guage of the court on the first day of the feffions, evident fymptoms of irrefolution in the cabinet councils were at this period difcernible; and all difcuffion of the affairs of America were ftudiously avoided by the minifter, in parli ament, previous to the recefs. It was intimated only, that the apprehenfion of a war was wholly chimerical. The eftimates were formed entirely upon a peace establishment, the land-tax was continued at three fhillings; no vote of credit was required; the army remained on its former footing; and, what was most of all furprising, a reduction of four thousand feamen took place from the twenty thou fand voted laft year--a circumftance which fhews in the ftrongest light, how aftonifhing was the delufion of the ministry, or how eager their folicitude to delude the public. Lord Sandwich, firft lord of the admiralty, publicly declared in the house of peers, that he knew the low establishment propofed would be fully fufficient for reducing the colonies to obedience. With unpardonable indifcretion he fpoke in terms the moft contemptuous both of the powers and the courage of the Americans. He afferted, that they were neither difciplined nor capable of difcipline; and that formed of fuch materials, and fo indifpofed to encounter danger, their numbers would only add to the facility of the defeat*." On the first day of the meeting after the recefs, *To the infolence and adulation of lord SANDWICH's rhetoric on this occafion, history affords perhaps no juster parallel than the speech of MARDONLUS to XERXES on his projected invasion of Greece, as recorded by the pen of Herodotus. "Sir," faid the flave to the defpot, " you are not only the most illuftrious of all the Perfians who have hitherto appear ed, but you may fecurely defy the competition of pofterity. You are entitled to our particular admiration for not fuffering the people of IONIA, contemptible as they are, to INSULT Us with impunity. It would indeed be prepofterous, if, after reducing to our power the Sacæ, the Indians, the Ethiopians, and the Affyrians, with many other great and illuftrious nations, we fhould not inflict vengeance on those GREEKS, who without provocation have molested us. There can be nothing to excite our alarm-no multitude of troops-no extraordinary wealth-their PROWES I myself have known-Befides this, I am informed that in all their military undertakings the Greeks betray the extremeft ignorance and folly. Who, fir, fhall oppofe you at the head of the forces and fleets of Afia? The Greeks I think never can be fo audacious. If, however, I fhould be deceived, and they shall be so MAD as to engage us, they will foon find to their coft that 1 recefs, January 20th, 1775, lord Dartmouth laid before the peers the official papers belonging to his department. The plan of minifterial coercion was now finally fettlednot however, according to the general report, without confiderable oppofition in the cabinet from certain members of the administration, in the number of whom there was reafon to believe that the firft lord of the treafury himself, the lord privy feal, and the fecretary of state for America, were to be accounted. Notwithstanding the continued infirmities of the earl of Chatham, he had formed a refolution to attend the house, if poffible, on this memorable day, in order, before the die was finally caft, to make one powerful effort to avert the calamity, the danger, and the ruin which he saw impending over that great empire, which under U 2 that in the art of war we are the first of mankind." How well the predictions of these vain boasters were verified let SALAMIS and SARATOGA tell! The abject manner in which the GREAT KING fubfequently fued by his ambaffadors for peace, courting with fawning flattery the friendship and alliance of the very people he had thus injuriously treated, and the difdainful refufal of the Athenians to enter into any negotiation fo long as the Perfian army remained within the limits of the Grecian territory, are particularly related by the fame historian. "You may be affured," fay thefe fons of freedom," that your endeavours to perfuade us into an alliance with the BARBARIANS never will fucceed. On the part of the Athenians we declare, that as long as the fun fhall continue his ordinary course, fo long will we avoid any friendship with Xerxes-fo long will we conti nue to refift him. Hereafter do not prefume to enter an Athenian aflem. bly with overtures of this kind." Herod. book viii, fect. 9. It it curious to remark, that the Laureat Whitehead, in his New Year's Ode for 1774, has converted this hiftoric parallel into a poetic contraft-with what color of plausibility a fhort extract will fuffice to show. "Pass but a few fhort fleeting years," Shall breathe its laft." True, tyrant!