His majesty having entered into treaty with the landgrave of _Hesse-Cassel_, the duke of _Brunswick_ and other _German_ princes, for 17000 men, to be employed in America, Lord North moved, [Feb. 29.] “that these treaties be referred to the committee of supply.” The troops were represented as equal to any in Europe for the regularity of their discipline: and one reason assigned for hiring them was, that men could be more readily had that way than by recruiting at home, and upon the whole on cheaper terms. But the measure of employing foreign auxiliaries was reprobated in all its parts by opposition: however, after debating till past two in the morning, his lordship’s motion was agreed to by a majority of 242 to 88. When the treaties came before the house of lords, they met with equal opposition. The duke of Richmond moved for an address to the king, requesting him to countermand the march of the German auxiliaries, and to give immediate orders for a suspension of hostilities in America, in order to lay a foundation for a treaty, to compose the differences between Great-Britain and her colonies. He took an historical view of the treaties between the British and Hessian court for many years past: showing that this had gradually risen in its demands, in every successive treaty. The present was said to have exceeded all the former in the exorbitancy of its conditions. He asserted, from the calculations he had made, that the body of 17,300 foreigners taken into British pay, would, including all contingencies, occasion an expence of no less than £.1,500,000 within the course of a twelvemonth.—It was said in the debates—the colonies are to be devoted to the horrors of war, and to be treated as a nation from which we have experienced every kind of contumelious usage. Unprovided with a sufficient number of troops for the cruel purposes designed, or unable to prevail upon the natives of this country to lend their hands to such a sanguinary business, ministers have applied to those foreign princes who trade in human blood, and hired armies of mercenaries for the work of destruction. An army of foreigners is now to be introduced into the British dominions, not to protect them from invasion, not to deliver them from the ravages of an hostile army, but to assist one half of the inhabitants in massacreing the other. This foreign connection will be productive of the most fatal events. Hitherto this unhappy dispute has been confined to the people of the British empire; the colonies have not shown a disposition for the calling in of any other nation as an umpire. They apparently depend upon themselves for its support and termination; and do not, in all probability, imagine that we can be so imprudent as to associate others to our domestic feuds. But when they see that we have recourse to this odious expedient, they will no longer think themselves bound to stand singly in the contest: they will, after our example, apply to strangers for assistance.