XXXII. 1776. into a job. The right to raife troops by private dona- CHAP. tions, it was contended, muft justify maintaining them; in fuch a cafe it would be in the power of a bad king, and a bad parliament, to apply the money thus raifed to the utter fubverfion of the conftitution. This mode of obtaining money for the king's ufe was a breach of the coronation oath, and all who fubfcribed were abettors of perjury. GOVERNMENT was juftified by precedent, feveral regiments, independent companies, and corps, having been raised in 1745 and 1759; and the subscribers on the latter occafion, inftead of being treated as violators of the law, were publicly and folemnly thanked by the then minister, lord Chatham, and applauded by the public. That great man, lord Hardwicke, had also highly approved of procuring men from Scotland: the prevalence of a contrary opinion would have prevented the recruiting of the army, fruftrated the hopes of fuccefs, and diminished the refources of the country. tition. Norfolk pe2d Aril. Wilkes's motion. THE freeholders of Norfolk founded on thefe levies 17th Feb, a petition to the house of commons; and, at an advanced period of the feffion, Mr. Wilkes moved to bring in a bill for preventing the dangerous and unconftitutional practice of giving or granting money to the crown, as a private aid, loan, benevolence, or fubfcription, for public purposes, without confent of parliament. The propofition was ably fupported by Mr. Burke, but negatived on a divifion". 27th Jan. IN the upper houfe, the earl of Abingdon made a 23d and motion for obtaining an opinion of the twelve judges, Lord Abon the legality of raifing troops without the authority ingon's of parliament; but after a long difcuffion, it was withdrawn at the inftance of his friends. the Inotion. THE earl made his grand attack, by moving that 4th Feb. 71 to 40. without 1778. CHAP. without the fanction of parliament, for the purpose of XXXII. raifing armies, was repugnant to the conftitution and the law; and that to obtain money by fubfcription, for fuch purposes, was unconftitutional and illegal, an infringement of the rights and breach of the privileges of parliament. His fpeech was defultory, and fo abufive, that earl Gower remarked, fuch language had never before been heard in either house. Lord Abingdon retraced the arguments against confulting the judges, and seemed to point his farcasms against the chief justice of the king's bench. The prefent levy, he contended, was no lefs illegal and repugnant to the fpirit, if not the letter of the bill of rights, than the demand of fhipmoney, in the days of Charles I. Tories, Jacobites, and Scotchmen, the firft addreffers for abrogating the liberties of three millions of fubjects in America, were now the first to take up arms; common fenfe warranted the inference, that fomething more than mere loyalty to the house of Hanover actuated fuch measures. LORD HARDWICKE's opinion, delivered on the trial of the rebel lords Kilmarnock, Cromartie, and Bal. merino, in 1746, wherein that great oracle of the law treated fuch objections as the offspring of ignorance and prefumption, was read in anfwer to thefe obfervations, and an amendment moved, declaring the voluntary subscriptions legal, and highly meritorious. AGAINST this amendment it was urged, that it unfairly withdrew the original propofition from debate, and prevented the decifion of the house, by raifing another topic of difcuffion, not tending to place out of doubt the principal fubject. Lord Mansfield, though he proved the practice of moving fuch amendments confonant to ufage, recommended that for candour's fake, it should be withdrawn, and his advice was followed. He then urged, in an animated and impreffive manner, the arguments drawn from law and precedent in favour of the practice; and, after a fhort reply reply from lord Camden, the refolutions were ne- CHA P. gatived'. XXXII. 1778. on the state In both houfes the greatest attention was fixed on the approaching committee on the state of the nation; Committee the preparatory motions for additional papers, and of the nation. the arguments by which they were, encountered', fhewed that both parties looked forward to that difcuffion, as a crifis of confiderable importance. MR. Fox opened the bufinefs in the houfe of commons, by invoking the members not to mix the topics of that day's debate with any previous matter, but to proceed plainly and directly in confidering the actual state of the country, and the means by which Great Britain might be delivered from the impending dangers. He wifhed all would agree in divefting themselves of former opinions, favourite ideas and prejudices, and refume them only as fair refults of the prefent inquiry. He recommended an oblivion of enmity and animofity, a fufpenfion of all fentiments of regard or diflike toward America, and the calm and difpaffionate 'contemplation of that country, as a part, and a very confiderable part, of