pected from it. It may ruin their foreign | one vent is cut off, it will probably find another, while its manufactures are cheaper and better than those of other nations. I believe such to be the case with many branches of our manufacture at present, but is it possible it can long continue? Must not the same laws of nature follow this commercial country that has affected Venice and Genoa, the Hans Towns, and other commercial states? The acquirement of wealth must produce dearness in living; dearness of living must produce dearness of labour; dearness of labour must produce dearness of manufactures; dearness of manufactures must conduct trade to some place where cheapness of living will give the preference in the mar kets. Thus the circle of commerce has hitherto run: but the settlement of North America under the old establishment, seemed to defy the powers of those fleeting principles. America was bound to take your manufactures only to whatever price they might rise; you were bound to take most of her raw materials and to give her commerce protection; a complete system in the exchange of all commodities was established within your own dominion, which might last beyond the views of human calculation, if properly conducted. This is the great purpose to which I look up to America as a naval and as a commercial power; how often have I indulged myself in these thoughts, unable to see the end of our glory from the same causes which have destroyed other states, little dreaming that one infatuated minister could tempt, seduce, and persuade a whole nation to cut the strings of such harmony. The hon. gentleman who opened the debate, has remarked how we recovered from the interruptions of our commerce during the last war. The hon. gentleman forgets that we had the free and interrupted resources of America during the last war; that in seizing the ships of our enemies we added to the national wealth and increased our own commerce; the progress was double, here it runs in an inverse pro portion, no man knows the final effects as yet; like the bursting of a burning mountain, it is sport and play to the distant spectators who think themselves safe, but the eruption may spread to cover this city in ruin. I come now to consider the consequence of all those measures, supposing we should succeed. If national strength is to be calculated from the fitness of every part to preserve and improve the [3 C] bear contradiction to their will, and opposition even to their arms, with any degree of patience: irritation and resentment must be the consequences; encroachments on their part often proceed from a con advantages of their constitution and to support their country in pursuit of its objects. If institutions that secure property and prevent oppression, encourage the settlement of families, and facilitate the rearing of children, are the most favour-scious rectitude of their own intentions: able to mankind and therefore to be protected and preferred, as the best writer on government has asserted, surely the establishments of the English colonies, as excelling all others which have appeared in the history of the world, deserve to be revered in this respect. But a success in the present war, after destroying all the principles which have produced those glorious effects in civil society, must leave the country desolate, must spread through that wide dominion, forfeitures, executions, change of property, military oppression, and every misery that can engender hatred and distract mankind. But these are but temporary evils, in comparison to the last dreadful catastrophe. It must establish a military despotism in the colonies, which the revenues of an oppressed people never can pay. An army that the men of this country can never supply, which therefore foreign mercenaries must fill, and all this with additional powers in the crown, that must end in the subversion of the constitution. I make no doubt many men labour in the support of this business, purposely to effect that end. The contentions in a free government do not accord with their feeble, corrupt, luxurious dispositions. That the spirit of the people should so long lie deceived by their arts and management, is to me astonishing. I shall wait patiently some farther calamity, for no reasoning on the certain progress of things in a growing empire can affect their narrow minds. That this may soon happen in a small degree, as the only means of saving the dissolution of the whole, I sincerely wish, for the good of the public; misfortunes if duly watched are oftentimes as profitable to an unfeeling multitude as they are useful to private individuals. But let those who now encourage measures that must inevitably end in such dreadful calamities, beware of the turn of the tide. Let them look into history, and remember the fate of cruel, oppressive and arrogant statesmen. Let even kings attend to the examples which history presents on this subject-but I blame not them; it is unnatural for beings, with human passions, placed in such high situations, mixing little with men, and generally deceived, to but the people I do blame are the members of this House, placed as the guardians of the people's rights and privileges, daily sacrificing them to some interested motive. Let any one consider all the national advantages that can be drawn from colonies, and ask his own heart, if we have not hitherto