certain mark of disgrace, and therefore he was the less earnest to clear him of the imputation; for that all the great asserters of liberty, the saviours of their country, the benefactors of mankind, in all ages, had been called Rebels; that they even owed the Constitution which enabled them to sit in that House to a rebellion:

——“Sunt hic etiam sua premia laudi,
Sunt lachrymæ rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.”

Lord North said, whatever uneasiness this dispute with America might occasion, whatever consequences it might have, he hoped it would be recollected he had not raised, had not disturbed the question. It was in agitation before he came into office. He found it there.

Governour Johnstone expressed his astonishment at this declaration, thus uttered in the face of his country! in the face of the House! He instanced the tea duty, and —

Lord North suddenly said, should he answer that!—The duty was not laid on by him, he only carried it forward.

Governour Johnstone, to explain, said it was very disorderly to interrupt him in that very abrupt manner. However, he thought the noble Lord’s explanation, or vindication of himself, made the matter ten times worse against him.

The Committee divided: For it 180; against it 57.

Mr. Speaker resumed the chair.

Ordered, That the Report of the Committee be received to-morrow morning.

Tuesday, March 12, 1776.

Sir Charles Whitworth, according to order, reported from the Committee of the Whole House, to whom it was referred to consider further of the Supply granted to his Majesty, the Resolutions which the Committee had directed him to report to the House; which he read in his place, and afterwards delivered in at the Clerk’s table, where the same were read, and are as followeth, viz:

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee that a sum, not exceeding one hundred thirty-seven thousand four hundred forty-eight Pounds and seven Shillings, be granted to his Majesty for defraying the charge of six Regiments of Foot from Ireland, and of several augmentations to his Majesty’s Forces, from their respective commencements to the twenty-fourth of December, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, inclusive.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee that a sum, not exceeding eight hundred forty-five thousand one hundred sixty-five Pounds fourteen Shillings and eight Pence farthing, be granted to his Majesty towards defraying the extraordinary expenses of his Majesty’s Land Forces, and other services, incurred between the ninth day of March, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and the thirty-first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, and not provided for by Parliament.

Mr. Hartley lamented the state of this oppressed and almost ruined country. He observed, it was not that the war was unjust, cruel, and unnatural; that the country was left naked and defenceless; that the expenses were already enormous; that the fund which was appropriated for the purpose of reducing the publick debts, as a security to our publick creditors in case of deficiencies, and as a dernier resource in case of an attack from our natural enemies, was already anticipated for many years to come;—these matters, however terrible in their appearance, how dreadful in their consequences, were already known or foreseen;—but it was the confidence with which Ministers asked, and the ready compliance of Parliament with every requisition, without either examining the nature of the services for which the money was given, or afterwards inquiring into the expenditure, that astonished him. Such, in a great measure, was the nature of the account of extra-ordinaries now before them. He should not enter into a minute examination of the several items which had swelled that very extraordinary account, but he would be obliged to the noble Lord [North] if he would give the explanation he declined to give the other night in debate, though often pressed. He knew how little attention anything he offered was entitled to from the noble Lord and the gentlemen on that side of the House; but how little soever he might deserve to be attended to on his own account, he hoped that some degree of attention was due to him on such an occasion, in the character of a Representative giving away the money of his constituents. The matter he desired to have cleared up was, the requisition made by the Commander-in-Chief for one hundred thousand pounds, and the credit taken for that sum without being accompanied by a single voucher. He observed that there were vouchers for the rest, stating to whom the payments were made, but not one of the actual expenditure. He begged the noble Lord would explain to the House the nature of the transaction: at present it bore a very strange appearance. He observed that there was a circumstance attending money matters now that was, he believed, never before known or practised even by the noble Lord; that was, Ministers refused to venture at a gross computation what the expense of the extraordi-naries of the succeeding campaign would amount to. He had heard it dropped in debate that they would rise this year to the monstrous sum of four millions. Terrible as these tidings were, he should be glad to know the worst; not to come day after day to that House, and hear some new demands made under a fresh pretence and another denomination, though all directed to the same service. If, therefore, the Minister, as he must by this time know what his plan was, and the probable expenses of carrying it into execution, would rise and fairly and ingenuously state the gross computation, the House would then know what they had to expect, what they were to grant on one side, and what they were to get in return on the other, and of course be enabled to balance the certain expense against the probable or possible benefits promised to accrue from the measures now pursuing.

Lord North said, if the honourable gentleman alluded to any neglect shown to the propositions which he had submitted to the House, he was himself conscious of not deserving any part of the imputation. He thought the honourable gentleman had acted a very commendable part, and presumed he was actuated by the purest motives; it was fulfilling his duty; and in that light he always received and treated any proposition which came from him. His Lordship observed that the honourable gentleman gave a credit and appellation to the papers on the table which they did not deserve, for they were not vouchers. The vouchers were yet to come, and would contain a precise and actual account of the expenditure, and then the House would have a full opportunity to examine them. As to the one hundred thousand pounds drawn by the Commander-in-Chief, for which no account of any kind appeared, that could be easily explained, for it was so much in advance to remain in his hands, and for which he must be accountable till he shows the particular services for which it was issued. The usual manner of conducting this business was, for the Commander-in-Chief to draw on the Deputy Paymaster-General; but it being found that it was much more advantageous to remit than draw, that mode was discontinued, and the present adopted in its stead, as it would be a considerable saving to the publick. He said the honourable gentleman was mistaken in asserting that the permitting the Commander-in-Chief to draw was never known, for it was always the case in respect to extraordinaries. The very nature of the expense, and the manner it was incurred, made it necessary. It was uncertain; a previous credit was necessary, and the amount could not be known, nor the balance struck, till the several articles were brought into account, accompanied by the proper vouchers; that this had not been the case formerly in America, for as there was no extraordinaries till since the late war, by way of establishment, no previous credit of this kind, consequently, subsisted.

Mr. Hartley did not seem satisfied with this explanation; and recurred to his former observation, that it was a matter unprecedented in the annals of Parliament to propose measures to them for their consideration without even offering to guess at the expense. He said he did not mean, by anything that had fallen from him, to limit the Commander-in-Chief to any specifick sum in the first instance; but only to have a faithful, accurate, and satisfactory account of the expenditure, to see that the money had been applied to the purposes for which it was granted.

Mr. Dempster spoke of the consequences arising from the contracts in general. He said every country where such a system was permitted to prevail must, in the end, be undone; and he had little doubt that a very considerable part of the burdens we now labour under have been incurred through the means of jobs and contractors. When he had the honour of being in the direction of a certain great company,