and West Florida, East Florida being alfo ceded in exchange for the Bahamas. Holland having rejected the former advances of the English court towards an accommodation, it was refolved that she should not escape with total impunity; and the British plenipotentiaries were directed to offer the restitution of the Dutch fettlements in the poffeffion of England, with the important exception of Trincomalee, which their high mightinesses declared they could not reconcile with the profeffions of moderation on the part of his Britannic majesty. On the other hand, Holland demanded an indemnification for the loffes and expences of the war, a pretenfion which the English negotiators peremptorily rejected as totally inadmiffible. These opposite claims for the present impeded the conclufion of the treaty with that power; but the preliminaries of peace actually signed were laid before the two houses of parliament, by the secretaries of state, lord Grantham and Mr. Townshend, on the 17th of February, and in both they met with a very violent and unexpected oppofition.

An address of thanks and approbation being moved in the house of peers by lord Pembroke, and seconded by the marquis of Carmarthen, a fucceffion of able and eloquent speeches were made by the lords Carlifle, Walfingham, Sackville, Stormont, and Loughborough, reprobating the preliminaries of peace as derogatory from the dignity, and in the highest degree injurious to the interests of the nation. "The dereliction of the loyalifts of America, and the Indians our allies, was faid to be a baseness urexampled in the records of hiftory. In the lowest ebb of distress we ought not to have fubscribed to terms fo ignominious. Francis I. when conquered and a captive, wrote, that all was loft except his honor; and his magnanimity finally re-established his fortune. The folly of our negotiations was every where apparent. In Africa, our trade was furrendered to France by the ceffion of Senegal

negal and Goree-in Afia, Pondicherri was not only given back, but, to render the boon more acceptable, a large territory was made to accompany it-in America the prohibitions against fortifying St. Pierre and Miquelon were removed, and the limits of the French fishery extended -and under pretence of drawing a boundary line, the treaty grants to the United States an immense tract of country inhabited by more than twenty Indian nationsIn the West Indies, St. Lucia was relinquished, which was of fuch military importance, that so long as we retained this island in our hands, we might well have stood upon the uti poffidetis, as the basis of negotiation in that quarter-the cession of East Florida to Spain was an extravagance for which it was impoffible to find even the shadow of a pretence-To complete the whole, France was allowed to repair and fortify the harbor of Dunkirk, which, in the event of a future war, might annoy our trade in its centre, and counteract all the advantage of our local fituation for foreign commerce; and what is most wonderful, all these facrifices are made on the profeffed ground of arranging matters on the principles of RECIPROCITY."

The minister defended himself from these various attacks with great vigor and ability. His lordship declared, "that PEACE was the object for which the nation at large had discovered the most unequivocal defire; the end he had in view was the advantage of his country, and he was certain that he had attained it. The vast uncultivated tract of land to the fouthward of the lakes," his lordship faid, " was of infinite consequence to America, and of none to England; and the retention of it, or even of the forts which commanded it, could only have laid the foundation of future hoftility. If our liberality to Ireland was the subject of just applause, why act upon principles of illiberality to America, the refusal of the Newfoundland fishery would have been a direct manifestation of hoftile intentions; and as it lay on their coafts, it was in reality