drawn, and may not in time to come draw all these from the ancient constitution. To what motive, then, can these innovations be imputed? I have shewed you the bad consequences in proceeding; shew me the good you propose from slaughter and devastation; that the paymaster of the forces should urge you to those measures; that the treasurer of the navy should press for large equipments; that contractors, jobbers, dealers in scrip, and all those who fatten on public supplies, should eagerly concur, this I can easily imagine; but that a landed gentleman should give his consent to rush into a civil war, that must entail 4s. land-tax on his estate for ever, that must drain him of men and money, and all the resources of naval power, to protect his country against those neigh bouring powers who will, in all human probability, attack him when defenceless and exhausted; in a contest that must end, on whatever alternative, in lowering the value of his estate all this exhibits a degree of infatuation, beyond example in my little reading, and can only be accounted for from the revival of ignoble party-distinctions, gratifying resentments at the expence of their country. Have the country gentlemen ever considered the expence of maintaining a war across the Atlantic? Have they considered the expences of a fleet? Have they calculated the amount of transports? Have they thought of feeding an army with porter, sheep, and sour-crout across a tempestuous ocean? I am told a curious spectacle of such management has lately been exhibited in the Downs, where floating carcases of dead sheep have marked to passing nations the folly of such attempts. The project of sour-crout has, indeed, one circumstance attending it that gives me pleasure-I understand the contract is given to one of the worthiest men in the community; at the same time such maga. Lord Stanley rose, in the name of the freeholders of Lancashire, to avow the addresses from Manchester, &c. which he was well persuaded was the sense of the freeholders at large. Mr. Temple Luttrell. Sir; we might reasonably suppose, that the ministers who had a hand in fabricating this voluminous speech, would be impatient to obtain our approbation and thanks as representatives of the community in general, in the name of the people of Great Britain, who are our actual constituents; in the name of the people of America, who, as they tell us, are our virtual constituents. Those evil counsellors who have so long poisoned the ear of the sovereign, would now make us believe they have perverted his principles also: they wish us to consider the speech before you as conveying his Majesty's own sentiments. Sir, we know that to be impossible. Our King is too humane, and too well acquainted with the history of this country and its constitution, with the memoirs of the Stuart race, and of his own illustrious house, to imbibe the despotic doctrines here imputed to him. His Majesty knows, that whenever either of the three estates of this empire, or the whole in conspiracy together, shall arrogate power to which they are incompetent, such as infringing the original rights and liberties of the people in any part of the British dominions, it is the exertion of such power, not the resistance to it, which constitutes rebellion. If this be not the case, the glorious Revolution was, above all rebellions upon record, the most atrocious. zines are new in my notions of war; it may be a proper preparation for a Russian army, but I believe English soldiers will hardly be delighted with such griping food. The project of calcining ice into gun-powder is not more truly ridiculous! I shall suppose, then, for a moment, that war with America is really necessary: yet will any man allege, after such gross mismanagement in every part, that these are the proper men to carry it? Has there been consistency in any part of their conduct? Has one scheme they have offered succeeded? Has not every one produced a contrary effect? Have they not been told so at the time of passing their various laws? Have they been checked in any of their intentions? Has any uncommon accident of wind or weather been unfavourable? Can our affairs be possibly in a worse situation? Do they state any rational plan of ways and means, by which we are to extricate ourselves? If after answering all those questions in the spirit of truth and justice, this House will still persist in supporting such feeble ministers of so mighty an empire, I must submit to a majority, but with this melancholy consolation, when the day of tribulation shall come, that at least my feeble endeavours were not wanting to prevent the impending mischiefs; nor has my voice been lent on any occasion in support of oppression. Other gentlemen of a contrary opinion to me, have declared they give their opinion for more coercive measures, from motives the most pure and disinterested: I declare I give my opinion against them, from the sincerest belief, they are oppressive and unjust. I am now at an age when my character must be fully known. A conduct in life that has not flattered the passions of men must have frequently called forth the examination of many with keen resentments: but I here defy any man to say I was ever actuated by interested motives during the course of my life. My conduct at present is influenced from a conscientious belief, that the greatest good any man can perform, is