is adequate to its defence, or that any possible force to be procured from Germany, Switzerland, or elsewhere, will be equal to the conquest of America. I am too perfectly persuaded of their abilities and integrity to expect any such assistance from them. Oh! But if America is not to be conquered, she may be treated with. Conciliation is at length thought of. Terms are to be offered. Who are the persons that are to treat on the part of this afflicted and deluded country? The very men who have been the authors of our misfortunes. The very men who have endeavoured, by the most pernicious policy, the highest injustice and oppression, the most cruel and devastating war, to enslave those people they would conciliate, to gain the confidence and affection of those who have survived the Indian tomahawk and German bayonet. Can your lordships entertain the most distant prospect of success from such a treaty and such negotiators? No, my lords, the Americans have virtue, and they must detest the principles of such men. They have understanding, and too much wisdom, to trust to the cunning and narrow politicks which must cause such overtures on the part of their merciless persecutors. My lords, I maintain that they would shun, with a mixture of prudence and detestation, any proposition coming from that quarter. They would receive terms from such men, as snares to allure and betray. They would dread them as ropes meant to be put about their legs, in order to entangle and overthrow them in certain ruin. My lords, supposing that our domestick danger, if at all, is far distant; that our enemies will leave us at liberty to prosecute this war to the utmost of our ability; suppose your lordships should grant a fleet one day, an army another: all these, I do affirm, will avail nothing, unless you accompany it with advice. Ministers have been in errour: experience has proved it; and what is worse, they continue it. They told you in the beginning, that 15,000 men would traverse all America, without scarcely an appearance of interruption. Two campaigns have passed since they

gave us this assurance. been employed; and one of your armies, which composed two thirds of the force by which America was to be subdued, has been totally destroyed, and is now led captive through those provinces you call rebellious. Those men whom you called cowards, poltroons, runaways, and knaves, are become victorious over your veteran troops: and, in the midst of victory, and flush of conquest, have set ministers an example of moderation and magnanimity well worthy of imitation.

Treble that number have

My lords, no time should be lost which may promise to improve this disposition in America, unless, by an obstinacy founded in madness, we wish to stifle those embers of affection which, after all our savage treatment, do not seem as yet to have been entirely extinguished. While on one side we must lament the unhappy fate of that spirited officer, Mr. Burgoyne, and the gallant troops under his command, who were sacrificed to the wanton temerity and ignorance of ministers, we are as strongly compelled on the other to admire and applaud the generous, magnanimous conduct, the noble friendship, brotherly affection, and humanity of the victors, who, condescending to impute the horrid orders of massacre and devastation to their true authors, supposed that, as soldiers and Englishmen, those cruel excesses could not have originated with the general, nor were consonant to the brave and humane spirit of a British soldier, if not compelled to it as an act of duty. They traced the first cause of those diabolick orders to their true source; and, by that wise and generous interpretation, granted their professed destroyers terms of capitulation which they could be only entitled to as the makers of fair and honourable war.

My lords, I should not have presumed to trouble you, if the tremendous state of this nation did not, in my opinion, make it necessary. Such as I have this day described it to be, I do maintain it is. The same measures are still persisted in; and ministers, because your lordships have been deluded, deceived,

VOL. V.

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and misled, presume, that whenever the worst comes they will be enabled to shelter themselves behind parliament. This, my lords, cannot be the case. They have committed themselves and their measures to the fate of war, and they must abide the issue. I tremble for this country. I am almost led to despair that we shall ever be able to extricate ourselves. At any rate, the day of retribution is at hand, when the vengeance of a much injured and afflicted people, will, I trust, fall heavily on the authors of their ruin; and I am strongly inclined to believe, that before the day to which the proposed adjournment shall arrive, the noble earl who moved it, will have just cause to repent of his motion.

MR. PITT'S SPEECH,

IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, JANUARY 31ST, 1799, ON OF FERING TO THE HOUSE THE RESOLUTIONS WHICH HE PROPOSED AS THE BASIS OF A UNION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

NOTWITHSTANDING what has been urged to the contrary, it will not be difficult to show that the administration of William Pitt was eminently distinguished by the maxims of an enlarged wisdom, and of the most liberal, enlightened and beneficial policy. There entered into its views nothing sordid, or low, or vulgar, or wily, or diminutive. The traits of his political conduct partook conspicuously of the expansiveness of his mind, and the generosity and elevation of his nature. The proofs of this position may be displayed in a brief summary of the leading measures of his political life.

William Pitt was the honest, and faithful, and zealous advocate of parliamentary reform so long as prudence warranted it.

He corrected the abuses, mitigated the violence, and restrained the injustice of the India government. He constantly opposed with all his weight and authority, the slave trade.

He resisted the dangerous and unconstitutional principles which were advanced in the memorable discussion concerning the regency.

He cooperated to settle by a declaratory statute, in a way the most favourable to the rights of the subject,

and against the sentiments of the highest legal characters, the important doctrine of libel.

He established, with different countries, treaties of commercial intercourse as liberal, as they were reciprocally advantageous.

He took steps to guarantee the balance of power, and to preserve the peace of Europe, which were acknowledged to be dignified, wise, and magnani

mous.

He acquiesced in several concessions to the Catholicks of Ireland, and was known to be disposed entirely to relieve them of their restrictions and disabilities.

He succeeded ultimately, by the most consummate management, in effecting a union between the sister isles, thus strengthening, by knitting together, the detached members of the empire.

While the surrounding states were torn asunder, and demolished by the hand of conquest, or the ebulition of a poisonous influence, and all Europe was menaced by calamity and ruin, he not only protected his country against this array of terrour, but pushed her on by a steady and vigorous impulse in a rapid course of unexampled prosperity and improvement.

Dark, and sinister, and inauspicious as this season -was, he meliorated her finances; he extended her trade; he increased her manufactures; he promoted her agriculture; he multiplied her naval and military. means; and taught her the salutary lesson, that she had wealth, and spirits, and power to combat, as long as she proved true to herself, the aggregated and envenomed hostility of the world.

Much as was accomplished by this exalted and efficient minister, it is presumable that had he been cast on times less untoward and disjointed he would have done still more for his country.

From the convictions of reason, perhaps biassed in some degree by the general habitudes of his political thinking, and the force of inherited prejudice, it is probable he would have directed his attention to prune away the defects of original construction, as