as it was evident we
should be, with the Bourbons. The opposition now attended the house in
full force, but the amendment was nevertheless negatived by two hundred
and forty-three to eighty-six.

In the lords the debate on the address was still more animated than in
the commons. It was opposed by the Earl of Coventry, who, in the outset,
gravely recommended that our armies and fleets should be recalled, and
that the independence of America should be forthwith acknowledged.
His lordship took extreme views of our position; even predicting, that
should his advice be adopted, it, nevertheless, would not prevent the
downfall of England; that it was a matter of certainty, as fixed and as
immutable as any law of nature, that sooner or later the seat of empire
would be removed beyond the Atlantic. One grand argument used by his
lordship to establish his views, was the insignificant figure which
Britain made in the map of the world compared with the more imposing
figure of the American continent. The people, also, he argued, were more
frugal, industrious, and wise on the other side of the Atlantic than
they were in England; and that, while population increased and would
increase in America, it would inevitably decline in the mother country!
But such crotchets as these were only calculated to confirm ministers
and the country at large in their determination of pursuing the contest.
Lord Chatham, who next rose, still supported by his crutch, to move an
amendment, spoke more wisely; though he also predicted ruin to England
if the contest was not given up; or, in other words, if peace between
the two countries was not concluded. The noble lord commenced his speech
by joining in the congratulation of the address on the birth of another
princess, and the happy recovery of her majesty. Here, however, he
said, his courtly complaisance must end; for he could not join in
congratulation on misfortune and disgrace. He could not concur in a
blind and servile address, which approved, and endeavoured to sanctify,
the monstrous measures that had heaped disgrace upon us, and had brought
ruin to our very doors. The present moment, he said, was a perilous and
tremendous period, and therefore not a time for adulation. His lordship
then pointed out the degrading situation to which this country was
reduced, in being obliged to acknowledge as enemies those whom we
had denominated rebels; and in seeing them encouraged and assisted by
France, while mini