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was nothing fpecifically charged against them in the amendment, he muft certainly oppofe it on principle; much lefs could it be fuppofed that he would agree to the implied cenfure cenfure upon himself, which was included in the general requifition for new counfels and new counfellors.

One of the ableft advocates on the fame fide obferved, that the addrefs was totally unexceptiona ble in all its parts; that it went no farther in its tendency than to carry up to the throne, thofe expreffions of duty and affection, which had ever been the language of parliament in their an fwer to the fpeech of the fovereign. There was not a word in the addrefs, which could imply that parliament pledged itself to the fupport of any particular meafure, or to oppofe or protect any particular defcription of

men.

Along with the ufual terms of respect, it contained nothing more than a general profeffion of union, on the common principle of felfdefence.

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On the other hand, the amendment, according to the explanations which had been given in its fupport, implied requifition, not only that his majefty would difmifs all his counfellors, whether guilty or guiltlefs, old or new; but that he would go ftill farther, and adopt an entirely new fyftem of government. On this he obferved, that the conftitation had placed the executive power of this government in the fovereign, the official functions of which are performed by perfons of his appointment, each of whom is perfonally refponfible for

his conduct in office. It was abfolutely neceffary, he faid, for preferving the due equilibrium preferibed by the conftitution, that the prince should have free. liberty to appoint thofe perfons to the various executive offices, who appeared to him the most proper to fill them; otherwife the government would degenerate into an aristocracy, and affume the worst vices, without the virtues, of a republic. If the prince were debarred of fuch a choice, either the nobles would acquire a most the dangerous afcendancy over

or the commons, encircrown, cling the throne, like a fpider's web, with a miniftry of their own choofing, would throw every thing into anarchy and confufion, and reduce us to the worst and most despicable ftate of go. vernment.

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Neither the courfe of reafoning, the arguments, nor the affertions of the minifter, were fufficient to afford any fatisfaction to the other fide. They obferved, that with his ufual ingenuity, he had converted the heavieft charges against his conduct, into means of actual defence. The criminal neglect and fatal decline of the navy under his adminiftration, illuftrated and proved by its acknowledged inferiority, and late indelible difgrace, afforded a charge of fo alarming and capital a nature, that it feemed to lay him under an indifpenfable neceffity of fhewing, either, that it had not declined, or that the grants afforded by parliament were not adequate to its fupport. But without the fmalleft trouble of that fort, the minifter applies that [D] 2

very

very inferiority, which conftitutes their own grievances and difturbhis moft deadly crime, to the juf- ances. Such, they faid, was

tification of its fhameful confequence, the fcandalous flight of the British fleet; and tells us with the greatest unconcern, that it would have been madness not to run away.

The noble lord, they faid, was not lefs ingenious in the exculpation of other parts of his conduct. Administration were entirely guiltless of all thofe ruinous confequences, which can only be generated, by a long conjunction of evil government and political folly. The common union and revolt of thirteen colonies, who never agreed in any thing else, with the lofs of America, he accounts for in one fhort fentence, by charging it to the rebellious difpofition of a people, who had ever been eminently distinguished for their loyalty. If we are abandoned, in a manner unexampled in hiftory, at this perilous moment, without the affiftance or hope of a fingle ally, the minifter comforts us with the affurance that it is no fault of his, but proceeds merely from the blind folly, or ftrange ingratitude, of other powers. The lofs of our WeltIndia iflands, is by no means to be charged to the indolence or neglect of miniftry, but to the activity and impudence of D'Ef taing, who who unexpectedly took them from us. And if Ireland was flipping out of our hands, by a repetition of the fame meafures and conduct which loft America, ftill our immaculate minifters were totally free from blame; for it was easily fhewn by this new logic, that the Irish themfelves were the caufes of

the mode of reasoning, with which minifters and their advocates, in the present day, dared to infult the understanding of parliament."

