e amendment,
however, was negatived by a majority of 264 against 73, and the original
address carried. Opposition shared the same fate in the lords. The Duke
of Richmond moved an amendment similar to that in the commons, and a hot
debate took place in consequence, but it was lost by a majority of 63
against 13. Nine of the minority entered a strong protest against the
address--the first ever made upon an address--which concluded with these
words: "Whatever may be the mischievous designs or the inconsiderate
temerity, which leads others to this desperate course, we wish to be
known as persons who have ever disapproved of measures so pernicious in
their past effects and their future tendency; and who are not in haste,
without inquiry or information, to commit ourselves in declarations
which may precipitate our country into all the calamities of a civil
war."

It might have been expected that ministers, having apparently made up
their minds to pursue coercive measures, would have prepared to meet the
alternative of war with an efficient force. Ministers, however, seem to
have been as impotent in execution as they were magnanimous in resolve.
Instead of increasing the forces, they left the estimates to be entirely
formed upon a peace establishment: continuing the army as it was and
actually reducing the navy by 4000 men; leaving only 16,000 for
the service of the ensuing year. The country felt a difficulty in
reconciling this conduct of the ministers with the speech from the
throne, and vehement debates took place in both houses on the subject.
Lord Sandwich, however, asserted that our navy establishment, small as
it was, would be sufficient to reduce the colonies to obedience, as
the power, courage, and discipline of the Americans were by no means so
formidable as had been represented, and as was generally supposed. Their
very numbers, he said, would only add to the facility of their defeat
when brought into action. Beyond this, the commons did little more
before the Christmas recess than receive petitions which had been got
up by Franklin and his agents in the North, and counter petitions which
were concocted through the agency of Adam Smith, Dr. Roebuck, and others
who seem to have been set to work by ministers, although they pretended
some surprise when they were presented. In the house of lords, in the
meantime, one important resolution had passed on the motion of the Duke
of Manchester. This was to admit not only the