ceed to the inveftigation of the rest of the objections to the treaties of pacification.

Why have you given America the freedom of fishing in all your creeks and harbours, and especially on the banks of Newfoundland, fay the noble objectors to this article? Why? because, in the first place, they could, from their locality, have exercised a fifhery in that quarter for the first season (for there are two) without our confent, and in fpite of all our efforts to repel them. In February the first feafon commences, and that is entirely at their devotion; for our people have never, and can never take their ftations there fo foon. With regard to the other feafon, let us again revert to what I have already faid respecting the fur trade; though we have not a monopoly, we have got fuch fuperior advantages in the article of drying, curing, and preparing our fish for market, from the exclufive command of the moft contiguous fhores, that a rivalry can only whet our induftry to reap thofe benefits our preferable fituation in this refpect prefents to us. But why have we not ftipulated a reciprocity of fishing in the American harbours and creeks? I'll tell your Lordships : — because we have abundant employment in our own. Would not an American think it fordid in the extreme, nay, confider it bordering on madnefs, to covet the privilege of battening our cattle on fome of their steril wilds, when we had our own fertile Savannahs to have recourse to. Such would be the opinion entertained of Miniftry, if it had childishly and avariciously made a ftipulation of the nature the objectors think they ought to have. The broad and liberal policy on which the prefent treaty is formed, is in my opinion much more wife and beneficial than would have been the narrow and wretched plan of bargaining for every little particle of advantage which we might have procured, perhaps, by ftickling in the negotiation. As to the mafts, a noble Lord said, we were to have in fuch abundance at Penobscot, I will oppose a fact to his bare affertion. I have in my pocket a certificate from one of the ablest surveyors in our fervice, Captain Twifs, that there is not a tree there capable of being made a maft. But there remains fomewhat in these provifional articles ftill to be confidered, which I have never reflected on without feelings as pungent as any which the warmeft admirers of the virtues of the Loyal fts can poffibly have experienced. I mean the unhappy neceffity of our af fairs, which induced the extremity of fubmitting the fate of the property of thefe brave and worthy men to the difcretion

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of their enemies. I have but one answer to give the House in this particular, it is the answer I gave my own bleeding heart. A part must be wounded, that the whole of the empire may not perish. If better terms could be had, think you, my Lords, that I would not have embraced them? You all know my creed. You all know my fteadiness. If it were poffible to put afide the bitter cup the adverfities of this country prefented to me, you know I would have done it; but you called for peace. To make it in the circumftances, which your Lordships all know I ftood in, was moft arduous. In this point, nothing could be more grievous to me. Neither in public nor in private life is it my character. to defert my friends; I had but the alternative, either to accept the terms, faid Congrefs, of our recommendation to the ftates, in favour of the Colonifts, or continue the war. It is in our power to do no more than recommend. Is there any man who hears me, who will clap his hand on his heart, and ftep forward and fay, I ought to have broken off the treaty ? If there be, I am fure he neither knows the state of the country, nor yet has he paid any attention to the wishes of it. But ftill I do not defpond with refpect to the Loyalifts; I rely upon the wifdom, the honour, and the temper of the Congrefs. Their recommendation was all that in the nature of things we could procure. They were cautious in wording their treaty, left they fhould poffibly give offence to the new ftates, whofe conftitutions had not advanced to thofe habits of appearance and strength that banishes all fufpicions; peremptory language is not the language of a new ftate. They muft foften their applications. In all their measures, for money, for men, they have used the word recommendation to the Provincial Affemblies; and it has always, or at leaft generally been paid respect to. And, believe me, they do the Loyalifts the offices not of friends, who furmife doubts on this occafion. But fay the worft; and that after all, this eftimable fet of men are not received and cherished in the bofom of their own country. Is England fo loft to gratitude, and all the feelings of humanity, as not to afford them an afylum Who can be fo base as to think fhe will refuse it to them? Surely it cannot be that noble-minded man, who would plunge his country again knee-deep in blood, and saddle it with an expence of twenty millions for the purpose of reftoring them. Without one drop of blood spilt, and without one-fifth of the expence of one year's campaign, happiness and cafe can be given the Loyalifts in as ample a manner as these bleffings

bleffings were ever in their enjoyment; therefore let the outcry cease on this head. But which of the two ftiles of language is the more likely to affift the Loyalifts? The ftile of the addrefs which declares the confidence of Parliament in the good intentions of the Congress, or the ftile of the noble Lords who declare that recommendation is nothing. It surely requires, my Lords, no great depth of penetration to diftinguish between thefe things. A noble Vifcount afks why Mr. Ofwald was appointed as negotiator againft fuch odds?" Because he was fitted for the great work in queftion, by the qualities both of his head and his heart. He was inflexibly upright—had long and liberally been engaged in commerce, and was well verfed in the local knowledge of America; no man therefore would deny Mr. Ofwald's fitness for his ftation. At the fame time his Lordfhip was free to fay, there might be a few men more fit, but they had not come to his cognizance. The noble Viscount who had laft spoke upon the fubject [Lord Sackville] might have been a better nego tiator might have diftinguished himself as he had always done, both in the cabinet and in the field. Or, perhaps, the other noble Viscount in the green ribband [Lord Stormont] might have been more remarkable; and if we could have conquered any averfion in his Lordfhip to venture again on the fame theatre, where he had not been received with very general fatisfaction before, he, no doubt, would have concluded a peace with the fame fortunate diftinction with which he commenced the war.

