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as I have this day described it to be, I do maintain it is. The same measures are still persisted in; and Ministers, because your Lordships have been deluded, deceived and misled, presume, that whenever the worst comes, they will be enabled to shelter themselves behind Parliament. This, my Lords, cannot be the case: they have committed themselves and their measures to the fate of war, and they must abide the issue. I tremble for this country; I am almost led to despair, that we shall ever be able to extricate ourselves. Whether or not, the day of retribution is at hand, when the vengeance of a much injured and afflicted people will, I trust, fall heavily on the authors of their ruin; and I am strongly inclined to believe, that before the day to which the proposed adjournment shall arrive, the noble Earl who moved it will have just cause to repent of his motion.'

The motion of adjournment was agreed to.

CHAPTER XLV.

Lord Chatham's zeal and anxiety respecting America-His last speech in Parliament--His last plan to preserve America-His sudden illness in the House of Lords.

NOTWITHSTANDING a negative had been put upon every proposition and motion made by Lord Chatham, concerning America, yet he resolved to persevere in the same line of conduct. To his zeal in this cause he sacrificed his life. He had not strength of constitution sufficient to bear the exertions he made. He was now advanced in the seventieth year of his age; had for many years suf fered the severest pains of the gout; but possessing talents superior to most men, he felt with the sharpest sensibility the progress of events, which passed with indifference before the eyes of other men, who had not his penetration: although debilitated by infirmity, and enervated by anguish of body and mind, still he refused to yield to the calls of his disorder, or to mitigate his torture, by the indulgence of a bed-while his country was bleeding at every pore, he felt for her, not for himself. Her honour and splendour had been his glory and

his pride-her debasement and adversity were now the only subjects of his concern and anxiety*.

On the 7th day of April 1778, the Duke of Richmond having moved to present an Address to the King on the subject of the state of the nation, in which the necessity of admitting the Independence of America was insinuated, Lord Chatham rose to speak again on this subject.

'He began by lamenting that his bodily infirmi ties had so long, and especially at so important a crisis, prevented his attendance on the duties of Parliament. He declared that he had made an effort almost beyond the powers of his constitution to come down to the House on this day (perhaps the last time he should ever be able to enter its walls) to express the indignation he felt at an idea which he understood was gone forth, of yielding up the sovereignty of America!.

'My Lords, continued he, I rejoice that the grave has not closed upon me; that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy! Pressed

*At, or near, the beginning of this year, a very extraordinary negotiation was attempted to be opened with Lord Chatham, through the channels of Sir James Wright and Dr. Addington; the particulars of which the reader will find in the Appendix A A.

down as I am by the hand of infirmity, I am little able to assist my country in this most perilous conjuncture; but, my Lords, while I have sense and memory, I will never consent to deprive the royal offspring of the House of Brunswick, the heirs of the Princess Sophia, of their fairest inheritance. Where is the man that will dare to advise such a measure? My Lords, his Majesty succeeded to an empire as great in extent as its reputation was unsullied. Shall we tarnish the lustre of this nation by an ignominious surrender of its rights and fairest possessions? Shall this great kingdom, that has survived whole and entire the Danish depredations, the Scottish inroads, and the Norman conquest; that has stood the threatened invasion of the Spanish armada, now fall prostrate before the House of Bourbon? Surely, my Lords, this. nation is no longer what it was! Shall a people, that seventeen years ago was the terror of the world, now stoop so low as to tell its ancient inveterate enemy, take all, we have, only give us peace? It is impossible!

'I wage war with no man, or set of men. I wish for none of their employments; nor would I co-operate with men who still persist in unretracted error; or who, instead of acting on a firm decisive line of conduct, halt between two opinions, where there is no middle path. In God's name, if it is

absolutely necessary to declare either for peace or war, and the former cannot be preserved with honour, why is not the latter commenced without hesitation? I am not, I confess, well informed of the resources of this kingdom; but I trust it has still sufficient to maintain its just rights, though I know them not.-But, my Lords, any state is better than despair. Let us at least make one effort; and if we must fall, let us fall like men!'

When his Lordship sat down, Lord Temple said to him, "You have forgot to mention what we have been talking about-Shall I get up?" Lord Chatham replied, "No, no; I will do it by and by."

The conversation to which Lord Temple alluded related to the principal features of a plan, which Lord Chatham had formed with a view to effect the recovery of America. The first part of the plan was, to recommend to his Majesty, to take Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick immediately into his service. Lord Chatham's design in this measure was to make an impression upon France on the Continent, in order to prevent her sending that assistance to the Americans, which he knew the French Court had promised.-Another part of the plan was, to recommend a Treaty of Union with the Americans that America should make peace and.

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