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sume to pledge his Majesty's royal word to the House of Commons of the parliament of Ireland, That any part of the troops upon the establishment of that kingdom shall, upon being sent out of that kingdom, become a charge upon Great Britain,' without the consent of this House; or for any person to presume to offer to the House of Commons of the parliament of Ireland, without the consent of this House, That such national troops, 'so sent out of Ireland, shall be replaced by foreign troops, at the expence of "Great Britain :' " which were negatived.

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and a dangerous infringement of the con- the rights of Great Britain, or the suborstitution, for any person whatever to pre-dinate claims of America, to explain the constitutional connection between taxation and representation; what was rebellion, or what legal resistance; whether all America ought to have been punished and proscribed for the intemperate zeal or disobedience of a Boston mob. He did not even mean to dispute or controvert the expe. diency; nor in short, a single ministerial ground, on which the present measures respecting America were taken up, pur. sued, and defended. Those were all, for this day at least, to be absolutely laid aside, For argument sake he would allow, that administration had acted perfectly right; but while he granted this, he would take up the matter from the very instant administration had agreed upon a plan of coercion. This æra he fixed at the time the minister first proposed certain Resolu tions to the House in February 1774, as a ground of complaint, and followed it with the famous Boston Port Bill. He then entered into an historical detail of the means employed to carry this plan of coercion into effect, in which he painted in the strongest colours, and held to view in the most striking lights,, such a scene of folly in the cabinet, servile acquiescence in parliament, and misconduct and ignorance in office and the field, as never before, he said, disgraced this nation, or indeed any other. He added, that our ministers wanted both wisdom and integrity, our par liaments public spirit and discernment; and that our commanders by sea and land, were either deficient in abilities, or, which was the most probable, had acted under orders that prevented them from executing the great objects of their command. No man could say but there had been mismanagement and misconduct some. where. It was the chief object of his intended motion, to gain that species of information, which might be the means of discovering the true causes of both. Public justice demanded such an enquiry. The individuals on whom the obloquy rested, were entitled to be heard in their own de fence. To withhold the information necessary to their justification, would be an insult to the nation, as well as an act of private injustice. None but the guilty could wish to evade it. No man as a soldier or sailor, be his rank ever so high, was sure of his honour a single minute, if he was to be buried under public disgrace, in order to shield, protect, or palliate the blunders and incapacity of others. If the

Debate in the Commons on Mr. Fox's Motion for an Enquiry into the Causes of the ill Success of the British Arms in North America.] Feb. 20. Mr. Fox said, he should not trespass on the patience and good sense of the House, by recapitulating the cause of the present unhappy disputes with America. He should not develope that system, whence the measures now carrying on were supposed to originate. He should forbear to animadvert upon a system, that in its principles, complexion, and every constituent part, gave the fullest and most unequivocal proofs that its ultimate design was the total destruction of the constitution of this free form of government. These were assertions that might be disputed. People who had, or perhaps had not, the best opinion of the abilities of those in power, might have a confidence that they intended nothing ill. Others, though they disapproved of their general conduct, might either think them the dupes of their secret supporters; and even such as thought the most indifferently of them would be disposed to look upon them rather as tools, than arraign them as principals in so unnatural and horrid a conspiracy against the liberties of their country. But what might be the secret designs of a junto, or the venal alacrity of the despicable cyphers they employed to effect their traitorous purposes, was, he said, to be no part of the subject of enquiry this day. He did not mean to teaze or insult the House with idle surmises, with floating vague suspicions, leading to partial deductions or speculative charges, conceived and spun out of his own brain; but wished to draw their attention to certain well known, indisputable, uncontrovertible facts. His proposed enquiry would not be directed to ascertain

Mr. Fitzpatrick replied to his lordship, and remarked, though every thing he said were well founded, the conclusions he drew by no means followed. He insisted, that the whole of the American business, from the very beginning, had been planned in absurdity, accompanied by negligence, and executed in a manner which evidenced the very excess of ignorance, incapacity, and misconduct. That the House were called upon by the whole nation, and in vindication of their own honour, to exact an account from the servants of the crown, of the causes of the mismanagement of the American war, and to bring the authors to condign punishment, or at least to dismiss them, as unworthy of discharging the important trusts delegated to them.

ministers had planned with wisdom, and proportioned the force to the service; if the great officers in the several efficient departments, had done all that depended on them, ably and faithfully, then it was plain, that the whole of the miscarriages that had happened might be deservedly imputed to our naval and military commanders. If, on the other hand, the latter acquitted themselves according to their instructions, and carried on their operations in proportion to the force, it was no less plain, that the cause of all the disgraces the British arms had suffered, arose from ignorance in those who planned, and incapacity and want of integrity in those to whom the carrying them into execution was in the first instance entrusted. He then recapitulated a variety of circumstances to prove his general allegations, and entered into the conduct of administration respecting Canada, and repeated several arguments used at the time of passing the Quebec Act, predicting what has since literally happened. He concluded by making the following motion: "That it be referred to a Committee, to enquire into the Causes of the ill Success of his Majesty's Arms in North America, as also into the Causes of the Defection of the people of the province of Quebec."

