the other; and that the executive power may be prevented, by an unconstitutional exertion of even constitutional authority, from bringing the nation to destruction. My Lords, I fear we are arrived at the very brink of that state; and I am persuaded that nothing short of a spirited interposition on your part, in giving speedy and wholesome advice to your Sovereign, can prevent the people from feeling beyond remedy the full effects of that ruin which Ministers have brought upon us. These are the calamitous circumstances Ministers have been the cause of: and shall we, in such a state of things, when every moment teems with events productive of the most fatal narratives -shall we trust, during an adjournment of six weeks, to those men who have brought those calamities upon us, when, perhaps, our utter overthrow is plotting, nay, ripe for execution, without almost a possibility of prevention ? Ten thousand brave men have fallen victims to ignorance and rashness. The only army you have in America may, by this time, be no more. This very nation remains safe no longer than its enemies think proper to permit. I do not augur ill. Events of a most critical nature may take place before our next meeting. Will your Lordships, then, in such a state of things, trust to the guidance of men, who, in every single step of this cruel, this wicked war, from the very beginning, have proved themselves weak, ignorant, and mistaken? I will not say, my Lords, nor do I mean anything personal, or that they have brought premeditated ruin on this country. I will not suppose that they foresaw what has since happened; but I do contend, my Lords, that their guilt, (I will not even suppose it guilt, but) their want of wisdom, their incapacity, their temerity in depending on their own judgment, or their base compliances with the orders and dictates of others, perhaps caused by the influence of one or two individuals, have rendered them totally unworthy of your Lordships' confidence, of the confidence of Parliament, and those of whose rights they are the constitutional guardians-the people at large. A remonstrance, my Lords, should be carried to the Throne. The King has been deluded by his Ministers. Either they have been imposed upon by false information, or, from motives best known to themselves, they have given apparent credit to what they were convinced in their hearts was untrue. The nation has been betrayed into the ruinous measure of an American war, by the arts of imposition, by their own credulity, through the means of false hopes, false pride, and promised advantages, of the most romantic and improbable nature. My Lords, I do not wish to call your attention entirely to that point. I would fairly appeal to your own sentiments, whether I can be justly charged with arrogance or presumption, if I said, great and able as Ministers think themselves, that all the wisdom of the nation is confined to the narrow circle of the petty cabinet. I might, I think, without presumption, say, that your Lordships, as one of the branches of the legislature, may be as capable of advising your Sovereign, in the moment of difficulty and danger, as any lesser council, composed of a fewer number: and who, being already so fatally trusted, have betrayed a want of honesty, or a want of abilities. Is it, my Lords, within the utmost stretch of the most sanguine expectation, that the same men who have plunged you into your present perilous and calamitous situation, are the proper persons to rescue you from it? No, my Lords, such an expectation would be preposterous and absurd. I say, my Lords, you are now specially called upon to interpose. It is your duty to forego every call of business and pleasure; to give up your whole time to inquire into past misconduct; to provide remedies for the present; to prevent future evils; to rest on your arms, if I may use the expression, to watch for the public safety; to defend and support the Throne; or, if fate should so ordain it, to fall with becoming fortitude with the rest of your fellow-subjects in the general ruin. I fear the last alternative must be the event of this mad, unjust, and cruel war. It is your Lordships' duty to do every thing in your power that it shall not; but, if it must be so, I trust your Lordships and the nation will fall gloriously. "My Lords, as the first and most immediate object of your inquiry, I would recommend to you to consider the true state of our home-defence. We have heard much from a noble Lord in this House of the state of our navy. I cannot give an implicit belief to what I have heard on that important subject. I still retain my former opinion relative to the number of line-ofbattle ships; but as an inquiry into the real state of the navy is destined to be the subject of a future consideration, I do not wish to hear more about it till that period arrives. I allow, in argument, that we have thirty-five ships of the line fit for actual service. I doubt much whether such a force would give us a full command of the Channel. I am certain, if it did, every other part of our possessions must lie naked and defenceless, in every quarter of the globe. I fear our