777.

CHAP. these sentiments, afferted, that when the matter XXXII. urged by lord Chatham should be feparated from his manner and oratorical powers, it would be found to contain nothing that could influence the house to refuse the address. He displayed the state of the navy in moft advantageous terms, overbalanced British loffes, by enumerating captures from the enemy, and contended, that should France and Spain ontertain hoftile difpofitions, the British force was far fuperior to any they could mufier. France did not afford unbounded affiftance to the Americans; but, in compliance with remonftrances of the English court, had issued ordinances forbidding American privateers to enter their ports, and compelled the reftitution of prizes. Unjuftifiable tranfactions might have taken place, but the time was not yet come for demanding full reparation. He readily agreed in lord Chatham's bafis of conciliation, the fupremacy of the mother-country, and the act of navigation; but did not believe his lordship's most fanguine expectations amounted to an acquiefcence in them: the majority of those who would vote with him, would not adopt those fentiments.

THE affertions of the fufficiency of the navy did not meet with implicit belief, and the first lord of the admiralty was cautioned, that he made them at his peril, and was anfwerable for their truth. Lord Camden analyzed the whole conduct of the war, declaring that if hoftilities were profecuted to the issue of this alternative, fhall America be fubdued, or shall the render herself independent? he should favour independence, because success in fuch a war would not only fubjugate America, but enflave England.

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1777

In this discussion, the supporters of the CHAP. amendment shewed fuch diversities of opinion xxxII. among themselves, as rendered the defence of administration not difficult. Refpecting the independence of America, they could form no common principle of concord: the hopes and terms of fubmiffion were equally doubtful; the profpects of obedience, and limits of conceffion, were not accurately defined, and lord Chatham was fuccefsfully affailed on the difference of his present opinions, from those he had maintained, in the last feffion, on the dignified pofition which Great Britain ought to affume, if French interference were fo much as intimated.

the

war.

Is one point, the lords in oppofition were in Obfervaperfect accord, and declaimed, with uniform tions on violence, the employment of favages, and employarming flaves against their masters. The duke ment of of Richmond styled the inhumanity of the favages in war, shocking beyond defcription, to every feeling of a chriftian and a man; it claimed the vengeance of the deity: the favages would not only torture and kill, but literally eat their prifoners. The ferocity and licentiousness of foreign and Indian auxiliaries, would corrupt the foldiers of Britain. Such an army, on its return, might totally fubvert the remains of freedom. If difbanded, the foldiers would become a lawless banditti; if kept together, a most dangerous weapon in the hands of minifters, who had fhewn fo little regard to the rights of freemen.

LORD CHATHAM approved these obfervations. "The house, the parliament, the nation at large," he faid, " ought to have the opportunity of clearing themselves of that heavy load of black and bloody imputed guilt, under

CHAP. which they fuffer. I pledge myself to fet on XXXII. foot an enquiry into the state of the nation;

{

1777

Defended by Lord Suffolk.

Animated fpeech of Lord

and, as one of its leading objects, I shall endeavour to discover who were the authors and advifers of letting loose those blood-hounds and hell-hounds, the favages of America, upon our brethren. I hope to stamp a proper mark both on the illegality and inhumanity of this fatanic meafure; and, I truft, I shall have the pious affiftance of the facred bench, and the no lefs conftitutional and efficacious aid of the fages of the law, to drag the authors into broad day-light, and inflict the most exemplary and condign punishment."

LORD SUFFOLK repeated, that the Americans had emiffaries amongst the favages, and would gain them if we did not; and it was perfectly juftifiable, in fuch a war, to use every means that God and nature had put into our hands.

"I AM aftonished," lord Chatham exclaimed, indignantly rifing, "I am shocked to hear fuch Chatham. principles confefsed, to hear them avowed, in this house, or in this country: principles equally unconftitutional, inhuman, and unchristian! My lords, I did not intend to have encroached on your attention; but I cannot reprefs my indignation, I feel myself impelled by every duty; we are called upon as members of this house, as men, as christian-men, to protest against such notions standing near the throne, polluting the car of majesty. 'That God and nature put into our hands: I know not what ideas that lord may entertain of God and nature, but I know that fuch abominable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What! attribute the facred fanction of God and nature to the mafiacres of the Indian fcalping

XXXII.

knife, to the cannibal favage, torturing, mur- CHAP dering, roafting, and eating-literally, my XXX lords, eating the mangled victims of his bar- 1777barous battles! Such horrible notions shock

every fentiment of honour; they shock me as a lover of honourable war, and a detefter of murderous barbarity. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decifive indignation. I call upon the right reverend bench, thofe holy minifters of the gospel, and pious paftors of our church: I conjure them to join in the holy work, and vindicate the religion of their God: I appeal to the wisdom and the law of this learned bench, to defend and fupport the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to interpose the unfullied fanction of their lawn; upon the learned judges to interpofe the purity of their ermine, to fave us from this pollution : I call upon the honour of your lordthips, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own: I call upon the fpirit and humanity of my country, to vindicate the паtional character: I invoke the genius of the conftitution! From the tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble lord, frowns with indignation at the difgrace of his country. In vain he led your victorious fleets against the boasted armada of Spain; in vain he defended and established the honour, the liberties, the religion, the Proteftant religion of this country, against the arbitrary cruelties of Popery, and the inquifition: if there more than popith cruelties, and inquifitional practices, are let loofe among us; to turn forth into

Lord Effingham.-Lord Effingham Howard was lord high admiral of England against the Spish armada, the destruction of which is reprefented in the tapestry.

our

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CHAP. Our fettlements, among our ancient connecXXXII. tions, friends, and relations, the mercilefs cannibal, thirsting for the blood of man, woman, and child! to fend forth the infidel favage, against whom? against your Proteftant brethren; to lay waste their country, to defolate their dwellings, and extirpate their name and race; with these horrible hell-hounds of favage war! hell-hounds, I fay, of favage war. Spain armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of America; and we improve on the inhuman example of Spanish cruelty; we turn loofe these savage hell-hounds againft our brethren and countrymen in America, of the fame language, laws, liberties, and religion; endeared to us by every tie that could fanctify humanity. This awful fubject, fo important to our honour, our conftitution, and our religion, demands the most folemn and effectual enquiry: and I again call upon your lordships, and the united powers of the state, to examine it thoroughly and decifively, and to stamp upon it an indelible stigma of public abhorrence. And I again implore those holy prelates of our religion, to do away those iniquities from among

us.

Let them perform a luftration,; let them purify this house, and this country, from this fin. My lords, I am old and weak, and at prefent unable to fay more: but my feelings and my indignation were too ftrong to have faid lefs; I could not have flept this night in my bed, nor repofed my head on my pillow, without giving this vent to my eternal abhorrence of fuch prepofterous and enorinous principles."

A CONVERSATION enfued, in which it was proved by the avowal of lord Townshend and