The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1782-03-05 00:00:00, page 2

For his part, ever since he left the house when it rose
in the morning, so convinced had he long been of the
ruinous tendency of the war, that he spent his time in
asking himfelf what fort of arguments they were,
which those who had most occasion to juftify their
support of the address had advanced ; and he begged
leave for a moment to interrupt the supercilious silence
and what was (till more infuhing, the empty loquacity'
of those who were its advocates by word and vote, by
reminding the house of what had been said upon the
fubje&. One of its avowed supporters, the noble lord
in the blue ribband, speaking of the American war hdd
declared, that he ever had considered it, and frill did
confider it, as a war just and necessary, founded on the
claim of a moderate exercise of a right that was undif.
puted. With regard to the grammatical or logical cor
reHnefs of this reafen, he would not institute an en
quiry, nor would he now enter into an argument up
on the justice of the war ; that point having been fuf
ficiently difeuffed, for mankind to heve made up their
minds upon it. What the noble lord meant by neces
sary, if he meant any thing short of a physical necessity,
he was at a loss to imagine. That an end could not be
put to the war, if parliament resolved on such a mea
sure, was too absurd an idea to be maintained. The
war had been proved by fatal experience to be fruit
lefs, and every day we persisted in it clearly removed
us farther off from the day of reconciliation and reason,
and tended rather to create new difficulties than smooth
the path to peace and friendship. That the war was
originally just and necessary, was however the only
argument of one noble lord ; let the house recoiled,
what had fallen from another noble lord, whose fitua-'
tion rendered all that he said upon the fubjed peculiar
ly the objed of attention. That noble lord had held a
very different language. Without laying claim to
that boldness of pride and ambition, which alone could
generate the hope of making America the vidim of
conquest, he had said, all his hope rested on the more
t^he N.York Roya+Gmttfy dated Feb. 27, 1782.
L 0 N D O U, November 29.
H O USE of C OM MO N S.
.foN a motion being made to bring up the report of
the address to his majesty.
T e hon. William Pitt begged pardon for troubling
the house on a fubjeH upon which they had already
he rd fo'mbch, more efpeuially as his arguments would
be directed to the support of others which had fallen
the preceding day from nien so much ab'er than himfelf,
but he could not avbid Handing up to give vent to those
emotions that filled his bread, and rendered his situation
too gainful to be borne.- Before gentlemen ultimately
refolded to approach the throne with an address that
pledged the house, in the most dire& manner, to prop
cute the American war, and support the continuance
of that fatal system, which had led this country Hep
by hep to the most calamitous, difaft'erous and dis
graceful situation, that ever a once flourifhing and glo
rious Bate could poflibly be driven to! a fituni^n that
threatened the final Nffolhtion of the empire, if not pre
vented by timely, wife and vigorous efforts, he implo
red them to aufe a moment and confider, what they
were doing. The address then at the bar was couch'd
I'll terms the most hyprocritical and delusive, md, it
fuffered, in a crisis alarming and melancholly s the pre
sent, on all hands confehedly was, to be pubhfhet to
-the world as the real sentiments of the hou'e of com
mons, it would bean additional misfortune, greater than
! any that had yet preceded it, inasmuch as it wou'd at
•once deceive the king, prostitute the judgment of par
liament, and degrade its dignity, insult the people, and
induce consequences fatal to the very being and exift
'ence of the empire. At this moment when every man's
heart was depressed and funk with the news of a recent
r _aod weig ty calamity, a calamity which was too pow
erfully felt to stand in need of description, wa+it be
coming rite parliament of a f-ee people to ecco back
words, which a minifur long pradifed in t e arts of
delusion had dared to put into the royal mout , but
which were every way unworthy o' the princewno de
livered them. What information had they before them
to warrant such a step? In the better days of parlia
ment, the attempt to entrap the house into a counte
n ince of assertions, wholly unexplained, and unex imi
ned, mer ly on the authority of the minister's word,
wood have been resented and tre ded with the indigna
,tion such an insult deferred It had been pretended
by those, whose interest it was to carry on the deceit,
that the prosecution of the An©ic'm war was not the
import of the ad refs, bet let ay man accur tely r-ad
the words of the address, and h would instantly fee
that the profecudon of that deftruHive war was as
plainly apd as fully the meaning of it, as language
could pofiibly convey. Was th re a man on either
-fide the house, that really doubted it ^ was there a man
in the street into whose hands the address could be put,
that would not on the firft perusal, instantly fay as
much ? Why t^en was that house alone to facrifice their
understandings to the will of the minister, and to sup
port his delusion! It was with the greatest sincerity he
declared, he declared, that nothing but his earnest
iwifh to refeue the Britifli commons from the disgrace
and infamy that must necessarily follow the presenting
such an address, induced him to call thus earnestly up
on the house, and before they adopted a proposition
of a stamp with all the measures, which had so deep
ly injured the honour of parliament, and so fruitlefsly
wafted the blood and money of the kingdom, to fee it
in its true light, and by a close attention to be con
vinced that it was founded pn the most empty, weak
and shallow thought that ever entered the brain of a
minister. Let gentlemen read the address, and judge
for themselves. What rights and what interefls could
be meant, but those rights that had been given away
one one after another, and those interefls that had long
since been abandoned. Whar then could make the
American war an object so fledfaftly to be adhered to?
