seize this opportunity of making us pay the six hundred thousand pounds, which he pretends we wronged him of at the close of the last war. It will, therefore, be very proper for Administration, and much more for the House, to consider that it would be a great addition to the expense, which, from the complexion of the House, I am afraid we are going to incur, by approving of those treaties now under consideration; which treaties I look upon as highly inexpedient and dishonourable to the nation, and to which, therefore, as a member of this House, I shall give every opposition in my power.

Mr. Seymour compared the present with the former treaties with German and other Princes, whom we had formerly subsidized, and defied Mr. Cornwall to produce a single instance in which the same number of men, within the same time, had cost the nation so much money.

Mr. D. Hartley. In the course of our debates upon American measures, I frequently hear the terms of Rebellion and Rebels made use of, which I shall never adopt: not only because I would avoid every term of acrimony which might increase the ill-blood between us and our fellow-subjects in America, but likewise, thinking as I do that the Ministry of this country have been, in every stage, the aggressors, I never will, as a Whig of Revolution principles, confound terms so fundamentally the reverse to each other, as defensive resistance in the support of constitutional rights, with unprovoked and active treason. The Colonies have been condemned unheard. If you would have condescended to have heard their petition, you would have found that all they requested has been to be restored to the happy state of harmony, tranquillity, and constitutional dependance, existing in 1763. Those Ministers who have so madly driven them on to unavoidable resistance, must be answerable to their country for all future consequences. I wish to enter my protest, once for all, that I shall always think that our American fellow-subjects have been driven to resistance in their own defence, and in support of those very claims for which we ourselves have successfully taken up arms in former times, to rescue us from the violence and tyrannical pretensions of the House of Stuart. These rights are the giving and granting freely our own property, and the security of charters. Let us do to them as we have done for ourselves, and it is all that they ask. I am convinced that the nation will some day or other see the justice of their cause, when the anger of the present unfortunate disputes is a little abated, and when many misrepresentations, which are studiously circulated by Ministry, are cleared away. Therefore, sir, for the present I will suspend this part of the argument, and confine my objections to this measure of the foreign troops; to the impolicy and impracticability of the measures; being always understood that I have entered my protest against their injustice. Sir, the publick have been artfully and imperceptibly led into these measures. We were told, at first, that the discontents were only adopted by a few factious persons in America, that the body of the people were totally averse to these measures of resistance, and that a very little exertion from this country, and a very inconsiderable expense, would restore the publick tranquillity. Many of us on this side of the House have, from time to time, endeavoured to uncover these fallacies, having too truly foreseen and foretold the endless ill consequences of the Ministerial plans in America. I myself told you, sir, in this very place, not many months ago, from very certain information, that America would not only not recede upon the articles of arbitrary taxation and surrender of charters, but that they would turn out, before last midsummer, a body of fifty thousand men in arms. This prediction was at that time treated by the House with laughter, yet it has proved but too true. What confidence can we then have for the future in Ministers who are so grossly ignorant and deceived, or who conceal the true state of things from this House and the publick, perhaps with no better view than to trepan them insidiously, and by gradual steps, into the support of their own desperate and sanguinary designs? The publick revenue being a subject upon which I have at times bestowed some pains, and upon which I sometimes trouble you, I am sure this House will do me the justice to recollect, that I have incessantly remonstrated against the enormity of the expense which these measures would entail, even to the hazard of publick bankruptcy, if foreign war should overtake us upon the heels of this civil contest. The Ministry, in whom a majority of this House seem to put unbounded confidence, have, for a time, smothered these mischiefs; they have kept all matters of expense out of sight, and endeavoured to lull the publick to inattention, by conveying to them that very little matters would do. No such words as taxing and funding have even been whispered; but taxing and funding must come, and that soon, too. You cannot do this very year without. I have again and again stated to this House, and to the noble Lord, that the debts and expenses incurred, and such as will be incurred in this very year’aign, cannot come to a less sum than ten millions. The army extraordinaries, and the navy debt incurred in the last year, must be enormous. Those which will further be incurred in the present year must be immense. Let the noble Lord deal ingenuously with the publick, and, by the assistance of all his lights, let him inform the House what expenses he is providing for them. Does he intend to lay any new tax this year? Does he pay off any of the navy debt? Does he intend to propose the payment of the civil list, with an augmentation to the establishment of it? What will the noble Lord state as the probable expense of the intended campaign? Let the country gentlemen know what endless expenses they are to encounter. There are some gentlemen who have professed that they enter into this war to obtain a revenue from America, but still not at all price. Gold may be bought too dear: if they are to pay a hundred years purchase for the possibility of a revenue from America, who would give that price even for a certainty? But it is contended that all this armament is only a mode of making peace with dignity; that the Americans will be awed into submission, and that Commissioners are to grant pardons and to make peace. This is the insidious pretext of the present year: for what powers are given to the Commissioners? None, but to grant pardons, if the Americans will lay down their arms, upon unconditional submission. This is an insult both upon them and upon us. Did they take up arms to obtain pardon, or to obtain redress of grievances? You have condemned them unheard, you have subverted all their civil rights, you pensioned their Judges, you garble their Juries, you control the free debates of their Assemblies, you confiscate their Charters, you take their property by violence from them; and when they petition or complain, you tell them that these are pretended grievances: yet these are the grievances which they seek redress of under arms. Give them redress, and they will lay down their arms, and gladly receive pardon and general oblivion. If Parliament had enabled the Commissioners to offer redress of grievances, I should not have called the appointment of them a mere pretext; but you have expressly tied their hands. Neither can the Americans put any trust in any supposed intentions of the Ministry for peace. General Burgoyne says, in his letter to General Lee, that after what has passed, the Americans may rest in full confidence that this country would never think of taxing them again; and, indeed, that inference would seem reasonable, if we did not hear the contrary asserted and supported almost in every day’s debate in this House, and particularly by the noble Lord who has lately been advanced to the head of the American Department.

The noble Lord at the head of the Treasury seldom holds the same language and opinion long together. Sometimes he is ready to dispense with taxation, and wishes to God that all things were restored to the state of 1763. If he has personally any dispositions to moderation and lenient measures more than his colleagues, he is at least overruled. But the noble Lord of the American Department has invariably declared upon principle, that a total and unconditional submission, an entire surrender of their properly and Charters, are, with him, the indispensable preliminaries of any treaty of peace. I have myself troubled the House this very session with some propositions of pacification, offering security to the Colonies upon the articles of taxation and Charters, which have been refused upon principle, expressly argued in the debate on the part of the Ministry, that they would not, in the least degree, recede from their terms of unconditional submission to be enforced by the sword. Then away with these pretexts! It is clear enough that they mean nothing but destruction and bloodshed, and to act over again the mockery of what was last year called the Conciliatory Proposition. You sent orders to dip the sword in American blood before that proposition, insidious as it was, could be offered to any Assembly upon the continent.