Margaret's Hill, last June*, relative to the Act of Charles 2, which ordained, that not more than ten persons should sign a petition to parliament, under a heavy penalty; and said, the doctrine shewed very plainly what system prevailed, and what were the wishes of administration, if not resisted, and prevented in time. He also alluded to Mr. Dunning's quondam character of the persons who governed this country, under the legal description of he, she, or they, and rung the changes for some time very laughably at the expence of administration, on those words, and their conduct, characterising the first, under the words, he, she, or they, and the second under the words, him, her, or them.

At length, after touching on a variety of topics, he recurred to the famous vote of the late parliament, relative to the influence of the crown, and said it was the last dying speech of that corrupted assembly, the death-bed, confession of that wicked sinner; and it reminded him of the death-bed confession of other abandoned profligates, who after having heaped guilt upon guilt, just before they parted with the last breath, sent for a priest, and made confession of their manifold sins and transgressions, saying "although our gang stood so firm together, and all agreed in stiffly denying the many atrocious facts we committed, particularly our greatest crime, and most mischievous offence, it is very true we were guilty, and we hope our fate will prove a warning to those we leave behind us, and induce them to lead better lives, and not by following the same bad courses, which we have pursued, come to the same premature and miserable end."

Lord George Germain said, as the hon. gentleman had thought proper to throw out allusions, which he could not but see were directed at him, the House might possibly expect that he should make some reply; he rose therefore once for all to declare, that whenever gentlemen chose to descend to the meanness of dealing in personal invectives, and to single him out as their object, he was prepared to treat the invectives and the author of them with the contempt they deserved. The hon. gentleman had said, that though lord Cornwallis merited praise for his good conduct and gallantry in the affair at Camden, he would refuse to join in a vote of thanks to him, or to any officer, let him

* See Howell's State Trials, Vol. 21, p. 485,

deserve ever so much, who should gain a victory, in the progress of the American war; it was manly in the hon. gentleman to make this declaration, and all who thought of the American war as the hon. gentleman did, must of course join with him in that declaration; but as he thought very differently, he would fairly avow that he should vote for the Address, because he believed and hoped, that the war with America would be prosecuted with vigour. Of that war he had never entertained but one opinion, and that was, that it was a war which had been unavoidably begun, in support of the undoubted rights of Great Britain, and a war which he had the greatest hopes might be speedily brought to a happy and honourable conclusion.-Gentlemen, he observed, had been very liberal of severity in the course of the debate, and every one who had supported the Amendment, had condemned the American war, and called upon ministers to abandon it; not one of them, however, had suggested how this was to be done, or in what manner his Majesty's servants were to conduct a business of so much difficulty and importance. Gentlemen had talked of the alliance of America and France: if that were the case, was it to be expected that France would suffer America to treat separately with Great Britain? But in fact, the Congress and the people in power in America were not the allies, but the subjects and dependants of France: in order, therefore, to open a way for a treaty with America, the war must be carried on with vigour, and France be humbled through the sides of America. He had as little hope as the hon. gentleman, that this country would be able to subdue America; but he had not given up his expectations, that she might regain America. At present he was convinced more than half the people in America were the friends of this country; it behoved us therefore to free them from the tyranny of Congress, and restore them to their liberties; and if the hon. gentlemen were so extremely anxious to distinguish themselves in the cause of freedom, here was fair occasion for the full exercise of that laudable impulse; the hon. gentlemen would fulfil their professions, by assisting in the support of measures calculated to free the Americans from the illegal, oppressive, and arbitrary government of their present rulers.-He could tell the gentlemen on what condition Congress was ready to treat with Great Britain: allow Ame

rica her independency, and Congress would treat to-morrow. He, however, would not be the man to treat with America on this condition, and he hoped he should not live to see the day when a man could be found, who would venture to take that ground of treaty, and for this reason; the destruction of this country, he was persuaded, would be the consequence. Gentlemen advised the withdrawing our fleets and armies from America: what would follow? France and America united, would in a very short time send a powerful force against Newfoundland: they would seize upon our fisheries, and destroy that great nursery of our navy. Canada would fall next, and the possessions we yet had in the West Indies would be wrested from us, and he had not the least doubt but we should feel ourselves vigorously attacked in every quarter of the globe. He did not therefore hesitate to declare, that his opinion was for prosecuting the war with the utmost vigour; he thought the existence of this country depended on it, and was convinced that any other line of conduct would be the highest impolicy; that it would be a species of phrenzy, which nothing but despair could occasion.-Gentlemen had dwelt on the ill success of the war, and had expressed themselves as if this were the moment of despondency; he saw no reason for adopting melancholy sentiments. The last campaign had not been unsuccessful. In America we had gained considerably. In the West-Indies, what advantages had France and Spain to boast of, notwithstanding the great superiority of M. Guichen over admiral Rodney? The British admiral had now the command of those seas, and the important island of Jamaica, which day after day, for the whole summer together, we had been taught to believe lost, was perfectly secure. Next year he would venture to assure the House, we should have a fleet superior, both in number of ships and in point of equipment, to any we ever had, either in this or the last war. Upon all these considerations, therefore, he should vote for the Address, and he felt the less difficulty in doing so, because it bound the House to no specific measures, but left them at full liberty to act as prudence should hereafter dictate.

