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been more frequently called forward. Not America only, but France and Ireland, occupied the attention of Parliament. The discussion of the concerns of the sister kingdom brought him into a very delicate predicament, in which, in the discharge of his duty, he was under the necessity of acting, contrary to the opinion of his constituents, who had, unsolicited, applied to him to be their representative, as the stre, nuous champion of mercantile interest.

An amendment recommending peace was proposed to the address. Burke dwelt less on the original injustice and inexpediency of the war than formerly. He confined himself chiefly to its management and effects. He entered into a very minute and extensive consideration of the force employed, and the expence incurred; proving from documents, that the year 1777 cost as many men, and more money, against the Americans, than any year of our wars against the combined power of the house of Bourbon. November 28, Mr. Fox having moved, that certain

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papers should belaid before the house, Lord North at first agreed, but afterwards made exceptions. Burke said, I never heard the noble Lord behave with so much candour, generosity, and spirit, as he had shewn in agreeing to the request. He had published a bond, wherein he granted all; but in the end was inserted a little defeasance, with a power of revocation, by which he preserved himself from the execution of every grant he had made. His conduct reminded me of a certain Governor, who, when he arrived at the place of his appointment, sat down to a table covered with profusion, and abounding in every dainty and delicacy, that art, nature, and a provident steward could furnish but a pigmy physician watched over the health of the Governor, excepted to one dish, because it was hard of digestion; to another, because it was unhealthy; in this progressive mode robbed the Governor of every dish on his table, and left him without a dinner.

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When the news arrived of the melancholy catastrophe of Burgoyne's expedition, Burke joined the warmest of the party in imputing the failure to Administration, although hitherto there were no documents to prove Ministers to be blameable, either in the plan, or in the means afforded for its execution. What Burke said on the subject was therefore, however ingenious, mere invective, on an assumption, not reasoning on information. Men, in that case, were evidently his objects; not measures, as he did not know what the measures were. It must be acknowledged by the greatest admirers of Burke, that his proceedings on this occasion, in conjunction with those of other members of Opposition, tended rather to thwart and embarrass Government than to, support their country under its late disaster. Whether the war was right or wrong originally, ceased now to be the question. As we were involved in it, we must either get out of it honourably, or carry it on VIGOROUSLY. The surest way to procure a good peace was not to succumb under misfortune, but to

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redouble exertion. During the Christmas recess subscriptions had been offered by bodies of men, for raising regiments to make up for the loss sustained at Saratoga. Burke represented these efforts as illegal and unconstitutional: illegal, because it was levying men and money without consent of Parliament; unconstitutional, because such levies might be indefinite as to number, and might be employed to deprive the country of its liberties. He did not, however, prove from either statute or decision, that raising men without consent of Parliament was illegal; although to have raised money without its consent, either to pay troops or for any other purpose, would have been contrary to the law and constitution. But the money here for bounties, &c. was not raised by Government, it was offered by individuals; there was no law against either individuals or bodies making a present of their own money to the King, or to whomsoever they pleased: SUCH CONTRIBUTIONS HAD BEEN USUAL IN TIMES OF EMERGENCY, and had

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been approved of by the most zealous supporters of the constitution.

The employment of the Indians, which had frequently, in the course of this session, excited the severe animadversions and pathetic lamentations of Burke, was on February 6, 1778, made by him the subject of a regular motion. In his introductory speech he took a wide view of the state and manners of the Indian savages: he argued, that in cruelty they exceeded any barbarians recorded either in ancient or modern history; and after a particular detail rose to a general survey of savage life, sentiments, and actions. The infliction of individual pain, he said, more than the political annoyance of enemies, was their object; that therefore their mode of hostility was not conducive to the purposes of civilized nations engaged in war, which are not torment, but reduction and pacification. The Indian tribes had formerly, he observed, been, relatively to either the British or French settled in their neighbourhood, powerful states: that then it was

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