negligence or folly, fatisfactorily account for fo dangerous, and for what might well have been, fo fatal an omiffion? The neglect of the island of Jerfey, was no lefs an object of cenfure. Through the want, they faid, of two or three frigates, of that fmall marine force, which would have been fufficient to repel the defultory attempts, that were at that seafon to be expected from St. Maloes, Admiral Arbuthnot, in his laudable zeal for the relief or recovery of the iland, was obliged to abandon his convoy, and to defer his voyage to New York. By that means, a fleet of three hundred merchantmen and transports, were expofed to the dangers of the fea and the enemy in the open road of Torbay, the trade was detained a full month at home, and fuffered, at leaft, an equal delay on the voyage, to the immenfe lofs and expence of the merchants; and the reinforcements for Sir Henry Clinton, which, to answer any effectual purpose, should have been landed at New York before the time of their departure from England, did not arrive at the place of their deftination until the end of Auguft, when the feafon for action was nearly over, and the troops had fuffered fo much from the unufual length of their confinement on fhipboard, that they were incapable of any immediate fervice. Thus, faid they, were all the views and hopes of the campaign frustrated in the outfet; and thus, year after year, is the blood and treafure of the nation confumed, and its ftrength exhaufted, in that fatal conteft; while the unequalled mifconduct which prevails at home, renders all the exertions of valour and ability fruitlefs, and predeftinates the ill fuccefs that follows. The difpofal, the amount, and the government of the military force kept within the kingdom, afforded a copious fubject of animadverfion and cenfure. This was ftated, including the militia, and the various corps of new raifed troops, as exceeding a hundred thoufand men actually in arms. Yet this vast force, which, they faid, under former wife and happy adminiftrations, would have conveyed terror and deftruction home to our enemies, and fpread alarm and danger through their remoteft poffeffions, was kept fupine and idle at home. The enormous and cumbersome machine, which was framed and fupported at fo immenfe an expence to the public, was kept inert without life or action, or action, through the ignorance and incapacity of those who were intrusted with its movements.-Nothing, they faid, could more clearly point out, either the atrocious defigns, or the confummate folly of adminiftration. It was either intended that this prodigious force fhould act against the people, or it was unneceffary and had no object-they might chufe the alternative. If we had no fleet, it was more than competent to internal defence; if we had a fleet, and could truft to it, we had no occafion for so vaft a land force. A vaft fleet, and a vaft military force, were incompatible; if the frength of the nation was to be equally divided between the land and the naval fervices, neither fervice could be rendered effectual. Independent of of experience or precedent, our fi tuation pointed out the true po licy. But minifters boasted loudly of the wisdom of their conduct in this refpect, and of the effential benefits which it had produced; we had efcaped from danger-and they had fruftrated the defigns of the enemy. Utterly incapable, they faid, through a total want of genius and ability, of conducting the war upon an extenfive fcale, or of forming any bold and comprehenfive fcheme of action, they narrowed its objects to the measure of their own ideas, and reft their merits upon a mean and daftardly fyftem of local defence, confined merely to the feat of empire. Such has been the wretched application of all the joint power during the prefent year, of three hundred thousand men in arms, of three hundred fhips of war, and of twenty millions of pounds fterling. Yet it will be found, faid they, that their domestic merits are upon the fame fcale with their foreign; and that all their measures at home and abroad, are marked by the fame peculiar fatality. Although they facrificed every other object to the home defence, the measures which they adopted for that purpofe were as fhamefully defective, as those which they had purfued in the active operations of the war. Thus, with a force lying dormant within the kingdom, fufficient to have carried terror and hoftility into the heart of the moft powerful fiates, the difpofition of this great force, under the incapacity of its direction, was fo fuperlatively wretched, as to render it totally inadequate to its defign; our weftern coafts were in a manner abandoned to the enemy; we were expofed in the most tender and valuable parts to the most imminent danger; Plymouth feemed doomed to inevitable deftruction; nor was the fecurity of Portsmouth much better established. So vaft an army, under fuch a guidance, could not afford protection to thofe invaluable repofitories of our naval ftrength; and we were exposed to a lofs, which no human means could have fupplied or remedied. Minifters, they said, might well boaft in the fpeech, of their new and only ally, Providence; whose folly and misconduct had rendered them fo univerfally contemptible or odious, as to be abandoned by all mankind; and who having interdicted all wifdom and ability from their counfels, had alfo, in the midft of a moft ruinous and dangerous warfare, and finking under the preffure of a greatly fuperior combination of force, driven every commander by fea and land from their fervice, who was capable of giving efficacy to their military exertions. In fuch circumftances, with an inferior fleet, a defenceless coaft, a treasury exhaufted by folly and prodigality, with an adminiftration fupine, divided, and incapable, we must have fallen a prey to our combined enemies, if they had feized the critical opportunity of making the attack. But this miraculous interpofition of providence, in blinding the enemy at one feason, and ftriking them with contagious diftemper at another, only went to our prefervation. Providence left the unparalleled difgrace, and the caufes of the danger, to be anfwered for by minifters. Nor was the internal government of our military force lefs animadverted madverted upon, than its difpofi- By this means, they faid, continual murmurings,, jealoufies, and difcontents, were generated among thole who were fighting the battles of their country. Men who were bravely encountering all the fatigues, hardfhips, and perils of war, and who from their habits of life, and the nature of their pro feffion, were exceedingly fufceptible and quick in their fenfe of injury, and habitually nice in points of honour, were, by the caprice and corruption of minifters, continually fretted and galled in the