Admiral Keppel should not have taken the liberty to have said a word, considering what the House had heard from his hon. relation (Mr. Fox) had not the noble lord talked of our having a better navy next

year than we had at any time last war. He wished the noble lord had not gone quite so far; he did not expect to see a better navy, and should, as he believed the country would, be perfectly satisfied to see as good a navy afloat next year, as we had afloat in the course of last war. The admiral complained of the scandalous neglect of our navy, both in fitting it out, in equipment, and in its operations. He said, the officers had done their duty, and they always would do their duty he was convinced, but they had not been properly supported. Why was sir George Rodney left as he had been, without reinforcement, after he had written repeatedly for more ships? If a few ships had been sent to sir George early, he might have done a very essential service to his country, which for want of a few more ships he was obliged to decline attempting. The whole conduct of the war shewed the want of vigour and of wisdom in administration; and the only reason why France had not been more successful against us, was, he believed, because the French cabinet were equally divided, equally irresolute, and their counsels as bad as ours; it was their want of decision, and not our prudence, that had saved us. But after all, they had been suffered to send out a fleet and army to Rhode Island under M. Ternay, unmolested by us, when we had it in our power to prevent it. At that time, had a few of Mr. Walsingham's ships been taken, and added to others ready, they might have sailed and blocked up Brest harbour, and by that means have rendered Ternay's attempting to sail impracticable; but, according to the usual custom of the present administration, who in all their operations were too late, they made no effort to prevent the mischief, they contented themselves with tardily endeavouring to apply a bad remedy. They did not offer to stop Ternay, but they sent a fleet to follow him. At the time Ternay sailed, the admiral asserted, that there was a naval force lying at Causand Bay, at Plymouth, capable of intercepting him. This was a fact which he pledged himself to prove at the bar of the House, whenever the House should think proper to call upon him for that purpose. After putting this very strongly, the admiral took notice of the late appointment of sir Hugh Palliser to the government of Greenwich Hospital, and said, that bad as his opinion of ministers was, he was convinced, to adopt the expression of his hon. relation, there

could be but one man in administration so abandoned, as to be capable of recommending that person to his Majesty, as fit to fill the office of governor of 'Greenwich Hospital. It was owing to that man, that the navy had been thrown into its present lamentable state of party and division. All the dissentions, all the uneasiness which prevailed in his Majesty's fleets, and that they did prevail to a very great degree was notorious-was ascribable to that person.

Alderman Newnham made his first speech, and said, he should vote against the Address, because it tended to countenance the present ministers, who had been guilty of the grossest neglect of our commerce, and of the most scandalous partiality in the imposition of taxes. He then stated the neglect of the Admiralty in sending out two such valuable fleets as the Quebec and West India fleets, with weak and improper convoys; and the little attention the minister paid to the petition of the city of London against the oppressive partiality of the house tax; the inhabitants of which paid more for their houses and shops, than the nobility and gentry for their gorgeous and stately country palaces. He then returned to the conduct of capt. Graves, commodore of the Quebec convoy, declaring it was universally reprobated; he had left the fleet to chance; his sole object seemed to have been the hunting after prizes. He then adverted to the fleets captured off Cape St. Vincent's, said the convoy was inadequate, considering there were five East India ships among them. He censured extremely their being intended for Madeira to take in wines, and letting such their intention be known; it was like a man telling a robber which way he meant to travel, and what inn he should put up at. He understood the captain of the Ramillies was esteemed a gallant and worthy officer, but he had been informed that the captain, the night before the capture, had seen nine sail a-head of him, and every person he had talked to on the subject, had given it as their opinion, that at that moment the signal for dispersing should have been hoisted. What he had said flowed entirely from his zealous regard for his country; he should ever speak his sentiments honestly and impartially, and not from any personal dislike to his Majesty's ministers; he did not know one of them, and had as little private pique to them, as he had attachment to any of those who wished to get into their places.

"I thank you for this very dutiful Address. I receive your congratulations on the increase of my family, and on the happy recovery of the Queen, as a mark of your loyalty and affection. I have a firm confidence, that the support of my faithful Commons, and the spirit of my brave people, engaged in a just cause, and fighting for their country and their essential interests, will, in the end, enable me to surmount all difficulties, and to attain the object of all my measures and all my exertions, a safe and honourable peace."

