that such detestable principles are
equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What, to attribute the
sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian
scalping knife! to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering,
devouring, drinking the blood of his mangled victims! such notions
shock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every
sentiment of honour. These abominable principles and this more
abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I
call upon that right reverend and this most learned bench to vindicate
the religion of their God, to support the justice of their country. I
call upon the bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their
lawn, upon the judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save
us from this pollution. I call upon the honour of your lordships, to
reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I
call upon the spirit and humanity of my country, to vindicate the
national character. I invoke the genius of the constitution. From the
tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble
lord, frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his country. In vain
did he defend the liberty, and establish the religion of Britain
against the tyranny of Rome, if these worse than popish cruelties and
inquisitorial practices are endured among us. To send forth the
merciless cannibal thirsting for blood!--against whom?--Your
protestant brethren--to lay waste their country, to desolate their
dwellings, and extirpate their race and name, by the aid and
instrumentality of these horrible hell-hounds of war! Spain can no
longer boast preeminence of barbarity. She armed herself with
blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico, but we more
ruthless, loose these dogs of war against our countrymen in America,
endeared to us by every tie that should sanctify humanity. My lords, I
solemnly call upon your lordships, and upon every order of men in the
state, to stamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible stigma of
the public abhorrence. More particularly I call upon the holy prelates
of our religion to do away this iniquity; let them perform a
lustration to purify their country from this deep and deadly sin. My
lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more, but my
feelings and indignation were too strong to have said less. I could
not have slept this night in my bed, nor reposed my head upon my
pillow,