of the motion which went to the appointment of BOOK a committee of enquiry was negatived by 224 to 106 voices, and the previous question put on 1775. the clause of censure, which was carried without a division.

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Not discouraged by the ill success of former attempts, Mr. Fox, on the 20th February 1776, moved, "That it be referred to a committee, to enquire into the ill success of his majesty's arms in America." The vigor and comprehension of mind, the determined resolution, the open and magnanimous disposition of this senator, mature in judgment, though immature in years-excited hopes and expectations of eventual advantage to his country, which the malignant genius of Britain has hitherto delighted to disappoint. "Declining," he said, " at present to enter into the developement of a system whose principles and complexion afforded the clearest and most unequivocal proofs that its ultimate design was the TOTAL DESTRUCTION of the CONSTITUTION, he grounded his motion on the acknowledged fact, that there had been somewhere gross ignorance, incapacity, or negligence. This must be imputed either to our ministers at home, or our commanders abroad: and it was absolutely necessary that the house should be fully informed on the subject, in order that a remedy might be applied to the evil before the nation fell a vic

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3775.

BOOK tim to the treachery or misconduct of men on the ☑ one hand as unfit to deliberate and determine, as on the other to carry the measures so determined into execution. Public justice demanded such an enquiry. None but the guilty could wish to evade it. Our commanders by sea and land ought not to suffer the disgrace attached to ill success, in order to hide or palliate the blunders, the follies, the shameful and wretched inability of others." The administration appeared much chagrined and mortified at this exposure of their weakness. It was acknowledged "that ill success had hitherto attended the operations of the war, but that more vigorous measures would now be pursued; that a change of the former lenient system had been announced from the throne; and it would be highly disrespectful and improper to enter into the examinations proposed, until the measures now resolved upon were tried and the event known." The previous question being put at three o'clock in the morning, the motion was rejected by a majority of

240 to 104.

The treaties recently entered into by his majesty with the landgrave of Hesse, the duke of Brunswick, &c. for hiring large bodies of their troops for the American service, amounting to about eighteen thousand men, having been laid before the house, and a motion made by the mi

66

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nister for referring them to a committee of sup-воок ply, a vehement debate ensued. "Great Britain," it was said, was now disgraced in the eyes of 1775. all Europe-She was to be impoverished, and, what was still worse, degraded by an humiliating application to the petty princes of Germany for succours to enable her to subdue her own subjects. Such also were the extravagant terms on which these troops were obtained, that the use of 18,000 mercenaries would not, taking in all contingencies, cost the nation less than one million and a half sterling. There were no limits to the extortion of these princely butchers, who sold their subjects like so many beasts for the slaughter. They were to have levy-money; they were to have a double subsidy; their corps were to be kept up complete; they were to be paid till the troops returned to their respective countries, and the subsidies were to be continued two years after the performance of the service." In answer to these objections, the ministers alleged, that the terms were more reasonable, considering the distance and other diagreeable circumstances attending this novel service, than could be expected; that had they been still higher, necessity would have justified compliance. It was intimated, that so great a force would be employed, that these troops would have little more to do than to shew themselves in America and return :

BOOK that there was every reason to believe that the

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✓ war would be terminated in a single campaign, 1775. in which case the terms would be found very advantageous: if indeed it should be protracted to a distant period, it was allowed that the expence would be enormous, but this was so improbable as to merit little consideration. The question was carried by the force of these reasonings in favor of the court, by a majority of 242 to 88 voices. The same question was discussed with equal warmth in the house of peers, in consequence of a motion of the duke of Richmond for an address to the king, "That his majesty would be pleased to countermand the march of these troops;" and the duke of Cumberland, who had for some time past, as well as the duke of Gloucester, voted in the minority, "lamented that Brunswickers, once the advocates of liberty in Europe, should now be sent to subjugate it in America." The division was in this house no less in favor of the ministers than in that of the commons; the numbers, on putting the question, being 100 to 32. On a demand unexpectedly made by the secretary of war for the sum of 845,0001. for army extraordinaries, all the ardor of the opposition revived. They demonstrated, by a reference to the journals, that neither the glorious campaign of 1704, which saved the German empire, nor that of 1760, which was

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crowned by the conquest of Canada, had in any воок degree equalled the expence of the disgraceful campaign of the last year. Schellenburg and 1775. Blenheim were opposed to Lexington and Bunker's Hill; and the river Mystic ludicrously contrasted with the Rhine and the Danube. The ministers, apparently overwhelmed with a torrent of wit, argument, and invective, relied on this occasion much more securely on the strength of their numbers than their cause; and the question, on a division, was carried by a majority of 180 to 57.

On the 14th of March, 1776, a very important motion was made by the duke of Grafton, "for an address to the king, that, in order to prevent the further effusion of blood, a proclamation might be issued, declaring, that if the colonies shall present a petition to the commissioners appointed under the late act, setting forth what they consider to be their just rights and real grievances, that in such a case his majesty will consent to a suspension of arms; and that assurance shall be given them, that their petition shall be received, considered, and answered." This motion was designed and wisely calculated to supply the palpable deficiency of the late commission, which empowered the commissioners merely to grant pardons on submission, holding out by these means a mere delusive show of peace, with