There was indeed a

ously compared with the Peace of Paris? time when Great Britain might have met her enemies on other conditions. And if an imagination, warmed with the power and glory of this country, could have directed any member of his Majesty's councils from a painful inspection of the truth, I might, I hope, without presumption, have been entitled to that indulgence. I feel, Sir, at this instant, how much I had been animated in my childhood by a recital of England's victories :I was taught, Sir, by one whose memory I shall ever revere, that at the close of a war, far different indeed from this, she had dictated the terms of peace to submissive nations. This, in which I place something more than common interest, was the memorable era of England's glory. But that era is past: she is under the awful and mortifying necessity of employing a language that corresponds with her true condition. The visions of her power and pre-eminence are passed away.

"We have acknowledged American Independence-that, Sir, was a needless form: the incapacity of the noble Lord who conducted our affairs; the events of war, and even a voice of this house, had already granted what it was impossible to withhold. "We have ceded Florida-we have obtained Providence and the Bahama islands.

We have ceded an extent of fishery on the coast of Newfound land-we have established an exclusive right to the most valuable banks.

"We have restored St. Lucia, and given up Tobago-we have regained Grenada, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Monserrat; and we have rescued Jamaica from her impending danger. In Africa we have ceded Goree, the grave of our countrymen; and we possess Senegambia, the best and most healthy settlement. "In Europe we relinquished Minorca, kept up at an immense and useless expense in peace, and never tenable in war.

"We have likewise permitted his most Christian Majesty to repair his harbour of Dunkirk—the humiliating clause for its destruction was inserted, Sir, after other wars than the past. But the immense expense attending its repairs will still render this indulgence useless: add to this, that Dunkirk was first an object of our jealousy, when ships were constructed far inferior to their present draught. That harbour, at the commencement of the

war, admitted ships of a single deck; no act or expense will enable it to receive a fleet of the line.

"In the East Indies, where alone we had power to obtain this peace, we have restored what was useless to ourselves, and scarcely tenable in a continuance of the war.

"We have abandoned the unhappy royalists to their implacable enemies.-Little, Sir, are those unhappy men befriended by such a language in this house; nor shall we give much assistance to their cause, or add stability to the reciprocal confidence of the two states, if we already impute to Congress a violence and injustice, which decency forbids us to suspect. Would a continuation of the war have been justified on the single principle of assisting these unfortunate men, or would a continuation of the war, if so justified, have procured for them a more certain indemnity? Their hopes must have been rendered desperate indeed by the additional distresses of Britain-those hopes which are now revived by the timely aid of peace and reconciliation.

"These are the ruinous conditions to which this country engaged with four powerful states; and, exhausted in all its resources, thought fit to subscribe for the dissolution of that alliance, and the immediate enjoyment of peace. Let us examine what is left, with a manly and determined courage; let us strengthen ourselves against inveterate enemies, and reconciliate our ancient friends. The misfortunes of individuals and of kingdoms, that are laid open and examined with true wisdom, are more than half redressed; and to this great object should be directed all the virtues and abilities of this house. Let us feel our calamitieslet us bear them too like men.

"But, Sir, I fear I have too long engaged your attention to no real purpose, and that the public safety is this day risked without a blush by the malice and disappointment of a faction. The honourable gentleman who spoke last has declared, with that sort of consistency which marks his conduct, because he is prevented from prosecuting the Noble Lord (North) to the satisfaction of public justice, he will heartily embrace him as a friend.' So readily does he reconcile extremes, and love the man whom he wished to prosecute! With the same spirit, Sir, I suppose he will cherish the peace too-because he abhors it.

"But I will not hesitate to surmise, from the obvious com

piexion of this night's debate, that it originates rather in an inclination to force the Earl of Shelburne from the treasury, than in any real conviction that ministers deserve the censure, for the concessions they have made: concessions, which, from the facts I have enumerated, and the reasonings I have stated as arising from these facts, are the obvious result of an absolute necessity, and imputable not so much to those of whom the present cabinet is composed, as to the cabinet of which the noble lord in the blue ribbon was a member. The noble earl, like every other person eminent for ability, and acting in the first department of a great state, is undoubtedly an object of envy to some as well as admiration to others. The obloquy to which his capacity and situation have raised him, has been created and circulated with equal meanness and address: but his merits are as much above my panegyric as the arts to which he owes his defamation are beneath my attention. When stripped of his power and emoluments he once more descends to private life, without the invidious appendages of place, men will see him through a different medium, and perceive in him qualities which richly entitle him to their esteem. That official superiority which at present irritates their feelings, and that capacity of conferring good offices on those he prefers, which all men are fond of possessing, will not then be any obstacle to their making an impartial estimate of his character. But, notwithstanding a sincere predilection of this nobleman, whom I am bound by every tie to treat with sentiments of deference and regard, I am far from wishing him retained in power against the public approbation; and if his removal can be innocently effected, if he can be compelled to resign without entailing all those mischiefs which seem to be involved in the resolution now moved, great as his zeal is for his country, powerful as his abilities are, and earnest and assiduous as his endeavours have been to rescue the British empire from the difficulties that oppress her; I am persuaded he will retire, firm in the dignity of his own mind, conscious of having contributed to the public advantage; and, if not attended with the fulsome plaudits of a mob, possessed of that substantial and permanent satisfaction which arises from the habitual approbation of an upright mind. I know him well; and dismiss him from the confidence of his sovereign and the business of the state when you please, to this

