ust resistance and glorious
revolution." As for the pacific declarations of foreign powers, and
especially the Bourbons, all reliance on them was exposed with sarcasm
and ridicule. Colonel Barre, indeed, declared that a war of the most
serious nature with France and Spain was impending over the country.
The whole of his majesty's speech was, in truth, denounced as false,
insidious, hypocritical, and deceptive;--as holding out law and liberty,
indeed, but holding it out at the point of the sword.

The speech and address were defended by Lord North and Lord George
Germaine. Lord North denied the charge which had been alleged against
him of withholding information; declared that he had always communicated
to the house as much as he could divulge with safety; and indignantly
repelled the charge of hypocrisy advanced against that part of the
king's speech which stated his desire to restore law and liberty to
the colonists. In his own peculiar quiet way, Lord North hinted to the
opposition, that if they were members of the new American legislature,
they could not have ventured to make so free with the president and
majority of congress, as they were now doing with their sovereign, his
ministers, and the majority of the English parliament. In the
defence, Lord George Germaine remarked that we had been anxious for
reconciliation upon mild and fair terms, and that these terms had been
rejected with scorn by the American leaders. According to their own
statements, he said, of the propositions made by Lord Howe, and the
conference that had taken place on Staten Island, his lordship was as
eager for the restoration of peace, as Franklin, Washington, and the
other leaders were for the continuance of hostilities. He then turned to
the statements made by foreign powers, concerning their friendship for
England. These statements of the princes of the House of Bourbon must be
taken as proofs of their pacific intentions, but if they proved false,
and should incur the folly and the guilt of assisting a rebellion,
Great Britain was prepared to meet them in the field. He pertinently
asked:--"Will the Bourbons, blind to their own interests, wish the
spirit of independence to cross the Atlantic? Can they be exempt from
fear, lest their own colonists should catch fire at the doctrine of the
unlimited rights of mankind, and prefer them to slavery and digging
of gold? And will not great danger arise from the vicinity of powerful
states freed from