Mr. Adam's Complaint of the Resolutions of the Westminster Committee of Association.] Nov. 13. On the motion for going into a Committee of Supply,

Mr. Adam rose, and prevented the Speaker from leaving the chair, by introducing a matter which, he declared, very much called for the attention of the House. He then said, he wished to mention something relative to the internal situation of this country, and thought he could not chuse a more proper time, than when the House was to proceed upon a vote, the consequence of which was to enable the nation to support itself against its enemies. That in the present internal distracted situation of this country, he could hardly tell what force would be sufficient without the unanimity, which had been talked of. He meant to allude to the committees of association, which had spread such baneful effects over this country, and which had given so much encouragement to its enemies. Before he proceeded to the particular subject, to which he meant to call the attention of the House, he stated that the American congress in their publications to encourage the people to persist in rebellion, had held out the distracted state of this country to them, by means of the

sistible impulse of injured honour could ever drag a man of real principle and of real sensibility.

He regretted that he did not know how far to form an opinion as to the legality or illegality of such meetings as committees of association. He said, a club at White's, Brookes's, or at Atwood's, was perfectly legal, till those clubs had done some illegal act, and if they attempted any attack upon the character of an individual, would become as unfit assemblies for gentlemen to associate in, and be as contemptible as that assembly, which had so unjustly calumniated his character. That he had been long attacked by anonymous abuse in newspapers, which he had formerly taken notice of in that House; that he did not know at that time to what quarter that abuse was to be traced; he now knew that he was to attribute it to the members of the Westminster committee. And when he saw in the newspapers that Mr. Adam seconded a motion for a new writ for Coventry, from scandalous and improper motives, he was justified in saying, that that and such like paragraphs, came from the same quarter. That the publication he animadverted upon, not only calumniated him, but gave the hon. gentleman to whom it was addressed, an exclusive privilege by an unreserved grant of exclusive protection, to launch forth, if he was capable of availing himself of it, into every species of personality and abuse. That time would shew from that gentleman's future conduct, how far he was capable of availing himself of it. Mr. Adam then said, that he was going to touch upon a subject, by mentioning his own character, in which he might possibly incur the imputation of vanity; but when a person's character was basely and falsely traduced, not to mention it was to act with timidity; that few men knew the nature of his life, which was private and retired, but that he could boast a strict and regular system of domestic œconomy, which enabled him to live wholly independent, upon the fortune which had fallen to his share. That the principal happiness and ambition of his life was to discharge the private duties of a private situation with honour and integrity, to be a good son, a good husband, a good father, and a faithful friend. That he could not brag of a long line of ancestry, whose vices were to degrade, or whose virtues were to adorn the page of the historian. But that circumstance made him more proud and more anxious to maintain

his character unspotted and unimpeached, and to repel every attack that was made upon it from whatever quarter. He concluded with saying, that he looked upon every person who adopted the resolutions of that committee as base and infamous calumniators of his character, and unworthy the protection of a civilized country.

Mr. Fox rose to reply, and began with declaring, that as to any expressions personal to himself, which had fallen from the hon. gentleman, who felt so sore at the paper which he had read to the House, he should not take the least notice of them; but in regard to the advertisement itself, he did assure the hon. gentleman and the House, upon his honour, that he was not present at the drawing it up, and that it was published without either his consent or knowledge. Had he been at the committee when it was drawn up, he should, undoubtedly, have used all the persuasion that he was master of, to have prevented the committee from coming to or publishing any such resolution; because though the resolution was evidently founded in zeal and affection to him, it was, in his opinion, an imprudent resolution; and this he could appeal to his hon. friend below him (Mr. Fitzpatrick) to vouch for having been the opinion he declared when he first saw it. He said, he had imagined some persons would be induced to put the same construction on it, which the hon. gentleman had now put upon it. With regard to the ridicule the hon. gentleman had thought proper to throw upon the committee, and upon him, that was a matter of perfect indifference to him, and the more so, because the gentlemen who formed that committee, were great and respectable characters; men who, he doubted not, had well weighed every word used in the resolution, considered its import fully, and who were prepared to justify the advertisement and the resolution with their honours and their reputation. And, after all, what was the resolution complained of with so much warmth by the hon. gentleman? A form of words evidently flowing from the good opinion and the affection the Westminster committee entertained of him, but which seriously and duly considered, conveyed no personal charge against any man, nor did they warrant any man's taking them up angrily or resentfully: besides, in what way was the House to treat a matter introduced in the very extraordinary manner in which the hon. gentleman had thought proper to introduce the ad