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 149-60, 165-6). He was supported by Shelburne, Camden, Rockingham, and Richmond, but the motion was defeated by sixty-eight votes to eighteen. After a conference with Franklin, Chatham, on 1 Feb. 1775, introduced a bill 'for settling the troubles in America,' the purport of which was to declare the supremacy of this country over the colonies in all cases except taxation; to annul the various obnoxious acts which had been passed; and to authorise the meeting of a general congress at Philadelphia, at which the colonists should acknowledge the restricted supremacy, and make a free grant to the king of a certain perpetual revenue, subject to the disposition of the British parliament (ib. xviii. 198-204, 209, 210-11). The bill was rejected, and was subsequently printed and circulated by Chatham as an appeal to the judgment of the public from that of the House of Lords. During the greater part of this year and throughout 1776 an illness, apparently similar to that which had befallen him during his last administration, prevented Chatham from attending parliament. Though in a state of great weakness, he went down to the house on 30 May 1777, and unsuccessfully moved an address to the crown for the stoppage of hostilities in America. 'You may ravage,' he said ; 'you cannot conquer. It is impossible. You cannot conquer the Americans. ... I might as well talk of driving them before me with this crutch.' He insisted on the immediate redress of all the American grievances. 'This,' he said, 'will be the herald of peace ; this will open the way for treaty ;' and added : 'Should you conquer this people, you conquer under the cannon of France; under a masked battery then ready to open. The moment a treaty with France appears, you must declare war, though you had only five ships of the line in England' (, Hist. of the Earl of Chatham, ii. 311-14, 319-20). According to the testimony of his son, William Pitt, Chatham replied to Lord Weymouth during this debate 'in a flow of eloquence, and with a beauty of expression, animated and striking beyond conception' (Chatham Correspondence, iv. 438). In the following summer Chatham fell from his horse in a fit, while riding in the vicinity of Hayes.

He made two brilliant speeches during the debate on the address at the opening of parliament in November 1777, and vehemently denounced the employment of savages against the Americans. In his spirited reply to the Earl of Suffolk, which appeared to the Duke of Grafton 'to surpass all that we have ever heard of the celebrated orators of Greece or Rome,' he made a famous appeal to the tapestry hangings of the House of Lords. In an amendment to the address he recommended the immediate cessation of hostilities, but was once more defeated (Parl. Hist. xix. 360-75, 409-10, 411). On 2 Dec. he supported Richmond's motion for an inquiry into the state of the nation, and pointed out the defenceless state of Gibraltar and Port Mahon (ib. xix. 474-8). On 5 Dec. he moved for the instructions to General Burgoyne, and again recommended the withdrawal of the troops from America, though he still declared himself 'an avowed enemy to American independency' (ib. xix. 485-91). Both this motion and another which he moved, with reference to the employment of Indians against the Americans, were defeated by forty votes to nineteen (ib. xix. 507-8, 509, 510, 512). On 11 Dec. he protested against the adjournment of the house at a time 'when the affairs of this country present on every side prospects full of awe, terror, and impending danger' (ib. xix. 597-602), and was indecently told by Suffolk that he only wanted the house to sit because 'he would be allowed to give his advice nowhere else' (, Journal of the Reign of George III, ii. 173). In Jan. 1778 written explanations passed between Chatham and Rockingham with regard to their different views on the policy to be pursued towards the revolted colonies. Rockingham was anxious to acknowledge at once the independence of America, while Chatham, in spite of the gloomy outlook of affairs, persisted in his opposition to that course (Chatham Correspondence, iv. 489-92). Early in the same year Chatham's physician, Dr. Addington, and Sir James Wright, a friend of Lord Bute, engaged in an ineffectual attempt to bring about a political alliance between the two statesmen, and their gossiping interviews gave rise to a considerable controversy after Chatham's death (see, History of the Earl of Chatham, vol. ii. app. pp. 362-9, 633-57). Though the only hope of retaining the friendship of America and of baffling the efforts of France and Spain lay in Chatham's return to power, the king refused to hold any direct communication with him. In March 1778 North made a futile attempt to induce him to join the government, on the understanding that he should support 'the fundamentals of the present administration' (Correspondence of George III with Lord North, 1867, ii. 149). But Shelburne, who represented Chatham in this negotiation, assured North's envoy that Chatham would not accept office unless an entirely new government were formed (