With such Ministers, such principles, such plans, such internal resources, such prospects of alliance; Gentlemen were now called on to echo the Speech, to panegyrize an Administration too despicable for satire, to plunge this devoted country in aggravated ruin, and, with a remorseless dispair, to _desolate_ what they had found impossible to _subdue_. [Sidenote: Lord N[o]rth.] L[o]rd _N[o]rth_.[8] Mr. Sp[eake]r, at the same time that I agree with many Gentlemen who have spoken in the course of this day’s debate, that the present is a very serious moment of deliberation, I can by no means join with them in thinking our situation is desperate, though, I confess, it is distressing. Sir, in all cases of distress or difficulty there is some relief to be found in comparison. Gentlemen who hear me, will admit that this country, in former wars, has been acquainted with unfortunate events. The loss of some of our possessions, and the failure of enterprizes, marked the onset of last war. Commanders were unsuccessful, perhaps criminal;—I do not mean to draw a complete analogy between that period and the present—I only mean to observe, that there has been no difficulty in modern times, from which this Country has not been able to extricate itself, when rouzed by a sense of its wrongs, and determined to vindicate its justice, its dignity, and its honour.⸺In saying this, I shall be told by Gentlemen that we were indebted to a great Character in the midst of our misfortunes during the last war, and that, by his vigour and enterprizing genius, this Country was extricated from her embarrassing situation. I will join heartily in paying that tribute of truth to his memory⸺Would to God that such a man were alive at this moment, to step forward with the full exertion of the same zeal, and the same talents. I would yield to none as a second in the work, though I confess my inability to be employed as a first. Sir, the Honourable Gentleman who spoke last, has gone over such a variety of ground, and has given so large a history of the wickedness of Ministers during the American war, that the asperity with which he has delivered it, would be a sufficient reason for my silence, did I not think it necessary, from a duty I owe to this house and to my country, to give some answers to assertions which have fallen from him.