the British empire. He established, as an incontrovertible axiom, that when a country falls, within the short space of a few years, from the highest pinnacle ever attained in ancient or modern times, there must have been fome radical error in the government, though radical error was not in itself a proof of minifterial criminality. He took an hiftorical view of the proceedings relative to America from 1774, and proclaimed the error of ministers in miftaking a single province for a whole continent; Maffachufet's Bay for the Ame rican empire. Virginia, a colony no lefs jealous of its rights, nor lefs warm in afferting them, was forgotten; and the union of any other colony with the Maffachufet's was deemed impoffible: but whoever 90 to 30. In the house of lords, on the 23d, 26th, 29th and 30th of January; in the house of commons, on the 27th and 29th January, and the 2d. of February. contended 28 Feb. Fox's motion troops he fent out of that no more the king dom. 1778. CHAP. contended against ten men, when prepared only for XXXII. one opponent, muft encounter greater difficulties than if originally aware of the refifting force. Every attempt to crush an infurrection by means inadequate to the end, foments inftead of fuppreffing it. All the acts of that feffion, were founded on the fame mistake ; the Quebec act completed the union of all parties in America; and a few weeks before the arrival of reinforcements, the civil war was begun. After defcribing the tranfactions of the British army till the evacuation of Boston, Mr. Fox asked, what was the conduct of America? They fent a petition couched in the most refpectful-terms, difclaiming independence, and defiring no conceffion in the least difhonourable to the mother-country, but fupplicating the king's paternal interference. To this petition no anfwer was given; and the ministry even called the petition a farce, and afferted the view of the Americans to be independence. If fuch was the real aim of congrefs, and the petition calculated to delude the people of America, as well as thofe of Great Britain, minifters would have acted more wifely in accepting, and converting it to a test of veracity. Vigorous meafures were, however, for the first time, attempted; Sir William Howe was completely reinforced; New York taken; two or three battles gained; but the American army was not extinguished; and the affair of Trenton plainly fhewed the impoffibility of totally reducing them. On the events of the laft campaign he forbore to treat, they demanded feparate investigation. He then inferred, from the papers before the house, that to fend more troops out of the kingdom would be highly imprudent... The peace establishment had been feventeen thoufand men for Great Britain; twelve thoufand for Ireland; three thoufand five hundred for Gibraltar; and two thoufand three hundred for Minorca, amounting together to thirty-four thoufand eight hundred. The conduct of France, the state of public credit, his Majefty's fpeech at the opening of XXXII. 1778. the feffion, fufficiently proved the neceffity of prepar- C H A P, ing for foreign war; and, if thirty-four thousand men were neceffary in time of peace, it could not be proper to retain a lefs number at the prefent moment. But, in fact, the number of troops in Great Britain did not exceed fifteen thousand; in Ireland, eight thousand ; in Gibraltar and Minorca, five thousand; fo that the actual deficiency of the peace establishment was fix thousand. It would be madnefs to part with more of the army: the war was impracticable, and no good could be obtained by force; the lives that had been loft, and the treafures that had been wafted, were ineffectually lavished; it was time to contemplate the domestic fituation of the country, and not leave England defenceless to strengthen the army in America. He therefore moved for orders that no more of the old corps fhould be fent out of the kingdom. STRANGERS being excluded from the house, no answer was made to Mr. Fox's speech; but his motion was rejected". Similar mo THE duke of Richmond, purfuing nearly the fame 24 Feb. chain of narrative, and the fame mode of reafoning tion in the with Mr. Fox, founded on it a motion somewhat more houfe of dilated in form, but in fubftance nearly fimilar. THIS motion, it was faid, would, if agreed to, amount to a public acknowledgment of inability to profecute the war, or affert the rights of Great Britain over her colonies, and invite the house of Bourbon to attempt an invafion. If, in fact, (as the motion intended to prove) Great Britain was unable to defend her own territory, or affert her dominion over America, her own weakness should be concealed, not only from foreign states, but from the colonies, now become her rivals in power and commerce. The addrefs would invade, and fufpend the inherent prerogative of the crown to raife, direct, and employ the military force. The hoftile intentions of rival nations were 259 to 165. lords. |