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of our Ministers so much, as every inquiry muft relate to foma part of their conduct, that they have no time to mind any thing else; so that all our foreign affairs, and all projects for domeftic utility, must be at a stand during that inquiry. And in the third place, it takes up a great deal of the time of this House, which never ought to be employed but in matters of the utmost importance to the nation, or to fome particular persons, who can have relief no way but by Act of Parliament.

For this reafon, Sir, common fame ought not to be made the foundation of a parliamentary inquiry, unless it be grounded upon fome proofs, or at least upon very ftrong prefumptions, that fomething very weak or very wicked has been transacted; and that by such an inquiry the nation may meet with a proper redrefs, without being thereby exposed to a greater evil. If otherwise, Sir, if we were to inquire into every public tranfaction, of which a bad report might be artfully raised, we should every Seffion have fuch a multitude of inquiries, that we could never do any other business: for it would always be in the power of the diffaffected or disappointed to invert facts, and by afferting these facts openly and boldly, they might raise a general bad report against every measure an Administration could engage in. This is an engine which has been often played against Minifters in all ages, and in all countries; and in this age and country it may now be played with greater safety than ever it was in any other country; for by our old laws, even in this country, it was most severely punished. By a law of the great and wife King Alfred, the author and spreader of false rumours among the people was to have his tongue cut out, if he could not redeem it by paying the value then put by the law upon his head. By a law of Edward the Ift, called Weftminfter the First, the spreaders of false reports, whereby difcord might arife between the King and his people, or the great men of the realm, were to be imprisoned till they produced their author; confequently, if they could produce no author, they were to be held as the inventors, and to be punished according VOL. I.

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to common law, by fine and imprisonment; and this very law was revived and re-enacted in the reign of Edward the IIId.

Thus, Sir, we fee, that even in this country, we had very fevere laws made against this crime, and that by fome of the beft and wifeft of our Kings: and in Scotland, before the Union, this very crime was a species of high-treason, which they called Leifing-making; and upon which, though by a moft extraordinary stretch, the Reprefentative of one of the greatest families in that kingdom, was tried and attainted of high treason, some time before the Revolution, as is well known by feveral Gentlemen that hear me. But why fhould I fay we had very severe laws against this crime? We have them ftill; for they ftand as yet unrepealed, though by the lenity of this Government none of them have of late years been carried into execution. If they were, I believe few of our Pamphleteers, Journalifts, or Coffee-houfe Politicians, could long escape punishment and if this were the cafe, fome Gentlemen of this House would not have fo often an occafion to talk of common fame, or general reports, which are often artfully raised, and industrioufly spread, on purpose to give a handle for disturbing the Government, and diftreffing the Administration, by fetting on foot a parliamentary inquiry.

Right Hon. Henry Pelham, Jan. 31, 1749.

WHAT do their Lordships infinuate, that I have been the author of the prefent measures again America? and it is I that direct them? I fhould be proud to own them if it were, becaufe I think them wife, politic, and equitable: but furely they will permit me to repeat again, that I have been a nominal Cabinet Minifter part of the laft reign, and the whole of the prefent;' that I was an efficient Cabinet Minifter during part of both periods; but that fince the time before alluded to in this debate, I have had no concern or participation whatever in his Majesty's Councils. Threats are thrown out, and inquiries predicted: I heartily with they may be fpeedy: I am prepared for them, and

put

put their intended authors to the most utter defiance. It has been urged against me as a crime to-day, that I have courted popularity. I never did court it, but I have always ftudied to deferve it. Popularity will always fly the purfuers; she must. follow. I do not mean to fay that I defpife it; on the contrary, I fincerely wish for it, if not purchased at too dear a price, at the expence of my confcience and my duty. If a faithful discharge of one, and execution of the other, be the means of procuring it, I hope I fhall always be a warm candidate for popular fame. I have hitherto, to the best of my abilities, acted on that plan, and I hope I shall perfevere to the end. I have feen much of Courts, Parliaments, and Cabinets, and have been a frequent witness to the means used to acquire popularity, and the base and mean purposes to which that popularity has been afterwards employed. I have been in Cabinets, where the great struggle has not been to advance the public intereft; not by coalition and mutual affistance to ftrengthen the hands of Government, but by cabals, jealousy, and mutual diftruft, to thwart each others defigns, and fo circumvent each other, in order to obtain power and pre-eminence. I have been no less careful to observe the effects of popularity, where it has been courted and gained for particular purposes; but when every engagement was abandoned which led to its attainment, when the keeping of them become no longer neceffary to the views of self-interest. and ambition, I am threatened! I dare the authors of thofe threats to put any one of them in execution. I am ready to meet their charges, and am prepared for the event; either to cover my adversaries with shame and difgrace, or in the fall, rifque the remnant of a life nearly drawing to an end, and confequently not worth being folicitous about.