We will now, if your Lordfhips please, advert to the Preliminary Articles with France and Spain; and firft to the ob jections refpecting the ceffion to France on the coast of Newfoundland. This, to be fure, is not to be tried by the rule of imports and exports. But what is it? Seven degrees of latitude. These are founding words; but they are no more. By this part of the treaty future quarrels are guarded against, The concurrent fishery formerly exercifed was a fource of endless ftrife; the French are now confined to a certain spot; it is nothing compared to the extent we poffefs, and it is befides fituate in the leaft productive part of that coaft. But I would not have your Lordships pay greater attention to my bare affertion, that I truft you will to the aflertions of thote who take upon themselves to pronounce this part of the treaty wrong. I have here ready for your infpection the opinions of the ableft men on that fubject. I applied to the perion bet qualified to point them out to me. The noble Lord near me, [Lord

[Lord Keppel] then at the head of the admiralty, referred me to three officers in his Majefty's fervice, whofe judgment and integrity he could rely on, and your Lordships, on the bare naming of them, will rely on them too. Admiral Edwards' teftimony must have its weight; the teftimony of Captain Levifon Gower, whofe fervices the nation are to enjoy in peace as well as war; and that of Lieutenant Lane, who took an accurate furvey of the whole coaft, and who was well qualified for the talk, as he ferved under and poffeffed the confidence of the famous circum-navigator, Captain Cooke. These officers all declare, that the best fishing was to the fouthward, which was entirely in the poffeffion of the English; fo that we muft doubt the national fpirit, and the national industry of this country, before we can pronounce, faid his Lordship, this fo much talked of exclufive seven league fishery an injury to Great Britain.

As to the ceffion of St. Pierre and Miquelon, where is the proof that these places can be fortified fo as to annoy us? I call on the noble objectors for their proofs; I call in vain, I know I do. I have here in my hand that which will fatisfy your Lordships how idle all furmises are on that head. Here are certificates from the inoft skilful and experienced engineers, that neither St. Pierre nor Miquelon would admit the conftruction of a fortrefs, which could stand the attack of the fmallest of your frigates.

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Permit me, my Lords, to impress upon your minds, that the foundation of all the parts of the respective treaties before you was, as I ftated in the beginning, not fpeculation or idle conjecture, but practice and folid experience. My language does not mock your understanding with affertions it feeds it with fact. With this conftantly in your eye, I court for myself and my colleagues, your Lordships decifion on our conduct. Before I quit this quarter of the world, give me leave to advert to all the particulars which have been objected to.

With refpect to the ceffion of the two Floridas, I must refer again to the exports and imports. The imports are not more than 100,000l. and the exports hardly exceeded 120,000l. To be fure, I would not willingly take fo much from the commerce of the nation; but amidst the millions of our trade, is this an object worth contending for at the hazard of continuing the war? The navigation of the Miffiffippi has been reprobated as an ufelefs acquifition. Could men ferioufly affert this? Was a navigation of so many hundred

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miles up a country, where there is a call for our manufac tures, an useless thing? Surely not.

And we will now, if your Lordships please, take a view of our affairs in the Weft Indies. All the islands there are reftored to us, and in return, we cede St. Lucia and Tobago. St. Lucia, held in fo much eftimation now, may be tried more fairly by the value fet upon it at the laft peace. As I faid before, on all hands it is allowed that that was not a humiliating, but a high and mighty peace for this country. Why, therefore, if this ifland was, as the objectors pretend, the key-ftone that fupported and connected the arch of all our power in the leeward itlands - why, I fay, was not this ifland then retained? But I can produce the opinions of your most experienced feamen on this head, my Lords, which vindicate that Miniftry as well as the prefent. And I do therefore claim the indulgence (until my pofition is controverted by fuperior evidence) to be believed, when I affert, that St. Lucia is not of that vaft confequence fome noble Lords would poffefs this House with the opinion of, in order to depreciate the merits of the treaty. With refpect to Tobago, it is faid, the ceffion of that ifland will ruin our cotton manufacture. Pray let me afk noble Lords, was our cotton manufacture a poor one before we poffeffed that island? As no noble Lord rifes to affert the affirmative, I will be allowed to state it in the negative. It was not poor then. Why fhould it be poor now? We have been long in poffeffion of that great branch of trade, confcquently we can afford to give a greater price for cotton than our neighbours. Cotton, therefore, be it in the hands of friend or foe, will always, your Lordships may be affured, find its way to our door, in preference to that of those who cannot meet it with such a purfe. But I know a few over-grown monopolizers of that article, or fome felfish proprietors, would fee the nation fteeped in blood, fooner than they would forfeit, by the peace, one farthing of that emolument which they used to make when Tobago was in our hands. Let me comfort thefe worthy men, by telling them, that the islands restored to us, contain a vaft number of acres, uncultivated, which may be applied to the growth of this fo much coveted commodity. But let it be remembered, that we have kept Dominique, an ifland as valuable to this country, if not more fo, than St. Lucia, if confidered as a place of obfervation and ftrength. I have it on the authority of a noble Admiral, whofe conquefts in the Weft Indies have been diftin

guithed