GEORGE III. 1777-1778
DEBATES ON AMERICA.
The usual addresses were moved on the king’s speech—addresses which were replete with panegyric on its wisdom, and likewise the wisdom of ministers. They were doomed, however, to meet with stern opposition. In the lower house, the Marquess of Granby, after lamenting the disastrous effects of the war, and expressing a desire of having the happiness to lay the ground-work of a reconciliation, moved an amendment, to the effect, that his majesty should be requested to adopt some measures for accommodating all differences with America; that he should be recommended to cease hostilities, as a preparatory step to that end; and that he should be assured that the commons were determined to co-operate with him in every measure tending to the re-establishment of peace. This motion was seconded by Lord John Cavendish, and it was supported by the opposition generally, on the grounds, that after three years’ war, with a heavy expenditure and a great loss of men, there was no prospect of success; that, notwithstanding the hopes held out in the king’s speeches, our progress exhibited a series of disappointments and losses; that trade was greatly affected by the contest; and that while the defenceless state of our coasts and commercial fleets demonstrated we were unable at this stage of the war to protect our national trade, we should be still less able when, involved in a war, as it was evident we should be, with the Bourbons. The opposition now attended the house in full force, but the amendment was nevertheless negatived by two hundred and forty-three to eighty-six.
In the lords the debate on the address was still more animated than in the commons. It was opposed by the Earl of Coventry, who, in the outset, gravely recommended that our armies and fleets should be recalled, and that the independence of America should be forthwith acknowledged. His lordship took extreme views of our position; even predicting, that should his advice be adopted, it, nevertheless, would not prevent the downfall of England; that it was a matter of certainty, as fixed and as immutable as any law of nature, that sooner or later the seat of empire would be removed beyond the Atlantic. One grand argument used by his lordship to establish his views, was the insignificant figure which Britain made in the map of the world compared with the more imposing figure of the American continent. The people, also, he argued, were more frugal, industrious, and wise on the other side of the Atlantic than they were in England; and that, while population increased and would increase in America, it would inevitably decline in the mother country! But such crotchets as these were only calculated to confirm ministers and the country at large in their determination of pursuing the contest. Lord Chatham, who next rose, still supported by his crutch, to move an amendment, spoke more wisely; though he also predicted ruin to England if the contest was not given up; or, in other words, if peace between the two countries was not concluded. The noble lord commenced his speech by joining in the congratulation of the address on the birth of another princess, and the happy recovery of her majesty. Here, however, he said, his courtly complaisance must end; for he could not join in congratulation on misfortune and disgrace. He could not concur in a blind and servile address, which approved, and endeavoured to sanctify, the monstrous measures that had heaped disgrace upon us, and had brought ruin to our very doors. The present moment, he said, was a perilous and tremendous period, and therefore not a time for adulation. His lordship then pointed out the degrading situation to which this country was reduced, in being obliged to acknowledge as enemies those whom we had denominated rebels; and in seeing them encouraged and assisted by France, while ministers dared not interpose. He remarked:—“It is a shameful truth, that not only the power and strength of this country are wasting away and expiring, but her well-earned glories, her true honour and substantial dignity, are sacrificed. France, my lords, has insulted you; she has encouraged and sustained America; and whether America be wrong or right, the dignity of this country ought to spurn at the officious insult of French interference. The ministers and ambassadors of those who are called rebels and enemies are in Paris—in Paris they transact the reciprocal interests of America and France. Can there be a more mortifying insult? Can even our ministers sustain a more humiliating disgrace? Do they dare to resent it? Do they presume even to hint a vindication of their honour, and the dignity of the state, by requiring the dismissal of the plenipotentiaries of America? Such is the degradation to which they have reduced the glories of England! The people, whom they affect to call contemptible rebels, but whose growing power has at least obtained the name of enemies—the people with whom they have engaged this country in war, and against whom they now command our implicit support in every measure of desperate hostility—this people, despised as rebels or acknowledged as enemies, are abetted against you, supplied with military stores, their interests consulted, and their ambassadors entertained, by your inveterate enemy!—and our ministers dare not interpose with dignity or effect. Is this the honour of a great kingdom? Is this the indignant spirit of England, who, but yesterday gave law to the House of Bourbon?” Chatham next dwelt on the position of our armies in America, supposing that Burgoyne’s—for it was not yet known—was totally lost; and asserting that General Howe had been compelled to retire from the American lines. Judging, from the past, he then predicted a final and total failure, notwithstanding the exertions made to sustain the contest and gain the victory might prove gigantic. In this part of his speech he denounced the employment of German troops, and the tribes of wild Indians, in strong and unmeasured language; although, nineteen years before, he had himself employed Indians in the same manner against the French and Canadians. Chatham next touched on the great question of disseverance and independence. But this, unlike the Earl of Coventry who had preceded him, he utterly repudiated; avowing, as he had ever done, that our supremacy must be maintained, in order to avert our ruin. But this part of Chatham’s speech was replete with inconsistencies. While he maintained that our supremacy must be maintained at all hazards, he applauded both the spirit and intention of the Americans; and while he acknowledged that they had arms in their hands, he boldly asserted that they were still full of affection for their mother country—that they only declared independence in moments of anguish and despair; and that they were still in heart inclined to return to their old political constitution. Again, while Chatham attributed every blame to the British government, he nevertheless would not admit that our power of