uniform language of Ministers during the late reign; and I remember, too, their conduct exactly corresponded with their professions. I recollect a particular instance of it respecting Abercromby’s defeat, in the height of the late war, when Lord Chatham caused every particular of that melancholy event to be announced in the Gazette, in the very terms he had received it. He did not confine himself to the mere fact, that an attack had been made, and that it proved unsuccessful; no, my Lords, he committed himself to the publick. He did not look upon himself as responsible for victory. He laid the whole detail open to the inspection of the nation at large, and by so doing he ensured that confidence which a contrary conduct would have certainly deprived him of. It has been reserved, my Lords, for the present Ministers to either withhold all information, or suppress everything that does not answer their immediate purposes. They refuse to tell you anything; or, if they do, they will only tell you it in their own words. The Gazette says, that General Howe embarked without the least interruption. Granted: but does it say or assign any reason why the troops were not molested? No; it is entirely silent on that head. But suppose that the fact was really, as it is represented; that the troops were not molested, nor that there was no convention or treaty whatever: I think I could account for it on motives very different from those assigned by the noble Earl in office. His Lordship asserts that it was owing to the great abilities and military skill of the Commander-in-Chief. No man entertains a higher opinion of both than I do; but I think it may be easily accounted for, without attributing it either entirely to that, or to any backwardness in the Provincials. I remember a very great man who died fighting in the cause of America, (Dr. War- rera,) in one of his publications, advises his countrymen to a defensive war. May we not, then, well suppose, if the matter cannot be otherwise accounted for, that General Washington, acting on the same principle, might wish that the Royal Army should depart from Boston without any further consequences? If it has evacuated Boston in the manner published by authority, and without any convention or stipulation, the conduct of the Provincials can only be accounted for on the principle I have now mentioned— that of acting on the defensive. But, my Lords, I can hardly persuade myself that this was the case. I am rather inclined to believe that the troops were permitted to embark without molestation, in return for saving the town. Yet, my Lords, allowing all the Gazette has told you to be literally true, what a melancholy picture does it hold out? It is, indeed, my Lords, of a piece with all the rest. It is like sending Sir Peter Parker at a season of the year in which it is a hundred to one that he ever reached the place of his destination. The event has proved the folly and ignorance of those who planned this desperate expedition. First, that gentleman received orders to proceed. He was then countermanded, and again desired to adhere to his first instructions. He at length sailed; and the first account that we have received of the expedition is, that his fleet was dispersed in a storm; and that the commander and the shattered remains of his squadron have taken shelter in Antigua. Such, my Lords, has been the unhappy fate of an armament on which such great expectations were formed; and such, I fear, will be the fate of the measure your Lord-ships have heard this day so highly extolled.

This country, already burdened much beyond its abilities, is now on the eve of groaning under new taxes, for the purpose of carrying on this cruel and destructive war. Two arguments, both plausible, but both equally ill-founded, were made use of by the Minister in the other House, on the principle and mode of taxing. It was said the kingdom was in a most flourishing state, therefore was able to bear additional taxes. It was urged, since taxes were to be levied, they ought to be laid on the luxuries of life. On the first head, I shall ever continue to think the very reverse, while the arguments of a late writer (Dr. Price) remain uncontradicted; nor shall I ever be persuaded that stagecoaches, deeds, or newspapers, come within the description of luxury, however confidently asserted. The definition of luxury I have always been taught to be simply this: the growth of foreign countries, articles alone of foreign importation; not the produce of this kingdom, or the effects of national industry. I do venture to assert, that the event will prove that this country is already taxed to its full extent; and that every new tax you can devise, will interfere with some other, and only vary the mode of collecting the taxes, not increase the receipt. I must confess it is perfectly new to me to be told that deeds, leases, and indentures, are different species of luxury; if they are, I know of no transaction whatever that may not be brought within the same description. I believe the contrary requires no proof. A person in the law, whose business is far from being extensive, has assured me that this tax will be very severely felt, and that it will make a difference of thirty pounds a year even to him.

The noble Earl who has this day entertained your Lordships so ably, tells you that General Howe has only “shifted his position;” that he is gone to the relief of Halifax, which is in a defenceless state. Why was that place, from which such wonders are to be achieved, left in a defenceless state? Or why trust its security to the precarious relief of succours sent thither at so dangerous and boisterous a season of the year? Even allowing the noble Earl’s facts and arguments to be exactly as he has stated them, I am yet to learn the propriety of the phrase “shifting a position.” From the little of military operations I have been acquainted with, I never understood an actual abandonment of an enterprise to be. shifting a position. On the whole, my Lords, as I look upon the war itself to be cruel, unjust, oppressive, and vindictive, so I look upon the conduct of it hitherto to be contrary to every rule of sound policy, prudence, and common sense. I think it is full time, therefore, that your Lordships and the publick should be made acquainted with the true state of our affairs in America; for which reason, as the first step towards it, I heartily concur in the motion made by the noble Duke.

The Earl of Suffolk. The noble Earl [Effingham] has expressed his astonishment that no despatches have been sent to General Howe for some months; and the only proof he has brought in favour of this assertion is no more than that no despatches have reached him; and that he was, at the time of the evacuation of Boston, totally ignorant of everything which passed in Europe since the meeting of Parliament. The noble Earl has likewise stated his fears for the army and fleet, under the command of General Howe and Admiral Shuldham, on account of the dangers of the sea, and uncertainty of the winds and waves. Now, as in one instance his Lordship has laid such great stress on the difficulties to be encountered on the watery element, might not the noble Lord, by a parity of reason and similarity of conclusion, have been led to suppose that despatches had been sent to General Howe, though none of them had reached him previous to the date of this last letter? I observe, too, that the noble Earl and the noble Duke who made the motion, have insisted much on the disgrace of quitting Boston, and represented it as productive of the most fatal consequences. This, I confess, appears to me a little extraordinary, that the noble Lords should so suddenly change their sentiments. While we retained possession of that town, it was disgraceful to have a British Army cooped up in it. It was called the grave of the British soldiery. It was represented as an insignificant spot, of no consequence, in which we were wasting our blood and treasure to no purpose; but now, all of a sudden, the evacuation of it is magnified into an actual loss, and that loss again represented no less disgraceful to our arms than destructive to the success of our affairs in that country.

Lord Viscount Weymouth. I should not have Doubled your Lordships upon the subject of this day’s debate;, were it not to prevent the noble Lords, who have supported the present motion, from imputing the silence of Administration to sullenness, or any want of attention. It is purely to obviate such an ill-founded imputation that I rise to declare, in a few words, my reasons for giving a negative to a motion which may be the means of laying any information before your Lordships, not fit for publick inspection. I am sure the letters now desired would certainly come within that description, because they contain a plan of the General’s intended operations. The account in the Gazette is, I think, fully sufficient. It tells you that the General formed the resolution of quitting Boston. It tells you that he effected it without the loss of a man; and that he brought off all his baggage, artillery, ammunition, stores, &c. The noble Earl has informed your Lordships very truly, that it has, for several months, been determined to alter the plan of operation,