which no length of time shall diminish, which no change of principles shall ever sully.

"The fatal consequences of Tuesday's vote, which I then deprecated and foretold, is already manifest in this house; and it has been thought on all sides requisite to give a new stability to the peace, which that vote has already shaken. But the proof which the present motion is about to establish-that we are determined not to abide by this peace-is a declaration that we have examined terms, and have found them inadequate. Still less inconsistent is this extraordinary motion with the language of Tuesday. It was then urged that no sufficient time had been allowed to us to determine on the articles before us; and, in the short space of two days, we are ready to pass a vote of censure on what we declare we have not had leisure to discuss. This, Sir, is the first monstrous production of that strange alliance, which threatens once more to plunge this devoted country into all the horrors of another war.

"It is not, Sir, an exception to any single article, if wellfounded exceptions should really exist, that ought to determine the merits of this treaty. Private interests have their respective advocates, and subjects may be easily found for partial complaints; but private interest must bend to public safety. What these complaints may prove is yet unknown; for, whilst the honourable gentleman alone is describing with so much confidence the distress and dissatisfaction of trade, she herself is approaching the throne with effusions of gratitude and affection. The honourable gentleman has fairly stated the terms by which the merits of the peace are to be decided-the relative strength and resources of the respective powers at war. I will immediately meet him on

this issue.

“I shall begin, Sir, with a most important subject—the state of the British Navy; and shall refer myself for proofs of what I assert to the papers now lying on your table. This appeal, Sir, to solid and authentic documents, will appear the more just and necessary, when I acquaint the house, that a noble lord (Keppel), from whom the honourable gentleman professes to receive his naval information, has varied in his statement to the cabinet, no Less than twenty sail of the line.

"We are nformed, Sir, from the papers before us, that the

British force amounted nearly to one hundred sail of th line, many of which had been long and actively employed on foreign stations. With diligent exertions, six new ships would have been added to the catalogue in March. The force of France and Spain amounted to nearly one hundred and forty sail of the line, sixty of which were lying in Cadiz harbour, stored and victualled for immediate service. Twelve ships of the line, including one built by the United States, had quitted Boston harbour, under Vaudrueil, in a state of perfect repair. An immense laud armament was collected at St. Domingo; their seseveral forces were united in one object, and that object was the reduction of Jamaica. Who, Sir, can suppose with serious confidence, that Island could long have resisted a regular attack supported by 72 sail of the line. Admiral Pigot, after his reinforcement from Europe, would have commanded a fleet of only 46 sail of the line; and it has long been acknowledged in this house, that a defensive war was terminated in certain ruin. Would Admiral Pigot have undertaken at this time offensive operations against the islands of the enemy?—those islands upon which Lord Rodney, when flushed with victory, could not venture to attempt an impression? Would Admiral Pigot, Sir, have regained by arms what the ministers have recovered by treaty? Could he, in the sight of a superior fleet, have captured Grenada, Dominique, St. Kitts, Nevis, Monserrat? or might we not too reasonably apprehend the campaign of the West Indies would have closed with the loss of Jamaica itself, the remnant of our possessions in that part of the globe.

"Let us next consider our situation in the East. A mere defensive resistance, however glorious, had entitled Sir Edward Hughes to the thanks of this house; but his success, if it may be termed a victory, had not prevented the enemy from landing greater European force than we actually possess in India, who, at this instant, are in conjunction with Hyder, subduing and desolating the Carnatic.

"The prospect is by no means brightened when we look forward to the probable operations in the channel, and in the Northern seas, during the course of the ensuing summer. Thirteen new sail of the line would have at that time been added to the fleet of France; and the Dutch force, as it has been actually stated by a

great naval officer (Commodore Keith Stuart) in this debate, would have amounted to 25 sail of the line. What accession the Spanish force would have received is not sufficiently known. It is enough for me to state, that the fleets of the Bourbons, and of Holland, would have doubled ours in our own seas. Should we have seized the intervals of their cruises, and poorly parade the channel for a few weeks, to tarnish again by flight the glories of the last campaign? or should we have dared to risk the existence of the kingdom itself, by engaging against such fearful odds?