!

transcendent consolation he has a title which no accident can invalidate or affect-it is the reward of doing well, by acting an honest and honourable part. By the difficulties he encountered on accepting the reins of government, by the reduced circumstances in which he found the state of the nation, and by the perpetual turbulence of those who thought his elevation effected at their expense, he has certainly earned it dearly; and with such a solid understanding, and so much goodness of heart as stamp his character, he is in no danger of losing it. Nothing can be a stronger proof that his enemies are eager to traduce, than the frivolous grounds on which they affect to accuse him. An action which reflects a lustre on his attention to the claims of merit, has yet been improved into a fault in his conduct. A right honourable gentleman (Col. Barré) who had exhausted his strength in the service of the state, and to whose years and infirmities his absence from parliament can only be attributed, owes to the friendship and interference of the noble earl a pension, which, however adequate to all his necessities and conveniences in the evening of life, is no extraordinary compensation for the public spirit which has always marked his parliamentary conduct. Surely the virtues and abilities of this veteran soldier and respectable senator, deserved some acknowledgment from that community in which they have been so often and so manfully exerted. Surely his age entitled him to a little repose in the lap of that public to whose welfare his youth had been dedicated. Surely that principle of humanity which stimulates those in power to commiserate in this manner the situation of neglected merit, possesses a nobleness, a generosity, a benevolence, which, instead of incurring the censure of any, ought to command the veneration and praises of all.

"I repeat then, Sir, it is not this treaty; it is the Earl of Shelburne alone whom the movers of this question are desirous to wound. This is the object which has raised this storm of faction; this is the aim of the unnatural coalition to which I have alluded. If, however, the baneful alliance is not yet formed; it this ill-fated marriage is not yet solemnized, I know a just and lawful impediment, and I here forbid the bans.

"My own share in the censure pointed by the motion before the House against his Majesty's ministers, I will bear with forti

tude; because, my own heart tells me, I have not acted wrong. To this monitor, who never did, and who, I trust, never will deceive me, I will confidently repair, as to an adequate asylum, from all the clamour which interested faction can raise. As I was not very cager to come in, I shall have no great reluctance to go out, whenever the public are disposed to dismiss me from their service. It has been the great object of my short official existence, to do the duties of my station with all the ability and address in my power, and with a fidelity and honour, which should bear me up, and give me confidence under every possible contingency and disappointment. I can say, with sincerity, I never had a wish which did not terminate in the dearest interests of the nation. I will, at the same time, imitate the honourable gentleman's candour, and confess, that I, too, have my ambition. High station and great influence are desirable objects to most men, and objects which I am not ashamed to pursue; which I am even solicitous to possess, whenever they can be acquired with honour, and retained with dignity. On these respectable conditions I am not less ambitious to be great and powerful, than it is natural for a young man with such brilliant examples before him, to be. But even these objects I am not beneath relinquishing, the moment my duty to my country, my character, and friends, renders such a sacrifice indispensable. Then I hope to retire, not disappointed, but triumphant; triumphant in the conviction that my talents, humble as they are, have been earnestly, zealously, and strenuously employed, to the best of my apprehension, in promoting the truest welfare of my country; and that, however I may stand accused of weakness of understanding, or error of judgment, nothing can be imputed to my official capacity which bears the most distant connexion with an interested, a corrupt, or a dishonest intention. But it is not any part of my plan, when the time shall come that I quit my station, to threaten the repose of my country, and erect, like the honourable gentleman, a fortress and a refuge for disappointed ambition. The self-created and self-appointed successors to the present administration have asserted, with much confidence, that this is likely to be the case. I can assure them, however, when they come from that side of the house to this, I will, for one, most readily and cordially accept the exchange. The only desire I should indulge