COMMITTEE OF EVIDENCE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, ETC.
On the same day that Burke made this motion in the commons, the lords in committee on the state of the nation were employed in examining witnesses to prove the ruinous consequences of the maritime war. Merchants were called as witnesses by the opposition peers, who proved that they had sustained heavy losses from the war; while, on the other hand, government were provided with other merchants, who showed that new sources of commerce had been opened since the commencement of hostilities; and, that considerable captures had been made. The Duke of Richmond opposed the arguments derived from the testimony of government witnesses. The prizes taken and distributed to British seamen, he said, so far from being a balance in our favour, added to our loss; for if we had not been at war with America, the value of all these cargoes in the circuitous course of trade, must have centred in Great Britain. The propositions were disposed of by the previous question, and other motions made by the Duke of Richmond for ascertaining the number of troops sent to America, as well as the expenses incurred by the war, though they occasioned long and warm debates, were equally unsuccessful. A similar motion was made in the commons by Fox, on the 11th of February, but it was evaded by a motion for leave to report progress. It was, perhaps, judicious in ministers to resist the production of papers called for by the opposition, for in almost every instance it would have let the enemy into dangerous secrets: secrets which they would have turned to their own advantage.