"To show the nature of the horrible war, which I propose to put an end to, it is necessary to go back to its origin. I find it in that committee of darkness, which met in this house fifteen years ago at midnight. This company of black conspirators, who plotted in their conventicle the destruction of the British empire, and sowed the seed of all the evils, of all the disgraces, and of all the insults under which England and America have groaned, from the fatal moment in which this senseless committee conceived the extravagant idea of drawing a revenue from the colonies, by taxing subjects in a house where they had no representatives. Thank heaven I have no reproach to make to myself. I opposed, in the time of it, this horrible measure, and predicted the fatal effects, and I have the chagrin to see all my predictions accomplished; from error to error, from one false measure to another, we are arrived to the brink of a precipice, down to the bottom of which we feel ourselves irresistibly hurried by the weight of our debts. "From the time that the word independence, coming from America, resounded in this house, we have endeavored to evince that the Americans had originally this independence in view. Nevertheless, the events have demonstrated that nothing was further from their idea. When I express myself thus, I speak of Americans in general. I pretend not to insinuate, that there were not among them some men of inferior rank, who have thought that they saw their present interest in the independence of their country. In so vast a country it is impossible, that there should not be found some such senseless men, and I should be more senseless, more absurd, than the absurdest of them all, if I could doubt of it a moment. But again, once more; the mass of the nation did not aim at independence; when we had forced this peaceable people to a just resistance, what happened here? Our lawyers opened the road of error; we never inquired how we could appease these rising troubles. Grave men, distinguished by the most eminent talents, and by the most influential offices, talked of conquest and submission; 'The Rubicon is passed,' said they, 'the sword is drawn, it you do not kill them they will kill you.' The lawyers were powerfully seconded by the reverend ministers of a religion, which teaches peace and recommends brotherly love. The robe and the mitre, animating us in concert to massacre, we plunged ourselves into rivers of blood, spreading terror, devastation, and death over the whole continent of America, exhausting ourselves at home both of men and money, dishonoring forever our annals, we became the objects of horror in the eyes of indignant Europe! It was our reverend prelates who led on this dance, which may be justly styled the dance of death! These reverend prelates have a terrible account to give to their country and to their consciences; they have opened upon them the eyes of the nation, who have justly