alists claimed the
compassion of every human breast. These helpless, forlorn men, abandoned
by the Ministers of a people on whose _justice, gratitude_, and
_humanity_ they had the best-founded claims, were left at the mercy of a
Congress highly irritated against them. He spoke not from party zeal,
but as an independent country gentleman, who, unconnected with party,
expressed the emotions of his heart and gave vent to his honest
indignation."

_Sir William Bootle_ said: "There was one part of the treaty at which
his heart bled--the Article relative to the Loyalists. Being a man
himself, he could not but feel for men so cruelly abandoned to the
malice of their enemies. It was scandalous; it was disgraceful. Such an
Article as that ought scarcely on any condition to have been admitted on
our part. They had fought for us and run every hazard to assist our
cause; and when it most behoved us to afford them protection, we
deserted them."

Several other members spoke to the same effect. The treaty recognizing
the Independence of America could not be reversed, as an Act passed the
previous session had expressly authorized the King and his Cabinet to
make it; but it was denied that a treaty sacrificing the Loyalists and
making the concessions involved had been authorized; in consequence of
which an express vote of censure was passed by the Commons by a majority
of seventeen. The Earl of Shelburne, the Prime Minister, forthwith
resigned in consequence of this vote of censure, and it was nearly three
months before a new Administration could be formed; and during this
administrative interregnum affairs were in great confusion.

In the _House of Lords, Lord Walsingham_ said that "he could neither
think nor speak of the dishonour of leaving these deserving people to
their fate with patience." _Lord Viscount Townsend_ considered that "to
desert men who had constantly adhered to loyalty and attachment, was a
circumstance of such cruelty as had never before been heard of." _Lord
Stormont_ said that "Britain was bound in justice and honour, gratitude
and affection, and by every tie, to provide for and protect them." _Lord
Sackville_ regarded "the abandonment of the Loyalists as a thing of so
atrocious a kind, that if it had not been painted in all its horrid
colours he should have attempted the ungracious task but never should
have been able to describe the cruelty in language as strong and
expressive as were his feelings;" and again,