utter destruction is at hand. [Here, and in many other parts of his speech, his Lordship broadly hinted that the House of Bourbon was meditating some important and decisive blow near home.] What, my Lords, is the state of our military defence? I would not wish to expose our present weakness; but weak as we are, if this war should be continued, as the public declaration of persons in high confidence with their Sovereign would induce us to suppose, is this nation to be entirely stripped? And if it should, would every soldier now in Britain be sufficient to give us an equality to the force in America? I will maintain they would not. Where, then, will men be procured? Recruits are not to be had in this country. Germany will give no more. I have read in the newspapers of this day, and I have reason to believe it true, that the head of the Germanic body has remonstrated against it, and has taken measures accordingly to prevent it. Ministers have, I hear, applied to the Swiss Cantons. The idea is preposterous! The Swiss never permit their troops to go beyond sea. But, my Lords, if even men were to be procured in Germany, how will you march them to the water-side? Have not our Ministers applied for the port of Emden, and has it not been refused? I say, you will not be able to procure men even for your home-defence, if some immediate steps be not taken. I remember during the last war, it was thought advisable to levy independent companies: they were, when completed, formed into battalions, and proved of great service. I love the army; I know its use; but I must nevertheless own, that I was a great friend to the measure of establishing a national militia. I remember during the last war, that there were three camps formed of that corps at once in this kingdom. I saw them myself; one at Winchester; another in the west, at Plymouth; and a third, if I recollect right, at Chatham. [Here he was told that he was right.] Whether the militia is at present in such a state as to answer the valuable purposes it did then, or is capable of being rendered so, I will not pretend to say; but I see no reason why, in such a critical state of affairs, the experiment should not be made; and why it may not again be placed on its former respectable footing. I remember, all the circumstances considered, when appearances were not nearly so melancholy and alarming as they now are, that there were more troops in the county of Kent alone, for the defence of that county, than there are now in the whole island. "My Lords, I contend that we have not procured, nor can we procure, any force sufficient to subdue America; it is monstrous to think of it. There are several noble Lords present well acquainted with military affairs: I call upon any one of them to rise and pledge himself, that the military force now within the kingdom is adequate to its defence, or that any possible force to be procured from Germany, Switzerland, or elsewhere, will be equal to the contest with America. I am too perfectly persuaded of their abilities and integrity to expect any such assurance from them. Oh! but if America is not to be conquered, she is to be treated with: conciliation is at length thought of; terms are to be offered! Who are the persons that are to treat on the part of this afflicted and deluded country? The very men who have been the authors of our misfortunes; the very men who have endeavoured, by the most pernicious policy, the highest injustice and oppression-the most cruel and devastating war, to enslave those people; they would conciliate, to gain the confidence and affection of those who have survived the Indian tomahawk, and the German bayonet! Can your Lordships entertain the most distant prospect of success from such a treaty, and such negotiators? No, my Lords, the Americans have virtue, and must detest the principles of such men they have too much understanding and wisdom to trust to that cunning and those narrow politics from which such overtures proceed. My Lords, I maintain that they would shun, with a mixture of prudence and detestation, any proposition coming from that quarter. They would receive terms from such men, as snares to allure and betray; they would dread them as ropes, meant to be put about their legs, to entangle and overthrow them. "My Lords, supposing that our domestic danger, if at all, is far distant; that our enemies will leave us at liberty to prosecute this war with the utmost of our ability: supposing that your Lordships should grant a fleet one day, an army another; all these, I do affirm, will avail nothing, unless you accompany it with advice. Ministers have been in error; experience has proved it; and, what is worse-in that error they persist. They told you in the beginning, that fifteen thousand men would traverse America, with scarcely the appearance of interruption. Two campaigns have passed since they gave us this assurance; treble that number has been employed; and one of your armies, which composed two-thirds of the force by which America was to be subdued, has been totally destroyed, and is now led captive through those provinces you call rebellious. Those men whom you called cowards, poltroons, runaways, and knaves, are become victorious over your veteran troops; and, in the midst of victory, and the flush of conquest, have set Ministers an example of moderation and magnanimity.