all your rigour, and backed with all your I hope the Hon. Gentleman has received a fair and full anfwer to his queftion. I have done with the third period of your policy; that of your repeal; and the return of your ancient fyftem, and your ancient tranquillity and concord. Sir, this period was not as long as it was happy. Another fcene was opened, and other actors' appeared on the ftage. The ftate, in the condition I have defcribed it, ivas delivered into the hands of Lord Chatham a great and celebrated name; a name that -Clarum et venerabile nomen () Sir, Sir, The venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, his fuperior eloquence, his fplendid qualities, his eminent fervices, the vaft fpace he fills in the eye of mankind; and, more than all the reft, his fall from power, which, like death, canonizes and fanctifies a great character, will not fuffer me to cenfure any part of his conduct. I am afraid to flatter him; I am fure I am not difpofed to blame him. Let thofe who have betrayed him by their adulation, infult him with their malevolence. But what I do not prefume to cenfure, I may have leave to lament. For a wife man, he feemed to me, at that time, to be governed too much by general maxims. I speak with the freedom of hiftory, and I hope without. offence. One or two of thefe maxims, flowing from an opinion not the most indulgent to our unhappy fpecies, and furely a little too general, led him into meafures that were greatly mischievous to himfelf; and for that reafon, among others, perhaps fatal to his country; measures, the effects of which, I am afraid, are for ever incurable. He made an administration, fo checkered and fpeckled; he put together a piece of joinery, fo crossly: indented and whimfically dovetailed; a cabinet fo variously inlaid; fuch a piece of diversified Mofaic; fuch a teffelated pavement without cement; here a bit of black ftone, and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers, kings friends and republicans; whigs and tories; treacherous treacherous friends and open enemies: that it was indeed a very curious fhow; but utterly unfafe to touch, and unfure to stand on. The colleagues whom he had afforted at the fame boards, ftared at each other, and were obliged to afk, "Sir, your name?-Sir, you have the advantage of me-Mr. Such a one—I beg a "thoufand pardons-" I venture to. fay, it did fo happen, that perfons had a fingle office divided between them, who had never fpoke to each other in their lives; until they found themselves, they knew not how, pigging together, heads and points, in the fame trucklebed* Sir, In confequence of this arrangement, having put fo much the larger part of his enemies and oppofers into power, the confufion was fuch, that his own principles could not poffibly have any effect or influence in the conduct of affairs. If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other caufe withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the contrary were fure to predominate. When he had executed his plan, he had not an inch of ground. to ftand upon. When he had accomplished his fcheme of adminiftration, he was no longer a minifter. * Supposed to allude to the Right Hon. Lord North, and George Cooke, Efquire; who were made joint paymasters in the Summer of 1766, on the removal of the Rockingham admi-, niftration. When When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole fyftem was on a wide fea, without chart or compafs. The Gentlemen, his particular friends, who, with the names of various departments of miniftry, were admitted, to feem, as if they acted a part under him, with a modefty that becomes all men, and with a confidence in him, which was juftified even in its extravagance by his fuperior abilities, had never, in any inftance, prefumed upon any opinion of their own. Deprived of his guiding influence, they were whirled about, the fport of every guft, and easily driven into any port; and as thofe who joined with them in manning the veffel were the most directly oppofite to his opinions, meafures, and character, and far the most artful and moft powerful of the fet, they easily prevailed, fo as to feize: upon the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his friends; and inftantly they turned: the veffel wholly out of the courfe of his policy. As if it were to infult as well as to betray him, even long before the clofe of the first feffion of his adminiftration, when every thing was publickly tranfacted, and with great parade in his name, they made an act, declaring it highly just and expedient to raise a revenue in America. For even then, Sir, even before this fplendid orb was entirely fet, and while the Western horizon was in a blaze with his defcending glory, on the oppofite quarter of the the heavens arofe another luminary, and, for his hour, became lord of the afcendant. This light too is paffed, and fet for ever. You understand, to be fure, that I fpeak of Charles Townhed, officially the re-producer of this fatal fcheme; whom I cannot even now' remember without fome degree of fenfibility. In truth, Sir, he was the delight and ornament of this houfe, and the charm of every private fociety which he honoured with his prefence. Perhaps there never arofe in this country, nor in any country, a man of a more pointed and finished wit; and (where his pasfions were not concerned) of a more refined, exquifite, and penetrating a judgment. If he had not fo great a ftock, as fome have had who flourished formerly, of knowledge long treasured up, he knew better by far, than any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring together within a fhort time, all that was neceffary to eftablish, to illuftrate, and to decorate, that fide of the queftion he fupported. He stated his matter fkilfully and powerfully. He particularly excelled in a moft luminous explanation, and difplay of his fubject. His style of argument was neither trite and vulgar. nor fubtle and abftrufe. He hit the house just between wind and water.-And not being troubled with too anxious a zeal for any matter in question, he was never more tedious, or more earnest, than the pre-conceived opinions and prefent temper of his hearers required; to whom |