and treaties relative to the employment of the Indian favages be laid before the House."

Lord Gower rofe, and, with all that acrimony by which his fpeeches were ufually distinguished, oppofed and reprobated the motion, afferting," that the noble Lord had himself employed savages without fcruple in the operations of the laft war." This charge Lord Chatham pofitively and peremptorily denied, and challenged the Minifters, if any fuch inftructions of his were to be found, to produce them. If at all employed, they had crept into the service from the occafional utility of their affiftance in unexplored parts of the country. He said, "the late King George II. had too much regard for the military dignity of his people, and also too much HUMANITY, to agree to fuch a propofal, had it been made to him, and he called upon Lord Amherst to declare the truth." Lord Amherst, not able to evade this appeal, reluctantly owned that Indians had been employed on both fides— the French employed them first, he said, and we followed their example; but that he had been authorized to take them into his Majefty's fervice by inftructions from the Minifter, his Lordship would not affirm. The motion was difiniffed by the previous question.

The two Houses in a few days after this determined upon an adjournment to the 20th of January 1778, notwithstanding an animated refift

ance on the part of the Oppofition, who demonftrated the impolicy at fo critical a juncture of indulging in fo long a recefs, Lord Chatham on this occafion declared, "that it was with grief and aftonishment he heard a proposal made of a nature. so extraordinary at a crifis fo urgent; when," said he," my Lords, I will be bold to say, events of a most alarming tendency, little expected or forefeen, will fhortly happen. Minifters flatter themfelves, whenever the worst comes, that they fhall be able to shelter themselves behind the authority of Parliament; but this, my Lords, cannot be. They ftand COMMITTED, and they muft ABIDE the ISSUE. The DAY of RETRIBUTION is at hand, when the VENGEANCE of a much injured people will, I truft, FALL HEAVILY on the AUTHORS of their RUIN."

During the recefs, the spirits of the Ministry, which had funk to fo low an ebb, seemed to revive; and the powerful faction of the Tories, which had of late years acquired fuch an afcendency under the patronage of the Court, being if poffible more than ever eager for the fubjugation of America, large offers were made from different places for raifing new regiments to fupply the late heavy lofs; and a determination was taken to profecute the war with redoubled force and vigor.

On an early day after the recefs, the House of Commons, in confequence of a motion previously.

made

made by Mr. Fox, refolved itself into a Committee on the ftate of the nation; and, in a moft able and comprehenfive fpeech, Mr. Fox entered at great length into a retrofpective view of the whole conduct of the prefent Adminiftration refpecting America, including as well the measures which led to the war, as the manner in which it had been profecuted. He laid it down as an incontrovertible axiom," that it was impoffible for any country to fall within fo few years from the high pitch of power and glory which we had done, without fome radical error in its Government. The prefent calamitous ftate of the nation was evidently to be traced to the blind obftinacy and wretched incapacity of its Minifters, who would not listen to any overtures of conciliation, who could not carry into effect any plan of coercion. He made it appear from the papers before them, that at a time when we were in immediate danger of encountering the whole force of the Houfe of Bourbon, united with that of America, the army in England and Ireland had been fo reduced and weakened by the continual drain of the war, as to fall feveral thousand men fhort of the ufual peace establishment. To abandon the ministerial plan of conqueft was therefore a matter not of choice but neceffity, when the force employed in America was fo much diminished in confequence of the late difaftrous events, and when it was incapable of being

T4

being reinforced without leaving this country abfolutely without defence. Upon this ground Mr. Fox moved as a refolution of the Committee, "that an address should be prefented to his Majefty, befeeching his Majefty that no part of the national force in these kingdoms, or in the garrifons of Gibraltar or Minorca, fhould be fent to America." To the infinite furprise of the public, no debate enfued, nor was any reply whatever made to this fpeech; but the queftion being called for, the motion was rejected on a divifion by a majority of 259 to 165, the largest minority that had yet appeared in this Parliament in oppofition to the Ministry.

In a few days after this Mr. Burke moved for the papers relative to the employment of the Indians; and in a speech diftinguished by that characteristic glow and warmth of coloring, which in this inftance did as much credit to the judgment as the imagination of the fpeaker, he reprobated the measure as replete with difgrace and infamy. "The Indian mode of making war,” he said, “ was fo horrible as not only to shock the manners of all civilized nations, but far to exceed the ferocity of other barbarians recorded in antient or modern hiftory. Their chief glory consisted in the number of human fcalps which they acquired, and their chief delight was in the practice of torturing, mangling, roafting, and devouring their captives.

any

The

The attempt to prevent these enormities was wholly unavailing. Those Indians employed both by General Burgoyne and Colonel St. Leger had indifcriminately murdered men, women, and childrenfriends and foes-armed or unarmed, without diftinction. The horrid murder of Mifs Macrae on the morning of her intended marriage with an officer of the King's troops, and the maffacre in cold blood of the prisoners taken in an engagement near Fort Stanwix, were particularly inftanced as proofs of the abfolute impracticability of restraining the barbarities of these favages." After a long debate Mr. Burke's motion was negatived by a majority of 223 to 137.

Various other motions made by Mr. Fox, Colonel Barré, and Mr. Burke, in the Committee of Enquiry, being alfo rejected, the Minister gave notice that he had digested a plan of conciliation, which he meant fhortly to lay before the House. Accordingly, on the 17th of February 1778, Lord North moved for leave to bring in-" 1. A bill for removing all doubts and apprehenfions concerning taxation by the Parliament of Great Britain in any of the colonies and plantations in North America; and 2. A bill to enable his Majefty to appoint Commiffioners, with fufficient powers to treat, consult, and agree upon the means of quieting the disorders now fubfifting in certain of the colonies in America,"