But they demand proofs of their incapacity and misconduct. Could any proofs upon earth exceed, or equal, a bare recital of their acts, and of the confequences which they produced? Is not the unexampled ruin which, within a few years, their government has brought upon a country, fo great, fo glorious, and fo flourishing as this was, at the commencement of the prefent reign, the most conclufive poffible evidence, either, of the most wretched incapacity, or of wilful defign and treachery. But if every other proof of ignorance and incapacity, and of the neceffity of demanding from the throne the removal of the prefent minifters and counfellors, were wanting, the noble lord himself had juft fupplied the strongest that could be given; and what, indeed, might well fuperfede all other evidence. For, after the long notice he had received from that house, the repeated warnings given him by the oppofition, and the very alarming motives,' which every day grew more urgent, for his making a full and immediate inquiry into the affairs, ftate, and condition of Ireland, and duly weighing and confidering the means, for affording a proper and adequate relief to her wants, and providing a remedy for her diforders, he had now candidly, but inadvertently confeffed, that he was equally igno

rant of the wants, the diforder, and the cure. Could the most inveterate enemy, faid they, have urged a better or stronger reafon for the difmiffion of a minifter, than was included in that confeffion? Could any other evidence be fo unexceptionable, or eftablifh fo full a conviction? Or, after fuch a confeffion, was it poffible for that houfe to hefitate a moment in voting for the removal of fuch a minifter?

After very long debates, in which an infinite quantity and variety of public matter was canvaffed, the question being put, at a late hour, the propofed amendment was rejected upon a divifion, by a majority of 233,

to 134.

The addrefs was moved for in the Houfe of Lords by the Earl of Chesterfield, and feconded by Lord Grantham, late ambaffador at the court of Madrid. The amendment was moved for, and fupported with great ability, by the Marquis of Rockingham; who, in a long fpeech, took a comprehenfive view of the general policy of the prefent reign, as well as of the particular circumftances and public tranfactions of the current year. The debate was fupported, on that fide, by the Dukes of Richmond and Grafton, the Earls of Shelburne, Coventry, and Effingham, with the Lords Camden, and Lyttelton. On the other fide, the two great law lords in office, the two new secretaries of ftate, the noble earl juft placed at the head of the board of trade, and the marine minifter, bore the weight of the

conteft.

It will be eafily feen from a

view of the antagonists, that no advantage could be gained on either fide, from any defect of addrefs or ability on the oppofite. The debates were accordingly exceedingly interefting, embraced a variety of fubjects of the greateft importance, and were carried on, without languor, through a length of time very unufual in that house. Among other matters, the affairs of Ireland were much agitated; and much unqualified cenfure paffed upon that criminal neglect, as it was called, to which their prefent dangerous fituation was attributed. But no part of our recent public conduct, underwent a more critical inveftigation, or was more severely condemned, than what related to the difpofition and government of the army within the kingdom, and to the means of defence adopted, or fuppofed to be neglected, during the fummer. On this ground, the charges were fo numerous, fo direaly applied, and fupported with fuch ability and knowledge of the fubject, particularly by the Duke of Richmond, that the noble lord at the head of that department, notwithstanding his habitual coolness and command of temper, could not but feel fome embarrassment; and indeed it would have required fuch habits of argument, and fuch a portion of eloquence, as are not often acquired by, nor frequently the lot of military men, to have fuccefsfully refifted their effect, and entirely effaced the impreffion which they made.

As the charge of an undue fyftem of government, and the ftrictures upon the general policy of the prefent reign, were prin[D] 3

cipally

cipally made in that houfe, the matters arifing from thofe fubjects were, of course, more particularly canvassed there; and brought out much feverity and bitterness of reply. The lords in administration, befides an abfolute contradiction or denial of every thing advanced on that ground, expreffed the utmost aftonishment, at the new and extraordinary language now held. They faid, that the propofed amendment, along with the comments and explanations by which it was attended, were replete with invective, and in reality a kind of libel upon government. That nothing could be more fallacious or invidious, than the contraft drawn, and the manner in which it was applied, between the degree of power, profperity, and pre-eminence, attributed to the nation at the time of his majesty's acceffion, and the misfortune or danger of the prefent period.