* "My Lords, no time should be lost which may promise to improve this disposition in America, unless, by an obstinacy founded in madness, we wish to stifle those embers of affection which, after all our savage treatment, do not seem as yet to be entirely extinguished. While, on one side, we must lament the unhappy fate of that spirited officer, Mr. Burgoyne, and the gallant troops under his command, who were sacrificed to the wanton temerity and ignorance of Ministers, we are as strongly impelled, on the other, to admire and applaud the generous, magnanimous conduct-the noble friendship, brotherly affection, and humanity of the victors, who, condescending to impute the horrid orders of massacre and devastation to their true authors, supposed that, as soldiers and Englishmen, those cruel excesses could not have originated with the general, nor were consonant to the brave and humane spirit of a British soldier, if not compelled to it as an act of duty. They traced the first cause of those diabolical orders to their source; and, by that wise and generous interpretation, granted their professed destroyers terms of capitulation, which they could be only entitled to as the makers of fair and honourable war. "My Lords, I should not have presumed to trouble you, if the tremendous state of this nation did not, in my opinion, make it necessary. Such as I have this day described it, I do maintain it to be; the same measures are still persisted in; and Ministers, because your Lordships have been deluded, deceived, and misled, presume, that whenever the worst comes, they will be enabled to shelter themselves behind Parliament. This, my Lords, cannot be the case they have committed themselves and their measures to the fate of war, and they must abide the issue. I tremble for this country; I am almost led to despair, that we shall ever be able to extricate ourselves. Whether or not the day of retribution is at hand, when the vengeance of a much-injured and afflicted people will fall heavily on the authors of their ruin, I am strongly inclined to believe, that before the day to which the proposed adjournment shall arrive, the noble Earl who moved it will have just cause to repent of his motion." Upon a division, the adjournment was carried by a majority of 47 to 17. * Vide ante, p. 150*. By the terms of the Convention, concluded at Saratoga, the troops under General Burgoyne were permitted to march out of their camp with all the honours of war, to a certain distance, where the arms and artillery were to be left ; and a free passage from Boston to Great Britain was granted to them, on condition of their not serving again in North America during the war. See the Convention, Annual Register for 1777, p. 301. SPEECHES OF RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN was born in Dublin, in September, 1751, educated at Harrow school, and afterwards became a member of the Middle Temple. He died July the 7th, 1816, and was buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. The early speeches of Mr. Sheridan, like those of Lord Chatham, are unfortunately imperfectly reported. SPEECH in support of the motion of Mr. Cock, member for Norfolk, "That the resolution come to by the House on the previous day, condemnatory of Mr. Pitt's continuance in office, be laid before his Majesty," 3rd February, 1784. It will be remembered that on the rejection of Mr. Fox's East India bill, by the House of Lords, on the 17th of December, 1783, the King immediately sent to Mr. Fox, requiring him to deliver up his seals of office as Secretary of State, and dismissed the rest of the Cabinet on the following day. Mr. Pitt was then appointed First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, but found himself, at the opening of the memorable session of January, 1784, opposed by a large majority of the House, and in the singular position of Prime Minister, unable to carry any of his measures; notwithstanding which, no declaration could be extorted from him as to the intention of dissolving the Parliament, which had been expected, and several motions were made, expressive of the unconstitutional situation of affairs. Mr. Pitt continued in this anomalous position, supported by the King in opposition to the House of Commons, till 24th March, when Parliament was dissolved; and on the meeting of the new Parliament Mr. Pitt found himself supported by a majority. MR. SHERIDAN said, "The noble lord* had laid down a principle some days ago, which prevented him from being surprised at anything the noble. lord should advance. He stated, that in the appointment of ministers, the Crown ought not to consider beforehand whether they should be able to obtain the support of the House of Commons. It has frequently been said, that when there was a good understanding between the ministers of the Crown and the House of Commons, there was ground for apprehending that * Lord Mulgrave, joint paymaster with Mr. W. Grenville. H |