evidence to adduce at the bar, and would go into the matter that night, or whenever the House should please. He desired the House would suffer the inquiry to be gone into, and he would pledge himself that he would prove every thing he had said.

The House divided: Yeas 89: Noes 163. So it passed in the negative.

February 4. 1782.

Mr. BURKE rose. He said that he held in his hand a petition from Mr. Hoheb, the Jew, whose misfortunes he had described in a former debate; this was the Jew, whose coat was ripped, and from the lining of which, the small sum of money was taken, which he had endeavoured to secrete, when he and the other people of his nation were obliged to quit St. Eustatius, by order of Sir George Rodney and General Vaughan.-The petition was then brought up and read. It stated that he was of the Hebrew nation, a native of Amsterdam; and that he had been a resident of St. Eustatius for twenty-five years; that when that island had submitted to his majesty's government, he and all the others of his nation had been forced to quit the island, though no crime whatever had been proved against them ; nay, though not so much as a charge of a crime had been made, unless it was, that after he had received orders to depart, it had been discovered that he had sewed up a few shillings of his own money, in the lining of his coat; that afterwards he had been permitted to return to St. Eustatius, but it was only to see the whole of his stock in trade sold for one-third of its value, and appropriated to the use of his Britannic majesty; that he had got out of all his property one small bag of money, which was in his bureau, when he was banished from the island; and afterwards he obtained leave to come over to England, where he could

expect redress only from that House: because, if he should be referred for his remedy to the courts of law, it would be totally out of his power to avail himself of that remedy, and, stripped of his whole fortune, to contend with Sir George Rodney and General Vaughan, who by the very means that had put it out of his power to fee lawyers, had secured to themselves the means of withholding from him that property which he had been his whole life in acquiring. He therefore prayed for such relief as the House in their wisdom should think proper to grant him.

The secretary at war, Mr. Jenkinson, wished to know what was the specific object the honourable member had in view? If he was desirous to move for a grant of public money for the petitioner, he would recollect to what consequences such a measure might lead; for if it should once go forth into the world, that all those who might have causes of complaint against officers, should obtain pecuniary compensation from that House, there would be no end of applications.

Mr. BURKE said he was desirous only that the petition should go to a committee, in order to determine whether the allegations it contained were founded in truth, or not: if it should be discovered that they were true, then undoubtedly he would wish to have some compensation for the unfortunate man. The right honourable gentleman's objection to the present mode of application was truly curious. If, said he, you were to redress all those who have cause of complaint against our officers, there would be no end to applications of this nature: or, in other words, so many are the flagrant acts of oppression committed by our officers, that we should not find time to attend to all the applications for redress: a fine compliment to our commanders truly! How different was the conduct of the French commanders! The Marquis de Bouille by his spirit and activity had wrested from us many of our possessions; but he treated the conquered with tenderness and humanity: the fortune of war might wrest victory from us, without disgracing us, or robbing us of our virtue, which was beyond the reach

of fortune: but our commanders had robbed us of that which fortune could not have taken from us, they had robbed us of character; they had committed acts which had robbed the nation of that high name which it was accustomed to bear in Europe, for its liberality and justice; in arms the Marquis de Bouille had already stripped us of some of our islands; it was to be feared that by his justice, his moderation, and his clemency, he would strip us of the few that remained. It was no disgrace to this country, that St. Eustatius, with a garrison of 700 men, should have been surprized by 300: such things had often happened in war, and would undoubtedly happen again; but the honour and reputation of a country were not affected by such an event. At St. Eustatius the commander might have been negligent, and ought perhaps to be punished for his negligence; but his negligence did not dishonour the nation; it was when private property was ransacked, when innocent people were stripped of all they were worth, and banished from the island, that such acts of barbarity would remain stains upon the national honour, if the nation did not, by some public declaration, express its abhorrence of them. What a disgraceful contrast did the capture and re-capture of St. Eustatius hold forth to the world! Two British commanders plunder every unfortunate inhabitant of the island. The Marquis de Bouille restores, as far as he can, to every man his property. The British officers strip the Dutch governor, and plunder even his lady, breaking open her cabinet, and taking from her every thing valuable found in it; and at the same time endeavour to justify or palliate the act, by blasting her character, saying that she was an usurer: the French commander, on the other hand, restored, even to the negligent English governor, all the property he claimed as his own; and did not insist on any other voucher than his bare word. Here the character of England, he said, was at stake; and he implored gentlemen to have pity on their country, though they should have none on the poor Jew. If in the sitting of the committee, it should be discovered

that the allegations in the petition were true, ministers might make compensation to Mr. Hoheb, without giving him any of the public money; they might give him a slice of the loan; for it had been often said, that the profits made on a loan, were not from the public money, or they might set him en croupe of some fat contractor: these were `means of redressing the grievances of which he complained, without any application to the public treasury. Mr. Burke continued for a considerable time in a vein of wit and humour; speaking of the fast, and the unfortunate Jew, who on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell into the hands of robbers, he recommended the example of the good Sama. ritan, and thought that to follow it would be the best way to observe the fast; though the right honourable secretary at war seemed to be of opinion, that if the House were to relieve all the unfortunate who should fall into the hands of robbers in power, the nation would soon be exhausted. He was ashamed that the public treasury should have been contaminated with the plunder of St. Eustatius; or that any part of it should have been confiscated for the king's use: the Jews would not have done so; they would have nothing to do with the thirty pieces of money brought to their Sanhedrin by Judas Iscariot. He concluded by moving that the petition be referred to a committee.

The motion was agreed to.

GENERAL CONWAY'S MOTION FOR PUTTING AN END TO THE AMERICAN WAR.

February 22.

THE HE appointment of Mr. Welbore Ellis to the office of secretary of state for the plantation-department, vacant by

the resignation of Lord Sackville, and of Lieutenant-General Sir Guy Carleton, to succeed the commander-in-chief of the forces in North America, having occasioned a general alarm amongst those who were persuaded that there still existed a secret and obstinate attachment in the court to the prosecution of the war against the colonies, it was resolved to make another attempt in the House of Commons, to bind up the hands of the executive government, by a strong and explicit declaration of the opinion of parliament. With this view, General Conway, on the 22d of February, moved, "That an humble address be presented to his majesty, earnestly imploring his majesty, that, taking into his royal consideration the many and great calamities which have attended the present unfortunate war, and the heavy burthens thereby brought on his loyal and affectionate people, he will be pleased graciously to listen to the humble prayer and advice of his faithful Commons, that the war on the continent of North America may no longer be pursued for the impracticable purpose of reducing the inhabitants of that country to obedience by force; and expressing their hope, that the earnest desire and diligent exertion to restore the public tran quillity, of which we have received his majesty's gracious assurances, may, by a happy reconciliation with the revolted conies, be forwarded and made effectual, to which great end his majesty's faithful Commons will be ready most cheerfully to give their utmost assistance." After the motion had been seconded by Lord John Cavendish, and opposed by Mr. Ellis, the new secretary of state,

Mr. BURKE rose and made an admirable commentary on the speech of the American secretary. The House had no doubt been exceedingly attentive to the speech of the right honourable gentleman who had risen, so soon after his appointment to the important office which he now held, for the desirable purpose of giving complete satisfaction to the House on the questions of the right honourable general who had moved the proposition. Whether he had done so or not, the House were now to determine; but there was one expression of the new minister at the latter end of his speech, which forcibly marked the quality and nature of the explanation which he had more than