prove of the indiscretion of that wit, which so unseasonably ran away with the good sense and sober judgment of the honourable gentleman. He was as willing as any man to unbend his mind, and to indulge in the recreation of the theatre; but it was only in the theatre, and in circles of amusement, that sober men would choose to give a loose to imagination, and to abstract their minds from all business and reflection. He rose, therefore, to bring back the House to sobriety and seriousness; and to tell them, that that was neither a fit time, nor a proper subject, for the exhibition of a gaudy fancy, or the wanton blandishments of theatrical enchantment; it was their duty and business to break the magician's wand, to dispel the cloud, beautiful as it was, which had been thrown over their heads, and to consider, solemnly and gravely, the very perilous situation of the country, and, by the force of their united wisdom, abilities, and experience, endeavour to rescue the kingdom from its difficulties, by the restoration of an honourable peace. He was sorry that he could neither accept the many compliments which Mr. Burke had paid him, nor yet thank him for them, as they were accompanied with animadversions of such a nature, that only the elegance of that gentleman's genius could save them from being ridiculous. All such playful

exercises of his talent for the gay and the ludi crous, he should treat with the same neglect with which all sober men would treat them; and all compliments paid to him in such a style he should never think himself bound to acknowledge. That Mr. Burke's character of the Speech from the Throne, in regard to the matter and manner, would be admitted by the House, he could not believe, because he could not believe that they would consent to call that Speech a farrago of hypocrisies and absurdities, which they had unanimously approved, and for which they had, nemine contradicente, agreed to present his Majesty with an address of thanks. That his Majesty's serious admonitions to his Parliament should be branded with such epithets ; that his feelings, on so serious a subject as the dismemberment of his empire, should be outraged; that his Speech, delivered with all the sacredness of royalty, should be charged with mockery, hypocrisy, and even profaneness, were things which he did not expect to hear; and which nothing could palliate, but the circumstance of their being the overflowings of a mind, the richness of whose wit was unchecked, for the time, by its wisdom and consideration. Mr. Pitt then proceeded, in a strain of seriousness well suited to the occasion, to defend the senti ments avowed in the Speech; and concluded,

by observing, that he knew not whether Mr. Burke meant to insinuate that he would be guilty of equivocation, when he solemnly stood up as a minister, in that house, and gave an explicit answer to a question explicitly put to him; but he trusted, from his hitherto-unimpeached character, that the House would not, in candour, suppose him to be capable of any such base and scandalous duplicity, till they had proof of his guilt; when they should be satisfied that he was guilty, then should he expect their detestatation; but if it was now meant to impute any such charge to him, he should only say, that the imputation had, if it might be permitted to a young man to say so to one so much older than himself, his scorn and his contempt. If he had deceived the House in-this instance, he deserved to be considered as no longer fit to be trusted in any degree. He pledged his honour, that he would never sacrifice his veracity, nor be a party to a fraud, for any poor and inadequate advantages which he could reap from his continuance in a station, for which he did not think himself qualified.

This spirited conclusion carried with it irresistible force. The mens conscia recti, which afterwards supported Mr. Pitt so often against the pressure of adverse circumstances, and the weight of calamity, gave spirit and animation to his

language, on his first entrance into public life, and impressed every impartial hearer with the fullest conviction of his sincerity. No division was attempted on this address; the respective parties were not yet prepared for a trial of parliamentary strength; nor had the opposition assumed that degree of force and consistency which it afterwards acquired. Besides, as the conclusion of peace was an event daily to be expected, they thought it better to reserve themselves for that occasion, when they hoped to have some stronger grounds of resistance to ministers, than their conduct had hitherto afforded.

Mr. Grenville having removed those obstructions which are generally found to impede the first overtures for a negotiation for peace, Mr. Fitzherbert, the British envoy at Bruxelles, had,' soon after the accession of the new ministry, been sent to Paris, to open and conclude a treaty of peace, with the ministers of France, Spain, and Holland. A Mr. Oswald, a merchant, had been likewise appointed a commissioner to treat with the American commissioners for the same purpose. The treaty with the latter was brought to a speedy conclusion; for, indeed, there was nothing left to treat about, except the settlement of boundaries, and the fate of the loyalists -the House of Commons having previously so

far assumed the right of the executive government, as to preclude the continuance of the war, and, by a necessary consequence, to forbid any farther dispute respecting the professed object of the war-the independence of America. The loyalists were recommended to the revolutionary government of their country, from whose humanity they had little, and from whose justice they had less, to expect. The recommendation proved futile, and the expense of indemnifying those faithful subjects for the sad effects of their fidelity to their lawful sovereign, was left to the mother country to defray.

[1783.] On the twentieth of January peace was concluded with France; and a preli minary treaty signed with Spain.-The terms were as favourable as, under all the relative cir cumstances of the two countries, could reasonably be expected, Still, when these were submitted to parliament, in the following month, they gave rise to very long and animated debates. That Lord North, and his friends, who had uniformly resisted the grant of indepen dence to the rebellious colonists of America, should oppose a treaty in which that grant was ratified and confirmed, was naturally to be expected; but that Mr. Fox, and his associates, who had so long been clamorous for peace