Was there anymationalebjeft in the pursuit? Certain
ly there was none. The real truth was, it was an ap
pendage '0 the firft lord of the treasury too dear to
be parted with ! it was the grand pillar, built on the
ruins of the conftitution,by which he held his fituation
the great means of extending that baleful influence'
of the crown, on which alone he placed all his secu
rity !
nate wretches, who, looking up to the Rritifh standard
• wth that reverence and opinion of its influence which
in better times, and when measures were more wifely
planned, and more ably conducted, it was wont to
create, wherever it was eroded; had foolifh y facrificed
their lives anl fortunes to the empty promises of an
abandoned administration.
been framed by any who felt the smallest (park of pri
vate regard for the king, or public jealousy for the
honour of his crown, and the dignity of his parlia
ment. He concluded with apologizing for having
tr fpaffed so long on the patience of rhe house, but he
thought it did not become him as a member of the
parliament of a free people to have said less. He hop
ed, however, he had not presumed too much, and he
declared, if he had made any impreflion on the minds
of his hearers, that should induce them to forego the
fatal measure of voting the address, he was persuaded
hs had not only unloaded his own bofem from the
weight that opreffed it, but should have fa ved his prince
from a degree of anguish, which soon or late must be
the inevitable consequence of prosecuting the Ameri
can war, and which none but the most cruel and in
human could with to inflict on the mind of their so
vereign, already fufficiently pressed with misfortune
and calamity.
Mr. Pitt, in the course of his speech, paid lord
Cornwallis the highest compliment, by faying he
was infinitely above his praise ; he hoped time would
Ihew he was equally beyond the reach of detraction.
(From the proceeding speech the reader will find
our orator exactly prosecuting the trad of his illus
trious progenitor. The objed of great men in oppo
sition generally proves to be avidity of power and
office, frequently obtained by vehement and stubborn
Philippics against the minister, although themselves
heretofore in place were as sedulously engaged in
aid of his majesty's government, as they in this ses
sion aim to counteract the measures of administration
in both houses. The late lord Chatham when very
young, took the field against fir Robert Walpole's
public conduct, and proved a vast acquifit'on to the
enemies of that premier, but a golden lure (the de
partment of paymaster general) being afterwards of
fered and accepted, proved irrefiflable to his Rom n
patriotism, which instantly subsided into the minifte.
rial chair, when the British helm was gloroufly guid
ed, and he became terrible to his enemies, and the ad
miration of all mankind.
