querulous declamation! was he laying before the house fome doleful tale calculated to inflame the paffions of the members, but founded neither on truth, or on honefty! Were the defeats to which our armies have been doomed to fubmit, only the dreams of his fanciful, and creative, imagination! Were the oceans of blood which he reprefented to have been shed, and to have been rolled over the plains of battle, nothing but the offspring of his imagination! Have we fquandered away no treasures! Have we fubfidized with the treafures of the nation no ROYAL WRETCHES, who have violated every treaty they have made; and have polluted us by the alliance we have formed with them!-To thefe queftions, the House of Commons has explicitly faid "No!" but our deluded, and bleeding country gives evidence of a very different nature, and afferts, that she has been injured, and moft unfeelingly injured.

Perhaps there never was a period recorded by any Hiftorian in the annals of Great Britain more gloomy, more critical, and more alarming, than the prefent hour; for, look which way we please on the political horizon, all is darknefs, wretchednefs, and horror. It will moft undoubtedly be fuperfluous to remind the inhabitants of this Kingdom, of the ftate, to which our commerce, and manufactures, (the best if not the only wealth of any nation,) are reduced; most of them have already too fenfibly felt the effects of the late measures of Government to stand in need of any information on this fubject. How many honeft, and flourishing families in the course of the last two years have been plunged into the most dreadful abyfs of bankruptcy, want, and penury! How many unfriended wretches have been turned loose on the mercy of mankind, (that bleak, and unfeeling mercy, as expreffed by a most excellent English Poet,) and have been driven through neceffity, and to fupport exhaufted, and famishing life, either to a violation of the laws of their country, by which they have been brought to a most ignominious termination of their lives, or have been obliged to enlift into that most wicked, yet at the fame time)

much

much to be pitied, profeffion, where they ceafe to be the friends of the human race, but where they become its deftroyers, its murderers, and its plunderers! But are these the worst calamities our Nation has experienced! How many thousands of our brave countrymen have been most inhumanly, and unfeelingly facri_ ficed! what tears have their difconfolate wives, and infant chil dren, now deprived of their best friend, if not of the only friend they had, fhed for their premature, and unhappy fates! Let us reflect on these circumftances, for they are not fancy-pieces! Let us reflect on them, and if we are loft to every thing that is great and good, to fuch a degree and extent, if we are fo perverted by falfhood, and by prejudice, as to feel no pain and concern, for the hardships and difafters which have been fo wantonly brought on our country, can we, if we lay claim to the character either of virtuous men, or of friends to mercy and to humanity, refift being overwhelmed with remorse, and the deepest regret for the dreadful fortunes of fo many of our fpecies.

We have now, for thefe two last years past, and several months, been involved in a war with France--a war which, in whatever point of view we contemplate it, has been the most calamitous war, not even excepting the American war, this unhappy Inland was ever engaged in. For, what has it been almost ever fince its commencement?-I am compelled by truth, and justice, to answer—almost one uninterupted fucceffion of defeat, misfortune, and difgrace. It cannot furely be ány pleasure to an Englishman, that his country fhould have been unfortunate in her enterprizes; nor can any man be of that unnatural difpofition of foul, as to dwell on those misfortunes which she has been doomed to experience, with any thing fo wicked, and fo malignant, as an air of triumph, or of joy. Calamity is ever facred. It extorts refpect even from an enemy. weep, and feel the bittereft afflictions for what my country has endured, and what he is ftill likely to endure." Let no man therefore accuse me of acting fo detefted a part

