Houfe of Lords, had great reafon to complain, if they were ga denied the right of replying, and were reftricted folely to the examination of their witneffes? Would he deny him the right given him by that chapter of Magna Charta, by which it was declared that no Englishman fhould be feized, or im prifoned, or deprived of his liberty, his property, or his good name, without trial by his peers, and laftly, if the honoura ble gentleman fhould ever himself be fo unfortunate as to be declared in that Houfe a falfe and malicious accufer, would he not think it hard to be deprived of the advantage that muft naturally refult from the ufe of his eloquence (which had fo often charmed the Houfe, and fo often attacked and defended others) in his own juftification.

After fpeaking for fome time in this manner, he drew a pictüre, as he called it, of the fituation which Mr. Fox would be in, fhould he, after denying him that juftice to which every Englishman by the conftitution of his country, and the humane fpirit of its laws was entitled, ever be over whelmed by a fimilar preffure of misfortune. He remind ed him of the uncertainty of human affairs, the ftrange vi ciffitudes which every man is born to undergo, and which in the most unexpected moment often reverfed a man's for tune, and from the topmaft round of honour and fuccefs, plunged him into the loweft depth of inifery and misfortune, After bidding him a fecond time take notice that he had warned him, Sir Hugh changed the mode of his reasoning, and faid, that inftead of the argumentum ad hominem, he would adopt the argumentum ad homines, and faid, if the honourable gentleman, notwithstanding his warning, should be hurried away by the rage of party, by his zeal for the admiral, by his hatred to him, by his attachment to the caufe in which he was engaged, or by any other motive, and fhould perfift in declaring him to be a falfe and malicious ac cufer; nay, even if his committee of fafety fhould publish their affent to fuch a mockery of truth and juftice, he would rely with confidence on the wisdom and equity of Parliament, and comfort himself with the affurance, that the House would ever protect the innocent, and diftinguish between the oppreffed and the criminal?

Sir Hugh next faid, that he muft claim the attention of the committee to fome general remarks upon the refpective conduct of Admiral Keppel and himself, relative to the two courts martial, and the motives and manner of that conduct. He be

gan

this part part of his argument with faying, that he deeply lamented the late diffentions and divifions in the navy, and that he was as willing as any man to facrifice his private feelings to the public quiet; but there were fome injuries which neither he, nor he imagined any Englishman, could think it fitting or beneficial to the public intereft, to fuffer patiently. Of this nature was the cruel advantage which had been taken of that part of the sentence of Admiral Keppel's court martial, by which he was declared a falfe and malicious accufer; of the ill foundation of the cenfure paffed upon him by that fentence he had already spoken on more than one ground, though the incompetency of the court to try him, much more to convict him without trial, was a fufficient invalidation of that part of the fentence which refpected him. If Admiral Keppel's friends were determined to perfift in their perfecu ting fpirit, and drive him out of his profeffion, he muft in his own defence go into an explanation of the motives of his conduct, and of the grounds upon which he had proceeded, in preferring the accufation; an explanation which might poffibly render the admiral's acquittal fomewhat lefs fplendid and lefs honourable. This, however, was not what he wifhed to do; he was willing to close the scene, for the fake of national quiet, and would forget paft injuries, if his enemies would abstain from new provocations.

With regard to the two trials of Admiral Keppel and himfelf, he maintained, that they were fo nearly correfpondent in their events that no man could detract from the innocence of one party tried, without impeaching the innocence of the other. Both had been accufers, both had been accufed; both had been tried, both had been acquitted. In their fates there was not the leaft difference, and if their motives were different, he trufted that his would be found to be the leaft exceptionable when candidly, examined. He was aware he had been censured for having recriminated, but was recrimination in no cafe juftifiable? He did not prefer his charge till it was evident that it was the defign of Admiral Keppel's friends to ruin him, and by undermining arts to effect that ruin. In his own defence he became an accufer; and when he did fo, he did it openly and directly, in the character of a public profecutor. Admiral Keppel chofe a contrary line of conduct; he began with fuggeftions and infinuations, and to the last never would, though repeatedly folicited, prefer a public charge, but appeared as an enemy against him, thus

uniting

uniting the double character of accufer and witness. After arguing this for fome time very forcibly, Sir Hugh declared what his original opinion of the conduct of the Admiral on the 27th of July was. He faid, he had ever confidered, that the British fleet was led into action in a diforderly manner at firft. That in the beginning of the day, there was too much confidence, too much contempt of the enemy; towards the close of it, too much awe, too much diffidence in themfelves. That they kept at too great a distance, and acted with too much confufion. Immediately on the day of the action, his friendship and regard for the admiral, the remembrance of his former services, and his great name in the world, inclined him to ascribe his conduct to error of judgment, to ill health, to ill advice, in fhort, to any thing but to criminality. That feeing matters in this light, though he did not think the business of the day merited his approbation, he had rigidly abftained from cenfure, fecret furmise, and underhand detraction. Nor had he at all changed his opinion, or viewed Admiral Keppel's conduct in the harsh light in which it was exhibited in his accufation, till he was forced to confider it in a very different point of view from that in which he was at firft inclined to regard it. At prefent, he had no wish to alter that part of the fentence of the first court martial which acquitted Admiral Keppel; he might err in his judgment, as to the validity of his charges, it was the juftice of his motives alone that he infifted on. Admiral Keppel's friends might load him with honours, they might celebrate his acquittal with votes of Parliament, with public illuminations, with city boxes, with triumphal columns, and they might commemorate the day of his acquittal as an anniversary. He only begged them to defift from attacking him, from loading him with unmerited invective, from deeming him to be, what he never had been, nor ever would be, a falfe and malicious accufer!"

