erogative of dominion over a few beasts of the
field, should assert his right to shear a wolf, because it had wool
upon its back, without considering whether he had the power of using the
shears, or whether the animal would submit to the operation of shearing.
He remarked:--"Are we yet to be told of the rights for which we went to
war? Oh, excellent rights! Oh, valuable rights! Valuable you should be,
for we have paid dear at parting with you. Oh, valuable rights! that
have cost Britain thirteen provinces, four islands, 100,000 men, and
more than L70,000,000 of money! Oh, wonderful rights! that have lost
to Great Britain her empire on the ocean,--her boasted, grand, and
substantial superiority,--which made the world bend before her! Oh,
inestimable rights! that have taken from us our rank among nations--our
importance abroad, and our happiness at home; that have taken from us
our trade, our manufactures, and our commerce; that have reduced us from
the most flourishing empire in the world, to be one of the most compact
and unenviable powers on the globe! Oh, wonderful rights! that are
likely to take from us all that yet remains!" This picture of the
nation's misery, however, was greatly overwrought. England was not yet
reduced to the abject state in which Burke would have had the house
believe she was in. Her empire on the seas was not yet lost, nor was she
shorn of her rank among the nations. Provinces, islands, men, money, and
trade had been lost in the struggle, but she was still able to lift
up her head among the nations of the earth. Opposition, in truth, in
uttering this language, must have felt that it partook of the nature of
Oriental hyperbole; and all men could see that it was adopted for party
purposes. Fox's amendment was negatived by two hundred and eighteen
against one hundred and twenty-nine.

A similar amendment to that of Fox was moved in the house of lords
by the Earl of Shelburne, who decried the whole conduct of the
war, imputing its disasters to a want of system, combination, and
intelligence; expressed his fears that we might find another Chesapeak
at Plymouth, or in the Thames; declaimed against the war with Holland,
as a perfidious measure; and asserted, in the language of Chatham, that
if the present system were pursued, "his majesty's crown would soon
be not worth his wearing." The Duke of Richmond, the Marquess of
Rockingham, and Lord Camden likewise censured the conduct of ministers:
the forme