weakness! Obstinate, however, as himself had been in pushing forward the war with Spain, he supposed he had been in the wrong, as nobody had joined in sentiment with him but Lord Temple. They two were for making the entire maintenance of the fisheries the _sine quâ non_; but all the rest had been against them, both the old Ministers and _the favoured Minister of this King_. Soon had it been known to France that the exclusive fisheries would not be made a _sine quâ non_. He had not thought that France would at once give them up, but he had held them worth trying for for another campaign or two. Before the death of the Czarina--before the acquisition of Guadaloupe, the Havannah, and Pondicherry, the Duc de Choiseul had asked but for one rock at Newfoundland; he wished he had made his stand there, and refused, though overwhelmed with most illiberal calumny and scurrility! He took notice of the thousands of lives thrown away at the Havannah by their being sent out at so untimely a season, when the work might have been done in the month of April; but he had retired first, when he found he was not permitted to have the least weight. Yes, said he again, the French had cried _Donnez nous un rocher simplement_.--I replied, I did not intend to give them the garden of Eden. But what they asked for their _batiments pêcheurs_ extended to much more than a rock. They asked for fishing vessels, now had been given them a fishery--_en toute propriété_, in full right; I never would have granted it. Then, after expatiating on the fisheries, he drew attention to himself, by seeming to bid adieu to politics, and to despair of his own health. He might never come to the House again. He was unconnected, followed no party, respected the King’s administration, though he must remonstrate when he saw them going on fatal ground. He prayed for the House of Brunswick; stood on revolution principles alone against France; had a deep-rooted alienation from France; acted on the spirit of King William, on whose maxims, and on the maxims on which they came thither, the House of Brunswick must rest, or could never be secure. He had seen the day on which every unsound maxim had been disclaimed; now saw unhappy clouds darkening our prospect; wished the Ministers would think of these important matters before it was too late!