Other ministers, when they have formed designs of sacrificing the publick interest to their own, have been compelled to better measures by timely discoveries, and just representations; they have been criminal only because they hoped for secrecy, and have vindicated their conduct no longer than while they had hopes that their apologies might deceive.
But our heroick ministers, my lords, have set themselves free from the shackles of circumspection, they have disburdened themselves of the embarrassments of caution, and claim an exemption from the necessity of supporting their measures by laborious deductions and artful reasonings; they defy the publick when they can no longer delude it, and prosecute, in the face of the sun, those measures which they have not been able to support, and of which the fatal consequences are foreseen by the whole nation.
When they have been detected in one absurdity, they take shelter in another; when experience has shown that one of their attempts was designed only to injure their country, they propose a second of the same kind with equal confidence, boast again of their integrity, and again require the concurrence of the legislature, and the support of the people.
When they had for a long time suffered our trading vessels to be seized in sight of our own ports, when they had despatched fleets into the Mediterranean, only to lie exposed to the injuries of the weather, and to sail from one coast to another, only to show that they had no hostile intentions, and that they were fitted out by the friends of the Spaniards, only to amuse and exhaust the nation, they at length thought it necessary to lull the impatience of the people, who began to discover that they had hitherto been harassed with taxes and impresses to no purpose, by the appearance of a new effort for the subjection of the enemy, and to divert, by the expectations which an army and a fleet naturally raise, any clamours at their past conduct'.
For this end, having entered into their usual consultations, they projected an expedition into America, for which they raised forces and procured transports, with all the pomp of preparation for the conquest of half the continent, not so much to alarm the Spaniards, which I conceive but a secondary view, as to fill the people of Britain with amusing prospects of great achievements, of the addition of new dominions to this empire, and an ample reparation for all their damages.
Thus provided with forces sufficient, in appearance, for this mighty enterprise, they embarked them after many delays, and dismissed them to their fate, having first disposed their regulations in such a manner, that it was impossible that they should meet with success.
I can call your lordships to witness, that this impossibility was not discovered by me after the event, for I foretold in this house, that their designs, so conducted, must evidently miscarry.
Nor was this prediction, my lords, the effect of any uncommon sagacity, or any accidental conjecture on future consequences which happened to be right; for to any man who has had opportunities of observing that knowledge in war is necessary to success, and experience is the foundation of knowledge, it was sufficiently plain that our forces must be repulsed.
The forces sent into America, my lords, were newly raised, placed under the direction of officers not less ignorant than themselves, and commanded by a man who never had commanded any troops before; and who, however laudable he might have discharged the duty of a captain, was wholly unacquainted with the province of a general.
Yet was this man, my lords, preferred, not only to a multitude of other officers, to whom experience must have been of small advantage, if it did not furnish them with knowledge far superiour to his, but to five and forty generals, of whom I hope the nation has no reason to suspect that any of them would not gladly have served it on an occasion of so great importance, and willingly have conducted an expedition intended to retrieve the honour of the British name, the terrour of our arms, and the security of our commerce.