taken with no other view than to quiet and to prevent the alarms of the landed interest, is past dispute; because the vote for the three-shillings land tax was passed before Christmas, though the bill was not brought in till after the holidays; the vote, therefore, was studiously thrown out beforehand, to prevent the discontents that might happen, and to mislead the publick into a fallacious dependance, that a few superficial and unimportant discontents in America, as they were then represented to be, would soon be subdued. Under this deception, the landed gentlemen in this House have been trepanned by every artifice, and the publick out of doors have been waylaid by every insidious practice, to induce them to acquiescence in the dependance that Ministry would guaranty their country against the evils only suggested by groundless fear. Where are we now? Have not our forebodings been more than realized? Has it been arrant folly in Administration to plunge us into our present situation? or has it been downright treachery aforethought, to lead their unsuspecting country, step by step, into an irreconcilable civil war, to dip Great Britain and America in blood, and to cut off the retreat to peace and safety?

Whichever be the case, the Administration have now, at least, forfeited all claim to the confidence of this House and of the publick. We are now told with great composure, by those very men who, but a few months ago, laughed to scorn every foreboding word of prudence, that the whole power of this country is unequal to the undertaking: and that however reasonable it might have been last year to have foreseen the immensity of the war, yet that Parliament, in the last session, would not have been disposed to grant more expensive aids, and therefore that no more were then applied for; but that we are now dipped in, and must wade through. If an army of fifty thousand men, and one hundred ships of force, are now found necessary, the word to Parliament is, You must go through : there is no retreat; it must be done. Every corner of the three kingdoms is to be ransacked for recruits; every Power in Europe is to be solicited for mercenary aid; every trading vessel heretofore employed in the American commerce is now destined to transport the means of destroying the commercial wealth of Great Britain, and all the sources of its naval empire. The noble Lord has announced to us that he will, upon the 19th of this month, lay before us the most speedy and effectual way of accomplishing these important objects; and that is what, I presume, he calls laying before us the state of the nation.

As I wish the publick may no longer be deceived, but that they may be put into possession of the real state of the facts, and of the probable expectation of consequences, I shall offer to the House some motions for the proper materials to be prepared and laid before us, to be our guide and assistance in forming our judgment and decision. The three great branches of national expense are, the Navy, the Army, and the Ordnance; and each of these branches is divided into two parts, viz: expenses which are voted upon specifick estimates, and extraordinary expenses which are incurred every year in the three services, partly at the discretion of the respective commanders, and partly at the discretion of the Ministry in their several departments. These extraordinaries, in former times, were kept within narrow bounds; but of late years they are grown to an enormous amount, almost equal to the expenses voted in each service upon estimate; which latitude, thus negligently and tacitly allowed to Ministers in dispensing the publick purse, has been, and I fear will continue to be, the cause of a most ruinous waste of the publick revenue. As to the present year, the House have before them all the expenses of the American war, which have been formed into specifick estimates; but the unmeasurable part of the expense will be in the secret and hidden class of extraordinaries, left to the unrestrained discretion of Ministers, Commanders, Commissaries, and Contractors. The House and the publick are amused with nominal estimates, while this bottomless gulf is opened behind us, and not to be satiated but with the last farthing. If experience can teach us wisdom, it is high time that we were possessed of it. This chaos of extraordinaries may, doubtless, be reduced to some reasonable shape of computation. Ministers will hardly tell this House seriously, that they have not the least measure of what they recommend or undertake; nor, I think, would it be very decent for them to come in, the next session, with a boundless demand of debts incurred upon the confidence which we are now desired to repose in them, and to tell us then, We foresaw all these expenses, but we concealed them carefully from you, that we might lead you insensibly on.

Then let us forecast the account now. I shall begin with the Navy. The motion which I shall make upon the subject of the Navy is copied, word for word, out of the Journals upon a former occasion; and a very accurate estimate was made in return, of the probable expense of the Navy, article by article: therefore I am sure the Minister can give us this information if he will.

My motion is, “That there be laid before this House an esttimate of the probable expense of his Majesty’s Navy for the present year, distinguishing under proper heads upon the services voted by this House; showing, also, how far the said expense may probably exceed or fall short of the sums already voted for those services; and also, an estimate of the probable expense of transports and victualling daring the present year.”

My second and third motions, respecting the extraordinaries of the Army, and Ordnance for land service, are nearly to the same effect, viz :

“That an estimate of the probable amount of the extraordinary services likely to be incurred by his Majesty’s Land Forces in one year, from March 9, 1776, be prepared and laid before this House.”

“That an estimate of the probable expense of the Office of Ordnance for land service, during the present year, over and above the provision already made in this session of Parliament, be prepared and laid before this House.”

These are the materials which, as it seems to me, are necessary for us to form our judgment upon. Many of them may be estimated with great accuracy; and, from the experience and assistance of the official lights which the noble Lord has access to, he may give us a general view of the whole probable expense of the year. This is what I should call laying the state of the nation before us. By this time of the year (which is the month of April) you ought to have formed your plans.. You cannot be ignorant of the number of ships which are destined for sea service for this year. You know the complement of men for each rate; therefore you may know by how many they will exceed the number of seamen voted by Parliament. In the forming such an estimate, the Board of Admiralty can give you a list of the seamen to be employed; the Paymaster of the marines can send you the number of marines. The value of stores contracted for and to be purchased for ships, and building-yards, and rope-yards, ought to be minutely known, or else how is the Navy to be provided? I will read you three or four principal heads of expense in the estimate of the Navy, which was returned to this House on the 2d of May, 1772, and which is printed in the Journals, upon the very identical motion that I offer to you now. Take them as a specimen, that the estimates that I now ask for may be very methodically made out, unless you are determined to withhold every requisite information from this House :

Value of stores and materials contracted for and to be purchased for his Majesty’s ships and yards;

Wages to inferior officers and workmen in his Majesty’s several dock-yards, &c;

Value of stores and materials for the use of the several rope-yards;

Wages to seamen, calculated upon the list received from the Admiralty, of ships to be employed at sea in the course of the year;

Value of provisions to be purchased, &c., &c.

These are enough for a specimen; the further distribution of the heads of Naval estimates may be seen in the original paper itself in your Journals. Let us know what we are doing. What is it that you cannot compute? Have you not made provision for stores and materials necessary to careen, repair, and refit your fleet at Halifax? Or, if that place should fall into the hands of the Provincials, have you made no supplemental provision for the safety of the Navy, at the distance of three thousand miles? Let us have the option, whether we will seek our safety (more frugally at least) by a timely reconciliation with the once hospitable shore of America, or upon the dependance of some wild estimates of Administration, made for commissaries and contractors; or, which is most probable, must we patiently stand