Lord Mansfield, Feb. 7, 1775.

I EVER efteemed the India alliances, at beft, a neceffary evil. I ever believed their fervices to be overvalued; fometimes infignificant, often barbarous, always capricious; and that the

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employment of them was only justifiable, when, by being united to a regular army, they could be kept under controul, and made fubfervient to a general system.

Upon this principle I heartily concurred with that gallant and humane General, Sir Guy Carleton, in the year 1776, to decline the offers and folicitations of the Indians to be then employed separately the impoffibility of compleating the preparations for paffing the regular troops over the Lakes, made it impoffible to employ them conjunctively.

In that year, Sir, it was my lot, by delegation from Sir Guy Carleton, who was then at Quebec, to prefide at one of the greatest councils with the Indians that had been held at Montreal many Gentleman here knew, that the ceremony preceding the taking up the hatchet, is, to offer to the representative of the power they mean to ferve the pipe of war. It was preffed upon me by the Chiefs prefent; and it was in my power, by a fingle whif of tobacco, to have given flame and explofion to a dozen nations. I never felt greater fatisfaction than in being able to fulfil the inftructions I was charged with, for restraining the impetuous paffions of these people: it was a fecondary fatisfaction, at my return to England in the winter, to justify the conduct of Sir Guy Carleton in this respect; though the juftification was very unpopular, amongst thoseI mean not to particularize Minifters, or Minifters of Minifters --but amongst those men, who in their zeal against the Colonifts, had adopted the reafoning, that "partial feverity was

general merey," provided by carrying terrors it conduced to finishing the war. How juft foever this principle may be, my mind is not of a texture for carrying it into effect; and I returned into Canada the following spring, when I fucceeded to the command, determined to be the foldier, not the executioner of the State.

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I found care had been already taken by General Carleton, upon the fame principles of humanity which always direct his conduct, to officer the Indians with Gentlemen felected from.

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the British troops, upon a distinction of their temper and judgment, as well as upon that of their valour, and in much greater number than ever was deftined to that service before. To thefe precautions I added that of a favourite prieft, who had more controul over the paffions of the Indians than all their Chiefs put together; and I trust the expence put upon Government to engage that Gentleman's affiftance through the course of the campaign, will not be efteemed an improper article in my

accounts.

Sir, with these affurances, I was able to enforce obedience to the injunctions of my speech at the great council, upon affembling the army, which has been made public. Barbarity was prevented; fo much fo, that in one inftance, two wounded provincial Officers were brought off in the midft of fire, upon the backs of Indians; and a Captain and his whole detachment, placed in ambufcade, were brought prifoners to my camp by Indians, without a man hurt though it is evident they were placed for the special purpose of destroying me, upon a reconnoitering party, and I was at that time very popular with the Indians.

I could produce many more inftances of the kind, to fhew that every poffible exertion of humanity was used; and that the cafe of Mifs Mecree excepted, which was accident, not premeditated cruelty. My defign was to excite obedience, first by encouragement, and next by the dread, not the commiffion of feverity;" to speak daggers, but ufe none."

General Burgoyne, May 26, 1778.

THE Honourable Gentleman (Alderman Sawbridge) has attacked me, on my activity to require reverfions and emoluments. In answer to this, it is a very natural thing for people without doors, and people who do not inquire into the truth of affertions thrown out in Parliament, to be led away with an idea that the attacks made upon me on that fcore are well founded, Let Gentlemen, however, as I have been called upon to speak

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