and that the Loyalists would obtain redress from America.
Should they not, this country was bound to afford it them. They _must be
compensated_; Ministers, he was persuaded, meant to keep _the faith of
the nation with them_."

Lord North (who had been Prime Minister during twelve years, including
the war) said:

"And now let me, Sir, pause on a part of the treaty which awakens human
sensibility in a very irresistible and lamentable degree. I cannot but
lament the fate of those unhappy men, who, I conceive, were in general
objects of our _gratitude_ and _protection_. The Loyalists, from their
attachments, surely had some claim to our affection. But what were not
the claims of those who, in conformity to their _allegiance_, their
_cheerful obedience_ to the _voice of Parliament_, their confidence in
the proclamation of our generals, invited under every assurance of
_military, parliamentary, political, and affectionate protection,_
espoused with the hazard of their lives, and the forfeiture of their
properties, the cause of Great Britain? _I cannot but feel for men thus
sacrificed for their bravery and principles_--men who have sacrificed
all the dearest possessions of the human heart. They have exposed their
lives, endured an age of hardships, deserted their interests, forfeited
their possessions, lost their connections, and ruined their families _in
our cause_. Could not all this waste of human enjoyment excite one
desire of protecting them from a state of misery, with which the
implacable resentment of the States has desired to punish their loyalty
to their Sovereign and their attachment to their mother country? Had we
not espoused their cause from a _principle of affection and gratitude_,
we should, at least, have _protected_ them _to have preserved our own
honour_. If not tender of _their feelings_, we should have been tender
_of our own character_. Never was the _honour_, the _principles_, the
policy of a nation so grossly abused as in the desertion of those men,
who are now exposed to _every punishment_ that _desertion_ and _poverty_
can inflict, _because they were not rebels_."

Lord Mulgrave said: "The Article respecting the Loyalists he never could
regard but as a lasting monument of _national disgrace_. Nor was this
Article, in his opinion, more reproachful and derogatory to the _honour
and gratitude_ of Great Britain than it appeared to be wanton and
unnecessary. The honourable gentleman who had made the mot