Lord Ossory seconded the motion, and said, he could not perceive how any member, who was unconnected with the ministry, and at the same time wished success to the American war, could be against it. Lord Clare quoted the speech from the throne. He insisted, that it was orthodox and ought not to be questioned, particularly as nothing material had since happened, which could induce the House to alter its opinion. He insisted that the measure respecting the Hanover troops, was perfectly justifiable, and that the plea of necessity was never better founded than on that occasion. His lordship moved the previous question.

Mr. T. Townshend said, that the present motion would be a test of what might hereafter be expected from ministers; for if they opposed it, it would fairly prove, that in smothering the enquiry, they intended to cover themselves from public disgrace, by a vote of that House.

Lord Mulgrave defended the naval operations. He contended, that the war was just and constitutional; that it was well conducted, and predicted that it would be happily and gloriously terminated.

Sir Gilbert Elliot said, that the troubles now subsisting in America are of a much longer standing, though they had not assumed the present form, than the hon. gentlemen supposed, for they commenced ten years ago. He insisted, that if such an enquiry were at all proper, this was not the time. Several persons who would be the subject of it, as well as those whom it would be proper to examine, were at present on their stations in America; and others not employed are not yet returned home. Taking it either way then, if no enquiry ought to be gone into, there was an end of the motion. If there ought to be an enquiry, the present motion was premature, neither the parties charged, nor those that could properly give the necessary information, being on the spot.

Mr. Dempster was sorry to see such a disposition in administration to stifle all enquiry. It looked as if they wanted to conceal something they were both afraid and ashamed should be brought to light. He, therefore, if ministry were not deter. mined to confirm all the suspicions that had been entertained of them, thought it was their interest, as it was their duty, to do all in their power to exculpate themselves, for he could assure them, however sure they might be of a majority, some of their best friends began to doubt the truth of their assurances, and the possibility of carrying their plans into execution. then took a short view of the Quebec Bill, and concluded by solemnly averring, that in his opinion, no Turkish emperor ever sent a more arbitrary and oppressive mandate, by a favourite bashaw, to a distant province, than that Bill was, with the instructions to the governor, which accompanied it.

He

Mr. Welbore Ellis said, that gentle moderate measures were unhappily pursued, when the situation of America called for the most strong and decisive. Thank God, said he, this mistaken system is now at an end: a powerful fleet and army are now going out, and I have not the slightest doubt that they will be sufficient to crush the rebellious Americans, and bring them back to a proper sense of their duty.

Mr. Adam said there had been shameful neglect somewhere; and for that reason, he should be willing to go into the enquiry and trace it to its source. That either we knew America was preparing, and failed to make the necessary preparations, or were guilty of criminal negligence, in not procuring proper information. This he instanced in the want of convoys for the transports which sailed early in the autumn. Mr. Hey, chief justice of Quebec, went into a defence of the Quebec Bill; gave an historical account of the place and people, their manners, customs, and disposition; said he knew them well, as he had lived among them for upwards of 7 years; and by all he could learn, the people of Canada never wished nor expected that the parliament should controul or superintend the King's government of that country. He then made an encomium on general Carleton; who, he said, had not been properly supported from hence.

Governor Johnstone observed, that some gentlemen had insisted, if an enquiry was at all proper, it would be at the end of a war, not the beginning; for his part, he was of opinion the earlier the better; nay, indeed, the first moment the situation of affairs called for it; and he could not avoid being for it, though no other motive operated on him but the extreme reluctance shewn by several gentlemen; for where there was no guilt or conscious incapacity, no fears could arise. He said, if no enquiries had been set on foot, both in the beginning and middle of wars, probably the two last would not have ended so successfully. This he showed in the instances of Lestock, Matthews, Byng, &c. It was true, ministers always trembled at enquiries, they were usually fatal to their power; so it happened at both the periods alluded to, and that was another reason why he was for the motion; for he was sure the present ministry were as unequal to the task of making war, as they were incapable of procuring good terms of peace or conciliation; the undertaking was too ponderous and unwieldy for them. He men

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tioned lord North's attempt to negociate with the American congress, and the contempt with which his offer was treated; stating the fact from the Journal of the Congress, published by their own authority.

