HISTORY OF EUROPE. ppofing the vote of thanks; upon this occafion Lord North went with the oppofition upon the divifion. 27th. In a few days after, the thanks of the house of commans were voted to Generals Sir Henry Clinton, Earl Cornwallis, and Admiral Arbuthnot, for the eminent and very important fervices performed by them, particularly by the reduction of Charles Town, and by the late moft glorious victory obtained at Camden. Several of the estimates, particularly thofe of the army, had, as ufual in the courfe of this war, at different times produced much debate, complaint, and altercation, in the committee of fupply. Several motions were made by the oppofition for papers and returns, intended to afford an exact knowledge of the state of the forces employed on foreign fervice at certain given periods, which they fuppofed, or faid, did not approach fo near the present time, as to render the communication capable of any ill confequence; but from which they intended to fhew how far short the real number of effective troops was at thofe periods, from that which was ftated on paper, and paid for by the nation. thefe were rejected, and others Some of agreed to. The old argument was again frequently recurred to, of the mischief or danger of affording information to the enemy; and it was attempted to be thrown into ridicule by afking, if it was fuppofed that Gen. Washington wanted any information at that time, as to the state and condition of Sir Henry Clinton's army twelve months before? The appointment of Sir Hugh [157 Pallifer to the government of Greenwich hofpital, and his taking his feat in the house as member for Huntingdon, were the means of bringing out, if not the moft interefting debate, at leaft angry difcuffion, which took place the longest, and by far the most before the recefs. We have little inclination to enter deeply into a matter wherein perfonal refentment, with the defire of fupporting a favourite of government, might well be fuppofed among the principal operative motives on both fides; and which is befides of no other moment now perhaps knowledge arifing from it as an to the public, than merely the hiftorical fact. It is, however, necellary, to take fuch a view of the fubject in this part, as will illuftrate and explain the fubfequent debates and tranfactions of which it was productive. tice given by Mr. Fox of his inWe have already feen the notended motion, relative to the appointment of Sir Hugh Pallifer to his government; and it was fuppofed that avowal of a direct attack, was a motive with the other fide in accelerating that gentleman's introduction to the house of there perfonally fupport his own commons, in order that he might caufe, and in a hope that his prefence might check that torrent of invective and cenfure, which the wife fuftain upon his account. His minifters knew they fhould otheron the day that the naval eftimates intended appearance in the house mittee was known, and a perfonal were to be laid before the comquarrel between him and Mr. Fox was expected to be the confe quence. Mr. Mr. Fox was accordingly the principal affailant, and the minifter himself stood forth as the able champion for the new governor. The difcuffion was renewed on the following day, upon bringing up the report from the committee; and the attack was supported at different times, by Mr. Thomas Townshend, Admiral Keppel, Sir Robert Smith, Mr. Sawbridge, the Earl of Surrey, and Mr. John Townshend. The brunt of the defence lay with the minifter, and Sir Hugh Pallifer himself. Neither the admiralty lords, nor those court members who ufually fpoke upon other occafions, taking any part on the prefent. But the noble lord at the head of affairs was in himself an hoft. Dec. 4th. The field was opened by Mr. Thomas Townfhend, who, with much cenfure upon the admiralty, particularly with refpect to the officers, whom they did, and did not employ, obferved, that in granting away fuch vaft fums of their conftituents' money, it was highly neceffary they should enquire into the caufes of fuch pernicious and ruinous conduct; and to know why, in this feason of great public exigeney and danger, the nation was deprived of the fervices and profetfional abilities of fuch men, as the admirals, Keppel, Lord Howe, Sir Robert Harland, Pigot, Campbell, and Barrington? He faid, that wherever this evil originated, the cause must be removed, in order to restore spirit and unanimity to the navy, and to give vigour and effect to its operations. The fate of the nation, he said, depended on the remedy of this evil; and nothing less than that, along with a due distribution of rewards and punishments, could poffibly recover our antient naval renown, and revive that noble spirit which had rendered us invincible at fea. --Sir Robert Smith, in treating the doctrine of rewards and punishments, obferved, that it was not the hulks of fhips, nor their guns, that conftituted the ftrength of the navy of England; it was the high fenfe of honour, and the intrepid fpirit of the officers and men ; and when these were damped the navy was ruined. This idea was adopted by Mr. Fox, and applied with the utmost feverity to the late promotion; reprefenting as the higheft infult which could be offered to the navy, and the greatest stigma that could be affixed to the service, that a perfon convicted of having preferred a false and malicious accufation against his fuperior officer, and who was barely acquitted by a court martial, upon charges exhibited against himself, on that very occafion which he had made the ground of his accufation, fhould be promoted to a poft of diftinction, of honour, and of profit, which had heretofore been held by men of the first naval merit, and which was in fact intended as an honourable retreat and reward to those who had effentially ferved their country. He did not, he faid, blame the perfon who accepted that place; it was the firft lord of the admiralty who was alone to blame, and whose conduct in it ought to be the fubject of their enquiry. When it had been formerly faid in that house, at the time that the accufation was firft preferred against Admiral Keppel, that the accufer HISTORY OF EUROPE. was only the inftrument, and that the admiralty were the principals; that it was they who fuggefted, who prompted, and who fpurred on the accufation; the charge was then ftrongly denied on the part of that board. But what will the navy, what will the nation now think, when they see the accuser rewarded by that very board with a place of high honour, of great emolument? He asked, what had been the accufer's own fenfe of his conduct at the time; had he not abdicated his feat in parliament ? he not refigned his feat at the adHad miralty board? Had he not (to borrow a phrase already used in the debate) made a difcreet retreat from public notice? Were not these teftimonials, and even tacit acknowledgements of his guilt? The difcretion of that retreat produced its effect, in preventing