regulating their trade ought either to be abolished or abridged; which were the very sentiments of the government on whom he cast odium. Chatham, also, denounced the war as unjust in its principle; and yet it had for its indisputable object, from beginning to end, that very independence and separate sovereignty which he had sworn he would never recognise. The great orator then attacked the ministers more personally than before, and recommended them to make haste and quit office, lest the punishment due to their crimes should speedily overtake them! He concluded thus:—“Since they have neither sagacity to foresee, nor justice and humanity to shun, these calamities—since not even severe experience can make them feel, nor the imminent ruin of their country awaken them from their stupefaction—the guardian care of parliament must interpose. I shall, therefore, propose an amendment to the address, to recommend an immediate cessation of hostilities, and the commencement of a treaty to restore peace and liberty to America, strength and happiness to England, security and permanent prosperity to both countries.” He added, that “this was still in our power;” but few or none who heard him believed that peace could be obtained but by a recognition of that independence which Chatham had so warmly denounced. The amendment which he proposed, however, was ably supported by the other peers in opposition. Lord Camden declared, that if the war were prosecuted to the issue of the alternative, whether America was subdued or rendered independent, he would still wish for independence; because the subjugation of that country by force of arms, would lead to the enslavement of England! Some of the opposition members, notwithstanding, were not for an instant cessation of arms, though they wished for a reconciliation. Thus Earl Temple said, that the war ought not to be abandoned until we had obtained decisive victories in America. The opposition, also, differed as to the propriety of offering terms of concession; and they were not all agreed as to what these terms should be. But on the odiousness of employing the wild Indians against a Christian people, the views of the whole of the opposition orators coincided. The Duke of Richmond said, that our employment of them would call down the vengeance of Heaven; and he argued, that our soldiers, acting with them, would become as ferocious as the Indians, and ready to commit any atrocity, or to make any attack on the liberties of the country that ministers might command! The unpleasant task of defending the employment of wild Indians fell upon Lord Suffolk, one of the secretaries of state, and he contended that the measure was allowable on principle; inasmuch as it was justifiable to use all the means that God and nature had put into our hands. This was an unfortunate argument; and the Earl of Chatham did not fail to take advantage of it. Forgetting that he had once employed the Indian tomahawk, he rose, and exclaimed, with an indignant burst of eloquence:—“I am astonished—shocked to hear such principles confessed—to hear them avowed in this house, or in this country—principles equally unconstitutional, inhuman, and unchristian. My lords, I did not intend to have trespassed again on your attention, but I cannot repress my indignation. I feel myself impelled by every duty. My lords, we are called upon, as members of this house, as men, as Christian men, to protest against such notions, standing near the throne, polluting the ear of majesty! ‘That God and nature put into our hands!’ I know not what idea that lord may entertain of God and nature; but I know that such abominable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What! attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife—to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating—literally, my lords, eating—the mangled victims of his barbarous battles—To send forth the merciless cannibal, thirsting for blood! Against whom?—Against your Protestant brethren; to lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name with these horrible hell-hounds of savage war—hell-hounds, I say, of savage war! Spain armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of America, and we improve on the inhuman example of even Spanish cruelty—we turn loose these savage hell-hounds against our brethren and countrymen in America—of the same language, laws, liberties, and religion..... endeared to us by every tie that should sanctify humanity. My lords, this awful subject, so important to our honour, our constitution, and our religion, demands the most solemn and effectual inquiry; and I again call upon your lordships, and the united powers of the state, to examine it thoroughly and decisively, and to stamp upon it an indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. More particularly I implore those holy prelates of religion to do away these iniquities from among us:—let them perform a lustration; let them purify this house and this country from this sin!” These were noble sentiments, but the effect of them was in a great measure lost by the remembrance that Chatham had done the very same thing in the war with Canada; and that under his own immediate superintendence. But even if there had not been this drawback upon this fervent burst of indignation, uttered by the great orator, it was not in the power of eloquence to alter the determination of ministers. They daily expected to hear of victories which would stop the mouths of their antagonists, and therefore resolved to brave the loud storms of opposition. Public sentiment was also still on their side; for Chatham’s amendment was rejected by a majority of eighty-four to twenty-eight, and only two peers signed a protest. Thus, in both houses, the original address was carried by an overwhelming majority.
DUKE OF RICHMOND’S MOTION FOR INQUIRING INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION.
On the 28th of November the Duke of Richmond moved for a committee of the house to inquire into the state of the nation. The debate on this question was postponed till the 2nd of December, and the Earl of Chatham was there to support it. In his speech, the Duke of Richmond once more asserted, that the nation was in a rapid process of decay, and that it could not support the burden of war. The inquiry, he said, should be as extensive as possible, and he proposed the 2nd of February for the discussion; and expressed a hope that all papers called for might be laid before parliament. Ministers assented to the committee; and the Duke of Richmond then moved for returns of the army and navy, both in America and Ireland. Chatham now made another speech, in which he expressed great alarm as to the actual state of those two important fortresses, Gibraltar and Minorca; contending that they were not secure from the grasp of France and Spain. He also took occasion again to extol the Americans, and to plead their cause, still justifying their opposition to the mother country. The motion was granted without opposition.