man's argument is
defective in all its parts, and hope that I shall not be charged with
obstinacy or perverseness for dissenting from him.

Mr. HOWE spoke next, in substance as follows:--Sir, before I engage in a
discussion of the question, I cannot but think it necessary to observe,
that the honourable gentleman who spoke the second in this debate, has
been very far from consulting either policy or justice in his
declamation, and that he deviated from the subject only to ridicule his
country, to exalt our enemies, and depress our efforts.

He has described, sir, the British youth, the sons of noble families,
and the hopes of the nation, in terms too contemptuous to be heard
without indignation; he has amused himself with displaying their
ignorance and their effeminacy, and has indulged his imagination in a
malignant kind of gaiety, which, however it may divert himself, is very
far from contributing either to the reformation or prevention of those
practices which he censures.

I believe, sir, it will be granted, that nothing ought to please but in
proportion to its propriety and truth; and, if we try the satire that we
have lately heard, by this test, it will be found to have very little
claim to applause; for our armies must be composed of the youth of the
nation; and, for my part, I cannot discover what advantage we shall gain
over the Spaniards, by informing them how little our troops are
accustomed to danger, how short a time they have been acquainted with
fatigue, how tenderly they have been nursed, how easily they may be
frighted, and how certainly they will be conquered, if they but meet
with opposition.

Nor, sir, is such an account of the youth of Britain more true, in my
opinion, than it is prudent. I am far from discovering any such
remarkable degeneracy in the age, or any great prevalence of cowardice
and unmanly delicacy; nor do I doubt of hearing that our youth, if they
are sent upon any expedition, have shown that the British courage is not
yet extinguished, and that, if they are ranged on the plains of America,
they will discover themselves the sons of those that forced those
passes, and those trenches, that other troops would have failed in
attempting.

That the degeneracy of the British youth, is, at least, not universal,
we have just now sir, received an incontestable proof from the gentleman
who spoke last, and spoke with so much elegance of language, and
justness of reasoning, as shows, that t