We must
dispel the illusion and the darkness which envelop it, and display, in
its full danger and true colors, the ruin that is brought to our doors.

This, my Lords, is our duty. It is the proper function of this
noble assembly, sitting, as we do, upon our honors in this House,
the hereditary council of the Crown. _Who_ is the minister--_where_
is the minister, that has dared to suggest to the Throne the
contrary, unconstitutional language this day delivered from it? The
accustomed language from the Throne has been application to
Parliament for advice, and a reliance on its constitutional advice
and assistance. As it is the right of Parliament to give, so it is
the duty of the Crown to ask it. But on this day, and in this
extreme momentous exigency, no reliance is reposed on our
constitutional counsels! no advice is asked from the sober and
enlightened care of Parliament! but the Crown, from itself and by
itself, declares an unalterable determination to pursue
measures--and what measures, my Lords? The measures that have
produced the imminent perils that threaten us; the measures that
have brought ruin to our doors.

Can the minister of the day now presume to expect a continuance of
support in this ruinous infatuation? Can Parliament be so dead to its
dignity and its duty as to be thus deluded into the loss of the one and
the violation of the other? To give an unlimited credit and support for
the steady perseverance in measures not proposed for our parliamentary
advice, but dictated and forced upon us--in measures, I say, my Lords,
which have reduced this late flourishing empire to ruin and contempt!
"But yesterday, and England might have stood against the world: now none
so poor to do her reverence." I use the words of a poet; but, though it
be poetry, it is no fiction. It is a shameful truth, that not only the
power and strength of this country are wasting away and expiring, but
her well-earned glories, her true honor, and substantial dignity are
sacrificed.

France, my Lords, has insulted you; she has encouraged and sustained
America; and, whether America be wrong or right, the dignity of
this country ought to spurn at the officious insult of French
interference. The ministers and ambassadors of those who are called
rebels and enemies are in Paris; in Paris they transact the
reciprocal interests of America and France. Can there be a more
mortifying insult? Can even our ministers sustain a more humiliating
dis