as

as mentioning the wretchedness of my country only to infult her! But shall I patiently, and submissively fit still, and see the vileft men pursuing the vileft measures-pursuing every meafure, which has a tendency of dividing my country, not only from herself, but alfo from every connection, the ought to hold dear and inviolate-plunging her into deftruction-infulting her in her distress-degrading her—and stabbing her very bofom with poifoned wounds-can I, on fuch alarming occafions, when every good, and patriotic citizen is called by the loud and irresistible voice of duty, and of virtue, into exertion, quietly fee fuch accurfed violations of truft, confidence, and justice, nor expofe to merited abhorrence, and execration, the actions of fuch men! Shall I not fay to my country "Beware! those who pretend to be your friends, are your worst enemies! Liften no longer to their dishonest counfels! rely no longer on their profeffions! leave them! abandon them, and consign them to that treachery, which they were meditating for you! Confide in them no longer! ere it be too late, hear, and attend to the voice of thofe, who love your profperity, and reverence your peace." In thefe hours of calamity fuch would be the language of an honest man, if he were to address himself to his country. In that language I addrefs her, and in that language I wish to hear my countrymen addrefs her. We have been deluded, deceived, moft grofsly impofed upon. Those who conduct the public affairs have approved themselves to be as weak and impotent in the execution, as they were in the machination of their defigns. They have violated their engagements, they have betrayed the public truft, and they have made repofing confidence in government a measure on the part of the subject dangerous to his civil, and perfonal libertics, and calamitous to his country.

How then can the prefent minifters have the effrontery to ask any longer for the confidence of the British People. For al lowing them in every measure they have adopted to have had in contemplation the interefts of this Kingdom, HAVE THEY

1

NOT

NOT, AFTER THE MOST VIRTUOUS, AND THE BEST IN→
TENDED ADMINISTRATION, REDUCED US TO A CONDITION
OF ALMOST ABSOLUTE DESPAIR!

They have. But I fear more blame is to be ascribed to their hearts, than to their heads. If fo, the more truly deplorable is our condition, fince it is certainly a more afflicting calamity, to be governed by wicked, than by weak minifters,

But whatever be the caufe of our unhappinefs, refpecting the real existence of that unhappinefs, there cannot be two opinions, We have failed in every attempt. We have fquandered away millions, and millions. We have facrificed thousands of our braveft countrymen. We have loft what in the commencement of this war we were in poffeffion of. Our trade is in a state of ruin. It is neceffary therefore if poffible to find out the caufe of all this ill fuccefs, in order to act, if neceffary, with more wifdom for the future, and to remove those obstructions whatever they might be, that have impeded our glorious, and victorious career. For this purpose the late motion of Mr. Fox was brought forward: but the fate of that great and illuftrious motion is an eternal monument of the fhame, and difgrace of a British Houfe of Commons! That houfe has decided, that implicit confidence is to be repofed in our rulers, that we are not to enquire into their actions-in a word, they have decided, that the House of Commons is a mere humbug-nominis umbra-the shadow of a name-where the whole is a mockery to the understanding of every man of fense, and from whence, while things conrinue in their prefent corrupt ftate, we can neither expect to have juftice done to ourselves, to our country, or to the world.

If minifters have acted virtuously, and confcientiously, why do they shrink from an examination into their conduct?—The fear they betray on this occafion condemns them, and proves. them to be guilty. It tells their country, that they are afraid

to

to expose their measures to day-light, left their deformity fhould be difcevered. It tells the people, that there is a latent and profligate fecret in every action in which they engage, and and inspires them with a fufpicion, that where there is such mystery, there must be something dark, and unprincipled. It is these measures which difguft men with their glorious conftitution, as it is called. It is these measures which diffeminate, and keep alive French principles, and make them appear deteftable, and weak, as they may be, virtuous, and wife, when compared with the principles which direct, and influence the conduct of this government. But I must conclude-offering up to that Being, who is the giver of all goodnefs, and the preferver of every nation, my most fervent prayer, that whatever calamities we might hitherto have endured, or may be condemned to endure hereafter, the recent unfortunate difagreement between England and Ireland, may be foon, and happily adjusted to each other's mutual fatisfaction; and that it never may be the misfortune of these two fifters to be dif united from each other's love and affection, or to experience the fad, and fatal reverse of a fincere friend, into a powerful, fatal and unrelenting enemy!

Workbn ci spot, hior soma - Toft 0% ZOTAC M to