the right of taxation is specially included. Your Lordships have been so repeatedly persecuted by debates on American questions, and I have so frequently given my opinion upon these questions, that I could most willingly have spared you this trouble; but with a heart feeling as warmly as mine does for the honour and interest of my country, and accustomed to view her in the highest point of glory, I cannot bear the thought of being so much as suspected to be an indolent or an indifferent spectator of her unexampled distress; nor can I suffer my opinions, in so arduous and delicate a situation, to be collected from the sentiments expressed by any man, or set of men, whatsoever. I desire to stand or fall in your Lordships’ opinion, and that of my country, by those I deliver myself. I am still clear, my Lords, as to the right this country has to exercise its sovereignty over America by taxation. I had no hand in passing the Stamp Act, in the Declaratory Bill, in the bill laying duties upon tea and other commodities, in the partial repeal of that act, nor yet in the insanity of sending the tea to America without repealing the duty. From these and other causes, together with the imbecility of Administration, this country is reduced into a situation so deplorable that the wisest and honestest man in the kingdom can propose nothing that promises an honourable issue. I feel that I speak in fetters; I therefore will not press arguments on either side to their full extent; the next easterly wind will carry to America what shall fall from any, and from every Lord in the House. I do not wish that the nakedness of my country and its weakness should stand confirmed by the authority and sanction of testimonies given here. It is a time to act, and not to talk. Much is to be done and little said. The die of war is cast, the sword is drawn, and the scabbard thrown away. With great respect to your Lordships, wise as you are, and no doubt the great hereditary Council of the King and kingdom, yet allow me to say, you are not enabled to decide upon matters of such transcendant importance and difficulty, without having the fullest materials before you, which you most certainly have not. This is a question for the Ministers to decide, who must be supposed to have the means of the most ample information: the execution will likewise lie with them. They have decided; and it is to be hoped that they have at last some well-considered plan; not only taking into pay all the troops that can at any rate be got, but also how they can be supported, supplied, and enabled to act with effect; in short, a plan consisting of a great variety of efficient parts. If I had the honour of being in the King’s Council, (which, thank God, I have not,) I should expect the fullest information before I could decide; but decide I would, and abide by the decision. Retired, however, as I now am, and uninformed, I have not presumption enough to give an opinion, nor do I hold myself specially called upon to do it. My country is, indeed, reduced to a deplorable situation. We are driven between Scylla and Charybdsi, and it will be transcendently difficult to steer the vessel of State into a safe port. I must be allowed freely to confess, that I have not a good opinion of the King’s servants. Past experience will not justify confidence; I cannot, therefore, answer to myself or to my country, to trust such men with the expenditure of ten millions, and laying the foundation of lavishing many more, our last stake; thereby accelerating that bankruptcy which, sooner or later, I fear, by adopting either measure, is become inevitable. Nor am I, on the other hand, so friendly to them, as, by declaring our utter inability to reduce America, to furnish them with a golden’ bridge for concluding an ignominious peace, on any the most ruinous and disgraceful terms. I cannot consent to throw this once great and glorious country at the feet of America; and there humbly implore such peace as she, in her magnanimity, shall condescend to grant us. I am not yet made to the idea of hanging out a white flag of surrender. To those who lament the present most melancholy state of the Colonies, once so prosperous and flourishing, beyond the example of any others known in the annals of time, I cannot help observing, that I rejoice in the testimony, because it does honour to the Government of England, under whose care and influence they had prospered so wonderfully. I do verily believe, that till the late troubles they had infinitely less to complain of than the mother country herself; and that, separated as they are by the vast Atlantick, it was not in the nature of things that there must not be much to complain of, though not sufficient to justify their ingratitude to the parent State. I cannot blame a determination to make peace, sword in hand; the sooner it can be had upon reasonable, safe, and honourable terms, the better for both countries. I never did declare, whether I thought it was consistent with sound policy to impose any tax upon America, and it will hardly be expected that I should decide it now. I have heard it called an unjust war: I know not who in this House have a right to call it so; not those who voted for the Declaratory Act; those only who denied our right of taxation, and how very few were they ! [only five.] Negotiations of such importance and delicacy cannot be transacted with too much secrecy. I cannot, I own, approve of recalling your troops, and publishing the terms to which you will yield, till there is reason to be well assured that they, or something near thereunto, will be accepted. Infinite sagacity and discretion are necessary to the attainment of what ail alike, I am persuaded, must eagerly wish. When the happy and favourable moment for conciliation shall arrive, I hope the Ministers will seize it, and I sincerely wish them success. At least, at such a crisis I will not hang upon the wheels of Government, and thereby render what is already but too difficult, the more impracticable. [His Lordship did not vote.]

Viscount Townshend. Having at first entertained doubts relative to the claims of this country over America, I gave the subject for some time all the attention in my power. I considered the several charters. I examined the relation both countries stood in towards each other. I looked back to the infant as well as the more mature state of the Colonies; and was at length convinced that America was bound by every rule of justice, and every tie of gratitude and political obligation, to contribute towards the common support; and consequently that America, from the beginning, had been the aggressor. But, my Lords, though the right of Great Britain to control every part of the dominions of the Crown were to be questioned; though the charters were binding and valid to the extent contended; still the state of things is such as renders it impossible to look back to the causes of this war, so as to anssver any wise or salutary purpose. The justice of the cause is lost in the din of war. The noble Earl in the blue ribbon, who spoke last, has told you very justly that it is now become a struggle for power; the die is cast, and the only point which now remains to be determined, is, in what manner the war can be most effectually prosecuted, and speedily finished, in order to procure that unconditional submission which has been so ably stated by the noble Earl with the white staff, [Earl Talbot.] I know of no method so probable to insure success to our operations as that now adopted. By it we procure an immediate supply of men; men trained to the use of arms, and of course fit for immediate service. And I have no reason to doubt that the measures pursuing will put an end to the war in the course of a single campaign. This will operate doubly, in procuring the great objects we have in view; it will at once put an end to the calamities of war, and save an immense expense to the nation. A noble Earl [Lord Effingham] has appealed to me, in relation to the present state, condition, and disposition of Ireland: to which I can only answer, if any disturbances should break out in that kingdom, they must be suppressed. I do not believe they will; nor have I any reason to think such an event at all probable. His Lordship has stated his apprehensions of a French or Spanish invasion. That, too, I think equally improbable. France will be cautious of making any attempt of that kind, as long as she remembers the defeat and destruction of the armament sent there under Thurot, during the late war. But supposing that the noble Earl’s fears were well founded; in my opinion, it would be an additional motive for pushing on the war with vigour and effect; in short, to induce us to terminate it by the most powerful and decisive operations; for if it should be permitted to linger beyond the present campaign, we will have a right to expect the interference of some foreign power, who may probably avail itself of our domestick troubles and civil distractions. The noble Duke who made the motion has said that foreigners were attempted to be forced on Ireland, and that it has been stripped of its national military establishment. As to the last, if it be a fault, it cannot be charged on the Ministry of this country. It was an act of their own Parliament; and if his Majesty had not bound