and wounded. His ship was every way superior to the Trumbull, except in sailing; yet Nicholson lost but thirtytwo in killed and wounded.

In October, the sloop Saratoga, sixteen, Captain Young, succeeded, after a sharp conflict, in capturing a ship and two brigs, which she was convoying into port, with one other prize, when the Intrepid, seventy-four, came up, and recaptured the prizes; but the Saratoga escaped. She is supposed to have afterwards foundered at sea, as she never returned to port.

On the 2d of April, 1781, the Alliance, Captain Barry, captured two Guernsey privateers; one of twenty-six, and another of fourteen guns. Soon after, she fell in with two English men-of-war, one a sloop rating sixteen, the other a brig of fourteen guns. Owing to a calm, these two vessels were enabled to select their own position, and the Alliance suffered severely. Captain Barry was wounded, and the enemy were certain of a victory, when a breeze sprang up, and they were both captured. One was sent by Barry to England, as a cartel of prisoners; the other sailed to America, where she was retaken by the British fleet, cruising off Boston.

In June, the Confederacy, thirty-two, Captain Harding, was captured while returning from Cape Français, with a convoy, by a large armed ship and a frigate; and in August, the Trumbull was captured by three British cruisers, off the capes of the Delaware, in consequence of an accident happening to her rigging, and preventing her sailing. On the morning of the 6th of September, the Congress, of twenty guns, commanded by Captain Geddes, met and engaged the British sloop-of-war Savage, sixteen, Captain Sterling, and after a most desperate engagement, compelled her to strike. The Savage was recaptured by a British frigate, and taken into Charleston.

EWS of the surrender of the southern army under Cornwallis, reached London on the 25th of November, and as parliament was to assemble on the 27th, some alterations became necessary in the speech from the throne. The king addressed Parliament in the same decided

ADDRESS FROM THE THRONE.

105

tone which he had assumed the year before. He spoke of the favourable appearance of British affairs in the East Indies, and of the safe arrival of the commercial fleets; but he added that his efforts to preserve the unity of the empire had not been so successful in other parts of the world; that the events of the war had been very unfortunate in Virginia; his forces in that quarter being totally lost. Nevertheless, he wished for further exertions in that part of America.

The opposition were vehement in the debates that followed. Mr. Fox, particularly, was very violent in his charges of mismanagement on the part of the ministry. "He would not say that they were paid by France; he could not prove the fact. But he would say they deserved to be paid by the Grand Monarque; for they had served him more faithfully and more successfully than ever ministers served a master." He then proceeded to censure the ministers, one and all, but Lord Sandwich particularly; and he laid the blame of the loss of Cornwallis's army upon that minister, for not having provided a superior fleet to contend with the French vessels known to be in the American seas.

Lord North replied to Fox in his usual manner, expressing great indignation at the implied charge of bribery; and urging a continuation of the war, on account of the rights which it was intended to support.

Burke spoke next on the side of the opposition, and pronounced a tremendous philippic against Lord North. He called his speech not only imprudent, but audacious — a speech which froze his blood and harrowed up his soul. He said that the war was not unfortunate, but disgraceful; and that the king's speech was the greatest calamity of all, as it showed the disposition of ministers not to retreat an inch, but to plunge deeper in disgrace, and augment the unhappiness of the nation. "Are we yet to be told of the rights for which we went to war? Oh! excellent rights! Oh! valuable rights! Valuable you should be, for we have paid dear at parting with you. Oh! valuable rights! that have cost Britain thirteen provinces, four islands, one hundred thousand

VOL. II. 14

106

SPEECH OF BURKE.

men, and more than seventy millions of money. Oh! wonderful rights, that have lost to Great Britain her empire on the ocean, her boasted, grand, and substantial superiority, which made the world bend before her. Oh! inestimable rights, that have taken from us our rank among nations, our importance abroad, and our happiness at home; that have taken from us our trade, our manufactures, and commerce; that have reduced us from the most flourishing empire in the world, to be one of the most compact, unenviable powers on the face of the globe? Oh! wonderful rights, that are likely to take from us all that yet remains!"

Fox's amendment was nevertheless lost by a large majority, and a similar motion made in the House of Lords by the Earl of Shelburne, was also rejected. When the address was reported to the House, the younger Pitt, now rising into fame as an orator, made an eloquent speech against its passage, and charged the losses and suffering of the American loyalists upon the misconduct of Cornwallis and the ministers. Burke followed him, and continued the denunciations of the ministry. The address was nevertheless carried, by a large majority.

Other business engaged the attention of Parliament, until the 12th of December, when Sir James Lowther, in a full house, moved two resolutions: "1. To declare, that the war carried on in the colonies and plantations of North America had been ineffectual to the purposes for which it had been undertaken, of affording protection to his majesty's loyal subjects there, and of defeating the hostile intentions of our confederated enemies. 2. That it was the opinion of the House that all farther attempts to reduce the Americans to obedience by force, would be ineffectual, and injurious to the true interests of this country, by weakening her powers to resist her ancient and confederated enemies."

Mr. Powys seconded this motion in an able and eloquent speech, and Lord North soon after declared that it would be neither wise nor right to prosecute the war in America on a continental plan; that is, by sending fresh armies to march through the colonies. He then continued to urge the necessity

IMPRISONMENT OF LAURENS.

107

of defending the British posts in America, and of protecting British trade from American privateers, whose influence was extensively felt by London merchants. Lord North then retreated, leaving Germaine to combat the torrent of words which began to flow from the opposition.

Lord George Germaine then said that if that resolution were adopted, he would immediately resign the post he held; as, to his mind, the independence of America, and the ruin of Great Britain, were synonymous terms. A motion of the order of the day was finally carried, though by a much reduced ministerial majority, the vote standing two hundred and twenty to one hundred and seventy-seven.

During the month of December, American affairs continued to occupy the attention of the House; and Burke, early in the session, brought before them the case of the American envoy, Henry Laurens, who was still confined a prisoner in the Tower, and the orator reprehended ministers for their harsh treatment of that distinguished person.

Germaine denied the charge of ill-treatment, and read a letter, purporting to be from Laurens himself, thanking ministers for indulgences received by him in the Tower. Burke, on the 20th of December, presented a petition to the House, written by Laurens himself with a black-lead pencil on the blank leaf of a book, that being the only medium by which he could make his case known to parliament. Burke, at the same time, gave notice of his intention to bring in a bill providing for the exchange of prisoners with America. This, however, produced beneficial results to Laurens, who was soon after liberated on bail, and ultimately exchanged for General Burgoyne.

The House adjourned on the 20th of December, to reassemble on the 21st of January. During this recess, bad news was received from all quarters. The intelligence of the entire loss of the Island of Minorca, more particularly, formed a rallying point for the renewal of the attacks of the opposition on the ministers. Despairing of success, Germaine had requested leave to resign his place at the head of American