J" o ^',' skill is requisite to predict that the confum
raate ability of the present Mr. Pitt, his lordship's
second son, may probably be called forth as auxiliary
After arguing with peculiar force oflanguage upon
what had fallen the preceding day from the firft lord
of the treasury, and t'e American secretary, Mr,
Pit returned to the fubjed of the address, which he
termed a dark and desperate attempt to blind the eyes
of treking, and insult the people of England. Heaik
ed, where under the dreadful preffare of national ca
lamity, was a monarch of a free people to take refuge
and fi id resource, but in the honefl, ondifguifed, and
loyal councils of his fubjeHs ; w + old fallacy admini
ster comfort to the wounded mind ; would fraud sup
port a falling slate? He called upon any one advo
cate for the measures of administration, who prided
himfelf on the independence of his principles, to stand
up in his place and fay, whether those men who had
hitherto so misguided the affairs of the kingdom, and
in whose hands almost every one undertaking had failed
ought to be trusted with the further management of a
war, which they had hitherto conducted so i'll. Could
the nation have confidence in an administration com
posed of mmb'rs who had no confidence in them-
selves ? Run from one end of the treasury bench to the
other, and who would venture to declare that any
one person there seated could trust the person who fat
next him ? with an administration so disunited, wasa
ny confidence to be reposed ! Let the house recoiled
what was already past. What had been done for the
blood that had been fpilt, the Applies that had been -
given, and the money that had 'been trufled to their
hands? The great events of the war were but so many
fatal disasters ; defeat and disgrace following every ef
fort of our arm% from one end of the continent to the
other. He declared to God, he spoke to answer no
private purpose whatever, his feelings were public
and what he had tod, he said in difeharge of his con-'
feience, and in dife large o his duty to his king, and
what he felt as a Bill fl longer claim, his duty to his
country. He once more therefore earnestly implored
the house not to vote an address fraught with bypocrify
and treachery. An address, which could not have
mild, lenient, dnd moderate expedition of the practi
cability of fending a fufficient force into the country,
to enable the numerous friends of Great - Britain, to
get the better of the party that opposed them, and had
possessed themselves of power. The noble lord has told
them, that he never imagined America could be recov
ered by arms, but that tee lo) alifts, who, according
to his account, far outnumbered the Americans of a
different political complexion, would be able, with their
assistance, to effect all that could be wished for. In
order to fee the wisdom of this conceit, Mr. Pitt advi
sed the house to look back to the events of the war,
and efpecia'ly to those of the last campaign, which
were too recent to stand in need of recital, and which
every man's breift was too full of to render it necessary
for iim to undergo the anguish of dwelling upon.
A ; o^e all, he begged the house, if they wanted fur
ther proof ed the power of protection, which Great-
Hritain was warranted to hold out, let them look at the
articles of capitulation of lord Cornwallis, and let them
cast th ir eye on the answer to the 10th article. They
would there fee, that all the friends of Great- Britain,
all the loyalists, who had been treacherously deluded
to join lord Cornwall's, and deceived by falfe hopes
and ill-founded promises, so far from b fc ing proteded,
were left tothe civil justice of the country. What the
the- civil juflice of America was, it was utterly im
puTible for him to fay, but if the fame treacherous
fydem that had long disgraced Great Britain, was
filtered to be persevered ip after what had happened,
perhaps the civil justice of this country, would
soon overtake some men, who were undoubtedly much
prop- rer obje&s of its vengeance, tnan those unfortu-
to the treasury bench, &c. rather than long con inue
the mortified appendage of an envious and grumbling
minority. A century produced but one Marvel, and
a whole fiee'e only one Shippen.)
The moment Mr. Pitt fat down, a buz ofaporobi
tiou pervaded the house, and it was some little time be
fore the lord advocate, who rose immediately, could ob
tain a hearing. At length the house being called toor
der, the learned lord said, the luftre of abilities, and the.
Iplendor of eloquence, displayed by the hon. gentleman
who spoke lafl, having proved that a very uncommon
fliare of talents had defeended in an hereditary line from
a parent uncommonly gifted to, a son equally blessed,
it did not at all furprize him that an involuntary emo
tion of applause should burst out on the conlufion of
the speech the house had just heard, and that each
gentleman should be anxious to communicate to his
neighbour his approbation of it. That fu fficiently ac
counted to him for the difficulty he felt to obtain a
hearing when he offered himfelf to the notice of
the house ; now, however he would, with permiffon,
proceed to date his sentiments on what had passed 011
the debate of that and the preceding day. And firft,
he could not but observe, that on both days the debate
had taken a very comical turn. He had the preceding
day, exprfffiy and openly told the house the meaning
he anexed to the words of the address, and upon which
feofe of them alone, he had resolved to give it his vote.
