The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer — Hartford [Conn.], 1782-04-30 00:00:00, page 1

LONDO N.
HOUSE or COMMONS,
MONDAY, December 3.
ON the 13th of December Sir James Low^
ther made the following motion.
" That it is the opinion of the house that the
" war carried on in the colonies and plantations
" of North America, has proved ineffectual,
" either for the protection of his Majesty's loyal
'' fubje&s in the colonies, or for defeating the
" dangerous dafigns of our enemies." &c.
This the Baronet attempted in a short speech
to support, and was seconded in a declamation
againlf the ministry, by Mr. Powys, which
brought up Lord North to reply in the follow
ing Speech: His Lordship informed the house,
that from the misfortune and calamities of the
war (both ofwhich he would then and at all times
maintain, were misfortunes and calamities,
which, tho' of a very serious and fatal nature,
,were matters rather to be deplored and lament
ed, as the inevitable events of war, ever in them
selves uncertain, than to be ascribed to any cri
minality in ministers ;) yet the misfortunes and
calamities of the war rendered it necessary for
government to determine that the mode of car
ryingon the war internally upon the continent
of America, as had been the practice under Lord
Cornwallis and other Generals, should no longer
be followed, but to change the form of the war
altogether. This declaration, his Lordship said,
had given him some inconvenience, nor would he
have made it even then, had not the estimates of
the army, already upon the table, declared as
much in the moR clear and express manner, to
every gentleman, who would have given himfelf
the trouble to examine them with any degree of
attentive perusal. By those eßimates gentlemen
would find, that the army which the secretary at
war meant to aik for, was the fame as that asked
for laR year, with some little variation for the
East-Indies ; whereas had it been the intention
of government, or had his Majesty's minifies
thought it advifeable, expedient or wife, circum
stanced as the country now was, to prosecute
the war continentally, according to the mode of
carryingfe on hitherto, they must have applied
for a much larger army, as without a very con
siderable increase of military force, such an idea
would have been absurd in the highest extreme,
and obviously impracticable.
Having made this declaration, his Lordship
took notice of what Mr. Powys had said refpe&-
ing the war being the war of ministers, and a war
adhered to obstinately by them, as the foie means
by which they held tneir situations, and whence
alone they derived all their emoluments, as well
as all their power. Those fort of remarks, he
.observed, had been made again and again, and
they had been as often answered and reufred.
For the present he should only fay that the war
never had been a favourite of his ; on the con
trary, he had always considered it as a war of the
molt cruel necessity, but as a war founded on a
truly British basis : A war instituted in support
of the just rights of the crown and of the par
liament of Great-Britain. In that point of view,
and that only,.ought the war to be regarded,
And in that point of view, he repeated what he
had often before said, that the war was, in its
origin just and necefi'ary, however calamitous to
the country its events had unfortunately proved.
But it was said, the war was a source of fatis
fiaion and emolument to him ; the fa& was di
redly the reverse. If the war was particularly
[renrfQffi^
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER.
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TUESDA Y, April 3d, 1782.
a heavier misfortune to any ode man ih the coun
try, than to another, it had been so to him ; he
had ever considered it as the greatest and most
grievous calamity of his lif#, and if at any time,
a facrifice, not only of the emoluments of bis
situation, but eten of the whole of his private for
tune would have brought his country a fafe and
honorable peace, he would have made that fa
crifice witn the utmost chearfulnefs, and thought
the opportunity of doing so, the greateß bleihng
that could have befallen him^ Gentlemen talk
ed largely, and loofly upon this fubje&, but let
any one reasonable person consider, what his
feelings must have been, when from year to year,
as the war went on, he found himfelf obliged to
go on adding frefh and heavier burthens on the
people, than those they had borne the year be
fore? If there was any situation particularly
painful, he trusted the house would do him the
justice to suppose, that his had beentruly so ?
