Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/244

212 Opposition were able to vie with one another in the violence of their language. The King's advisers, said Lord Stormont, were guilty of "the most preposterous conduct" and had shown "the greatest imbecility"; the Provisional Articles, he declared, had been dictated to the American Commissioners by the French Ministers. Burke called the speech "a farrago of hypocrisies and nonsense," but was indignant when in reply Pitt talked of treating him "with scorn and contempt." Fox, supporting Burke, declared that he detested the speech as much as he despised it, and followed up this observation with a series of sarcasms on the "sunset speech" of Shelburne. He then proceeded to torture some expressions in the King's speech relative to the patriotic offer of the citizens of London to embody themselves for the national defence in reply to Shelburne's circular which had been issued with Fox's own consent and approbation in the month of May, as an announcement on the part of the Government of an intention to encourage the renewal of private armaments, which Shelburne and Dunning had denounced in 1776 and 1780 as unconstitutional.

Notwithstanding these attacks the attempts made to obtain information and copies of such parts of the Provisional Treaty as related to American independence were easily defeated. "The great advantage of Monarchy in the English Constitution was," Shelburne said, "that it trusted to the Crown the secrets which must necessarily attend all negotiations with foreign powers. He could easily conceive, he said, a case in which the people of this country might speak to the Crown in such language as this, 'Sire, we called in the aid of your illustrious family to save us from Popery and arbitrary power. We have for three ages reaped the benefits of their attention to our interests and welfare, but not thinking that Monarchy is any longer essential to our security, freedom, and happiness, we are determined to do all the business of the Crown ourselves: and therefore, with many thanks for