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owneth the anchor shall make satisfaction; but if a buoy be set there, every man passeth upon his own peril. Now, where is the mark, where is the token upon this crime, to declare it to be high treason?

My lords, be pleased to give that regard to the peerage of England, as never to expose yourselves to such moot points, such constructive interpretations of law if there must be a trial of wits, let the subject matter be of somewhat else than the lives and honours of peers.

It will be wisdom for yourselves, for your posterity, and for the whole kingdom, to cast into the fire these bloody and mysterious volumes of constructive and arbitrary treason, as the primitive Christians did their books of curious arts, and betake yourselves to the plain letter of the law and statute, that telleth us what is, and what is not treason, without being ambitious to be more learned in the art of killing than our forefathers.

It is now full two hundred and forty years since any man was touched for this alleged crime, to this height,

before myself. Let us not awaken these sleeping lions to our destruction, by taking up a few musty records that have lain by the walls so many ages, forgotten or neglected.

May your lordships please not to add this to my other misfortunes; let not a precedent be derived from me so disadvantageous as this will be, in its consequence, to the whole kingdom. Do not, through me, wound the interest of the commonwealth; and howsoever these gentlemen say, they speak for the commonwealth; yet, in this particular, I indeed speak for it, and show the inconvenience and mischiefs that will fall upon it; for, as it is said in the statute of 1 Henry IV., no one will know what to do or say, for fear of such penalties.

Do not put, my lords, such difficulties upon ministers of state, that men of wisdom, of honour, and of fortune, may not with cheerfulness and safety be employed for the public. If you weigh and measure them by grains and scruples, the public affairs of the kingdom will lie waste; no man will meddle with them who hath any thing to lose.

My lords, I have troubled you longer than I should have

done, were it not for the interest of those dear pledges a saint in heaven hath left me.

[At this word he stopped awhile, letting fall some tears to her memory; then he went on]—

What I forfeit myself is nothing; but that my indiscretion should extend to my posterity, woundeth me to the very soul !

You will pardon my infirmity. Something I should have added, but am not able; therefore let it pass.

Now, my lords, for myself, I have been, by the blessing of Almighty God, taught, that the afflictions of this present life are not to be compared to the eternal weight of glory which shall be revealed hereafter.

And so, my lords, even so with all tranquillity of mind, I freely submit myself to your judgment, and whether that judgment be of life or death, Te Deum laudamus.

SPEECH OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM.

MY LORDS,-It has been usual on similar occasions of public difficulty and distress, for the crown to make application to this house, the great hereditary council of the nation, for advice and assistance. As it is the right of parliament to give, so it is the duty of the crown to ask it. But on this day, and in this extreme momentous exigency, no reliance is reposed on your counsels; no advice is asked of parliament; but the crown, from itself, and by itself, declares an unalterable determination to pursue its own preconcerted measures; measures which have produced hitherto nothing but disappointments and defeats.

I cannot, my lords, I will not, join in congratulation on misfortune and disgrace. This, my lords, is a perilous and tremendous moment: it is not a time for adulation; the smoothness of flattery cannot save us in this rugged and awful crisis. It is now necessary to instruct the throne in the language of truth. We must, if possible, dispel the delusion and darkness which envelope it; and display, in its full danger and genuine colours, the ruin which is brought to our doors. Can ministers still presume to expect support in their infatuation? Can parlia

ment be so dead to its dignity and duty, as to give their support to measures thus obtruded and forced upon them? measures, my lords, which have reduced this late flourishing empire to scorn and contempt? But yesterday, and England might have stood against the world; now, none so poor as to do her reverence! The people, whom we at first despised as rebels, but whom we now acknowledge as enemies, are abetted against us, supplied with every military store, their interest consulted, and their ambassadors entertained by our inveterate enemy;—and ministers do not, and dare not, interpose with dignity or effect. The desperate state of our army abroad is in part known. No man more highly esteems and honours the English troops than I do: I know their virtues and their valour: I know they can achieve anything but impossibilities; and I know that the conquest of English America is an impossibility. You cannot, my lords, you cannot conquer America. What is your present situation there? We do not know the worst: but we know, that in three campaigns we have done nothing, and suffered much. You may swell every expense, accumulate every assistance, and extend your traffic to the shambles of every German despot; your attempts will be for ever vain and impotent; -doubly so, indeed, from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your adversaries, to overrun them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms-never, never, never!

But, my lords, who is the man, that, in addition to the disgraces and mischiefs of the war, has dared to authorize and associate to our arms, the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savage?-to call into civilized alliance the wild and inhuman inhabitants of the woods ?-to delegate to the merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren? My lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment. But, my lords, this barbarous measure has been defended, not only on the principles of policy and necessity, but also on those of morality; "for it is perfectly allowable," says Lord Suffolk, "to use all

the means which God and nature have put into our hands." I am astonished, I am shocked, to hear such principles confessed; to hear them avowed in this house, or in this country. My lords, I did not intend to encroach so much on your attention, but I cannot repress my indignation-I feel myself impelled to speak. My lords, we are called upon, as members of this house, as men, as Christians, to protest against such horrible barbarity!

"That God and nature have put into our hands!" What ideas of God and nature that noble lord may entertain, I know not; but I know, that such detestable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What! to attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife !—to the cannibal-savage torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the blood of his mangled victims! Such notions shock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every sentiment of honour. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend, and this most learned bench, to vindicate the religion of their God, to support the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops, to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn-upon the 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 did he defend the liberty, and establish the religion, of Britain, against the tyranny of Rome, if these worse than Popish cruelties and inquisitorial practices are endured among us. To send forth the merciless cannibal, thirsting for blood! against whom?-your Protestant brethren!—to lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name, by the aid and instrumentality of these horrible savages !-Spain can no longer boast pre-eminence in barbarity. She armed herself with bloodhounds, to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico; we, more ruthless, loose those brutal warriors against our country

men in America, endeared to us by every tie that can sanctify humanity. I solemnly call upon your lordships, and upon every order of men in the state, to stamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. More particularly, I call upon the venerable prelates of our religion to do away this iniquity; let them perform a lustration to purify the country from this deep and deadly 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 allowed me to say less. I could not have slept this night in my bed, nor even reposed my head upon my pillow, without giving vent to my stedfast abhorrence of such enormous and preposterous principles.

THE RISE OF MAHOMETANISM.

THERE hath, even since Christianity, started up another (Mahometanism), which, if not upon other accounts, yet in respect to its age, and to the port it bears in the world, demands some consideration; for it hath continued a long time, and hath vastly overspread the earth: neither is it more formidable in its looks, than peremptory in its words; vaunting itself to be no less than a complete, a general, an ultimate declaration of God's pleasure, cancelling and voiding all others that have gone before. But examining both the substance and circumstances thereof, considering the quality of the instruments by whom, of the times when it was introduced, of the places where, of the people who first, or afterward did receive it; the manner of its rise, progress, and continuance; as also the matter it teaches or enjoins; we shall not find stamped on it the genuine characters of a divine original and authority; but have great reason to deem it a brood of most lewd and impudent cozenage. In times of great disturbance and confusion, when barbarous nations, like torrents, did overflow the world, and turned all things upside down; in times of general corruption and disorder in men's minds and manners, when even among Christians, ignorance and superstition, dissension and uncharitableness, impiety and iniquity, did greatly prevail; in a very blind and obscure

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