206 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



idea of imputing blame to the noble Viscount. His abilities are un- 

 questioned; but when the greatness of the navy is made not only a 

 boast but an argument, it is fair to examine the fact. Are not these 

 things so ? and are not these things to be taken into the account, before 

 Ministers are condemned for giving peace to the country ? Let the 

 man who will answer me these questions fairly, tell me how, in such 

 circumstances, he would make a peace, before he lets his tongue 

 loose against those treaties, the ratification of which has caused so 

 many anxious days and sleepless nights. It is easy for any bungler 

 to pull down the fairest fabric, but is that a reason, my Lords, he 

 should censure the skill of the architect who reared it? But I fear 

 I trespass, my Lords, on your patience top long. The subject was 

 near my heart, and you will pardon me, if I have been earnest in 

 laying before your Lordships our embarrassments, our difficulties, 

 our views, and our reasons for what we have done. I submit them to 

 you with confidence, and rely on the nobleness of your natures, that 

 in judging of men who have hazarded so much for their country, 

 you will not be guided by prejudice, nor influenced by party. 



Viscount Keppel said, that he had not been invited to be present 

 when the opinions of Admiral Edwards, and the other officers, had 

 been asked on the Newfoundland fishery, otherwise he might have 

 given his opinion of what had been said. In respect to what the 

 noble Lord had thrown out with regard to the state of the navy, and 

 the embarrassments and accidents of the last campaign, he was 



not solicitous of the noble Lord's praise, and he was not much 

 124 hurt at his insinuation : he would abide by what he had said 



the navy of England was not only in a flourishing, but a vig- 

 orous state; and we had the happiest prospects before us for the 

 next campaign. 



******* 



Lord LougJiborough said, 



The fishery is diminished, but the fur trade is entirely renounced, 

 for the country that produces that article is given away. The noble 

 Lord who spoke last, defends this by arguments which conclude for 

 an entire cession of Canada, and point out that this must be in- 

 tended, for what else is the meaning of stating the account of the 

 profit and loss of that province. The charge, however, was in a great 

 degree to be placed to the account of the war, and the profit would 

 have been very great upon a peace, had we not given away the most 

 valuable part of the province. The noble Lord attempts also to jus- 

 tify this cession by a long declamation against monopolies, and an 

 encomium upon open and free trade. How the censure of monopolies 

 has the least application to this question, it was impossible to con- 

 ceive; we had a monopoly of the fur in the same manner that every 

 country has a monopoly of its own produce. Iron, lead, coal, wine, 

 wood, the natural produce of any countries, are sold by those who 

 possess them as owners, not as monopolists. The fur trade was ours, 

 because we held the country that supplied it. How is the trade laid 

 open by transferring that country to the Americans? No more than 

 the coal trade would be opened by yielding up our mines to another 

 power. 



* * * * * * . * 



Of all the parts of this treaty the provisional articles are the most 

 unworthy of a nation once respectable: that it might be necessary 



