of honour; they shock me as a lover of honourable war, and a detester of murderous barbarity.

These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend bench, those holy ministers of the gospel, and pious pastors of our church; I conjure them to join in the holy work, and vindicate the religion of their God. I appeal to the wisdom and the law of this learned bench, to defend and support the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops, to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn; upon the learned judges, to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from this pollution. I call upon the honour of your lordships, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country, to vindicate the national character. I invoke the genius of the constitution. From the tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble lord* frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his country. In vain he led your victorious fleets against the boasted Armada of Spain; in vain he defended and established the honour, the liberties, the religion, the protestant religion, of this country, against the arbitrary cruelties of popery and the inquisition, if these more than popish cruelties and inquisitorial practices are let loose among us; to turn forth into our settlements, among our ancient connexions, friends, and relations, the merciless cannibal, thirsting for the blood of man, woman, and child! to send forth the infidel savage-against whom? against your protestant brethren; to lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpitate their race and name, with these horrible hell hounds of savage war!-hellhounds, I say, of savage war. Spain armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of

* Lord Effingham.-Lord Effingham Howard was lord high admiral of England against the Spanish armada; the destruction of which is represented in the tapestry.

America; and we improve on the inhuman example even of Spanish cruelty: we turn loose these savage hell hounds against our brethren and countrymen in America, of the same language, laws, liberties, and religion; endeared to us by every tie that should sanctify humanity.

My lords, this awful subject, so important to our honour, our constitution, and our religion, demands the most solemn and effectual inquiry. And I again call upon your lordships, and the united powers of the state, to examine it thoroughly and decisively, and to stamp upon it an indelible stigma of the publick abhorrence. And I again implore those holy prelates of our religion, to do away these iniquities from among us. Let them perform a lustration; let them purify this house, and this country, from this sin.

My lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more; but my feelings and indignation were too strong to have said less. I could not have slept this night in my bed, nor reposed my head on my pillow, without giving this vent to my eternal abhorrence of such preposterous and enormous principles. This speech had no effect. The address was agreed

to.

LORD NORTH'S SPEECH

IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, ON A MOTION OF INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION, MADE IN THE YEAR 1779.

DISTINGUISHED as Lord North confessedly was by the frequent exercise of the happiest powers of debate, there scarcely now exists a memorial of his eloquence. We have discovered amidst a mass of "threads and patches," a single speech, which seems to have some claims to authenticity, and of being accurately reported. It was delivered in a discussion on the "state of the nation," which took place on a motion made by Mr. Fox. The speech contains a very skilful vindication of himself, and of the measures of the ministry to which he belonged. It is, indeed, a model of its kind. Cool and dispassionate, it repels the violent invective, and rash criminations of his adversaries by a candid exhibition of facts, and a masterly application of arguments. This was the character of his eloquence. By pursuing a course so temperate, so discreet, so ingenuous, he often succeeded in disarming the virulence of opposition, and of compelling them to exchange their angry passions for a spirit relenting and conciliatory.

MR. SPEAKER,

SPEECH, &c.

I AM much indebted to my learned friend, the attorney general,* near me, for the very favourable sentiments he has this day expressed of my publick services; much more, I fear, than I have any pretensions to. On that subject he has, perhaps, spoke with the partiality of a friend; on others, he has, I presume, given his opinion without any such bias. But how much soever I may be obliged to the learned gentleman, I cannot help rising on the present occasion, earnestly wishing to vindicate my character against the general and specifick accusation made by the honourable gentleman† over the way; and likewise to assure that honourable gentleman, that my present situation, sentiments, and intentions, will not permit me to accept of those friendly dispositions which he has been so kind as to mix with the general charges. I allude to the admonitions he has given to me for the regulation of my future political conduct. His charges being general and unqualified, deserve some answer. He has stated them with his usual ability. He has pressed them with his wonted eloquence. However unequal I may be to the honourable gentleman in these two respects, I must not, therefore, decline the vindication of my character, if I am conscious the justice of my cause will bear me out. Without that support, I am convinced of my own inability; with that support I have nothing to fear from the honourable gentleman's eloquence and ingenuity. The honourable gentleman has travelled through the whole of my ministerial conduct, and candidly imputes all the neglects and blunders of administration, as he calls them, to me. By his account, I have enough of my own to answer for, without being compelled to bear the blame due to others; but I will tell that gentleman, that I do not mean to fly from

that state of responsibility attached to my office, nor from the general responsibility which I am bound to with others, as one of his majesty's confidential servants. If the honourable gentleman, which his speech would indicate, supposes me to be first, or sole minister, I do assure him he is mistaken. I know of no such minister in this country, and do therefore hope the honourable gentleman will consider me in two lights, namely, as acting at the head of a very important department, where I acknowledge I am solely answerable for whatever is transacted, and as acting in concert with others in his majesty's confi, dential councils.

The honourable gentleman has gone a great way back, no less than to the whole of my conduct since I got connected with the board at which I have, at present, the honour to preside. I found the affairs of this country in great confusion, and the nation in a ferment. I took a share in government when embarrassed by a strong factious opposition, who I thought, as I still do, acted upon mistaken or wrong motives. I assisted in maintaining government, and if the clamours current at that time were not silenced, they were rendered ineffectual to answer the purposes for which they were raised. The great and glorious victories of the late war, and our confessed and decided superiority on the ocean, created us many enemies, and an alarm in other parts of Europe; and if not enmity, at least coolness.

France and Spain, suffering under the disgrace of successive defeats, were mortified and filled with resentment, and looking forward to retaliation. The eyes of the rest of Europe were drawn from the usual object of their jealousy, the house of Bourbon, thus fallen and humbled, towards our growing greatness. The system of Europe, at the time, admitted of no continental alliances, for to what end could they have been directed? The powers of the north were friendly inclined, and nothing at that period, gave any reason

* Alluding to the Middlesex election.