222 ORATIONS AND IMPASSIONED PIECES. 



more highly esteems and honours the British troops than 

 / do : I know their virtues and their valour ,- I know they 

 can achieve any thing but impossibilities; and I know 

 that the conquest of British America is an IMPOSSIBILITY. 

 You cannot, my Lords, you cannot CONQUER America. 

 What is your present situation there ? We do not know 

 the worst : but we know that in three campaigns we 

 have done NOTHING, and suffered MUCH. You may swell 

 every expense, accumulate every assistance, and. extend your 

 traffic to the shambles of every German despot : your 

 attempts will be for ever vain and impotent doubly so, 

 indeed, from this mercenary aid on which you rely j for 

 it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of 

 your adversaries, to over-run them with the mercenary 

 sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their pos- 

 sessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty. If I were an 

 American as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop 

 was landed in my country, I never: would lay down my 



arms ; NEVER ! NEVER ! NEVER ! 



But, my Lords, who is the man, that, in addition to 

 the disgraces and mischiefs of the war, has dared to autho- 

 rize and associate to our arms the tomahawk and scalping- 

 knife of the savage ? to call into civilized alliance, the wild 

 and inhuman inhabitant of the woods? to delegate to 

 the merciless Indian, the defence of disputed rights, and 

 to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our 

 BRETHREN ? My Lords, these enormities cry aloud for 

 redress and punishment. But, my Lords, this barbarous 

 measure has been defended, not only on the principles of 

 policy and necessity, but also on those of morality ; " for 

 it is perfectly allowable," says Lord Suffolk, " to use all 

 the means which God and nature have put into our 

 hands." I am astonished, I am shocked, to hear such 

 principles confessed ; to hear them avowed in this House, 

 or in this country. My Lords, I did not intend to 

 encroach so much on your attention j but I cannot 



repress my indignation 1 feel myself- impelled to 



speak. My Lords, we are called upon as members of 

 this house, as MEN, as CHRISTIANS, to protest against 

 such horrible barbarity ! " That God and nature 