"What were the feelings of every one who hears me (what were my own feelings it is impossible to describe), when that great man, Lord Howe, set sail with our only fleet, inferior to the enemy, and under the probability of an engagement on their own coast? My apprehensions, Sir, on this occasion were mixed with hope; I knew the superiority of British skill and courage might outweigh the inequality of numbers. But, Sir, in another quarter, and at the same instant of time, my apprehensions were unmixed with a ray of comfort. The Baltic fleet, almost as valuable as Gibraltar itself, for it contained all the materials of future war, was on its way to England, and twelve sail of the line had been sent out from the ports of Holland to intercept it; Gibraltar was relieved by a skill and courage that baffled superior numbers; and the Baltic fleet was, I know not how, miraculously preserved. One power, indeed, the honourable gentleman had omitted in his detail:-but the Dutch, Sir, had not been disarmed by the humiliating language of that gentleman's ministry: they were warmed into more active exertions, and were just beginning to feel their own strength; they were not only about to defend themselves with effect, but to lend ten sail to the fleets of France and Spain. Here, Sir, let us pause for a moment of serious and solemn consideration.

"Should the ministers have persevered from day to day to throw the desperate die, whose successes had won us only a barren though glorious safety; and whose failure, in a single cast, would sink us into hopeless ruin? However fondly the ideas of national expectation had diffused themselves amongst the people, the ministers, Sir, could entertain no rational hopes. Those columns of our strength, which many honourable gentlemen had raised with so much fancy, and decorated with so much

I am

invention, the ministers had surveyed with sober reason. sorry to say, we discovered the fabric of our naval superiority to be visionary and baseless.

"I shall next, with submission to the right honourable gentleman who presides in that department state, in a few words, the situation of our army. It is notorious to every gentleman who hears me, that new levies could scarcely be torn, on any terms, from this depopulated country. It is known to professional gentlemen, how great is the difference between the nominal and effective state of the service; and, astonishing as it may appear, after a careful enquiry, three thousand men were the utmost force that could have been safely sent from this country on any offensive duty. But I am told, Sir, the troops from New York would have supplied us with a force equal to the demands of every intended expedition. The foreign troops in that garrison we had no power to embark on any other than American service; and, in contradiction to the honourable gentleman who spoke last, and to that noble Lord whose language he affects to speak in this house, no transports had been prepared, or could have been assembled, for their embarkation. Where, Sir, should they have directed their course, when they were at length embarked, but into the hazard of an enemy's fleet, which would have cruized with undisputed superiority in every part of the western world?

"No pressure of public accusation, nor heat of innocence in its own defence, shall ever tempt me to disclose a single circumstance which may tend to humiliate my country. What I am about to say, will betray no secret of state; it is known, for it is felt throughout the nation. There remains at this moment, exclusive of the annual services, an unfunded debt of thirty millions. Taxes, Sir, the most flattering, have been tried; and, instead of revenue from themselves, have frequently produced a failure in others, with which they have been found to sympathise. But here, Sir, I am told by the honourable gentleman who spoke last, other nations would have felt an equal distress. Good God! to what a consequence does this honourable gentleman lead us! Should I, Sir, have dared to urge a continuance of the war, which endangered the bankruptcy of public faith—a bankruptcy which would have almost dissolved the bonds of government, and involved the state in the confusion of a general ruin-should I

have ventured to do this, because one of the adverse powers MIGHT have experienced an equal distress?

"The honourable gentleman who spoke last, has amused the house with various statements on the different principles of uti possedetis,' and restitution. The principle of those statements is as false as it is unexpected from him. Did his great naval friend acquaint him with the respective values of Dominique and St. Lucia ?-that Lord, who, in his Majesty's counsels, had advised, and perhaps wisely, a preference of the former. The value of Dominique, Sir, was better known to our enemies, and the immense sums employed by them in fortifying that island, prove as well its present value, as their desire to retain it. That honourable gentleman has, on all occasions, spoken with approbation of the last peace. Was St. Lucia left in our hands by that peace, the terms of which we ourselves prescribed? or was St. Lucia really so impregnable as to endanger all our possessions at the commencement of the present war?

"It would be needless for me to remind the honourable gentleman who spoke last, of any declaration he had made in a preceding session: professions from him so antiquated and obsolete would have but little weight in this house. But I will venture. to require consistency for a single week; and shall only remind him of his declaration in Monday's debate—that this peace was preferable to a continuance of the war! Will he then criminate his Majesty's ministers by the present motion, for preferring what he would have preferred; or, how will he presume to prove that, if better terms could have been obtained, it was less their interest than their duty to have obtained them?

"Was this peace, Sir, concluded with the same indecent levity. that the honourable gentlemen would proceed to its condemnation? Many days and nights were laboriously employed by his Majesty's ministers in such extensive negociations; many doubts were well weighed and removed; and weeks and months of solemn discussion gave birth to that peace, which we are required to destroy without examination;—that peace, the positive ultimatum of France, and to which, I solemnly assure the public, there was no other alternative but a continuation of the war.

"Could the ministers thus, surrounded with scenes of ruin, affect to dictate the terms of peace? And are these articles seri