The fame thing had been done again by others, who
had spoken on the fubjed, and who had, as he did,
voted for the address. No.with handing this, gentlemen
on the other tide of the house perlifted in forcing h
meaning, Upon the words, entirely different from that
which I.e and others had expressly declared'to be the
meaning, that they understood, and for which they
had thought themselves warranted to vote. Surely
this was rather a new mode of debate, and a mode,
which to fay the lead of it, was not very candid, since
those who did not vote for the address, at least ought
not to oblige those who did vote for it to acknowledge
a meaning for their vote, which they themselves had
publicly disavowed.
In short, once more to prevent the effed of those in
sinuations which had been thrown out, and which might
perhaps have been fuggefled with the intention of in
ducing the public without doors to form opinions of
his conduß equally ill founded and injurious, he
would fairly teli the house, that before he came to
town he expeded to hear the news that had lately been
brought, and which every man muft.feel and lament as
a great national misfortune; and this expectation was
not founded on any peculiar intelligence or communi
cation he had received, but on the chance of war and
the probability of events on his arrival in town, there
fore, be read the speech with the most scrupulous jea
lousy, fearing to find in it any one word or expression
which might in any fort whatever pledge any to a parti
cular line of conduct in that house. He examined it
minutely and seriously, and he would be bold to fay,
that so far from the address pledging those who voted
for it, to vote on any future occasion, otherwise than
their judgment, founded on the particular circumstan
ces of that occasion, might direH, the language of it
was so loose and general, that it hound not to any one
fpecific vote, much less did it pledge the house to pro
mote war. [Mr. Fox faying Hearl Hear !] The lord
advocate taid, perhaps his expression was too wide, but
he should have come soon to a more explicit declarati
on of the words, and have fbewed, that though war
certainly was his meaning when he gave his vote for the
address, yet, that what he intended to have understood
was, that it did not bind the house to vote for the
prosecution of what was called the American war.
Had the words " American war" been inserted in the
address, undoubtedly it would have been objectiona
ble, and that on mo re grounds than one. In the firft
place, the expression might have been deemed a vague
and unmeaning one ; and many gentlemen might have
said with him, that they did not understand what the
words “ American war" correftly imported, or whe
ther they meant the mode of carrying on the war, or
the end for which it was to be prosecuted. The fad
was, that matter was by no means the queflion before
the house; when it was, doubtless it would challenge
a great deal of debate, and a great variety of argu
ment would be offered on the occasion. Those who
were for abandoning the American war wholly, would
state their ideas of the extent they would fay, whether
they thought Halifax,New York and Charleftown (if we
Bill had them) ought to be given up. His lordship
observed, that he did not mention Canada, but confin
ed himfelf to North-America, properly so called, for
the purpose of being fully and correctly understood,
and to prevent the smallest appearance of evasion.
Other gentlemen, who might think it right to abandon
the whole of that country, would argue the queflion
and meet it on that ground ; and others again, who
thought it expedient or politic to fend a reinforcement
td America, and continue an excursive war through that
vast continent, would necessarily and naturally state
to the house, why they were inclined to support that
idea.—While he mentioned this, he begged not to be
underwood as giving any opinion of his own, not that
he meant to fay that he had no opinion. He certain
iy had a decided one, and when the proper time came
for dating it to the house, he would do it without re
serve. At present he. was merely fuggefting,that had an,
fpecific purpose been expressly laid down in the address,
as the object refpeßing which, that house fliould be
called on to give the king assurance of support, it could
not have failed of challenging a great deal of objection.
Having added frefh arguments upon those grounds, he
assured the house the time could not be f%r distant,
when minivers must have made their minds upon the
fubjeft He did not mean to precipitate their judg
ments, but at the fame time mull ob tree, that con
sidering the national situation, the matter would ad
°! as ''"' e delay as poilible. Deliberat Roma,
perit Saguntum. Gentlemen knew that gallant at-
Chievements rarely followed tardy deliberations.
Insinuations, he observed, were frequently thrown
out against ministers, and sometimes it was said, they
supported measures which they did not approve, and
which were diametrically opposite to their own princi
ples, Swen infinuatiop, as these, he Relieved, were