It known as perfons who have difapproved of meafures fo injurious in their past effects and future tendency; and who are not in hafte, without enquiry or information, to commit ourselves in declarations which may precipitate our country into all the calamities of a civil war." Notwithftanding the high language of the Court on the first day of the Seffion, 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 Parliament, previous to the recefs. was intimated only, that the apprehenfion of a war was wholly chimerical. The estimates 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 furprifing, a reduction of four thoufand feamen took place from the twenty thousand voted last year-a circumstance which fhews in the strongest light, how aftonifhing was the delufion of the Miniftry, or how eager their folicitude to delude the public. Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, publicly declared in the Houfe of Peers, that he knew the low eftablishment propofed would be fully fufficient for reducing the Colonies to obedience. With unpardonable indifcretion he spoke in terms the most contemp tuous tuous both of the power 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 indisposed to encounter danger, their numbers would only add to the facility of the defeat** On the first day of *To the infolence and adulation of Lord SANDWICH's rhetoric on this occafion, hiftory affords perhaps no juster parallel than the speech of MARDONIUS to XERXES on his projected invafion of Greece, as recorded by the pen of Herodotus. "Sir," said the flave to the defpot, 66 you are not only the most illustrious of all the Perfians who have hitherto appeared, 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 Saca, the Indians, the Ethiopians, and the Affyrians, with many other great and illuftrious nations, we should not inflict vengeance on those GREEKS, who without provocation have molested us. There can be nothing to excite our alarm-no multitude of troopsno extraordinary wealth-their PROWESS I myself have known→→→ Befides this, I am informed that in all their military undertakings the Greeks betray the extremeft ignorance and folly. Who, Sir, fhall oppofe you at the head of the forces and fleets of Afia? The Greeks I think never can be fo audacious. If, however, 1 fhould be deceived, and they shall be fo MAD as to engage us, they will foon find to their coft that in the art of war we are the first of mankind." How well the predictions of these vain boafters 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, of the meeting after the 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 treated, and the disdainful refusal 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 hiftorian. "You may be affured," say these fons of freedom, "that your endeavors 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 courfe, fo long will we avoid any friendflip with Xerxesfo long will we continue to resist him. Hereafter do not prefume to enter an Athenian assembly with overtures of this kind." Herod. book viii. fect. 9. It is curious to remark, that the Laureat Whitehead, in his New Year's Ode for 1774, has converted this historic parallel into a poetic contraft-with what color of plausibility a fhort extract will fuffice to fhew. Pass but a few short fleeting years," Imperial XERXES fighed, and faid, 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. fettled fettled;-not however, according to general report, without confiderable oppofition in the Cabinet from certain Members of the Administration, in the number of whom there was reason to believe that the First Lord of the Treafury himfelf, the Lord Privy Seal, and the Secretary 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 Houfe, 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 faw impending over that great Empire which under his Adminiftration had attained the fummit of human profperity and glory, The Houfe was unusually full, and a most respectable and crowded audience alfo filled the space below the bar. When he rofe to speak, all was filence and profound attention. Animated and almost inspired by his fubject, he seemed 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, seem to characterize him as the guardian genius of his country *. "Too * Such extraordinary powers of mind as were in this Nobleman, combined with fo much corporeal infirmity, recall to recollection "Too well apprized," he said, " of the contents of the papers now at laft laid before the Houfe, he would not take up their Lordships' time in tedious and fruitless inveftigations, but would feize the first moment to open the door of reconcilement;-for, said 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 mif-advice of his present Minifters. America, my Lords, cannot be reconciled; the 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 fhe fuppofe that you mean lefs than bondage or death? I therefore, my Lords, move, that an humble Addrefs be prefented to his Majefty, most humbly to advise and befeech lection the anecdote of M. Voltaire, who, on a visit to the fa mous M. Turgot, when last at Paris, found the Minister wrapt up in gouty flannels and unable to move: "You remind me, faid the Philofopher to the Statefman, 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. |