hose
previous warnings have been despised. I could not bear to show you a
representative whose face did not reflect that of his constituents,--a
face that could not joy in your joys, and sorrow in your sorrows. But
time at length has made us all of one opinion, and we have all opened
our eyes on the true nature of the American war,--to the true nature of
all its successes and all its failures.

In that public storm, too, I had my private feelings. I had seen blown
down and prostrate on the ground several of those houses to whom I was
chiefly indebted for the honor this city has done me. I confess, that,
whilst the wounds of those I loved were yet green, I could not bear to
show myself in pride and triumph in that place into which their
partiality had brought me, and to appear at feasts and rejoicings in the
midst of the grief and calamity of my warm friends, my zealous
supporters, my generous benefactors. This is a true, unvarnished,
undisguised state of the affair. You will judge of it.

This is the only one of the charges in which I am personally concerned.
As to the other matters objected against me, which in their turn I shall
mention to you, remember once more I do not mean to extenuate or excuse.
Why should I, when the things charged are among those upon which I
found all my reputation? What would be left to me, if I myself was the
man who softened and blended and diluted and weakened all the
distinguishing colors of my life, so as to leave nothing distinct and
determinate in my whole conduct?

It has been said, and it is the second charge, that in the questions of
the Irish trade I did not consult the interest of my constituents,--or,
to speak out strongly, that I rather acted as a native of Ireland than
as an English member of Parliament.

I certainly have very warm good wishes for the place of my birth. But
the sphere of my duties is my true country. It was as a man attached to
your interests, and zealous for the conservation of your power and
dignity, that I acted on that occasion, and on all occasions. You were
involved in the American war. A new world of policy was opened, to which
it was necessary we should conform, whether we would or not; and my only
thought was how to conform to our situation in such a manner as to unite
to this kingdom, in prosperity and in affection, whatever remained of
the empire. I was true to my old, standing, invariable principle, that
all things which came from Great Britain