his first assertion, that the troops misbehaved.

General Burgoyne apologized, and confessed he had spoken in harsher terms than he would have done had he not been off his guard. He admitted that the troops gave way a little; but that they were rallied, and returned to the charge with great spirit. He was an eye-witness of the whole affair.

Lord Howe said it was impossible to go into the proposed inquiry with propriety, though the House were ever so well inclined. He defended the conduct of the commanding officers, and said that the whole of what had happened last year proceeded from our not being acquainted with the designs of the Provincials.

Lord North declared he had no objection to an inquiry at a proper season; but agreed with his right honourable friend, [Sir Gilbert Elliot,] that this was not the time. As America had changed, so had Britain, in consequence of that change. The question was now totally altered, and what in one situation would have been acting a wise part, would now be supineness, negligence, or something worse. It was therefore a very unfair way of arguing, to state objections against the conduct of Administration in the early stages of this business, which were only applicable to a state of hostility and open rebellion. The ground was changed, so would the measures of course. He appealed to the candour and recollection of the House, if anything had been done in a corner; but openly, and according to their repeated judgment. As to the measures which had been taken before he came into office, he was not answerable for them, but was ready now, if the House thought proper, or at any time, to stand the most rigid inquiry and examination into his own conduct. If miscarriages had happened, it was no more than what was common. It was impossible to foresee all the consequences, or to provide against every accident which might arise. He protested he did not seek for his office, and was at any time ready and willing to resign it, whenever a person more capable or fonder of power, was found