could have filled that office with dignity and ability is dead; and who can refuse a tear to his memory? His first object was the interest of his country, his second was the glory of promoting it: he despised money, and appropriated all the influence which his talents and his courage gave him, not to his private emolument, but the public advantage. He might have directed our military councils with advantage; but he is gone, and where can such another have they strengthened the lines at Que- During these negociations, I happened to be at Paris, and I affirm as a certain truth, that the French would have deemed our intervention in favour of the brave islanders, as an act of friendship to them. The vast expence of life and treasure which they had incurred, had exhausted them, and they would have thanked us for an honourable pretence to withdraw from a scene of perpetual distresses. But we then acted like poltroons, and poltroons will always be insulted; now indeed, we affect the bully, but what can we do? who can make proper arrangements for a war, supposing that a war could be supported? Let me ask our ministers, whom they will appoint for a commander in chief? he who T VOL. XVI.1 Our distresses, however, are not without consolation, we have an excellent Secretary at War; a secretary whose dispatches may be safely trusted to our enemies, since it is impossible that our friends should understand them. Such were some of his letters to the governor of Gibraltar, during the last war, some were contradictory, and all were confused. This lost us Minorca; and if his talents produced such notable effects, when he was in a subordinate department, what may be expected. when he is the supreme director! That he can write intelligibly, and give spirit to our troops, for such purpose as wisdom sees fit, we have a memorable instance in the destruction of his Majesty's subjects in St. George's Fields. I wish the ministry joy of such a superintendant of the military department, but am sorry that I cannot pay the same compliment to my country. Lord Barrington: Sir; it is impossible I should hear the many charges which are brought against me with indifference, however ill founded, and therefore I hope this House will indulge me a few words in my defence. My enemies have made exceptions to two of my letters; and considering the many hundreds of letters, I had almost said, the many hundreds of thousands, that I have written during the ten busy years that I have held my present office, it is more honour to me that they have been able to make exceptions against no more, than disgrace, that they have excepted against those, even supposing that their censure is well founded: it has generally been supposed, that the necessary patibility of human nature requires some allowance, but my accuser seems to think otherwise; it is however fortunately in my power, upon the present occasion, to disappoint his malice without controverting his opinion. My dispatches to the governor of Gibraltar were submitted to a court mar[3X1 tial, and to this honourable House, and I stood acquitted by both. I must, therefore, hold my censure very cheap, and indeed, have little reason to regret that my name has shared the common fate of whatever is sacred and venerable among us. I am content to stand or fall with this illustrious body, and am proud that by the same charges which have been brought against me, their decision is called in question. But can my adversary without confusion and disgrace recollect, that the letters which he pretends to have been unintelligible and contradictory, were understood and executed by the person to whom they were addressed? To what subterfuge will he fly from so full a detection of malevolence and falsehood? With respect to the affair of St. George's Fields, I have profited from the persecution of my enemies, as Job did from that of the devil; to answer the dark purposes of a desperate faction, it was brought into this House, and though its whole force was exerted upon the occasion, the mover of the question could get no more than thirtynine to divide with him against me. This is a proof that the accusation was groundJess, for which I am obliged to that worthy gentleman, and his friends. 1 ber can point out a proper successor, he Sir; the defence which the noble lord who spoke last, has been pleased to make of his conduct, is a very pleasant sally of his fancy, and a very polite compliment to this House. The noble lord has not attempted to shew the rectitude of his measures upon any principle of truth and reason, but he says that in every thing for which he has been censured he had your concurrence: this, however, while the exceptions to his conduct remain unremoved, is rather proving you to be wrong than himself to be right. He attempts his justification not by works but by faith; he has laid his sins upon you, and I dare say, in the day of account, would be very glad to make you the propitiatory sacrifice, and avail himself of the atonement. I apprehend, however, that you have iniquities enough of your own to answer for, But the hon. gentleman has brought and that it would be prudent not to take other charges that are more general, and upon you the iniquities of others. No I fear some that must be admitted. Ad- supposed criminal has any pretence to ministration did not, as soon as they heard blame his accuser, till he has exculpated that Falkland