every order of men in the State, to stamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. More particularly I call upon the holy Prelates of our religion to do away this iniquity; let them perform a lustration to purify their country from this deep and deadly fin. My Lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more, but my feelings and indignation were too strong to have faid less. I could not have flept this night in my bed, nor reposed my head upon my pillow, without giving this vent to my eternal abhorrence of fuch enormous and preposterous principles."

Although Lord Chatham on this occasion seemed, like some "great master of the powerful spell," to have uttered " those thrilling accents that awake the dead," the event, as on former occafions, proved that no impreffion could be made on the temper and difpofition of the House, more cold and callous than alpine snows or monumental marble; for, on the division, 28 Lords only voted in support of the motion, against 97 who opposed it.

On the 2d of December (1777) Mr. Fox moved for an enquiry into the State of the Nation, in which the Minifter professed his cordial acquiefcence. Amongst other papers which were thought necefsary to elucidate the subsequent investigation, Mr. Fox moved for returns of fuch colonies or places as had in pursuance of the powers vested in the

Commiffioners

Commiffioners been declared at the King's peace, or copies of such papers as had relation thereto. This motion the Minister vehemently opposed, and declared he neither could nor would confent to make discoveries inconsistent with found wisdom and policy, and prejudicial to the real interests of the country.

During the heat of the debate intelligence was brought, that, in consequence of a motion of the Duke of Grafton, these very papers had been actually laid upon the table of the other House. But the Minifter, as if to try how far the obsequioufness of the House would extend, still persisted in his refusal, and maintained " that the House of Commons were not to be guided in their determinations by any extrinfic confideration;" and on a divifion, incredible as it may seem, the motion was actually negatived by a majority of 178 to 89. An act by which the dignity of the House was more wantonly facrificed by minifterial caprice and insolence, it would be most affuredly impoffible to find on the records of Parliament.

The succeeding day was rendered for ever memorable by the disclosure of the melancholy catastrophe at Saratoga. The American Secretary being called upon to declare the purport of the dispatches recently received from Canada, with shame and reluctance communicated the intelligence of that fatal event. This was followed by a long and profound VOL. II. filence,

T

filence, and one general fentiment of amazement and confternation seemed to pervade the House. At length a torrent of invective, accompanied by taunts the most bitter and sarcastic, were poured out by the leaders of the Opposition against the Minifters, whose pride, ignorance, and incapacity had occafioned a more signal disgrace and calamity than had ever before in the most disastrous war befallen the British arms. The time did not serve for bold and lofty language on the part of Ministers. Lord North, with much apparent dejection, and even tears the "iron tears" of difappointed pride and fallen ambition-acknowledged " that he had indeed been unfortunate, but that his intentions were ever just and upright; that he had originally been in a manner forced into an office which he would most willingly and gladly refign, could his resignation facilitate the obtaining that peace and reconciliation for which he had ever earnestly wished." The American Minifter also professed, in terms of humiliation, " that he should be ever ready to fubmit his conduct to the judgment of that Houfe; hoping, nevertheless, that the House would suspend their censures relative to the late unhappy event, till an impartial investigation both of the plan and the execution of it had taken place."

On the 5th of December (1777) Lord Chatham, in consequence of the late intelligence from America,

3

rica, attended the House of Peers, and moved, " that an address be presented to his Majesty, to cause the proper officers to lay before the House copies of all orders and instructions to General Burgoyne relative to the late expedition from Canada." Holding up a paper in view of the House, his Lordship said, " that he had the King's speech in his hand, and a deep sense of the public calamity in his heart. That speech, he said, contained a most unfaithful picture of the state of public affairs; it had a specious outside, was full of hopes, while every thing within was full of danger. A system destructive of all faith and confidence had been introduced, his Lordship affirmed, within the last fifteen years at St. James's, by which pliable men, not capable men, had been raised to the highest posts of Government. A few obscure perfons had obtained an afcendency where no man should have a personal ascendency, and by the most infidious means the nation had been betrayed into a war of which they now reaped the bitter fruits. The SPIRIT of DELUSION, his Lordship faid, had gone forth; Minifters had imposed on the people; Parliament had been induced to sanctify the impofition; a visionary phantom of revenue had been conjured up for the basest of purposes, but it was now for ever vanished. His Lordship said, that the abilities of General Burgoyne were confeffed, his personal bravery not furpassed, his zeal in the service unquestionable. He had experienced no pestilence, nor fuffered any of the accidents which sometimes supersede the wisest and most spirited exertions of human industry. What then is the cause of his misfortune?-Want of wisdom in our councils, want of ability in our Ministers. His Lordship faid, the plan of penetrating into the Colonies from Canada was a moft wild, uncombined, and mad project; and the mode of carrying on the war was the most bloody, barbarous, and ferocious recorded in the annals of history. The arms of Britain had been fullied and tarnished by blending the scalping-knife and tomahawk with the sword and firelock. Such a mode of warfare was a contamination which all the waters of the Hudson and the Delawar would never wash away. It was impoffible for America to forget or forgive fo horrid an injury."

In the course of his speech he animadverted in the severest terms on the language recently held by a most reverend prelate, the Archbishop of York, both in print and in that House. "The pernicious doctrines advanced by that prelate were, he faid, the doctrines of Atterbury and Sacheverel. Asa WHIG he abjured and detested them; and he hoped he should yet see the day when they would be deemed libellous, and treated as fuch." The motion being negatived, his Lordship next moved an address to the King, "that all orders

and