The Americans, in the mean time, were vigorously preparing for what they conceived to be inevitable--_a war_. Various attempts, notwithstanding, were made by the enlightened and liberal-minded part of the community to prevent ministers from continuing hostilities against them. That noble and persevering patriot, Lord Chatham, raised his warning voice against it. "I wish," said he, "not to lose a day in this urgent, pressing crisis; an _hour now lost in allaying ferments in America, may produce_ YEARS OF CALAMITY! Never will I desert, in any stage of its progress, the conduct of this momentous business. Unless fettered to my bed by the extremity of sickness, I will give it unremitted attention; I will knock at the gates of this _sleeping and confounded ministry_, and will, if it be possible, rouse them to a sense of their danger. The recall of your army, I urge as necessarily preparatory to the restoration of your peace. By this it will appear that you are disposed to treat amicably and equitably, and to consider, revise, and repeal, if it should be found necessary, as I affirm it _will_, those violent acts and declarations which have disseminated confusion throughout the empire. _Resistance to these acts was necessary_, and therefore just; and your vain declaration of the _omnipotence of Parliament_, and your _imperious_ doctrines of the _necessity of submission_, will be found equally _impotent to convince or enslave America_, who feels that tyranny is equally intolerable, whether it be exercised by an individual part of the legislature, or by the collective bodies which compose it!" How prophetic did this language afterwards prove! Oh! England, how hast thou been cursed by debt and blood through the impotency and villany of thy rulers! In the year 1776, the Earl of Harcourt was charged with a breach of privilege; but his services for the _queen_ operated as a sufficient reason for rejecting the matter of complaint. So expensive did the unjust and disgraceful war with America prove this year, that more than _nine millions_ were supplied for its service! In order to raise this shameful amount, extra taxes were levied on newspapers, deeds, and other matters of public utility. Thus were the industrious and really productive classes imposed upon, and their means exhausted, to gratify the inordinate wishes of a German princess, now entitled to be the cause of their misery and ruin. The queen knew that war required soldiers and sailors, and that these soldiers and sailors must have _officers_ over them, which would afford her an opportunity of _selling commissions_ or of bestowing them upon some of her _favourites_. So that these things contributed to her majesty's _individual_ wealth and power, what cared she for the increase of the country's burdens!