the people would have submitted to such ignominious terms? I am certain they would not. The Congress is a temporary fluctuating body, chosen for a certain term; and as the people found that the point at issue, had the Congress assented, would have been virtually surrendered, it is probable they would have appointed other Delegates, who would have undone everything that had been agreed to by their predecessors, for they would never acquiesce in a mandate which says you shall tax yourselves, you shall collect those taxes, and send the produce to be deposited in the British Treasury; and we do at the same time reserve to ourselves not only the negative of disapproving of the quantum, but likewise the right of taxing you in any manner, or to any extent, we may hereafter think proper. The noble Earl, my Lords, who spoke last, has made use of a very presumptuous expression in reply to the noble Duke who spoke immediately before him. He tells his Grace not only that he is totally mistaken and misinformed, but supposing him to have received his information from professional men, desires him to send those professional men to him, and he will convince them of their ignorance, and that they know nothing at all of the matter. This, I confess, is a language I have been hitherto unaccustomed to; I always imagined that professional men were supposed to know something of their profession; I always thought that in undertakings of an important and arduous nature, they were consulted. I never expected to have heard so respectable a body condemned in the lump, and included in a general charge of ignorance and incapacity. If the noble Earl is serious, I think this fact ought to be one reason for our desisting from our present design; for if the charge be true, who shall we have to carry it into execution? Or, taking it in another light, if the talents and knowledge of professional men are held so cheap and in so much contempt, and the noble Earl has only relied on his own judgment, which, however transcendent in other respects, I cannot put in competition with those who have devoted their whole lives to a profession, I am not at all surprised that all our operations have hitherto miscarried. The noble Earl has denied that vagrants or convicted felons have been entered and entertained aboard his Majesty’s ships-of-war; but I can, partly from my own knowledge, contradict his Lordship in this assertion. As Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Sussex, I received an order from the Privy Council, signed by the noble Earl in the blue ribbon, [Lord Gower,] as President of that Council, desiring me to cause the laws in being against vagrants, &c., to be carried into effectual execution. I believe there is not one of your Lordships who are strangers to the intended operation of this order, or suppose that the proclamation alluded to was issued for any other purpose but to pursue the objects of the law, by causing the persons apprehended under it to be put aboard the ships then fitting out, and which, whatever the noble Earl may have asserted to the contrary, I am well satisfied were detained for want of hands from proceeding to the places of their respective destinations. The noble Earl speaks very pompously of the power, strength, and resources of this country. He may be right; but I think we have not yet given any great proof of them, except in the liberality, I may say in the profusion of our grants. His Lordship says, that our abilities have not been at all exerted; that we are able to employ and provide ten times a greater force than the present. His Lordship is, I confess, very fruitful in expedients; but I suspect he has, in this instance, asserted more a good deal than he will be able to make good. By the votes of the other House, I perceive that six millions, or thereabouts, have been already granted for the service of the present year, in which is included, even for last year, nearly a million for extraordinaries. Now, without computing what the probable expense of the extraordinaries of this year will be, when four times the number of land forces, besides the very formidable fleet the noble Earl has entertained us with an account of, are to be employed, I just confine the expense to what is already granted. I would then ask the noble Earl whether he seriously thinks that we are able to raise sixty millions? for his assertion goes exactly to that. Or supposing that we were, whether it would be wise, prudent, or politick, to involve us in a situation which might render such an exertion of our strength necessary? It is on account of our defenceless state at home, the heavy expense the prosecution of a war at so great a distance must cost, the deluge of blood which must of course be spent in such a quarrel, the fear of an attack from our foreign enemies, but, above all, the injustice of the cause, that I am for heartily agreeing with the noble Duke’s motion, as a means of preventing all those accumulated evils with which we are threatened. I trust, should your Lordships agree to it, it would produce all the happy effects so ably stated by the noble Duke; and I, for one, am free to declare, that should the Colonies persist, and, refusing to enter into terms of accommodation, claim rights destructive of the sovereignty of this empire, as one great political body, I should thenceforward be silent in their behalf, and should be as earnest as the most zealous of your Lordships in compelling them to that species of submission in which the strength and power of this country, and all its dependencies, most essentially depend.

Before I sit down, as perhaps it may be the last time I may have an opportunity of addressing myself to the right reverend bench on this occasion, I shall say a word or two to their Lordships. It is true I have been as yet rather unsuccessful in my appeals to that quarter; but when to the motives of humanity, and all the sanctions arising from a love of peace and an abhorrence to the effusion of blood, I shall add the considerations of their Lordships’ own personal concerns, I flatter myself I shall be heard with greater attention by the right reverend body. It is possible, my Lords, that in the present conflict, while both parties are warmly contending, the Constitution may be destroyed, the rights and liberties of the people may be annihilated, or another Revolution may happen, and the Government may be overthrown. In the latter event, what will probably be the consequence, but that, in such a state of things, you, my Lords, (the Bishops,) may a second time fall a victim to the rage of the people? The golden Prebends, the rich Deaneries, the overgrown Bishopricks, may be sacrificed to appease the wrath and gratify the expectations of the prevailing party. This may be the case, should the Constitution be overthrown; and it always has been in this country a consequence of bad government. Our rulers have first provoked the people, the Constitution has been violated, attempts have been made on their parts to support those violations, and the people have generally prevailed in the struggle: so that the event has been, that, whether the rights of the people have been vindicated or invaded, the Government has been dissolved. It is on this account I now particularly address myself to the right reverend bench, to remind them of their real situation, and to warn them of the consequences of a state of civil confusion, as they, perhaps, will be the first and most material sufferers.

The Earl of Sandwich. I beg your Lordships’ indulgence to be permitted to explain myself, relative to what the noble Duke, who spoke last, has imputed to me. I never arraigned the abilities of professional men in general. I never desired that they might be sent to me to instruct them. What I both said and meant, my Lords, was, that the noble Duke was misinformed; that if he had his information from professional men, I knew who they were: I knew they were superficial, and, as such, recommended to his Grace to send those professional men to me, and I would convince them that they were ignorant, and knew nothing at all of the matter. I therefore appeal to your Lordships’ candour, whether my words admitted of such an interpretation as the noble Duke has put upon them. I am sure they did not; for as no man has a higher esteem for the profession, so no person can be more perfectly convinced of the very accurate and extensive knowledge of many of those brave and experienced seamen alluded to, who would do honour to any profession or any service.

The Earl of Dartmouth. I cannot think that the noble Duke who spoke last had the least intention of misstating my words in a former debate. His Grace, generally, is pretty accurate; but I do, however, assure your Lordships, that he has imputed sentiments to me which I never entertained, and for which I am alone obliged to his Grace’s ingenuity, who has exercised the miraculous power of transforming what I said on the occasion alluded to, to something on the whole extremely different from what it was my wish and intention at the time to express.

The Earl of Hillsborough. I was not present in the House when the noble Duke who made the motion adverted to me in a matter of explanation, relative to the conduct