It must indeed, they faid, be acknowledged, however it might be regretted, that too many of the unfortunate facts ftated on the other fide, were too well eftablished to be controverted; but the deduction drawn from thefe premises, that our public misfortunes were imputable to the prefent minifters, did not by any means follow. It would have been more ingenuous to have attributed these misfortunes, in a very great degree, to our internal divifions, and to that incautious and violent language, which was too frequently held in parliament. But if they were imputable to the prefent administration, they were equally fo to every other during the prefent reign. Dead Dead

and living minifters, thofe now in oppofition, as well as thofe in office, muft all bear an equal fhare of the blame. There was fcarcely a lord, on the fame fide with the noble marquis who moved the amendment, who had not been a member of one adminiftration or other within that period. They had all a fhare in those public measures, and in the fupport of that fyftem, as it is affected to be called, which they now fo bitterly inveigh againft. Even the forbidden ground of America, which is execrated as the fource of all our evils and calamities, has been indifferently trodden by every adminiftration fince the year 1763.

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The prefent minifters had neither paffed nor repealed the ftamp act. They had not laid on thofe American duties, by which the feeds of the present rebellion were first fowed. And, whatever the measures were, good or bad, wife or unwife, which they pursued, they only followed up the line, which had already been chalked out for them by their predeceffors. Why then, this fudden and violent cry, "of new counfels and new counsellors?" Or what was meant by new counfels? It was evident from the fpeech before them, that the object of the prefent fyftem of government was to purfue the war with vigour and effect: would the noble marquis and his friends have that fyftem changed? Did they wish to have it carried on with the reverfe of vigour? Would they recommend to have it followed with weakness, and conducted without fpirit? If not, what was the intent or purpose of new counsels ?

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To this it was answered, that fuppofing the facts to be fairly Itated (which was not, however, in any degree the cafe), it was a new and extraordinary mode of defence, to bring the errors, vices, or crimes, of former minifters, whether dead or living, in exculpation of the erroneous conduct, and deftructive measures of the prefent. It muft afford much fatisfaction to the public, and be a matter of great comfort in their prefent diftreffes, to be inform ed, that their minifters had only obftinately perfevered, in defpite of reafon, warning, and experience, in following up, to the final extremity of ruin, to foreign and domeftic war, and to the diffevering of the empire, certain measures of abfurdity and evil, which had been either dreamed of in theory, or attempted in practice, by fome of their predeceffors. It was, indeed, rather unlucky, that it was only in fuch inftances, that they ever at tempted to profit by example, Upon other occafions, the maxims and conduct of their predeceffors went for nothing. When it fuited their own views, or the purpofes of the arbitrary fyftem under which they acted, they not only readily over-ftepped all antient and established rules of government, but they could, with as much ease, make long ftrides beyond the limits of the conftitution itself. But they wholly denied the univerfality of the charge on all the minifters of this reign. Some of them had no fhare in thofe measures, except in correcting the ill confequences of them; and none but the prefent

minifters perfevered in direct oppo. fition to all experience.

The late refignations and ap. pointments afforded an opportunity to the oppofition for much animad. verfion and fome fatire. They attributed the refignation of the lord prefident of the council, to his difdain of continuing any longer in office with men, who he found totally incapable of conducting the public bufinefs, and of acting up to any fixed rule or principle of conduct. cent bringing in of a noble lord, to a fhort epiftle of whose writing when formerly in office they di rectly charged the lofs of America, was feverely cenfured in both houses, as a measure which tended to render all reconciliation with the colonies ftill more defperate.

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But the spirit of that fyftem, they faid, which had fo long governed, and fo long difgraced, our public counfels, was peculiarly operative in the bufmefs of appointments, When the measures, which eventually led to the lofs of America, were firft planned under that fatal system, it had been thought proper to create a new office, under the title of fecretary of State for the colonies, in order to give a fuppofed degree of weight, and the greater eclat, to the intended proceedings. And now, in the fulness of the fame fpirit, and according to the true wildom of that fyftem, when we have no colonies to take care of, and that America no longer forms a part of the British empire, it is thought neceffary to create or renew another high and expenfive office, by adding, to [D] 4

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