rted that he already knew sufficient
to justify him in affirming that the measures for that campaign were
founded in weakness, barbarity, and inhumanity. Here again he launched
forth in bitter invective against the practice of employing the tomahawk
and scalping-knife of the Indians in the war. Then, turning from the
field of battle, he attacked the court. He remarked:--"Within the last
fifteen years the system has been introduced at St. James's of breaking
all connexion,--of extinguishing all principle. A few men have got
an ascendency, where no man should have a personal ascendency; by
the executive powers of state being at their command, they have been
furnished with the means of creating divisions. This has brought pliable
men, not capable men, into the highest situations; and to such men is
the government of this once-glorious empire now entrusted. The spirit
of delusion has gone forth; the ministers have imposed on the people;
parliament has been induced to sanctify the imposition; false lights
have been held out to the country gentlemen, and they have been seduced
into the support of a most destructive war, under the impression that
the land-tax would be diminished by means of an American revenue. The
visionary phantom, thus conjured up for the basest of purposes--that
of deception--is now about to vanish." Chatham had said that Burgoyne
might or might not be an able officer; but he now eulogised his zeal,
his bravery, and his abilities, and then, in defiance of his assertion
that he would not condemn ministers without evidence, he laid the whole
blame upon them, and said that they ought to submit to all the obloquy
till the general had an opportunity of justifying himself. Chatham now
again denounced the practice of employing the Indians; coupling the
German bayonet with the scalping-knife and tomahawk. The only thing
which could be done, he said, to preserve America in our dependence was
to disband the Indians, recall the Germans, and withdraw our troops _in
toto_. As for American independence, he could not endure the thought
of such a consummation. While he abhorred the system of government
attempted to be established in America, he as earnestly and zealously
contended for a Whig government and a Whig connexion between the two
countries, founded on a constitutional dependence and subordination of
America upon England. Against Tory principles he entertained the
most bitter hatred; and in the course of his speech