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210 Proceedings in Parliament, 1773.

this extraordinary expedition, I determined to make it a subject of parliamentary enquiry. It is a subject, however disregarded at present, of the greatest importance to this nation. From the evidence at your bar, Sir, you have been told, and it is agreed on all hands, that the Caribbs were peaceable, till they were alarmed by the surveyors cutting roads into their country. They then opposed them, and surrounded a detachment of forty men, sent as a guard. Mr. Alexander immediately marched up with the remainder of the troops; and the Caribbs, upon a promise that the business should stop till fresh orders arrived from England, generously, after acting to those forty men with all possible humanity, I may say hospitality, dismissed them, and did not hurt a hair of any man's head. They fired no shot, they used no violence, but relied on the faith of a promise made them, and returned peaceably to their habitations. Mr. Alexander did not return quite so tranquil. He returned, he says, with regret, from so verdant and rich a part of the country. He wishes his Majesty's royal clemency had been less. What was the conduct of Administration when they received this intelligence? An almost instant resolution to extirpate those unhappy, miserable Caribbs, whom it has become fashionable to call Savages. Troops were sent out upon the disgraceful and dishonourable service, unprovided with tents and camp equipage. A plain honest Country Gentleman, and who is an exceeding good Fox-Hunter, was appointed, though no military man, to the command of those troops. As soon as he got his red coat on, and cockade mounted, he appointed a staff superior to that which we had for the reduction of Martinique. He had a Quarter-Master General, an Adjutant General, Commissary of Stores, Assistant Engineers, Apothecary General and Surgeon to the hospital, but no hospital there! This Commander in Chief, Sir, was to be assisted by the Council of St. Vincent, and by the Governor of Dominique, Governor Young, and Commissioner Young. After Mr. Leybourne had been from St. Vincent's to the Grenades, and from the Grenades to St. Vincent's, two or three times, he was superseded by a military gentleman, who was authorised to act independent of the civil Power. Happily, Sir, no such authority can be given by any man in this country: it was, indeed, attempted soon after the accession of the present family, in the reign of George the First, and Lord Cadogan solicited the command; but he was convinced of his error. From the knowledge I have of the military gentlemen at St. Vincent's, and the Commander in Chief in America, and knowing them to be good men, I am certain that they disapprove of this cruel and oppressive measure. No military man was ever consulted upon the occasion here! even the noble Lord, who so nobly fills the office of Secretary at War, the man who, in case there is no Commander in Chief, should give his advice. No, Sir, the Cabinet Council, that unconstitutional society, shut their doors against the Secretary at War, and against every General Officer. Indeed they have been consistent throughout. The execution equals a design; and I defy any other Administration than the present, to have contrived and executed so notable a scheme. An evidence at your bar, a clever, artful, diffuse man, in short, an interested planter, was consulted upon the occasion. He thought sending the Caribbs to the coast of Guinea was an eligible plan; but, willing to take farther advice, he asked a captain of a ship; and, indeed, I honour the captain of the ship for his prompt disposal of those people. He says, send them to the island of St. Matthew; it is nearly the size of St. Vincent's, well wooded and watered; it belongs to nobody, excepting indeed the Portuguese, who discovered it; but they are a contemptible nation, and will not be suffered to take it, as they have equal right to St. Helena, and many others. Mr. Sharpe recommends sending them to the country of their ancestors, where they will be as bad off to the full, as they are under the hands of our Cabinet Council. He says, Great Britain may grant them about 10,000 acres of uninhabited land on the coast of Guinea, with navigable rivers, and plenty of fish, and furnish them with husbandry tools, and some provisions. This advice Mr. Sharpe, with equal candour and humanity, acknowledges was thought upon in a moment, in consequence of an application of that sort to him from Lord Hillsborough, and sent upon blotted paper. This foul paper, Sir, containing much foul non-

Proceedings in Parliament, 1773. 211

nonsense and cruelty, was laid before the Lords of Council, and upon no other authority whatever agreed to. I shall, therefore, make two motions; the one is, Sir, that the expedition to St. Vincent's was undertaken without sufficient provocation on the part of the Caribbs; and the other, Sir, is, that the expedition to St. Vincent's was undertaken at the instance of avaricious and interested men, and seems calculated to end in the total extirpation of these people.

Lord Folkstone.] Sir, much having been said by the honourable gentleman who made the motion, on the iniquity of this transaction, there remains but little for me to add. I should have thought, Sir, that our generosity, as Englishmen, would have taught us to consider the liberty and property of others as sacred; but if that was insufficient, I should have thought motives of humanity might have restrained us from wanton and premeditated acts of cruelty upon a set of defenceless people. The only question upon the present subject that can direct us to a just determination, is, Who committed the first hostilities? It is asserted the Caribbs are subject to our Government: we grant it, though it may be disputed. But can it be said, that, even under those circumstances, Sir, that invasion of property is no hostility? Sir, it is very evident that the first act of hostility was committed by us; and, in my opinion, the Caribbs are justified in what they have done, and I heartily second the motion.

Sir Richard Sutton. —Sir, I just beg leave to say a few words upon this question. I will not detain the House but a few minutes; and I hope to be justified in my opinion. The Caribbs, Sir, must be subjects or sovereigns; there is no intermediate order. I consider them as the former since the year 1668. The French have since ceded St. Vincent's to us, and we have a double claim to sovereignty. Whatever may be the opinion of other gentlemen with respect to the expedition, I think it justifiable and necessary; and though I think, and perhaps it would have been better, that our avarice had not led us to the discovery of America, yet, Sir, from the evidence delivered your bar, whatever conclusion this expedition may have, administration are not entitled to any blame whatever.

Between twelve and one there were two divisions; the first on the question, That it appears the measure to extirpate the Caribbs was not grounded upon sufficient reasons, but upon the opinions of persons interested in their destruction. Upon this the numbers were, Ministry 206, Opposition 88. The second question was, That it appears the military were not sent in the proper season, and that the expedition was likely to end in the ruin of some of the best troops in the service. Upon this the numbers were, Ministry 199, Opposition 78. In the last division General Harvey and Gen. Howe were in the minority, and Gen. Burgoyne was in the minority in both divisions. A motion was also made, and the question put, That an address be presented to his Majesty, that he would acquaint the House by whose advice the attacking the Caribbs was undertaken in the unhealthy season of the year, against the known humanity of his Majesty's temper, disgraceful to his Majesty's arms, and to the character of the British nation; which likewise passed in the negative.

(To be continued.)

Mr. Urban, May 28, 1773

The Newtonian philosophy makes this earth to be hollow, and that its surface, on which all its inhabitants are placed, is only a crust of some considerable thickness. And Dr. Halley, in order to account for the variation of the magnetic needle, supposes, that there is another globe or world included in ours, at its center, which is magnetical; and that there is a space between them. This space he imagines is filled with a subtle luminous vapour, which, issuing through some openings near the poles of our earth, produce all the appearances of the Northern lights. These have, for several ages, been visible in all the countries round the North Pole; but within these last 60 years have spread themselves further, extending very often, not only to England, but also to other countries still further distant from our Pole. Whether there are the like lights round the South Pole, I have not heard; but hope we shall learn, when Capt. Cook, Mr. Forster, and the other gentlemen, who are gone to those parts of the world, return home.

Mr. Ellis, in his account of Hudson's-bay (p. 172) observes, that these Northern lights arise there in the N. W. where they shine brightest, insomuch that the shadows of objects are seen upon

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