to preserve institutions favourable to the freedom of mankind; the greatest evil they can commit, is to destroy them. In that belief I heartily vote for the amendment, and to the utmost of my power oppose this sanguinary Address. Mr. Rice said generally, that the conquest of America was a popular measure in England. We who are the deputies of the people, ought faithfully to impart to his Majesty the real wishes and dispositions of his subjects. As the first counsellors of the crown, it is our peculiar province to advise and direct his Majesty on every national emergency like the present. But, Sir, in order to qualify us so to do, affection to our king, obligation to our country, and sober wisdom, all combine in requiring the closest and most deliberate discussions, and the deepest researches into the true bias of the times, previous to the offering up any address to the throne whatever. An address at such a crisis as this, upon such important and decisive matters, cannot be considered as a mere point of etiquette, or personal compliment to our sovereign; if it could, there is not a member of this House would be more forward in duty and obsequiousness than myself. Are we not totally ignorant of the real state of Great Britain and her colonies? Sir, the sense of society at large is not to be ascertained by the signature of a score of provincial corporations, under corrupt ministerial influence; it is not to be ascertained by the voice of repletion and revelry, by a few mistaken individuals, brought together under the hospitable roof of a great baron's castle. Sir, within those battlements kings are not, now-a-days, made or unmade; [Alluding to the famous earl of Warwick, who alternately deposed Henry 6, and Edward 4.] it is not to be ascertained by the cry of a few Tory justices, ductile magistrates, huddled together by their creator, the lord lieutenant of the county, to approve of proscriptions and proclamations, devised in councils where he himself takes the lead as president. Sir, I will tell the noble lord who spoke last, that if the people of Lancaster, Liverpool, and Manchester, were the oracles of British law and policy, the electors of Hanover had never swayed the imperial sceptre of this realm. I admire, however, the spirited zeal and consistency of the addressing inhabitants of that part of England; I admire their firm reverence for the divine authority of kings, their defence of popery, of arbitrary government and sword law. The same political tenets which now fill the heads of these loyal addressers, filled also the heads of their townsmen in 1745 and 1746. Those heads, which being impaled over Templebar in the last Whig reign, were soon after the commencement of the present, when a mighty Northern Thane came into office, taken down with veneration, and are now, it is said, enshrined in a certain interior cabinet, where a right hon. houshold officer in my eye, and others of the White Rose junto, frequently offer upon a bended knee their secret oraison and incense. Sir, the noble lord who spoke last, and the right hon. member who preceded him have assured you, that the sense of this country is against the Americans. I am confident, as well from the intelligence I have been able to procure from a multitude of persons widely different in station and description, as by my own remarks in the progress of many a journey through the interior of this island during the summer season, that the sense of the mass of the people is in favour of the Americans. They think that the provocation given by a rash and insufficient ministry to the colony of Massachuset's Bay, in lawless and oppressive exactions, enforced by famine, devastation, and slaughter, at length constitutionally justified an appeal to arms. A very learned judge who now does signal honour to the coif, assures us, in his excellent book of Commentaries, that every freeman is warranted in the use of arms for defence of his rightful possessions and liberty? And that great luminary of his profession, lord chief justice Holt, in pronouncing judgment on the memorable case of Tooly and Dekins, says, "When the liberty of the subject is invaded, it is a provocation to all the subjects of England." Where, then, will these grievances, this civil war and carnage, terminate? I shall now borrow the words of sir Charles Sedley, in the last age, to express my astonishment, that a nation sick at heart, as our's is, should wear so florid a counte nance. But, Sir, is it not that hectic bloom which is frequently found to accompany a radical decay of the constitution, or rather some artificial beautifier spread over the surface of a cadaverous substance for popular show and delusion? We have heretofore found it expedient, when this kingdom has been shaken to its foundation from one extremity to the other, as it now actually is; when the original compact between the governing power and the subject has been differently construed, and in danger of being totally dissolved; I say, Sir, that the Commons in parliament assembled, have found it expedient to enquire in the first place into the actual state and condition of the nation in general: for this we have a recent precedent, almost within the memory of man, not strictly speaking in the Journals of the parliament, but in the journals of a national and constitutional assembly, which has done more good than all your parlia