island had been attacked by himself; why, then, should the names of a Spanish officer, seize all the French ships faction and sedition, by which he has they could find, and it is equally certain thought fit to distinguish the motives that that they suffered death to carry off the induced me to bring the affair of St. marquis of Granby at a time when he George's-fields into this House, move my might probably be much wanted. What choler. The measure was laudable, whatanswer does the man deserve who makes ever were the motives, nor need the noble these things matters of reproach? and how lord, to take the part I acted so much in much honour do they gain, who drive their a dudgeon; I was not the first that acopponents into such absurdity, by giving cused him, I gave him, indeed, an opportheir malice no other cause of complaint? tunity to vindicate himself if he was traI have the pleasure to tell the hon. gentle-duced; and surely, if he had been innoman, what I believe he will not be very cent, he would have been obliged to me glad to hear, that he reviles and traduces for that. me; I had the suffrages of the great commander, the honest man, the liberal patriot, whom he affects to lament, in my favour; I esteemed and loved him; and if either his word or actions are worthy of credit, he esteemed and loved me; we were sometimes divided in our political sentiments, but our friendship was inviolable. The hon. gentleman asks, where we shall find such another? to which 1 reply, that I cannot tell. Will this also become matter of reproach? If any mem It is But why did the noble lord exert all his influence, and all his oratory, to prevent an enquiry? There is but one reason, I believe, and of that no person in this House is so dull as to be ignorant. true, that upon a division, I was joined by no more than 39; but I was not surprised at that.* The share which a great personage had in the transaction that I arraigned, rendered many patriots who are See p. 602 of the present volume, and he who shall advise hostilities against the Bourbon compact, till a compact shall take place between Great Britain and her colonies, is a foe or a driveller. Nor is it also necessary, that the inhabitants of Great Britain should be compacted with each other, which can never happen till the complaints of the Middlesex election are removed. I do not say that we are not a legal assembly, I do not countenance the insolence of the capital, but I know that many wise and good citizens suspect us to be only a House of Com. mons de facto and not de jure; and while such an opinion prevails, none will pretend that it is safe for us to impose taxes and other burdens, which we cannot but render necessary, but those the policy and prudence of which are of the same cast with flaming enough on other occasions, extremely cool upon this. Their virtue was chilled by the fear of giving offence, and a man of more prudence than I profess, would have followed their example. If I had done so, I should not, perhaps, have been accused of faction and sedition. But to shew the noble lord that neither fear nor dependency have altered my principles, or shall alter my conduct, I here pledge myself to him, to this House, and to the public, that I will bring this affair once more into question during the course of the present session. Such materials have since come into my hands, that I hope to see it meet a fate very different from that which attended it last year. Much indeed, is not to be expected from this soil, yet I will do my duty, I will plant, it is your part to give the increase. The noble lord, I think, too hastily concludes, that the two letters which have been excepted to are unexceptionable, and that those two are all against which exceptions can be brought. As to the first, he seems greatly to pride himself in the testimony of a court-martial, but his pride may be humbled. Court-martials, as well as Houses of Commons, have erred: they have no more claim to infallibility than a pope or a council. A court-martial acquitted Lestock and condemned Matthews; but the public has since passed a different sentence, and posterity will ap. prove the decision. I wish the noble lord may not find that his conduct will fall under the same condemnation. In my opinion, he has no more cause to triumph over us, than his fellow labourers in the political vineyard to triumph over the Americans; because the colonists have begun to import, they cry out victory: but the colonists are still true to their first principle, and still act steadily upon it. They determined to import no article that was taxed, where many articles were taxed they refused to import many, now tea only is taxed, they refuse to import tea: they have regulated their conduct by that of the ministry; as ministry rose in its pretensions, America rose; as ministry relaxed America relaxed. So that it is manifest, no advantage has been gained over them. The loss of their trade, their affection, and their allegiance has been hazarded, but the quarrel is as far from being compromised as ever; before America, therefore, can heartily concur in any measures which it may be necessary for Great Britain to take, her grievances must be redressed; those of our ministers. Sir, any other men would have foreseen the harm that is now bursting over our heads, or at least have trusted to the warning of those who had better eyes. I, among others, ventured