not on the change, nor in the county meetings,
nor in the clubs of this city: It was in the house
of commons; it was at the custom-house; it was
at the council; it was at the treasury; it was at the
admiralty. I canvaffed you through your affairs,
and not your perfons. I was not only your repre-
fentative as a body; I was the agent, the folicitor
of individuals; I ran about wherever
I ran about wherever your affairs
could call me; and in acting for you I often ap-
peared rather as a fhip-broker, than as a member
of parliament. There was nothing too laborious,
or too low for me to undertake. The meannefs
of the business was raised by the dignity of the ob
ject. If fome leffer matters have flipped through
my fingers, it was because I filled my hands too
full; and in my eagerness to ferve you, took in
more than
any hands could grafp. Several gentle-
men ftand round me who are my willing wit-
neffes; and there are others who, if they were
here, would be still better; because they would be
unwilling witneffes to the fame truth. It was in
the middle of a fummer refidence in London, and
in the middle of a negotiation at the admiralty for
your trade, that I was called to Briftol; and this
late vifit, at this late day, has been poffibly in pre-
judice to your affairs,

Since I have touched upon this matter, let me fay, gentlemen, that if I had a disposition, or a right to complain, I have fome caufe of complaint on

my fide. With a petition of this city in my hand, paffed through the corporation without a diffenting voice, a petition in unifon with almost the whole voice of the kingdom, (with whofe formal thanks I was covered over) while I laboured on no lefs than five bills for a publick reform, and fought against the oppofition of great abilities, and of the greatest power, every claufe, and every word of the largest of those bills, almoft to the very last day of a very long feffion; all this time a canvass in Bristol was as calmly carried on as if I were dead. I was confidered as a man wholly out of the queftion. Whilft I watched, and fafted, and fweated in the house of commons-by the most eafy and ordinary arts of election, by dinners and vifits, by "How do you do's," and "My worthy "friends," I was to be quietly moved out of my feat-and promises were made, and engagements entered into, without any exception or reserve, as if my laborious zeal in my duty had been a regular abdication of my truft.

To open my whole heart to you on this subject, I do confefs, however, that there were other times befides the two years in which I did visit you, when I was not wholly without leifure for repeating that mark of my refpect. But I could not bring my mind to fee you. You remember, that in the beginning of this American war (that æra of calamity, difgrace and downfall, an æra which

no

no feeling mind will ever mention without a tear for England) you were greatly divided; and a very strong body, if not the ftrongeft, oppofed itself to the madness which every art and every power were employed to render popular, in order that the errours of the rulers might be loft in the general blindness of the nation. This oppofition continued until after our great, but most unfortunate victory at Long Ifland. Then all the mounds and banks of our conftancy were borne down at once; and the phrenfy of the American war broke in upon us like a deluge. This victory, which feemed to put an immediate end to all difficulties, perfected us in that fpirit of domination, which our unparalleled profperity had but too long nurtured. We had been fo very powerful, and fo very profperous, that even the humbleft of us were degraded into the vices and follies of kings. We loft all measure between means and ends; and our headlong defires became our politicks and our morals. All men who wifhed for peace, or retained any fentiments of moderation, were overborne or filenced; and this city was led by every artifice (and probably with the more management, because I was one of your members) to diftinguish itfelf by its zeal for that fatal caufe. In this temper of yours and of my mind, I fhould have fooner fled to the extremities of the earth, than have fhewn myfelf here. I, who faw in every American

victory

victory (for you have had a long feries of thefe misfortunes) the germ and feed of the naval power of France and Spain, which all our heat and warmth against America was only hatching into life, fhould not have been a welcome visitant with the brow and the language of fuch feelings. When afterwards, the other face of your calamity was turned upon you, and fhewed itself in defeat and distress, I fhunned you full as much. I felt forely this variety in our wretchedness; and I did not wish to have the leaft appearance of infulting you with that fhew of fuperiority, which, though it may not be affumed, is generally fufpected in a time of calamity, from thofe whofe previous warnings have been defpifed. I could not bear to fhew you a reprefentative whofe face did not reflect that of his conftituents; a face that could not joy in your joys, and forrow in your forrows. But time at length has made us all of one opinion; and we have all opened our eyes on the true nature of the American war, to the true nature of all its fucceffes and all its failures.

In that publick ftorm too I had my private feelings. I had feen blown down and proftrate on the ground feveral of thofe houses to whom I was chiefly indebted for the honour this city has done me. I confefs, that whilft the wounds of those I loved were yet green, I could not bear to fhew myself in pride and triumph in that place into

which their partiality had brought me, and to ap pear at feafts and rejoicings, in the midft of the grief and calamity of my warm friends, my zea lous fupporters, my generous benefactors. This is a true, unvarnished, undisguised state of the af fair. You will judge of it.

This is the only one of the charges in which I am perfonally concerned. As to the other matters objected against me, which in their turn I fhall mention to you, remember once more I do not mean to extenuate or excufe. Why fhould I, when the things charged are among those upon which I found all my reputation? What would be left to me, if I myself was the man, who foftened, and blended, and diluted, and weakened, all the distinguishing colours of my life, fo as to leave nothing distinct and determinate in my whole conduct?

It has been faid, and it is the second charge, that in the questions of the Irish trade, I did not confult the intereft of my constituents, or, to fpeak out ftrongly, that I rather acted as a native of Ireland, than as an English member of parlia

ment.

I certainly have very warm good wishes for the place of my birth. But the sphere of my duties is my true country. It was, as a man attached to your interefts, and zealous for the confervation of your power and dignity, that I acted on that occa