tendereft part, their attention difturbed in the execution of their duty, and their minds alienated from the fervice, while their fpirits were broken, and their mili tary pride fubdued, by feeing all their hopes of due preferment blafted, and by being obliged to crouch under a fenfe of indignity and injury, which they could not refent without perfonal ruin. The alarming and dangerous fituation of Ireland, prefented new objects of stricture to the oppofition, and afforded a new edge to They faid, that their cenfure. every evil and danger there, was degree degree of equitable condefcenfion then, would have been received by our fifter ifland, as the most friendly kindness, and acknowledged with the moft lafting gratitude; whereas, the greatest facrifice of her commercial and political interefts which this country can now make, instead of being confidered as the grant of favour, will be regarded as the mean conceffion of 'fear. The fame conduct, they faid, which prevailed in Europe, was to be traced in every other part of the world. The enemy had, at one fweep, carried every thing that was English away, through the whole extent of the African coafts. The dominion of the fea, was no lefs effectually, they faid, though much lefs difgracefully, loft in the Weft Indies, than in the narrow feas and the channel. Our brave commanders and feamen in that quarter, determined that the Britifh name, and their own profeffional character, fhould not be funk -under the fatality and difgrace of our public counfels; but they were unable to fupport her power against the fuperiority of the enemy. The French flag reigned as triumphantly in the gulph of Mexico, as in the European feas; and the fame unhappy and difgraceful feafon, fhewed the downfal of our naval power in every part of the world. Our Weft India iflands, they faid, had been more properly delivered up to the enemy, than fubv dued by him. It made no difference in the nature of things, whether our poffeffions were furrendered or fold, by a public or private treaty with France, or whether they were left fo naked and defenceless, that the enemy should have nothing more to do, than to fend garrifons to take poffeffion of them. This they infifted to have been the cafe with respect to the iflands we had loft; and those that remained, they defcribed, as not being in a much better fituation. Jamaica, in particular, they faid, the, most valuable now of our colonial poffeffions, and the principal fource of our remaining trade and wealth, was moft fhamefully abandoned; and was at that moment in the moft imminent danger, if not already loft. I This courfe of invective was wound up by declaring, that the omiflions and defects which produced all these calamities, went fo much beyond any thing which could be allowed for impotence and imperfection of mind, that they feemed under a neceffity of charging their conduct to direct treachery. That final ruin, or a total change of fyftem and of men, was the short alternative to which we were now reduced. The fhort fentence of New Counfels and New Counsellors included, they faid, all the means of our national falvation, and expreffed the fentiments of every intelligent and independant man in England; it was the univerfal language out of doors, and of those within, when they went out. The fpeech itself underwent its fhare of cenfure, with refpect both to matter and omiffion; and the acknowledgment in the propofed addrefs of the lords, of the bleffings enjoyed under government, afforded an opportunity for much feverity of comment and obfervation in that houfe. It was freely afked, whether that recognition of public happiness was founded in truth? Whether it was not an in fult fult to parliament, when applied to the minifters? Whether there was a noble lord prefent, of any defcription, who could lay his hand to his heart, and fairly congratulate his majefty on the blef ings enjoyed under his government? A majority might indeed grant a vote; but they could go no farther; they could neither close the eyes, nor warp the opinions of mankind. Such an approbation, given in defiance of public notoriety, and the evidence of every man's fenfe and feeling, muft not only fail of its intended, but produce a very contrary effect; it would only ferve to excite contempt and ridicule in the first inftance, and tend to the degradation of parliament in the fecond. For themfelves, they faid, that no 'motive whatever fhould induce them to the vain and fcandalous attempt, of giving a fanction to fo grofs a fpecies of delufion and impofition, by the acknowledgment of bleffings which did not exift, and a recognition of the merits of government, in direct contradiction to experience and fact. The minifter oppofed, in the Houfe of Commons, the indirect charges of treachery which were made on the other fide, with temper and firmness. He obferved, that fuch charges or infinuations feemed of late to become a favourite topic with gentlemen in the oppofition, who perhaps hoped to derive fome great advantage from the frequent repetition; but if they were not entirely vague and unfounded, and calculated merely to fir up or nurfe difcontent and fufpicion abroad, why did they not come forward like men, and purfue their accufations? Why did they not follow them up with specific and defined proofs; thereby to fix the guilt, and bringing it home fairly and directly to its proper object, compel the mifcreants, whoever they were, or where-ever found, to un dergo that fate which treachery deferves? In allufion to what had fo repeatedly been faid, of the general opinion and difcontent of the people, he eagerly exclaimed, "God forbid, that there should be a voice in the nation, ftronger, louder, more peremptory or decifive, than that of parliament."For himfelf, whenever his accounting day fhould come, and that day, he faid, muft come, he should meet it without fear. There were laws for the protection of innocence, and if his accufers adhered to the laws, he fhould be fafe. His innocence would be his fhield, and the laws would render him invulnerable under that protection. If Our being deftitute of allies, or, as it was called on the other fide, our being abandoned by mankind, was not to be attributed to any diflike on his fide to continental connections; but to the prevalent, though mistaken politics of other powers, and to the peculiar circumftances of the conteft in which we are at prefent engaged. France had attacked any power upon the continent, others would have felt themselves immediately interested in the confequences and event, and would accordingly have taken an active and decided part. Our policy would have led us to a fimilar interference; and the reciprocality of interests, with the fame object in view, would have been a common bond of alliance and |