ted the exemplary
conduct of the national militia; returned his cordial thanks to all
loyal subjects who had stood forward in the present momentous trial; and
recommended the state of Ireland to consideration. Nothing was said by
his majesty concerning America or the Americans, but the commons were
told that it was with extreme concern that his majesty saw the great and
inevitable expenses which his naval and military forces would require.
His majesty concluded by saying, that, trusting in Divine Providence,
and in the justice of his cause, he was firmly resolved to prosecute the
war with vigour.

The address was opposed in the house of lords by the Marquess of
Rockingham, who moved an amendment, omitting every word which it
contained except the title, and inserting a prayer instead, beseeching
his majesty to reflect on the extent of territory, the power, the
opulence, the reputation abroad, and the concord at home which
distinguished the commencement of his reign; and now on the endangered,
impoverished, enfeebled, distracted, and even dismembered state of his
kingdom, after all the enormous grants of successive parliaments. The
amendment concluded by requesting his majesty to resort to new counsels
and new counsellors, without further loss of time, as the only remedy
for the existing evils. In his speech, the Marquess of Rockingham
censured the facility with which the two ambassadors, Lords Grantham and
Stormont, had suffered themselves to be deceived by the craft of France
and Spain; asserted that the clause in the speech which spoke of the
blessings of living under his majesty's happy government, was insulting
to the common sense of the house, as all those blessings were turned
into curses; attacked the first lord of the admiralty on various points
connected with his administration; attributed all the discontents in
Ireland to the folly and bad faith of ministers, who had made promises
which they had not performed; and, finally, denounced the war in America
as bloody, malignant, and diabolical. In reply, Lord Stormont imputed a
great part of the misfortunes which surrounded us to the incautious
and violent language used in parliament. Lord Mansfield expressed his
conviction that nothing but a comprehensive union of all parties could
effect the salvation of the country. How far the temper of the nation
and the state of parties might admit of such a coalition he could not
decide; but the event, he said, was devoutly t