eral, and is manifestly carried on for the
purpose of establishing an independent empire. I need not dwell upon
the fatal effects of the success of such a plan. The object is too
important--the spirit of the British nation too high--the resources with
which God hath blessed her too numerous--to give up so many colonies,
which she has planted with great industry, nursed with great tenderness,
encouraged with many commercial advantages, and protected and defended
at such expense of blood and treasure." His majesty continued, that it
was now necessary to put a stop to these disorders, and that, for this
purpose, he had greatly increased his naval establishment, and augmented
his land-forces. He had sent, he said, Hanoverian troops to Gibraltar
and Port Mahon, to replace such British regiments as should be drawn
from those garrisons for service in America; and he had received
friendly offers of foreign assistance. His majesty also professed his
readiness to forgive the colonists when they became sensible of their
error; for which purpose, to prevent inconvenience, he would give, he
said, a discretionary power to commissioners to grant general pardons,
who might, he thought, be likewise entrusted with authority to restore
the free exercise of its trade and commerce to any colony on making
its submission. He concluded by informing both houses, that he saw no
probability of any impediment to his measures from the hostility of
foreign powers, since they had expressed their friendly assurances.

The address proposed by ministers was, as usual, a mere echo of the
speech, and an amendment was proposed in the commons, by Lord John
Cavendish, recommending that the whole should be expunged except the
_pro forma_ introductory paragraph, and that the following should be
substituted,--"That they beheld with the utmost concern the disorders
and discontents in the colonies rather increased than diminished by
the means that had been used to suppress and allay them; a circumstance
alone sufficient to give them just reason to fear that those means were
not originally well considered, or properly adapted to their ends. That
they were satisfied by experience that the misfortune had, in a great
measure, arisen from the want of full and perfect information of the
true state and condition of the colonies being laid before parliament;
by reason of which, measures injurious and inefficacious had been
carried into execution, from whence no salutary e