"I am against the present war, because I think it unjust in its commencement, injurious to both countries in its prosecution, and ruinous in its event.... I think, from the bottom of my soul, that the Colonies are engaged in a noble and glorious struggle.... Sir, I could not be easy in my own mind without entering the strongest and most public protestations against measures which appear to me to be fraught with the destruction of this mighty empire. I wash my hands of the blood of my fellow-subjects, and shall at least have this satisfaction, amidst the impending calamities of the public, not only to think that I have not contributed to, but that I have done all in my power to oppose and avert, the ruin of my country."
During another debate in the Lords, November 15, 1775, that strenuous friend of freedom and upholder of Whig principles, Lord Camden, declared himself thus:—
"Peace is still within our power; nay, we may command it. A suspension of arms on our part, if adopted in time, will secure it for us, and, I may add, on our own terms. From which it is plain, as we have been the original aggressors in this business, if we obstinately persist, we are fairly answerable for all the consequences. I again repeat, what I often urged before, that I was against this unnatural war from the beginning. I was equally against every measure, from the instant the first tax was proposed to this minute. When, therefore, it is insisted that we aim only to defend and enforce our own rights, I positively deny it. I contend that America has been driven by cruel necessity to defend her rights from the united attacks of violence, oppression, and injustice. I contend that America has been indisputably aggrieved.... I must still think, and shall uniformly continue to assert, that Great Britain was the aggressor, that most, if not all, the acts were founded in oppression, and that, if I were an American, I should resist to the last such manifest exertion of tyranny, violence, and injustice."
On another occasion, in the Commons, December 8, 1775, Mr. Fox expressed himself thus sententiously:—
"I have always said that the war carrying on against the Americans is unjust."
Again, in the Lords, March 5, 1776, the Earl of Effingham said:—
"I never can stand up in your Lordships' presence without throwing in a few words on the justice of this unnatural war."
In the Commons, March 11, 1776, Colonel Barré, Mr. Burke, Mr. Fox, all vied in eulogy of General Montgomery, the account of whose death before Quebec had arrived a few days before.
The same spirit was constantly manifest. In the Commons, April 24, 1776, in the debate on the Budget, embodying taxes to carry on the war against America, Mr. Fox laid down the constitutional rule of opposition to an unjust war.
"To the resolutions he should give his flat negative, and that not because of any particular objections to the taxes proposed (although there might be a sufficient ground for urging many), but because he could not conscientiously agree to grant any money for so destructive, so ignoble a purpose as the carrying on a war commenced unjustly, and supported with no other view than to the extirpation of freedom and the violation of every social compact. This he conceived to be the strict line of conduct to be observed by a member of Parliament.... He then painted the quarrel with America as unjust, and the pursuance of the war as blood-thirsty and oppressive."