Lord North disavowed it; and declared he had never, directly nor indirectly, communicated any letter or paper to the Congress. He admitted the paper published in the Journal of the Congress, contained his sentiments, but that was all.

General Burgoyne defended the operations of war in America.

Mr. Cruger. The hon. gentleman who opened this debate, has spoken so fully and eloquently to every part of the ques tion, that any thing farther in support of this motion may appear unnecessary. But, Sir, when a subject of so much importance is before the House, it behoves every man to lay aside the reserve of diffidence, and express his sentiments with freedom and candour. If there is any point in which the different interests of this House should unite, it must be in a conviction of the necessity and expediency of enquiring into the causes of the present alarming state of public affairs. By discovering what has proved ruinous in the past, we may learn at least to avoid the same per nicious steps for the future. If their mea sures have been conducted with justice and prudence, it is a duty which adminis tration owe to their characters, to disarm by a free examination, that censure on their conduct which may possibly arise from ignorance. But if they love darkness rather than light, "because their deeds are evil," it becomes the guardians of the nation to drag their miscarriages into open day, and expose them, with all their deformities, to public investigation.

If such an enquiry was ever necessary, the present time demands it. If we look to the past, one uniform train of disappointments and misfortunes crowd the view: if to the future, a gloomy prospect of increasing miseries, from a continuance of the same left-handed policy and ill projected measures. We are involved in a war, in which success itself will be ruinous. The colonies, as if animated with one soul, are determined to perish or be free, We are told they must be subdued. We shall soon be called upon make new exertions by force. Every thing wears the face of hostile prepara tions; and, as if disappointment could create confidence, we are urged to pursue

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the same fatal measures, by arguments | their despotism to crush the Protestant drawn from their miscarriage: nothing, it colonies; if every artifice was used to seis now said, will satisfy America but in- duce and employ a servile, bigoted people dependence; that the people of that to subvert the liberties of America, can country have almost universally taken up we wonder, can we complain, if the coloarms; they act not only on the defensive, nists wisely diverted the storm, and sebut have endeavoured to deprive you of cured a country to their own alliance, the all Canada; an enquiry, they say, would strength and arms of which were avowedly produce a fatal procrastination; the ur- to be directed to their destruction? gency and necessity of the case demand When what was dearer to them than and justify immediate vigour and executheir lives-their liberties, were at stake; tion. These must be pursued, or the go- when their opposition to government vernment of the colonies surrendered to reached no higher than petition and rean ambitious congress. solves, then they were stigmatized with want of courage. Every method was taken to irritate them. Insults on their character as a people were added to encroachments on their rights as citizens. The pencil of confident oppression described them as a herd of pusillanimous wretches, whom the appearance of martial array would terrify into submission. How unjust, how impolitic, to reduce men to

Such are the reasons advanced to preclude enquiry, and to procure a hasty acquiescence in schemes of policy, on which he fate of the empire so materially debends. By such arguments as these our ealousy is excited, and our resentment nflamed against a people, who, after the nost earnest endeavours to preserve their iberties from invasion by petition and renonstrance; after having repeatedly sub-the miserable alternative of being branded nitted their complaints, without effect, to he justice of parliament, and laid them umbly at the foot of the throne; after eholding the most formidable preparaions to divest them of their rights by the word; after finding hostilities already ommenced and fresh violences threatened, ave taken up arms in their own defence, nd endeavoured to repel destructive force y force.

e case.

The complexion and character of their resent opposition (whether unjust or hoourable) rests not on their present meaires, but arises from, and must be weighed y, the causes, which have made such a onduct and such measures necessary. A ee and impartial enquiry, therefore, into e leading and primary causes, is indisensably necessary to a just decision of If their claims of exemption om parliamentary taxation are founded equity and the principles of the constition; if they have been driven by a anton, cruel and impolitic attack on eir privileges to their present desperate efence; then, the whole guilt and censure chargeable on those, and those alone, hose ambition and ill-directed measures ave forced them to these extremities. hus, also, if a form of government is inroduced into Canada, breathing little of he spirit of English liberty, and intending link the Canadians to the chain of miisterial influence; if they scrupled not to ake a religion, which has so often deged Europe with blood, an engine of

with the epithet of cowards, or of taking up arms to vindicate their injured honour and liberties; first to compel them to resistance, and then derive arguments of their guilt from their vigour, courage, and success. How contemptible the cause which pleads the misfortunes it has occasioned, as reasons for its support!