Sir Hugh wound up his argument with contrafting the different circumftances under which he and the admiral went to their respective trials. The admiral had all the prejudice of the nation on his fide, he was fupported by the whole weight of oppofition, and fecretly affifted my many, who publicly avowed themselves the friends of government. Previous to his trial an act was obtained for trying him on fhore, contrary to all precedent; and during his trial, he was kept in countenance by the prefence of the leaders of the oppofition

oppofition in both Houses. On the contrary, before he went to his trial, he was menaced for defiring one, and every means were used to prevent it from taking place. The public were inflamed against him by the vote in favour of Admiral Keppel, and he was rendered the object of general odium, by every poffible art that could promote fuch a purpose; even his judges were attempted to be prejudiced against him. Under all thefe difadvantages, therefore, Sir Hugh faid, he confidered his acquittal as the most honourable circumftance of his life, and he flattered himself, if the House should think an inquiry into the two courts martial neceffary, he should not, when that enquiry was over, if it were fairly gone into, be deemed a falfe and malicious accufer.

Admiral Keppel faid, he could not fit ftill after what had Admiral paffed; he must rife and fay a few words on the occafion, Keppel but they should be only a few. He would not follow the governor of Greenwich-Hofpital (by which name in future he would always call the honourable gentleman, and by no other) he would not follow the governor of Greenwich Hofpital through his long detail; it was unneceffary. With regard to the act for trying him on fhore, he thought himself highly indebted to the Houfe for their humanity, and he fhould ever remember it with the warmeft gratitude; in the condition in which he then was, had he not been tried on fhore, his life, let the fentence have been what it might, would have paid the forfeit ; he could not have furvived it; he was fure he should have died. The governor of Greenwich-Hofpital, as well as he, had been tried. Upon the fentence of the two courts martial he ftood, and by their judgments he would abide. One of them had acquitted him honourably, and had deemed the governor of Greenwich Hofpital a falfe and malicious accufer. He knew as little as the governor of Greenwich-Hofpital, perhaps lefs, what the fentence would be before it was delivered. Had it been poffible for him to have fuggefted the wording of it, falfe and malicious were the terms he fhould probably have applied to the accufation, because those terms beft expreffed his fenfe of it. What the idea of the governor of Greenwich-Hofpital was, relative to the accufation, and relative to the fentence, previous to the delivery of the latter, he knew not, but he remembered, that the governor of Greenwich-Hofpital was out of court, and did not ftay to hear the fentence. He had the utmoft reverence for the wifdom and juftice of his judges;

the

the utmost gratitude for the favours of that House, and for the applaufe of his country. The governor of GreenwichHofpital had attacked the impartiality of the one, and questioned the good fenfe of the other. The greatest part of the long detail read to the Houfe by the governor of GreenwichHofpital was compofed of arguments against the competency of the court martial by which he was tried, and against the fairness and regularity of its proceedings. Thole proceedings were before the public; every man was capable of judging how far they were liable to challenge or to queftion, but there was but one way of coming at the motives which influenced the court martial, and occafioned the sentence to be worded as it was; to that one way he had not the flightest objection. "Abfolve the members of the court-martial from their oath; call them to the bar of the House, and enter into a full and free examination of every one of them." To this he was ready to confent; and by this means, and this only, could the real impulfe which directed their conduct be difcovered. The governor of Greenwich-Hospital had termed him an accufer; he never had been an accufer; it never had entered into his head to accufe the governor of GreenwichHofpital. He did not entirely approve his conduct; but the governor of Greenwich-Hospital being his inferior officer, he thought he could at any time, as he had before said in that Houle, put him by with a fillip. In part of the detail read by the governor of Greenwich-Hofpital, a great many menaces were thrown out by way of coming to terms; and it was threatened, that if Admiral Keppel's friends did this, or that, or the other, then the governor of Greenwich-Hofpital would do fo and fo. Admiral Keppel's friends were out of the queftion; Admiral Keppel was prefent to answer for himself; and Admiral Keppel would never accept of any compromise offered by the governor of Greenwich-Hospital. Admiral Keppel's conduct was before the public, they would judge of it, and draw their own inference refpecting it. With regard to any future enquiry, he was ready to meet it; he had gone through one trial with honour, and he did not doubt but he fhould come from a fecond equally clean and unsullied; but for the future he begged the Houfe to know, once for all, that he should not hold himself bound to reply to any thing faid by the governor of Greenwich-Hospital; it was in his opinion indecent to take up the time of the House with his private concerns and altercations. He ftood on public

ground,