[Extract]

. . . What my worthy friend (Mr. Burke) said last year of their industry, may now be applied to their warlike achievements. Consider the power of such materials in the hands of a minister who knew how to encourage their industry, and apply their courage to the purposes of national defence: but all the secret of our colony government is now reduced to mere force, the baneful engine of destructive depotism; nevertheless it is with pleasure I perceive the force of this country, when wielded in such a cause, is totally inadequate; your own army is not sufficient; your illegal application for foreign mercenaries at the beginning of the contest, sufficiently shews your weakness; your navy is equally incapable of effecting the purposes which are expected from it. It may ruin their foreign trade; it may destroy some of their towns (though that is doubtful) but the lying in their rivers, as some suppose, without a superior military force to protect them on shore; I say as a sea officer, if the war is thoroughly kindled, the thing is impossible. We are apt to judge from what happened at Quebec; where the French, never remarkable for naval enterprize, though naturally brave, quitted their fire raft, and left it to the chance of the stream, or to be towed off by boats; but this I maintain, that any fleet lying in a river where ー they cannot command the shore, that such fleet is liable to be burnt if the people are willing in that enterprize to run the same risk of life and danger to which the crew of the ships are exposed, I mean by sticking by the fire vessel, whatever she may be, till with wind and stream they lay the enemy athwart hause; and who can doubt that the people in America are capable of such exertions of courage when we see them refuse quarter, when we find them devoting themselves to death with such enthusiasm? Another circumstance respecting ships is not generally known. The wonders they have hitherto performed has been owing to the ignorance of engineers in placing their batteries; but I am afraid the secret is now out as to their power against. the shore, without a military force to assist them; a single gun in a retired situation, or on an eminence, or a single howitzer, will dislodge a first rate man of war, and may burn her, to add to the disgrace. I speak this publicly, that you may not expect more from the sea service than it is capable to perform. Ruin their trade you certainly may, but at an expence as ruinous to this country. Has any of the ministry considered the immense expence of such naval armaments on the coast of America, in transports and ships of war? Have we calculated the chance of destruction by those horrid streams of wind peculiar to that coast, that sometimes sweep all before them? Where are the resources on which this country can depend in case our empire in America is lost? I do not say you will feel the disadvantage immediately, I know the various channels to which commerce and industry may divert their streams; I am also certain that the wants of America must be supplied in some way or other with certain goods from Great Britain; I further know, that a nation can only trade to the extent of its capital, and in case one vent is cut off, it will probably find another, while its manufactures are cheaper and better than those of other nations. I believe such to be the case with many branches of our manufacture at present, but is it possible it can long continue? Must not the same laws of nature follow this commercial country that has affected Venice and Genoa, the Hans Towns, and other commercial states? The acquirement of wealth must produce dearness in living; dearness of living must produce dearness of labour; dearness of labour must produce dearness of manufactures; dearness of manufactures must conduct trade to some place where cheapness of living will give the preference in the markets. Thus the circle of commerce has hitherto run: but the settlement of North America under the old establishment, seemed to defy the powers of those fleeting principles. America was bound to take your manufactures only to whatever price they might rise; you were bound to take most of her raw materials and to give her commerce protection; a complete system in the exchange of all commodities was established within your own dominion, which might last beyond the views of human calculation, if properly conducted. This is the great purpose to which I look up to America as a naval and as a commercial power; how often have I indulged myself in these thoughts, unable to see the end of our glory from the same causes which have destroyed other states, little dreaming that one infatuated minister could tempt, seduce, and persuade a whole nation to cut the strings of such harmony. The. hon. gentleman who opened the debate, has remarked how we recovered from the interruptions of our commerce during the last war. The hon. gentleman forgets that we had the free and interrupted resources of America during the last war; that in seizing the ships of our enemies we added to the national wealth and increased our own commerce; the progress was double, here it runs in an inverse proportion, no man knows the final effects as yet; like the bursting of a burning mountain, it is sport and play to the distant spectators who think themselves safe, but the eruption may spread to cover this city in ruin.