216 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



this country immense possessions, few words were judged to be 

 wisest : but, perhaps, the country would deem the verbose address 

 less exceptionable, than that which was defended on the ground of 

 its modesty; at least, he was sure the country would less feel the con- 

 sequence of the one than of the other; but the Right Hon. Secretary 

 had adopted a style of reasoning fit for the defence of such conduct : 

 k% True," said he, " the peace is a bad one, but could you have made 

 a better? Much has been given to the enemy, but, thank God, that 

 much is a heap of rubbish." France, said Mr. Burke, has obtained 

 Tobago and St. Lucia in the West Indies, a dangerous extent of fish- 

 ery, all the forts and islands in Africa, and a district in the East 

 Indies, which cannot fail to render France a formidable enemy, when- 

 ever war shall again break out. To Spain we had ceded East 

 Florida, and guaranteed West Florida and Minorca. To America 

 we had given an unlimited extent of territory, part of the province 

 of Canada, a right of fishery, and other extraordinary cessions: and 

 yet the Right Hon. Secretary told the House, that what we had con- 

 ceded was of little worth to us, and, in effect, a heap of rubbish. . . . 

 Having argued this strongly, he came to a consideration of the treaty 

 with the United States; a treaty, which in its preamble declared 

 reciprocal advantage and mutual convenience to be its basis, but 

 which was full of the most important concessions on our part, with- 

 out the smallest balance, or equipoise to support that reciprocity it 

 so much boasted. Had he been worthy to advise Ministers in making 

 that treaty, he would have advised them not to mention such a word 

 as reciprocity. If the terms, from the necessity of our situation, were 

 obliged to be such as were replete with disgraceful concession, to talk 

 of reciprocity was adding insult to injury 



The Lord Advocate (Mr. Dundas) .... 



He accounted, why the Quebec line of boundary was not adopted, 

 and argued that the boundary prescribed by the articles of the pres- 

 ent treaty was that least likely to create future uneasiness 



Governor Johnstone was very severe in his strictures on the. boun- 

 daries of the United States, which he said appeared to him to be not 

 only ignorantly drawn, but to give away lands, forts, and fisheries. 

 which the crown had no legal power to cede. He pointed out the 

 ignorance of those who drew up the second article, in which it was 

 stated as one part of the boundaries, that a line was to be drawn 

 u along the middle of the River Mississippi, until it should intersect 

 the northernmost part of the 31st degree of north latitude." This, 

 he said, was direct nonsense; there was no such thing as a northern- 

 most part of a degree, and so a mere school-boy, who had just begun 

 to look into a book of geography, could tell Ministers. 



******* 



Mr. Sheridan .... 



He took a view of the fur trade, the boundaries of Canada, &c. and 

 was apprehensive the great solicitude shown by administration to 

 conciliate the affections of America, as it had been termed, would be 

 a means, in the marking of the boundaries, of creating future dis- 

 sentions. 



