night; events which would long be remembered with horror in the history of this country, and the effects of which he hoped would soon be felt upon its scaffolds. At this, the Solicitor-General smiled. Fox perceived it, and hastily asked him if he was not yet contented. What," continued he, "are we still to suffer before the Ministry are called to account? Is not all they have done sufficient, not the loss of thirteen provinces, — the effusion of so much blood, -the waste of so much public money, -the annihilation of so many branches of our commerce? What crimes can be imagined black enough to provoke the severity of justice, if deeds so atrocious, if such accumulated treasons to their country, do not bring their authors to the scaffold?" He then went through the history of the war, pointing out everywhere the misconduct of Ministers, and concluded with saying that, though he would not assert that they were pensioned by the King of France, he would be bold to say that France had not, among all the statesmen whose memory she reveres the most, one who had done her half such essential services as the present English Ministry. They railed, indeed, at the French King with empty words, as the Miso-philippoi, of whom Demosthenes speaks, railed against the King of Macedon; but, like them, they were bent on securing to him the most substantial benefits. They disdained to pursue, like Louis XIV., vain and ostentatious schemes of superficial greatness - they had industriously gained for the country they favoured the greatest and most solid advantages -an extension of her commerce, and the annihilation of the only rival which could check her power. Nor was this great design more meritorious than the admirable mode of its execution; the Ministry having so contrived it that America should separate from England, not by treaty, but by the decision of war, in order that sentiments of resentment and hostility might remain for ever impressed on either party. Nor was this all; they had so managed matters as to render the union between France and America indissoluble; they had made the concluding blow proceed from their joint efforts, and had taken care, by letting the French be their deliverers, that a sense of gratitude to that people should be with them eternal, like the memory of their deliverance. He ended with showing the folly and cruelty of still continuing the war in America, and said the Ministers had dared to suggest to his Majesty the speech of a hardhearted unfeeling prince, who was not to be moved by the affliction of his much injured and exhausted people, but was determined madly to prosecute the same measures as had already driven them to the brink of ruin. Burke made another very violent speech, in which he promised soon to move for an impeachment against the Ministers: but the amendment to the address was lost in the Commons, by 218 to 129; and in the Lords, by 75 to 31. Adieu, yours most affectionately, LETTER XV. Gray's Inn, Jan. 11. 1782. That I have suffered so many posts to pass without writing to you, my dear Roget, you will have ascribed, I hope, to its true causes, a great deal of business, and no news to send you. In a letter which I received at Paris you desired me to procure for you the papers which the Congress published at their first meeting, their petition to the King, and their addresses to the people of Great Britain and to the Canadians; but I suppose you have since discovered that they are all printed at length in the Annual Register for 1774. You desire me to send you characters of Lord Dartmouth, Lord George Germaine', &c. Their private characters I am quite unacquainted with; and it is not easy to distinguish their characters as statesmen, for no one minister has appeared to be the author of any particular measure. All that has been done, has had the apparent approbation of the whole administration; and there are persons who go so far as to assert, that the real authors of all the proceedings against America are still behind the curtain. Of the whole administration, however, taken together, the principal characteristics are, want of system and irresolution; and the latter, indeed, is but a consequence of the former. Having little, confined views, they seem never, from the first, to have formed any comprehensive plan; and this original defect has increased with 1 Members of Lord North's administration. ill success. Perplexed and confounded with the mazes and dangers into which they have run, like children they rather turn away from what affrights them than endeavour to prevent it. They ward off the present evil that presses on them, but leave the morrow to provide for itself; they may truly be said, according to the Latin phrase, in diem vivere. Their plan of operations (for system they have none) changes with every new occurrence; with every various accident, every various passion takes its turn to rule them; regarding only the immediate object before them, they magnify its importance; they are now confident of success, now plunged into despair. The idol they erected yesterday is cast down to-day, and perhaps will be enshrined again to-morrow. In prosperity they are proud, contemptuous, and overbearing; in adversity supple, mean, and abject. At the commencement of the disputes with America, they treated the refractory colonists as a despicable gang of ruffians; but the moment a league was formed with France, they prostrated themselves at the feet of those rebels they had spurned, and offered them much more than ever had been demanded. This panic was soon dissipated by a gleam of success; the ministers resumed confidence, and one of them was imprudent enough to hint, even in the House of Commons, that unconditional submission was alone to be listened to; "Quidlibet impotens Sperare, fortunâque dulci Ebrius." 1 1 Horat. Car. lib. i. 37. Nay, only last winter, flushed with the successes of Lord Cornwallis, they were already, in imagination, masters of all the Southern provinces; and masters so absolute, that they thought it time to send out again Lord Dunmore to chastise, not to govern Virginia. The petitions and remonstrances I mentioned in my last go on very languidly; the nation seems fallen into a deep sleep. There are calamities, I fear, enough in store to awaken them; God forbid that it be then too late! The first business the Parliament is to be engaged on, when it meets again, is an inquiry into Lord Sandwich's conduct.1 The cause, however, is already prejudged; for Lord North has declared that this inquiry will prove his colleague to be honest, able, and vigilant. William Pitt, the late Lord Chatham's son, of whom I believe I talked with you, has made a great figure this session in Parliament; he has spoken only twice, but both his speeches have gained him uncommon approbation. Applause was echoed from one side of the House to the other; and Fox, in an exaggerated strain of panegyric, said he could no longer lament the loss of Lord Chatham, for he was again living in his son, with all his virtues and all his talents. He studies for the bar; and, to whatever he applies himself, whether to law or politics, he is likely soon to take precedence of all our orators. He possesses those talents which are said to have been peculiar to his father warmth of utterance, command of language, strength and closeness of reasoning, and, above all, an energy and irresistible vigour of eloquence. 1 First Lord of the Admiralty. |