of Britain had been fullied and tarnished by blending the fcalping-knife and tomahawk with the fword and firelock. Such a mode of warfare was a contamination which all the waters of the Hudfon and the Delawar would never wash away. It was impoffible for America to forget or forgive fo horrid an injury.”

In the course of his fpeech he animadverted in the fevereft terms on the language recently held by a most reverend prelate, the archbishop of York, both in print and in that house. "The pernicious doctrines advanced by that prelate were, he said, the doctrines of Atterbury and Sacheverel. As a WHIG he abjured and detested them; and he hoped he fhould yet fee the day when they would be deemed libellous, and treated as fuch."The motion being negatived, his lordship next moved an addrefs to the king," that all orders and treaties relative to the employment of the Indian favages be laid before the houfe."

1

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 favages without fcruple in the operations of the laft war." This charge lord Chatham pofitively and peremptorily denied, and challenged the ministers, if any fuch inftructions of his were to be found, to produce them. If at all employed,

they

they had crept into the fervice from the oc¤àa fional utility of their affiftance in unexplored parts of the country. He faid, "the late king George II. had too much regard for the military dignity of his people, and alfo too much Hu MANITY, 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 au thorized to take them into his majesty's fervice by inftructions from the minifter, his lordship would not affirm. The motion was difmiffed by the previous question.

The two houfes in a few days after this deter mined upon an adjournment to the 20th of Ja nuary 1778, notwithstanding an animated refiftance 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 propofal made of a nature fo extraordinary at a crifis fo urgent; when," faid he, my lords, I will be bold to fay, events of a moft alarming tendency, little expected or forefeen, will fhortly happen. Minifters flatter themfelves, whenever the worft

comes,

comes, that they shall be able to shelter themfelves behind the authority of parliament; but this, my lords, cannot be. They ftand coмMITTED, 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 fpirits of the ministry, which had funk to fo low an ebb, feemed 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 houfe of commons, in confequence of a motion previously made by Mr. Fox, refolved itself into a committee on the state of the nation; and, in a moft able and comprehensive speech, Mr. Fox entered at great length into a retrofpective view of the whole conduct of the prefent adminiftration respecting America, including as well the meafures which led to the war, as the manner in which it had been profecuted. He laid it down

VOL. II.

Y

as

as an incontrovertible axiom,

"that it was im

poffible 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 state 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 short 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 reinforced without leaving this country abfolutely without defence. Upon this ground Mr. Fox moved as a refolution of the committee, "that an addrefs fhould be presented to his majefty, befeeching his majesty that no part of the national force in thefe kingdoms, or in the garrifons of Gibraltar or Minorca, should be

fent

fent to America." To the infinite furprize of the public, no debate enfued, nor was any reply whatever made to this fpeech; but the question 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 fpeech 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 speaker, he reprobated the measure as replete with disgrace and infamy. "The Indian mode of making war," he said, "was fo horrible as not only to fhock the manners of all civilized nations, but far to exceed the ferocity of any other barbarians recorded in antient or modern history. Their chief glory confifted 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. The attempt to prevent thefe enormities was wholly unavailing. Thofe Indians employed both by general Burgoyne and colonel St. Leger had indifcriminately murdered men, women, and children- friends and foes armed or unarmed, without diftinction. The horrid murder of Mifs