ments since the days of Henry 3, put to gether, which restored and established on a firm basis the Protestant religion, and civil liberties of the people, and which brought in the amiable families of Nassau and of Brunswick, to maintain that religion, and to protect us in the enjoyment of those liberties: I mean, Sir, the Convocation, or Congress, in the year 1688, whose Acts and Resolutions ought, like the leaves of the sybils of old, to be sanctimoniously reverted to, at all times of state perplexity and peril: I therefore desire, that the motion made at the opening of this congress, commonly called the Convention Parliament, and which was the ground-work of the Revolution, be now read. The motion was then read, which stands upon the Journals in the following words: "That the House do appoint a day to take into consideration the state and condition of the nation," which motion passed, nem con. for the Monday following.* General Conway apologized for opposing the King's servants, but thought it his duty to oppose this Address, because it approved of the American war. He condemned that war as cruel, unnecessary, and unnatural; called it a butchery of his fellow subjects, to which his conscience forbad him to give his assent. Though joined with the King's servants, he detested that principle of implicitly supporting every measure of government; and was severe upon those of ficers of the crown, who, because they are linked with others in administration, think they are bound to wade through thick and thin with their colleagues. He demanded, with an emphasis, what was the state of the British empire in America? Called upon the noble lord (North) to give it, or at least to lay some information of the state of affairs in America before the House. Asked administration, what part of America was to be called their own? Is Canada yours? he said; is Halifax yours? At this time, is even Boston yours? It is reported, that Boston is to be abandoned. Where, then, are the troops to be landed in the spring? Are they, like the first emigrants from this country, to sail along the coast till they find a place? He reprobated the idea of conquering America, declared explicitly against the right of taxation, and wished to see the declaratory law repealed, since so bad an use had been made of it. Lord George Germaine replied, in favour of the Address; but did not say any thing new, except that he had received a letter from general Burgoyne, who said, that notwithstanding the distresses and obstacles the King's troops met with, they were zealous and determined in defence of their country. Captain James Luttrell. Sir, I confess that I do not feel much surprise at the inflammatory language of some gentlemen opposite, for I am persuaded from the oppressive measures they have pursued towards our fellow subjects in America, during the recess, they determine to stake the prosperity of both countries to their See Vol. 5, p. 34. own emolument and revenge, and at every risque to endeavour to keep their places as long as they can, without attending to reason, humanity, justice, or good policy; therefore with them, as with the mercenary and necessitous, it may be in vain to argue, for they will probably be found as callous to conviction as the leaders of administration are, who instead of being convinced of the fatal errors they have already been guilty of, by the most horrid scenes of bloodshed, seem with equal rashness to be precipitating the colonies, the West India islands, this country and all its dependencies, into every species of wretchedness, that can render us miserable or contemptible abroad. But, Sir, a chance still remains that we shall be able to avert these impending dangers; it is, that we may meet protection from the independent gentlemen of England, and from those who have been deceived by the misrepresentations of such artful and designing men as I shall endeavour to mark, by separating the voice of faction from that of truth. We have found, Sir, by woeful experience, from which side of the House misinformation has hitherto come. The noble lord and his adherents, to obtain the support of those whom no private interest or party zeal could bias, assured us in the last session, with plausibility too sufficient to impose upon such as neither doubted their integrity, nor were aware of the enthusiastic spirit for liberty which at that time prevailed throughout all America, that the dispute was by no means of the alarming nature gentlemen apprehended; that it was a contest between a single province and this country; that the Americans in general were friends to government, and waited but the arrival of a single regiment to manifest their approbation of measures, which we were told, were just, necessary, and eventually would prove successful. The noble lord had not a single doubt, but that peace, reconciliation, and good fellowship would take place speedily, happily, and without bloodshed: but he assured us, if the contest continued we stood upon ground that would enable us to enforce by arms an acquiescence with those laws we had a right to impose. That the insurgents neither merited protection from this nor from that side the water, for they had added the crime of the highest ingratitude to illegal resistance; that the late war was an American war, undertaken merely for their protection and support, which had involved this |