The arguments of administration, stripped of their false colourings, with all humility, I conceive to be these: "We have plunged Great Britain into a most expensive and ruinous contest with her colonies; we have opened the door for endless animosities, by reviving disputed questions and claims which shake the foundation of empire. The measures we have pursued have increased the storm, and multiplied the common misfortunes. We have joined all America in a firm league against you. Your trade has been impaired ; your ships insulted and taken. We have lost for you every place of strength or importance in the colonies; and have left you an army broken by sickness, fatigue, and want, and now perishing under all the mortifications, ignominy, and miseries of an inglorious imprisonment. These are our pleas for support; these are the recommendations of our councils. We lay before you the miscarriages and evils which our past measures have produced, to persuade you to place new confidence in our wisdom, and to give more liberal aid to our judicious schemes for the future."

These, however, are not the only blush

ing honours which deck the temples of administration. They have lately displayed the happy art of drawing arguments in their favour, from the misfortunes of their friends, as well as from the success of their enemies, and prove that they are as incapable of gratitude as of justice. When gentlemen in this House (influenced by motives of humanity) recommended an exception of the friends of government in the colonies from the rigours of the late Prohibitory Bill, administration suddenly changed its voice; and they who just before had boasted that a majority of the Americans were friendly to their cause, and only waited an opportunity to declare it with safety, now pronounced, that no distinction could be made, for that they had preserved at best "a shameful neutrality," and deserved to be subject to the common calamity of their country. This was the liberal reward bestowed on men who espoused their cause from principle, and maintained it undaunted and unsupported, through obloquy, and the most imminent danger to their fortunes, families, and lives.

I will not at present trespass on the patience of the House, by entering into particulars, but I cannot forbear saying, the friends of peace and good order in the province of New-York, did not deserve to be reproached with a shameful neutrality; they stood forth, and opposed, as long as they were able, the increasing current of tumult and disorder, and exposed themselves, by their endeavours to preserve their colonial constitution, to the resentment and vengeance of their incensed neighbours. In a dutiful manner they submitted their grievances to the clemency of this House, and the justice of their sovereign. I need not insist on the consequence. I shall not dwell on the contempt with which their zealous advances to a reconciliation were rejected. But I must desire all those who declaim on their ignominious neutrality, to remember, that administration not only neglected to aid

them with a force sufficient to maintain their opposition against the zealots in their own province, and the united powers of the adjacent colonies, but withdrew to Boston the few troops under the command of general Haldimand, which might have assisted in preserving order, and the freedom and impartiality of public proceedings. By such means the colony was laid open to incursions; many were obliged to secure their persons from danger, by for

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saking their friends and country, and leav ing their property at the discretion of the enemies, whilst a greater number waited, with silent patience, under every affliction, for the vigorous protection of Great Britain.

Their zealous and firm adherence to their principles, crown them with honour; that they have not been successful, that they were borne down by the superio force of their opponents, that they are le to share in the common distress and com mon punishments of their unfortunate countrymen, beams no lustre, however, the characters of those by whom they were neglected, betrayed, and sacrificed. B this impolicy, the command and manage ment of the key and main spring of Ame rica, has been lost to this country; a speedy and effectual security of which might have saved us from the present gloomy prospect of intestine carnage and accumulating misery. Surely, the repre sentative body of the nation are bound in duty to their constituents, to examine the reasons of such neglect and misconduct; and they in particular, who are the asserters of parliamentary supremacy, are concern ed to enquire why so effectual a method of weakening the opposition in America, and supporting their own adherents, bas been totally omitted. But there is no ne cessity of dwelling on this circumstance, to prove the obligations this country is under to ministers; disappointment and disgrace have marked all their measures, and, as if miracles had been wrought to strike conviction on this House, they have not once even blundered into success. It may therefore, reasonably be hoped, that before we blindly follow any farther, we may not only contemplate our present situation, and the ground we have already passed, but pay particular attention to that which lies before us.

Admitting however, Sir, that a force sufficient to subdue them can be sent out; admitting that this country will patiently bear the enormous weight of accumulated taxes, which so distant and unequal a war will require; admitting that foreign powers will neglect so favourable an opportunity of distressing their rivals; admitting that your fleets, unopposed, level with the ground those cities which rose by your protection, were the pillars of your com merce, and your nation's boast; admitting that foreign mercenaries spread desolation, that thousands fall before them, and that, humbled under the combined woes

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