226 EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



dutiful manner at His Majesty's feet, and humbly beg that I 

 may be permitted to retire. Your Lordship will easily con- 

 ceive the regret and mortification I feel at being necessi- 

 tated to quit the military profession, which has been that of 

 my ancestors for many generations, to which I have been bred 

 from my infancy, to which I have devoted the study of my 

 life, and to perfect myself in which, I have sought instruction 

 and service in whatever part of the world they were to be 

 found." This manly conduct of Lord Effingham was not 

 unnoticed by many of the people of Great Britain. In Dublin, 

 at a meeting of the merchants, resolutions complimentary to 

 him were adopted. Among these resolutions, we notice the 

 following : " Resolved, That the sincere thanks of this guild 

 be presented to the Right Honourable Earl of Effingham, in 

 testimony of our approbation of his public conduct, particu- 

 larly exemplified in his refusing to draw that sword, v, hich had 

 been employed to the honour of his country, against the lives 

 and liberties of his fellow-subjects in America, and honestly 

 and spiritedly resigning a commission which he cpuld no 

 longer hold consistent with the principles of a true English- 

 man, or of a real friend to the interest of Britain." In the 

 House of Lords, he plead the cause of injured America. In 

 his place in Parliament, he uttered such sentiments as the fol- 

 lowing : " They come to you with fair argument : you have 

 refused to hear them. They know they ought to be free • you 

 tell them they shall be slaves. Ever since I was of an age to 

 have any ambition at all, my highest has been to serve my 

 country in a military capacity. If there was an event on 

 earth 1 dreaded, it was to see my country so situated as to 

 make that profession incompatible with my duty as a citizen. 

 That period has, in my opinion, arrived, and I have thought 

 myself bound to relinquish the hopes I had formed, by a resig- 

 nation of what appeared to me to be the only method of avoid- 

 ing the guilt of enslaving my country and imbruing my hands 

 in the blood of her sons." This noble patriot belonged to an 

 old and highly illustrious family, whose exploits form one of 

 the brightest pages in English history. 