After arguing these matters very pointedly,
his Lordfllip went into an examination of the
motion, were it carried, either with regard to
peace or war. In the firft place he observed,
that the wording of it was so general and loose,
that he ti ufted the house would, on that account
never agree to it. The words of the second mo
tion were to resolve against "all future efforts,
“ to subdue the American provinces to their
" obedience byfav." ^ll efforts, aid his Lord
ship! Is the government of a country then to
have its hands tied up by sea and land ? If the
motion passes, and an American privateer should
be met with on the high seas, no English Captain,
either of a man of war or letter of marque, dare
attempt to take her. Was this what gentlemen
meant ? He trusted it was not. His Lordship
shewed, that if the present motion were acceed
ed to, it in effea was tantamount to a motion
for immediately withdrawing all the troops, or,
in other words, for abandoning the American
war altogether. He alked were gentlemen pre
pared to go that length ? Were they ready to
fay, New-York and its dependencies ought not
to be kept, either as a post, whence we might an
noy the common enemy, and offer afliflance to
our Weft-India inlands, or with a confederation
of having something in our hands to make peace
with : Or might not Rhode-Ifland be taken as a
post in the ensuing summer, if found more con
venient, more tenable and more ufeful? Again,
were gentlemen's minds made up as to Charlef
town and Halifax ? All these were in his opini
on important confederations, and required very
serious difeuffion, but which would be wholly
shut out from future confederation if the present
motion was agreed to. His Lordship very forci
bly painted the disadvantages in making a peace,
which this country would Lie under, tuppofing
that the motion were carried § and then as forci
bly argued the disadvantages which it would
draw on us in our further prosecution of the war.
He paid some handsome compliments to the
country gentlemen, who had supported govern
ment all through the war, in reply to part ofMr.
Powys's speech. His Lordship observed, that
gentlemen had done them justice, but no more
than justice, by allowing them to be honest, in
dependent and incorrupt ; they certainly were
so ; and had it not been forthat honest and in
corrupt support, administration could net have
flood so long. The support of the independent
and disinterested was the terra firma of ministry,
Hlthrough the war ; had those gentlemen thought
the intentions of ajminiftration bad, or the war
unheceffary, they would have voted differently;
and then the basis of their footing being removed,
the whole of the fuperftru&Ure of administration
would have tumbled ; thus that change which
gentlemen on the other fide so much wished and
had so often called for, would have been effect
ed.
Mr. Burke made a very long speech in support
of the motion.
Lord North was very ably supported by his
colleague in office Lord George Germaine, who
after replying fully to Mr. Burke, relative to the
difeontents which he had Rated to prevail at pre
sent between the Gorvernors of the islands of
Jamaica, Bermudas and Barbadoes, and the ref
peCtive aflemblies of those islands, came to a
consideration of the question then before the
house, to which, he said, he certainly should ob
ject, because it went to the full length of refolv*
ing to abandon the American war wholly, which
he Conceived to be a project equally weak, mi
practicable, and dangerous. His Lordship &
greed fully with the noble Lord in the blue rib
band, that in the present situation of the war. it
was advifeable to change the mode of it, and to
carry it on, very differently from the manner itt
which it had hitherto been conducted,and which
had turned out so unfortunately. In this opi
nion, all the King's servants were united, and
they were not without hopes of meeting with
better success than they had hitherto experience
ed. As to giving up New-York and its depen
dencies, that was a matter he fliould not readily
consent to, because he considered it highly ne
ceffaty, as well for the assistance of the mode of
prosecuting the war against the common enemy
in future, as for the purpose of having a place of
rendezvous and Ration for a fleet nearer the
Weft-Indies than Great-Britain. New-York,
with its dependences, were, in his mind, by no
means invaluable possessions. Gentlemen had
compared New-York to Gibraltar, and said, that
the garrison of New-York, like the garrison of
Gibraltar, must be wholly furniflied with provi
ffons from Great-Britain. Gentlemen forgot,
that the comparison was destitute of similitude,
they forgot that Long-Island and Staten-Bland
were among the dependencies of New-York ;
that the former was 100 miles long, uncommon
ly fertile, and productive of a variety of differ
ent articles of provision. This therefore shew
ed, that the argument, that all our army in gar
rison at New-York must be fed entirely from
home, was ill founded. There was likewise m
New-York,ftores, &c. id great quantities, which
it would be difficult to remove, and works which
had cost this country immense sums of money.
With regard to Charleftown and other posts,
now poflefled by us on the American continent,
this was not the time that matter was to be de
cided upon. What he had said, was enough to
shew, that it would be highly imprudent to ac
cede to the present motion. An honorable gen
tleman [Mr. Fox] had Rated a declaration made
by him on the fubjca of the American war some
time since ; so far was he from having changed
his opinion on the fubje&, that he would then
repeat what he had formerly said, and apply it
to the motion at that time under consideration,
As he had already declared he regarded the me
ton, as mounting to a resolution to abandon the
American war altogether, he made no fcrupie
to avow, that if the house came into it, be would
immediately retire ; for be the cor.fecuDce
what it might, he never would be the mimfor
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