h adequate severity, by being
condemned to support a double number of troops. Some other methods were
to be used for embarrassing our preparations and protracting the war.

The troops, therefore, sir, being, by the accident of a hard winter,
more speedily raised than it was reasonable to expect, were detained in
this island for several months, upon trivial pretences; and were at
length suffered to embark at a time when it was well known that they
would have much more formidable enemies than the Spaniards to encounter;
when the unhealthy season of the American climate must necessarily
destroy them by thousands; when the air itself was poison, and to be
wounded certainly death.

These were the hardships to which part of our fellow-subjects have been
exposed by the tyranny of the minister; hardships which caution could
not obviate, nor bravery surmount; they were sent to combat with nature,
to encounter with the blasts of disease, and to make war against the
elements. They were sent to feed the vultures of America, and to gratify
the Spaniards with an easy conquest.

In the passage the general died, and the command devolved upon a man who
had never seen an enemy, and was, therefore, only a speculative
warriour; an accident, which, as it was not unlikely to happen, would
have been provided against by any minister who wished for success. The
melancholy event of this expedition I need not mention, it was such as
might be reasonably expected; when our troops were sent out without
discipline, without commanders, into a country where even the dews are
fatal, against enemies informed of their approach, secured by
fortifications, inured to the climate, well provided, and skilfully
commanded.

In the mean time, sir, it is not to be forgotten what depredations were
made upon our trading vessels, with what insolence ships of very little
force approached our coasts, and seized our merchants in sight of our
fortifications; it is not to be forgotten that the conduct of some of
those who owed their revenues and power to the minister, gave yet
stronger proofs of a combination.

It is not to be forgotten with what effrontery the losses of our
merchants were ridiculed, with what contemptuous triumph of revenge they
were charged with the guilt of this fatal war, and how publickly they
were condemned to suffer for their folly.

For this reason, sir, they were either denied the security of convoys,
or forsaken in the most dangerous part