-wherefore then does pride Not fo do BRITAIN'S KINGS behold And gather all the winds aërial reign To hurl JUST THUNDERS on INSULTING FOES, To GUARD and not INVADE the WORLD'S REPOSE. under his administration had attained the fummit of human profperity and glory. The houfe was unufually full, and a most respectable and crowded audience alfo filled the fpace below the bar. When he rose to speak, all was filence and profound attention. Animated and almost infpired by his fubject, he feemed to feel his own unrivalled fuperiority. His venerable figure, dignified and graceful in decay, his language, his voice, his gefture, were fuch as might at this important crifis, big with the fate of Britain, feem to characterize him as the guardian genius of his country*. "Too well apprized," he faid, "of the contents of the papers now at laft laid before the house, he would not take up their lordfhips' time in tedious and fruitless inveftigations, but would feize the firft moment to open the door of reconcilement ;-for, faid he, every moment of delay is a moment of danger. As I have not, faid his lordship, the honor of accefs to his majefty, I will endeavor to tranfmit to him, through the conftitutional channel of this houfe, my ideas of America, to RESCUE him from the mis-advice of his present ministers. America, my lords, cannot be reconciled; fhe ought not to be reconciled to this country till the troops of Britain are withdrawn from the continent; they are a bar to all confidence they are a fource of perpetual irritation, they threaten a fatal catastrophe. How can America truft you, with the bayonet at her breaft? How can the fuppofe that you mean lefs than bondage or death? I therefore, my lords, move, that an humble address be presented to his majesty, moft humbly to advise and befeech his majefty, that in order to open the way towards an happy fettlement of the dangerous *Such extraordinary powers of mind as were in this nobleman, combined with fo much corporeal infirmity, recall to recollection the anecdote of M. Voltaire, who, on a vifit to the famous M. Turgot, when last at Paris, found the minifter wrapt up in gouty flannels and unable to move : "You remind me, faid the philofopher to the ftatefman, of the image feen in Nebuchadnezzar's dream." "Ah!" faid M. Turgot," the feet of clay!" "Yes, and the head of GOLD! the head of GOLD!" faid M. Voltaire. dangerous troubles in America, it may graciously please his majesty to tranfmit orders to general Gage for removing his majesty's forces from the town of Boston.' I know. not, my lords, who advifed the prefent measures; I know not who advises to a prefeverance and enforcement of them; but this I will fay, that the authors of fuch advice ought to answer it at their utmoft peril. I wish, my lords, not to lose a day in this urgent preffing crifis an hour now loft in allaying ferments in America may produce years of calamity. Never will I defert, in any stage of its progrefs, the conduct of this momentous bufinefs. Unlefs fettered to my bed by the extremity of fickness, I will give it unremitting attention. I will knock at the gates of this fleeping and confounded miniftry, and will, if it be poffible, roufe them to a fense of their danger. The recall of your army I urge as neceffarily preparatory to the restoration of your peace. By this it will appear that you are difpofed to treat amicably and equitably, and to confider, revife, and repeal, if it fhould be found neceffary, as I affirm it will, thofe violent acts and declarations which have diffeminated confusion throughout the empire. Refiftance to these acts was neceffary, and therefore juft; and your vain declarations of the omnipotence of parliament, and your imperious doctrines of the neceflity of fubmiffion, will be found equally impotent to convince or enflave America, who feels that tyranny is equally intolerable, whether it be exercised by an individual part of the legiflature, or by the collective bodies which compofe it. The means of enforcing this thraldom are found to be as ridiculous and weak in practice as they are unjuft in principle. Conceiving of general Gage as a man of humanity and understanding; entertaining, as I ever muft, the highest refpect and affection for the British troops, I feel the most anxious fenfibility for their fituation, pining in inglorious inactivity. You may call them an army of fafety and of defence, but they are in truth an army of impotence and contempt contempt; and to make the folly equal to the difgrace, they are an army of irritation and vexation. Allay then the ferment prevailed in America, by removing the obnoxious hoftile caufe. If you delay conceffion till your vain hope fhall be accomplished of triumphantly dictating reconciliation, you delay for ever; the force of this country would be difproportionately exerted against a brave, generous, and united people, with arms in their hands and courage in their hearts-three millions of people, the genuine descendants of a valiant and pious ancestry, driven to these deserts by the narrow maxims of a superstitious tyranny. But, is the fpirit of perfecution never to be adpeafed? Are the brave fons of thofe brave forefathers to inherit their fufferings as they have inherited their virtues? Are they to fuftain the infliction of the most oppreffive and unexampled feverity, beyond what hiftory has related, or poetry has feigned? -Rhadamanthus habet duriffima regna, But the Americans must not be heard; they have been condemned unheard. The indifcriminate hand of vengeance has devoted thirty thousand British subjects of all ranks, ages, and defcriptions to one common ruin. You may no doubt deftroy their cities; you may cut them off from the fuperfluities, perhaps the conveniences of life; but, my lords, they will still defpife your power, for they have yet remaining their woods and their liberty. What though you march from town to town, from province to province, though you fhould be able to enforce a temporary and local fubmiffion, how fhall you be able to secure the obedience of the country you leave behind you, in your progrefs of eighteen hundred miles of continent animated with the fame fpirit of liberty and of resistance? This univerfal oppofition to your arbitrary fyftem of taxation might have been foreseen; it was obvious from the nature |