fome of the measures which that house were on point of pursuing, and which the would now have added to the standing records of its sense of the tranfaction. The caufe had been afked in the prefent debate, why the great officers, then named, were not now in the active service of their country; and a noble lord on the other fide, had attributed this unfortunate circumStance to private motives. But the real motives, he faid, were well known to his honourable friend who propofed the queftion, and were indeed within the knowledge of thofe who were the leaft informed in public affairs. The reason was, these great characters could not ferve with confidence or fafety, under an adminiftration guilty of convicted falfe [159 hood, and guilty not merely of did not care how foon the threat- Hugh Pallifer, which was held faid, faid, was not to be directed folely against the firft lord of the admiralty, for he avowed his own full fhare in the transaction; said, that others of the king's fervants were likewife concerned, and that he was ready to defend and fupport the measure in that houfe, whenever it thould be agitated. The honourable gentleman had dwelt much upon the fentence of the court martial which tried Sir Hugh Pallifer, and inferred, that it amounted only to a bare acquittal. He faw the matter in a very different point of view. What were the words of the former part of it? ---" That the court having taken "the whole of the evidence into "confideration, both on the part "of the profecution, as well as "in favour of the prifoner, were "of opinion, fo far from the con"duct of Sir Hugh Pallifer be"ing reprehenfible on the 27th and 28th of July, that in many parts thereof, it appeared exemplary and highly merito"rious." If he understood the meaning of the word meritorious, according to its true acceptation, it fignified in this inftance, that an officer whofe conduct had been declared, after a most strict fcrutiny, to have been highly meritorious, was an officer who deferved reward; and that exemplary conduct meant fuch conduct as was a proper example for other officers to follow, and a fit object for imitation. Under this, which appeared to him to be the true and natural reading of the fentence, Sir Hugh Pallifer was undoubtedly an object of reward, and after his conduct had been declared highly meritorious and exemplary, adminiftration would have been criminally culpable, if they had neglected to give him a fuitable reward. He called upon gentlemen particularly to recollect the peculiar circumftances that rendered Sir Hugh Pallifer's acquittal more than commonly honourable to him? Let them call to mind the arts that were used to fet the public in a flame againft him previous to his trial; and the pains that were taken to run him down, to render him the object of universal indignation; and that these endeavours were at length fo fuccefsful, that he became an object of commiferation and pity even with fome benevolent gentlemen of the oppofition, who humanely did not with that he fhould be brought to a trial, under fuch a load of public odium and prejudice. And let it also be recollected that it was under these circumftances, that, conscious of his innocence, he boldly demanded, and perfevered in his applications for a trial, which was brought on entirely at his own request. And muft not every difpaffionate man, every impartial reader of the fentence, confider fuch an acquittal, in fuch circumftances, as the moft honourable poffible teftimonial to the character of an officer? And could the king's minifters do lefs, confiftently with their duty, than to pay a proper attention to fuch fufferings, and to follow up the danger of being purified by fuch an ordeal, with reward, and with honour ? He feemed to make very light of many fine founding words, which, he faid, had been ufed against administration; but which unfortunately wanted truth for their fupport. And as to the enumerated merated lift of officers, whofe fer- be deemed a falfe and malicious vices were faid to be withholden, accufer. through their want of confidence in the good faith or honefty of adminiftration, furely, if the fact were real, minifters could be confidered as no better than bedlamites, if they employed men who held fuch opinions. Sir Hugh Pallifer read a long, and feemingly laboured, manufcript defence of his conduct. It held out the bittereft complaints, and teemed with invective, against the conduct of Admiral Keppel, of the court martial by which he had been acquitted, of that powerful party by which he had been himself overborne, and of Mr. Fox in particular. He charged all his misfortunes and oppreffions to the power, and to the malevolent perfecution of that party, which feemed ftill to be in as full vigour as ever. He cathechized Mr. Fox with a great number of interrogatories, relative to the practice of *the courts in cafes of high treafon, and others, of parliament, in certain cafes, and of courts martial by fea and land. He claimed merit from his moderation, in remaining for fo long a time a filent fufferer, rather than to increafe the popular difcontents, and the diffentions of the navy, by attempting to oppofe a party, which he acknowledged was too ftrong for him to contend with. He declared, that he confidered his acquittal as the most honourable circumftance of his life; and he flattered himself, that if the houfe hould think an enquiry into the two courts martial neceffary, he fhould not, when that enquiry was over, if it were fairly gone into, VOL. XXIV. nor's detail, and particularly the Several parts of the new govercharges which he made against the court martial that tried Mr. Keppel, were examined and commented upon by that Admiral, Mr. Fox, greater ability, or fo much feveand others; but by none with rity, as by Mr. John Townshend. The minifter's arguments and pofitions were likewife replied to and examined; and the new conftruction which he put upon part of the fentence of one the adroitnefs with which he paffed court martial, fame, and the little attention he over the unfavourable part of the paid to the fentence of another, were all refpectively brought into obfervation. the following day, Sir Robert The matter being brought up on Smith moved, that a copy of the minutes of the trial and fentence of the court martial held for the trial of Vice Admiral Sir Hugh Pallifer, fhould be laid before the houfe. The Earl of Surrey feconded the motion, and among other reafons for it obferved, that preceding day thought proper to as the vice admiral had on the read to the house a long narrative, culated to arraign the juftice of the greatest part of which was calthe court martial which had acquitted Admiral Keppel, and which had cenfured his accufer, he faw clearly, that no man of honour in the fervice, would be fafe in doing his duty as member of a court martial in future, ly made into the bufinefs. The if an enquiry was not immediateprefent motion would open the [*4] way |