to foretell it from the appearance of the political sky; but I was called a child of faction, and my optics were said to be jaundiced with discontent. Our wise rulers, easily believing what they wished, and foreseeing their own fall in a fresh war, would hear nothing about it. Spain preached to them in vain by her declarations; she preached to them in vain by her conduct, and refusing to hear them, they would not have believed, though one had risen from the dead. They have been held torpid by some Circean enchantment, and when at last they were roused from sleep, then it was some months before they could recover their senses: reason they never could recover, for they never had reason to lose; they jumped about like a squirrel at the sight of a cat, they leaped and squatted, and whisked their tail about, and ran into a hole; and in what hole did they take refuge? why the ministry of France. They applied to France as a mediator to accommodate their differences with Spain. When they thus betray the interest and honour of Great Britain to our enemies abroad, can we wonder, that the Speech from the throne does not convey as much intelligence as a common newspaper to the people at home: this annual specimen of our ministers' art in government and rhetorick has every deficiency that can render them despicable; it is not sound sense, it is not grammatical English. They have for a year past acted as if we had not an enemy in the world, and yet it is evident | from the King's Speech at the opening of last session, that they apprehended a war. Let the Clerk read the paragraph of that speech to which I allude. This paragraph was read accordingly, and is as follows: "The uncommon burthens, which my subjects have borne so cheerfully, in order to bring the late war to a happy conclusion, must be an additional motive to make me vigilant to prevent the present disturbances in Europe from extending to any part, where the security, honour, or interest of this nation may make it necessary for my crown to become a party. The assurances which I receive from the other great powers, afford me reason to believe, that my endeavours will continue to be successful." Lord Barrington: Sir; if I have failed in that decorum of language which is universally due from one gentleman to another, I am sorry for it; political sentiments may be peculiar, good manners should be common to all; and I should be sorry to have it supposed that politics and good breeding are incompatible. Lampoons should have no place here, nor should our debates degenerate into the scurrilous affectations of wit and patriotism, that circulate with a newspaper. That my antagonist has religiously preserved the distinction I will not vouch; as to myself, I have never intentionally transgressed. In the warmth of a hasty speech, the words faction and sedition passed my lips; are they a trespass upon decorum? If they are, I cannot promise that I shall not be again guilty before I sit down; so that if the hon. gentleman's choler is moved, it is, I fear, out of my power to remove it. My antagonist is less modest than those who left a criminal unpunished, because they could not throw the first stone without assuming a freedom from sin. He has charged me with perplexity and contradiction, and he has in the same breath perplexed and contradicted himself: he has told us with his usual eloquence, that the ministry did not apprehend a war, and that they would not have apprehended a war, though it had been predicted by one risen from the dead; and he has told us, without sitting down, that the ministry did apprehend a war, and that they told this House at the beginning of the last session; as he has been pleased to prove his assertion by an appeal to the Speech, it is unnecessary to refute the first. But I cannot sufficiently admire the uniformity with which he blends his fanaticism of religion and politics. It is, I find, his opinion, that of professors themselves, a very few only shall be saved; in short, that even the patriots are damned, except himself, and the pious Thirty Nine. Who can but pity this good gentleman's perils among false brethren, who can but lament, that in these wicked and perilous times, political brethren should be false ! But he threatens me with a new accusation, when his brethren, having less temptation to treachery, will be more faithful to each other. I am, however, very easy under this formidable menace; he may throw down his glove when he pleases, I am ready to take it up. If he enters the field with as many offensive weapons as a ninety gun ship, I shall hold him as cheap as if he had only a rattle and bells: if he comes with his tropes and figures, I shall wrap myself up in my integrity, and I dare say, he will find me invulnerable. I wish the hon. gentleman was as sparing of our time and trouble, as he is liberal of his own breath and lungs; he would not then think of proposing, that the House should consider, as a serious charge, what it has already determined to be a groundless calumny; or hope, that having already expelled John Wilkes, for saying little more of the riot at the King's-bench, than we have heard to day, it would, at his instance, come to a Resolution of adopting John Wilkes's principles. Such a notion is the height of absurdity, and only worthy of the head which conceived it. But the hon. gentleman loves to exercise his eloquence, and by idle declamation