XVI. 1774. vailed in the province of Massachusetts Bay, BOOK and had broke forth in fresh violences of a very criminal nature; that the most proper and effectual measures had been taken to prevent these mischiefs; and that they might depend upon a firm resolution to withstand every attempt to weaken or impair the supreme authority of this legislature over all the dominions of the crown." The address proposed in the house of commons produced a warm and animated debate. The minister was reminded of the mighty effects he had predicted from the late acts against America-They were to humble the whole continent in the dust, and the punishment of Boston was to strike an universal terror into all the colonies; that refractory town would be totally abandoned; and instead of obtaining relief, a dread of the same fate would even prevent the appearances of pity. An amendment being at length offered, that his majesty would be graciously pleased to communicate the letters, orders, and instructions, relative to the execution of the late acts, it was negatived by a majority of 264 to 73. In the house of lords the numbers on the division were 63 to 13; but a protest against the address, the first which had ever appeared on the journals of the house, was signed by the lords in the minority; who, at the conclusion of it, thus express themselves: "It XVI. 4774. BOOK affords us a melancholy prospect of the disposition of lords in the present parliament, when we see the house, under the pressure of so severe and uniform an experience, again ready, without inquiry, to countenance, if not to adopt, the spirit of former fatal proceedings. But whatever may be the mischievous designs, or the inconsiderate temerity which leads others to this desperate course, we wish to be known as persons who have disapproved of measures so in jurious in their past effects and future tendency, and who are not in haste, without inquiry or information, to commit ourselves in declarations which may precipitate our country into all the calamities of a civil war." Notwithstanding the high language of the court on the first day of the session, evident symptoms of irresolution in the cabinet councils were at this period discernible, and all discussion of the affairs of America was studiously avowed by the minister, in parliament, previous to the recess. It was intimated only, that the apprehension of a war was wholly chimerical. The estimates were formed entirely upon a peace establishment; the land-tax was continued at three shillings; no vote of credit was required; the army remained on its former footing; and, what was most of all surprising, a reduction of four thousand seamen took place from the twenty thousand voted last year-a XVI. 1774. circumstance which shows in the strongest light BOOK how astonished was the delusion of the ministry, or how eager their solicitude to delude the public. Lord Sandwich, first lord of the admiralty, publicly declared in the house of peers, that he knew the low establishment proposed would be fully sufficient for reducing the colonies to obedience. With unpardonable indiscretion he spoke in terms the most contemptuous both of the power and the courage of the Americans. He asserted, that they were neither disciplined nor capable of discipline; and that, formed of such materials, and so indisposed to encounter danger, their numbers would only add to the facility of the defeat*." *To the insolence and adulation of lord SANDWICH'S rhetoric on this occasion, history affords perhaps no juster parallel than the speech of MARDONIUS to XERXES on his projected invasion of Greece, as recorded by the pen of Herodotus. "Sir," said the slave to the despot, "you are not only the most illustrious of all the Persians who have hitherto appeared, but you may securely defy the competition of posterity. You are entitled to our particular admiration for not suffering the people of IONIA, contemptible as they are, to INSULT US with impunity. It would indeed be preposterous, if, after reducing to our power the Sace, the Indians, the Ethiopians, and the Assyrians, with many other great and illustrious nations, we should not inflict vengeance on those GREEKS, who without provocation have molested us. There can be nothing to excite our alarm-no multitude of troops BOOK 1775. On the first day of the meeting after the recess, January 20th, 1775, lord Dartmouth laid before the peers the official papers belonging to his department. The plan of ministerial coercion was now finally settled-not however, according to general report, without considerable opposition in the cabinet from certain members of the administration, in the number of whom no extraordinary wealth-their POWERS I myself have known— Besides this, I am informed that in all their military undertakings the Greeks betray the extremest ignorance and folly. Who, sir, shall oppose you at the head of the forces and fleets of Asia? The Greeks I think never can be so audacious. If, however, I should be deceived, and they shall be so MAD as to engage us, they will soon find to their cost, that in the art of war we are the first of mankind." How well the predictions of these vain boasters were verified, let SALAMIS and SARATOGA tell! The abject manner in which the GREAT KING subsequently sued by his ambassadors for peace, courting with fawning flattery the friendship and alliance of the very people he had thus injuriously treated, and the disdainful refusal of the Athenians to enter into any nogociation so long as the Persian army remained within the limits of the Grecian territory, are particularly related by the same historian. "You may be assured," say these sons of freedom, "that your endeavours to persuade us into an alliance with the BARBARIANS never will succeed. On the part of the Athenians we declare, that as long as the sun shall continue his ordinary course, so long will we avoid any friendship with Xerxes-so long will we continue to resist him. Hereafter do not presume to enter an Athenian assembly with overtures of this kind." Herodot, book viii. sect. 9. XVI. 1775. there was reason to believe that the first lord of BOOK the treasury himself, the lord privy-seal, and the secretary of state for America, were to be accounted. Notwithstanding the continued infirmities of the earl of Chatham, he had formed a resolution to attend the house, if possible, on this memorable day, in order, before the die was finally cast, to make one powerful effort to avert the calamity, the danger, and the ruin which he saw impending over that great empire, which under his administration had attained the summit of human prosperity and glory. The house was unusually full, and a most respectable and crowded audience also filled the space below the bar. When he rose to speak, all was silence and profound attention. Animated and almost inspired by his subject, he seemed to feel his own unrivalled superiority. His venerable figure, dignified and graceful in decay, his language, his voice, his gesture, were such as might at this important crisis, big with the fate of Britain, seem to characterize him as the guardian genius of his country *. "Too well apprised," he said, "of the contents of the * Such extraordinary powers of mind as were in this nobleman, combined with so much corporeal infirmity, recall to recollection the anecdote of M. Voltaire, who, on a visit to the famous M. Turgot, when last at Paris, found the mimister wrapt up in gouty flannels and unable to move: "You |