XXI. 1781. they say, "We beseech your majesty no longer to BOOK continue in a delusion from which the nation has awakened, and that your majesty will be graciously pleased to relinquish entirely and for ever the plan of reducing our brethren in America by force. And we do further humbly implore your majesty, that your majesty will be graciously pleased to dismiss from your presence and councils all the advisers, both public and secret, of the measures we lament, as a pledge to the world of your majesty's fixed determination to abandon a system incompati ble with the interest of the crown and the happiness of your people." censure on Soon after the recess of parliament, Mr. Fox re- Motion of newed his former motion of censure against the the earl of first lord of the admiralty; and such strength had by Mr.Fox. the opposition now acquired, that in a house of near four hundred members it was rejected by a majority of only twenty-two. The unpopularity of the American secretary was so great and manifest, that he now thought it expedient, seeing parlia mentary censures likely to become again in fashion, to resign the seals of that department-and for his eminent services he was by his majesty raised to the dignity of the peerage. But before the great seal was affixed to the patent, the marquis of Carmarthen moved, in the house of peers, "that it was highly derogatory to the honor of that house, that any person laboring under the sentence of a court Sandwich, BOOK martial, styled in the public orders issued by his XXI. late majesty a censure much worse than death,' and 1781. Lord Geo. adjudged unfit to serve his majesty in any military capacity, should be recommended to the crown as a proper person to sit in that house." The motion was evaded by the question of adadvanced to journment; but lord George Germaine having acthe peerage tually taken his seat in the house under the title of Lord Viscount Sackville, the marquis of Carmarthen renewed his attack, and urged, "that the house of peers being a court of honor, it behoved them to preserve that honor uncontaminated, and to mark in the most forcible manner their disapprobation of the introduction of a person into that assembly who was stigmatized in the orderly books of every regi ment in the service." Lord Abingdon, who seconded the motion, styled the admission of lord George Germaine to a peerage an insufferable indignity to that house, and an outrageous insult to the public.-What," said his lordship," has that person done to merit honors superior to his fellow-citizens? His only claim to promotion was, that he had undone his country by executing the plan of that accursed invisible though efficient cabinet, from whom as he received his orders, so he had obtained his reward.”. Lord Sackville, in his own vindication, denied the justice of the sentence passed upon him, and affirmed "that he considered his restoration to the council XXI. board, at a very early period of the present reign, BOOK as amounting to a virtual repeal of that iniquitous verdict." The duke of Richmond strongly defended the motion, and said, "that he himself was present at the battle of Minden, and was summoned on the trial of lord George Germaine; and had his deposition been called for, he could have proved that the time lost when the noble viscount delayed to advance, under pretence of receiving contradictory orders, was not less than one hour and a half; that the cavalry were a mile and a quarter only from the scene of action; and it was certainly in his lordship's power to have rendered the victory, important as it was, far more brilliant and decisive; and he had little reason to complain of the severity of the sentence passed upon him." Lord Southampton also, who, as aide-de-camp to prince Ferdinand on that memorable day, delivered the message of his serene highness to his lordship, vindicated the equity of the sentence. The motion was likewise powerfully supported by the earl of Shelburne, the marquis of Rockingham, and other distinguished peers. 1781. the lords On the division, nevertheless, it was rejected by Protest of a majority of 93 to 28 voices: but to the inexpres-against it. sible chagrin of lord Sackville, a protest was entered on the journals of the house, declaring the promo BOOK tion of his lordship to be "á measure fatal to the XXI. interests of the crown, insulting to the memory of 1782. the late sovereign, and highly derogatory to the dignity of that house." renew his censure on Sandwich. Mr. Fox Mr. Fox, on the 20th of February, 1782, again motion of brought forward his motion of censure, somewhat the earl of varied, on lord Sandwich; which was negatived by a majority of 19 voices only, in a house consisting of four hundred and fifty-three members: but, to the astonishment of the nation, the noble lord still daringly kept possession of his office, although two hundred and seventeen members of the house of commons had pronounced him "guilty of a shameful mismanagement of the naval affairs of Great Britain." The opposition appearing every day to gain strength in the house of commons, the downfall of the ministry began at length to be confidently predicted. Gen. Cen-. On the 22d of February, general Conway moved way's mo- « for an address to the king, earnestly imploring his tion against the Ameri can war ne majesty, that he would be graciously pleased to gatived by listen to the humble prayer and advice of his faitha majority of one voiceful commons, that the war on the continent of North only. America might no longer be pursued, for the im practicable purpose of reducing that country to obedience by force." This was opposed in a long speech by Mr. Welbore Ellis, the new secretary for the American department, who declared, "that it XXI. 1782. was now in contemplation to contract the scale of BOOK the war, and to prosecute hostilities by such means as were very dissimilar from the past. A striking change of circumstances had taken place, and these of course demanded a change of measures. The war now raging in America was not so properly a war against the colonies as with France. He wished to discard as inapplicable so vague a term as the American war. While the whole continental army was fed, clothed, and paid by France, it was not mere locality which ought to give a name to it. The war was a French war; and as in the late war America had been said to be conquered in Germany, so in this France must be conquered in America. A conquest of this nature would inevitably root out the faction now prevalent in that unhappy country. That this faction, however powerful, was less numerous than the party of the royalists, appeared from the most respectable authorities. However, at the present juncture, administration were conscious of the necessity of contracting the scale of war in America, and of drawing the operations of it into a narrow compass. That this miserable mixture of falsehood and folly should fail to make impression upon the house cannot be deemed wonderful, and the ministry themselves seemed to despair of their cause, when they committed the defence of it to so contemptible an advocate ;-whom Mr. Burke, in reply, over |