upon fictitious topics, to prepare himself to show away, if he shall be lucky enough to find an occasion, among the realities of life. the House indulge him in this? If any hon. member makes the motion, I will second it; but if he could be persuaded to transfer the scene of his declamation to the school of his countryman Sheridan, I think he would act with more propriety and discretion. Lord North: Will Sir; after all the oratory that with such amazing profusion has been poured out about the governor of Buenos Ayres, and John Wilkes, and the island of Corsica, and a mediator with Spain, I will just beg leave to remind the hon. gentle man, that the subject which now lies be- | bles among ourselves, that the people fore the House is an Address. I do not find that any of our orators have proposed to amend it, and I must therefore conclude it to be the sense of this House, that the Address has no material imperfection, and may be presented to his Majesty in its present form. Sir, our patriots upon this and many other occasions, make me think of a man who had but one story to tell, which every incident served alike to introduce: his story was about a horse; and if any body happened to mention a poker, he would say, now you talk of a poker, it puts me in mind of a very good story about a horse; so if a lady took out her snuff-box, he was still ready, seeing a snuff-box, said he, puts me in mind of a very good story about a horse. So our patriots make every thing an occasion for a common place declamation against wicked and foolish ministers, and patch together scraps which one of them retails in the newspapers, and others carefully glean up; one half of them being constantly dupes to the artifices of the other. Some expressions, however, have been thrown out, which I cannot let fall. It has been insinuated by one hon. gentleman, that the ministers by their want of spirit in the affairs of Corsica, have made war inevitable which might have been prevented, and at the same time raised such jealousies and discontents in the nation, that the King must go to war with half his people. As to the affair of Corsica, the hon. gentleman may perhaps have been enlightened with intelligence which others have not been so happy as to obtain: I confess that with respect to myself his assertion wants evidence. I think on the contrary, that the consequence of our interfering, would more probably have brought on, than prevented a rupture, and then who would not have blamed the ministry for not allowing the enemy to waste their blood and treasure, in the acquisition of what, perhaps, they had better be with out? But, supposing that a rupture is now inevitable, we are told that the King will go to war with half his people: if gentlemen had as much ability as inclination to deceive both our friends and our enemies, they would throw out improbabilities somewhat less extravagant and absurd. Can any mortal, who does not read the Persian Tales as a true history, believe that because we have little political squab will throw off at once their allegiance, their interest, and their honour, abandon their lawful sovereign, and offer their necks to a foreign yoke! This, surely, is the raving of a madman, or the dream of an ideot: he that has sense to feed himself, or reason to distinguish rags and straw in a cell of Bedlam, from the trappings of royalty, can never draw so monstrous a conclusion. This nation is still in power and principle the scourge of France; to insinuate the contrary, is to reproach and insult it. It will ever unite against the Bourbon confederacy, and close round its prince like a wall of brass, whenever it shall be called to his defence: it will be time enough to adjust domestic differences when the common danger is removed. But, says an hon. gentleman, we have degraded our sovereign by a contest with a pitiful governor of Buenos Ayres. Would it not have been equally true, if we had immediately rushed into a war, that we were involved in a contest about a pitiful island? Could the intrinsic value of Falkland's island be deemed a sufficient cause for war? If not, it was a proper object of negociation; and if so, what could be more prudent than to leave an opening for accommodation, by referring the act in question to the governor of Buenos Ayres, which the king of Spain might, he pleased, disavow? An hon. gentleman, indeed, has told us, in one of those beautiful tropes for which he is so famous, that Great Britain solicited the mediation of France: but where has this hon. gentleman got his intelligence? Probably from the newspapers, those oracles of knowledge and truth, which he says convey more intelligence of national affairs than the King's Speech: we all know the hon. gentleman's partiality for these vehicles of political knowledge; yet I may, I think, without excessive vanity, pretend to as much knowledge of the matter as the hon. gentleman from other sources, and I declare I know of no such solicitation. Great Britain had no need of a mediator; and therefore could not apply to France to mediate. If she had stood in need of a mediator, she would have wanted a protector too, which could not be the case, as she is at this moment the first and greatest power in Europe, or at least, one of the first and greatest. Another hon. gentleman has sagaciously observed, that we have not secured all the British possessions from danger; he might as well have |