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ality impoffible to exclude them from it by any restrictions; it is an advantage which nature has given them, and to attempt to wrest it from them would not only be unjust, but impracticable. Of one objection his lordship acknowledged that he deeply felt the force. His regret and compaflion for the fituation of the unhappy loyalists were as pungent as those of their warmest advocates. This objection admitted only of one answer, the answer which he had given to his own bleeding heart- It is better that a part should fuffer, rather than the whole empire perish.' He would have dashed from him the bitter cup which the adverfities of his country held out to him, if peace had not been abfolutely neceffary-if it had not been called for with a unanimity and vigor that could not be refifted. No arts of address or negotiation had been neglected, but the American commiffioners had no power to concede farther. The congress itself had not the power-for, by the constitution of America, every state was fupreme, including in itself the legislative and judicial powers; its jurifdiction, therefore, was not liable to control. In the mode of interpofition, by recommendation alone could the congrefs act. If after all the loyalifts should not be received into the bosom of their native country, Britain, penetrated with gratitude for their fervices, and warm with the feelings of humanity, would afford them an asylum; and it would doubtless be wiser to indemnify them for their loffes, than to ruin the nation by a renewal or prolongation of the calamities of war. The ceffion of East Florida, his lordship faid, was rendered unavoidable, by the mistaken and ruinous policy of those minifters who had brought the nation under the miferable neceffity of treating with its enemies on terms very different from those it could formerly have commanded. This province, detached from Western Florida, already conquered by the arms of Spain, was however of trivial value; and the amount of its imports and exports bore no proportion

proportion to the expence of its civil establishment. We had, nevertheless, obtained a compenfation in the restitution of the Bahamas although the bounds of the French fishery were fomewhat extended, by far the most eligible parts of the Newfoundland coast were left in poffeffion of the English, and a fource of future contention removed by the exact afcertainment of limits. In exchange for St. Lucia, France had restored fix of the seven islands she had taken, and only retained Tobago-Senegal and Goree had been originally French fettlements, but their commerce was inconfiderable; and the whole African trade was open to the English, by our fettlements on the river Gambia, which were guarantied to us by this treaty. The restoration of Pondicherri, and our other conquests in the East, must be acknowledged not a measure of expediency fo much as of abfolute neceffity, if the state of the East India Company were adverted to. Such had been the formidable confederacy against which they were compelled to contend, fuch the wretched derangement of their finances, and so exposed to hazard were their vast and precarious poffeffions, that nothing but peace could recover to them their afcendency in Afia: in such a situation it was impoffible to procure terms of accommodation more honorable. The removal of the restraints relative to the harbor of Dunkirk-reftraints disgraceful to France, and of trifling advantage to England, was inveighed againft without candor or reafon; Dunkirk, as a port, was, as his lordship afferted, far from poffeffing the consequence ascribed to it; it lies near a shoaly part of the channel; it cannot receive ships of a large fize, and can never be a rendezvous for squadrons; it may indeed be a refort for privateers, but these we know by experience could eafily issue from other ports. In fine, the confederacy formed against us was decidedly superior to our utmost exertions-our taxes were exorbitant-our debts, funded and unfunded, amounted to two hundred and forty-seven millions-our

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commerce was rapidly declining-our navy was overbalanced by the fleets of the combined powers, in the alarming proportion of more than fifty ships of the line. Peace was in these circumstances necessary to our existence as a nation. The best terms of accommodation which our fituation would admit had been procured; and his lordship ventured to affirm, that they could be decried or oppofed only by ignorance, prejudice, or faction." On a divifion, the address was carried by a majority of 72 to 59 voices.

A fimilar address in the house of commons was moved by Mr. Thomas Pitt, and feconded by Mr. Wilberforce, who urged in striking and impreffive language the expediency, the necessity, and advantages of peace. On which lord John Cavendish rose and declared, " that he also profefsed himself an advocate for peace; but the question was not whether a peace were neceffary, but whether a better peace might not have been obtained-this was a question which called for a serious deliberation. As the whole of the evidence proper to be produced was not before the house, it was expedient to pause and hefitate. He proposed therefore to annex to the address the following words: "His majesty's faithful commons will proceed to confider of the treaties with that serious and faithful attention which a fubject of so much importance to the present and future interests of his majesty's dominions deferves, affuring his majesty, nevertheless, of their firm and unalterable determination to adhere inviolably to the feveral articles for which the public faith is pledged."

This amendment was feconded by Mr. St. John, member for the county of Bedford, and supported with all the power of his eloquence by lord North. "The address, this nobleman faid, called for a vote of approbation, and he had no fuch vote to give; for he confidered the peace as dishonourable and destructive. His lordship wished not, however, to fet negotiations afide which had been conclud

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